Your fav O-L-D radio stations that blasted thru that tube radio grille

[Grdpa's 50 Dodge]

This is for the yesteryear old fuddies (like me).  I grew up in olden AM only times and after dark you could get K.O.M.A. out of Oklahoma City Okl.  It was 1540 on the AM dial.  ALL kids ONLY listened to this station.  MOST of the regular AM stations in the area went off the air at dusk and KOMA was allowed to turn up the power to 50,000 what ya ma call its.

 

One of the ads on that staion was the ads for the "FABULOUS FLIPPERS".  A tremendous show band with lots of brass and constant motion.  They toured all over the Midwest and did appear as opening bands for some big time  stars.  you can google them.  Think they even recorded the song "Harlem Shuffle".  When they had a dance thousands would come,,,and travel hundreds of miles to see them.

 

Dont think I saw them back then ( just not in the right place at the right time I guess)but did get to see a couple shows/ dances on their reunion tour in the 90's .  They really still had all the magic!!!

 

NOW,,,whats your favorite old time radio station that you blasted thru that old time tube Mopar radio grille(with mono tone)???  And any  local groups they extensively promoted???

[Don Coatney]

WOWO out of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

[busycoupe]

WMEX, Boston, Ma

[P15-D24]

WLS Chicago, IL 50,000 watt clear channel station. 

[oldodge41]

KDKA Pittsburgh, PA

WLS Chicago and WCFL "Super CFL" Chicago

[Plymouthy Adams]

long ago before FM was legal in this country...WWL of New Orleans and one out of Jacksonville Fl....maybe WJAX...WWL was a good late night cruising station...

[Niel Hoback]

  WLS in Chicago.  Home of Dick Biondi and the Vault of Treasured Music.  The background music of the "Submarine Races" at Marquette Park in Gary.

[1940plymouth]

CFOX out of Montreal, Quebec

[JerseyHarold]

Locally, it was WABC (770 AM) in Noo Yawk City.  Cousin Brucie was on from 7:15 PM to (I think) 11 PM.    Also, believe it or not, WKBW (1520 AM) from Buffalo used to come in pretty clearly most nights.

[Frank Elder]

WLS Chicago, IL 50,000 watt clear channel station. 

On a good nite in San Antonio we would listen in to a Chicago AM station....I'd be fibbing if I said I knew which one.

[Dan Hiebert]

I went to High School in Presidio, TX.  No English radio stations at all - until it got dark and we could listen to -  KOMA out of Oklahoma City!  Many years later, working in Ft. Hancock, TX, I could listen to FM out of El Paso at one side of our territory, but the other was out of range.  Since that's where all the "fun" was, and all that "fun" was at night, I could still listen to KOMA when it was slow. 

[48Dodger]

610 K.F.R.C out San Fancisco, Ca. Home of Dr. Donald D. Rose!!!! 

 

 

48D 

[Don Coatney]

How about WKRP in Cincinnati

[austinsailor]

Remember when Dick Biondi of WLS, Chicago Got canned about 1959? Do you remember the joke that got him canned?

Gene

[busycoupe]

When I was a kid,, around 1960, a friend of my parents had a cottage on a lake in western Maine, just south of Moosehead Lake.  They had an old floor model radio.  It didn't receive many stations, but for some reason we could get WABC out of New York clear as a bell.  The signal must have been channeled up the mountain valley, or else it skipped off the atmosphere. 

[Niel Hoback]

He was the most popular personality in the Midwest at night, pulling in huge audiences.  Ranting and raving every night, talking with listeners and passing along their messages (there were no phoners in the early 60's), singing off-key in between songs, including his "On Top Of A Pizza," Dick Biondi owned every person under the age of 30. But Biondi only stayed with WLS for 3 short years. The old story of Biondi being fired because he told an off-color joke was simply not true.  Dick was very concerned about the high amount of commercials and news he had to run every hour and he let his displeasure be known to the General Sales Manager.  As a result, a literal fistfight ensued in the hallway of the station!   After it was over, Dick was told to go home and cool off.  He took this as being fired.  Eventually a mutual agreement was reached.  Biondi left WLS and went on to work at KRLA in Los Angeles, then later back to Chicago to WCFL.

