***A note to air check traders. Please do not record these air checks and try and trade. I have the original tapes many of which I recorded myself and thus the authenticity can not be in doubt and can be easily traced.
Content Note January 2018: Have added revised clips for Parts 1 -7 and 10. Some of these have expanded content not on the original clip and some have slight noise reduction added. Have left the original clip in place except in the case of Part 3 which only has the revision. I have a bit of additional Oil of Dog content not uploaded to the site yet and will add that in the future
Presenting Gary Storm – The Oil of Dog
All Kinds of Music With Nothing but Love
Scroll Down for more audio which is updated regularly
I’m going to reserve this section of the site to a fascinating program that spanned three different radio station. Gary Storm started his Oil of Dog on public radio station WBFO. He then brought it to the commercial free form WZIR 98.5 and finally on to WUWU FM at 107.7 in Buffalo/Weathersfield/East Aurora, NY. The clip above is from 1984 and during Gary’s time at WUWU.
The programming is as adventurous as anything heard during the late 60’s era of free form and it’s actually amazing that he was able to do this on commercial radio ever. Gary’s program and WUWU in general could be described as almost outlaw gonzo broadcasting. Serious at times and irreverent and crazy at others. listen near the end of this clip when Gary segues into the next program called Home and Farm.
He would play everything from electronic experimental music to British Folk to garage rock. Comedy segments were a regular feature and on this clip you can hear the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg reciting his “Sunflower Sutra”. When is the last time you heard anything like that on commercial radio,. Musical selections include the George Harrison produced Rhadha Krisha Temple, Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream, John Fahey, the Strawbs and Little Feat.
You can read Gary’s chronicles as a free form radio announcer here. He was passionate about his work
WUWU was an amazing station and maybe fitting a gonzo outfit, near the end, it was supposedly hijacked by one of the Jocks, Bob Allen. This was when the owners were about to change the format. I’m not sure if that was a stunt but I was listening that night and I called Bob and he did seem well shall we say “out there” and he said something about one of the former jocks Jeff Gordon cleaning cow pastures in Arizona and some other incoherent ramblings. Oil of Dog was gone by then and the day after the “hostage” incident so was the shambolic station known as WUWU.
All of that lives on here in this very space and stay tuned for more from WUWU, WZIR and Oll of Dog.
Oil of Dog Part Two
Point Me at The Sky and Let it Fly
This clip starts with Gary Storm’s signature intro featuring Kim Fowley. The first set is garage rock driven with the The Chesterfield Kings covering the Chocolate Watchband and the Turtles as the Paisley Underground was underway. Also the Droogs, The Acid Casualties and more. Second set is tilted towards folk with Peter, Paul and Mary and Cat Stevens. Hope you are getting an idea about the diversity of content presented. Stay tuned for more Oil of Dog. Oil of Dog Part 3
The third installment of our continuing Oil of Dog uploads. As usual a very eclectic set of music on this clip. Artists include Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Spirit, King Crimson, Manfred Mann Also some very nice instrumental music from the Wyndom Hill label. Clip has been Revised and re-uploaded to site
Oil of Dog Part 4
An hour plus of Oil of Dog.
Essentially two long sets of music. Begins with British folk and folk rock with Fairport Convention, John Renborn and his interpretation of Scarborough Fair and Pentangle with the sublime Cruel Sister.
The last set is new wave dominated featuring Simple Minds, U2, Essential Logic, Bauhaus doing a cover of Telegram Sam and some French Canadian content.
Gary Storm holds it all together with his unique style.
Oil of Dog Part 5
This clip is dated February 1984.
The music ranges from Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake to The Beach Boys and Kajagoogoo. Also some new age type instrumental music and a long piece by the avant garde composer Philip Glass. The flower children are represented by The Strawberry Alarmclock with “Strawberries Mean Love”. Weird Al also makes an appearance with “Eat It” and there’s more on this 90 minute clip.
The Strawberry Alarmclock
Strawberries Mean LoveOIL OF DOG PART SIX
The music set is wonderfully varied as always including tracks by Duncan Browne, The Grateful Dead, Steeleye Span, Alice Cooper and more. I do not recognize the female announcer on the station ID which you can hear twice.
OIL OF DOG PART SEVEN
Another clip with great music and delivered in Gary Storm’s inimitable style. Featuring tracks by The Nice, Joni Mitchell. Laurie Anderson, Poco and more. Second Clip covers what is on first but has additional content not previously uploaded.
OIL OF DOG PART EIGHT
A wonderfully diverse set of acts including John Renbourn, Steeleye Span, The Strawbs, Gentle Giant, Yes, The Small Faces, Sonny and Cher, XTC and Captain Beyond, A few great comedy segments as well.
Thanks to John54 from the SH Forum for id’ing the track below which is found at 32:30 on this clip. The track is not announced and had me stumped.
