Who or what got you into the hobby of airchecking?

[MattBAA]

Ok guys, here's the question of the week...who or what got you into airchecking? Two friends of mine from college got me into it back in 1976, and except for an extended hiatus from 1985-1995, I've been collecting and trading continuously. So that's why I always trade for stuff those years from you guys, since I missed so much of it!

Also, I'm doing two internet radio shows these days. The first is on www.radiosamantha.com and the other is www.radiomaxmusic.com. I also go Steve West involved in that, so head over and give us a listen! <P ID="signature">______________

Co/Moderator: New York,Miami,Airchecks,Classic Radio and Where Are They Now?</P>

 

[johnny]

Interesting question Matt.

No one really, and it was a series of events. I used to record just so that I could hear it again. So, I did dumb things like recording over airchecks that I should have kept. Example, Wolfman Jack's last night on WNBC in 1973.

It also dawned on me very early on that radio wasn't going to stay the same. When Jim Quinn left WPIX-FM in 1974, I prized the aircheck I made of him. And actually, I recorded his show simply because it was his weekend "Newies" show and they would give away records. I won 4 different times, and they would read a list of names on air. So, I recorded it in the hopes that I'd catch my name read. I never did with Jim Quinn, but I do have "Dr." Jerry Carroll making a mess of my name and town.

In 1976, Steve Weed and 99X came to my high school and Steve dedicated an hour to us. So, I airchecked it.

Then, in 1979, my grandparents moved to Sarasota, FL, and it was my first visit outside the NYC area. I airchecked as a souvenir, something that could remind me of my trip.

For the next years, my airchecks were all souvenirs. Z98 (Tampa Bay), KWSS (San Jose), KMGG (Los Angeles), all from 1985, two years after I started working and started travelling for fun. In 1986, I moved to Massachusetts and I would aircheck Z100 (and rarely others) when I came back to my parents' home, so that I could listen to it when I was in MA.

I did start to record more and more, and not overwrite tapes simply because I now had money to buy cassettes.

I really didn't start aimlessly airchecking until I met Ron Gitschier on the internet in 1996. Floored me that someone else had recordings of stuff from my youth. Very soon after, I met Rich Marino, and that was it, the addiction started bad. In 1996, I was 36 and was having a mid-life crisis of sorts and put myself into a time warp, between 70s/80s airchecks and music (no, I didn't wear my Members Only jacket - which I still have

I had a lot of fun listening to others airchecks. In time, I started to appreciate more current stuff (currents are tomorrow's classics). I was always a jingles nut. Although, I still prefer 80s airchecks.

That's my story... and I'm sticking to it.

John

BTW, congrats on your internet shows

> Ok guys, here's the question of the week...who or what got
> you into airchecking? Two friends of mine from college got
> me into it back in 1976, and except for an extended hiatus
> from 1985-1995, I've been collecting and trading
> continuously. So that's why I always trade for stuff those
> years from you guys, since I missed so much of it!
>
> Also, I'm doing two internet radio shows these days. The
> first is on www.radiosamantha.com and the other is
> www.radiomaxmusic.com. I also go Steve West involved in
> that, so head over and give us a listen!
>

 

[peppertree]

Matt,

At first I recorded songs that I liked. When WABC changed some of their jingles, I was disappointed and decided that I would record all the WABC jingles that I could off the air. I also decided that I wanted to have recordings of my favorite jocks, especially Dan Ingram.

When I started listening to WCBS-FM, I wanted a recording of all of their jingles. Then I started to record dx of out of town stations such as CKLW, WLS and WCFL. It was easier to record the dx signals at my grandparents' home in East Hampton in Eastern Long Island than in Brooklyn.

After about two years, I stopped to spend time chasing girls. I did not start up with airchecks until 1989 when I moved to Texas. Just before I moved to Texas, I made some recordings of CBS-FM that I could play in Texas. Two years later, I found out about Dennis Burns and his newsletter. Then I was plugged into a network. That was 1991. I have been recording often since then. I still like to record music off the air.

