This exhibit originally appeared the second week the Repository was online (2/19/1996) and was 3:43 in total length. Surely, this recording of Bill Drake on WAKE Atlanta, distributed by Programmers Digest in the early seventies, was all there would ever be of this fleeting moment in Top 40 history  or so I thought.
Then, Paul Allen (d. December 5, 2011) wrote that he was sending an aircheck that he recorded at his Grandmother’s house on 4th Street in Atlanta in 1961. I was excited to learn it was the original recording of Bill Drake on WAKE, only partially scoped, with very good fidelity!
On October 1, 2000, this rare aircheck was presented as submitted by Paul, and it is a joy to hear! Our sincere thanks to Paul Allen for sharing with the Repository.
Of course! Nothing more (or less) than Bill Drake himself, jocking “GOLLDUN RECK-CORDS” on a Sunday. WAKE Radiant Radio time: (tone) September, 1961! – best I can figure.
Atlanta’s “Million Dollar Sound” was a real contender in the Atlanta market in those days – days when a “Class IV” (1340 khz: 1KW day, 250 watts at night) could own a market by playing the favorites of kids and young adults.
You’ll hear Mr. Drake read the beginning of a newscast on this ‘check, though the rest of it was cut. Consider that there’s less than four years between Bill Drake on WAKE in Atlanta, and Bill Drake at KHJ, Los Angeles.