# Radio stations you listened to as a kid **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714 "2012-06-20T04:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/101 "2012-06-22T20:33:29Z")
Growing up in N.Y. you either listened to WABC or WMCA for the latest rock n’ roll /Top 40 hits (these two stations were in a duel to the death for the pre-teen/teenaged audience). I listened exclusively to WABC on my white Bakelite Motorola radio, to their star DJ lineup which included Herb Oscar Anderson, Cousin Brucie, Dan Ingram (my favorite), Scott Muni and Charlie Greer (I was hardly ever allowed up late enough for the late night jock, Bobalou). There was crap no station would be allowed to get away with today. For instance, WABC got ahold of a new Monkees’ release first, and the initial bunch of times they played it, they kept breaking into the song with an announcement (“a WABC exclusive!!!”) to prevent their archrivals at WMCA from taping the song and playing it themselves. Alas, both stations have long since switched from Top 40 formats to Talk. News/Talk, Talk/News or whatever purgatory AM stations have generally assigned themselves. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/102 "2012-06-22T20:38:21Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > Does anyone remember Alex’s “Radio Obituaries”? He played background music appropriate to the deceased whenever possible. > > After over 100 movies to her credit, when Margaret Hamilton passed - his musical choice caused me to laugh so hard I almost made a mess of the 101 commute. Any idea what he played? I loved Alex Bennett and listened to him daily, when he was on KMEL (“The Camel”). But I don’t remember radio obituaries, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/103 "2012-06-22T20:43:55Z")
> [@Chicagojeff](#): > > Funny this thread came up.. I was just lamenting in the ride this morning.. how bad local (Atlanta) radio is. The Bert Show is what I’m pretty much stuck with.. or Sports talk radio which at this time of the year is redundancy on top of redundancy.. > > Anybody got any stations i can jump on with tune in radio? Any recommendations?? On tunein, if you like Classic rock album oriented music, try Okemos Brewing Company. There is also She’s Only Rock N Roll, which is a recreation of WSHE. If you like Jazz, try JAZZ.FM91 ---
**Author:** ![bahia\_hombre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@bahia\_hombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bahia_hombre)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/104 "2012-06-23T04:29:21Z")
Northeast Ohio: WHLO AM - Akron, for the top 40 hits 3WE AM - Cleveland, for sports and the notorious Pete Franklin WLS AM - Chicago, because it was cool to pull in a station from some distance away at night WMMS FM - Cleveland, didn’t listen to much progressive rock as a kid but liked their “Home of the Buzzard” station ID/logo WWST FM - Wooster, easy listening (when my parents had it on) ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/105 "2012-06-23T05:12:03Z")
Boston during the 80s-Oldies 103 on trips to Maine. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/106 "2012-06-23T14:22:44Z")
> [@meanoldman](#): > > Late at night (weekend nights I believe), I’d listen to KAAY out of Little Rock AR. 600 or so miles away, so it would fade in and out a bit. But I did so enjoy Beeker Street (or was that Beaker Street) and Beeker Theatre. > [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > And my favorite late-night music, Bleecker Street Radio, KAAY, Little Rock. Thirded! My brother and I could get KAAY in Kansas City, Missouri. An amazing source of musical discoveries. ---
**Author:** ![DonLogan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DonLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonLogan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/107 "2012-06-23T14:50:56Z")
Boston late 60’s early-mid 70’s: Top 40 WMEX 1510 (gone through many call letter and format changes since then) WRKO 680 (now right wing talk) WVBF 105.7 (call signal, frequency and format dissipated long ago) It’s interesting to listen to air checks from the early 70’s Top 40, you’d have Led Zeppelin going into Cher, for example AOR WBCN 104.1 (recently demised to HD-only) Sunday nights: WEEI 590 (was an all-news station then, but had a sports talk show called “Sports Huddle” from 6 - 10pm or 7 - 11pm, I forget which). WGBH 87.9 Jean Shepherd 11pm - midnight WUNR 1600 Kenny Mayer midnight - 2am (Mayer was an entertainment reporter for a Boston newspaper; I think he probably bought time on the station and then sold his own ads for restaurants and clubs. He played extended comedy album cuts from a “studio” in his basement, and took calls from listeners, but you could only hear **his** side of the conversation, lol). ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/108 "2012-06-23T15:57:37Z")
I remember WBCN as a big alt rock station from when I was living in Boston. Although I was in my late 20s and not a “kid”. Growing up in southern CT, we listened to a lot of the NYC stations: 92.3 (K-Rock) had rock Howard Stern. 95.5 WPLJ also had hard rock 100.3 (Z-100) was sort of a mix of rock and top 40. 103.5 (KTU) was the hip hop and dance station. We used to blast that in the car when we were going clubbing. locally 101.3 (KC-101) was the big top 40 channel. 99.1 (99 Rock) WPLR was the classic rock / hard rock station. It used to be pretty awesome because the DJs would just play whatever they want. Every other commercial was a plug for Toad’s Place in New Haven. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/109 "2012-06-23T22:25:18Z")
**Don** -VBF is now ROR, classic pop. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/110 "2012-06-25T18:18:16Z")
> [@bahia\_hombre](#): > > Northeast Ohio: > > WHLO AM - Akron, for the top 40 hits > 3WE AM - Cleveland, for sports and the notorious Pete Franklin > WLS AM - Chicago, because it was cool to pull in a station from some distance away at night > WMMS FM - Cleveland, didn’t listen to much progressive rock as a kid but liked their “Home of the Buzzard” station ID/logo > WWST FM - Wooster, easy listening (when my parents had it on) Pete Franklin is why I still hate Ohio State. I wasn’t cool enough for WMMS, so I listened to John Lannigan on WGAR-AM. He was a bit of a shock-jock, but the music was mostly 70’s soft rock - the Spinners, the Carpenters, Hall & Oates. Loved the music then, love it now. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/111 "2012-06-25T19:36:07Z")
In DC in the 70’s and 80’s: I had to listen to country music every morning thanks to my parents. So it was WMZQ for breakfast. As a kid I liked DC101 for the harder stuff and 105.1 WAVA and Q107 (WQRX 107.3) for the pop/top 40 stuff. The only AM I listened to was the all-comedy channel that ran in the early-mid 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/112 "2012-06-25T21:41:20Z")
I am still trying to trace the circa 1980 Midwest radio station that ran serial episodes of “Huckleberry Raskolnikov, the All-American Boy with the Marxist Orientation”. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714/113 "2012-06-25T22:29:51Z")
KDWB 63 out of Minneapolis/St Paul during the day. KOMA or WLS at night (when their signal would reach southern MN). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radio-stations-you-listened-to-as-a-kid/625714.md?page=5)