Up now is a wonderfully restored 9 minutes of little 1310 WLTB. Upstate New York, it seems, was a hotbed of radio activity. Good sounding stations, too, as you’ll hear in this recording of what might sound, to one’s untrained ears, a little bit like the George Michael show on WABC. Fooled ya! We don’t know Mr. Reed’s real name but we sure like “The Reed Thing”! Includes an (almost) complete newscast.
WTLB fan and Airchexx Contributor Mike Hotaling explained the success of WTLB this way:
WTLB was a little signal station given to utica ny… Thomas L. Brown had nothing to loose in 1959… went to rock n roll to survive. The kids loved it, then when the small station was out billing the the bigger signals, WRUN went top 40. WTLB got crushed. In the ratings, signal wins…
And a bit more…
1974 is when WRUN went top 40, before that WTLB was the only game in town. WNDR in syracuse day pattern hit Utica at 1260 they were right next to WTLB at 1310. WNDR was top 40 as well. Uticans would surf back and forth between the two stations day time. At night WNDR changed pattern and (the signal) missed Utica. WTLB went 500 watts directional at night awful pattern that covered just the city and not much else… when WRUN crushed WTLB at night is when they started simulcasting on 107.3 FM. the FM signal would eventually become WRCK (rock 107) the station I was on for most of the 80s. I was also told that in the 60s and early 70s because of WTLBs night pattern WKBW and WABC had a following in the area.
Thanks! Written better than we could here at Airchexx Studios!
CREDITS
Airchexx.com gratefully thanks Contributor Steve Bleecker for donating this high-quality aircheck to the archives. Mr. Bleecker in turn would like to thank Andy Kitchen for providing him with tape decks, reel to reel machines, etc., in order that he could master the tapes he sent in to us. And, finally, Steve Bleecker and Airchexx wish to thank Mr. Henry Frick, whose efforts in recording this aircheck and many others like it are ultimately the reason this recording is in our archive to begin with. Or, to put it in Contributor Steve Bleecker’s own words,
“I need to Publicly say “Thanks Much” to Mr. Henry Frick, who is now retired, and living with his wife of many years, in Ft. Worth Texas. Before his long and Successful Career in Railroading…Henry and I were Curry College Buddies in Milton, Mass., and so many of the tapes I now have been able to share were given to me many years ago…and were painstakingly recorded by Henry, either while he was at school, in Milton, or in Greenwich, Conn., at his parent’s home. So…we are so Very Grateful, Henry ! Thank You !”
This guy is good.Hudson & Landry on the Yamaha spot.
Thanks for some great radio. I never heard of this station, but is sounds like they knew what they were doing…I wish radio would sound this good today (oh, I forgot, nobody listens to radio anymore)
Al Gordon
1640 WJPR Jewish Highland Park/Edison Radio 1640WJPR.com also on Shoutcast Radio by searching for “WJPR” for Smartphone and iPhone
oops “space man” cary paul of 99x fame used the name “rock marshall” on WTLB… he was on one of these breaks doing a tag on a spot… great voice… and he was the overnight guy… that had a production shift at 5:30 am when his voice was burned out.
Fred Reed’s real name is Quincy McCoy, author of “No-Static: A Guide to Creative Radio Programming.” I listened to WTLB while growing up in Utica back in the 70’s. It was the station to listen to. Thanks for posting this clip to the web!
Quincy McCoy went on to WNEW.
Actually, Quincy McCoy’s real name is Fred Reed. As Dave Arnold mentioned, he was program director of WNEW-AM in New York, music director (briefly) at WASH-FM in Washington under Bill Tanner in 1984, and director of national promotion for Fantasy Records. Quite an interesting career track, and a true gentleman.
Loved hearing “The Reed Thing” once again on WTLB! I was Program Director there at that time. Fred got his air name Quincy from legendary producer Quincy Jones, and McCoy from Sid McCoy who spun Jazz at night in Chicago. I think it mighta been WCFL. He was a local boy from Utica, so back then used his real name. As Quincy he had a very successful career as reported above.
wtlb in utica and wolf in syracuse were the best thousand watt stations in upstate ny bar none…quality not quantity …
My ‘alma mater’ … first full time gig was there ‘long ago in a galaxy far away!’ (The days of DeRosa, Cornell, Quin, Tierno as well as Mercer on weekends) I remember the days growing up (a little bit!) listening to them and dreaming of one day doing it! And yes, we used to channel-surf WNDR, WKBW and WABC (and every now and them WBZ Boston!)