Retro Radio - Classic radio air checks from the 70s and 80s
Rewind your calendar by listening to Mike Weber on the radio between 1969 & 1986. It provides a memory reviving snapshot of the times. Most of these airchecks are "scoped", meaning that when the microphone was off, the tape stopped recording. (Copyrighted material appears under the "Fair Use" doctrine.) Career growth for announcers at that time meant that you started at small market stations and progressed to larger ones as your talent developed. So these recordings include music and talk formats from: WMOA, KNEZ, WOXR, KCRG, WLW, WKRC, WLCY, WNSI, WQYK, WFLA-AM, WFLA-FM, and finally WPDS.
Episodes
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 th...
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 Mi...
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...
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 nigh...
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...
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 ...
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 gu...
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 o...
"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...
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 ...
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