KB’s Radio Airchecks Page
Here you will find links to several streaming
files that contain samples
of the work that I did at most of the radio stations in
my past.
Listening to these, for me, is radio nostalgia at its
best!
Of course, you are invited to listen, as well.
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First,
here's a little personal PRE-history (whatever that means)...
WSNY,
Schenectady, NY and WPTR, Albany, NY. Recorded sometime during the fall of
1967. Run Time 2:15.[MP3|RealPlayer]
When I was still in high school, I admired several Albany
area radio personalities. I am fortunate enough to have kept three very short
airchecks of a couple of my late-60s favorites. Cut #1 on this recording
features Chuck Pollock, the afternoon drive jock on WSNY, Schenectady,
in 1967. Cuts #2 and #3 are of the outrageous air personality, "Joe
Hate" (aka Wild Child [MP3|RealPlayer])
on WPTR, Albany. I admired Joe so much that I called his radio show a couple of
times, just to partake in the on-air craziness. I offer the recordings of those
calls as my very earliest recorded broadcast efforts in the Capital District.
Incidentally, for those of you who remember Carroll's drive-in restaurants
around Albany, NY,
there is a snippet of a radio ad for Carroll's on the last cut, too.
And now... On with these blasts from the past (plus a little more history)...
WTRY AM-FM - Troy/Albany, NY. Recorded
on the morning of March 15, 1973. Run Time 3:38.[MP3|RealPlayer] Cut#2 10:55[MP3]
My first fulltime radio job was working overnights for this legendary New York
State Capital District Top-40/Oldies station and its FM sister. Everyone I knew
had grown up listening to WTRY (or WPTR), so it was a thrill to get my start
here. It had been the accomplished Capital District air personality, Kerry
James[MP3|RealPlayer],
who originally gave me my real start in 1969, working part time at WDKC, the
former call letters of WTRY-FM. Back then, I worked for Kops-Monahan
Communications, Inc. (the owner of WTRY and WDKC in those days. In 1969, WDKC
played MOR and Standards.) However, life had certainly become very good for me
with this organization by 1973!
WTRY AM-FM - Troy/Albany, NY. Jingles
- circa 1973. Run Time 0:54.[MP3|RealPlayer]
WTRY-FM underwent another call letter change in the spring of 1973. The new
calls became WHSH, pronounced "wish". This fit nicely with the FM
station's heavy emphasis on Oldies. Predictably, the request line became the
"Wish Line". Around that time, the station provided all of the DJs
with personalized name jingles. The first cut in this audio clip is my own
personalized name jingle. That is followed by six of the standard WTRY jingles
in use on the AM side, at the time. And here[MP3] are two
more “boss” sounding personalized re-entries.
KANE - New Iberia, LA. Recorded in
June, 1974. Run Time 3:27.[MP3|RealPlayer] Cut#2 3:01[MP3] Cut#3 6:52[MP3] Ads 4:29[MP3]
A former coworker of Ric Kelly
helped me to get this job, working evenings for a Top-40 in the Louisiana
bayou country. This was years before anything Cajun was trendy. Working
evenings was wonderful. After all, I could sleep late every day and I did not
have to be around the radio station during the uptight daytime hours. KANE also
gave me my first chance to do commercial radio advertising production. This job
was my first attempt at "working my way around the country," too. I
thought the food was good and the listeners were real friendly, but the
summertime heat and humidity were unbearable.
WHUC - Hudson, NY. Recorded on a weekday afternoon in July, 1975. Run Time
4:30.[MP3|RealPlayer] Cut#2 2:13[MP3] Ads 9:28[MP3]
Working middays for "The New
'HUC"[MP3|RealPlayer]
was the kind of career radio experience that every DJ should have at least once
in their life: The air talent was superb, with the likes of Cary Pall[MP3|RealPlayer], Ric Kelly[MP3|RealPlayer], Jared Willetts (aka
“Superjock”), Gary Mitchell (aka Jim O’Brien, Lee Hamilton, Gary Hamilton)[MP3|RealPlayer]. The equipment was pretty
good, and management allowed programming enough leeway to exercise mass
quantities of creativity, both on the air and in the production studio. That
combination produced the kind of teamwork that one can sometimes see in this
industry. Not to mention the fact that working at “The New HUC” was literally a
ton of fun. For a sense of the fun, here is an on-air phone bit between Ric
Kelly and part-timer, Lance Fitzgerald[MP3], and another one featuring Ric
Kelly and Cary Pall[MP3]. All of these things added up
to a really good-sounding, small-market Top-40 radio station!
