Mundane, Pointless Stuff I Must Share:
Being a bit of a ‘radiohead’ and fully understanding (as well as agreeing with) most of the complaints about contemporary (commercial) FM radio, I figured it was time to start an Aircheck thread.
Up until recently, I had no idea what an aircheck even was. I had heard (or come across) the term, but I assumed it was just a cassette tape of someone saying, ‘Testing 1 - 2 - 3’. Airchecks, quite simply, are taped recordings of radio broadcasts. Little did I know there was a whole sub-culture of aircheck enthusiasts, traders and entrepreneurs - some who go as far as burning their recordings onto CD.
Now, I’ll be the 1st to admit I’m definitely not an aircheck afficianado. With my limited knowledge of (and exposure to) airchecks, I guess I could label myself is a ‘dabbler’. My dabbling comes as a result of my love of radio and 2 very old cassette tapes I made as a kid: WNEW-FM’s 20th Anniversary program from 1987 and Pete Fornatale’s Mixed Bag Anniversary from the early 90’s.
Not to get too sappy, but I always wanted to broadcast my own radio program - that’s and partly because I love music & partly because I imagine radio waves flying out in the expanses of the universe. Since I missed out on progressive FM radio’s heyday & only got exposed to the medium in the 80’s - I really enjoy hearing broadcasts as they happened years prior. I pay close attention to the music, segues, opinions, commercials, news of the day & (unscripted) playlists of old NYC radio hosts like:[ul]
[li]Vin Scelsa (Who still hosts the only free-form program in my area: Idiot’s Delight),[/li][li]Denis Elsas & Pete Fornatale (who still also do a show on WFUV in the Bronx),[/li][li]Johnathan Schwartz (Who does Sinatra on XM Satellite, WNYC and my signature),[/li][li](The late, great) Alison Steele (a k a The Nightbird), and[/li][li]Dan Carlisle (The 1st air personality I heard live).[/ul][/li]In fact, it was Carlisle who prompted this thread. I googled his name today and came across this website:
WKNR-FM (Detroit) August, 1970.
Not only does it have links, a nostalgic poster for The Goose Lake Park Rock Festival (a Motor City Concert featuring Savoy Brown, Jethro Tull, Joe Cocker, Ten Years After, Mountain, The Stooges, The James Gang, et al.) but also has a link to seven short Airchecks:[ol]
[li]John Small Newscast[/li][li]Mitch back sells and introduces the next cut[/li][li]Station ID and an attempt to start the news[/li][li]Dan back sells Eric Burdon and bids Mitch adeu[/li][li]Iggy is introduced and talks inattentively about the Fun House album.[/li][li]Dan does his best to get Iggy to talk coherently with mixed success[/li][li]Scott White trying his best do read a newscast FM style[/ol].[/li]
So how about you. Have any experiences or links you wanna share?