On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 18:10:40 +0000, Mike Terry wrote:

"What AM Station do you miss the most? Think broad: It could
be a station on the air currently, but you miss its prior format, or
it could be a set of call letters long gone from the dial."

If I had to narrow it down to one station, I'd have to say WLS/Chicago
during the 1960s. Like most teenagers in mid-America I tuned in every
night because they had the Top 40 hits days before my local stations; but
as much as I enjoyed the music, I loved the disc jockeys even more! Those
were the days of "personality" deejays who understood how to entertain the
audience between records, but without forgetting that the music itself was
the reason they were there. Dick Biondi, Ron Riley, Art Roberts, Clark
Weber -- these were the heroes of my youth, and instrumental in my getting
into radio myself.

I suppose if I had grown up a little closer to New York I'd have felt the
same way about the WABC Good Guys -- but WABC just didn't get into West
Tennessee all that well, while WLS boomed in.

--
Walter Luffman Medina, TN USA
Amateur curmudgeon, equal opportunity annoyer
When you see Dan Rather, you CBS

Mecia Hack had written:
|
| "What AM Station do you miss the most?

My top two candidates:

WLS from the early 1970s through the mid 1980s -- always creative,
always just a little bit out of the box, always listenable.

KRBE(AM) Houston when it was "Classic Rock 1070" in 1985-86.
Imagine a station that would play the Thirteenth Floor Elevators.
In C-QUAM stereo, indeed.

========

But that's AM. The FM stations I miss most are the Entercom-era
KITS/Live 105 in San Francisco (until about 1997?) and the
"Rock 40" KXXR in Kansas City (1989-90). Both stations were
willing to bend the playlist and absolutely did not take themselves
too seriously, with personalities who had just enough of a sarcastic
edge to them. Both KITS and KXXR were both fun stations to listen to.

The current KITS is a pale shadow of what it used to be.


--
Mark Roberts | "Kansas City, named after Kansas, most of it's in
Oakland, Cal.| Missouri. That's not right!"
NO HTML MAIL | -- Jon Stewart (The Daily Show, November 17, 2004)

"Music-Ray-Dee-Oh, Double-Ell-Ess, Chi-Caaaago!"

WLS, late 70s/early 80s.

Though I grew up in Minneapolis, this station was my savior in the late 70s
after we lost local Top 40 outlets WYOO, WDGY, and KSTP.

John Landecker "Records truly is my middle name) from 6-10, then Jeff Davis
from 10-2.

Always looked forward to winter because it would get dark early enough so I
could hear John's complete show & catch a bit of Lujack in the morning before
school.


-Drew in Sunny Central Florida-

Nationally, WLS and WCFL were tops in my book. The 70's radio war between
these two giants was awesome.

Later, I came to enjoy the "folksy-ness" of WOWO and Joe Donovan's Rock &
Roll Revival (probably the first onscure oldies show anywhere) overnights on
84 WHAS.

Locally, I miss Charleston, West Virginia's 95 WKAZ. Big time Top 40 radio
in a smaller market. Their crosstown battle with 1490 WXIT was simply a
local version of the WLS/WCFL duel, with both stations raising the bar in
the market and creating some really great radio.

Rick

On 17 Dec 2004 18:09:15 GMT, BucketButt
wrote:

On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 18:10:40 +0000, Mike Terry wrote:

"What AM Station do you miss the most? Think broad: It could
be a station on the air currently, but you miss its prior format, or
it could be a set of call letters long gone from the dial."

If I had to narrow it down to one station, I'd have to say WLS/Chicago
during the 1960s. Like most teenagers in mid-America I tuned in every
night because they had the Top 40 hits days before my local stations; but
as much as I enjoyed the music, I loved the disc jockeys even more! Those
were the days of "personality" deejays who understood how to entertain the
audience between records, but without forgetting that the music itself was
the reason they were there. Dick Biondi, Ron Riley, Art Roberts, Clark
Weber -- these were the heroes of my youth, and instrumental in my getting
into radio myself.

I suppose if I had grown up a little closer to New York I'd have felt the
same way about the WABC Good Guys -- but WABC just didn't get into West
Tennessee all that well, while WLS boomed in.

MEDINA???

I can't believe it. I just started reading this group again after
being too busy for many months.

