Lee Roberts is showcased here as one of the “X-Men” on the old 99X. Notice the amount of Disco music in rotation here! Perhaps it was not enough, or too much, but less than a year after this aircheck was recorded, 92.3 WKTU would become the number one radio station in New York City, knocking “MusicRadio 77” WABC off it’s longtime #1 perch. 99X was in the Top 5 overall.
This is personality oriented Top 40, on FM, and 99X was very hot at this point in time! But the station lost it’s way, as would so many stations on the AM and FM dial in a short period of time, because the Disco craze changed everything, including the way in which radio stations would identify themselves with audiences. For example, about a year later, PD Glenn Morgan would take over and turn WXLO into a sleepy AC station simply called WXLO, then sometime later this would become Urban WRKS “Kiss 98.7”.
Lee Roberts came to WXLO from 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford, a Mike Joseph “Hot Hits” station which formerly been a Classical Station and went straight to number one.
Courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks!
This sounds more like 1977 instead.
A few observations. Great radio. Did 99X speed up songs at that time or was that just the way the aircheck was recorded? Also notice all of the jingles are gone at this time? Very similar to what I remember on 96X Miami and Y-100 Miami (both without jingles)during that late 70’s perood. I am assuming Lee Roberts was a part-timer/fill-in because he said at the end he was back Sunday? I remember the RKO stations having 6 hour shifts on Saturdays. Also, the Glenn Morgan that he promoed as coming up, was he the same as Rick Sklar’s APD at WABC?
Is there an unedited version of this available? There are two seconds of the end of a song starting at 18:18, just after Elton John/Kiki Dee and before Rod Stewart, that I remember hearing back in the 70’s. The clip is too short for me to id and I cannot remember anything more about it after all these years. I’d like to hear it in its entirety or at least find out the name of it.
“Name That Tune” anyone?
Well between Google, the70sproject.com, AllMusic.com and Spotify I found the title:
Raydio – Jack and Jill
featuring early Ray Parker, Jr.
Aardvark – think the song you are after is ‘Jack and Jill’ by Ray Parker Jr and Raydio!
The whole aircheck sounds sped up to me. Lee’s voice sounds an octave higher than normal. I don’t remember 99X speeding up the music more than maybe 2% at the most. Bobby Rich used to speed up the music a lot when he was pd at B100 in San Diego. KCBQ was his competition and they were doing it too. But I think he backed off when he came to the X and played the songs as they were recorded like his competitor WABC. I think XLO dropped the jingles in 1976. Yes, Lee Roberts was part time and fill in. I believe he came from Connecticut, maybe KC101? This Glen Morgan is not the WABC apd. The one on 99X soon started calling himself Glen B. Morgan and then just Bumper Morgan for his New York career which included stops at WPIX and WNBC. Aardvark, the song in question is “What’s Your Name” by Lynyrd Synyrd.
I remember recording Lee Roberts because he was going back and forth from 13 WAVZ in New Haven, CT and 99X in New York, working 7 a days a week. I called him once and asked about that, and got the answer because he had the opportunity to do it!
Unfortunately I was young and dumb at the time, and had to save money on tapes, so I scoped everything. There is no unedited version available.
The correct date on this according to the original tape is 12/17/77.
Thanks, Matt. Somehow the year got lost in the translation. I’ll fix.
There is a Lee Roberts out here in Colorado Springs at I 25 Radio KCBR 1040 AM with a show at 9:00 AM MST. He is from Kingston NY and this voice on the aircheck sounds just like the guy out here. If it is, what a small world. Thanks for posting this aircheck.