That is one of the most amazing clips I've ever seen!!! Thank God for KZread! Thank God for Motown!!! Thank God for W4 back in the day!!!

Schaefer automation. CCA Ultimate console (one of the first boards I used on the air in the late 70s). Cool "film". Love it!

This is what radio was like when it was fun. I wasn't in the business when this was made, but I recognize the studio as being like ones I used through the years. I also appreciate that Don was dressed well. T-shirts and torn jeans were common for most of the air staff I worked with. I had people think I was in charge solely because I cared enough to dress like it was work.

WWWW. Another great radio station in Detroit. How cool is this!

Several hundred new views since this was featured on today's Forgotten Hits. Thanks for uploading!

This is when radio had personality. Miss those days.

Amazing how he looks like he is in High School but sounds and acts like he is a long time radio DJ in his 40s. I really enjoyed seeing the electronics of those days in this video!

@ChrisSpil

Жыл бұрын

Don must have been around 17-18 at the time! (1970)

Likely one of my favorite videos ever - how freaking cool.

Good job Don, brings back a lot of memories, I was in Louisville in 1970 and was 6 years into a radio career. This August (2012) makes 48.

I remember Don Schuster when he worked at WWWW "W 4" in the early 1970s. How many of you Detroiters from that time remember Ira J. Cook who worked with Schuster at "W 4". Those were the glory days of Detroit radio!

Being I used to work in radio, I really enjoyed this clip. I worked on a lot of the same type of equipment way back. All the music & spots were played from carts. It may have been a lot more work, but at least that was before radio got all corporate with the bean counters. The first station that I worked at that was completely computerized was WAVH in Mobile in 1998. It was great having all the music & stuff at your fingertips, but at that point, I knew the employment days were over.

That was great to see..wish it were still like that today on the radio..a real live person that knows his music..

Jock was good, knew what he was doing. Confident, and you can see it and hear it. Love doing radio from this era, though I was about a decade later. Still a good representation before computers and voice tracking.

Sadly, the Top 40 DJ format and style are gone. This guy was pretty good.

as a current radio deejay for a college station, this is a truly beautiful thing

@gordie225

6 жыл бұрын

I'm curious if you've made it in the business 5 years later.

@tommytruth7595

6 жыл бұрын

There are not many dj jobs around today.

@coffeehigh420

4 жыл бұрын

oh my

Thanks God out here in Amherst, Ohio we get 760am heard you this morning on the Applianced Doctor Show with Joe Gannon....Don I graduated in 1970 from High School we must be the same age.....I'll be 70 in November..you sure had a dream job;-)

That was outstanding! How did he run AIR to the film camera? Wonderful, fantastic footage. Nice clean audio, great DJ, killer tunes...God, I was born too late.

I see the station had a copy of "CKLW Solid Gold" at 4:05!

I don't see a "countdown" clock for the DJ to "walk" the opening of the songs. So that means he had to know his music! Yeah, the "Good Old Days" IS right. Especially knowing the band lineups, that was a classy touch. I like the "old music tape" quote -- and that music was only 10 years old at the time! Now it's 50 years old, and plenty of people listen to XM 60's on 6 today. And for once ... a proper use of a Schafer system (as a DJ assist)! Not as full automation DJ-less crap station!

Thanks for posting this! I loved every second!

thanks for posting this.....awesome vintage aircheck....the jock sounds good too !!

Fantastic video! Radio used to be so much fun.

I believe RIch Brother was PD also. He also knew his oldies. Tough coach to work for but a real pro.

This is great. Much appreciated. 😎🎧

Excellent! Such talent!

Thanks for posting. I worked at W4 from 86-90. It looked a little different then, but this still brings back a lot of memories.

@MrJimmyfever

4 жыл бұрын

Hey jeff yu got airchecks from yr days at wwww Detroit ty jim b

Wow, a disc jockey in a shirt and tie. Amazing!

This is a great memory. Great historical footage. Thank you.

Automation - the beginning of the end for radio.

@hormelinc I can tell you that Mr Schuster still knows his stuff.

chasfi- "Automotion System" would be a much more accurate term that the loosely used (from a 1970 perspective) term "computer" .

