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


Grdpa's 50 Dodge

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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???

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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

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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.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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. BosquezArturo 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 by BobT-47P15
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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 by plymouthcranbrook
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