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WLUV 1520-AM

P

P-R

Guest
I am curious if Joe Salvi is still around (I see he is still listed as owner). If he is...is he still doing a morning show on WLUV 1520-AM? I have airchecks of him from 15 plus years ago when living in Rockford...a friend is flying to Rockford to spend some time with family and I was looking to update the aircheck files if Salvi is still active. Any info is appreciated. Feel free to email me if you would rather not post. Thanks!

[email protected]
 
CrazeeCarroll1 said:
He is live and on the air every morning... CC1
Click to expand...

Wow, that's unreal. I left the market 20 years ago and he was old back then.

Lots of people started their careers over there. A friend of mine was telling me that he had been working over there for several months when he decided to ask Salvi what that little hole in the board was for..

Joe goes to the closet and comes back with a set of headphones. He allegedly then went on to say that some people like to take a set of these and plug them in here and then they can hear themselves when they talk. According to my friend, Joe downplayed the whole idea of that, as if it was like training wheels for people just learning radio.

True or not I don't know..I guess I suspect it is. Salvi is one of those colorful characters that makes radio stories fun.
 
I believe your friend's story about Ol' Joe. I have photos somewhere of an ancient Sparta Board...and the rest of the AM Master Control Room and that includes his dog at the time (named snowball...but was closer to the color of gray because of the dirt and filth in the place) chained to the console. At times when Ol' Joe was on the air you could hear Snowball rattling the chain LOL. There were empty cans of dog food all over the Master Control room.

By the way, thank you to all of those who emailed me and posted about Joe still being on the air. Saturday I received four tapes of him. I have a feeling there will be little change from the airchecks I have from 16 or so years ago of him ;)
 
P-R said:
I believe your friend's story about Ol' Joe. I have photos somewhere of an ancient Sparta Board...and the rest of the AM Master Control Room and that includes his dog at the time (named snowball...but was closer to the color of gray because of the dirt and filth in the place) chained to the console. At times when Ol' Joe was on the air you could hear Snowball rattling the chain LOL. There were empty cans of dog food all over the Master Control room.

By the way, thank you to all of those who emailed me and posted about Joe still being on the air. Saturday I received four tapes of him. I have a feeling there will be little change from the airchecks I have from 16 or so years ago of him ;)
Click to expand...

Speaking of the dog, back in late '83 or early '84 WLUV-FM was having a little trouble keeping it on 96.7. They had this guy doing an evening urban show called, "Twilight After Dark." This guy thought the knob on the exciter labeled "AFC" would make you louder if you turned it up, and he would turn it up every night, which unlocked the Automatic Frequency Control and made the station go off frequency. Sometimes LUV would be around 97.5, and other times it would be around 95.3. The engineers for both those stations were pretty ticked off about that.

One night my friend Joe Roskos, the Chief Engineer of WYFE (95.3 back then) caught them right on top of his station, and he went over there. Some guy was on the air and wouldn't take time to talk to Joe R., who said he was just about to hit the "Plate Off" button on the guy's transmitter to get his attention. In the meantime, as he's waiting for this guy to quit talking, he can't get over how much dog poop is on the carpet in the front lobby. He said it was everywhere. Never seen anything like it.

I guess they never had any clients come over. Or they just never had any clients. :D
 
Yet another "J" who got his start at WLUV before "following the Yellow Brick Road at CherryVale" to WROK and on into the Bcast world...
While we are talking about Joe, his air shift and disregard for headphones. You should have heard him do football play by play in his hey day!
Absolutely priceless. He worked with a color man named Moose whose size nearly brought down several high school pressboxes. Seriously in the 500+ range.
Enjoy my barely paraphrased memory of Joe and Moose in action....
"Yea Moose, the big boy there for Harlem on the carry brought down by number..." (big pause while he waits for the pile to clear)
"Number....ahhhhhh...can you see that one Moose, he was tackled on the far side of the field"
"Looks like number 86 Joe"
"Alright 86 lets see..ahhhh" (more delay while Joe looks for Players name in program, Meanwhile we here School PA announcer make the call "Stopped by Tim Lewis) "aaaah brought down by ahhhhh Lewis there Moose.. good tackle"
(In the interim a play has begun and nearly ended ) Joe continues "Oh theres another run there Moose, and its the Big Boy around the end there ahhhhhh and hes stopped at the 10" Moose replys "No Joe , he scored on that one " (explaining the roar of the crowd)
Joe now kicksinto Gear "That Huskie Touchdown is reason to stop by Jim Orsinger Used Cars on North 2nd street..." He had to pay for that 78 Buick Electra he'd traded out!

