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Author Topic: Remember The AM Bcast Days  (Read 31256 times)
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KL7OF
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« Reply #25 on: March 09, 2013, 11:43:48 AM »

When in Alaska in the summer time, I listen to KDLG  AM out of Dillingham ,Alaska...I think they are 1 or 2 KW... It is a PBS station with all of the usual PBS programming as well as some locally produced programming aimed at the large Alaska  Native population...They have the story lady that reads stories in Yupik language...She also does a once a day short show that teaches "3 new words in Yupik"..They have a noon time show called the" messenger" where people can call in and send out a message to friends/relatives in the bush who don't have access to phone or radio communications...some people even send letters to the station so they can get their message broadcast..Lots of Happy birthday and happy anniversary messages going out on the "messenger"..KDLG is the only AM station that I can receive in the daytime in Naknek...Naknek has an FM bible station (KAKN) that is located about a mile from my house....I seldom listen altho they sometimes come in on the toaster.
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W2PFY
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« Reply #26 on: March 09, 2013, 01:33:17 PM »

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Sunday morning Italian classics themed show (the town has a big Italian population) heavy on Sinatra, Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney, and old Pat Cooper comedy bits, and an excellent jazz brunch program

This has me asking the question as to whom, they are playing this programing too?

I am 71 and this would be the type of music my mother and father would have enjoyed. If they were alive today my mother would be 94 and my father would be 100.

I am not saying I don't enjoy some of that stuff but it makes me wonder how the salesmen sell this programing to the advertiser? Anyone here ever listen to Easily Listening Rap?   



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Rick & "Roosevelt"


« Reply #27 on: March 09, 2013, 03:43:12 PM »

Uh, no.
Now Alan Hovhaness, yes.
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RICK  *W3RSW*
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« Reply #28 on: March 09, 2013, 04:17:18 PM »

Uh, no.
Now Alan Hovhaness, yes.

Apocalypse of the Animals

           --or--

Apocalypse of AM BC

73DG
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Jeff W9GY
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« Reply #29 on: March 09, 2013, 04:26:45 PM »

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Oh Man....

CKLW  800..Changed Radio forever.

WJR...the Detroit clear channel powerhouse.  Listened to WJR from all over the East coast while in the Navy..very comforting..a piece of Home.

KU8L

Ah yes, "the big 8 ---- C-K-L-W"  And WJR with J.P. McCarthy in the morning.  And of course, Wally Phillips on WGN.  Some years back one of the WGN 'personalities' said, " This is WGN - 'the house that Wally built' ".  "Nothing compares these days, I'm afraid.  Guess I'm revealing my age...

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Jeff  W9GY Calumet, Michigan
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« Reply #30 on: March 09, 2013, 06:11:21 PM »

Mid 1950's:  Local daylight KW on 1250.  Still here but also now has FM side.  Believe W9TKK [SK] was chief engineer then.  Call-in music requests, serials [Dragnet, Lone Ranger, etc].  Late 50's:  Then was on Indiana side of Louisville, KY.  WAKY 790, local rock-and-roll.  Early 60's:  Moved back to 1250 AM but they didn't play the rock-and-roll so went to WJPS.  They were onmidirectional daytime and east-west directional at night, so WLS, Chicago, 890 at night.  Clear channel rock-and-roll.  Home of the Dick Biondi show sponsored by Grand Spaulding Dodge.  And can't forget WBOW in [their words] "sin city of the Wabash Valley". Still listen to AM when there is something to listen to, like around holidays, on my 1951 Westinghouse AM/FM [no ALC].  Good days to remember.
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« Reply #31 on: March 09, 2013, 06:53:43 PM »

Dick Biondi was a wild guy. Said a lot of risque things, if I remember. The stations skipping in at night into Washington DC always had a better sound than the locals. The big 50k watters. Nice full sound. Washington DC was mostly 5 kw stations and the night time patterns made them un-listenable at night.
There is a member here who was engineer of WEAM 1390...can't remember call or name. They sounded the best. We had a WPGC 1580...10 kw and they beat the living hell out of a song with processing. Supposedly a secret how they did that. Roberta Flack's "The First Time" really really sucked when played on WPGC. Pumping audio and feedback from something. They were using carts at that time.
Fred
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Fred KC4MOP
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« Reply #32 on: March 09, 2013, 07:00:32 PM »

For me, AM broadcast was about staying up late at night with a radio by my bed listening to Jean Shepherd (K2ORS) on WOR from NYC spinning tales about Flick and Schwartz and the heady days of youth. It wasn't the audio quality that kept me riveted to the radio (and made getting up for school the next day difficult). It was what Shep had to say and the way he said it. There's no EQ curve that can make you blindly stare at a radio and see a whole world grown out of someones experiences and imagination.

