The John Quincy Collection

[Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by John Quincy] Contributor John Quincy says this aircheck is from the personal collection of the late Lexington, KY. broadcaster Herb Oscar Kent (WLAP, WVLK). It was recorded from the FM simulcast of WPLO-AM. Hugh Jarrettcourtesy bandhistory.com Big Hugh Baby Jarrett was the baritone in The Jordanaires, Elvis Presley’s band. After leaving the band, he became one of the Southeast’s greatest original Rock ‘n’ Roll radio personalities. Jarrett was popular in the early and mid-60’s on Atlanta’s WPLO, and later on WQXI and WLAC, Nashville. He was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall Of Fame in 2007. In this rare FM simulcast recording, you’ll hear Jarrett literally yelling into the microphone, and then jump between his music show and the news. His original presentation of the latest R&B and rock ‘n’ roll music was irrestible for a generation of Georgia teens and young adults. This was the coolest radio in Atlanta. Big Hugh Baby was The Man. Hugh Jarrett passed away on May 31, 2008. He had been hospitalized for two months after being critically injured in an auto accident.

I worked with Tad Griffin at WSSX in Charleston in the early ’80s. Tad requested a WLS aircheck from John Gehron in the late ’70s. John sent him this composite. Tad gave the original reel to me in early 2005. Included: Larry Lujack, Jeffrey Hendrix, Kathy McFarland, Tommy Edwards, Bob Sirott, John Records Landecker, Jeff Davis, and Yvonne Daniels.

. [Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by John Quincy] Marc Avery was M.A. in the A.M. on WJBK between 1961 and 1965. Contributor John Quincy says this aircheck comes from the personal collection of the late Herb Oscar Kent of Lexington, KY. Most of Mr. Kent’s airchecks were from FM simulcasts, as is this recording. For 1963, the fidelity is exceptional. This exhibit seems to include three days in August, 1963. Thursday, August 15, Friday August 16, and Monday August 19. One set from midday mainstay Clark Reid on 8/16 appears around 13:35, before we jump (without any warning) to the following Monday and Avery’s show from 8/19. And even though it’s loosely ‘scoped, there’s a nice selection of classic commercials, jingles, and pieces of popular music. Altogether, a terrific sample of 1963 Motor City radio.

[Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by John Quincy] There’s one incompletely ‘scoped song we have to report, but otherwise, this ‘scoped exhibit includes some fabulous commercial jingles, and it sounds really nice, despite the infrequent atmospheric crackles and squelched whistle. It has some excellent samples of what made KAAY in Little Rock, Arkansas, a remarkable and memorable Top 40 radio station in the golden age of appropriately regulated radio. It’s the 5PM hour, and Buddy Carr is heard with a portion of the countdown of The Silver Dollar Survey. Doc Holliday is featured with a Bannerline newscast. And there are lots of PAMS jingles and sensational production, too! Contributor John Quincy says this aircheck is from the personal collection of the late Lexington, KY. broadcaster Herb Oscar Kent (WLAP, WVLK). How about that nearly mystical “bumper” jingle under and after the hits? Really works here, best use of this technique I’ve heard. And who remembers those record offers for albums featuring soundalike performers? Tonight is Halloween, the Great Pumpkin is out and there’s an invite to the KAAY Holiday Haunted House.

[Description by Producer John Burwell]This tape was originally put together for a WTMA New Years Eve staff party on
January 31, 1979. It was collected from bits and pieces of air checks lying
around the program director’s office. Some of the quality is horrendous on
a few of the segments, due to the rather primitive machines we often used to
tape the air-checks.

The 1969 introduction was voiced by PD John Trenton
as a sales pitch to Eastman Radio, a national sales rep. My favorite
line is when he speaks of five resident newsmen and one full-time news specialist.
The “five resident newsmen” were actually the jocks!

Featured: Booby Nash, from January 1969. This aircheck was recorded on tape
supplied by the U.S. Navy. They would get us to record whole days of shows, and then they would play them on Charleston-based ships while the ships were out to sea, as a little reminder of home.
John Trenton was Program Director in 1972 when he was taken off the air and made
General Manager. You also hear “Big Boob” substituting for John Trenton, and newsmen
Ray Campbell and Frank O. Hunt, who was hired when the station got serious about news. Billy Smith was typical of the early ’70’s sound of TMA — Screaming and LOTS and LOTS of reverb. By 1976 Keith Nichols left to go out to Oklahoma as a full-time TV weatherman. Steve Russell is a native of Bamberg, SC. and went to work for WTMA straight out of High School. A cut of Lee Richards is from after WTMA “reformatted” to a more “time and temperature” mode. Gery London replaced Booby Nash in afternoon drive when Nash went to WKTM. The Hi-Lo Cash Game was typical of our on-air contests during that time.

At 20:30, you’ll hear actual on-air profanity. (We didn’t use a tape delay.) The idea of the
contest was to guess the name of a song. The “computer” — the Mighty TMA
Music Machine — would reveal more lyrics each time we didn’t get a winner.
There were three carts involved in the contest

1. the main cart with the song words
2. a “Does not compute” cart for incorrect guesses, and
3. a “Correct! -You are a winner!” cart.

Don’t ask me how I did it, but in spite
of what happened, I was still able to punch the “Does Not Compute” cart,
and go on with the show like nothing happened. By the way, there is no
“Green Street” in Mt. Pleasant.

After that, Crazy Bob McLain, Tim St. George and a compilation of the on-air staff in 1979: Magic Mark, Ted Bell, Jack Lundy, JB, and Rick Tracy. Booby Nash was rehired as PD in 1979. As you can hear, his comedic wit in ’79 was just as good as it was in ’69.

“WTMA – always striving to be better!” That is the way that it was.
Here is MORE ABOUT WTMA.

This WSGA (Savannah, Georgia) composite from 1979 features morning guy Chris O’Brien, who was doing mornings at WKRQ/Q102 in Cincinnati before coming to Savannah to be with his ailing father. He later went back to Q102. Quite a catch for WSGA. The rest of the staff ain’t bad either: David Blair, Jim Lewis, Jerry Rogers, Chuck Cannon, Dennis Reid and Dave Miller.

Larry Lujack and “World Famous” Tom Murphy narrate a WCFL film prepared for the Bob Hamilton Report Convention. It’s likely this was in 1972; Murphy left KRLA in 1971. Wouldn’t it be great to find a copy of the film? Even though it’s just the audio track, it’s still fun to imagine what these guys were looking at. This rarity is courtesy of Tom Konard’s Aircheck Factory.