On this very short clip of WSAI, recorded only SIX days into the new Real Oldies format, you get a feel for the retro format of the station. It starts with News & Traffic, then into a Charlie Van Dyke imager, then into Dusty Rhodes open.
Unfortunately, this format didn’t last very long. WSAI Dropped it’s “Real Oldies” format experiment in 2006, at which time the WSAI call letters returned to 1360, swapped for the historic WCKY calls heard on 1530 up through the early 1980s.
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Dusty Rhodes..Cincinnati’s radio legend still sounding great when I first heard his Sunday oldies programs on 55WKRC and later on 700 WLW. Since the original WSAI 1360 signal was out of my reach north of Dayton…I never heard of “trusty Dusty” yet,however there was one other legend I listened to during that same era who along with Dusty helped bring the Beatles to Cincinnati in 1964..Steve Kirk (later of WING,Dayton) was an ‘SAIer for a breif period of time before making Dayton his radio home for nearly thirty years. Sadly,Real Oldies 1530 WSAI faded in to the sunset in January of 2005 when it reverted back to the WCKY calls airing Air America liberal talk as did it’s CC sister Real Oldies 1230(WCOL-AM)in Columbus early on in September of 2004. It was good while it lasted but didn’t last nearly long enough. WSAI moved back to the 1360 spot on the AM dial as “1360 Homer” Fox Sports Radio…all that’s left of oldies radio as we know it in Western Ohio is 1600 WULM in Springfield(near Dayton) standing in the shadow of the late Springfield radio legend John Hall. //www.1600wulm.net
Ahhhh Oldies alive and well again in Cincinnati. Thanks to Dusty Rhodes for bringing back the great sounds of days gone by. I’ve listened to Dusty and followed his career since the days of WSAI AM 1360. Not only has he brought back the oldies but now I’ve learned he has brought back Cool Booby B and his Doo Wop on Friday nights. WGGR dumped CBB when that station did away with the oldies. They still call themselves the “Oldies Station” but they don’t hold a candle to Dusty’s WDJO and the true sounds of oldie radio. Cool Bobby B is a legend and WGRR has to be sorry they let him go. The ratings have to be way off since their format change. Oh well….back to the great WDJO and Dusty Rhodes. I for one can’t thank him enough for cranking out the sounds we all remember from our childhood.
Gary in Cincinnati, Ohio
I couldn’t agree more!! When Clear Channel dumped the great WSAI oldies station for Air America (in conservative Cincinnati no less) I thought that was the end of real oldies for good. So now, a year later, the real oldies are back with the great Dusty Rhodes and the Good Guys. Thank God for some decent radio again! Now if I could just find a place to buy some of the rare oldies they play………….
Sounds like it was recorded off the air and on the skip.
Too bad this great format failed.
It sounds as though this “clip” was recorded from hundreds of miles away. Of course, that is one of the beauties of the 50,000-watt outlet on 1530 K.C. that has used both WCKY & WSAI as call-letters. Over the years, and in formats from country music to sports to oldies, it’s signal has been heard throughout most of the eastern half of the U.S. and beyond. During the Cuban missle crisis, the station broadcast a program in Spanish in the late-night hours so the Cuban people, who could easily receive the signal, would know the real story of the events taking place. An example of its power was shown in 1964 when the station held a contest for the farthest listener in connection with it obtaining the rights to the Reds games and serving as the flagship station on the Reds Radio Network. The winner of the contest was a U.S. serviceman in Japan. The runner-up was a listener in West Berlin.
As noted, Dusty Rhodes and the oldies format is now heard in the Greater Cincinnati area on WDJO – 1160 A.M. It does not have the signal strength or the frequency location to make it heard a far distance, particularly at night, but it does keep the format alive that listeners from the mid-50’s to the mid-70’s grew up with. 1530 A.M. now has the WCKY call-letters back and is featuring sports talk and sports play-by-play coverage of the Bengals, the the University of Kentucky, some University of Cincinnati games (when WLW, the station they are usually on, is carrying the Reds), and ESPN coverage of national sports events such as the World Series. The liberal talk format that replaced the olides on 1530 has been moved to 1360 A.M. who began using the call-letters of WSAI again.
Looking to hear from Anyone in the greater Cincinnati who went to the WSAI record hops in 1960`s and heard bands like ths Epics, Wayne and The Blue Dells and The Matadors. Paul Purton, Dusty Rhodes, Mike Sherman, Ron Briton. Central High School, and the local night clubs in Cincinnati and northern Kentucky.
Looking for Pictures and any recorded material from these bands.
The Epics and Wayne and The Blue Dells played many record hops with Dusty Rhodes and the guys from WSAI 1360 back in the `60s. Enjoyed them all.
We have loved Dusty for decades. Now if he would just leave his right wing gas at home and let us enjoy the oldies it would be wonderful. We have loved ya forever Dusty, no more angry white man diatribes.
Loved those guys, my teen years are forever remembered by Dusty and Wayne The Blue dells.
Looking for anyone who has pictures or recorded material of The Epics or Wayne and The Blue Dells from Greater Cincinnati.
The format lives again outside of Clear Channel’s control on 1160 AM, another power cut, but the orginal energy is back. Someone at CC somehow convinced these great Top 40 jocks to present classic Top 40 in an MOR style. The end product made the jocks seem old and tired. On the new 1160 WDJO, they sound as young and energetic as ever.
Would like to hear Wayne and The Blue Dells Again, those guys were great.
. Had many great memories when we lived in Cincinnati. Also Lonnie Mack Was my favorite when we went to Hawaiian Gardens on Glenway ave.
The style of writing is very familiar to me. Have you written guest posts for other blogs?
Not in a long time, Random. I mainly stay in the radio world and don’t post anywhere else anymore.
-SW
Great group when we were teens. Loved those guys.
Remember when we were at Central High, Great group, great guys.
Where are they now?
Listened to this almost every night in Alabama, where 1530’s directional signal boomed in stronger than the locals did. I think only Dusty’s show was live. The others shifts were voice-tracked though sometimes it was hard to tell. These guys were that good.
The original Real Oldies format, programmed by the same PD who programmed WSAI’s version (“Dangerous” Dan Allen) , lives on (and has continuously) on iHeart’s Real Oldies Channel.