If perception is reality then I too grew up in those stories -- an inseparable part of my youth. They're as much mine now as they were Sheps.

EXCELSIOR, You Fathead!

www.flicklives.com/music/bahn_frei_theme_with_shep.mp3
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Steve - K4HX
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« Reply #33 on: March 09, 2013, 07:31:59 PM »

Kevin, AIO.


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There is a member here who was engineer of WEAM 1390.
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AJ1G
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« Reply #34 on: March 09, 2013, 07:56:00 PM »

For me, AM broadcast was about staying up late at night with a radio by my bed listening to Jean Shepherd (K2ORS) on WOR from NYC spinning tales about Flick and Schwartz and the heady days of youth.
EXCELSIOR, You Fathead!
www.flicklives.com/music/bahn_frei_theme_with_shep.mp3

Just worked K2ORS/ AM mobile this afternoon on 75...Warren, ex NY2H, another Shep fan who managed to get Shep's old call assigned to him as a vanity call.

I used to listen to Shep in may little JN WN2ZPS shack in our attic on my Scott SLRM..found out about from some ham friends in HS, we would all listen to him just about every night, including Saturdays when he did live shows from the Limelight in Greenwich Village.
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Chris, AJ1G
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« Reply #35 on: March 09, 2013, 08:19:56 PM »

Quote
Sunday morning Italian classics themed show (the town has a big Italian population) heavy on Sinatra, Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney, and old Pat Cooper comedy bits, and an excellent jazz brunch program

This has me asking the question as to whom, they are playing this programing too?

I would say they try to have a little something for everyone, the Italian classics are on only on Sunday mornings for a few hours, followed by the jazz brunch, later in the day there's the 60s style oldies show, and a Grateful Dead Show on Tuesday nights late.  Its a refreshing change from the plethora of bird feed FM stations where everything is just canned music and no local content.  I would say they are trying to reach an older audience, 50 and up.  I have no idea what their market surveys say, but i know the station is very popular with people in the over 50 demographic in the area.  Not much point in trying to have a format to reach the kids, none of them listen to the radio anymore anyhow, unless its Pandora or Sirius XM over their smart phones..
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Chris, AJ1G
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« Reply #36 on: March 09, 2013, 09:00:23 PM »

What, no polka music on Saturday or Sunday. That was and still is very popular on some small town station in certain parts of the country.
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« Reply #37 on: March 09, 2013, 09:14:39 PM »

I've worked Warren a few times on 1885 and 1890.  

Dick Biondi a few years ago, had a time slot on one of the oldies rock FMs in Chicago.  Not sure if he is still on the radio or not.  Around 5 to 10 years ago Larry Lujack and Tom Edwards (a.k.a. Little Tommy) brought back their sketches etc. on an oldies rock station on 1690 here.  It was really cool listening to them.  They were doing Animal Stories, Celebrity Worship and the Cheap Trashy Showbiz report weekday mornings from New Mexico and California retirement.  They were just as good as they were back in the 70s.  Then the station changed format to guess what, talk radio, and that was the end of Uncle Lar and Little Tommy.

Sometimes those stations up at the high end of the band get out on skywave in the daytime, in winter.

WMT on 600 over in Cedar Rapids Iowa plays a lot of big band music from the 40s and 50s on Sundays.  With the Iowa ground conductivity, 5 KW and the low dial spot they just about cover the whole state and almost make it all the way over to where I am.  They're solid in the western side of N. Illinois but around here they get wiped out by digital garbage from Milwaukee's WTMJ on 620 which idiotically runs IBOC. 

