WXLW Indianapolis Wants to Give You 20 Thousand Dollars, 1974 (0:13:27)

… WXLW Wants to Give You Twenty Thousand Dollars …
[Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by Art Vuolo] For those of you who haven’t discovered our first WXLW exhibit, you’re about to be truly tweaked. This is the madness of early ’70’s Top 40 taken to the max, with awesome “imaging” (they didn’t call it that, then) by the late Gary Gears. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition! Steve Michaels and Bill Shirk (owner and PD) are featured here. Hot, Hot, HOT! Great Top 40 on AM in 1974. Is it still OK to air a promo that says, “Write It Down”? I think not, I think Arbitron declared this a no-no a few years after this. After all, it’s too suggestive to tell your listeners to write your call letters in their diaries. We can’t have listeners honestly reporting their listening.

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