76° - sunny at 9:30amGood Morning from Okemos.
Feelin' Groovy. Spent some time Saturday listening to Milwaukee's WKLH via the web (I'll be visiting Milwaukee in a few weeks) - heard a cool promo for a cool website spread on "40 Years of The Summer of Love". See it here. WKLH is simply a great sounding radio station; can't wait to hear it over the air.
More Groove: WDRV/Chicago also celebrating the "Summer of Love" on Friday. More specials to keep the format fresh. Listening to Bob Stroud this morning as usual this morning.
Nice Numbers. Classic Rock KZOK - with the legendary Bob Rivers in Morning Drive - remains #1 12+ (yeah) in the latest trends. Awesome job by a staff headed up by Carey Curelop; who I remember on-air as "Carey Cure" in Albuquerque (KFMG) circa 1979.Programmers on the sideline. Programmer/Blogger Gary Allyn writes: "Today, more than ever, programmers are sitting at home listening to poorly programmed stations, and wishing they could just get their hands on them.". Read Gary's blog. No pity party here - but Gary is so right.
Getting started in radio. This week Rick Kaempfer profiles here Chicago's Greg Brown on his Chicago Radio Spotlight. Greg details his story of getting started in the biz.I've been a fan of Greg's work since the 70s when he was on-air and programming WVFV/Dundee, IL. Top 40 in glorious FM mono. Still a great sounding suburban radio station in its time.
Greg mentions the primitive facilities of then-WSTK/Woodstock, IL. I visited that operation back then and his comments brought back some personal memories. I also recall a WVFV visit too and briefly meeting Greg.
Added: A quote from Bill Figenshu via David Martin: "It's time to take our audience back. We have great brands, let's invest in them again. The age of cutting is over. Consolidation 2.0 is on. And it's all about the operators. I love that!"
Have a great Sunday.
5 comments:
Please help to get DJ Greg Brown back on the Chicago airwaves by signing this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/GB062507/petition.html Thank you for your support!
Greg Brown is the consummate Disc Jockey. He is intelligent, witty, charming, classy and humble. He deserves to have a permanent home instead of "sitting in" for DJs in Milwaukee and Chicago. Back in the day, DJs made radio what it was and those days have returned to WZZN. With DJs: Dick Biondi, John Records Landecker, Scott Mackay and Elizabeth Grattan, on 94.7 Chicago's True Oldies Channel, you get great DJs combined with really good music. Greg Brown would be a great addition to the line up. Signing the petition only takes seconds, only your name is shown, your email address is NEVER displayed on the petition. You can choose to hide it from the petition creator. Copy the link and paste it in your browser and read the details. I hope you decide to sign it. (By the way, my signature is 12th on the petition).
Well, I am not naive enough to think that a petition will make a radio station hire anyone. The bottom line for them has been MONEY, pure and simple. That is why all of those stations turned into JACK, so they would not have to pay a DJ. Now it turns out JACK is getting jacked, off the air! But I like Greg Brown, and if it takes numbers to get the station's attention, count me in!!
I worked at WVFV in Dundee in the late 60s. There was no enclosed/glassed in studio at the time. We built it as we were on the air. The "board" was an old door with the usual equipment of turntable and cart machine. If my memory serves correctly, we got the cart machine in a swap for promoting Jimmy Fidler Hollywood Reports; sort of a Walter Winchell stacatto presentation of the latest Hollywood gossip.
On occasion, there would be a sidewalk sale. What we did was to slowly drop the mike out the window on Main Streeet and one of the announcers would have an automatic audience promoting the sidewalk sale.
Our loud teletype maching for the news source was in the bathroom. So it was an ideal room to rip, sit and read!!
We were on the air from 12 noon to midnight. The owner at the time was James French. At that time, the format was easier listening music.
The station did a great job in promoting sports north of Elgin; including the high schools in Disttrict 300! Jim Rumsa was the play by play announcer. I believe he was a counselor (?) at Dundee High School at the time.
I look back at that experience as one of the most enjoyable!!
I also worked part time at KVFD in Ft Dodge Iowa while I worked full time as a classroom teacher. That station donated one hour a week to the local high school who producced their own radio program. I was one of the advisors for the group and am proud to say that there are many kids who continued in the radio field and are now announcers or managers of other broadcast outlets.
Fred Johnson
Ames, Iowa
retired educator
Fred:
I appreciate you sharing your memories of WVFV.
I believe that whole era of the 60s and 70s were a very special time for radio - and not only at the large stations, but the smaller ones as well.
All the best to you and thanks.
Dan Kelley
Post a Comment