I heard Dick Biondi for a few nights on KRLA when I was in So-Cal for a week during the summer of '64. Admittedly "small sample size", but I thoght he was more subdued than he had been on WLS. I don't know if that was actually the case, or if it was just the impression of my teenaged self. Overall I came away liking KFWB and KGB better. But again. "small sample size".
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I apologize for interrupting the reminiscing... just wanted to mention that WHKY 1290 in Hickory, N.C. is coming in decently well in Chicago at 10 PM local time, stronger than WIRL and others. They are listed at 50KW by day and 1 KW by night, with the daytime signal pointed in our direction. So I think I can make an educated guess on what's going on here. 
LOL what? Yes, the Beatles and the Beach Boys are in different classes of music, but come on Biondi's listeners!
I was in LA in the summer of 63 and was shocked when I heard him. He had just left WLS a few months before.
He sounded good then and in 65 when he came back to LA after doing his Mutual Network show. It was around 66
that he got more subdued when I heard him. I think the success of KHJ had some people at KRLA and KFWB very worried.
Apparently in 63 they still wanted their beach music in LA.
Apparently I missed it, but congrats on your catch.I apologize for interrupting the reminiscing... just wanted to mention that WHKY 1290 in Hickory, N.C. is coming in decently well in Chicago at 10 PM local time, stronger than WIRL and others. They are listed at 50KW by day and 1 KW by night, with the daytime signal pointed in our direction. So I think I can make an educated guess on what's going on here.
WHKY has run day facilities at night for years if not decades, sometimes wreaking havoc with WHIO. Here in at Tennessee, they make it in before sunset, sometimes all day in the winter.I apologize for interrupting the reminiscing... just wanted to mention that WHKY 1290 in Hickory, N.C. is coming in decently well in Chicago at 10 PM local time, stronger than WIRL and others. They are listed at 50KW by day and 1 KW by night, with the daytime signal pointed in our direction. So I think I can make an educated guess on what's going on here.
Stands to reason. JFK hadn't been assassinated yet (I think the gloom that cast on the US was one reason the Beatles took off as hotly as they did in early 1964), and 1963 was at a peak in American pop activity -- the Spector sound was in full swing, surf music by the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean was topping the national charts, and I think even Motown was starting to hit -- along with all of the Brill Building girl group stuff, and even some of the folk boom making it to the charts. There was a lot of good pop on American radio in '63.
As for DX: I've heard this station many times before on 940 as KFIG (ESPN Fresno), but earlier tonight was the first time I tuned my DX-398 to 940 and heard them under their new incarnation as Oldies KYNO. They were dominating the channel most of the time, with Oregon's ranchero station KWBY only peeking through now and then.
In early 1963, The Four Seasons did their first concert in London (Hammersmith Odeon?, something Hammersmith or Odeon). The Beatles came backstage after the concert. Nick Massi ended up bringing a whole pile of records home with him, including "Please Please Me". He tried to convince Bob Crewe to record it. Crewe wanted to only record his own songs cowritten with Bob Gaudio, and said no. That probably changed the course of Recorded Music History as much as The Hollies refusing to release "Marrakesh Express", written by Graham Nash.
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A little after 4:30AM CDT this morning (2 hours before sunrise), WQNO was absolutely blasting in on 690. Stronger than I've ever heard it here, including during its WTIX days, My guess....and it's just a guess....is that they're back on after being knocked off the air by hurricane Ida. And not just back, but running on day power. If it's true about day power (9kw ND, IIRC), they have a good excuse considering that the New Orleans area is still in the midst of cleanup and recovery. Whatever, they're running regular Catholic programming.
I thought I'd post this with the idea that those who've never snagged WQNO might want to take a shot at it.
Also a new one for me this morning after about 20 minutes with WQNO. WTRC from Elkhart, Indiana was in on 1340. Not exactly exciting at only 122 miles, but I'm glad to hear just about anything for the first time. Typical graveyard catch....on top for a few minutes, then vanished into the slop.
I thought I'd post this with the idea that those who've never snagged WQNO might want to take a shot at it.
