The Real Don Steele, 93 KHJ Los Angeles | February 27, 1967

From Contributor Max Power comes another Airchexx exclusive! The Real Don Steele is, perhaps, the most famous of all the original KHJ Boss Jocks. This is exactly how many remember him! Loud, boisterous, lightning-fast talk and humorous quips over the hit songs of 1967… On the west coast, few jocks really could match his style or his popularity.

NOTES:

A few important items to take note of. First, you’ll notice just how ‘tightly’ I’ve had to scope this aircheck down. The contributor did the original scope, however, because of the ever-tightening noose of copyright policies by record ‘labels’, even the old ‘seven second’ fair use policy that has worked in the past is ignored. So, I’ve had to take nearly every bit of music possible without the jock talking over it out. If we have to scope down any further, we’d be taking the jock patter out as well – and that would make the entire point of this website moot. So, there is that. Also note, we are acutely aware that between this website and the other one out on the west coast, there really are very few old recordings left out there in the wild. Or, to put that another way, the number of old 1960s-era radio airchecks available that people might still have laying around and are willing to part with or that the generation holding those recordings are so young they don’t know what to do with it, are just plain small. Won’t you help? Pass the word about this radio museum and if you know of someone holding onto those old tapes, encourage them to send em in!

Now. On with the show.

The quality of this recording is superb! It is obvious that the source recording was in excellent condition. This is *almost* the best quality you can get from a recording of an old AM radio station. Of course, even there, AM radio in 1967 sounded better than today. That’s because the FCC held AM stations to a 13khz-wide transmission standard. Today, that standard is just 9khz wide. Audiophiles and engineers will understand what that means.

Along with this aircheck is the WORLD PREMIERE of our official YouTube channel!  I created a post yesterday on YouTube with the WVBF aircheck.  Today’s Real Don Steele aircheck is also on YouTube!  Click Below

Here are another few side notes:

I’ve decided that from now on, to avoid confusion, the play link, which is that BIG BLUE BUTTON you see on audio-only airchecks, is placed close to the top of the page. That way, visitors can enjoy the aircheck without having to scroll halfway down the page. Second, and this is key, we really need your support. Airchexx is a labor of love, but to keep the site online and healthy, that requires both money and intense labor. With a site as large as this one, things break often. Hackers try to knock us down and scripts become outdated and incompatible with other updated scripts over time. Which means coding. Sometimes I think I’ll never keep up. Won’t you please support my efforts here?

Airchexx is not going anywhere. In fact, we’re expanding. We’re moving out into video airchecks of our own, encoding the new airchecks for YouTube (another reason why things must be scoped down as tightly as this).

Be sure to subscribe, so you receive new aircheck notices by email. Also, be sure to log in, or create an account if you haven’t already. There will be a premium part of the site coming later this Summer if all goes as planned