PAMS Winston-Salem My Hometown Record

Listen to or download "Winston-Salem My Hometown"

Here's a slice of retro for you. PAMS jingle company in Dallas made this generic song available to local radio stations around the country in the 60's. The station would find a local sponsor, write some lyrics, and presto!, a local hit.

There were over a hundred localized versions of this record, all recorded in Dallas. Radio Use Only blog has an amazingly complete story for you to read.

Bonus retroness: Thalhimer's Department Store was the local sponsor for this record through the local Top 40 station 1380 WTOB. Here's where you might have stumbled upon this record back then.

WKZL Winston-Salem Arbitron Numbers 1976

I walked into WKZL in Winston-Salem in January 1975, the day that WSGH became WKZL. The station was one of the first commercial album rock formats in North Carolina, and within one year was the overall #1 in listeners. The format was a loose mixture of rock, jazz, top 40 songs and some oldies. Just a step away from free-form, you could hear Sky King's "Secret Sauce" next to Hall & Oates, or a Donovan oldie next to Triumverat's "Spartacus". Jocks during the first two years included Alan Cameron, Randy Kabrich, Steve Day, Bruce Key, Reid Stott, Ron Spivey, Jerry Smith, Steve Marshall, Mitch Clarke, Lee Cameron, Nick Archer, Steve Norris, and Kitty Kinnin. There was a great production staff as well, consisting of Jack Shaw and Rowell Gormon.

Here's an aircheck of Alan Cameron reporting live from the Led Zeppelin concert at the Greensboro Coliseum in 1975. We couldn't get tickets from the record company because we were so new, but the Zep was so loud outside the Coliseum that Alan sounded like he was front and center. Thanks to Keith Weston for this aircheck. Listen here.

Want to see the whole six page Arbitron report? Download the pdf file here.

Here's a pic of Alan Cameron. It's blurry, just like much of the 70s.

WIBG Philadelphia Top 99 Songs of 1967

Here's the year-end survey from WIBG Philadelphia with the Top 99 Songs of 1967. Click to enlarge, audio version here.

WMAK Nashville Survey February 18 1970

WMAK Super Hit Survey from February 1970, with a Scott Shannon contest, and Nashville rockers the Exiles performing at the Nashville Auto Show. Life was good. Click any sheet to enlarge, audio version is here.

WEAM Arlington VA Alix Allies Club Card 1966

Jack Alix on WEAM in 1966 rode the James Bond wave of popularity with his Alix Allies Club. Here's my membership card in good standing. Click to enlarge.

WLAC Nashville Survey July 31 1967

Here's what WLAC Nashville was doing in the Summer Of Love. Not Top 40, but not entirely easy listening anymore. Thanks to Mae Ambrose for this image. Click to enlarge, audio version is here.

WFIL Philadelphia Survey July 24 1967

Another WFIL survey from the Summer Of Love. Click to enlarge, audio version is here.