Category Archives: Radio

KABC FM Brother John Rydgren 1969

***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.

In April 1969 ABC started the mostly automated Love format on it’s seven stations. Brother John Rydgren did many of the voice overs. The brother was an ordained minister and he interspersed his shows with poetry and spiritual readings.

This was generally a more commercial variety of progressive FM rock. The format lasted for a short period and was heard on FM stations from New York to Los Angeles.  This particular broadcast was taped off KABC Los Angeles in August 1969 and it includes Brother John, a newscast and a segment about Carole King by Howard Smith.  Quality is not great and the tape is in mono.

Interesting to note that the group Bread who later became soft rock staples have the last track on the air check. ABC FM must have liked the first Bread album because there is another air check on the net at reelradio from WLS FM where the group and album are featured.

WNEW FM Scott Muni Nov 4, 1980 Part Two

***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 part two of the election day broadcast by Scott Muni on WNEW from 1980. A great station which retained a semblance of the free form ethos on this late date. Love the two early 1970’s Byrds tracks played. Neither track is considered the Byrd’s best but both were staples on FM rock for a time. Great memory music as they say.

I have lots of other WNEW content uploaded to the site with more to come.

WRKO FM 1968, CFNY FM and More Composite

Here is a composite of various stations.

The first a small segment from an automated Top 40 format on Boston’s WRKO FM from February 1968 where Donovan’s Jennifer Juniper is featured as an “exclusive.”  After that  Brad McNally on Toronto’s CFNY FM from the late 1970’s ( was previously featured on the site), then  a Toronto station playing the Four Season’s Tell it to The Rain and finally a CHUM FM station ID from the 1980’s.

 

KNUS FM Dallas 1969

***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.

Interesting content from one of the early Dallas Texas free form stations, KNUS FM, from the summer of 1969. This is an in tact air check only for 11 minutes at the beginning of the first clip but there are snippets of DJ patter interspersed throughout plus  a nice station ID at 45:19 of the second clip. Also notable is the ad for early Texas outlaw country act Frummox heard at 10:07 of the first clip. The announcer at the beginning of the clip sounds like a gent named Ken Weir who was at WPHD FM ( Which I learned was also a Mackendon owned station like KNUS). I have an air check of Ken Weir on WPHD in the Radio Corner. Have a listen and see if it’s the same jock.

The musical content is varied and indicative of a wide open free form musical policy. Some of the music played is outlined below and that musical diversity is the highlight of this tape:

Grand Funk, Melanie. The Youngbloods, Buffalo Springfield, The Nice, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Tony Joe White, Zephyr, Jethro Tull, John Stewart, Pink Floyd, Vanilla Fudge,The Moody Blues,  Roxy ( Bob Segarini’s second recording group, actually heard twice), Laura Nyro, The Rotary Connection, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Ruth White, Frank Zappa, Ten Wheel Drive and more.

 

Alison Steele – The Nightbird WNEW FM 1972 & 75

***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.

Vintage WNEW and Alison Steele from the prime years of commercial free form radio in New York. The first clip is from September 6, 1972 and the second from July 11, 1975.

The music is fantastic as Alison plays King Crimson, The Nice , The Moody Blues and more.

Still more to come on the site from the great WNEW in the future.

Q107, CHUM, CKFM, CFRB & CHFI Toronto

I recently came across a recording of Q 107’s Rock Report taped in 1995 and that led me to a Rock Report tape made in 1996 which was on a  broken cassette  I had repaired but the contact  was off and I went back and properly fixed the tape and now the recording sounds much better  than my original upload of it. I present it here along with other Toronto radio as noted below:

Clip One- Q 107 Six O-Clock Rock Report from Oct 1996 with Joey Vendetta, Steve Warden, and Rory O’Shea. Features short interviews with Ray Davies of the Kinks and Universal Honey.

Clip Two – Mix 99.9 ( CKFM) with Punch Andrews (1996) from the same tape as the above clip.

Clip Three – Russ McLeod and a call from my niece on 1050 CHUM and The Six O -Clock Rock Report on Q 107 from 1995 featuring Joey Vendetta and Steve Warden.

Clip Four – Very brief segment from Roger Ashby  on CHUM FM plus CFRB radio featuring mostly Mike Stafford from 2000.

Clip Five – Former CHOM FM, CFNY FM and CHUM FM alumni Terry McElligot on  CHFI FM from the late 1980’s. Terry can currently be heard on Jazz FM in Toronto.

Clip Six – A brief newscast featuring Prior Smith on CKFM from Sept 8 , 1972.

Encore – CFNY FM Toronto, WUWU FM Buffalo 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.

There’s a reel to reel tape I recorded in in 1982 and 1983 that I keep coming back to because it has a over six hours of radio but the quality on some segments of the tape is quite low. I have updated the recordings again and have not touched the original source and only added some additional volume and noise reduction.

Although the vast majority of this tape has been presented before here it is again all on one post.

Clip 1 –  Gary Storm on WUWU, Buffalo NY, doing a day time shift as opposed to his all night Oil of Dog from 1982

Clip 2- Jim Reid on CFNY from 1983 interviewing Sparks.

Clip 3 – Jim Santella on WUWU during the summer of 1983. Clip also has some dial twisting, a a bit of Rick Ringer from CHUM FM and James Scott from CFNY.

Clip 4 – The Import Export show on WCMF FM, Rochester, NY which featured non mainstream and alternative rock.  Some of the American garage rock featured here did not get much exposure elsewhere in the area except  for WUWU.  A bit of mainstream rock on WCMF and 97 Rock from Buffalo and a segment featuring Jeff Gordon on WUWU FM and good to hear that comedy cuts were still being incorporated into a regular set. All from 1983.

Clip 5 – James Braun and Shakin Smith on WUWU

Clip 6. – The Live Earl Jive on CFNY, some dial twisting, a bit of WUWU, a small section of the Rock-line program recorded off 97 Rock, A bit from Daddy Cool on CFNY.  A DJ on WCMF debuting the CD’format and Ron Bruchal on CFNY

Clip 7 – Ron Bruchal, Jim Bauer, Jim Reid and James Scott on CFNY FM. There’s a psychedelic/ progressive rock segment in the middle without a DJ and I think it must have been recorded off WUWU.

https://youtu.be/v0s7L7sxyn0

WQBK FM Oct 18, 1976 Part Four

***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.

Final installment of the WQBK upload. This one is heavily Jazz tinged. The free form gets stretched out as the night proceeds.   A whole side of a Keith Jarrett album is featured. My favorite cut played  is Icarus by the Paul Winter Consort which was a favorite for the CHUM FM DJ’s during the 1970’s.

 

 

The Eclectic WBCN FM Boston 1971

***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.

More great audio from the exceptional free form WBCN FM and DJ Charles Laquidara from mid January 1971. You will hear rock bookended by Jazz and Classical. Some nice ads including one one for Capricorn records  country rock act Cowboy. The label was distributed by ATCO .

Free Form  radio at it’s early 1970’s best !