Tom Konard's Aircheck Factory Collection
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Tom Konard, longtime Production Manager at WCFL, got hooked on the magic of radio when he was a boy, and he started saving tapes in 1962 when he got his first tape recorder in grammar school. He would send blank tapes to engineers around the country and ask them to run airchecks. Initially, he never suspected his love of airchecks would lead to a career.
But it did. While working at WCFL, he built a small studio at home, collected airchecks of jocks from different markets and sold them to programmers with a popular service called "Around the Dial". He also published Aircheck Factory Monthly and the Aircheck Factory Newsletter. In 1981, Tom moved his business to a barn, on the farm he called Aircheck Acres in Wild Rose, Wisconsin. On a quiet country road, far removed from big city radio, Tom collected thousands of airchecks. His mail-order aircheck business provided him with a comfortable living. Tom got on the Internet in December 2000. He orginally heard about the Repository from our friend, the late Tim Benko at "Windy City" Airchecks. Some of Tom's airchecks have previously been featured in Tim's Collection, but his contributions have grown so numerous that Uncle Ricky insisted The Aircheck Factory have a Collection, too. Tom closed The Aircheck Factory in 2006 and moved to Belgium with his wife. We hear they are both well. And, you can still order airchecks from Tom at http://sites.google.com/site/yesterdial/. To Tom, who has unselfishly shared some fabulous treasures with the Repository, we say, THANK YOU, TOM! |
Superjock croons “The Day the Music Died” and laments “the end of an era” as he pans rock ‘n’ roll in general and attempts to convince WCFL listeners to remain with the station. The next day, Lujack was playing “Chicago’s most beautiful music”.
Paul Purtan, who became better known as Dick Purtan when he joined CKLW, is heard here on another legendary mid-American Top 40 pioneer – WSAI. This is Cincinnati in April, circa 1964.
The fidelity of this one is somewhat gritty, (though well-matched to narrow-band Real Audio) but not so offensive that we can’t marvel at some of the rarities within. Included: one jingle we recognize as Futursonic, and several more we don’t! Check out the $5.00 tickets to the upcoming Beatles concert at the Cincinnati Gardens. And, for 25 cents and 25 words, handwriting analyst “Andre” can tell your “likes, dislikes, attitudes, ambitions and shortcomings” – all without ever meeting you! (And this was a station promotion, too!)
As far as we know, Andre did not end up Wanted by the FBI but that feature and the PSA reminding us to read the labels on insecticide were part of the payoff to own the license in those days. It’s been a very long time since the NAB Lively Companion jingle, too, and there’s more in this genuine Top 40 treat.
This somewhat off-the-beaten-track treasure features a young and hyper Fred Winston subbing for vacationing Chuck Dunaway ( thanks to Jay Marks for his comment) on WKYC, (once WWWE, WTAM, KYW) Cleveland, Ohio.
This time around, WKYC is Power Radio, despite the “gavel to gavel” coverage of a convention announced by NBC Radio’s Tom Carson in the few closing seconds of a local newscast. The expected NBC network newscast, and any associated production elements at the top of the hour, is missing from this aircheck. Power Radio lasted 367 days. NBC wasn’t fully committed to the format.
Sure sounded like PAMS jingles, but according to a comment, they’re early TM. Another comment confirms that it IS Lou Rawls selling Cold Power detergent.
Now, freshly encoded for 2012, two songs have been restored and the rest is unscoped, with the exception of the missing 3PM newscast. Great playlist, but the board-op was so intent on “tight” that jingles were clipped a few times.
This aircheck begins with true Top 40 promise, but quickly drifts into oblivion. Despite the genuine PAMS jingles, KYA, a pioneering San Francisco Top 40, had real trouble projecting a desirable brand name just ten years after their initial success as a Bay Area Top 40. This (scoped) half-hour creates the impression that all the genius of their initial direction had been lost.
Yes, we have hot PAMS jingles, but we don’t play them often. Yes, we play Top 40, but even though it is 1970, we never play two records back to back. Sometimes, we identify the station when we play a record, and we play everything from the Marvelettes to Leon Russell, (“Future Heavies”) and we play Preparation H spots directly into “Hitchin’ A Ride”. It’s not necessarily the music or content, or the talent that is disappointing – it’s the presentation. There is no sense of station.
The GOOD news (I think) is that Pete McNeal went on to KHJ, from 1970 to 1972, so he survived this uncomfortable experience in the “Mysterious World of KYA”.
At 10.4 seconds into this one, you’ll hear the famous Storz Automatic Time Tone. It doesn’t seem to bother Connie Francis, who finishes her rendition of Many Tears Ago. Shortly after, Tom Wynn introduces The Bill Black Combo.
On this morning, Wynn played 3 records, did time and temp, hit the reverb, plugged the news, sold a Pepsi, and announced two contest winners all before 6 minutes after the hour.
Like other Storz stations, WDGY had a bunch of cool gadgets: The reverb, the filter (for the Weather Tower), a free-form time/attention tone (in addition to the automatic hourly one), a great news bug, and a few really nice PAMS jingles with the traditional WHB Yours Truly logo are included.
It was RADIO ONE, the NEW WQAM, (560) “the perfect spot for top pop music and the latest and greatest in up-to-the-second news”. It was the newest Storz Station, and it becomes the Repository’s earliest recording of Storz Top 40 radio.
It’s 5:60 PM and Gene Weed hosts the “Top 40 Show”. In this segment, Gene is counting down the current hits from #14 to #8 (Short Fat Fanny by Larry Williams). If you can’t even imagine a time when “standards” like So Rare and Old Cape Cod dominated the nation’s popular music charts, you probably won’t be excited about the transistor radio that is “so small you can put it under your hat.” But you can bet – this was incredibly hot stuff in 1957 when your yet-to-be Fab 40 uncle was 6 years old.
Gene Weed went on to KFWB in 1958, and is featured in Don Barretts’ Los Angeles Radio People. Weed passed away at the age of 64, on August 5, 1999, a victim of lung cancer.
More Gene Weed Airchecks