This is going to be a fairly simple post. I decided to gather together some of the tapes I've listened to lately which contained radio programming which primarily featured music and share them here, one after the other, with my typical sort of comments in between. There is AM and FM reflected here, Country, Top 40, Christian and what later became known as "Music of Your Life". As indicated above, the recordings on the tapes are each from somewhere between 1965 and 1973. And between them, there is just under six hours of radio recordings here.
I'll start with a tape of just over 20 minutes, as heard on an unidentified station in 1967. I actually think it's a bit odd that the DJ never, in the course of this recording, mentions the station call letters - unless I somehow missed it. That's almost unheard of. I'd say that perhaps this was a syndicated show, but then, at the start of the segment, the DJ mentions that he's on tape today, indicating that he was usually broadcasting live. I do enjoy the small segment where he indicates that his upcoming scheduled live appearance has been cancelled, seemingly because not enough people showed up to the last one!
Download: Country Music Radio - Unidentified Station, 1967
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Staying in roughly the same time period - in this case, it's 1966 - we flip down the dial to WILS, a powerhouse Top 40 station in Lansing, Michigan. This 45 minute blast from that epochal year is not the ideal aircheck - the sound quality is poor, very poor at times, and whoever was recording the songs did not always record the DJ patter.
This is not the case of a tape which has methodically had the DJ chatter eliminated - I have plenty of those and they are not terribly interesting, aside from hearing what regional hits there were in a given time and place - but it's not a straight-through recording of the station, either. There are lots of edits, more in some sections than others. But I found it highly enjoyable anyway, if not as enjoyable as some other tapes of this sort. And I hope you'll enjoy it, too.
Download: WILS-AM, Lansing, MI, Spring, 1966
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Now for the longest segment here, nearly two and a half hours, which I believe is actually segments of multiple broadcasts. The station was WYON, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just about 70 miles down the road from WILS in Lansing (above), and this is the station that had the early version of "Music Of Your Life", although I don't think that format ever featured the likes of John McCormack, or some of the other artists heard here.
As you'll hear, this programming, in this case an evening show called "Afterglow - Music Just For You", featured a pretty wide variety of popular music, even though things such as Rock and Roll and R&B/Soul were completely avoided, and very little Country Music was heard, either.
That sounds limiting, and yeah, sure it is, in a way. But on the other hand, here we have The Clancy Brothers, Lawrence Welk, Lobo, The Mills Brothers, Jan Garber Andy Stewart (a double play of Andy Stewart!), Perry Como, Harry James, Lenny Dee and Big Tiny Little, among dozens of others.
This one is also somewhat choppy - ads and newscasts are cut, and plenty of times DJ patter is cut as well, but in other spots, the broadcast is heard for several minutes uninterrupted. Well, we can't have everything.
Download: WYON, Grand Rapids, MI, Circa 1973 - "Afterglow - Music Just For You"
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Moving Way Out West, two years earlier, and into another type of broadcast altogether, here we have a show which aired on KHOF, Los Angeles, on November 11, 1971. At that time, the station was apparently owned by FBN - "The Faith Based Network", and here we have 35 minutes of their morning programming. Commercials and other things which aired that morning appear to have been edited out - there are short gaps between the segments (which I cut down to the merest of seconds here). It was Veteran's Day, of course, but why would that be mentioned within a religious show, huh? I'm also puzzled by what makes trumpet solos religious (I know, I know, the original song being played is a religious song, but still...). Otherwise, I have nothing else to say.
Oh, yes I do. This came to me on one o' them big ten inch reels, complete with a sheet indicating what was on the tape. That's reproduced, below. I also have at least two more episodes of this show, from that same time period, if anyone is interested. Actually, I have them even if no one is interested.
Download: Religious Music Programming from KHOF, Los Angeles (FBN - The Faith Based Network), 11-11-71
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Finally - and perhaps this is the most fun of the five tapes - here are some recordings made in Pittsburgh in 1965. There are two stations reflected here, both featuring the Country Music of the day, and I caught the names of Roy Scott on WPIT (730 AM), and Bobby Hudson on WEEP (1080 AM). Wikipedia tells us that WPIT was, and still is, a Christian radio outlet, but clearly, in 1965, anyway, they offered Country Music for four hours every afternoon, and horse racing coverage (and perhaps other sports) in the evening. WEEP, which is now WNNL, began playing Country Music that very year, 1965, and became a powerhouse in the format.
These segments are a bit more cohesive than the tapes shared above, but commercials, news and some chatter has still be excised out by whoever recorded this material. There is enough sports reporting that the tape can be narrowed down to September of 1965 (Joe Torre was suspended for bumping an umpire). And there are a couple of magical jingles here. The simple one at 37:30 for the weather report is one of my favorite jingles ever.
This is right about the point that the trends in Country Music starts losing me - I'm much more a fan of the 1950's sounds than the dominant styles heard here - with the exception of the phenomenal Roger Miller, who is not heard here. Even still, I found this hugely entertaining. Enjoy!
Download: Country Radio, September, 1965 Roy Scott on WPIT and Bobby Hudson on WEEP
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Very short reels will return next time!
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