I've been listening to a very cool WRKO aircheck from October of 1967. (I think it may be October 20th.) The DJs are counting down the top 300 hits of the Rock and Roll Era as voted on by their listeners. There are three parts to this aircheck and the first two cover the countdown from 244 to 219, then the third one picks up at the end of 200 and gets as far as the start of 194. I know a lot of radio stations, back in the day, had house magazines that they gave away as promotions, and DJ Chuck Knapp talks about one from WRKO, as well as a published list of the 300 songs. Does anyone know if there is an archive of those magazines or any source to find the entire list of 300 songs? I'd love to see the rest of the list and find out what listeners in Boston thought were the top 300 records. Thanks for any help!
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Top 300 Hits on WRKO - October 1967
- Thread starter Moosepathian
- Start date
Can't really help you with any archives, but I was a teen in the mid-to-late 60s, and WRKO was THE station to listen to in the Boston area, which included Providence, since 'RKO used to simulcast their day from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm on what was then 98.5 WRKO-FM.
The other truly great station of that era was clear-channel 77 WABC, NY.
The other truly great station of that era was clear-channel 77 WABC, NY.
You and I must be of similar vintage! (The older the violin and all that, right?) I have come to really admire the old WABC through collected airchecks!
there are very few online sources for those syndicated magazines sold to individual stations in different markets. Some do show up occasionally on eBay so you might check ther and, even, do a regular automatic daily search.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
EVERYONE ... TAKE DAVID'S ADVICE! He is the expert at searching eBay for old broadcast magazines!
Quite a few stations during the mid to late 1960s were doing Top 300s of all time. In my area of Michigan, WTRX and CKLW had them. Someone found one that had the top 10 from WTRX with stories and pictures, and posted it on the Remember WTAC Big 600 Facebook page a few years ago. Then there was GO Magazine, founded by Robin Leach. Those were tabloids, and very few people saved them. There was a local and national chart. People who had them from WMCA saved quite a few of them. But I didn't know there was a Top 300 in GO Magazine. Those may be on ARSA. Someone from ARSA said the they preferred not entering 300 chart entries for those, as it didn't fit the software very well.
Here's a WMCA Survey with the telltale GO Magazine tabloid fold. No Top 300s found yet.
There used to be a 68 RKO tribute site online which had tons of info including weekly playlists and I think that entire top 300 may have been on it. Unfortunately, the guy who created the website wasn't able to continue to pay to maintain it. However, one website you might turn to for old playlists is ARSA | The Radio Surveys / Record Charts Site.
It looks like it is the GO Magazines on eBay are from WMCA.
From the Music Radio 77 site.
From the Music Radio 77 site.
One eBay seller has about 20 issues available. I just made an offer for all of them. I think that at least a sampling of these on www.worldradiohistory.com might be interesting as the publication showed how close the music and radio industries were back then...
I have two accounts, each with nearly 100 daily... and very detailed... searches.
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