WOKO - Albany, NY. Recorded on a
Sunday morning in October, 1975. Run Time 12:10.[MP3|RealPlayer]
Again, I was on the overnight shift. This time, it was at the 5000-watt
Country/Western ruling force in Albany
at that time. The music and approach there was a bit more relaxed than with the
Top-40 format. I had some real fun with this format and shared the control room
with top-drawer Albany radio talent: Joe Gallagher,
"Cheerful" Charlie Pitts and Roy Mooney (aka Bob Mason)[MP3|RealPlayer]. "OK-1460" was my
first experience with the Country & Western (C & W) format. History
would later repeat itself.
WWOM - Albany, NY. Recorded on a
weekday morning in July, 1978. Run Time 3:43.[MP3|RealPlayer] Cut#2 6:57[MP3] Ads 1:31[MP3]
After a couple of years spent working at other non-radio jobs, the overnight
shift at this Capital District soft-rocker was a pleasant reentry into my dream
career of radio. Unfortunately, the music mix at this station evolved over time
into something less than pleasing to this cowboy's ears. Frustrated, I
subsequently took a couple of years' hiatus from the radio biz.
WABY - Albany, NY. Recorded on a
Sunday afternoon in December, 1980. Run Time 3:50.[MP3|RealPlayer]
With God's help, I again returned to the Albany
radio scene, this time at "Christian Radio 14, WABY." The aircheck in
this audio file was recorded not long after the death of former Beatle, John
Lennon. WABY station management was gracious enough to allow me to produce and
present a short tribute to John in December, 1980[MP3|RealPlayer]. This aircheck included here,
while not recorded on the weekend of the Lennon tribute, is a sample of my work
after the two-year break I took from radio. I was a bit rusty. Sorry... the
audio quality on this one is a bit poor, too.
WOKO - Albany, NY. Recorded on a
weekday afternoon in August, 1982. Run Time 3:41.[MP3|RealPlayer]
If something is really successful, change it! Radio format tinkering was the
name of the game for Country/Western "OK-1460,” too. Following a format
switch in the late 70s to a disco- flavored, "City Beat" format, WOKO
saw its good numbers plummet from the solid highs it had posted in the early
part of that decade down to miniscule shares of an already very splintered
Capital District radio market. As part of WOKO’s C & W comeback attempt in
1981, I was hired, at first part time and later full time, to do an evening
request show. It was great fun! On a trip to the Country Music Association
(CMA) convention in Nashville in 1982, station management brought back a set of
name mentions for each of the fulltime announcers, voiced by several C & W
performers who were at the convention. Following is my personal set of
promotional mentions:[MP3]. They got plenty
of airplay. Unfortunately, our attempts to revive the WOKO audience fell
woefully short. It just never recovered from the City Beat format change in the
70s. For WOKO, it could truly be said: Disco Sucks! Our attempts at reviving
the local flavor that had been 'OK's strength in other years, went unrewarded.
"OK Country" was permanently put to rest at midnight
on a rainy Sunday in November, 1982. Here is the unhappy, final hour of WOKO’s
C & W format, featuring Albany air talent, Reid Northrup:[MP3]. On Monday morning, Capital Country’s
faithful listeners awoke to a brand new sound on 1460-AM[MP3].
It was the audio feed of CNN-2,
sometimes referred to as "Chicken Noodle News." It seemed like it was
time for this cowboy to hit the trail.
KDJW - Amarillo, TX. Recorded on a
weekday evening in August, 1983. Run Time 2:10.[MP3|RealPlayer]
When WOKO was put to death, I left New York
to seek a "real" C & W radio fomat elsewhere. And what better
place to look than in Texas? Amarillo,
Texas -- the Panhandle -- was the place I
chose to continue "working my way around the country." I did evenings
at "The Superkicker, 10-10 AM,
KDJW." It was a 5000-watt station with a phenomenal coverage map (the
Texas Panhandle is real flat!), and a satisfyingly large oldies library. At
KDJW, I got significant experience using the old Emergency Broadcast System
during Amarillo's frequent
springtime tornado warnings.
