"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."

IN THE 50's DALLAS TEXAS HAD SOME OF THE GREATEST RADIO.

From 1950 to 1957, I had a 5 tube table model radio, with a long wire
antenna, 30 feet high and 100 feet long. I logged 37 states and 15
countries on that little radio. In 1957 I got a Lafayette KT-200 and
really started logging the stations.

I miss the radio shows of the 40's and 50's. Fibber McGee and Molly on
NBC, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on the Chase and Sanborn Hour,
Kate Smith, Abbot and Costello, Martin and Lewis; I was a Communist
for the FBI; Damon Runyon theater; Superman; the Green Hornet; X-1;
all these and more can be heard throughout the week WBBM-780, but it's
not the same as was when I was a boy. Also every Saturday night KMOX-
1120 plays 4 hours of 'I Like Jazz' with Don Wolfe as host, followed
by 2 hours of When Radio Was.

KRLD 1080 in Dallas, TX. Comes to mind. They had American Airlines
Music Till Dawn, where they played real music. This was from 1957 into
the early 60's. None of this Lead Blimps falling from the sky stuff.
They also had the Dallas Texans football in 1959, but dropped them for
the new upstart team, the Dallas Cowboys, in 1960.

WBAP 820 Ft. Worth, TX when they had real country and western, late
60's and into the 80's when Hal Jay and Dick Segal came onto the
station in the mornings and evenings, along with Sam from sales.

I miss KIXL 1040 in Dallas, TX. Real music, nothing but real music in
1950's. No rock 'n Roll stuff. They would have from time to time, the
big movie stars of the day, like William Holden, come on as DJ's;
their "Thought for the Day" was always something uplifting and
inspiring, though not religious. Never any nasty jokes. Just good
radio. I remember the commercials for Woosey. This was a local soft
drink company. They had the best cream soda, strawberry, grape and
root beer.

WRR 1310 in Dallas, late 50's, with Jim Lowe, (also the voice of Big
Tex) and his morning drive show with music, news and his Caravan.

How about KLIF 1190 in Dallas, TX. When Gordon McLendon owned the
station it was a top 40 station from about 1955 to 1963. But McLendon
only played the good do-wop songs, never the trash that later became
Mo-Town. In the late 50's Gordon would play the news from Radio Moscow
and then give his commentary against communists. A lot of good it did,
just look at the mess this country is in today. He was also running
for political office at that time.

From the late 40's, I miss the old WFAA radio on 570 from Dallas, TX.
I can't remember the name of the program that was on from 0600 to 0900
each morning. But it was a local breakfast club style show with live
talent and local events. My mother would always listen. One such
person who sang on the show, from time to time, was Dale Evans. This
was followed by Don McNeil's Breakfast Club from Chicago.

In the afternoons, after school, on WFAA radio, I would always listen
to "Big John and Sparkey" a great kids radio show. This was around
1951 or so. I remember in one week of episodes the two came upon a
flying saucer. This was big stuff, and a hot topic in the early 50's.

KSKY 660 Dallas, TX. I remember they were a Christian radio station
through the 50's and 60's, and they gave their call letters as "K-
SKY, 6-6-0 on your radio."

KBOX-1480 "K-BOX 1480" In the late 50's and early 60's this was KLIF's
opposite in the ratings.

There are so many calls that come to mind. In the late 50's, I
remember when WSM-650 and WLAC-1510 (both in Nashville, TN) were
nightly visitors. WSM of course, had the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday
night. And us'n and our neighbors, who lived in east Texas, would
gather at our house to listen on the car radio. Do a little danc'n in
the yard.

WLAC had Randy's Record Shop. This was the sale of the worst
recordings you would ever want to hear. But they sold. Also on WLAC, I
remember the sales of baby chicks, to be shipped to your home. I just
don't remember the name of the company.

There are so many stations that were had great radio, I couldn't
possibly write them all down. Kids today have no idea how great it
was. I didn't intend to write an essay, but I did. Thanks for your
time, and for letting me to take a trip back to the jungles of my
memoirs.

(Willis Monk, Old Fort, TN, NRC-AM via DXLD)

"Mike Terry" wrote in message
...
..

How about KLIF 1190 in Dallas, TX. When Gordon McLendon owned the
station it was a top 40 station from about 1955 to 1963. But McLendon
only played the good do-wop songs, never the trash that later became
Mo-Town. In the late 50's Gordon would play the news from Radio Moscow
and then give his commentary against communists. A lot of good it did,
just look at the mess this country is in today. He was also running
for political office at that time.

KLIF became Top 40 in about 1953, right after the format popped out of KOWH
in Omaha. It continued being Top 40 through the 70's. They definitely did
play Motown, as their heyday was in the late 60's when they battled
Balaban's KBOX for supremacy in the Dallas market (which did not include Ft.
Worth at the time... KXOL was the big Top 40 there).

"Mike Terry" wrote in message
...
"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."

I miss the WLAC of the 50's and 60's. It was a rare source of blues and R &
B music during the time. I know we can't go back. . . some of the
personalities like John R. have passed on, and R & B has moved to FM.

MusicRadio.....WLS....Chicago!!!

My hero was Steve King. I tried to pattern my style after Steve. I
miss "real radio."

-George Carden, Minneapolis

airwaves-digest wrote:

airwaves-digest Thursday, December 16 2004 Volume 2004 : Number 302



"What AM Station do you miss the most?



15-20 KOMA, 89 WLS (60s)
91X (80s)
KPOP-AM 1360 San Diego (2004)

Chris Carmichael
. n e t

------------------------------

End of airwaves-digest V2004 #302
*********************************






--
George Carden


Instant Messengers:

AOL: Gcrdbrd
ICQ: Cardboard or 294-192-512
MSN:
Yahoo: Cardboard1

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

"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-

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

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

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.