Golden Gifts
ORIGINAL DEBUT: August 16, 1998.
RE-ENCODED REALVIDEO 8.0: October 13, 2001
Here’s the the video that got great reviews at the Radio & Records 25th Anniversary Convention in Los Angeles, June, 1998. The Reel Top 40 Radio Repository was asked to help with aircheck material for this production.
Bob Shannon of TM Century Productions wrote and produced this smooth and satisfying sample of sounds from before and during the time that R&R has been published. Credits dedicate it to “those who came before and showed us the way”, and “those who will follow and go their own way”.
As to the enormous task of producing a single quarter-hour intended to represent 25 years of radio evolution, Bob writes:
After gathering tape I ended up with close to 130 hours. This was edited down to approx. 7 hours of likely things to use…which eventually became about 36 minutes. These 36 minutes are likely to be released in audio form as a “director’s cut”. For the video presentation, however, I had to edit the final audio down to 15 minutes – a painful experience guaranteed to offend some. Still, if one believes that you’re not hurt by what you don’t play…
Included: Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele, Bill Drake, Bob Grant, Scott Shannon, Howard Stern, Mancow Muller, Dr. Laura, Rick Sklar, Jack McCoy, Charlie Tuna, Jack Armstrong, Wolfman Jack, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Harry Carey, Steve Dahl, Dan Ingram, Tom Joyner, Terry Nelson, Bobby Ocean, Jeff Christie and others.
Written and produced by Bob Shannon of TM Century Productions. Audio Editing by Archer. Additional Credits: Art Vuolo, Jo Interrante, Michael Spears, Ed Salamon, Rusty Humphries, Elroy Smith, Ron Harris, Rob Wexler, Ira Lipson, Al Casey, Dan Pearman, Bob Ward, David Gleason, Ron Jacobs, Jeff Davis and “Ricky” Irwin, www.reelradio.com.
“I had my relatives tape these from my home in New York state” writes contributor Dino Revito, who explained that this tape of WGRQ-FM/Buffalo was sent to him while he was stationed in Nakhon Phanon, Thailand. Dino pointed out Rufus Coyote’s mule/fuel bit for the New York State Thruway Hotline. Remember the fuel shortages in 1974?
WGRQ-FM was using acapellas (sparingly, and only out of stop sets) and the formatics were *very* lean. There’s only one “image” element in the entire 83 minutes, which was recorded from approximately 8:45PM until 10:09PM on March 13, 1974. The playlist runs the field from Hurricane Smith and The Dells to The Moody Blues, in the grand tradition of Top 40 variety.
To top it all off, they certainly featured unusual personalities at this leading Top-40 music station! Super Shannon appears during the last nine minutes, and he does Go All The Way with his entrance. Check COMMENTS for a bit more on this fellow…
And for the finale: A 60 second spot for Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles.
[Description by Uncle Ricky]
Paul Drew grew up in Detroit. His first radio gig was at Wayne State University in 1953. He moved to Atlanta in 1957 to work at WGST. By 1961, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Drake had moved into his apartment complex. In a 1977 interview with Radio and Records, Drew described how he left his job at WGST to work at WAKE:
“So Bill and I, one morning, just the two of us in my apartment over probably the best cup of coffee I think either one of us have ever had, something in the water and something in the coffee that day, and we talked about it, and then I went to work at WAKE… The list was 40 records plus each jock had a pick hit. We didn’t get to pick our own pick hit, that was picked for us.”
Soon after, owner Bartell sold WAKE. Program Director Drake moved to sister station KYA in San Francisco. Drew remained at WAKE, but in 1963, he moved to WQXI/Atlanta where he eventually became Program Director. Drake’s deal with RKO encouraged Drew to return to his hometown of Detroit as PD at CKLW in July, 1967.
Drew was later the Vice-President of Programming for RKO Radio. In the years that followed, he was associated with numerous radio professionals, and Repository contributors, like John Long and Les Garland.
WAKE is obviously an important part of the story of Top 40 radio. Except for the efforts and generosity of contributor Paul Allen, this exhibit might not exist, in fact, this may well be the only recording of Paul Drew on WAKE, just as we believe Paul’s recording of Bill Drake is one-of-a-kind.
This aircheck’s fidelity is exceptionally good for the vintage. I was also impressed by the precision of the format – like the KYA programmed by Drake, WAKE was relatively uncluttered. The pre-recorded production elements dominate, (there’s a singular classic jingle, too) and the weather (even the temperature alone!) requires the filter effect. But Drew sticks to the basics and his delivery is natural and relaxed. This was probably some of the most progressive Top 40 in the U.S., circa 1961.
Paul Drew died of natural causes on May 16, 2013. He was 78.
