Recording Date: 1967 (Exact Date Unknown)
Station: 570 WMCA New York
Format: Top 40
Featured Air Personality: Jack Spector
Contributor: Paul Ford
Original Comments:
Curiously, we’ve never featured anything by Jack Spector before. Now, courtesy of contributor Paul Ford, we take a listen to a very high quality recording of WMCA Good Guy Jack Spector. This is short, but compare this, early 60s approach to Top 40 with any of our ‘checks of crosstown 77 WABC during this time and you’ll instantly notice the difference! WABCs streamlined, yet personaility/jingled approach to the format buried WMCA.
Jack Spector is great, however. WMCA would change formats away from Top 40 in just a few short years, but here, the station is full of energy!
The correct date on this aircheck is 9/10/1965. Peter Kanze is the original source of this off-the-board scope, which I restored and posted on Reelradio a few years ago. It has been one of the most popular airchecks there ever since. No air talent ever sounded more “New York” than Jack Spector. He was one of the very best.
“Hang On Sloopy” by The McCoys being on the “Good Guy Survey” should be a tipoff right there that the aircheck dates back to 1965 and not 1967.
Thanks Rob for that date correction….but I could have sworn it was 1967….oh well.
I will make that change in my audio files.
I found that aircheck just before ReelRadio went strictly “pay to play” around Jan of 2007….thanks for restoring and posting it.
Loved the Jack Spector air check.Jack was great! He was as pleasant and personable off the air as he was on the air. I played in The Creations and we were the house band for plenty of “Hops” that Jack Spector hosted in 1965-66-67-68. Many times I would pick him up at the station and drive him to the place where we would be playing . He was one of a kind and is truly missed. George Napolitano/ The Creations/Ox-Bow Incident
Jack Spector worked in six radio markets, the last two being the #2 – Chicago, and #1 – New York. Yet through the years of his development in Providence and Chicago, no airchecks exist? How can that be? In Providence, RI his show toppled competition and he was #1 in the market and even achieved his own bandstand-type TV show there. No audio exists and of eight YouTube videos, only three remain. In Chicago, WJJD rose to challenge big monster WLS and Jack was snapped away to New York leaving the triumph un-achieved. No audio of his time on WJJD exists. In fact not audio of WJJD in their rockin’ era exists. Tres sad, sez I. Every one who knew Jack says he had a gift. The numbers proved it, but he was not a self-promoter he was a station “team” player, probably from his baseball days. I do hope someone can dig through their “stuff” and come up with the materials that will keep his memory alive.
In 1969, Jack was doing an evening Sports Show at WMCA, and he called my home and invited me to the studio. I would go weekly and watch him in studio. In fact his screener was Jimmy Walker, better known as JJ of Good Times. Jack left WMCA, his replacement was John Sterling. He went to WNBC. He was there a short time. Again, I would go to many of his broadcasts. When he left WNBC, I lost touch with him. Jack was a real hero to a little boy from Brooklyn. A Good Guy.