***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.
A great twin spin spanning 21 years.
The first clip is of a WCBS FM broadcast during the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies from The Waldorf Astoria in 1988. The Show was hosted by Bob Shannon and Don K Reed. This was a night when The Beatles, The Supremes, The Beach Boys and Bob Dylan were inducted.
I have more tape of this show but have edited the broadcast and kept only the Beach Boys and Bob Dylan segments plus a newscast near the end and a brief segment after that.
The second clip comes from Los Angeles station KHJ and features DJ Humble Harve from January 1967. The station was referred to as Boss Radio at the time and had become a Drake formatted station since 1965. Generally that format had narrowed playlists and muted DJ’s but there were exceptions and Humble Harve was one. The playlist is quite interesting. Album cuts are played along with 45’s by The Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Seeds and Love. The Beatles sitar laden Love You Too gets an airing along with a Dylan track not normally played on Top 40 radio. I have another hour of the KHJ tape that I will upload in the future.
KHJ and the other Drake-consulted stations tend to get a bad rap concerning musical variety and restrictions on DJ talk. KHJ, Los Angeles and KFRC, San Francisco are the two I’m most familiar with and especially in the time prior to KPPC and KMET in L.A. and KMPX and KSAN in San Francisco, played a lot of this type of music, especially in afternoons, evenings and nights.
The reason was simple—until FM freeform was born, hip young adults were listening to Top 40. In Los Angeles and San Francisco, the artists who made the records were listening to Top 40. So KHJ and KFRC’s Program Directors, Ron Jacobs and Tom Rounds, programmed accordingly.
Bill Drake was a consultant with an unusual contract—he had total control of programming, but he exercised that by hiring program directors and letting them program. His contract also expressly forbade any interference by sales or management. A general manager couldn’t fire a PD. That was Drake’s job.
When the stations became successful (and they did—wildly), a general manager couldn’t increase the number of commercials an hour (Drake’s contract imposed a limit of 14 minutes, four below most stations of the time, with no commercial break lasting longer than 70 seconds, and no more than three commercials in that break—two :30s and a :10, fine; a :60 and a :10, fine; a :60 and a :30, not fine; two :30s and two :10s, not fine).
As for restricting what a jock could say, Drake had one rule: Don’t bore the audience. What died wasn’t brilliant insights, it was the lame jock killing 40 seconds with things like “My, isn’t it sunny out today. Gosh, I wish I were out there enjoying it instead of here in a dumpy old radio studio, but I’m here until noon and the happening sounds of Scott St. Scott. Hey, did you hear what he said yesterday?”
Robert W. Morgan, Charlie Tuna, The Real Don Steele and Humble Harve were personalities in every sense of the word. They connnected. They were hugely popular. Humble Harve beat both Wolfman Jack and B. Mitchel Reed in the ratings.
When freeform came to California, the music was naturally going to migrate to FM. And think about it…once you heard it in stereo on KSAN or KMET, were you going to want to hear it in mono on AM ever again? So, once it was clear that freeform FM was in it to stay in mid-late ’68 (KPPC and especially KMPX had a feeling that it could all end tomorrow—and at KMPX it very nearly did), KHJ and KFRC went back to focusing on little records with big holes….and were successful for many more years serving an audience that wanted what they were serving.
By the way, and I hope it’s helpful. The Humble Harve aircheck is actually from February 3, 1967.
Harve’s first show at KHJ (promoted on the back of Boss 30 playlists available in stores) was Wednesday, February 1.
Harve tells us it’s Friday night on the intro to the Beatles’ track.
The sportscast mentions the Bob Hope Classic, which ended on Sunday, February 5th that year.
1967. Being I was 10 years old When KHJ, first took off and The real Don Steel and Humble Harv were in my ears at that time. Brings back a lot of rock and roll memories..lol
Wow. Excellent quality unedited KHJ air check. These are rare.
Thank you!