1977 Blackout airchecks.

[LinoNYC]

While I was in Thailand, I received a request from someone on the radio-Info boards for these airchecks which I recorded during the 1977 blackout. These files were back in NY and anyway, my connection was too slow, so I had to wait before uploading them.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/c8vm81 1977 Blackout aircheck WABC 2.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/dqdevi 1977 Blackout aircheck WABC_01.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/oho69a wabc .mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/yqvosg 1977 Blackout aircheck WCBS-AM 2.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/xq03xt 1977 Blackout aircheck WCBS-AM.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vic85u 1977 Blackout aircheck WINS 2.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6wvab4 1977 Blackout aircheck WINS.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/awn5ei 1977 Blackout aircheck WABC 3.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qgp0ia 1977 Blackout aircheck WABC Geo Michael`s big mouth.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qeb8vj 1977 Blackout aircheck WINS 2.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/2zzu83 1977 Blackout Various airchecks.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/hh56du 1977 Blackout WABC.mp3

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7ha6i9 1977 Blackout WNBC Cousin Brucie .mp3


July 13th at approx 9:30PM It was also my Mother's Birthday fortunately, we decided to celebrate at home for a change.

The set-up I used was crude: a Grundig portable and Panasonic cassette w/external electret mic. On some recordings you can hear fire engines racing up the avenue, the natives were restless rioting, looting, and burning their neighborhoods in the So Bronx and Harlem. Even here on the upper east side you could smell the smoke.

My Grandmother lived on the Concourse in Bedford Park Bronx, the men in her apt house barricaded the glass lobby doors against gangs of "youths" -as they were called then. Thankfully, most of the trouble was in the south part of the borough but when we finally go through to her on the phone, she complained that the smoke was being carried up northward and choking her.

You'll also hear repeated calls for the police to report for duty. Though I'am not a great fan of cops, with what was going on I can't blame them for being hesitant.

Just a year earlier NYC had hosted the Nations largest Bicentennial celebration, this blackout just broke many spirits, most of my Grandmother's friends moved away within months after this mess.

Comparing this to the blackout in 1965 you could clearly see what disastrous changes had befallen the city.

BTW: On the Cousin Brucie WNBC file, that crude up-cutting was the result of a noise gate that the station had installed but never got working properly. It stayed that way for over a month that summer. I had never heard a major AM station sound as bad as WNBC in the seventies, I often tuned-in just to hear what had gone wrong lately, too bad as WNBC had some of the best talent in NY during the 1972-summer 1977 (pre Pittman) period. I don't know why RCA Broadcast allowed such a situation.

Lino

Lino