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! |
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KLIF was the Top 40 Flagship of Gordon McLendon in Dallas. Our host for this all-too-short half-hour is Ken Knox (d. 1998, 63), who worked in Dallas radio for many years, including beautiful music station KTLC-FM (later KMEZ) in Dallas. But his KLIF employment included a 1959 appearance in a movie (The Giant Gila Monster) produced by McLendon, according to IMDB. Apparently, Knox was not the only KLIF DJ offered a part in a McLendon movie.
My guess is that some of the recorded commercial announcements were on acetates, well-worn and unbelievably scratchy. It’s hard to believe these “electrical transcriptions” were on the air at KLIF in 1961. On the other hand, the Futursonic Jingles sound very good, as do other recorded elements, probably played from a McKenzie Repeater.
Musically, it’s 50% instrumental, handy for padding to news, but those coming of age in the early 60’s will remember at least two truly golden classics. KLIF JetStream News with Jack Terry is up-to-the-minute, with “newsbugs”, but don’t give Ms. Schmidt any trouble, she sounds very serious. This was a remarkable radio station!
©2015 REELRADIO, Inc.
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[Description by Uncle Ricky] Contributor Tom Konard wrote that “this team lasted about two weeks!â€Â. This hour features Bob Dearborn and Larry O’Brien from 8-9AM on WCFL. Dearborn explains why the team didn’t last longer: “The reason  the ONLY reason  the pairing lasted for such a short period is that Larry had been negotiating with a radio station in Pittsburgh and finally accepted their offer. He revealed to me, somewhat sheepishly, the possibility of his leaving just after our two-man morning show launched. We had been great friends, working side-by-side at ‘CFL for two years, and hearing our jock office banter gave the GM the idea of teaming us for a morning show. Larry went along with it, not knowing then if his secret deal in Pittsburgh would come through. When it did, he left (after giving two weeks notice), and with considerable regret  not about leaving the station, but for abandoning me in that new morning show enterprise. We were ALL sorry to see that team end. Management was so enthralled with what we had done in those three weeks that they immediately began searching for a new partner for me, to keep the two-man morning show going. After trying and failing to lure Fred Winston from WLS (he was for it but ABC took us to court and won), we found World Famous Tom Murphy, who became my new on-air partner in January, 1973.†It’s October 26, 1972, the November election is coming up, so enjoy the political spot that is so bad it breaks up the hosts (@25:29 on the ‘scoped version). You will also hear SuperScore promos, an ongoing giveaway of small prizes. Two outstanding newscasts, the first with Mike Rollins, the second with Rick James. Both are assisted by Walt Hamilton and Bud Kelly. ©2015 REELRADIO, Inc.
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[Description by Uncle Ricky]
Bob Dearborn and Tom Murphy demonstrate their dry humor and witty brevity for this studio capture of WCFL from the 6AM hour on January 5, 1973. As always, we love the fidelity!
The Last Contest is in the “tell us what you want to win” stage, the music is very carefully selected for morning drive, and there are two excellent newscasts.
Three of 13 reportable music performances were restored.
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[Description by Uncle Ricky]
Newsman Raymond E. Spencer opens this half-hour of the WOKY Milwaukee morning show starring Jim Stagg. It’s the first day of May, and the Communists are marching. And yes, the phone company once published phone directories with “white pages” of residential and business listings.
Stagg spins a very adult selection of music for the morning here. Chris Lane was behind the formatting of this station, as he was for KYA in San Francisco. At the time of this aircheck, WOKY was owned by Bartell.
There’s a great background of the WOKY format with the aircheck of Sam Hale on WOKY from July 17, 1962. It includes comments written by those who were there.