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Lou Kirby, WNOE New Orleans, LA. 1964 (scoped) (0:08:34)

Scoped
The John Rook Collection
… Kisses spread germs, or so it’s stated, kiss me kid, I’m vaccinated …
Description by Uncle Ricky Lou Kirby is quite the overnight jokester on this short, restored segment of powerhouse WNOE/New Orleans from 1964. And it was July. It’s 79 degrees at 4:30 in the morning! This tape barely made Repository standards. Our copy was cursed with “traveling alignment”, and though the frequency response was pretty good, the tape doesn’t stay in one place for more than a few milliseconds at a time. As a result, there are numerous drop-outs and that “wavering” effect on the high end. The multitude of original, old-timey jingles aren’t enhanced by the technical problems, but the music restored nicely and it’s a nice slice of 1964. Kirby has an accent button for his Hammond oil-dampened reverb, which is apparenly offline except when he hits the button, as he does when talking about the SEVEN tower WNOE array. Is he suggesting that more towers make the station stronger? Thanks to REELRADIO contributor T. Storm Hunter for his help with music restoration.

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This site is now operated by the North Carolina Broadcast History Museum. 

We want to thank the board of ReelRadio, Inc. for their stewardship since the passing of the founder Richard Irwin in 2018.  It has not been easy and they have maintained the exhibits for future generations to enjoy.

I met Richard Irwin, aka Uncle Ricky, when we were freshmen at East Carolina University.  We both had worked at local stations in our hometowns.  No one was more passionate about radio, especially Top 40 radio, than my friend Richard. 

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Richard Irwin’s hope was that his site would live on long after his passing. He said, “I hope REELRADIO will survive as my contribution to the ‘radio business’. The business is allowed to forget me, but the business should never forget the great era of radio that we celebrate here”.

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North Carolina Broadcast History Project