This is a composite of tracks recorded off CFNY from the early to mid 80`s. Some of the tracks such as the Demics New York City and Captain Sensible`s Happy Talk were NY staples. Clip is short on DJ patter. There`s a station ID at 00:36 and you will hear Jim Reid at 8:20 and The Live Earl Jive and James Baby Scott for a few brief seconds later in the clip. The recording quality on Happy Talk and the final track, File and Forget by Karel Fialka, is quite good and in stereo. Enjoy this small slice of the Spirit of Radio era NY at it’s peak.
A big thanks for former CFNY announcer Jim Reid for confirming who the artist was on File and Forget. I remember the track well as it received a lot of airplay on NY but Google searches and even Shazam had turned up nothing about the artist and it sounded like James Scott was saying Carol Fialkin. The song and LP it comes from is currently out of print and hence why it was difficult to find info about it.
A great honor JR to have you visit the site. I was a very regular listener and fan of your show right from the start in the late 70’s.
***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.
British Folk to The Sex Pistols. Public Image Ltd. to Bach
Part Two of The last Oil of Dog program hosted by Gary Storm on WZIR FM from 1981. The show was revived on WUWU FM a few years later ( Please visit The Oil of Dog Corner for the WUWU clips and I will continue to upload more of those).
There’s three long sets of music on the two clips above and they feature Gary and Louie The Mad Vinyl Junkie. Listen to the breaks at 25:04-29:30 (first clip) and at 15:39-18:51 & 43:32-48:27( second clip). You will hear Gary Storm’s passion for what he was presenting. He laments the fact that there will no longer be an outlet on the radio to feature the diverse acts played on Oil of Dog and WZIR. He was the music director at the station. He speaks about how he was the first and perhaps only area DJ to feature some of the acts played. He also speaks, during the final break, about the sexism inherent in mainstream radio. He championed numerous female artists and says that will not be the case on the new mainstream rock format of the station.
Just before playing a selection from Bach, during the middle break, he says “this music is so beautiful that God made ears for it.” Enjoy this remnant of the classic free form format on commercial radio. There’s almost 90 minutes of great music and commentary. Please also check out part one of this broadcast further down the page.
Addendum: I was gratified to see that the one and only Gary Storm posted this comment in the Oil of Dog Corner yesterday:
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.
A great double shot of Progressive Free Form radio.
The first clip is of Pete and Geets on CFNY from 1983 and they open with an oldie. When was the last time you heard Gene Pitney on CFNY ? Possibly when this air check was recorded. The great thing about early CFNY was that they were not limited to new or “Modern Rock” and the element of surprise and variety was alive and well. Audio quality is not the best.
Check out the Radio Corner section for a longer set by Pete and Geets on CFNY and watch this space for more. I have some tape of them on CHUM FM.
The second clip is from WBUF FM from 1975 and features Cal Brady, the program director of the station at the time. The clip captures the essence of underground free form with a great psychedelic era station ID and a counter culture intro to a song by the Jefferson Airplane. Brady says “good morning…don’t believe everything you read in the papers.” The actual time was 5 PM. The clip is sadly too short but serves as a great reminder about why the free form format was so interesting.
**Have added the entire show on the second clip, almost two hours with some noise reduction which I usually hesitate in using because of audio loss
**Third clip added of entire show that has resolved previous tracking and audio issues
Andy Frost started as the host of Psychedelic Sunday on Q107 in the mid 1980’s. He took a break from the show and was eventually replaced by Rory O’Shea before returning as host in the mid 90’s. Most people are not aware that legendary Toronto DJ and free form pioneer David Pritchard hosted Psychedelic Sunday for a very brief period and here is a clip featuring him as host. He does not say his name anywhere on the broadcast and the delivery is not as laid back as his earlier on air persona but the familiar Pritchardism’s are on display. He had a way with words and his DJ patter was literate and unique. He could be described as a musicologist and that also comes through on the clip, although not to the extent that it did on his shows at free form CHUM FM.
This might have been his first show on Q and and I think he was constrained by the format and a number of classic rock staples are featured. He plays Barroom Blitz by Sweet and I don’t think he would have played that during his time at CHUM FM or CFNY. There’s a segment devoted to the Moody Blues and the music featured by them certainly hearkens back to his free form days and in fact the brief interview segments with Justin Hayward may have been originally taped years before.
I remember hearing another episode or two of the show where David seemed to have more leeway with the playlist but then he was gone and perhaps he was asked to tighten things and felt limited by the format.
I have at least one more hour of this show to present in the future so watch this space. Check our the Radio Corner section for recordings of David Pritchard from CHUM FM and CFNY. He is the one DJ that I have on tape from all three Toronto FM rock stations.