[Description by Uncle Ricky, credits to Rob Durkee.]
| 40 Years of Number One Hits on July 4th | |
| 1937 | It Looks Like Rain In Cherry Blossom Lane Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians |
| 1938 | Says My Heart Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra (Harriet Hilliard) |
| 1939 | Wishing (Will Make It So) Glenn Miller and His Orchestra (Ray Eberle) |
| 1940 | I’ll Never Smile Again Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra (Frank Sinatra) |
| 1941 | Daddy Sammy Kaye (The Kaye Choir) |
| 1942 | Sleepy Lagoon Harry James and His Orchestra |
| 1943 | Comin’ In On a Wing and a Prayer The Song Spinners |
| 1944 | I’ll Be Seeing You Bing Crosby |
| 1945 | Sentimental Journey Les Brown and His Orchestra (Doris Day) |
| 1946 | The Gypsy The Ink Spots |
| 1947 | Chi-Baba Chi-Baba (My Bambino Go To Sleep) Perry Como |
| 1948 | Woody Woodpecker Kay Kyser and His Orchestra (Gloria Wood) |
| 1949 | Riders In the Sky (A Cowboy Legend) Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra |
| 1950 | “The Third Man” Theme Anton Karas |
| 1951 | Too Young Nat “King” Cole |
| 1952 | Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart Vera Lynn |
| 1953 | The Song From Moulin Rouge Percy Faith and His Orchestra (Felicia Saunders) |
| 1954 | Little Things Mean A Lot Kitty Kallen |
| 1955 | (We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock Bill Haley and His Comets |
| 1956 | The Wayward Wind Gogi Grant |
| 1957 | (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear/Loving You Elvis Presley |
| 1958a | The Purple People Eater Sheb Wooley |
| 1958b | Yakety Yak The Coasters |
| 1959 | The Battle Of New Orleans Johnny Horton |
| 1960 | Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool Connie Francis |
| 1961 | Quarter To Three Gary U.S. Bonds |
| 1962 | I Can’t Stop Loving You Ray Charles |
| 1963 | Easier Said Than Done The Essex |
| 1964 | I Get Around The Beach Boys |
| 1965 | (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction The Rolling Stones |
| 1966 | Strangers In the Night Frank Sinatra |
| 1966 | Paperback Writer The Beatles |
| 1967 | Windy The Association |
| 1968 | This Guy’s In Love With You Herb Alpert |
| 1969 | Love Theme From “Romeo and Juliet” Henry Mancini and His Orchestra |
| 1970 | The Love You Save Jackson 5 |
| 1971 | It’s Too Late/I Feel the Earth Move Carole King |
| 1972 | Lean On Me Bill Withers |
| 1973 | Will It Go Round In Circles Billy Preston |
| 1974 | Rock the Boat The Hues Corporation |
| 1975 | Love Will Keep Us Together The Captain and Tennille |
| 1976 | Silly Love Songs Wings |
American Top 40 was celebrating six years airtime on July 4, 1976, when the United States was celebrating the Big 200.
The American Top 40 Bicentennial Special featured the Number One Songs on July 4th from 1937 through 1976. Sprinkled with fascinating facts, presented as only Countdown Master Kasem can present them, we offer a partial retrospective on the 25th anniversary of this historic program for July 4, 2001.
Our exhibit includes the program as presented on WPIX-FM in New York, but only for the years 1937 through 1959.
As Rob Durkee notes in American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century, AT40 specials weren’t exempt from goofs. This special features a mistake with the second song; Says My Heart is actually a song called Whoa Baby, on which Harriet Hilliard is not heard. Simply, they played the wrong song.
There were no Billboard charts from 1937-1939, so the first two titles were based on the reports of other trade publications. No artist is featured more than once in this countdown.
This aircheck includes an authentic, Sunday morning WPIX-FM newscast (at 24:23), complete with street closures for the Bicentennial celebrations that day. And, there is a great spot for Nathan’s Famous.
As of July 4, 2004, Part Two of this feature is available in The Dale Patterson Collection.
In addition to Dan Ingram (what more do you need?) this aircheck includes bunches of those PAMS jingles, promos for the $25,000 Button, and recurring “Musicradio” promos for WABC.
This one sounds like it came off a decent (narrow band) radio within the WABC “city-grade” signal area.
The late Rick Sklar, WABC Program Director, wrote about Dan Ingram in Rocking America.
Dan Ingram
“Dan Ingram had gotten his WABC job by first taping the station, then splicing in his own voice in place of another announcer. The edited tape, now filled with Ingram’s irreverent observations and double-entendre quips, was delivered to WABC. His success paved the way for other jocks who went after ratings by almost offending the audience. They were not supposed to go too far. Still, the on-air performances occasionally got out of control. With so much pressure to get ratings, even Ingram would slip over that fine line every now and then, creating an explosive moment.
To protect ABC from those situations, we had a clause holding the announcers liable for their own ad libs. In turn, most of the jocks carried insurance to cover themselves and we recorded all the broadcasts on tape…”