Davey O'Donnell, KXOK, St. Louis 1962 (0:10:32)

… Forty-seven dollars and eighty-eight cents divided by nine …
Imagine – a radio contest that requires the winner to do math! Davey O’Donnell, a long-time St. Louis personality, is featured here as morning guy for “KX-okey dokey” radio. Uncle Ricky has a real passion for those great old Top 40 newscasts, and this aircheck begins with KXOK “Director of News” David D. Rogers, and “KXOK Essential News”, most of the elements of which we’ve heard previously as WFUN Fundamental News. There is one very stylish portion of this newscast that gave me goosebumps, though. Listen carefully about 50 seconds in, as Rogers does the weather, just before the top of the hour. There’s a subtle “cathedral chimes” background seguing into a xylophone news underscore. VERY nice! It’s just one more example of the marvelous magic of Top 40 production.

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