WMVI - Mechanicville, NY. Recorded on
Sunday morning, October 30, 1983. Run Time 3:45.[MP3|RealPlayer]
As sometimes happens in life, I was kicked... by the Superkicker. While
searching and awaiting another full-time Country/Western gig, I spent some
parttime hours at this little Big Band station in Mechanicville,
NY. At WMVI, I worked with 1940s band
leader, Chris Martin and 1960s broadcast legends Bill Edwardsen and George
Marriott as well as the popular local TV star, Betty George and her little dog,
Moo. We all were playing some very fine selections from the big band genre. The
job lasted only eight weeks, but it afforded me some fine broadcast experience,
and a few dollars with which to get by. This audio sample is very muddy
sounding, but it is intelligible (barely). Unfortunately, it is the only one I
own from WMVI.
KMON - Great Falls, MT. Recorded on a
weekday evening, May 11, 1984. Run Time 3:46.[MP3|RealPlayer] Ads 7:34[MP3]
The Great Falls C & W station, KMON, answered my trade paper ad for work
wanted. This was to be my first experience living in Montana,
and Thanksgiving week of 1983 was when I chose to arrive in Great
Falls in my brand new Toyota.
It was colder on Christmas Eve, 1983 in Great Falls
than I had ever been before: -45 degrees F. I warmed up enough by spring to
record this aircheck of my evening shift show on May
11, 1984. KMON was partially owned by country music performer,
Charlie Pride, who has some of his Country roots in Montana.
This 5000-watt station's transmitter on 560 kHz was electrically grounded in
the Missouri River and so put a good, solid signal into Alberta
and Saskatchewan, Canada
at night. I frequently received phone calls from listeners hundreds of miles
distant, in Red Deer, AB
(near Edmonton) and Medicine
Hat, AB, as well as from towns
spread across most of central and eastern Montana.
WKXC - New Albany, MS. Recorded on
Wednesday morning, September 11, 1985. Run Time 5:23.[MP3|RealPlayer]
Having spent an awfully cold winter in Montana,
my search for a warmer climate provided a good reason to continue my efforts at
"working my way around the country" in a state located in the Deep
South. The South doesn't get much deeper than in Mississippi.
My next venue, not far from Tupelo,
was New Albany, Mississippi,
to be exact. This hometown Country/Western radio station had a
1000-watt-days/500-watts-at-night signal that barely covered Union
County, MS. But if local flavor
and gentility, as well as lots of great C & W and gospel music is one's
desire, this station fills the bill quite nicely. I did a live-assist morning
show here from 6am-10am every weekday
from early July, 1984 through mid-September, 1985.
WKXC - New Albany, MS.
"KX-Country Interchange" Program. Recorded in December, 1984. Run
Time 5:04.[MP3|RealPlayer]
While at WKXC, I was fortunate to have been one of the originators of an
interesting (and hopefully entertaining) half-hour daily program,
"KX-Country Interchange," from 9:15 -
9:45 on weekday mornings. The Interchange program, which contains
more local color and flavor than any local, small-town radio program deserves
to possess, continues to the present day. Sometimes, the callers have some very
interesting and unusual items to advertise on the show. This sample was
recorded on a December morning in 1984.
KGVO -
Missoula, MT. Recorded on a
Sunday afternoon in December, 1985. Run Time 4:24.[MP3|RealPlayer]
On the day after I arrived in Missoula, MT
in 1985 to further my education, I learned that Dave Wilson,
former Great Falls (KMON) co-worker of mine and consummate broadcasting talent
in his own right, was program director at KGVO, Missoula.
In such a sparsely populated place as Montana,
it was no surprise to me to find him there in Missoula,
180 miles southwest of Great Falls
where we had first met in 1983. He hired me at KGVO on the spot. The many
weekend and fill-in slots I had at this 5000-watt hometown C & W station
gave me a great deal of good experience, some good times and a few much-needed
dollars for general expenses.