I have as fact two stories, in which two stations running IBOC switched it off and no one, I mean no one, complained or mentioned it at all.  After about a week they discovered it had been accidentally switched off and they turned it back on.  There are no IBOC sets out there.  No one is listening with anything except analog. 
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KL7OF
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« Reply #38 on: March 09, 2013, 09:45:44 PM »

Quote

I have as fact two stories, in which two stations running IBOC switched it off and no one, I mean no one, complained or mentioned it at all.  After about a week they discovered it had been accidentally switched off and they turned it back on.  There are no IBOC sets out there.  No one is listening with anything except analog.  

That's right..the folks that live out there have analog and they're sticking with it..
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AJ1G
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« Reply #39 on: March 10, 2013, 10:06:21 AM »

What, no polka music on Saturday or Sunday. That was and still is very popular on some small town station in certain parts of the country.
Around here, that's on another small town local, WICH 1310 up in Norwich - here's their Sunday morning schedule -

5:30 – 6:00 AM    Italian Hour
6:00 AM – 7:00 PM    Touch of Grey
7:00 AM – 7:10 AM    Music
7:10 AM – 7:35 AM    Dialog
7:35 AM – 8:00 AM    Beulah Land Church
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM    Polka
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM    Mass from St. Pat’s
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM    Dick Pillar Show

The Dick Pillar show is probably also polka - he is the leader of a local polka band.
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Chris, AJ1G
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« Reply #40 on: March 10, 2013, 01:33:25 PM »

Middle 1960's - from Philadelphia suburbs, listening to WWVA 1170? Wheeling West Virginia at night; gen-u-wine bluegrass and other hillbilly music. bible beating, etc, a different world from mine for sure.  Mail in $x fer yer plastic dashboard Jesus.

The Rev. R. W. Schambach was a big player on WWVA in the mid to late 1960s, Tom, remember him?  He had one of the best storytelling, Bible-beatin' presentations I had ever heard.  You could ignore the Scripture part and still get a good "tell" out of him.
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« Reply #41 on: March 10, 2013, 01:42:57 PM »

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Dick Biondi
I remember him from the old WKBW sitting on the back porch with my girlfriend. I wuz about 16 then when everything seemed like magic. I wuz also the smartest man on the planet in them days too Grin Grin Grin

I think night time radio died when they took Joey Reynolds  off  WOR a few years ago. It was said that many times when he had his show on for the local NYC audience, they switched on the old tube 50 KW transmitter just for him as he thought it sounded better? Now all we have for nation wide is Coast to Coast AM otherwise know as Spooks and Coots!

Quote
Not much point in trying to have a format to reach the kids, none of them listen to the radio anymore anyhow, unless its Pandora or Sirius XM over their smart phones..

Yes, your are correct, probably won't be too much longer before all terrestrial radio goes away unless its reinvented?
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« Reply #42 on: March 10, 2013, 10:56:35 PM »

How about the "studio bands" in days of yore. In Philadelphia WIP, KYW and WCAU each had orchestras that played a half or full hour in the morning and again in the afternoon. WCAU had a one-hour live  show in their auditorium every Saturday afternoon with their band and usually a guest who was leader of whatever national big band was then playing at the Earl Theatre. It was all enough to make me build a 3-stage TRF with luscious Miller coils in 3" shield cans to feed my 2A3 P-P amp. Later, after James C. Petrillo got such good raises for all the muscians and most of them were out of work, WIBG ran a remote from the "Click" nightclub as well as a Mummers band every weekday night. Back then WCAU broadcast classical music on both weekend afternoons; imagine that on AM!

Then at night you had your choice of big band pickups from around the country via skip even if they did suffer from selective fading - that was part of the thrill of BC DX.

Oh well.

Bob - NE

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Steve - K4HX
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« Reply #43 on: March 11, 2013, 12:39:27 AM »

Live music of many varieties was quite common in the past on radio. It still happens now and then, but it's usually a special event or a band doing the rounds for an upcoming concert. One of the few remaining regular shows is the Grand Old Opry on WSM.
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flintstone mop
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« Reply #44 on: March 11, 2013, 06:23:42 AM »

Paul might relate to WUST in the old days. They would air their Gospel music live from an auditorium in the same building as the studios and TX...That sick Collins 20V...and there was a Collins 300G in that mix? Before the move to WEAM's TX site and World Radio.
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Fred KC4MOP
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« Reply #45 on: March 11, 2013, 06:33:26 AM »

