***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.

***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.

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.

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.