There are a couple of Mississippi stations in this composite from the mid-70's...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwJEP2M3I6Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwJEP2M3I6Y
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Mississippi AM Top 40 (from before many of you were born)
- Thread starter robgrayson
- Start date
bows down 8) great stuff !!!!
The fun of back timing songs to hit the NBC Bong at the T>O>H> Fun days when radio was fun and creative.JDX was a great station,AM ruled back in the day and always sounded warmer than any FM.JBI could make one sing!
Oh yeah... that was live backtiming into the top-of-the-hour NBC news with nothing but a dark room sweep timer, a pen and a piece of paper. Every hour on the hour. Not even a hand-held calculator!
Any bong hits would have happening been across the hall in FM.
oldiesstation said:
When I did afternoons at WROA, we ran the early feed of NBC News that came down around :52 or so. There was time to play one song out of the end of it and then hit the TOH ID jingle into the second song. Our midday guy quite often had trouble back timing into NBC since our feed came at an odd time, so at least several days each week his last song going into it at the end of his shift was "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" by Crystal Gayle because it was the only 2:30 song we had.
Another station I worked for ran ABC Contemporary News, which also was an early feed around :55 or :54:30. Those early feeds were harder to back time into than the actual top of the hour feeds. I have a couple of airchecks when I got brave enough to back time a song with a cold ending into the top of the hour and hit it just right, but I didn't like to push it. I don't remember ever trying that with the early feeds. Anyway, when it works, it sure sounds great!
Notice how deftly, by the way, the TOH tone fits between WJDX and Jackson, coming out of a cold ending record. This was not by accident, it was planned. It was how everyone performed there, from morning drive to the middle of the night. And it was good when it worked.
The oldies station here in Memphis runs syndicated programming that starts at 7 PM nightly. Any time I have been listening, the automation just dumps out whatever happens to be running at 7 PM. There is no attempt made to make a clean transition. We kids had to hit the TOH every hour with our fingers, toes and analog clocks. They have one thing to back time into per day, and even with computers can't manage. But what galls me most is not that they don't do it... it is that THEY DON'T CARE. This is foreign to me. (I am making assumptions... I assume it is on auto pilot at that time. I sure hope it's not a human doing that.)
I'm human, I goof up, but I try not to make the same mistake two days running. I have a standard disclaimer I do every time we do pledge, and that is "You've never had your name misprounced until you've had it mispronouced by a professional." But the thing is, if I have half a shot at getting it right, I really do try.
The oldies station here in Memphis runs syndicated programming that starts at 7 PM nightly. Any time I have been listening, the automation just dumps out whatever happens to be running at 7 PM. There is no attempt made to make a clean transition. We kids had to hit the TOH every hour with our fingers, toes and analog clocks. They have one thing to back time into per day, and even with computers can't manage. But what galls me most is not that they don't do it... it is that THEY DON'T CARE. This is foreign to me. (I am making assumptions... I assume it is on auto pilot at that time. I sure hope it's not a human doing that.)
I'm human, I goof up, but I try not to make the same mistake two days running. I have a standard disclaimer I do every time we do pledge, and that is "You've never had your name misprounced until you've had it mispronouced by a professional." But the thing is, if I have half a shot at getting it right, I really do try.
I noticed that with the placement of the tone and it was very slick! JDX was always a class act and I sure miss those days.
Did you kill the network wine spots on NBC at JDX? Sometimes NBC would run spots for Blue Nun, and it would appear on our log so we could run a spot or PSA instead since we couldn't legally run wine spots in Mississippi. They did, however, run on our automated FM in the NBC News on the hour since nobody wanted to take the time to program around them.
Did you kill the network wine spots on NBC at JDX? Sometimes NBC would run spots for Blue Nun, and it would appear on our log so we could run a spot or PSA instead since we couldn't legally run wine spots in Mississippi. They did, however, run on our automated FM in the NBC News on the hour since nobody wanted to take the time to program around them.
I don't specifically remember replacing them at JDX. I do recall doing that at my first job, WBAQ-FM.
Phildelphia Freedom was in current rotation while I was there. It was years before I actually heard the middle of the song.
I wish WJQS had DJ's when they play oldies now. Those were the days when the station was the identity.
For someone who is of the younger generation, who is not in radio and grew up on the post-giant corporate era of jukebox radio, it just really puts a smile on my face to think that little hoppin' towns like Greenville and Jackson had such great radio personalities on the air day & night, with such talent.
Even with all the computer-assisted perfection that can be achieved with no talent today, there's no way a schlub like me could ever sound that slick. Which is why I watch from the sidelines!
Even with all the computer-assisted perfection that can be achieved with no talent today, there's no way a schlub like me could ever sound that slick. Which is why I watch from the sidelines!
And to think, I promised to give up curmudgeonry for Lent. Good thing I'm Baptist and it doesn't matter...
Zach, what we had then that I don't hear very much of now was someone to emulate. We heard people on the radio who made us want to be in radio, people who talked to us (not at us). For years I've wondered who is it on the radio nowadays that would inspire a kid to say "That's what I want to do?"
When you talked after every song, when you physically pushed the button after every event (or else there was dead air) you were, of necessity, into your show. Your timing and execution was as much a part of the show as what you said. I know towards the end in the modern era at FM100, when I was telling the computer "Stop here so I can talk," then hit start and have it run everything until it was time to talk again in 20 minutes, that visceral element was missing. Way back when there were mistakes, we played stiffs, we made crummy puns, but the product we produced had texture and substance. (Obviously, the breaks on the airchecks in the video were gleaned from three years of work... it's easy to make me sound better in miniature that I was on the whole.) When you cut us, we bled.
