The first clip starts with a bit of CFNY and you hear Jim Reid ( or is that Earl Jive ?) for a few seconds at 00:55. The rest of the clip is taken from the old Ryerson College radio station, CKLN which was found at 88.1 on the Toronto radio dial. There’s a unknown announcer heard at 05:13 and then at 09:31 you hear the late Toronto rockabilly and country legend Handsome Ned. He had his own show on the station. There’s also a full news and sports cast and that part of the clip can be dated to Feb. 1985. The newscast featuring Bill Hutchins and Mark Bunting is book-ended by a couple of Gram Parsons tracks played by Ned. The audio quality on the tracks is poor.
The second clip features a DJ on WUWU FM ( James Braun or Jeff Gordon ? ) and he’s in full “modern rock” mode playing Shriekback and Simple Minds and ending the set with the comedy rock of Blotto. The DJ can be heard at 09:48 along with a few ads.
***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 DJ patter on this clip is regrettably short. You will hear John Donabie at 00:59 for a few seconds plus Roger McCall on WPHD at 19:58 and perhaps John Farrell or Jeff Lubeck on WPHD at 26:32.
The clip consists mostly of music. The John Donabie segment features Van Morrison, Al Kooper, Otis Redding, The Bee Gees ( yes the Bee Gees and have no fear no disco, this is from the time the Bee Gees were actually an FM Act), Carly Simon, Dave Mason and The Chamber Brothers with a cover of The Midnight Hour. I know these selections are all from one continuous air check as there are no pauses or stops on the CHUM FM portion of the tape. The musical selection sounds very much like what Mr. Donabie would have played. An amazing seven tracks on one set with one spoken break near the beginning. Such spoken breaks were a feature of free form radio as the DJ would do more than back announce the tracks. They would often create a narrative or theme or tell a story with non commercial spoken-word breaks mixed with music.
The WPHD segment has the final moments of an hour of the Byrds. Daily features of various musical acts were common on Free Form. I believe the announcer is John Farrell. Before that we hear “”Unkle” Roger McCaul after the Hollies. After this Roger went to WCMF in Rochester and I have a few longer clips of him there on the site.
WPHD and WBUF in Buffalo both featured various artists for an hour each weekday and John Donabie on CHUM FM did the same for half hour sets. Comedy selections were regularly interspersed into the presentation and you will hear a few seconds of the great Firesign Theater.
Chronologically speaking, the latest release date for the musical selections is Anticipation by Carly Simon from November 1971 and so I think this clip is from late 1971 or early 1972 when John Donabie was doing the 10 PM to 2 AM shift.
I wish I had more of the announcers on this but the clips does re-open a window into the world of free form radio from the early 1970’s. I would appreciate any corrections to the dates and announcer names etc. Please send me an email.
The first clip is a rare but short one of Brad McNally on CFNY from the time when they were free enough to play a whole set from the 1960’s.The clip is from the late 70’s or early 80’s
The second set is from the great Gary Storm and his Oil of Dog Program. 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. Be sure to check out the Oil of Dog Corner for much more Gary Storm.
Unfortunately the announcements for some of the tracks are missing from both clips.
Thanks to John54 from the SH Forum for id’ing the track below which is found at 32:30 on the second clip. Had me stumped.
***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 from one of the older tapes that I recorded. John Donabie during the free form era from 1973. The voice on one of the ADs is Larry Green who was one of the early DJ’s at the station but I’m not sure if he was still on staff at the time of this recording.
The clip ends with a segment from John’s Sock Hop show where he used the Rockin’ Rebels as his weekly outro. The song was first recorded as the theme song for Tom Shannon’s Top 40 show on WKBK. I’m not sure about the date of the Sock Hop clip but I used to record all of the oldies as this was the first time I was introduced to many of them. Unfortunately I recorded the music and the DJ patter is missing except for this one brief segment. Wish I had realized the value of the DJ patter and preserved it.
The partial track that plays just before the Rockin’ Rebels is the rather obscure ” Country Judy-Jane” by David Rae. Thank you to the internet sleuths at the SH forum for helping me ID that track.
***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.
Fantastic clip recorded during WZIR FM’s ( Wizard Radio, Niagara Falls, NY) first Birthday in June 1981. Sadly the free form format at the station barely made it past the first year and was gone just two months after this recording was made.
An exceptional set of music by the likes of the Grateful Dead, Michael Hurley, Brinsley Schwarz, Dave Edmunds, Traffic, The Sex Pistols, Cheap Trick and Quicksilver Messenger Service..
Gonzo radio at it’s best. Note the commercial at 11:48 for “Signals from Space” hosted by Dr Lobotomy or the commercial block beginning at 23:23 – leading into the news. Prompting newsman George Prentice to say “This place has a terminal drug problem, I don’t know how they allow this stuff on the air”.
