Mal Vincent was a “supersub’. He would substitute for various DJs, usually at night. Scattered throughout a period of 4 years, he was on the air from 1983 through 1987. During his time with WMET Chicago, 95.5 FM, he was never given his own time-slot. This tape is a mixture of airchecks from June 1985 thru June 1987. WMET’s format was Oldies from the 60s thru 80s, with an occasional current hit thrown in. In June of 1987, WMET disappeared from Chicago. It was replaced with a Smooth Jazz format, which remained for 22 years. It’s currently an Hispanic music station. WMET Chicago 95.5 FM was one of the few major market radio stations to use freelance supersubs. Most of the aircheck is from Mal’s show that he entitled “Dusty 45s.” He played seldom heard 45s. Pardon the dust.
The first half of Mal Vincent’s ‘composite’ is indeed mostly his “Dusty 45’s” show. And, yes, you can hear the vynl imperfections – if you’re like me you’ll really LOVE the vynl sound on-air through the FM processing. I’m guessing they had an early Optimod processor… but not one of those Orban digital jobs, this would have been way before that gadget came out on the market. Tweaked to the perfect settings by an engineer with a good ear, these FM processors kicked serious butt and sounded great on the air, especially with stations that dared to play real ‘records’. Most were playing music on cart and some by this time were using CDs. Nice job, Mal!
Unfortunately, WMET jocks at this time in the station’s history apparently were hemmed in by format slogans and liners. Hey, this was 1986 and no matter what the format was, unless it was (what was left of) AOR or CHR, the consultants were all over their client stations to shut up and read the cards. But, in all fairness, this aircheck was made at the tail end of WMET’s run as a Hit/Oldies hybrid music station, and by 1986 was a shell of it’s former self. For a good comparison of how WMET sounded under a decade earlier, please sample this aircheck of “Captain Whammo” (Jim Channel) from April, 1978.
The audio quality on this is superb. Studio quality. All from a Maxell normal-bias tape (although, I suspect this was transferred from a source reel before mailing.). Enjoy.
good work Mal hope to hear more of your collections of 45 dustys!!
i like “dusty 45!!