The Terrell L. Metheny & Jr. Collection

WOKY, 1963: (L-R) Bob White, Nat “King” Cole, Steve O’Shea, Bill Henry and Mitch Michael (Terrell Metheny). The “MB” on the blazers was for McFadden-Bartell Publishing, the station owner.REELRADIO pays music licensing fees to bring you airchecks that include music, whenever possible. We are a user-supported organization and depend upon your support.

This mostly unscoped (but edited) recording features Terrell Metheny as Mitch Michael on WOKY in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Included are segments of the 3 and 4 PM hours from an uncommonly warm summer Tuesday (June 9, 1964.)

In addition to a few musical selections off the beaten path (and quite obviously targeted to WOKY’s “upper demographics”), you’ll hear several jingles, a spot for the second James Bond film starring Sean Connery, and an airborne traffic report from pilot Art Zander. In Milwaukee, Bartell’s WOKY was the first station to broadcast traffic reports from the air.

WKDA, 1959: (L-R) Sam Hale, Dick Buckley, Brenda Lee,Ronn Terrell (Terrell Metheny) and Bill Massey. Photo taken during a visit by area high school reporters who were interviewing Brenda Lee.Ronn Terrell (Terrell Metheny) is featured in the first hour of his 7PM-12Midnight show on Nashville’s WKDA in January, 1960.

WKDA was The Big Sound, complete with time chime and reverb-on-demand. Promos tout The Balance and Total Radio, and the production values are very high, including a few classic jingles and several big-band instrumental “bridges”. (The instrumentals were played from tape, allowing time to change records.)

There are lots of celebrity liners, and Ronn ad-libs a sound-effect for a revised weather reading, too. Though the rock ‘n’ roll records are sparse in this ‘scoped hour, Terrell’s energy level more than compensates for his “little flat friends, the records.”

This was taken from a reel tape. Quite a bit of click and pop and noise reduction has been applied to what you will hear, but there’s still an audible level of noise on promos and spots. WKDA played everything from turntables, with the exception of the “instrumental impact music”.

For more about WKDA, please read Sam Hale’s description and Terrell Metheny’s comments for Sam Hale’s 1959 WKDA Snippets.

This exhibit is UNSCOPED – all music is included as originally broadcast. We are required to pay a fee for each listener for all musical performances on this recording. Plus, we must also pay the cost of Internet bandwidth to deliver it to you. We are a user-supported organization, and if you enjoy this exhibit, please say thanks with your support.Mitch Michael (Terrell Metheny) on the air from WKLO’s “showcase” studio on Walnut Street (now Martin Luther King Boulevard.) To his left was a large window (not shown) through which the deejays could see the sidewalk and people could watch (and make faces!) Among those who did so as teenagers were Diane Sawyer and Dan Mason, later a President of CBS Radio. The small window to his right (with a girl looking through) was in an alcove at the entrance to the station where there was a monitor for folks to listen.

Here’s the first hour (3-3:55 PM) of Terrell Metheny’s last regularly scheduled show as Mitch Michael on WKLO, Louisville, KY., from May 16, 1967.

Morning superstar Bill Bailey, The Duke of Louisville, is heard on a number of commercial announcements. And even though all the music is intact, the commercials in this hour are also fun to hear, including The Blues Magoos for Great Shakes, Eva Gabor for Aamco, and spots for two native Kentucky beers: Oertels and Wiedemann. And, there’s a Chickenman episode at around 43:00.

This is a studio aircheck and the fidelity is excellent, allowing us to hear all the genuine grit of music on vinyl, circa 1967. One song was restored due to a flaw in the original tape, and all our exhibits are processed for online presentation, but otherwise, this one is as close to the original as possible. Enjoy!