That Dating Show

The northeast Ohio radio community has had its fair share of personalities that have become mainstays of the dial. One of them is Jim Albright, currently the midday host at WHLO/640 in Akron. Prior to manipulating the airwaves at WHLO (and a brief stay as afternoon host at Canton's WHBC/1480), Albright was the host of the popular "Dial-A-Date" program on WNIR/100.1 in Kent. Between 1979 and 2000, he helped the region's lovelorn find happiness while fending off pranksters who were all too happy to sabotage his efforts. In this aircheck from 1996, Jim handles the latter with his usual sense of humor without allowing them to disrupt the show's momentum.



Our thanks to TheGrimm1970 for making this aircheck available.

The Other Guys

For the blog's latest update, we focus on Cleveland's WGCL/98.5. In this aircheck from 1974, Truckin' Lenny and Skip O'Brien are heard presenting some of the day's hits. Based on the Cleveland Indians promotional announcement heard early on, the editor believes this broadcast occurred in late June.
For several years, WGCL was the market's chief competitor to rocker WMMS/100.7. WMMS ultimately won the ratings game for good in the 1980's, while WGCL switched to a retooled rock format and became WNCX in 1986.

Special thanks to TestChannelnumber1 for providing this aircheck.

Bits And Pieces

Update

Thanks to Tim Lones at Cleveland Classic Media, we now know that the WTAM aircheck is that of NBC's "Kraft Music Hall" hosted by Bing Crosby. Our own detective work determined that the broadcast was heard May 8, 1941, and featured Bob Burns, Connee Boswell, Alec Templeton, William Frawley and Walter Pidgeon.

The editor has also learned that the WFMJ-FM aircheck was recorded on the evening of December 16, 1947. The date seems to be at odds with the Wikipedia history of the frequency, but we'll take the disc's original owner at their word.

The original posting is below.

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Over the course of this blog's existence, the editor has come across many home recording discs featuring airchecks of radio stations. One of those was a recording of NBC Radio's coverage of the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941, which the blog spotlighted last month. At the same time, much thought has been given to how we should present a group of miscellaneous recordings that have been collected over the past year and a half. The editor decided it would be best to provide some brief selections and leave it at that.

First up is a segment from what appears to be an NBC Red Network program heard on WTAM/1100 in Cleveland. The date of the broadcast is unknown at this time, but an educated guess would place it somewhere between 1943 and 1949. Stick around for the NBC chimes and local identification. Aside from jazz singer Connee Boswell, the other performers heard here are unknown. As always, any assistance in identifying the program is appreciated.

The second selection is a portion of "Melody Roundup", a popular afternoon music program heard on WHKK/640 (now WHLO) in Akron during the late 1940's and well into the 1950's. The program was hosted by Cliff Rodgers, who also hosted a morning show on WHKK during this time period. It's not clear if it's his voice heard during the closing. Based on the music, this broadcast is from roughly 1950.

The final segment is long on music and short on spoken word content, but interesting for one reason: It's an aircheck of an early FM broadcast, as heard over Youngstown's WFMJ/105.1. Dating from about 1950, it's the earliest FM aircheck in the blog's collection. This is undoubtedly a rare recording, since WFMJ-FM's license was cancelled a few years later. A brief history of the frequency in Youngstown can be found here.

Another Auld Lang Syne: Part 2

As we prepare to say farewell to another year, NEO Airchecks ushers in 2013 in its usual fashion. This time, the blog features an aircheck of Youngstown's WHOT/1330 from January 1, 1973. Longtime Youngstown radio personality Boot Bells is heard counting down the top hits of '72. Special thanks to regular contributor Jerry Coleman for submitting this recording for the blog's use.



Be sure to check back with NEO Airchecks in 2013. Some long-awaited features are being prepared for your listening pleasure. Happy New Year!

Radio Goes To War

With Americans observing this week's anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it's appropriate to feature some airchecks made in the wake of the incident that launched the United States into World War II. The first segment is a partial recording of an NBC news roundup of the events of December 8, 1941, 71 years ago today. An unidentified announcer summarizes the Japanese attack on Manila, President Franklin Roosevelt's address to Congress and the subsequent vote to declare war on Japan. This broadcast, which was captured on a Wilcox-Gay home recording disc and eventually discovered by the editor, appears to have been made in the late afternoon or early evening of December 8th. While it's not clear which NBC affiliate was recorded here, this program was undoubtedly heard in northeast Ohio. WTAM in Cleveland was an affiliate of NBC's Red Network, while WAKR in Akron and WFMJ in Youngstown were affiliates of the Blue Network.

The second aircheck was found on the flip side of the same disc. A different announcer on an unnamed network provides a similar account of December 8th. Any assistance with identifying either announcer or pinning down the time of broadcast would be greatly appreciated by the editor.

Solid Gold For Your Ears

NEO Airchecks wishes its readers a Happy New Year. Better late than never, right?

This time around the blog features Warren, Ohio's WRRO/1440. In this scoped aircheck from circa 1986, Ron Leader is filling in for longtime morning man Ron Fantone. Leader, perhaps best-known to listeners of that era as raucous Saturday night oldies guru "Dr. Rock", presents the same music in a much more relaxed manner here. Midday host Evelyn St. Clair is also heard in commercials for the upcoming Italian-American Heritage Festival.

WRRO began life in 1941 as WRRN/1400 before moving to its current dial position by the 1950's. Helen Hart Hurlburt, longtime publisher of Warren's Tribune-Chronicle newspaper, purchased the station in 1948. The call letters were quickly changed to WHHH, a reflection of her initials. When Hurlburt sold WHHH to Warren Broadcasting in 1981, the WRRO calls were implemented, and would remain there until 1998. By the 1990's, the oldies format heard in this aircheck was phased out in favor of news/talk and later still, sports talk. The station went through a few more changes in ownership and call letters before finding its way into the hands of current owner Salem Communications in 2001. Now known as WHKZ, 1440 primarily is a simulcast of WHKW/1220 in Cleveland.

Another Auld Lang Syne

In the past, the blog has marked the arrival of each New Year with an aircheck from a previous New Year's Eve. 2012 is no different. NEO Airchecks revisits Youngstown Top 40 rivals WHOT/1330 and WFMJ/1390, as heard forty years ago this week. In the two-part recording provided courtesy of friend Jerry Coleman, K.C. Martin spins the big hits of 1971 on WHOT and takes a call from one listener wishing to burn Donny Osmond at the stake. Just listen, and you'll see what we mean. Martin's approach to his show is much more loose than that of his co-workers heard in airchecks from roughly the same period.

Ted Alexander and Steve "Baby" Michaels are heard doing a similar year-end countdown on WFMJ, and taking repeated shots at WHOT. Later on in the aircheck, personalities from at least one other Youngstown area station pile on, no doubt encouraged by Michaels' poetry concerning WHOT overnight personality "Big Al Knight", otherwise known as longtime PD Dick Thompson. Be sure to listen for cameo appearances by PD Ron Davidson and newsman Gary Gunther.