I originally recorded this clip on a JVC stereo VCR that could record two separate audio sources simultaneously one to go with video and a separate external source. There’s some tracking issues on the tape. Most of the clips featured on the site were recorded on reel to reel tape. This broadcast may be from January 1992.
***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 of WUWU FM is from Nov. 1982 and features DJ James Braun and Western New York blues man Shakin Smith. Smith had a show on the station and can be heard twice on the clip including one ad. A varied musical palette is heard on the clip including an interesting Robert Palmer track called the Silver Gun which features him singing in the urdu language. The clip also features a brief interview snippet of David Bowie.
Radio Aircheck fans please see the latest additions from WBUF FM and WZIR FM below and a new and fascinating CKOC countdown of the top 100 of 1967 and 68 in the Radio Miscellany section.
Here is the Beach Boys 20/20 album from 1969 on prerecorded reel to reel. This provides a good window into the original mix as the first run analogue copies become rare.
I inadvertently left a minute plus blank tape gap between side one and side two dedicated to Rosemary Woods.
Addendum: an astute member of the Pet Sounds mailing list tipped me to the fact that I had cut a few seconds off the tail end of All I Want to Do, the Dennis Wilson tune, which is the fifth track on side one of the album. I have restored the full fade out now just before the middle of the second clip above. A rather infamous fade out as you can hear and you can Google the details.
ALSO CHECK OUT NEW CLIP FROM CKOC AM. FACINATING COUNTDOWN SHOW JUST POSTED TO THE RADIO MISCELLANY SECTION
***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 features Eric Traver on his all night shift at WBUF FM from 1975. The station was probably the best progressive free form station in the area at the time. The musical selections include tracks by Todd Rundgren, Love and Jeff and Maria Muldaur. Eric can be heard after the commercial break which starts at 14:20.
***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.
Gary Storm along with Louie the Mad Vinyl Junkie on the very last broadcast of Oil of Dog on WZIR FM – 98.5 from Niagara Falls, New York. This is the first Oil of Dog post sourced from WZIR FM. The previous clips are from the show’s resurrection on WUWU FM a few years later.
This was recorded one day before the station switched formats from free form to mainstream AOR. You can hear Gary and Louie discussing the situation at 22:10 – 32:32. Louie was not really a DJ and he had started as a fan and music collector guest on Gary’s program and was eventually given his own show. Listen here as they discuss what’s taking place with the station. Makes for very compelling radio as you hear a great format going down. Musical selections include tracks by The Move, Love Sculpture and Alan Stivell. I have more tape of this last broadcast and watch this space for the next segment.
This is the original duophonic or fake stereo version of The Beach Boys classic Pet Sounds album transferred from a pre-recorded reel to reel tape. This version has been much derided by the purists who prefer the mono version. Brian Wilson intended the original album to come out in mono only.
The reel is not an audio revelation and has suffered from age degradation, moreover, I think that there was a problem with the mastering to begin with. keep in mind that the tape is 48 years old and to my ears it sounds slightly better than the vinyl version of same. The quality does improve a bit after the opening track.
I have put this up as not everyone has heard this version. You will also note in the pictures below that the back cover art was different from the vinyl version.
The second clip features tracks from the reel to reel copies of The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour and The Rolling Stones Flowers. These were recorded at 3.75 inches per second but they sound better than Pet Sounds ( recorded at the better speed of 7.5). The copy of Flowers is actually the most worn out of the three albums but I think it sounds the best. There’s also some variations from the vinyl on the back cover of these two albums as pictured below.
The three groups featured were at or near their peak when these recordings were made ( 1965-67) and the pop-rock landscape was ripe with innovation and creativity. Pet Sounds has been acknowledged as an influence on the Beatles Sgt. Pepper. Magical Mystery Tour was the US follow up album to Sgt. Pepper but the single, Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields ( featured on Magical Mystery Tour) actually preceded the release of Pepper. The influence of God Only Knows from Pet Sounds is apparent on Penny Lane.
Addendum – Should be noted that some of the tracks on the album version of Magical Mystery Tour were also fake stereo including Penny Lane and Baby You’re a Rich Man which are included in the clip above. The stereo processing used for these tracks was different than the one used for Pet Sounds and is hard to discern when listening on headphones ( unlike the Pet Sounds mix ). Strawberry Fields, however the flip side to Penny Lane, was mixed in true stereo for the original album and how that came to be is a whole other story.
Enjoy these great Reel to Reel tracks by The Byrds, Lovin’ Spoonful, The Association and Peter, Paul and Mary !
*Apologies for the audio alert that can be heard near the end of The Ballad of Easy Rider. Will edit that out when time permits.
Also take a listen to Oil of Dog Part 9 updated to The Oil of Dog Corner and be amazed that such a format existed anywhere, let alone on a commercial radio station in 1984. A Great example of progressive free form underground radio.
