Mike Ditka and the Nudists, A Bit of Hockey, and Much More!

Good day!

And what a good day it is! The return of sanity to U.S. Government is underway. Aside from Lady Gaga (who I would consistently much rather do without), everything else was just wonderful this morning.

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Today’s first offering combines elements of two very disparate sets of posts from the past. It  joins the radio stylings of Jack Eigen, who I have featured twice in extremely lengthy recordings, here and here, with Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Schmitt, who were the founders of the Ponderosa Sun Club Family Nudist Resort in Indiana, who I featured – again, twice – a decade ago, at WFMU. Those postings can be found here and here.

In this fairly fascinating edition of The Jack Eigen Show, which I believe is from 1967 or so, Jack’s initial guest is Mike Ditka, promoting a non-football concern with which he was associated during the off-season. As a lifelong resident of what’s called “Chicagoland”, I find that it’s nice to hear Ditka engaging in conversation long before he completely lost his mind. Then it’s on to the nudist couple, who are joined, off and on, by yet another guest, a local stripper.

Enjoy this piece of a long-gone style of radio!

Download: The Jack Eigen Show, Circa 1967, with Mike Ditka and Nudist Camp Owners Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Schmitt

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Now, I want to share with you something that is nigh-onto unlistenable, yet sort of car-crash fascinating in its own right, and which is found on the reverse side of this Jack Eigen tape. It’s someone… I have no way of knowing who…improvising a version of “Merry Christmas Baby”, not only with terrible sound quality, but for TWENTY MINUTES. Since it was on the same tape, and since it seems about as God-awful as anything I’ve ever found on a reel, I thought it would be good to unload it on all of you. Bon Appétit!!!

Download: Unknown - Merry Christmas, Baby (Nearly Endless Version)

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And next, here’s something I’ve been advised may prove extremely interesting and popular among a certain crowd, and as hockey season has just begun, it seems like the perfect time to share it. It is a fragment – and sadly, just a short one – of a broadcast of a hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings. My great pal Stu, who is everything of a hockey fan that I am not, tells me this is from the 1959-1960 season , and this will be manna from heaven for certain people. I sure hope so!

Download: A New York Rangers/Detroit Red Wings Game, circa 1959 (short section)

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I know that there are plenty of you out there who lust after the Top 40 (or other radio) airchecks that I share here, and that I’ve been skimpy with them lately, mostly because I haven’t come across many in recent months. I have one today, although I fear it may try your patience, having little of the flavor of most of those samplings I’ve shared in the past – i.e. there isn’t much DJ chatter, no commercials, and mostly just the music, in an 20 minute segment.

On the other hand, this is a recording I myself made, just after my 18^th birthday, probably in August of 1978, when I was briefly enamored of keeping track of the local station’s nightly top five request countdown. Most of this recording was later erased by my mother, in a recording of one of her performances, leaving part of song four and the rest of the countdown, along with a few songs played afterwards. The station is WMET, which was a powerhouse for a time, but which, in retrospect, only existed as a top 40 station for a short time, compared with many other Chicago stations.

So this is mostly songs. And although I loved the top 40 of 1978 in a general sense, the songs played here, for the most part, are not those I loved, or even liked.  This is made up mainly of songs I was at best indifferent to and at worst I couldn't stand. I am, for example, hugely grateful that we are spared any more of the song at the end, an awful offering rendered by one of the worst bands of all time. Your mileage probably varies.

I cannot make out the name of the DJ here – he says it quickly at least twice. Maybe someone out there can nail it down. 

Download: WMET, Circa 1978, Including Request Countdown

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And finally, our “very short reel” for today’s post. This one came on a three inch reel of tape, pictured below, and contains two ads for The Yellow Pages, by an unnamed advertising company, a 60 second mix and a 30 second mix of the same material. 

Download: Two Yellow Pages Ads

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