Cecil Hale, WVON Chicago, June 8, 1974 Pt.1 (0:50:42)

… You got Hale, takin’ you high through the power of your own mind …

[Description by contributor Greg Barman]

Cecil Hale started as a weekend DJ, gradually becoming fulltime on WVON, then assistant PD and assistant MD. His style was super-tight. This aircheck features Cecil on a rainy Saturday morning shift. Most of Ed Cook’s newscasts are telescoped out, and there are occasional skips in the aircheck either from tape dropout, or sometimes I had paused the tape. I recorded this in Evanston, IL about 20 miles from WVON, hence the occasionally noisy audio.Cecil Hale followed his radio work with a career in record promotion at Phonogram/Mercury records and as a VP at Capitol Records. As of 2009, he is a tenured professor at the City College of San Francisco.

Welcome to the new ReelRadio!

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. 

Our goals with this site are to preserve the exhibits and make them available free of charge for people to enjoy.  Over time, we hope to add some airchecks to the site.  This will not happen immediately.  Time and resources will determine the future of new exhibits. 

Many thanks to the web folks at the Beasley Media Group for countless hours of work.  Again thanks to the board members of ReelRadio, Inc. for their faith in us. 

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”.

We remember Richard and we thank him. If you enjoy this new site, we would appreciate a contribution. We hope you enjoy the new ReelRadio!

Board of NCBHP
North Carolina Broadcast History Project