KEWB 91 San Francisco - Casey Kasem - 1962 - Radio Aircheck

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNcPdYQu7v0

Ellis Fester has just released a rare aircheck Casey Kasem as a Local San Francisco host before he went nationwide for American top 40.

 

[landtuna]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNcPdYQu7v0

Ellis Fester has just released a rare aircheck Casey Kasem as a Local San Francisco host before he went nationwide for American top 40.

This aircheck belongs to me. I recorded it from my home on my parents reel to reel while in high school and living in San Rafael. I had turned it over to the Bay Area Radio Museum several years ago.

I don't have a problem if the museum turned it over to Ellis Fester but I would like to know he had permission from them.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I don't have a problem if the museum turned it over to Ellis Fester but I would like to know he had permission from them.

I have never heard of Ellis Fester, and did not provide a copy of the aircheck to him.

DJ

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

This aircheck belongs to me. I recorded it from my home on my parents reel to reel while in high school and living in San Rafael. I had turned it over to the Bay Area Radio Museum several years ago.

I don't have a problem if the museum turned it over to Ellis Fester but I would like to know he had permission from them.

Ellis claims on his youtube channel of this video that "this Aircheck was passed along to me last year. And the guy who recorded it, and gave a copy to the Bay Area Museum said it was ok to use."

 

[michael hagerty]

Here's what the Bay Area Radio Museum says in its exhibit:

John Hamlett, who provided the recording to the museum in 2009, noted “I recorded the original on a reel-to-reel Wollensak by laying the mic(s) on a pillow next to my portable radio speaker. Then the tapes were stored away and traveled around the country with me for the next 45 years untouched. When I found them last year I transferred the recordings to my PC (using another reel-to-reel Sony which I bought in ’65 in Japan) and they came out pretty good.”

 

[landtuna]

Here's what the Bay Area Radio Museum says in its exhibit:

John Hamlett, who provided the recording to the museum in 2009, noted “I recorded the original on a reel-to-reel Wollensak by laying the mic(s) on a pillow next to my portable radio speaker. Then the tapes were stored away and traveled around the country with me for the next 45 years untouched. When I found them last year I transferred the recordings to my PC (using another reel-to-reel Sony which I bought in ’65 in Japan) and they came out pretty good.”

Yup. I did a bunch of these as a senior in high school in 1962 but this is the only listenable one I found years later.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Yup. I did a bunch of these as a senior in high school in 1962 but this is the only listenable one I found years later.

so how and where did ellis get this then if John and the museum didn't give it to him? when he claims he got it somewhere and was given the ok to share it?

 

[landtuna]

so how and where did ellis get this then if John and the museum didn't give it to him? when he claims he got it somewhere and was given the ok to share it?

As I said before, I had never heard of Ellis nor has anyone ever contacted me for permission to share it (not that I am aware they need to do that but technically the recording belongs to the museum now).

 

[CTListener]

Yup. I did a bunch of these as a senior in high school in 1962 but this is the only listenable one I found years later.

I used my dad's Wollensak reel-to-reel for several tapes full of WRKO and WMEX when I was in junior high school, usually improvising DJ patter over the intro of each song that had one and back-announcing over the fade. Sure wish I'd saved some of them. I still remember some of my segues -- to this day, every time I hear "Na Na Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye," I anticipate "Down on the Corner" following it! In high school, the Wollensak recorded shortwave, including one of the final transmissions from Radio Nordsee International before it left shortwave. "Black Pearl" into "Reflections of My Life" -- what music that offshore station played!

 

[michael hagerty]

As I said before, I had never heard of Ellis nor has anyone ever contacted me for permission to share it (not that I am aware they need to do that but technically the recording belongs to the museum now).

In addition to the Bay Area Radio Museum, it's been on REELRADIO in your collection since April of 2011.

And Gordon Skene posted it to his Past Daily site in June of 2014 when Casey died: https://pastdaily.com/2014/06/15/mr-top-40-casey-kasem-1932-2014-past-daily-pop-chronicles-tribute-edition/

So, it's been out there. Someone likely copied it from one of the three sites and sent it to Ellis. The only difference with his is that it's been scoped.

 

[landtuna]

So, it's been out there. Someone likely copied it from one of the three sites and sent it to Ellis. The only difference with his is that it's been scoped.

Half the fun is listening to those old commercials.

 

[michael hagerty]

Half the fun is listening to those old commercials.

Totally agree. The best aircheck is a completely unedited aircheck---give me the commercials, the news, everything.


In fairness, Ellis' version leaves the commercials and the news in---only the music is scoped---probably so it stays on YouTube, where copyright violation takedowns are fairly common.

And---Ellis' last name is "Feaster", not "Fester". Though in the on-screen font at the beginning of the aircheck, he typed "Casey Kasum", so maybe it's just poetic justice.

