***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 a automated Top 40 format in June 1973. This is a countdown show taped shortly after the switch. The voice over work seems to be by student listeners. There’s some humorous patter between most of the songs played. Later in the year the station employed some pros to do voice tracks.
This was a good time for Top 40 rock and there are some great tracks on the countdown. You will hear a few one or two hit wonders such as Albert Hammond’s Free Electric Band ( on clip one) and Gunhill Road, The Mighty Tom Cats and Andy Pratt ( on clip two).
Avenging Annie by Pratt was a big regional hit in parts of the east coast, including New England. The song was inspired by The Byrd’s version of Woody Guthrie’s Pretty Boy Floyd. Initially featured on free form progressive rock stations, the track eventually crossed over to Top 40. Soul Moussaka by by the Mighty Tom Cats can be described as either proto-disco or world music.
A most interesting playlist and a reminder that the early Top 40 stations on FM were more experimental than their AM counterparts.
#19 is “Soul Makossa” by Manu DiBango. Don’t know who the Mighty Tom Cats may (or may not) be. But the DiBango song is pretty well known and widely appreciated as I type this in 2020.
The Mighty Tom Kats also did a version of the song in 1973 but you may be right and this is the 1972 original.
Hi! Thanks for the quick response! Yes, it’s Manu DiBango. If you go to the Wikipedia page of Soul Makossa, it explains the recording’s history, and mentions that The Mighty Tom Kats release was a pirated copy of the DiBango recording.
I discovered WBZ-FM shortly after they went top 40 in the summer of 1973. Every Thursday at 3:30 they would debut the new top 40 countdown for the week, hosted by either Clark (Schmidt) or Captain Ken (Shelton.) I loved it, and would keep a running journal in a notebook, for a couple years! I have no memory of the kids counting down the hits (it’s great, by the way, and the pop culture references they make, like the spicy meatball, are hilarious!)
And a big THANK YOU for sharing this, I am enjoying it over and over!
I remember Ken Shelton’s bummer song of the week. “Off of the charts and out of our hearts.” Ken would take a bad top 40 song.. I remember he did this to Cher’s Halfbreed. ..and declare it the bummer record of the week. He would then scratch the record on the air. fantastic!!!!!