Also a new one for me this morning after about 20 minutes with WQNO. WTRC from Elkhart, Indiana was in on 1340. Not exactly exciting at only 122 miles, but I'm glad to hear just about anything for the first time. Typical graveyard catch....on top for a few minutes, then vanished into the slop.
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By '63, major market... and most smaller market... Top 40's had very specific playlists and rotations and the jocks had very little ability to play or not play a record.
While we did not have Selector and MusicMaster, there were simple systems where the songs in each rotation category were in bins (45's) or racks (carts) and played in order based on a clock in the studio. Those were the days of colored cart labels or those stick-on color dots that indicated the category. Sometimes the overnight jock had the job of shuffling the categories every night.
While we're reminiscing, did anyone watch Billy Joel's interview with Don Henley a few months ago? He actually described listening to the big AM music stations of the day (night), such as WLS and WABC, even if they weren't in his home market. Joel would always look forward to getting that recorder out for just the right song. Sounds like a golden age to me.
A lot of pop musicians and rock and rollers and DJs have stated that they listened to certain stations back in the day. At least in the Northeast and Midwest, that included WABC, CKLW, WLS, WCFL, WKBW, and WLAC. Some of the other stations vacillated between what we would call Hot AC or Adult CHR today, and Pure Top 40. In those days, those dayparted with or vacillating with softer edged formats, were called "Chicken Rockers". I would include Group W stations, WIND, WBZ, and WOWO, in the Chicken Rocker category, though as I got a little older, I liked them just as much or more.
Actually, I was just trying to figure out if I was actually hearing CKLW or WLS playing Bob Seger in late 1968. And I can't begin to tell you how many engineers and DJs over the years who have told me that "I can get in" to the PDs or GMs office when they wanted to or needed to. Some, like Bill Bailey at WLS, got caught. So while it may not have happened in that case, it could have happened. Just saying'...
Actually, I was just trying to figure out if I was actually hearing CKLW or WLS playing Bob Seger in late 1968. And I can't begin to tell you how many engineers and DJs over the years who have told me that "I can get in" to the PDs or GMs office when they wanted to or needed to. Some, like Bill Bailey at WLS, got caught. So while it may not have happened in that case, it could have happened. Just saying'...
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You often hear WTRC on Lake Shore Drive during the daytime. In often also mixes with WJOL, and if you are far enough north, also WJYI. So the end result is that 1340 often sounds like a graveyard channel during the day. But once you get even 1/2 a mile from the lake everything else vanishes and you're left with a weakish but listenable WJOL.
I'll have to look for them. Haven't heard them in awhile.
Paul Shaffer has often mentioned that growing up in Canada he often listened to WLS and Dick Biondi at night.
Terry Knight, Southeast Michigan and CKLW DJ and recording artist, and a primary force in the formation and early management of Grand Funk Railroad, always listened to WLS in Lapeer, MI at Night, and was calling Dick Biondi a lot. When he was in 10th Grade, he hand delivered an audition tape to the WLS studios. They told him to finish school and call them in a few years. He began college, and initially planned to be a Presbyterian minister. Michigan radio stations hired him, and he got off that track. He was tragically murdered in 2004 by his daughter's boyfriend, a fate he might have ironically avoided with his own "groupies'" fathers in earlier years, according to many sources. Some said it was "Karma".
michiganrockandrolllegends.com
TERRY KNIGHT AND THE PACK - Michigan Rock and Roll Legends
This site is a totally independent and proudly non-commerical tribute to the artists and songs of Michigan's first vinyl records era.
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I been DXing Japan, Korea, U.K
I'm on the Daejeon Rep of Korea SDR
That's the only SDR in Korea
I'm on 819 KHz. There's 2 on in the North in Pyongyang (KCBS) & in the South in Gwangju Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation
Around 3am Korean Time/11am PST The Jammer Starts, But where?
I'm on the Daejeon Rep of Korea SDR
That's the only SDR in Korea
I'm on 819 KHz. There's 2 on in the North in Pyongyang (KCBS) & in the South in Gwangju Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation
Around 3am Korean Time/11am PST The Jammer Starts, But where?