KGVO -
Missoula, MT. Recorded on
Wednesday morning, October 4, 1986. Run Time 3:49.[MP3|RealPlayer]
Education sometimes takes a very long time to adequately further. Mine took
longer than that. I was fortunate enough to be able to continue my weekend and
fill-in work at KGVO right through my first college degree in 1990. I even
continued to work there for three years after graduation in 1990, as a full
time announcer, right up until February, 1993. But, I'm getting ahead of
myself. There was a lot of other neat stuff mixed in between.
KERR - Polson, MT. Recorded on a
Sunday morning in November, 1986. Run Time 3:46.[MP3|RealPlayer]
In the fall of 1986, Mike Doty, another Missoula
friend and long-time familiar radio voice in town, landed a program
directorship at the western Montana 50000-watt Country/Western powerhouse, KERR
in Polson. After settling in Polson, Mike offered me the opportunity to work
weekends for him at KERR, located in the picturesque Flathead-Mission
Valleys. I accepted the offer and
commuted 70 miles each way to-from Missoula
for this job. O, the things we do for love! I definitely was "working my
way around the country."
WHRL - Albany,
NY. Unfortunately, I have no aircheck from
this job. July - August, 1988.[no aircheck available]
During the summer of 1988, I was on break between academic semesters at the University
of Montana. One morning, I was
talking with Neil Young (Neil Van Patten), a long-time acquaintance, and
occasional friend, of mine who happened to be programming WHRL, a
new-age/light-jazz station in Albany.
He said that he needed someone to fill in the evening slot at the station until
he could find some full time body to replace his regular evening guy, who had
quit. So, I agreed to do it. This five-week gig was just the right length to
provide me with an expenses-paid vacation in my old hometowns of Albany-Schenectady-Troy,
NY. I sure enjoyed the music at WHRL, and I
liked being back home for a while. But right after that, it was time to get
back to academia and Country Music in Montana.
KUFM -
University of Montana, Missoula, MT. Recorded during Spring Semester, 1989. Run
Time 3:40[MP3], Cut#2 1:23[MP3]
During Spring Semester of my senior year at UM, I did an on-air internship that
allowed me a little more practice of the radio skills I had learned while
working at other radio stations. As well, it gave me a chance to try out some
new skills I had been studying at the University of Montana. I had the pleasure
of working with Terry Conrad, program director for KUFM. Terry was also my
internship director as well as professor of Radio Production classes at the
University. During my overnight on-air time at KUFM, I played alternating hours
of “new age” music as well as bluegrass and folk genre cuts. There is a sample
of each here. (Cut#1 is “new age,” and Cut#2 is bluegrass and folk.)
KYSS -
Missoula, MT. Recorded on a
Saturday evening in November, 1992. Run Time 4:29.[MP3|RealPlayer]
Back in July, 1987, I was offered yet another chance to experience working for
a different one of Montana's
great Country/Western radio stations, KYSS-FM in Missoula.
One ought never to look a gift horse in the mouth, I had always heard. So, I
jumped at this chance, too. While never a full time employee at KYSS, I did
enjoy many weekends worth of part time shifts. Those shifts lasted for eight
great years, right up through 1995.
KATQ - Plentywood, MT. Recorded during
early March, 1993. Run Time 2:49.[MP3|RealPlayer]
You can teach an old horse new tricks, but it kind of depends on the horse...
and of course, it depends on the tricks. At this community owned live-assist C
& W station in the far northeast corner of Montana
(mostly affectionately called "West Dakota"), this old horse
attempted to learn the tricks of radio sales, copywriting and production. The
radio sales part did not work out very well at all. I learned that I have a
natural aversion to the notions of sales and marketing. However, the
copywriting/production part was a ball and worked well. Since the station had
no live DJ shows, the only audio samples I have from KATQ are of my
copywriting/production efforts. I have included several of them in this sample.
This job was my most recent fulltime radio job. Hopefully, it will not be my
last work in this exciting industry!
Click on the 440:
International link to find other cool radio people,
both
well-known and little-known...
PLUS...
You'll find
an additional ton of
various broadcasting
links!!
KB's
home page
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