The Mike Miles Collection
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It was in the early 50s when Mike Miles (left) asked Santa (right) for his first set of walkie talkies. Mike writes, "That was back when communication between people was of the wired variety with bulky black phones. I remember that Christmas, listening to "other" people on the same frequency. Little did I know that I was infected with radio fever from that point on." |
Mike Miles writes:
"By middle school I'd built my first AM transmitter using a pair of tubes. It was exciting just to think that someone might be listening to me and the songs I would play from my 3 1/2" reel to reel tape player. I'd beg my sisters to change the tapes as I rode by bike around the block testing the reception. The excitement of hearing my "radio station" was incredible—knowing that the radio waves were traveling magically through the streets of Salt Lake City.
One day I found an inexpensive wireless FM mic that I figured I'd mess around with and try to improve the transmission range. It occurred to me that I could simply put the entire mic up on a tall pole, running power and audio up to it, and I'd be in business. Now we were talking, my range jumped to blocks. Of course, I never realized the whole thing was illegal.
The time finally came when I left home and ventured out. Junior college in California provided me an opportunity to work at KFJC. Licensed to Foothill Junior College in the bay area, KFJC was the "Dead Head" station. Working midnight to six, I remember the program director telling me to play lots of Grateful Dead music. Spinning the longest cuts I could find, I fell fast asleep. Waking to the skipping of the needle on the last groove, a caller told me that the music playing was cool. Yeah sure!
Time and lack of money brought me back to Utah and school. KUER, the NPR station for the Salt Lake area provided me with an internship while I studied communication at the University of Utah. I worked as an announcer for classical and jazz music and music director. After graduation, I got a job in television production, audio, and finally management for KUED PBS television in Salt Lake City. While traveling for KUED as a location audio engineer, I'd record FM stations wherever we'd travel in the United States.
I never did own my own radio station. Different paths took me in different directions. Still, radio is where my heart is. Just to hear an AM station fading in and out as the ionosphere filters its audio frequencies makes me shiver. I wonder late at night if the DJs feel the same excitement as their voices travel past the cities, sometimes thousands of miles across the land to my radio."
Scoped
[Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by Mike Miles]
And here’s more rare Salt Lake radio with this hour of smooth-talkin’ Dave Foxx on K-96, KAYK AM-FM/Provo Salt Lake City from June 9, 1976. Yes, it’s stereo, but there’s really nothing over 10Khz. “Stereo” and “hi-fidelity” are not necessarily the same thing, and this exhibit is a good example. There were lots of misaligned carts at the radio station, and fading on the mobile cassette recording side, mostly near the end. One song was restored at cassette flip.
Dave is playing a young adult list, all familiar, with a decided preference for 25-49 females. The station had been previously known as KFMC, a mostly automated “old music” format, and there is even a Sound-Off segment featuring a letter from an angry ex-listener who doesn’t like the new “MusicRadio” format!
Check out that very casual newscast, during which Dave offers a special update from The Mormon Church. And is that Dave on the promos and “imagers”, too? It almost sounds like a one-man radio station!
Unscoped
[Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by Mike Miles]
And here’s more rare Salt Lake radio with this hour of smooth-talkin’ Dave Foxx on K-96, KAYK AM-FM/Provo Salt Lake City from June 9, 1976. Yes, it’s stereo, but there’s really nothing over 10Khz. “Stereo” and “hi-fidelity” are not necessarily the same thing, and this exhibit is a good example. There were lots of misaligned carts at the radio station, and fading on the mobile cassette recording side, mostly near the end. One song was restored at cassette flip.
Dave is playing a young adult list, all familiar, with a decided preference for 25-49 females. The station had been previously known as KFMC, a mostly automated “old music” format, and there is even a Sound-Off segment featuring a letter from an angry ex-listener who doesn’t like the new “MusicRadio” format!
Check out that very casual newscast, during which Dave offers a special update from The Mormon Church. And is that Dave on the promos and “imagers”, too? It almost sounds like a one-man radio station!
Scoped
[Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by Mike Miles] As this exceptionally rare recording of Salt Lake City radio history opens, we hear John Van ending his show and introducing Steve Carlson, who flubs his first set before John returns with a lengthy newscast. This is another REELRADIO EXCLUSIVE (we have the original tape), and we believe this news report to be accurate and that the aircheck originated in the local radio station, programmed locally, with local employees (at least two, John and Steve.) Otherwise, this is a cool wannabe original local radio station that was drawing from the fringes of everything most of us knew about radio in 1973. Why not present Top 40 music like an album rock station with jingles? Here we have the PAMS SOLID ROCK series (ie: WLS) used on a station with a female-focused Top 40 playlist (VARIETY, not diversity). They play 3-record sets (were they themed?) and the jock backsells each set. Then they play lots of spots with jingles between a couple of them. Notice how ONLY the newsman refers to the station as Crisp.
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[Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by Mike Miles]
Less talk, more music? No foolin’! Out of the 46 minutes recorded, less than two minutes was something other than music. There are lots of Scott Shannon’s recorded production elements to accompany this pre-iPod hard rock format, but Whitney Allen only appears twice for a total of 22 seconds! Could this format have been automated? Today, sure. Then, the technology wasn’t ready.
And it’s a shame we don’t get to hear more of Allen. What we do hear sounds great! Whitney worked in San Diego for 5 years before getting the call to help Shannon put his new Pirate Radio format on the air in L.A. A couple of years at the Pirate, and she was off to KIIS until 1995 when she moved to KZLA and then into the syndicated After Midnite. By 2000, she was working at a suburban L.A. station.
Don’t know the songs? Don’t expect anyone to tell you what they are. Not ONE song is identified on this aircheck, forcing the question: What the heck is a DJ supposed to do? Listeners were supposed to be 12 to 20-something, most likely male, and it’s unlikely they were anything other than caucasian. Pirate Radio played the music of their 1990 pimply-faced, testosterone-saturated MTV-driven lives. At least screeching guitars didn’t rattle walls, windows and floors…
[Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by Mike Miles]
Less talk, more music? No foolin’! Out of the 46 minutes recorded, less than two minutes was something other than music. There are lots of Scott Shannon’s recorded production elements to accompany this pre-iPod hard rock format, but Whitney Allen only appears twice for a total of 22 seconds! Could this format have been automated? Today, sure. Then, the technology wasn’t ready.
And it’s a shame we don’t get to hear more of Allen. What we do hear sounds great! Whitney worked in San Diego for 5 years before getting the call to help Shannon put his new Pirate Radio format on the air in L.A. A couple of years at the Pirate, and she was off to KIIS until 1995 when she moved to KZLA and then into the syndicated After Midnite. By 2000, she was working at a suburban L.A. station.
Don’t know the songs? Don’t expect anyone to tell you what they are. Not ONE song is identified on this aircheck, forcing the question: What the heck is a DJ supposed to do? Listeners were supposed to be 12 to 20-something, most likely male, and it’s unlikely they were anything other than caucasian. Pirate Radio played the music of their 1990 pimply-faced, testosterone-saturated MTV-driven lives. At least screeching guitars didn’t rattle walls, windows and floors…