I grew up in Sioux City,Iowa. Our locals then were KTRI and KSCJ. I recall that there was a local live show on from one of the restaurants where they would go around and chat with local folks. There was also a guy who worked for the post office who was on every morning. Buffalo Bob or Bill, and he would sing and play his guitar. I think he was on about 6 A.M. At noon there was polka music, usually featuring The Six Fat Dutchman. Night time would bring in WSM, WHO, WBAP, XERF, WLS, and the teenagers favorite KOMA that played the 50's rock stuff. Some good memories...Little daytime stations were all around in the small towns too...plus Omaha.
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« Reply #46 on: March 11, 2013, 07:09:06 AM »

>Paul might relate to WUST in the old days.
>They would air their Gospel music live from an auditorium in the same building as the studios and TX.
>...and there was a Collins 300G in that mix?
>Before the move to WEAM's TX site and World Radio.

1991.
Of course !
You, me and Steve, maybe Derb too, inspected the old movie theater that WUST occupied. The transmitters were up in the film projection room, above the balcony level, with coax feeding a single tower on the roof of the place. Kevin, WB4AIO, has commented on here before about his time as Chief Engineer of WUST (and WEAM that you also mentioned, Fred).

This was an old-style movie theater that had a stage in front of the projection screen, making it ideal for a church conversion with an altar. The gospel services and other revivals (with music!) were carried "live" to the community around Washington, DC.



The place is still there, no radio station, but it's a very popular nightspot called The 9:30 Club.



But when WUST was moving out,

We couldn't figure out how to extricate the transmitters without killing ourselves down those skinny concrete steps from the projection room to the balcony, let alone from the balcony to the ground level and out the door. So we gave up.

After the move, and years later, I found out the 300-G, a 1946 make (Ser. No. 33) went to a salvage outfit in Pennsylvania, then on to W8MAQ who did the tri-band conversion, and then to my place where it continues to play to this day.

Jim, who had an improved design in mind, accepted my Ser. No. 22 in trade and did the conversion all over again. That's how there are two 300-Gs on the air, tribanded.

By coincidence, the relocation of WUST (and power increase), was to Arlington, Va, and today is diplexed with the WEAM array that you listened to in the 1960s  & 70s.


* Screenshot_2013-03-11-07-18-08.png (764.96 KB, 960x540 - viewed 406 times.)
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Tom WA3KLR
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« Reply #47 on: March 11, 2013, 08:36:42 AM »

Paul,

WWVA - I don't remember Rev. Schambach, just the bible-beating and bluegrass in general.  Not being a big bluegrass fan, the only name that comes to mind today for sounding like the female singers I heard then is Alison Krauss.
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73 de Tom WA3KLR  AMI # 77   Amplitude Modulation - a force Now and for the Future!
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« Reply #48 on: March 11, 2013, 09:34:10 AM »

I can remember listing to 1520 WKBW (before they changed their call to WWKB) with Danny Neverith, Joey Reynolds and "Pierre Puck" and "Chicken Man" skits, from my house on Long Island in the late 1950's and early 1960's

Plus the R&R from WINS, WABC, WMCA and others from NYC.
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« Reply #49 on: March 11, 2013, 10:17:53 AM »

Live music of many varieties was quite common in the past on radio. It still happens now and then, but it's usually a special event or a band doing the rounds for an upcoming concert. One of the few remaining regular shows is the Grand Old Opry on WSM.

I think that might be the program on Sunday nights just before their 'Out of the Blue' bluegrass program, which is tres boss.  Grin  They're one of the few power house stations still playing a lot of music. Haven't heard WWVA since their towers came down a couple years back. Another memorable station from my childhood. Used to hear them loud 'n proud into VT in August, during the afternoon hours.

Also miss WOWO from Ft Wayne. Seem to recall they got gobbled up and power-reduced or such. WCCO from MN would come in well at night. WKBW, WNEW(now WQEW and a Disney station), all kinds of stations from the past come to mind.

My freshman year in high school I recall stumbling across WPTR around 1540 on the dial, out of the Schenectady/Troy area. They had a nighttime jock who called himself Shotgun Johnny Ringo. Funny to think back on, because I can remember hearing other students in the hallways at school talking about the station, so AM radio was still big with kids in the 70s. Seems like the 80s is when it all changed. Maybe the old Buggles tune isn't too far off: Video Killed the Radio Star.
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