Retro Radio - Classic radio air checks from the 70s and 80s

The Tampa Bay area was in a severe drought. Listeners calling in for the "Mystery Personality" contest contributed their unusual methods of conserving water. This day also includes the CBS top of the hour time tone. I took great pride in timing everything to exactly meet that every hour. Back-timing records to have a "cold" ending to hit the time tone is a lost art... as is radio network news. Copyrighted material appears under the fair use doctrine.

This was my first afternoon at K99 - WQYK. It was also the first (and only) country format station I ever worked for. I don't like country music, so I'd turn the monitors off when the music was playing. Then I just did my usual stuff at the breaks. Ironically I was #1 in the Tampa market and after two years I had elevated to being one of the highest rated country DJs in the country. (I still got fired... mor on that later. )This old malfunctioning cassette doesn't have a lot of content. I was just settling in to an unfamiliar format. The circus is at the old Bayfront Arena in St. Petersburg, Rita Ciccarillo does news and I try to give away the "Cash Call" jackpot. You will hear the cassette die at the end. It's sort of prophetic. The GM argued with me about the spelling of the Howard FranklanD bridge and thought I was a smart ass, so a week later he fired me, Super Bowl weekend of 1984. (the first Tampa Super Bowl)

Friday morning and it's foggy. J. Paul Emerson has news, Brian Brewer is doing traffic for Gary McHenry and the area is under sever drought conditions. (Sounds familiar.) This demonstrates station branding at the excess. Blair Broadcasting programmer insisted on the station ID starting every break. And that meant the whole brand "93FM/WFLA FM". Telescoped like this it gets repetitive, but if you had the full song sets in place it makes sense. I announced the winner of a Circus World VIP package. (remember that theme park?) But the call to the winner doesn't go as planned. (If a strange man answers, hang up.)

As we get ready for the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics, let's go back to the day after the 1984 Summer Olympics. This air check features Gary McHenry (who is almost co-hosting with me) Tedd Webb discusses the '84 Olympics and Major League Baseball deciding on expansion (not), plus evening talk host Paul Gonzalez teases the legal discussion coming up that night. Since this is a real recording of the air signal it includes static from afternoon lightning strikes!

What do you remember about the 70's? That's the question on the talk show segment "People Radio" that I originated weekday evenings from 9:00 to Midnight. One thing to remember is that talk radio was much more difficult in those early days. Callers didn't have cell phones, so they literally had to pull over to a phone booth or call from home. Plus the notoriously cheap WLW didn't have an 800 number so the callers from the 38 state audience had to pay for the call! (I also had no phone "screener", and no engineer, so I ran everything in addition to being the host. When my contract ran out they replaced me with a host who had all of that!)Sorry for the poor audio quality at the end of this recording. The 1979 cassette was going bad.Copyrighted material appears under the Fair Use Doctrine.

Burt & Kurt were still doing mornings and I was in mid-days for a brief period after arriving in Tampa. On this morning Burt (Bob Burton) was off and I filled his spot on the comedy team with Kurt (Kurt Kilpatrick) The WLCY promotion was the "$100,000 Contest, Contest." It was a modified rip-off of "The Last Contest" with listeners vying for duplicate prize packages by simply identifying what it was that hour. One of my later callers had a shot at a pair of Ford Mustangs... she didn't win even though she had someone trying to silently tell her the answer. (She couldn't read lips.) She later unsuccessfully sued us.

BOO! This final segment of the 1979 Halloween night broadcast feature listener ghost stories and strange experiences. At the end of the show the strange stories continue on NBC News when it appears nothing has changed since then... inflation, government funding, interest rates. It's the ghost of administrations past making an appearance.Make sure you listen to Part 1 and 2 (the two previous podcasts) to hear the story of Fisher Hall on the Miami University campus in Oxford.

This hour features stories from touring Fisher Hall with Miami University Historian Sue Frazier as well a speculation about Ronald Tammen, and stories and haunting experiences from Miami alumni.

This is the first of three episodes of Halloween night at WLW filled with mysterious tales. This first hour was a partial rebroadcast of a feature about Miami University and the strange tale of Ronald Tammen's disappearance from Fisher Hall. Told by Dean Everett Lykens it includes more stories of encounters in the building and on the campus of Miami University and Western College. The Fisher Hall recordings were done in 1974 on WOXR in Oxford for a weekly (Sunday evening) "public affairs" program that was so notorious for not fitting the AOR (Album Oriented Rock) format of the station that we named the show "Tune Out."MORE STORIES INCLUDING LISTENER CALLS ARE IN THE NEXT TWO PODCASTS.