 

[LKellerIII]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNcPdYQu7v0

Ellis Fester has just released a rare aircheck Casey Kasem as a Local San Francisco host before he went nationwide for American top 40.

I don't recall what year the Caser left "Cube" but he spent at least 3 years in Los Angeles (Pasadena) at KRLA 1110 between 1967 and AT40. He was initially mid-morning on weekdays, then became the fill-in and weekend jock. His Sunday afternoon program was the predecessor to AT40, minus the formatics. But he did the count-down and told his "touching" stories, only he used Cashbox magazine. The change to Billboard was with AT40.When AT40 premiered, KRLA ran it in the LA market in his old Sunday time slot.

The story of how Casey got his signature style - possibly apocryphal: At KEWB, he tried to be the typical Top 40 jock jokester and attempted to be humorous between songs. Apparently, a KEWB manager didn't think he was funny, and told him to knock it off. Depressed, and not knowing how to fill airtime, Casey was walking the halls at the station, and discovered a teen-fan magazine thrown away in a trash can. He read the mag, and developed his style from the articles therein. At least, that's the story...

 

[michael hagerty]

I don't recall what year the Caser left "Cube" but he spent at least 3 years in Los Angeles (Pasadena) at KRLA 1110 between 1967 and AT40. He was initially mid-morning on weekdays, then became the fill-in and weekend jock. His Sunday afternoon program was the predecessor to AT40, minus the formatics. But he did the count-down and told his "touching" stories, only he used Cashbox magazine. The change to Billboard was with AT40.When AT40 premiered, KRLA ran it in the LA market in his old Sunday time slot.

The story of how Casey got his signature style - possibly apocryphal: At KEWB, he tried to be the typical Top 40 jock jokester and attempted to be humorous between songs. Apparently, a KEWB manager didn't think he was funny, and told him to knock it off. Depressed, and not knowing how to fill airtime, Casey was walking the halls at the station, and discovered a teen-fan magazine thrown away in a trash can. He read the mag, and developed his style from the articles therein. At least, that's the story...

Llew: Tape exists (or did, anyway, as recently as 10 years ago) of Casey during his "jokester" phase. It's painful.

Casey went to KRLA in the summer of 1963---and left in March of 1969, after being bumped to weekends in January of that year. Which might explain why AT40 began on KGBS rather than KRLA when it launched in L.A.

 

[LKellerIII]

Llew: Tape exists (or did, anyway, as recently as 10 years ago) of Casey during his "jokester" phase. It's painful.

Casey went to KRLA in the summer of 1963---and left in March of 1969, after being bumped to weekends in January of that year. Which might explain why AT40 began on KGBS rather than KRLA when it launched in L.A.

Micheal - As usual, I bow and pay penance to your superior memory. I could have sworn AT40 premiered in LA on KRLA (guess I was listening to 1020), and that Casey was fill-in guy for at least a year. I guess it just seemed that long, given that the Caser was about 45 degrees more square than even the average KRLA jock.

Talk about painful, Casey sitting in for The Rabbit was truly excruciating. Remember that The Rabbit had a late night free-form (FM style) program. Casey had no concept of how to wander off the Top 40 format. Imagine his upbeat back announcement:

"That was Iron Butterfly with In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, including that great 7 minute drum solo...and I'm Casey Kasem on the Jimmy Rabbit Program..."

 

[michael hagerty]

Micheal - As usual, I bow and pay penance to your superior memory. I could have sworn AT40 premiered in LA on KRLA (guess I was listening to 1020), and that Casey was fill-in guy for at least a year. I guess it just seemed that long, given that the Caser was about 45 degrees more square than even the average KRLA jock.

Talk about painful, Casey sitting in for The Rabbit was truly excruciating. Remember that The Rabbit had a late night free-form (FM style) program. Casey had no concept of how to wander off the Top 40 format. Imagine his upbeat back announcement:

"That was Iron Butterfly with In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, including that great 7 minute drum solo...and I'm Casey Kasem on the Jimmy Rabbit Program..."

Llew---straighten up. I need to refund your penance.

American Top 40 went on the air without an L.A. station until October of 1970---three and a half months----when KRLA took it. That was a major thing for the show, which was stuck at six stations from its July 4 launch until that point.

It moved to KGBS sometime between there and the March 17, 1973 show, where Casey lists KGBS among the stations. Given that Shadoe Stevens took KRLA in a very AOR-ish direction in 1972, it probably happened then.

And by May of 1975, according to a trade ad for the show in Billboard, it was on KKDJ. KGBS had gone Country in October of 1974, so that's probably when that happened, if not before.

My apologies to you and thanks to David Eduardo for his highly searchable American Radio History site. It doesn't have everything---but it helps a bunch.