***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 clip features a bit of Benjy Karch on CHUM FM from the summer of 1975. He was the music director at the station and also did on-air fill in work. The station had tightened it’s format and some of the eclecticism of the free form days was gone.
This clip features mostly music and artists such as The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Free Beer, King Crimson, 10 CC and Robert Palmer provide a window into the state of the station at the time. The format had tightened but some musical diversity could still be heard. There’s a bit of dial twisting and I eventually end up on WBUF FM and you will hear the great voice of Yola, who also worked at WGRQ FM and WKBW AM later in her career. I also seem to recall her on WPHD FM for a period before her stint at WBUF. BUF was at the peak of their free form format at the time but all you hear on this air check is a brief segment from Yola. I have other longer air checks from WBUF posted on the site.
Benjy Karch can be heard at 5:56 and Yola at 28:03. I had previously posted the bit from Yola in another section but include it here as it’s part of the source tape for this aircheck.
The date of the second air check is unknown but is likely from the late 80’s or early 90’s and features a segment from Roger Ashby’s Sunday Morning Oldies show. The show ran from 1980 to 2009 and was heard on CHUM AM for most of it’s run but it switched to CHUM FM for a period. This clip should be of interest to fans of Steve Winwood and The Spencer David group. Group leader Davis describes the inspiration for their signature hit Gimme Some Lovin’ and also how the cover of I’m A Man by Chicago probably came to be. Unfortunately very little of Mr Ashby is heard on the clip.
***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.
WBZ FM switched to an automated top 40 rock format in June of 1973. This aircheck is from their first week with the new format. Most of the voice over work on this aircheck seems to be by students or amateurs. Later in the year the station did hire some pros to do the voice-overs.
The history of FM rock in Boston at the time is a bit convoluted. Free Form WBCN was the most stable station but in addition to WBZ, a number of other FM stations introduced some variation of a rock format around this time including WVBF, WROR and others.
Top 40 stations on FM during the early 70’s were more album oriented than their AM counterparts and generally gave greater exposure to songs which were receiving airplay on the free form stations. One such example, Roll Over Beethoven by The Electric Light Orchestra, is heard on this clip. The track is from the second ELO album and is perhaps their most adventurous hit record. The song charted on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks largely to FM airplay. There is a truncated version of a song by the Glass Harp called Can`t You See Me that I don`t think was played on many AM top 40 stations. A brief instrumental section of the song is heard just after I`m Doing Fine Now by New York City.
You will also hear a few minutes of WVBF after the Osmonds are announced and then back to WBZ FM. The aircheck ends with a record by novelty artist Dickie Goodman called Watergrate. One of Dickie’s usual spoofs using small bits from hit records of the day in between his comedic comments. Also note that The Monster Mash was played not as an oldie but a current hit as it was riding the charts upon it`s re-release during the summer of 1973.
I have more tape from this broadcast, a continuation of their Top 40 countdown, Stay tuned.
This clip was recorded on my JVC Stereo VCR and based on Barb Hansen’s brief news update I think it’s from 1988-89. You will also hear Scott Turner at 3:36. This was recorded during the “History of Rock Saturday.”
Judging by the tracks played and announced you would think you had tuned into Q 107 sometime in the late 70’s. I’m not sure if this was before or during Reiner Schwarz’s tenure as PD. The station’s format recovered from earlier tightening with Mr. Schwarz at the helm.
A classic rock staple by Manfred’s Mann’s Earth Band is featured in the clip above but the You Tube link below is from an earlier incarnation of the band and has them covering Randy Newman. A track which I heard regularly on CHUM FM in the early 70’s and which is now forgotten by radio.
Audio of this air check is generally better on this You Tube upload:
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.
Hip David Marsden Leaving CHUM-FM
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.