One of the greatest things I have enjoyed hearing on the radio in the past year was the stint John Landecker had at a small market station in Indiana. Landecker, back in the WLS days, was one of those people who had so much fun on the radio it made you want to be a part of the biz. Here was the one of the major market greats having to deal with the practicalites of radio in a small town in 2011. The equipment didn't work. The production wasn't stellar. There were buzzes, there were hums, but he was able to dispatch it all with humor and personality. He made it fun to listen. But most of all, you didn't know what was going to happen next, and maybe that is what is missing in most radio I hear today. What was an intimate one-on-one medium has become too researched, too predictable, too impersonal. Radio has replaced program directors who had ears and guts with program managers who have the latest results from the focus group (defined: people who know nothing about how to run a radio station telling you how to run your radio station) in one hand, and the latest list of people being fired by corporate dictate in the other hand.
I would have bet money that the opportunity to hear Landecker in the context of the WLS musicradio jingles and slick major-market presentation would be an audio stream I would never miss. I'm sure his return to WLS-FM is a great financial boon to him, and I do catch the show when I can. John still does a stellar job, but he is being held captive in the 2012 sweeper-segue-jingle-sweeper-ok you can talk now but not much form that is radio today. It is flawless, every track played is guranteed to appeal to the target demo, but I miss the insight into John the person we shared when he was running the show at the smaller station.
Folks, you don't have to post to tell me that won't work today. I love it when people feel they have to tell me this as if I have been living in a vacuum. Friends, I have the boot prints in my behind from being "staff reduced" to remind me that it isn't going to even be given the chance.
But, as a footnote, I am still around and grateful to do what bit I can do, and work with people who appreciate me, and I them. I am blessed that there are some folks who still "get" me. Now, I will push post and trip the circuit breakers.
Zach, what we had then that I don't hear very much of now was someone to emulate. We heard people on the radio who made us want to be in radio, people who talked to us (not at us). For years I've wondered who is it on the radio nowadays that would inspire a kid to say "That's what I want to do?"
When you talked after every song, when you physically pushed the button after every event (or else there was dead air) you were, of necessity, into your show. Your timing and execution was as much a part of the show as what you said. I know towards the end in the modern era at FM100, when I was telling the computer "Stop here so I can talk," then hit start and have it run everything until it was time to talk again in 20 minutes, that visceral element was missing. Way back when there were mistakes, we played stiffs, we made crummy puns, but the product we produced had texture and substance. (Obviously, the breaks on the airchecks in the video were gleaned from three years of work... it's easy to make me sound better in miniature that I was on the whole.) When you cut us, we bled.
One of the greatest things I have enjoyed hearing on the radio in the past year was the stint John Landecker had at a small market station in Indiana. Landecker, back in the WLS days, was one of those people who had so much fun on the radio it made you want to be a part of the biz. Here was the one of the major market greats having to deal with the practicalites of radio in a small town in 2011. The equipment didn't work. The production wasn't stellar. There were buzzes, there were hums, but he was able to dispatch it all with humor and personality. He made it fun to listen. But most of all, you didn't know what was going to happen next, and maybe that is what is missing in most radio I hear today. What was an intimate one-on-one medium has become too researched, too predictable, too impersonal. Radio has replaced program directors who had ears and guts with program managers who have the latest results from the focus group (defined: people who know nothing about how to run a radio station telling you how to run your radio station) in one hand, and the latest list of people being fired by corporate dictate in the other hand.
I would have bet money that the opportunity to hear Landecker in the context of the WLS musicradio jingles and slick major-market presentation would be an audio stream I would never miss. I'm sure his return to WLS-FM is a great financial boon to him, and I do catch the show when I can. John still does a stellar job, but he is being held captive in the 2012 sweeper-segue-jingle-sweeper-ok you can talk now but not much form that is radio today. It is flawless, every track played is guranteed to appeal to the target demo, but I miss the insight into John the person we shared when he was running the show at the smaller station.
Folks, you don't have to post to tell me that won't work today. I love it when people feel they have to tell me this as if I have been living in a vacuum. Friends, I have the boot prints in my behind from being "staff reduced" to remind me that it isn't going to even be given the chance.
But, as a footnote, I am still around and grateful to do what bit I can do, and work with people who appreciate me, and I them. I am blessed that there are some folks who still "get" me. Now, I will push post and trip the circuit breakers.
Maybe my age is showing (68) but the title of this thread suggested to me a discussion of WJXN 1450 The Colonel Station and WRBC 1300 Rebel Radio doing battle in the late 50s ... WJXN, the weaker signal, bowing out in favor of country around 1961-62 ... then WWUN 1590 taking names/kicking ass starting around 1965. WJDX was a dinosaur until new life was breathed into it around 1970-71.
Baby, the floor is open for discussion! I would love to hear anything about it!
Rob...of course, you speak the truth...but be careful...there are posters hereon that think anything before 1985 is "Old School"...and others not in the business telling how to be "professional"...Yours, Alex's and other's experiences are irrevelent and inconsequential..therein lies a sad commentary about where we are today. BTW.. "Those who fail to learn from the past"....JBI (Just another annoying "Old Timer" Sorry....
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