Someone shared this on Facebook, and wow! These are brief off-air recordings from a couple of locations on the East Coast of stations from 540-1600, including some classic stations. Among highlights is CMCA 730 broadcasting in English from Havana, Cuba "Free Territory of America", WABC on New Year's Eve where you hear a very young Cousin Brucie, and thunderstorm static.
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Retro DX from the early 1960s.
- Thread starter gr8oldies
- Start date
This is great. Thanks for sharing!
K
kenglish
Guest
I had a friend back then (gone now), who wanted to start his own station.... I think he eventually tried to build a religious one.
He was on a ship during the Vietnam war, and recorded hundreds of reels of airchecks. Not sure if they were all religious programming or not.
I remember the huge shelves of tapes he had sent home, all in his Mother's dining room.
I should find out what happened to them.
He was on a ship during the Vietnam war, and recorded hundreds of reels of airchecks. Not sure if they were all religious programming or not.
I remember the huge shelves of tapes he had sent home, all in his Mother's dining room.
I should find out what happened to them.
cool mannnn, thanks!
Just listening again, and wondering about some observations stations in the background of the main stations that were recorded. This isn't extensive.
570--someone playing "Limbo Rock" behind WMCA. No hope of identifying.
730--some things under the Cuban (CMCA). How many hours a day was this in English?
750---I could swear I could hear just the faintest Radio Reloj ticks---yes it was around then . I assume WSB under WHEB? No idea what's programming was then.
780 WBBM..."Dear Tony, send me 16 months of McCall's"
790--KGHL and whatever's under it. That has me intrigued with the musical fanfare underneath, as well as a voice that sounds like Paul Harvey way under, and what sounds like a voice saying "award winning news".
1190---obviously what's under WLIB is WOWO, with what sounds like the end of DJ talk and a spot for a cleaning product.
1570--I had never heard Wolfman Jack's XERF days until this recording.
570--someone playing "Limbo Rock" behind WMCA. No hope of identifying.
730--some things under the Cuban (CMCA). How many hours a day was this in English?
750---I could swear I could hear just the faintest Radio Reloj ticks---yes it was around then . I assume WSB under WHEB? No idea what's programming was then.
780 WBBM..."Dear Tony, send me 16 months of McCall's"
790--KGHL and whatever's under it. That has me intrigued with the musical fanfare underneath, as well as a voice that sounds like Paul Harvey way under, and what sounds like a voice saying "award winning news".
1190---obviously what's under WLIB is WOWO, with what sounds like the end of DJ talk and a spot for a cleaning product.
1570--I had never heard Wolfman Jack's XERF days until this recording.
Thanks Cyberdad and all. A very young Cuz at that time. It was very interesting hearing "Music of the 60s" and "the Station of the 60s" and knowing at that time they were looking ahead, as the decade was beginning, not back.
I was listening to that handoff from The Cuz to Bob Lewis aka "Bobba Loo" when it happened. What great memories.
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Very cool! I barely knew any stations other than WOWO existed back then, but in 1963 I was 6. The recording made me wonder about what was on the dial back then, the directional daytimers in our state that hadn't been built yet, for example.
The first station I DXed in the late 50s was WLW. My dad told me how powerful they once were. In the early 60s I began Dxing other stations. After WLS became Top 40 in 1960, I soon discovered their sister station WABC. I heard Scott Muni, Cousin Brucie, and Bob Lewis on the all night show starting in mid 62. I usually listened to Dick Biondi on WLS when I wasn't DXing, but discovered so many other stations. I just happened to be listening to WABC at that time when New Years hit the east coast.
An hour later WLS. I wish I had a tape running. Thanks for posting that great DX capture from the 60s!
570-WSYR or WKBN before pattern change? MOR stations might have played Limbo Rock. The best signals in a town tended to be MOR back then.
