Brings back many great memories, 1967-1970.

Great collection, excellent quality, memorable cuts, thank you. I loved the PAMS 32's for WPTR and WKIP (Poughkeepsie), also Pepper Tanners were mixed in at PTR for 67-68 shows. Equally elusive is the "Now radio comes alive" set at KB Buffalo. Hope to hear them all again someday. OMG! - I just remembered "chickenman" . . .

@EllisFeaster

4 жыл бұрын

PsychedelicRelief If I can find a copy of Now Radio Comes Alive, I will post it.

@PsychedelicRelief

3 жыл бұрын

@@EllisFeaster Wow, thank you. As a teen, I recorded some cuts off the radio (using a mic). The reception was horrendous, but it's all I've been able to listen to since. I love hearing the cleaner cuts of PAMS series from stations I DX'ed back then.

A Gary Martin jock sing! Awesome! I worked with him later on at WCGY in Lawrence, MA.

When the then WNAC radio switched to Top-40 in 1967 as WRKO, many in the business thought that owner RKO General was making a big mistake. Although the company had two top rated Top-40 stations in California (KHJ Los Angeles and KFRC San Francisco), Boston had two long established Top-40 outlets (WBZ and WMEX), and many thought that RKO General wouldn't repeat that success in Boston due to the entrenched competition. The switch occurred in March; by the end of 1967, WRKO had become Boston's most popular radio station. As for the competition? WBZ would drop Top-40 and go to an Adult Contemporary format by the end of the decade; WMEX would hang on with Top-40 until early 1975, then briefly switched to a middle of the road format before going all talk. In 1981, WRKO was done in by the growth of FM radio. Had RKO General moved WRKO's Top-40 format to FM in the late seventies, we'd probably still be talking about WRKO being a Top-40 station today, although somewhere on the Boston FM dial and not at 680 Kilohertz on the AM dial. As for WRKO-AM? It's been an all talk station since 1981.

Growing up in the 1960's in Boston.

The jingle at the 0:29 sec was definitely made/played by LA's Wrecking Crew musicians.

Find some WPROFM WLS 75 Series, Synergy I, PAMS Series 46 for 63 WPRO, and jingles for WPROFM beautiful music prior to 1974 when it was 92 PRO-FM.

@EllisFeaster

6 жыл бұрын

As I find them, then digitize them, I'll post.

Ellis, I see in some markets Bill Drake used "Now Radio" instead of "Boss Radio" In Boston it looks like that was the case. In Fresno & LA it was Boss Radio. Thanks for this great blast from the past.

@EllisFeaster

5 жыл бұрын

You're welcome!

@BradLovett

5 жыл бұрын

CKLW used neither Boss nor Now. Always The Big 8 in that era.

@kirkmoore4515

5 жыл бұрын

John Stevens WRKO Now Radio The Big 68 WHBQ Boss Radio pre drake jingles Now Radio drake jingles CKLW The Big 8, Big 30 survey KFRC The Big 610, Big 30 survey KYA had already used the "Boss" handle as "The Boss of the Bay" as early as 1962, when Bill Drake was the PD of KYA KHJ Boss radio The Big 93 KYNO Boss radio The Big 13 KGB. Boss radio KAFY Big 30 Big 55 This one I'm a little sketchy on. They may have had a Boss 30 early on. The one Drake station with little info available. WOR FM Drake jingles, Bill Drake VO in the beginning. The big town sound. No Boss Radio The rest is ? Never got a chance to hear this station from San Diego or thru traveling/vacations. I did live on Long Island for a couple of years but it was in 1960- 62 in time for WABC but not 'OR.

5 жыл бұрын

@@kirkmoore4515 KYNO-Fresno, KGB-San Diego, KFRC-San Francisco & KHJ-Los Angeles were Boss Radio logo stations. I have seen WHBQ-Memphis surveys with Boss Radio but have not listened to Pams Jingles or Johnny Mann jingles with Boss Radio logo. The rest were "Now Radio" Boston and Memphis. CKLW-Detroit, WOR-FM-New York and KAKC-Tulsa were part of the 9 Drake/Chenault 9 original consulted stations. 7 RKO radio. Fresno and Tulsa were independently owned. KYNO-Fresno was owned by Gene Chenault in 1965.

@kirkmoore4515

5 жыл бұрын

José Benito Martínez Jr. KGB was RKO owned until 1954, until Marion Harris bought it, but remained a relationship with RKO. About 1961, Willet Brown bought KGB. Willet Brown sat on the board of directors for RKO general and continued the relationship operating KGB as a owned and operated station, although independently owned. WHBQ ran as Boss Radio thru 1966/7 but when the Johnny Mann jingles were introduced they became NOW Radio, as far as I know the only station to use both handles. KAKC was a independently owned station, but directly programmed by Drake. Don't know if the Boss Radio handle was used in Tulsa. KGB has a long history with Ron Jacobs. At the end of the Boss years KGB was losing 40 grand a month (huge amount of money in '72) as Buzz Bennett had gone to KCBQ & took all the on air staff with him. Ron Jacobs had moved back to Hawaii so Willet Brown bribed him with a huge salary to come back to California and put KGB back on the map. The KGB he created was a marvel and to my knowledge the only time bossjock Bobby Ocean did album progressive radio, although he didn't stick around for long.

Got any WOR FM jingles?

@EllisFeaster

6 жыл бұрын

Yep. I posted them a little while back.

The first jingles I hear are from the summer 1969.

@MrHmg55

4 жыл бұрын

The slow "Merry Christmas from WRKO" jingle was used from the very first December (1967) that WRKO was a Top 40 station, IIRC.

4 жыл бұрын

@@MrHmg55 I worked at post Boss Radio, KYNO-Fresno. The Johnny Mann Singers jingles( Recorded at RCA Records Studios. Sunset Blvd Hollywood CA.) for Boston were "Now Radio." Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego were the only 3 of the original 8 Drake consulted stations to use "Boss Radio" logo. All the rest were "Now Radio" or call letter logos.

Hey Ellis, can you find some jingles from the legendary Boston's Kiss 108 FM?

How about " This is ARCO Automated radio " ?

@MrHmg55

4 жыл бұрын

"This is Arko, your automated all music station in Boston!" You could hear the No. 1 song on that week's survey at the top of every other hour, alternating with the No. 2 song. I remember there was a 3 or 4 week stretch in the winter of 1966-67 during which the only songs you'd hear in those slots were "I'm a Believer" and "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron."

@stephenflowers8516

4 жыл бұрын

@@MrHmg55 Exactly! I remember blasting my parents Magnavox console Stereo to The Red Baron. Didn't WRKO also have Mitch Mitchum The Count of The Amount Dailing for Dollars?

@MrHmg55

4 жыл бұрын

@@stephenflowers8516 The name doesn't ring a bell. What I remember most about RKO-FM was Arko the Shy But Friendly Robot, the regular countdowns of that week's top 10 with snippets of the songs being played, the oldies preceded by the "FM Flashback!" shout, the songs from the top 10 getting the "FM Top 10!" and the mysterious "Arkomatic!" category -- that shout usually was the signal that a song that had recently dropped off the survey was going to be played (what today would be called a recurrent). Oh, and how could I forget the introduction of new songs every week -- "Here's the music that's happening this week on WRKO-FM!" followed by bits of four or five new adds to the playlist. When those tunes got a full spin, they were preceded by "It's happening!" Funny how I remember all this after so many years, but RKO-FM was so different from WBZ or WMEX, the dominant AM top 40 stations. No commercials, or very few, and the great sound quality of FM on songs kids could get into. Most of the FM dial back then was middle-of-the-road pop, elevator music or classical.