The Winn Simmons Collection

[ Description by Contributor Winn Simmons ]

 

Here’s long-time Chicago broadcaster Dick Biondi doing mornings on WNMB-FM in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. At the time, Dick was semi-retired, doing radio in the mornings and playing golf in the afternoons. He is also heard on most of the commercial production and “the second edition” of the morning news.

Dick was the only small-market jock I ever knew who drove a new, beige 1976 Mercedes-Benz to work, daily.

[ Description by Uncle Ricky ]This TM Productions ALTERNATIVE demo is HOT, and it’s right off the 5-inch 7.5 ips Demo Reel contributed by Winn Simmons.
The Demo Station is WQXI (wonderful long-time Atlanta Top 40) but these jingles ran elsewhere, too. As to the initial release date of this demo… well, the use of The Trammps could place it in 1977 or 1978.

This is a truly fantastic package. An entire 70’s-type station could be built around these, and some were.

[ Description by Uncle Ricky ] This TM Productions AIRWORKS demo features Ken Justiss who “takes over” the demo about 3 minutes in. It makes heavy use of STEREO effects, so it would seem to have been marketed to early FM stereo stations. Great fidelity – right off an original TM demo 7.5 ips reel. Yet, two AM stations are featured here, WAKY and CKLW. Let’s go to comments for date of syndication. Whenever, this was a VERY nice package, but wouldn’t you want to play them in STEREO?

[ Description by Uncle Ricky ] For someone who grew up in neighboring Concord in the ’60’s, it’s difficult to believe that the home of Cannon Mills would grow big enough for the “big town sound” of WJZR (Z-100) in the ’80’s! This aircheck was made in the Summer of 1984. Equally amazing is The Animal, the talented host of the Morning Zoo, slightly reminiscent of The Greaseman, with a bit of Jackson Armstrong’s Gorilla thrown in. Contributor Winn Simmons wrote that Animal R. O’Boogie “passed away some years back.”

[ Description by Uncle Ricky ] Here’s Robert Murphy In The Morning on WAYS in Charlotte, simulcasting in 1982 with Stan Kaplan’s WROQ-FM. You’ll hear the winner of the How Do You Spell Murphy contest, and don’t you just love the way those southern girls talk? You’ll also hear a few seconds of newsman Frank Coley, (aka J. Frank Coley), a veteran of WIXE in Monroe, just like Repository curator Uncle Ricky.

[ Description by Uncle Ricky ] Keemosabe Joe, Terry Tyler, Truckin’ Tom Armstrong, The Catfish and Brother (Chuckie) Boo Baron (WAYS) are heard in a composite of this remarkable Top 40 FM in Frederick, Maryland in the late ’70’s. This composite’s fidelity varies from segment to segment, but it includes promos, airchecks and jingles from what we believe was 1978 and 1979. It’s possible that there’s some 1980 in there, too. Contributor Winn Simmons dated this exhibit as 1980, and specifically noted “Chuckie Boo Baron” as a notable portion of this composite. Brother Boo Baron is featured during the last few minutes and begins at 14:01.

[ Description by Uncle Ricky ] This is a short composite of WKZQ-FM Rock 102 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, circa 1979. The best I can determine: it includes an unidentified Captain of Afternoon Rock (in the morning, or was that a promo?), someone named Casey, (Could this have been Steve Casey of Fred?), Debbie Snyder, Shotgun Stone and The Pilot John Van Phelps (or was it Pelt?) These people with (mostly) unusual names sound like they were comfortable in the old-fashioned high-energy Top 40 way, and Myrtle Beach was surely the place to be, at least in the summertime.