I also was raised in west Tennessee, Crockett County. I was a
musician as a teen and enjoyed late-night driving in west Tennessee
after a gig. On clear nights, I would listen to this great station
from Cincinnati, I think it was WLW. All easy-listening (AM) and no
announcements regarding the music, just a station ID and an occasional
spot. But for AM, WLW was VERY laid back in the late 1960s/early
1970s. The other station I enjoyed was WWL from the beautiful Blue
Room, high atop the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown New Orleans. Similar
music format. Great signal to west Tennessee.

There was "Music 'Till Midnight" on WREC AM60 in Memphis. What a
great show. The founder of the station, Hoyt B. Wooten, tried to give
WREC the finest sound technology would provide. He was famous for his
underground bomb-shelter, so large that he used to throw parties
there. And WREC had a fabulous "sound" compared to other AM stations.

Then...there was Dolly Holiday and "Holiday Inn's Nighttime" The
first "rock" FM station in Memphis, FM-100 WMC would play the
Beatles's "Good Night" at midnight, then ole Dolly Holiday would come
on for the next 5 hours or so, playing Jackie Gleason, Bobby Hacket,
Mancinni and all of the other slurpy, mushy music that I really loved.
In the early 1970s, I did a few "live shows" with her for some group
at the main Holiday Inn on Lamar in Memphis. One day, we went back to
her office, down the hall in one of the buildings of the Holiday Inn
headquarters. Before I knew where we were going, I looked up through
the double glass windows of a "radio studio." It was her studio where
she recorded the program. Looking back now, I kick myself for not
nurturing that relationship, bringing a camera and taking some good
photos.

That was back in the day that 7/11 stores opened at 7am and closed at
11pm.

Thinking out loud

Gosh, I wonder where her record library is now? As far as that goes,
I wonder where the WKBJ-FM record library is now???

/Thinking out loud

I used to work at WKBJ-FM in Milan, easy listening from those
wonderful LPs. AM played country-music with too many cheap
commercials and sounded terrible!!! FM was "easy listening" and
played only 1 or 2 spots per hour. This was in 1969, before they
automated in 1970.

Just a few weeks ago, I began experimenting with my own BEAUIFUL MUSIC
Internet Radio station. Give it a listen.

http://ct1.fast-serv.com:8314/listen.pls

I have over 1000 LPs of just the easy-listening/beautiful-music genre.
It takes a while to record them into the computer, in real time. But
the music can't be beat. I am working on this project a little at a
time.

I have been in Dallas for 22-years and have seen a few changes even
here. Occasionally (which is not very often) I will be away from the
city at night, away from the interference and the thick, overloaded
local AM band. Usually, that is on one of my trips back to Tennessee.
I still try to tune in those good old stations. But radio is not what
it used to be. I can never find an AM station, playing that type of
music at night. So I listen to tape-delays of the talk-guys, still
not too bad. But...even with digital, stereo satellite broadcasting
static-free entertainment directly from the sky to your car radio,
nothing will be quite the same as a summer-night's ride on the dark,
rural highways, with the full-moon shining and music coming from far,
far away, from WLW or WWL with their easy listening, or even the great
jocks at WLS in Chicago.

Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke of Earl, Duke, Duke, Duke of Earl, Duke, Duke,
Duke of Earl, Duke Duke...well you get the idea.

Check out Beautiful Music Radio, built by a Tennessean and enjoyed by
the world!

http://ct1.fast-serv.com:8314/listen.pls

Nostalgic Don in Dallas
www.airstreamfm.com

www.calldon.com




"We ain't gone be po no mo."
- - Pastor Greg Powe, Atlanta

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 08:32:20 +0000, Don wrote:

MEDINA???

Yep, grew up here and moved back several years ago.

I also was raised in west Tennessee, Crockett County. I was a
musician as a teen and enjoyed late-night driving in west Tennessee
after a gig. On clear nights, I would listen to this great station
from Cincinnati, I think it was WLW. All easy-listening (AM) and no
announcements regarding the music, just a station ID and an occasional
spot. But for AM, WLW was VERY laid back in the late 1960s/early
1970s. The other station I enjoyed was WWL from the beautiful Blue
Room, high atop the Roosevelt Hotel in downtown New Orleans. Similar
music format. Great signal to west Tennessee.

I listened to them back then too ... well, maybe a couple of years
earlier, since I enlisted in the Army in 1968. Don't remember a lot about
WLW, but I'll never forget those "King Edward cigar-time" timechecks on
WWL. I listened more to WKYC (now WTAM) in Cleveland ... and WLS, as I
mentioned earlier.

