The Big Ron O'Brien Collection
KTLK, Denver 
WCFL, Chicago
|
I got to know Big Ron O'Brien (October 24, 1951 - April 27, 2008) when he returned to Philadelphia in 1996. Thanks to Big Ron's mother Phyllis, along with Matt Seinberg at Big Apple Airchecks, Rochelle Rabin and a few others, including consultant J.R. Russ, I somehow got the privilege of obtaining and sifting through his life's work and archiving it for the rest of the world. I wish to thank those of you who felt I was qualified for this task.
There were over one-hundred reels in Big Ron's collection, about eighty-percent of them were not labeled. This actually made the dubbing process lots of fun, since I never knew what I was going to hear each time I would thread the next tape on the machine. All I needed was a sports score or a news headline and the Internet to identify the exact date of the aircheck. Some headlines took longer than others to check out. Ron also had a lot of aircheck material on CD. Unfortunately, none of that is included here, because they were stored with his music collection, which was sold before anyone realized all that was there. I like to think of this project as something like when they digitally restore old movies in Hollywood. Much care has been put into each transfer with the highest degree of scrutiny, and has been rendered with meticulous care. I had to add leader tape to most of the reels and fix more than a few splices. There was great attention to details for each tape, such as re-aligning the azimuth of the playback heads to maximize frequency response and keeping the heads super clean. Tape decks were connected directly into a professional computer audio interface (not cheapo sound cards). None of the audio was passed through a mixing console, processor or anything else that might add noise or loss. Some of the reels were originally recorded on a consumer quarter-track stereo deck and the rest were either professional full-track mono or half-track stereo. There were many cases where Ron attempted to record over an old full-track tape using a quarter-track deck. Luckily when you do that, some of the previous recording still remains on part of the tape. I like to refer to these as hidden recordings, tapes that Ron attempted to record over, but, with the right playback machine, they can be retrieved. Otherwise, several of the above airchecks (including a few from KUDL and WCFL) would have been lost forever! Also included here is audio that Matt Seinberg acquired from Ron shortly before his passing. Craig Allen also contributed a few unscoped items that he personally recorded off the air in Philly. There were a few stations that employed Ron that were not represented, so I added a few extras from my own collection to make the archive complete. |
The Repository thanks Big Ron O'Brien's friends for sharing!
Unscoped
And here is Part Two of Big Ron O’Brien on WXLO-FM/99X from May 7, 1975. Lots of phone bits in this hour, and Ron plays around with some sfx right at the start.
There are national spots, local spots and live spots in this hour. Ron uses a honking horn to introduce the weather updates, and he loves those phone bits! Lots of contests, too. This is great New York Top 40 on FM in 1975!
Scoped
Unscoped
May, 1975 was a big month for authentic Big Ron O’Brien WXLO-FM/99X studio airchecks – here’s Part One of a two-part capture from May 7, 1975. It is LOUD, just the way they made it. The playlist is predictable. Big Ron may not be predictable, but he fits the format – size XXXL! A Special Sports Report is included, too.
Hot Spots and Culture Captures abound, while Big Ron is fast and flawless in this over-compressed sample of 1975 99X, and this was probably processing as usual, at the time. Always loved the way turntable rumble was sucked up to to 80%. NOT! We miss you, Ron. Thanks for the airchecks.
May, 1975 was a big month for authentic Big Ron O’Brien WXLO-FM/99X studio airchecks – here’s Part One of a two-part capture from May 7, 1975. It is LOUD, just the way they made it. The playlist is predictable. Big Ron may not be predictable, but he fits the format – size XXXL! A Special Sports Report is included, too.
Hot Spots and Culture Captures abound, while Big Ron is fast and flawless in this over-compressed sample of 1975 99X, and this was probably processing as usual, at the time. Always loved the way turntable rumble was sucked up to to 80%. NOT! We miss you, Ron. Thanks for the airchecks.
Scoped
WNBC Music Magazine was apparently a new name for an old idea  the weekly Top 30  with the addition of music-oriented features, hosted by Big Ron O’Brien. Ron’s presentation here was a precursor to his successful run of syndicated countdown shows, On The Radio.
This was originally a studio recording of the first hour of the show for November 7, 1982. It sounds as though the tape itself suffered some damage, accounting for the infrequent drop-outs. And even though WNBC was broadcasting in stereo, this exhibit was recorded as monaural.
The Music Magazine feature in this hour includes Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival promoter Richard Nader (d. December 1, 2009) and singer Johnny Maestro (d. March 24, 2010).
Robin Quivers, later best known as news anchor and co-host for Howard Stern, is heard with a 66-second News Update.
Unscoped
WNBC Music Magazine was apparently a new name for an old idea  the weekly Top 30  with the addition of music-oriented features, hosted by Big Ron O’Brien. Ron’s presentation here was a precursor to his successful run of syndicated countdown shows, On The Radio.
This was originally a studio recording of the first hour of the show for November 7, 1982. It sounds as though the tape itself suffered some damage, accounting for the infrequent drop-outs. And even though WNBC was broadcasting in stereo, this exhibit was recorded as monaural.
The Music Magazine feature in this hour includes Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival promoter Richard Nader (d. December 1, 2009) and singer Johnny Maestro (d. March 24, 2010).
Robin Quivers, later best known as news anchor and co-host for Howard Stern, is heard with a 66-second News Update.
Scoped
This is the first hour of an overnight debut appearance of Big Ron O’Brien on WOGL-FM (Oldies 98.1) in Philadelphia on October 3, 2001.
Maybe he just wanted to practice a bit, or maybe the details of his employment were not yet final, but he is identified only as The Unknown Disc Jockey. This was Big Ron’s last station. He worked there for almost seven years, until a few weeks before his death in April, 2008.
One of the great things about this station in 2001 is that they formatted their hours like a traditional top 40 station. Music, ID, Music, ID – there were NO iPod seques (song-to-song without ID). And there was only ten minutes of commercial time in this hour, comparable to limited spotloads of the ’70’s.
The difference? There are only two stopsets. The first is 4:30 in length, the second is 5:30. There are also apparently mandatory music sweeps with recorded promos. Would an hour with four stopsets of half the length and more of Big Ron be a more listenable hour?