By the way, ever notice that Joe only had a receptionist when there was an elderly lady he was seeing........
 
You are correct Captain. It was weird being in the station after hours and havng the run of the mall with the cleaning
crew. That should also tell you the main hours I worked before Charlie (Mark) Quinn saved me.
 
As a listener (I got into radio later) in Janesville, WI...I remember WLUV-FM had the strongest stereo pilot tone I've even heard. I'd get stereo sound on FM noise even before the signal was readable.
 
I found several boxes of airchecks the other day that had survived one of my many moves. In it was an aircheck of WLUV-AM from around June of '91 (I think that is when I recorded it...I didn't write the date down). Two airchecks...one of Joe doing mornings and the other of Moose in mid-days. Enjoy!

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/19870
 
Thanks for posting those airchecks. I haven't heard KLUV in quite a few years, but it was just as bad as I remember it.
 
Re: WLUV 1520-AM, and WHOW-1520 AM (Clinton, IL)

jh said:
Thanks for posting those airchecks. I haven't heard KLUV in quite a few years, but it was just as bad as I remember it.
Click to expand...

Very interesting airchecks, even though I am not originally from the Rockford area, but am aware of WLUV and understand that the station has had problems in recent years. IMO, I wonder if WLUV-1520's co-channel station on US-51 150 miles to the south, the ill-fated WHOW-AM in Clinton, might have been indistinguishable from WLUV in terms of audio processing, country music format, and "down-home" flavor (this once-legendary central Illinois country station probably was already on the decline by 1991, en route to going dark originally on Nov. 1, 2002 after a station employee suffered severe electrical shock trying to shut down the AM transmitter--by then, the station had no phone service, no news feed except for running audio of WAND-17 Decatur's 6PM news or reading newspaper headlines, an "anything goes" format, few if any remaining advertisers, and running continuous loops of NOAA weather radio frequently).

1520 AM, IMO, seemed like it was a jinxed frequency in northern and central Illinois during the '90s and early 2000's with the problems facing WLUV in Loves Park and WHOW-AM in Clinton.
 
A good friend of mine was working part-time at WHOW in 2000. I was on my way to Decatur to attend a station event another friend was hosting for WEJT...I stopped by WHOW for a "tour". I had a video camera with me and taped the place...it was as rustic as WLUV (although WLUV might have them beat at the time with the dog Joe kept chained in the AM on-air studio). WHOW had a hole in the roof over the transmitters...with a blue tarp suspended above them...unbelievable mess. You are correct Tim about the phones...they didn't have any service. The FM was operating off the exciter at the time of my visit.

This weekend I found an aircheck someone mailed me of WLUV-AM (Joe Salvi) from last fall...I haven't listened to it yet...once I do I will add it with the others.
 
Joe Salvi is one of the last of a dying breed. All I have to say about Joe having known him, is he is a proud, hands on owner who tried to win the battle against the big boys at ROK back in the day of real local radio in Rockford. Joe's only fault is being able to except others help in making the stations into a real contender. Believe me I tried a number or years back with the FM. Joe was smart in accepting the kind of cash for the FM when he sold it to Cumulus. The only problem is he never really put anything back into his AM and his lifestyle. But I give him credit for being a proud, detemined individual and doing it his way. Even at pushing 90. I hope I have his fight at that age.
 
