The Real Don Steele, KHJ Los Angeles, August 2, 1967 (0:30:09)

… and it hits the innocent passer-byers …
[Description by Uncle Ricky for contributor Ron Riley]

This aircheck of The Real Don Steele includes his reading of “Don’t Ever”, a contest entry for KHJ’s Lyric Writing competition. You’ll also hear a great mix of Southern California hit music. In fact, Far Out Man, this IS 1967.

And whadda wrap. The finale is a complete Marv Howard newscast and a report from water-bombed Art Kevin at the Army Induction Center. The Danny Baxter sports report helped several listeners determine the exact date of this broadcast.

This exhibit is UNSCOPED, meaning that all the music is included. We are required to pay a fee for each listener for all musical performances on this recording. Plus, we must also pay the cost of Internet bandwidth to deliver it to you. We are a user-supported organization, and if you enjoy this exhibit, please say thanks with your support.

This exhibit required some concentrated back stage massage (noise reduction, etc.) and I’m tempted to believe this recording was originally taken from a telephone coupler, or that the audio was delivered over a local telephone connection. Did KHJ have an auto-answer phone coupler connected to their air monitor? KFRC did. Did all the RKO stations have this? Very high quality in, telephone quality out. Just dial the number and listen. (The number was supposedly for Big Guys only.) And some of these devices actually passed stuff up to 9Khz, at very low levels, of course. Depending on what you used on the other end, if you were in the local dialing area, and the switches connected “just right”, you could get a fairly wideband recording. The downside was the additional high-frequency noise. Notice the infrequent “dialing noise” here and there. Anyway, that’s my theory. I also removed a lot of 60Hz hum and some other click-click pre-digital nasties.

All in all, a fascinating recording, Thanks again to Ron Riley for this awesome snapshot of RDS on KHJ, August 2, 1967.

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!

Carl Davis
Trustee
North Carolina Broadcast History Museum