OIL OF DOG PART 9
This clip is from late 1983 or very early 1984 based on some of the tracks which are announced as new. Gary Storm at his best playing everything from obscurities and art rock to top 40 hits. Music featured includes Scritti Politi, The Talking Heads, The Records, Dave Edmunds, The Shocking Blue, Cat Stevens, Ray Manzarek, the side long Pentangle track Jack-O-Ryan, Lenny Bruce, Robert Klein and more. Once again you will be amazed that such a format existed anywhere let alone on a commercial radio station in 1983. Another great example of true progressive underground programming.
OIL OF DOG PART 10
The clip starts with Gary playing a side of the first official recording to feature Robert Fripp and the album The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp and on to Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins, Donovan, The Doobie Brothers Brothers and George Winston. A great 40 plus minutes of music.
OIL OF DOG PART ELEVEN
A new upload of the Oil of Dog with Gary Storm on WUWU FM.
A word about these recordings. WUWU did not come in clear stereo where I lived and so I recorded all these broadcasts in mono. I knew that this was probably the last time we would hear this genre bending format on commercial radio in this area. I wanted to capture as much of it as possible and so I recorded on the slowest reel to reel speed. That provides hours of recording time but not in high fidelity.
Sadly I was right and we would never again hear such a format on a commercial station and I’m glad these were preserved. The show was as eclectic as anything heard during the original incarnation of the format during the late 1960’s.
The two clips above include long sets of music and you will hear host Gary Storm at the beginning and end of the first clip but not on the second clip which contains music only and some great comedy courtesy of Robert Klein. There is a skit about a laid back FM DJ however. There’s more than one Klein skit interspersed between the music.
The music on the two clips includes everything from the experimental rock of Byrne and Eno and Laurie Anderson to the power pop sounds of Let’s Active and Marshall Crenshaw. There’s new wave music by the likes of Teardrop Explodes, Tears for Fears, The Spoons, Sex In America and more. Hard to believe but I don’t remember hearing Marshall Crenshaw on any other area station at the time except maybe the CBC.
OIL OF DOG PART TWELVE
Another great installment of Gary Storm and the Oil of Dog. Featuring two long sets of varied music including some Renaissance pieces, Jethro Tull, Steeleye Span, garage rock, two top forty hits, some comedy and more. There’s also a wonderful song by a group called Luxury which I do not remember hearing anywhere else. Listen also for a station ID by Jim Santella the dean of Buffalo rock radio.
THE LAST OIL OF DOG ON WZIR FM
Click here and here to listen to an earlier incarnation of Oil of Dog on WZIR FM. The last episode of the program on that station. Makes for compelling radio. I still have a little more tape to upload from the WUWU edition of the program in the future.
OIL OF DOG PART FOURTEEN
Still squeezing out the sparks from my Oil of Dog tapes. A new upload after a number of months. Listen and hear everything from Allan Ginsberg to the 13th Floor Elevators. Gary Storm in his inimitable style. Slip Inside this house somewhere around March 1984.
I remember vividly the ‘takeover’ of the the tower by Mr. Allen.
I was on my way home from work and heard most of it as it was unfolding LIVE on the air. As soon as I got home I set up my two vcrs to start taping the Buffalo news broadcasts that I was sure would be covering the story, and all three stations, 2, 4 & 7 did. I made a compilation tape of both the 6 o’clock and 11 o’clock stories. They interviewed ‘the guy with the dark beard’ whose name escapes me. They showed images of Bob, and played clips from his on-air rants about the dentist who owned the station. I have looked for that video tape in the past to post in on YouTube,and I believe I still have it. It was really quite compelling to listen to and watch. I loved the format of WUWU and have always listened to Buffalo rock stations before anything in the GTA. Unfortunately I lost the ability to listen to 96.9 when Humber College radio was granted that frequency by the CRTC. Cool story and part of the area’s radio history. Keep digging stuff like this up. Thanks!
Thank you Bill for sharing this and good luck in finding those VCR tapes. Was a bizarre night for sure,
Javed,
This is incredible historiography. It is a brilliant example of what scholars like to call cultural ethnography. If you haven’t use these audio artifacts as the basis of your thesis or dissertation, you should do so. This stuff – and I am not talking about my stuff at all – is important history. It will matter more than any of us can imagine. Make sure your files are preserved, not just on line, but some place like the history museum. Thanks for all of your careful archiving. Like I said before, Tears in my eyes.
I cannot thank you enough for this. The music on WUWU changed my life, especially the late-night stuff. Opened my ears to a whole new world! I remember many times staying up all night, in my late teens, Saturday nights, drinking cheap crap beer & rockin’ out, smoking countless cigarettes, but then at 5 or 6am Sunday morning the station would switch over to an all-polka format for 3 hours. Sometimes we’d be so drunk & tired that it would take a while for anybody to notice that we were listening to polkas. & then it was time to sleep.
Fantastic resource !!! I loved the oil of dog show, glad that others did too…and really amazed that someone captured it, I left Buffalo before oil of dog left WZIR, so if anyone has older air checks, that would be great, glad to hear that Gary is still DJ’ing !!!