[austinsailor]

Guess the rumor of Biondi was more interesting than the truth! I know the joke he supposedly told, it's the only reason we ever heard.

I went up near Chicago a couple years ago to pick up a 50's boat I bought (got to have old boats to pull behind old cars!) and thought about WLS, which I had't listened to since his leaving. Must have been later, like 62, now that I think about it. Tuned it in, and who was on? Dick Biondi. Guess his firing didn't last.

Gene

[Don Coatney]

So are you going to share the joke or keep us guessing????

[austinsailor]

We all listened to a St. Louis station during the day. It had all the latest hits. Can't recall the call sign for anything. I do recall it's biggest advertiser was Ray Rixman Dodge. Every 10 minutes, it seemed, "$99 down, no payments for 90 days". Guess it moved a lot of cars.

Then there was KAAY, little rock. It came in after dark. All sorts of hits, seems like Skeeter Davis was on every 5th song. Except Sunday night, then it was HLH Hunt and religious messages.

Then we might switch to WHB in Kansas City.

I guess we had a lot of choices back then.

[austinsailor]

Heck, Don, I figured everyone knew. Now that it wasn't even true I guess it's lost it's appeal.

But, we were told it was:

"If skirts get any shorter girls will have 2 more cheeks to powder and another place to shave."

Nothing today, but then it would have been over the top.

Gene

[austinsailor]

Well, Wikipedia seems to verify the dispute version, rather than the dirty joke version:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Biondi

I liked the rumor version better.

Gene

[H Suhling]

KXOK 630 on the dial in St. Louis Johnny Rabbit was the dj

if my memory is right

Harvey

[48ply1stcar]

Minneapolis in the 60's the stations for kids were KDWB 630 and WDGY 1130.  Now WDGY is a oldies station on 740 AM.  The station rather weak, but it's the same music.

[BobT-47P15]

Late at night, in southwest Missouri, I used to listen to WLAC in Nashville, TN.  They had shows sponsored by 

Randy's Record Shop, Stan's Record Shop and Buckley's Record Shop.  One of the DJs was "The Ol Hossman"

Bill Allen.  The shops sold 45 rpm record "packages" containing maybe half a dozen records by popular blues and

soul artists of the time.  Mail order, of course.  

 

Then, there was XERF in Mexico, home to Wolfman Jack, Paul Kallinger and others.  They sometimes said they 

were located in Del Rio, Texas.....but were really in Mexico.

 

Found this info on another site:   XERF-AM was a Mexican clear-channel station on 1570 kHz in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, near the United States border. It gained fame as a 250-kilowatt border blaster used by famed disc jockeys Ramon D. Bosquez, Arturo Gonzalez, and Wolfman Jack. Now branded as La Poderosa, it is owned by the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER), a Mexican public broadcaster.

 

On a couple local and area stations in the 50s  you could call the DJ and have him

dedicate a song to your girlfriend or boyfriend (or just a friend.)  The good old days

of A.M. radio.  

Edited February 24, 2014 by BobT-47P15

[plymouthcranbrook]

Heck, Don, I figured everyone knew. Now that it wasn't even true I guess it's lost it's appeal.

But, we were told it was:

"If skirts get any shorter girls will have 2 more cheeks to powder and another place to shave."

Nothing today, but then it would have been over the top.

Gene

That is not the one I heard that he told.  But I cannot even repeat it here.  As an aside, I was one of Weber's Commandos part of the promotion pitting Riley's

Raiders vs Weber's Commandos for which DJ was the most popular. I think that that was WCFL.  I used to enjoy Wolfman Jack as well, but I believe he was out of New York at that time.

Edited February 27, 2014 by plymouthcranbrook