This is Part three of the WBUF FM 60’s weekend show from 1979. The station had a mainstream AOR format at the time but the playlist is surprisingly heavy on bubblegum. There’s also a few FM rock hits including What About Me by Quicksilver Messenger Service and a track from the 70’s by Lighthouse. Quality is not great as the source tape is defective and suffers from Sticky Shed Syndrome. The fourth and final installment will be posted in the future.
***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.
This clip dates from the summer of 1973 and features DJ Ron Robin on WVBF FM ( Electronic Mama) from suburban Boston. A good example of their Top 40/AOR hybrid format. There were a number of FM stations in the US around 1972-74 with a similar format.
The playlist includes a few pure AM singles, some FM friendly singles and also an album cut by the Stones. Steven Tyler from Boston’s own Aerosmith calls in from a concert location near the end of the clip. Their single Dream On had just taken off and was a hit huge in Boston on it’s initial release in 1973. The song became a much bigger national hit upon it’s re-release in 1976.
***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.
Another nice double shot of FM radio from the Boston area from 1971 and 1973.
The first clip features the fantastic free form powerhouse WBCN FM with a set of mostly blues and R&B tinged music. Things get started with a great instrumental by a group called Demon Fuzz. The set ends with the album version of the Beach Boy’s Help Me Rhonda. The clip is from April 1971. All the announcers on the station were music fans with stellar taste and this set is no exception. . Please help me ID the DJ on this and several other clips that I have uploaded.
The second clip is from WVBF FM (Electronic Mama) from the summer of 1973 and features DJ Ron Robin. The station began as WKOX FM and was an early FM Top 40 pioneer in 1969. The outlet was owned by Richard M Fairbanks when the call letters switched to WVBF in 1971. The call letters stood for Welcome Virginia Brown Fairbanks in tribute to the owners wife.
WVBF was a Top 40/AOR hybrid during 1971-73 and reported into Billboard magazine’s album rock airplay list as the Boston representative around 1972 ( see picture below from Billboard Aug 1972). This list consisted of submissions from mostly progressive rock stations around the country which submitted their weekly new additions. This song selection on this particular set is mostly top 40 as that side of the format began to gain ascendancy and eventually the station became full time Top 40.
Here’s another alternate version of Help Me Rhonda with Dennis Wilson on Lead
***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.
The first aircheck features Pete Griffin on CHUM FM from the summer of 1975. You will also hear a bit of Geets Romo as Warren Downs.
Things were tightening at the station and David Marsden had left a few months earlier directly due to that. See article below. David Pritchard was still at the station and he retained some semblance of control over some of the music played. You will hear him on two ads, one where he takes a poke at “two guffaws”( Pete and Geets) promoting stereo equipment. Plus one of his ads for the famous El Macambo club.
The breaking point for me around this time was one morning when I actually heard Mandy by Barry Manilow on the station. I was peeved and on the phone. I think I spoke to David Pritchard and he told me things will be fine. Not sure if he meant his eventual move to CFNY and more freedom.
I was so upset at the tightening format that I started to keep an occasional log of the tunes played and I have to add that things actually did get better for a while and I logged everything from Howlin’ Wolf to Brian Eno being played on the station after the great tightening. I have added pictures of those chicken scrawl playlist logs below. Some nice listening was still to be had like hearing the Move’s version of Tom Paxton’s Last Thing on My Mind. I kept the logs for reassurance that things were not all downhill and they actually were not at least during 1975/76.
The format was in transition. Eric Anderson and the light Jazz of Hubert Laws as heard on this air check were throwbacks to the free form days but over-all the morning show was quite mainstream at this time. We have to remember that rock was heading in a safer direction. Think about the difference between The Jefferson Airplane and The Jefferson Starship or the Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac compared the the Buckingham Nicks version.
The tape suffers from a few drop offs but sounds Ok considering it was recorded on slow speed.
The second aircheck features Dani Elwell and an unknown DJ on CKFM from December 1985. This is from a Saturday night show where they played dance music. Though more pop orientated than CFNY FM there was some overlap with the music played on NY at the time. A lot of synths and drum machines verging on disco at times.
I have more tape from both of these air checks that I will upload in the future . I have transcribed the article pictured below so you can read it clearly and as I mention above the format did get tight but it also loosened somewhat before taking a complete commercial turn by 1977. I did not save the date of the article but I think it’s from March 1975 and comes from The Globe and Mail newspaper.
By Robert Martin
David Marsden, CHUM FM’s 6 to 10 PM disc jockey and one of Toronto’s more original radio personalities, has left the station to devote time to his production business.
Marsden runs Lip Service Studio Productions Ltd, a company that makes radio commercials. He is also developing a syndicated radio show which he hopes to market coast to coast.