I came along a little later. Growing up for the first 9 years in northern Indiana, WOWO was a constant on the radio, but other than occasionally WSBT or local WRSW, the dial stayed there. Fortunately WOWO, even being the full service news/personality/farm station, played top 40, even in the early 60s. When we moved to Western Ohio (still within WOWO range), I discovered "Fun Radio 8" CKLW, blasting out of the speakers at the pool from 150 miles away, which quickly became The Big 8.
I always was equipped with a transistor radio, and when we took vacations to Fremont, Michigan it was always with me. The first time (I believe 1967), the radio was so deaf I could only hear local WSHN-1550, but much more at night. I had better radios in the subsequent years, and listened to WOKY, Milwaukee and WGRD-1410, Grand Rapids. Unlike at home, CKLW came in at night there. I of course discovered WABC, WLS, WCFL and much more. I was an avid SWL then, but took up more serious medium wave DX in the late 70s.
Thanks, either is a good possibility "WKBNternaiment" was featured in a separate clip.
Further East in Mecosta County, the signals from Grand Rapids, Milwaukee, and Chicago were much weaker than in Newaygo County. WMAQ was the second strongest AM signal, though probably in the 250 uV/m range. It quickly increased as you went West toward Lake Michigan. However, with a short vertical antenna, a 300 Ohm Twin Lead from a TV antenna with the conductors twisted together, a modified Tom Kneitel designed preamp, and inductively coupled to my Sony portable with cassette player, at least 60-100 signals could be heard in the Daytime. The Grand Rapids and Muskegon stations were still quite weak from traveling across just sandy soil, but WIND, WMAQ, WGN, WBBM, WAIT, WLS, WCFL, WJJD from Chicago, and WTMJ and WOKY from Milwaukee were quite a bit stronger, traveling a good part of the way across Lake Michigan. They were very listenable. I mentioned before that surprisingly, 950 WKTS Sheboygan, WI with 500 watts DA came in, but not WGRT or WWJ in the Daytime. Again, the antenna was a short vertical, but WKTS was far stronger on the antenna. Without the antenna and tuned preamp, almost all those signals were nearly absent.
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I could be mistaken, but I think all of the Westinghouse O&O stations were at least "dabbling" in top 40 during the late 50s and early 60s. When I was growing up, my parents' favorite station was WIND, which was basically what Billboard magazine called "Adult Contemporary" during the day, but rocked a little harder at night. I think WOWO, KDKA, and WBZ were variations of the same formula. I listened to WBZ quite a bit during the early and mid '60s, and they were definitely rockin' at night with the likes of Bruce Bradley and Dick Summer. And I always considered WOWO a top 40 station. OTOH, by the mid 60s, WIND was basically the same "Adult Contemporary" day
I had a relative in Cass County, MI, and I used to listen to the Chicago stations there when I visited in the early 1970s. WIND had the program on weekends apparently marketed for syndication, "Number One Music", which was basically Oldies and newer recurrents. I think it was hosted by Bob Dell, later known by his full name DelGiorno, who apparently was splitting his time between WOWO and WIND before joining WIND fulltime. I think they thought it would catch on in syndication, as it came out just a little later than AT40, but I don't think it got beyond WIND and maybe WOWO.
WIND flipped to "Number One Music" in 1970 or early 1971. I worked at a station that copied it with great success (right after I left the place, of course....LOL). As you say the format was essentially oldies, but with a current top ten record every half hour....roughly at :15 and :45. The concept of the oldies formats was new at the time, and WIND did quite well at it for several years.
(For those unfamiliar with WIND, their 5kw directional signal held its own with Chicago's blowtorches. The nulls were (are) to the west southwest and east northeast, and not an issue until you got outside of the metro. The bottom line was that the signal was good enough for WIND to hold its own with its 50kw competitors in both market coverage and ratings.)
As for Bob DelGiorno, as SC and some others of you reading this may already know, he went on to become a longtime fixture as talk show host in New Orleans at WWL.
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