Man those posts were TIGHT!

Holy hell! I didnt know they had automation song systems in 1970. Now its something else to look up

Have seen a lot of air checks I think this is my favorite of al.l never heard Don Schuster. have however tuned in to W-4 when I was a kid , Dr. Doug podell hosted a Sunday morning oldies thing somewhere in the middle 70s I would have to say around 76 or 77. I may still have old recording of that program

Very cool!

really desired seeing this. Three huge machines keeping the years organised and then a turn table or two. He got into the soul more than the beatles...thus Detroit. trippy when he mentions '8 mile'

@sgillman16

4 жыл бұрын

What's trippy about 8 mile? I mean, it divides Wayne and Oakland County, but that's not very fascinating. Lmao. I live off of 9 mile

that was great

Does anyone remember on t played wo separate occasions, W4 doing all day Beatles? They wern't done in any order like a-z or from an album. They just played music like they always do, except every song was from a Beatles. At a later date, they announced they were going to do it again by popular demand. I put a cassette tape in my recorder and pressed Record. I made 3 cassette tapes.

@Anakin44441 It's kind of an odd process: the station at 106.7 FM in Detroit flipped to country in 1980, but in 1999 they flipped to a 70s-90s hits format and dropped the call sign the next year. Later in 2000, the call sign went to 102.9 FM in Ann Arbor, which picked up the country format (and the "W4" branding) at the same time. So yes, there's still a W4 that plays country music near the Detroit area, but it's not the same one that did it originally.

That is classic. I like that.

BOY THAT WAS GOOD, YOU CAN TELL YOU REALLY KNOW YOU'R STUFF AND YOU LOVED IT, I BET YOU HAD HIGH RATEINGS BACK THEN. VERRY COOL.

Indeed, I had to ask him to clarify what he was saying when I put this up.

AMEN!!

Does anybody know whatever happened to Don? I worked in radio for 35 years, but 1970 was a few years too early for me. I interned in radio in 1974, and got my first job on the air in 1979, so yeah... 1970... I was 12. LOL

that is a simple 3 tape deck system schafer made 16 tape deck systems in the mid 70's only well healed stations used them they were expensive

That computer he refers to at about 1:15 -- is that PC or Mac?

I thought Muntz Stereo was "Monstereo"....

Wow back in the days when jocks had to wear ties

@RegisWilkins

5 ай бұрын

Give it up with the typical old Jock "they wore suits" blather. He knew he was going to be filmed that night and dressed like a grown man. Most jocks today (there are very few) are morbidly obese, wear tee shirts with food stains on them, and smell. Guys that hated dressing up usually also hated doing public appearances, because they were anti social nerds.

8 tracks! They were a bad investment.

@MattS-On-Air

6 жыл бұрын

Tommy Truth Not 8 tracks but broadcast cartridges. They were widely used in radio right up till the late 1990s when digital audio played from a computer made carts and cart machines obsolete. Carts were developed in the late 1950s so almost 40 years of the technology was not a bad investment.

@saulgoldfarb7496

3 жыл бұрын

I never knew that W4 was once Adult Contemporary. What year did it go AOR? And does anyone remember when W4 played beautiful music?

The National Driving Safety Awareness Assoc. is hosting a Distracted Driving Awareness Walk in the Birmingham Home Town Memorial Day Parade. N.D.S.A.A. is in need of volunteers to march against distracted drivers on May 21st, 2017 at 1:00pm and begins at Old Woodward Ave. and Brown St. 586-359-7091

We're around...there's just nowhere to work anymore with all the consolidation and automation...and politics.

@Anakin44441 It's kind of an odd process: the station at 106.7 FM in Detroit flipped to country in 1980, but in 1999 they flipped to a 70s-90s hits format and dropped the call sign the next year. Later in 2000, the call sign went to 102.9 FM in Ann Arbor, which picked up the country format (and the "W4" branding) at the same time. So yes, there's still a W4 that plays country music near the Detroit area, but it's not the same one that did it originally.