His on-air personality was that of the weird but hip music freak who talked in an intimate hush as though he was whispering in the listener’s ear. The music he played matched that personality – weird, hip and usually on the avant-garde fringes of rock.
That style has made him the odd man out lately at CHUM FM, where progressive music has all but been eliminated from the station’s programming. In the past few months the station has replaced obscure and experimental music chosen by the disk jockeys with a comparatively tight play list heavily loaded with current hits and golden oldies. CHUM FM now sounds like it’s sister station CHUM AM, except it has fewer commercials.
Marsden said he didn’t leave the station because his creative freedom had been limited. He described it as a very amicable separation. I can’t have negative thoughts ( about CHUM FM) because they’re attempting to muster a larger portion of the . audience. It’ll probably work but I don’t agree with it.
The departure was not spur of the moment. He had been thinking about it for three or four months. The new Canadian Radio-Television Commission’s regulations were a factor. The new regulations permit FM stations to use up to 25 % of their programming in syndicated formats.
***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.
A great triple play. The first aircheck continues the WBCN FM series and is from 1971. Another fantastic set of music. The version of Anna by the Beatles seems to be a lot more echo laden than the regular release. Also noteworthy is a group called Demon Fuzz played at the very end of the clip and sounding very modern and ahead of their time. Not sure who the DJ is.
The second clip comes from WVBF FM, a station out of a suburb of Boston called Framingham. The station as WKOX FM had switched to a top 40 format in 1969 and was one of the earliest top 40 FM stations. In 1971 they changed their call letters to WVBF with the tagline ” Electronic Mama.” The station could be characterized as a AOR/Top 40 hybrid. The first DJ on the clip is Bud Ballou and he hands things off to Ron Robbin at the end of the clip. The presentation is high energy Top 40 and the music is a mix of FM rock and Top 40.
I have more from WBCN, WVBF and a few other Boston area stations that I will be uploading in the future. Plus I will continue to upload clips from Southern Ontario and Western New York.
The third clip comes from a radio program hosted by Ed Baer called Guard Scene (sponsored by The National Guard). Enjoy these rare interviews with John Sebastian and the Lovin’ Spoonful and Alex Chilton and The Box Tops from 1967.
***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.
Another superb aircheck from WBCN FM. Featuring an exceptional set of music including a not so typical track by Bo Diddley, Chicago channeling Crosby, Stills and Nash. Also music by The Byrds, Swampwater, Exhuma, Miles Davis and more. The Beatles Revolution Number 9 is interspersed with some BCN ID’s. You will also hear the comedy of The Firesign Theater and some great period piece commercials.
All of the elements that made the progressive free form format so intriguing and exciting are present. The clip is from Jan. 1971 and the DJ is Andy Beaubien.
***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.
A stellar playlist featuring Blind Faith, Fairport Convention, The Bonzo Dog Band, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Beatles and a lot more. You will also hear the Cat and Dog Report which was a regular feature on the station at this time. I’m not sure who the DJ is.
The source tape has survived incredibly well but a few of the original records suffered from scratches.
This quote, from a June 1970 Boston Magazine article about the station, sums up the music policy of the station at the time:
Generally, musical selections revolve around related sets of material. After the first few months, practically every variation on drug and anti-war sets had been explored. Soon after, Steve Segal, a former WBCN announcer now with KPPC-FM, Los Angeles, refined the approach and formulated the current station concept of programming as a train of thought via music. In this approach, two to four related records are connected by a sometimes fragile relationship which can be musical, thematic, or consist simply of several different cuts which presumably evoke a uniform feeling. Each of the station’s six full-time announcers, all of whom are in their twenties, follows the formula.
***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.
This is an amazing encapsulation of the entire counter culture vibe which permeated the best free form radio stations in the US. You will hear a announcement for an anti war demonstration. A newscast covering the anti war movement by “news dissector” Danny Schechter. A song lampooning Spiro Agnew.
A wonderfully diverse set of music is played including a few hits and some obscurities. Blues, Folk, Jugband and psychedelic rock are all in the mix. WBCN was known to play alternate and early versions of songs ( remember the never released Get Back album by the Beatles) and on this clip they play an early unreleased version of Dead Flowers by the Stones. Some fascinating commercials are featured as well. The clip dates from April, 1971 and the DJ is Jim Parry I believe. Corrections welcome.
The thing I miss about commercial free form is the fact that you were exposed to such a great variety of music and it was often presented by people who had extensive musical knowledge and that’s certainly the case with this BCN clip.
Much more to come from WBCN FM so watch this space. In the meantime enjoy this clip and the others that have been uploaded.
The clip below is not the Stones but it is a great version of Dead Flowers and was played on FM radio.