Happy 60th Charlie Chase

Happy 60th Birthday this week to Charlie Chase, WKGN Knoxville, WSM Nashville, TV, syndication, and God knows what else. Click to enlarge!

Y-100 Miami FL Survey Dec 28 1974

Nice jock pics on the back of this survey from 1974, courtesy of Mike Bohan.
Click each image to enlarge.

Charlie Daniels at WKDF Nashville

Charlie Daniels is a big fan of Nashville radio, and especially WKDF, who broadcast his Volunteer Jam series of concerts for years. Here's Charlie at the WKDF studios with long time KDF jock Tom Bootle. Click to enlarge, and R.I.P. Tom.

WKKO Cocoa Beach FL Survey July 18 1969

What else happened this week? Oh yeah, we landed on the moon. WKKO and Cocoa Beach were justifiably proud of this historical moment, as seen in their survey out on the week of the moon landing. Click to enlarge, and thanks to David Rollins for this awesome post!

WKDA-FM Nashville Survey June 22 1970

WKDA-FM brought full time AOR radio to Nashville in the spring of 1970. They immediately picked up a solid audience of album rock fans, and the station morphed into WKDF, and then just KDF. They stayed with the same format until turning country in 1993. Bob Cole, pictured in this survey at the bottom, is now seen as the father of AOR radio in Nashville.

Click to enlarge, and to learn more about the history of AOR radio in Nashville, click here.

WFIL Philadelphia Survey Jan 22 9168

Another survey from Famous 56 WFIL Philadelphia, this one from early 1968. American pop is making a comeback, there are only five British invasion songs on this survey. Local groups still make the chart like Barbara Mason and the Soul Survivors. And don't forget to order your Long John Wade niteshirt on the back!

WSGN Birmingham AL Mailing Label

Birmingham powerhouse WSGN was one of the giants of 60s AM radio, part of the Southern Broadcasting Fleet that included WTOB Winston-Salem, KOY Phoenix AZ, WKIX Raleigh NC, and KTHT Houston TX. Here's a mailing label from WSGN, click to enlarge. Learn more about the Birmingham Alabama radio market in the 60s by clicking here.

WMAK Nashville Survey June 05, 1974

Here's WMAK in summer 1974, still riding the Top 40 wave. Roger St. John is featured on the cover. Anyone have info on him? Lots of locally produced Nashville acts are in the survey, including Jim Stafford, Jimmy Buffett, Anne Murray, and Elvis. Click to enlarge and enjoy!

WBVR Russelville KY Sticker

Here's a great bumper sticker from WBVR Russellville KY in the 1990s. The station was a country format. I once did a commercial for them, and their slug line was "Leave It On The Beaver!"  Indeed.

WCFL Chicago Super CFL Super Hits of '74 Survey

Here's the WCFL Chicago Super CFL Super Hits of the Year '74, with some great artist shots on the cover. Click to enlarge and enjoy.

KLIF Dallas TX Survey Feb 12 1966

The KLIF Forty Star Survey, courtesy of Mike Bohan. Click to enlarge each section.

WLAC-AM Nashville Boat Shot

What do WLAC-AM night time jocks do during the day? In 1978, it was lounge on a boat in Percy Priest Lake just east of Nashville. That's me, Nick Archer, splitting nights on WKQB-FM and WLAC-AM.

WRC Washington DC Sales Booklet

  WRC in the 1960s was a full service AM giant, with authoritative news and music each day. I was introduced to them on the weekends, when my dad would set us down to listen to The Joy Boys, Ed Walker and Willard Scott, who did a very funny show. It was corny, with plenty of puns and slide whistle sound effects, but for my dad and I it was a bonding experience.

  I wrote a fan letter to WRC and asked for some station stuff, and they sent me this sales booklet, with info on the station and air staff. A page is below, but you can download the whole brochure as a pdf file by clicking here.

I also got some WRC stationary, but I never wrote any letters on it.

There's a great WRC tribute site that you can visit by clicking here. Check it out.

KFXM San Bernardino CA Survey Aug 08 1966

Another great survey from Timmy, KFXM/AM590 San Bernardino California in 1966. Click to enlarge!

WWKX KX104 Gallatin TN Jeff Baker Aircheck 1980

Here's an aircheck rescued from an old cassette. It's Jeff Baker on KX104, WWKX in Gallatin TN in 1980. There are some promos, an aircheck, a couple of commercials, and even a promo from fellow jock Jon "Rock 'n Roll" Anthony. KX 104 was one of the best in straight ahead radio, click here to hear the aircheck.

Lee Masters, left, and Jeff Baker, right, in 2011.

WFIL Philadelphia Survey August 14 1967

1967 was a great year for music and WFIL had every style. Pop, Soul, Rock, British, and the awesome local acts like Billy Harner, the Kit Kats and Bunny Sigler. "Frightened Little Girl" by the July Four is a classic folk rock song, and Dean Martin even sneaks into the playlist. Click to enlarge and enjoy.

Davy Jones at WKDA Nashville 1967

Sorry the 150th post on this blog had to be a sad one. Davy Jones passed away today from a heart attack in Florida. I don't have to remind you how many fans Davy had, and of his career, including being a child star in England, a cast member of Oliver! on Broadway, and his Monkee and solo gigs. Mike Nesmith has a nice post on FB right now, fans should check it out.

Here's a pic from Davy at his peak popularity in 1967, making an appearance in Nashville, Tennessee. DJ Dan Hoffman from AM Top 40 station WKDA is in the middle, and Nashville legend Boots Randolph is shaking Davy's hand. Click to enlarge the photo, and R.I.P. Davy.

Radio Station License Plates from Nashville

Here's a collection of license plates from some Nashville radio stations of the 1970s. Click any image to enlarge, and if you have any of these to show, post a link in the comments section.


WLAC -AM was still top 40 when this came out.


WSM-AM was news/talk all day and country at night, including the Grand Ole Opry Saturday nights.


SM95 was WSM-FM, soft pop and west coast rock.


Here's a bonus plate, the Exit/In, Nashville's hip spot for every kind of music in the 70s. Among the acts I saw there were Barefoot Jerry, Harry Chapin, Jan Hammer, and Stanley Turrentine.


If you want to see more souvenirs of Nashville radio in the past, check out the NashRadio group on Yahoo.

Benny Brown Community Radio Luxembourg 1981

Benny Brown was one of the great crew that manned Radio Luxembourg in the early 1980s. With 3 million watts on the AM band, Radio Luxembourg was heard from Russia to Turkey to Scandinavia and Africa.

Here's Benny from April of 1981 on Community Radio, the local Luxembourg service.


This is new from a cassette aircheck that Bob Stewart sent me that year.

You can listen to or download the scoped aircheck by clicking here. 
 8 minutes 22 seconds scoped, 7.7 meg.

Benny went to Frankfurt Germany for a few years, and now is back on RTL Community Radio.

WPDQ Jacksonville FL Jan 03 1972 Survey

Here's a great find courtesy of radio guy David Rollins. Click to enlarge and enjoy!

WKDA Nashville Jocks 1961

A snapshot of the WKDA staff in the early 1960s. WKDA was one of the first Top 40 stations in Nashville, and all of jocks here went on to great radio careers. Click to enlarge pic, and learn a lot more about WKDA's Top 40 days by visiting here.

KCBQ San Diego Survey January 1 1971

Let's start off the new year with a look forty years back to January 1, 1971, and the KCBQ San Diego survey, another find from Timmy! This special issue had a two page black and white insert, featuring the KCBQ jocks, the week's top 30, and the top 100 hits of 1970. Click to enlarge and enjoy!