John Farrell plays the straight man with his unique delivery. Hard to find better examples of commercial free form radio than this.
*second clip is same as first except with some noise reduction
The CFNY clip has everything from Pink Floyd to Prince but the dominant strain of music is 80’s style New Wave.
The CHUM FM clips are from the Morning Mystery Oldie contest which was a long standing feature that started in 1986 and later changed it’s name to the Morning Mystery Hit to reflect changing demographics. The feature was put to rest about six or seven years ago. Not free form but fun.
Please also check out the Reiner Schwarz clip recently added to the Radio Corner and Benjy Karch added to the Radio Miscellany section. Other recent additions include The Free Form 45’s and Beach Boys webcasts found below. Next webcast will be a feature on Folk and Country-Rock
***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 begins with the group called The The and the track “Perfect on WUWU 107.7 FM. After that there is some dial twisting including a bit of Daddy Cool on CFNY at 12:53. You will hear a bit of the syndicated program Rockline with Bob Cockburn at 13:55 and at 17:20 a DJ from WCMF, Rochester proclaims “history in the making” by having played the first compact laser disc ( Phil Collin’s Face Value album). This part of the clip is possibly from around September 1982 based on a mention of Billy Joel’s Nylon Curtain as a new release and the introduction of CD’s as a commercial product.
Starting at 17:52 we hear Ron Brushal on CFNY with an interesting mix of music including The Wall of Voodoo’s cover of “Ring of Fire”, Peter Gabriel and Jimmy Pursey with Animals Have More Fun, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel and more.
***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.
Drum machines and synths and a techno vibe was dominant at CFNY during this period but as you will hear on this clip the station could be still be counted on for variety. You will hear Jim Reid play Marvin Gaye and Bebop Deluxe who are thought of as a new wave band but they actually predated the new wave and released their first album in 1974. I always thought of their earlier work as the thinking man’s Queen.
Jim Reid may have been the DJ with the longest tenure at NY during the “Spirit of Radio” era. His set is followed by James Scott another stalwart of the Spirit. We get to hear James play Chris de Burgh, “Oh Superman” by Laurie Anderson and even some mid 60’s Bob Dylan. interesting listening and a free form ethos still apparent at the station.
Listen near the very end for an AD by Ivor Hamilton for his import show.
Quality is poor particularly on the first half compounded by the fact that the Bebop Deluxe tune uses the phasing effect.
***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.
Jim Santella could be called the Dean of all Buffalo DJ’s from the free form era and beyond. He started his professional career at Buffalo’s first free form called WYSL. That station changed it’s called letters to WPHD and Santella also made the transition. He later moved to 97 Rock where he stayed for many years. More recently he had a blues show on public WBFO and has since retired.
This clip finds him firmly in new wave land on WUWU FM ( June 1983) playing tracks by Q-Field, The Talking Heads and more. Some jazz by Jean Luc Ponty for a change of pace. My favorite musical selection on the clip is “Church of The Poison Mind” by Culture club which finds Boy George in full Motown mode.
An interesting commercial with Jeff Gordon for a WUWU party plays during the first break.
There’s around the dial twisting starting at the 47:00 minute mark you can hear Rick Ringer on CHUM FM announcing his last set. Yes this was the time when they actually played Quiet Riot. You can also hear James Scott on CFNY announcing an interview with Kajagoogoo by The Live Earl Jive later that day. Unfortunately I did not stay on any one station for too long during the dial changes, save for a classical station near the end. Quality is so so on the clip and falters badly at the end as the tape rolls off the reel. Highlighting the ephemera of the listening experience.
The clip ends where it began in “the belly of the beast” with Jim Santella. That phrase, used by Santella in his ID’s, quite aptly described the format and vibe at WUWU FM and I hope you enjoy this clip from one of the legendary broadcasters from Western New York.
***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 intriguing clip that provides a picture of the rock radio dial in western New York during the summer of 1982.
Things get started with selections played on the Import/Export show on WCMF FM – Rochester, New York with Unkle Roger hosting. Alternative rock and some of it never played in Toronto (cuts by The Dream Syndicate, Fleshtones, The Cramps and Chesterfield Kings). CFNY was not big on this type of garage rock but WCMF’s Import Export and WUWU gave well deserved exposure to the genre.
You also hear a bit of mainstream AOR by way of WCMF and 97 Rock from Buffalo All of the tracks are recorded off the radio but the announcements for some are missing unfortunately,
The best part of the clip is near the end when we hear Jeff Gordon on WUWU playing a comedy cut by George Carlin and a special dance mix of Our House by Madness called Madhouse. Creative programming could still be heard in some quarters in 1982 and Jeff Gordon’s segment is a great example.
Listen also for a syndicated segment from Pete Fornatale of WNEW FM. He was one of the legendary free form Jocks and in later years hosted the “Mixed Bag” program on WNEW and WFUV.
