Info about Andy Bickle?

[Henry Finley]

I just dug out my Ampex 1160 tape deck I restored several years ago and had to stash in storage a couple years ago. Works great. Anyway the first tape I put on was Hi-Fi 50's. Back around 2000-01 I was recordig lots of things from an FM station that later turned spanish. Names like Larry Carolla (I think), Joe Lucina, Bickel, and others. The show was Hi-F 50's with Andy Bickle, or Bickel, every Sunday afternoon. Great show. And it seems my tapes held up well. Whatever became of him? Thank you.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

It was Probably the old Mix 106.1 before it went Spanish. I had forgotten about that. Both Henry Boggan and Andy Bickel worked there for a short time and had come over from WBT where Hi-Fi 50's originated. I did Hi-Fi 50's on WBT Saturday nights until Andy came back to WBT sometime in the '80's and decided he wanted to do it. I think after that I got "The Sunday Show" 10pm-1am which was more or less the same type of music. I don't know where Andy is today, haven't seen or heard anything about him in years.

 

[Henry Finley]

Yes it was 106. I was a big fan back at the turn of the century, which seems a lifetime ago, and not of much in the way of good times since. Back then i'd tune into Eddie Hubbard, Joe Lucina's Dance Party, and Andy Bickel (Bickle) on Sunday afternoons with my reel to reel deck turning the whole time. Not nearly as many tapes as I wish I had. I guess I have 20 or 25 total recorded at 3 3/4 ips. but Andy Bickle ran a great show. Then the whole thing went to heck in a handbasket when they sold out to the spanish bit.
Here I am asking about someone who could well be dead. I hate this dying bit. It ruins everything. I know Eddie Hubbard was killed in a wreck at a ripe old age. I think Lucina was fired from his Chicago station (or somewhere up north).
I dug out these tapes from the storage bin last week. Glad I did. So clear and bright. THIS is music.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Then the whole thing went to heck in a handbasket when they sold out to the spanish bit.

It's more complicated than that.

Joe Lacina (that's how you spell his name) disappeared from Timeless Classics when it became Timeless Favorites. They kept his Saturday evening show around for a while but one night instead of big band music I heard Kenny Loggins' "Meet Me Halfway" which is the worst dreck imaginable. How the man who gave us "I'm Alright" and "Footloose" could do something like that I don't understand.

Mix 106 mostly used Timeless Classics, which was distributed to stations around the country, but that format became Timeless Favorites, which was more AC and oldies and pretty much did away with artists like Sinatra, though the more contemporary artists such as Michael Buble could still be heard. Fans didn't respond well and the format was discontinued. Mix 106 had been moving toward oldies anyway on its local morning show so they just went all the way and changed to oldies. When they got the chance, they let the Spanish radio station take over, but the former Mix still has the same owner.

The owner did bring back the big band sound mixed with a few AC and oldies tunes on one of its Christian AMs, from Jones radio networks at first, and then all local. That lasted ten years until a few weeks ago.

 

[Henry Finley]

Thank you for your reply. I had no idea that 106 was running any American material at all after giving it over to Spanish. My mind is still on the original subject which was Andy Bickel. I would think I'm probably asking about somebody who is dead and gone. Time passes so fast--2001 seems like a few short years ago, but in actually its a large portion of a lifetime. As for non-English stations, I don't know why the FCC allows it. But we won't go there.