Joe has more faults than that and it shouldn't be sugar-coated. He started the stations with very limited resources. Also in 1975 when WMAQ changed to country he should have done something else...instead he stayed trapped in time. He was a nasty control freak of a little man back then and wouldn't listen to anyone...because HIS way was always right. Listening to the recordings of that fool from 17 or so years ago...nothing LOCAL...just doing crummy jukebox radio...playing obscure crud no one but he wanted to hear. The FM...he had no idea what that was all about...face it.,..he just used it to flip a satellite feed on...remember "The Heat"? Oh, great programming and IT WASN'T LOCAL! While having that FM...he remained focused on only "playing" radio with the 500 watt AM. He never adapted...never did anything innovative. A huckster who has always been a radio cockroach. The only reason he sold the FM when he did was Cumulus and Radio Works were in a battle for it and the price escalated....it didn't have billing...no equipment/land was in the deal...just paper...he sold because he was in ill health at the time and thought he was going to be taking a dirt nap. Did he take the millions from the sale and reinvest in the AM and become something that was offering a true service to the Rockford market and in turn generating revenue and helping the local economy/community? No...he didn't...just stays on the air playing the radio tick that he is. Anybody who chains up a dog in an on-air studio and operates and lives in filth (he has lived at WLUV for decades...has a bedroom in the building) like he has done over the years is a jerk and insane. With owners like that, it is a good thing he is a dying breed. Joe didn't care about his employees/staff...offered nothing but min wage...no health insurance...NOTHING. He tried to pay engineers/techs dirt. For years Joe had Carl Plaster as his Chief Engineer because he (Carl) was dirt cheap (he traded out his services for air time on WLUV). When Carl bit the dust Joe found no one in Rockford wanting to help him out because he was cheap and a jerk. All he cared about was having a radio station in his hometown...so he could be on the radio. He had that in his mind as a kid and because WROK would never hire him (he knew this because he had a horrible voice)...after military service he left Rockford to be a radio sales person out in California...he returned to Loves Park to start WLUV AM/FM...with very little cash...he was marked to lose against WROK from the start.
 
OUCH! I have a feeling Toolbox is a former "sugar shack" employee or someone who was asked to tinker there.

I spent two short lived tours at WLUV. First time when I was PD/Morning Drive Host at a station in the area. The engineer mentioned by Tool Box was Carl Plaster at the time and he was engineer at the station I was PD at. Carl told me Salvi had lost some people and wanted to know if I could help out for a brief spell on the side. I did for a weeks. The conditions...well, they were not great...matter of fact...very poor. It was the dead of summer when I was in there for the first tour...no ac...just an open window in Master Control. There were holes in the walls in Master leading to the outside allowing birds to fly in and roost at the top shelves of the music library. Rodentia everywhere! A dog was chained in the studio...cans of open dog food were discarded all over the floor. Place smelled musty and of dog and rotting dog food. I helped out for that period till someone was hired...I did this as a favor to Carl. The next tour came a few years later when I was at Radio Works. Joe found himself in a jam again...needing help. Radio Works who was trying to butter him up offered me to help out till he could find someone. This lasted about three weeks. The one thing I noticed during those stints was the empty desks out in the front part of the building...desks that had been bought in the early 60s...with phones...chairs etc...all covered in dust...this was the sales/bull pen he had set up...that seemed to have had everyone beamed away by space aliens. Yes, Tool Box is right about Joe living there...he was at the time period I was there. The two times I helped him out he had no other employees...he would do his shift...and board op the station (playing spots on the AM and mostly ignoring the FM except to put a game on) and sleep at the place.

Going over my files...I found an article written about him in 1997. Below is a link to it.

http://www.geocities.com/patrickriley407/wluv.html
 
Going over things I have in storage this week, I found a photo of WLUV-AM's Master Control (taken 1996). I only found this one photo...I have others...and will upload them when I locate them. Below is the link to the photo just found. Also, I uploaded airchecks of WLUV-AM (Joe Salvi) from November 2007 to the ones from 1991 (link below). Enjoy ;D

Studio Photo:

http://www.geocities.com/patrickriley407/wluvstudio.html

WLUV-AM Airchecks:

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/19870
 
Old Joe doesn't sound much different in 2007 than he did in 1991.

Looking forward to seeing more pictures... that control room doesn't look as bad as I had pictured it. The equipment shown doesn't look all that old for 1996.
 
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