> Ok guys, here's the question of the week...who or what got
> you into airchecking? Two friends of mine from college got
> me into it back in 1976, and except for an extended hiatus
> from 1985-1995, I've been collecting and trading
> continuously. So that's why I always trade for stuff those
> years from you guys, since I missed so much of it!
>
> Also, I'm doing two internet radio shows these days. The
> first is on www.radiosamantha.com and the other is
> www.radiomaxmusic.com. I also go Steve West involved in
> that, so head over and give us a listen!
>
<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>

 

[TheDingo]

> Ok guys, here's the question of the week...who or what got
> you into airchecking? Two friends of mine from college got
> me into it back in 1976, and except for an extended hiatus
> from 1985-1995, I've been collecting and trading
> continuously. So that's why I always trade for stuff those
> years from you guys, since I missed so much of it!
>
> Also, I'm doing two internet radio shows these days. The
> first is on www.radiosamantha.com and the other is
> www.radiomaxmusic.com. I also go Steve West involved in
> that, so head over and give us a listen!
>
I really liked Arrow 100.7 in Pensacola FL, and whenever I went down there every summer, I'd record several tapes, so I could listen to it (somewhat) at home, After cumulus killed Arrow, I started getting other stations I like down there, and on the trip down, and anything I got at home through DX<P ID="signature">______________
<div align="center"><a href="http://wolf103.tk">

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[evolve991]

For as long as I can remember I was always fascinated by the call letters and locations of radio stations,this started long before I was given a cheap stereo/turntable/tape deck for Christmas. I was 12 years old and thought I was the luckiest kid on the block(until I saw the kid across the street with his Marantz :-\) the first station I stumbled on was 92WLPL Baltimore and Foreplay/Long Time by Boston quickly filled the room with all its crackling speaker glory. I had stacks of tapes from WLPL and WKTK Baltimore,WMMR WYSP Philly and a good many others I can't remember. I also had a tendency to rig insane antenna nightmares and by accident picked up stations far from me. I blundered thru all this without a clue of DX'ing or aircheck collections etc....I just loved radio in all its loud,sometimes cheesy,glory. In true Dumb Kid form I managed to lose each and every tape I had, which was in the hundreds, and lost forever was commercial free weekends,live concerts,A-Z weekends,you name it I had it. The corporate streamlining ,ie trashing,of stations soon killed off any personality each station had and I lost interest for the most part. Then January 12 2005 happened. Followed by February 25 2005. I lost both my favorite stations without warning. Now if you happen to be on my jobsite and hear my radio/mp3 you may think you're in San Diego or Seattle or you've gone back in time ;D My favorite is having the Mexican finishers playing 99.1 El Zol on one floor and my radio cranking out 99.1 HFS at the same time.

 

[kturnerga]

Around 1999 or so I heard my first scoped airchecks on ReelRadio. I never paid attention to the Golden Age of Music Radio until later. It was around 2001 or so. I listened to old-time radio shows and followed some links until I wound up at Musicradio77.com. I knew who Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram were because in the Eighties Dan Ingram did a "Satellite Survey" and Cousin Brucie did an oldies show in the Nineties. It was like walking into a time capsule! I heard some wonderful air personalities. I wound up back at Reelradio and downloaded some airchecks from Napster when they did bootlegs. The first aircheck I remember was from WDAK-AM in Columbus in 1967. It was "all-tube processing" according to the info on the cut. Though Charles McHan hacked the commercials and news to pieces and though it was scoped, it was clear as a bell.

With radio like it is now I have these cuts on my Ipod to subsitute for today's trash.

My admonition is to become a Reel Rescuer. If you think you might have radio on a reel or set of reels (or cassettes) you come across, save it and send it to a collector. I am seeing more scoped airchecks restored so as to freshen up listener's collections. These cuts, if done right, make for good entertainment. Just be sure to label them as restored when passing them on.

Take care

KT

 

[amfmsw]

I got started when I got my first tape recorder, a Panasonic cassette with an AM radio. I just recorded my favorite songs off the air, sort of like file sharing today!

Then my brother was sending tapes from AFVN and AFKN, where I heard Kasey Casem for the first time, and SPC 1st Class Pat Sajak doing mornings in Da Nang Vietnam. That was 1970.

This summer, my son saw me throw out a bunch of cassettes on which I had given up. Dried case glue, crumpled, eaten wrinkled tape, no pressure pads, spliced a dozen times. He salvaged them and painstaikenly reassembled, edited, filtered, eq'd and digitized. He gave me three CDs for Christmas...airchecks of WIBG 1971 and Bill Winters, Ed Richards, John Records Landecker, Bill Gardner. WIFI, WCAU-FM and WMMR with Jerry Stevens. All of this would have been lost forever.