In !973 Columbus Day was a Monday Holiday rather than the old traditional date of October 12th. This "Goodbye Columbus Day Day" was a live tribute I wrote and presented on WOXR. (With apologies to Stan Freberg.) I had just started doing mornings in Oxford (north of Cincinnati) and I perceived this production as a big deal. So I had the girl I had just started dating record it in her dorm room at Miami University. (With bad radio reception.) Having her record it was actually a ruse so I could have an excuse to see her later that evening. By the way... a few years later we married. In April we will celebrate our 50th Anniversary! Copyrighted material appears under the fair use doctrine.

The afternoon drive slot at WFLA AM was fun because it paired me with traffic reporter Gary McHenry. I always tried to have a bit planned to bounce off him. Beyond some odd news item or fact it was all unplanned improv. You never hear radio like this anymore because the traffic is recorded from some remote location as is the on air talent who "voice tracks" (records breaks to be played later) multiple stations. This afternoon also features AccuWeather meteorologist Ken Clark.Live radio like this is gone now. (As are green stamps, which was the big on-air promotion this day.)

Traffic reports from the Goodyear Blimp! with Arch Deal are highlighted with Mike Weber and Martin Giles anchoring this afternoon drive segment. Also featured are Tedd Webb with sports, Alan Archer Accuweather, and Steve Cheney makes suggestions for weekend TV watching.

News1 Radio - News/Talk without politics! This is after the format had been on the air replacing the WLCY music format for a month. Mike Weber & Martin Giles were in the afternoon drive slot before moving to mornings. The show featured CBS Network news segments, Tedd Webb with sports, Arch Deal traffic, Alan Archer weather, and a variety of talk subjects. This day gold was at $459.79 an ounce, Hurricane Harvey was churning and discussion of left handedness with the head of "Left Handers International."

Mike Weber does middays on AM 1380 WLCY. It's the day after the 1980 primary elections. Howard Hewes steps in before his afternoon shift.

Mike Weber does middays on WLCY 1380 AM. The station was doing a "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" campaign in support of the hostages in Iran.

Mike Weber morning drive on WFLA-FM The Jacksons are coming in concert and there is confusion about coupons for tickets. Tedd Webb is doing sports reports including the NCAA allowing college football TV broadcasts on Saturday afternoons, Rowdies exhibition soccer, and Bandits football. Lee Hall has news of Walter Mondale visiting Tampa and potential female VP running mates in the 1984 presidential election and Brian Brewer is in the Firestone Jetcopter doing traffic.NOTE: FLA FM used a stand-up console (no chair) configuration to help add energy to the on-air presentation. They wanted me to be "up", but It sounds like I need to switch to decaf coffee!

K-99 afternoon drive with Mike Weber Later that evening "Night Court," starring Harry Anderson and created by comedy writer Reinhold Weege, premieres on NBC TV; runs for 9 seasons. Adrian Dantley ties Wilt Chamberlain's NBA record for most free throws made in a game by converting 28 of 29 free throws in Utah's 116-111 win over Houston at Las Vegas. Tampa doesn't have a hockey team yet but Edmonton beats Minnesota 12-8 in the highest-scoring modern NHL game.

The first "business day" of 1984. Continuous Country K-99 afternoon drive with Mike Weber. It's also the 25th anniversary of Alaska Statehood.

Jerry Springer sits in with me to take calls about the Who Concert tragedy at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum the night before.This WLW air check features calls from witnesses who were there and opinions on how to prevent it happening again. (A ban on general Festival Seating is called for.) You will also hear classic radio commercials about retail establishments in Cincinnati that are no longer there. (Sorry for the somewhat poor quality of the air signal recording from a radio cassette recorder.)

It's difficult being on the air when a tragedy occurs. This is the evening of the WHO concert tragedy at the Cincinnati Riverfront Coliseum. 11 died in the crush of an estimated seven thousand people trying to get in for "festival seating".This is the reporting that evening as the information was coming in. I was wrangling coverage by Pat Boyso and Jeff Hildebrandt on mobile radios at the hospitals. The following night (the next podcast episode) features Councilman Jerry Springer with me answering comments by call-in listeners. Ironically, our studios at 3 East 4th Street overlooked Riverfront Stadium and the Coliseum. I could see the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles.NOTE: This was recorded off the air on a radio cassette recorder, so it has the distinctive AM radio sound. Copyrighted material appears under the "Fair Use Doctrine".

After some months of reviewing my previous laid back performance and tuning my style to an updated station format I relaxed into more of a morning radio sound. (And perhaps drank more coffee.) The results were tangible in the ratings. I dominated the market with an Arbitron rated 36 share and Radio & Records magazine named me Top-40 Secondary Market Personality of The Year in 1977. I also got a job offer from the legendary WFIL in Philadelphia. (A phone call that came the same morning that we purchased our first house.... I turned them down because of that.)

