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Jim Nettleton Doing Top 40 In 1967

P

peppertree

I listened to a WFIL aircheck of Jim Nettleton from 12/8/67 today. Wow! He is good. The best intro was when he played Explosion by The Soul Survivors. With around a twenty or twenty-five second intro, he made a joke about the song and gave the title and artist of the top five requested songs of the night and finished a split second before the vocal. So COOL! It was a joy to listen to someone who knew top 40 and was able to play it as the professional that he is.

Did this guy use a stop watch to be that tight or did it come naturally? He had a lot to say in those seconds and covered it perfectly<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>
 
> I listened to a WFIL aircheck of Jim Nettleton from 12/8/67
> today. Wow! He is good. The best intro was when he played
> Explosion by The Soul Survivors. With around a twenty or
> twenty-five second intro, he made a joke about the song and
> gave the title and artist of the top five requested songs of
> the night and finished a split second before the vocal. So
> COOL! It was a joy to listen to someone who knew top 40 and
> was able to play it as the professional that he is.
>
> Did this guy use a stop watch to be that tight or did it
> come naturally? He had a lot to say in those seconds and
> covered it perfectly
>

Probably a little bit of both. Some radio guys just have an innate sense of timing (Ronald Reagan's Saturday Presidential Radio Addresses were invariably spot on at 4'58". Without notes. Thank WHO/Des Moines for that!)

There's no doubt that WFIL's was probably the tightest format outside of any Drake station. Jay Cook--who got some training under Drake at WHBQ/Memphis--was a superb PD, and held down an air slot as well.

In later days, the early 70s, an actual Drake PD was also in the building, albeit on-air (but probably also lending a PD's shoulder)--Jim O'Brien, who was PD at KHJ in the summer of 1969 (after Ron Jacobs) and PD at CKLW in 1970 (just before Paul Drew came back. (CK's PDs then were a veritable cross section of Drake flavor radio--Drew, Ted Atkins, Frank Brodie (temp), Jim O'Brien, Drew (again), Brodie (again, temp), Alden Diehl, Bill Hennes).

But listening to WFIL, it was T-I-G-H-T. It squeaked, that's how tight it was. And I often wonder if it could work today, or if people wouldn't "get it," having been ruined lately by sloppy radio presentations.
 
Well said.

I remember when WCAU-FM started playing Hot Hits around January, 1981. They were also very tight. I also liked the jingles. The first jock that I heard was Terry "Motormouth" Young. It took a little over an hour to hear the songs repeat. That is when I turned them off, and only listened once in a while to enjoy the tight jocks on CAU-FM.


>
> But listening to WFIL, it was T-I-G-H-T. It squeaked,
> that's how tight it was. And I often wonder if it could
> work today, or if people wouldn't "get it," having been
> ruined lately by sloppy radio presentations.
>
<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>
 
Thanks for the reminder

> [I listened to a WFIL aircheck of Jim Nettleton from 12/8/67
> today. Wow! He is good. The best intro was when he played
> Explosion by The Soul Survivors. With around a twenty or
> twenty-five second intro, he made a joke about the song and
> gave the title and artist of the top five requested songs of
> the night and finished a split second before the vocal. So
> COOL! It was a joy to listen to someone who knew top 40 and
> was able to play it as the professional that he is.]


Thanks for the post. It was a reminder that there is yet another option for disgruntled Oldies fans...............airchecks. There are people out there with huge collections of some really good stuff. Many will trade, or dub an aircheck for the cost of a blank tape or CD and shipping/handling. Interested Oldies fans should put "airchecks" into their search engine. Or check out the Radio-Info aircheck collectors board.
 
>
> But listening to WFIL, it was T-I-G-H-T. It squeaked,
> that's how tight it was. And I often wonder if it could
> work today, or if people wouldn't "get it," having been
> ruined lately by sloppy radio presentations.
>

My guess is that most listeners would find it way too "busy" sounding today. Much as I liked that kind of radio back in the day, I find it exhausting to listen to some of these old airchecks where the jocks talked over every song and posted it every time. I will agree that we've gone too far in the other direction these days.
 
> Well said.
>
> I remember when WCAU-FM started playing Hot Hits around
> January, 1981. They were also very tight. I also liked the
> jingles. The first jock that I heard was Terry "Motormouth"
> Young. It took a little over an hour to hear the songs
> repeat. That is when I turned them off, and only listened
> once in a while to enjoy the tight jocks on CAU-FM.

Not everything on Hot Hits repeated after an hour--but because Joseph always programmed a mini-countdown around the top of the hour every hour, there was a lot of stuff that got frequently repeated. I believe they were tracking a 50-song playlist--no recurrents, no gold--and that the slowest rotation was twice or three times a day.

The important thing about Hot Hits was that at the time when many Top 40/CHR stations were heavy on gold, played about 15 or so currents (some of which were album cuts) and sounded more like very tight AORs with jingles, Hot Hits played the hits and played all of the hits, no matter what genre. One was willing to sit through the repetition knowing that at least you weren't going to hear "Stairway to Heaven" again.
 
Re: Thanks for the reminder

I know someone with a huge aircheck collection who only plays airchecks recorded in the same monthas he listens to them. This month, he only plays airchecks from January recorded in prior years.

> Thanks for the post. It was a reminder that there is yet
> another option for disgruntled Oldies
> fans...............airchecks. There are people out there
> with huge collections of some really good stuff. Many will
> trade, or dub an aircheck for the cost of a blank tape or CD
> and shipping/handling. Interested Oldies fans should put
> "airchecks" into their search engine. Or check out the
> Radio-Info aircheck collectors board.
>
<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>
 
Jim used a stopwatch. In fact, when he moved to WABC in 1969, he introduced that concept there. All the other guys, including Big Dan simply used there instincts and knowledge of the musical intro. I used that myself, only rarely using a stop watch. Trouble is, sometimes you miss! Two VERY inexcusable misses come to mind after 30 years! Jim never missed.


> I listened to a WFIL aircheck of Jim Nettleton from 12/8/67
> today. Wow! He is good. The best intro was when he played
> Explosion by The Soul Survivors. With around a twenty or
> twenty-five second intro, he made a joke about the song and
> gave the title and artist of the top five requested songs of
> the night and finished a split second before the vocal. So
> COOL! It was a joy to listen to someone who knew top 40 and
> was able to play it as the professional that he is.
>
> Did this guy use a stop watch to be that tight or did it
> come naturally? He had a lot to say in those seconds and
> covered it perfectly
>
 
I think it was Roby Yonge who told me that Harry Harrison used cue cards at WABC. Harry was pretty "regular" in the use of his expressions.


> Jim used a stopwatch. In fact, when he moved to WABC in
> 1969, he introduced that concept there. All the other guys,
> including Big Dan simply used there instincts and knowledge
> of the musical intro. I used that myself, only rarely using
> a stop watch. Trouble is, sometimes you miss! Two VERY
> inexcusable misses come to mind after 30 years! Jim never
> missed.
>
>
> > I listened to a WFIL aircheck of Jim Nettleton from
> 12/8/67
> > today. Wow! He is good. The best intro was when he
> played
> > Explosion by The Soul Survivors. With around a twenty or
> > twenty-five second intro, he made a joke about the song
> and
> > gave the title and artist of the top five requested songs
> of
> > the night and finished a split second before the vocal.
> So
> > COOL! It was a joy to listen to someone who knew top 40
> and
> > was able to play it as the professional that he is.
> >
> > Did this guy use a stop watch to be that tight or did it
> > come naturally? He had a lot to say in those seconds and
> > covered it perfectly
> >
>
<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>
 
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