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Las Vegas A mysterious found cassette tape aircheck of KLAV-1230

Chad-Stevens

Chad-Stevens

I didn't record nor post this tape to YouTube, but I found it fascinating. One of my pastimes is identifying unidentified airchecks and this one poses a real challenge!

According to the description, the tape was found by discarded by the side of a road!
It's labeled only as "Recorded from Arabic redio" (sic) and there's no station ID, but it is definitely a recording of an Arabic language show recording from KLAV still using the same studio phone number they have today. It was clearly recorded on Halloween day of some year - probably 1980s to mid 1990s based on the picture of the cassette tape and lack of anything sounding like a web site mentioned. But some of the songs as fingerprinted by YouTube didn't come out until the early 2000s, so I really have no idea on this one. Wikipedia says that KLAV took on those calls and brokered formatting in 1987, so that would be the earliest possible date.

The announcer switches back and forth between Arabic and English, sometimes within the same sentence, takes phone calls, and plays requests of a wide variety of music. At 45 minutes in - obviously the switch from Side 1 to Side 2 - there's a clear ID as "Lebanese Radio Las Vegas." Paging through the old Broadcasting Yearbooks at WorldRadioHistory.com shows that KLAV had a lot of ethnic programming in those days, but nothing listed specifically as Arabic or Lebanese.

I'd love to know identify the announcer and see if anyone can pinpoint the year.

 
Chad-Stevens said:
Wikipedia says that KLAV took on those calls and brokered formatting in 1987, so that would be the earliest possible date.
Click to expand...

That Wikipedia page isn't well-written, and the KLAV calls were changed from KLAS in 1964, then the KEZD calls were in effect for just under two years (3/11/85-1/29/87).

But I think you're correct that the tape had to be after the switch back.
 
I'm guessing it had to be 2002 or later based on the dates of the music that YouTube fingerprinted and the fact that the 2002-2003 Broadcasting Yearbook at WorldRadioHistory lists 7 hours weekly of Arabic programming on KLAV.
Maybe the lack of e-mails and websites mentioned on the broadcast is simply the fact that the show was sponsored by small local ethnic businesses that were slower to adopt the internet as part of their businesses.

Archive.org has no captures from KLAV's own website (which the BY does list) from that far back, so I've still lost as to the announcer or the exact year. And the station has been sold and relocated several times since then.
 
Nice find, Chad. There is a bunch of lost broadcast history in the Las Vegas market. Beasley broadcasting just moved studios. And I'm sure there was a bunch of KDWN stuff disposed of in the process. Sad.
 
Just to be certain, I didn't find or post the tape. I just love discovering previously unknown airchecks and, when possible, identifying them.
And finding an aircheck of a live call-in request show for music...on a graveyard AM channel...in (likely) the early 21st century, no less - is a very special find indeed, no matter what the music or language!

The same YouTube channel has uploaded many obscure lostwave self-released records and band demo tapes and CDs.
There's some airchecks too like KQKT-Seattle and a syndicated Rick Dees show on KJYO-O.K.C. from September 25, 1985.
 


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