Listening to this makes me wonder how I ever got hired. Coming from a laid back AOR (Album Oriented Rock) station I was definitely laid back, and using that signature affected 70's DJ voice. But,,, here is the first morning I was on the air at KCRG. Starting with the sign-on, National Anthem and all. (Remember when radio stations weren't on 24 hours a day? Ironically this particular recording of the National Anthem was the same one I used to listen to on my transistor radio in Marietta, Ohio when WMOA signed off, (I was probably about 13 years old) I then played it when I was the guy signing off WMOA... my first job in radio.) This includes an eclectic mix of songs played in their entirety. (Hit your snooze alarm now.) I remember the radio sales manager Red Rizor telling PD Ric Sellers that I'd be great if they could "light a fire" under me. (Listen to the next air check to hear the results some months later .)This ends with my production of a contest promo where I was trying to emulate the sound of "The Last Contest" with phasing and flanging the track while doing my best KCBQ impression. (Okay... trying to.) Listen to the later years at KCRG to hear my evolution.Copyrighted material appears under the Fair Use Doctrine.

My talk radio skills evolved after the gauntlet of three months of nightly programs. This night my guest was Councilman Jerry Springer who had been Mayor of Cincinnati in 1977-78. (Yes... THAT Jerry Springer.) He was on my show several times and one time during a commercial break he leaned back in his chair and said to me "This is fun. I think I'd like to do this. (be a talk show host)" The rest is history.

The switch is on to TALK radio at WLW. There had been a "Sports Talk" show tat ran for an hour in the early evening with Phil Sampp and Bob Trumpy, but this was new for the market and for me. This is the first talk show I hosted. (produced, scheduled, engineered, screened calls, etc.) It was literally a one man band. Compared to talk radio today it was very primitive. I did everything myself including letting in-studio guests in by going down to the lobby three floors down to let them in the front door during network news at the top of the hour. (That was when I could go to the bathroom too!) I could write a book about that chapter of my career.No 800 number for callers, no cell phones; so they had to stop at a phone booth or call from home, no board operator, no call screener, the "tape delay" was literally a bog loop of tape that ran from one Ampex 350 recorder to another, it was a busy few hours for me. I probably shouldn't have stayed with a sports theme as it confused some, but this one was "Do people take sports too seriously?" I had a University of Cincinnati psychology professor as a guest so I had something to fall back on if nobody called in. (A real problem in talk radio back then.) But to my surprise we got calls! Because it was a 50,000 watt signal, having an audience of 38 states helped.I'm sure a lot of people had no problem falling asleep listening to this.

It's February 3, 1980, a Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati. The weather is cold, gas prices are climbing, the Iran hostage crisis is underway, President Carter has submitted his new budget, in sports there's basketball. Here's an aircheck of part of that 6 hour show that day. Yes, an actual live person on the air that long with no satellite feed. Even so, I was the only person there, doing it all, and in complete control of a 50,000 watt radio station. It still amazes me that they trusted me that much.

"American Hot Wax Weekend" continues and it's the day of the big St. Patrick's parade! It was also the debut of the WKRC traffic helicopter. Randy Michaels is in studio with me and has a few comments about the 55KRC Mobile Studio.

After my contract expired at WLW, I was in discussion with Taft Broadcasting PD Randy Michaels about a position at Y95 in Tampa. ( I had offers from WWWE - Cleveland, and WLCY - Tampa, pending.) He needed a weekend shift filled at 55KRC, so I did that for a while. This was my first shift to get used to running the board (The DJ used to run everything... even at bigger stations.) before moving to daytime. This has that true AM radio sound. The static adds authenticity to the "American Hot Wax" weekend playlist.

More country morning radio.

My regular shift was afternoon drive. This continues my vacation fill-in morning show week.

More country music morning radio.

More country music in the morning.

Country Musc is not my favorite. (I turned my heaphones down when I wasn't talking.) But after Harte Hanks shut down NEWS1 Radio WNSI, (formerly WLCY) this was the job that allowed us to stay in Tampa Bay. When you listen to this you will see that "personality" radio was independent of what music was played. It worked, the ratings were great.

This was in the first month after I started at WLCY as Music Director and afternoon drive host. (Before I was made Program Director) It features classic commercials, the "Skyway Bridge" song, Jon Powers does news, Kevin "The Wild" Card does sports in a unique style, and Karla Haun does traffic.NOTE: She is pretending to be in a plane over the traffic (like our competitors) by being on a mobile radio in the next room!Copyrighted material appears under the "Fair Use" doctrine.

This is a composite of air checks at two of the stations at the middle of my career. 1977 - KCRG in Cedar Rapids,Iowa where where I worked under the direction of Frank Magid consulting and made big strides in evolving my on-air timing, and then 50,000 watt WLW in Cincinnati (which followed KCRG in 1978) where I had a 38 state audience. (Note: I used this in my job application in 1980 after leaving WLW. I was offered identical positions at WWWE, Cleveland and WLCY, Tampa. I went to WLCY.)