Top 40 Radio Author Returns to Galaxy Moonbeam Nightsite

Mike and Smitty welcome their good friend Dave Leonard back to the Galaxy Moonbeam Night Site microphones. Dave is author of "Aircheck, The Story of Top 40 Radio in San Diego". On this episode, we first look back, or rather listen back to some early radio jingles, from the 50s and 60s. These identifiers, used by stations around the country, helped to give a radio station its personality and help identify it from others that might be running a similar format. As the competition tightened in radio after the beginning of the TV era, radio stations found themselves in need of standing out from other local stations. Jingles helped out in this process and are well remembered to this day. As time went on, they got shorter and shorter until virtually disappearing, and we have examples of several from the San Diego market back in the day. On the second half of our show, we look back at some of the gimmicks that were used by your favorite DJs of the past, in order to help establish their on-air personalities. Such things as catchy names, outfits or costumes, sound effects, fictional characters, and many others were employed by air personalities in an effort to distinguish themselves from other talent and often these examples of shtick are why we remember someone from long ago who was once on the air. Our Retro-Commercial is a catchy musical number for 7-UP soda from the 1950s. Listen in and recall those great days of Top 40 Radio on Galaxy Moonbeam Night Site, on the Galaxy Nostalgia Network!