There was "Music 'Till Midnight" on WREC AM60 in Memphis. What a great
show. The founder of the station, Hoyt B. Wooten, tried to give WREC
the finest sound technology would provide. He was famous for his
underground bomb-shelter, so large that he used to throw parties there.
And WREC had a fabulous "sound" compared to other AM stations.

Like so many AM stations today, WREC is a Clear Channel-owned talker.

Then...there was Dolly Holiday and "Holiday Inn's Nighttime" The first
"rock" FM station in Memphis, FM-100 WMC would play the Beatles's "Good
Night" at midnight, then ole Dolly Holiday would come on for the next 5
hours or so, playing Jackie Gleason, Bobby Hacket, Mancinni and all of
the other slurpy, mushy music that I really loved. In the early 1970s, I
did a few "live shows" with her for some group at the main Holiday Inn
on Lamar in Memphis. One day, we went back to her office, down the hall
in one of the buildings of the Holiday Inn headquarters. Before I knew
where we were going, I looked up through the double glass windows of a
"radio studio." It was her studio where she recorded the program.
Looking back now, I kick myself for not nurturing that relationship,
bringing a camera and taking some good photos.

I had forgotten that FM100 aired Dolly Holiday's program! Following a
progressive-rock format with "Holiday Inn's Nighttime" always seemed a bit
strange, but somehow the people at FM100 kept the transition from being
too jarring. Sadly, the riverboat-whistle ID hasn't been heard on that
station in a long time. Scripps-Howard sold the WMC-AM/FM/TV operation a
number of years ago; Infinity owns the two radios, and I think Raycom
still owns WMC-TV5. (All three still carry the WMC call letters.)

Gosh, I wonder where her record library is now? As far as that goes, I
wonder where the WKBJ-FM record library is now???

I think Bill Haney and (the late) Larry Dunphy divided it between them.
Wish I had been around to ask for Nancy Sinatra's "Sugar" album -- that
album cover, with Nancy wearing the pink bikini, used to sit in the
control room window when I was working FM. (Hey, I was just a teenager
.... and Nancy Sinatra was wearing that pink bikini .... )

I used to work at WKBJ-FM in Milan, easy listening from those wonderful
LPs. AM played country-music with too many cheap commercials and
sounded terrible!!! FM was "easy listening" and played only 1 or 2
spots per hour. This was in 1969, before they automated in 1970.

You had commercials? I was there in 1968, and we almost never had
commercials on the FM side; just three breaks an hour for weather and one
at the top for news. AM paid the FM's expenses most of the year, but FM
made money each fall and winter with Milan High School football and
basketball broadcasts.

Today the old WKBJ-FM is all grown up. Changed owners in 1983; callsign
changed to WYNU in 1984; went from an ERP of 28,500 watts at 160 ft. HAAT
to the full 100kw at 1,050 ft. Current owner is Clear Channel, and it's
playing classic rock. The AM is dark, sadly.

--
Walter Luffman Medina, TN USA
Amateur curmudgeon, equal opportunity annoyer
When you see Dan Rather, you CBS

Very easy. KYA 1260. They had the best jocks, promos and music (for
the most part. Even they fell into the Beatles-Beach Boys-Supremes
trap when it came to oldies) during the 60's and 70's. KFRC was the
copy-cat around here. Some people think the opposite is true but Bill
Drake programmed KYA long before he consulted the RKO stations.

The death knell happened on November 1, 1977 when King Broadcasting
took over and ruined it. They even killed-off its sister station
KYA-FM (Y-93). When they sold KYA-AM, the new owners even junked the
call letters. I wouldn't drop a three-letter call for anything. Had I
ever thought KYA would fall by the wayside, I would have taped hours of
it.

BucketButt wrote:
Today the old WKBJ-FM is all grown up. Changed owners in 1983; callsign
changed to WYNU in 1984; went from an ERP of 28,500 watts at 160 ft. HAAT
to the full 100kw at 1,050 ft. Current owner is Clear Channel, and it's
playing classic rock. The AM is dark, sadly.

Actually, the AM is back, kinda. It's moved to Lakeland (a Memphis
suburb) and resurfaced as religious station WMQM with 50,000 watts
daytime, 35 at night. Most winter days I can hear it here in Cheatham
Co. all day long.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

Tom, 1950-1979 another great SF station Gene Autry's KFSO and in Los
Angeles one of the learders in MOR- personality radio KMPC, KEX
Portland and KVI Seattle.
roger carroll retired KMPC dj / ( Gene Autry's) Vice President
Golden West Broadcasters