I’m interested in reproducing a particular day of AM radio from 1969, so I would love to go over logs from stations to see what was played, in what order, how often, etc.
I do not need to see the charts for a particular day because that really only gives a hint as to what would have been played, not how often during the broadcast and would give no clue as to any older tracks that may have been aired on that particular day.
Were logs from AM stations sent to the FCC for archiving?
Good luck.
For the most part, radio station logs do not contain a detailed list of the songs that were played. The primary purpose of station logs is to assure correct billing of commercials. As such, they would contain detailed information about station breaks, newscast sponsorships, etc.
Only if the station chose to do so would music information be recorded. I doubt that any logs from 1969 would still be available from any station, unless they were boxed up somewhere in a warehouse.
Radio logs from that era were required to be kept by the station for a certain amount of time in case the FCC wanted to inspect them for any reason. I don’t know how long the stations were required to keep them, but certainly not up until today.
As FatBaldGuy said, the logs didn’t have detailed records of what was broadcast. A typical log would look something like:
9:00-9:05 News
9:05-10:00 BwanaBob (Music)
and a list of commercials and other items that were broadcast during that time. The “operator” would initial each item and note the time it was actually broadcast.
A couple of times a year stations would keep a music log, which was used by ASCAP and BMI to determine music rights payments. I doubt if any of those still exist, except maybe in some forgotten warehouse.
Your best bet might be to contact disc jockeys from that era and see if they have any “airchecks” of their old shows. DJ’s used airchecks as a sort of portfolio when they were looking for a new job. Broadcasting museums might be a place to start.
You might try contacting The Paley Center for Media (it used to be called the Museum of Television and Radio) and see if they have anything in their archives. If they don’t, it seems to me like they’d be the right people to direct you to where you’d need to look, if it’s even available.