It’s been a while since we posted a new WCBS-FM aircheck, and we think this one will delight longtime fans of the ‘Golden 101′! This goes back to 1978. Bob Dayton (WABC, KBLA) sounds warm and personable, and CBS-FM is playing all the great songs from the 50s, 60s and early 70s. This is the station that older New Yorkers remember so fondly.

We think you’ll really enjoy this classic, sent in on cassette. Your webmaster had to clean the audio up a lot on this worn recording, and it came out pretty good, albeit in mono instead of stereo, but that’s what the source recording was.

Remember, this is scoped, which means (for those of you who listen for it) that we have no songs on this or any of our airchecks. Only ‘incidental’ music, a few seconds of songs at the beginning and the end. This is to comply fully with United States copyright law.

New York’s OLDIES Station – 101 CBS-FM!

Bob Dayton, 101.1 WCBS-FM New York | 1978 is a post from: Airchexx.com

Courtesy of Contributor Henry Nelson (WHRK, WMC-FM), here’s one of the earliest incarnations that we can find of Oldies 101 WCBS-FM!

Were it not for Bill Gilliam giving the date at the start of the 10pm newscast, we’d have guessed this aircheck to be from 1971 or so.

Modern day programmers would cringe at Ed Williams’ delivery. Talking over the ends of songs, in most breaks, not a mention of the radio station call letters… I’m not sure where Williams went after WCBS-FM, but someone may know. This aircheck is so different from all the other ones of 101.1 that it’s not even worth comparing. If this is the overnight show (and I think this is, but it could be daytime) then the laid-back delivery fits, if not, then Williams was on an FM station going up against Ron Lundy over on WABC, and nobody was going to beat Lundy! Lots of do-wop songs in format, and while it’s cool to hear, certainly way out of place is hearing “If” by Bread, which would have been a recurrent since it was recorded the year before, in 1971.

There’s a lot of bleed through from an earlier recording on this tape, or there was a microphone on in the room… or perhaps interference from another radio station (although this is not likely because its on FM).

Heard toward the end of this recording is a short but full newscast delivered by Bill Gillian. The news starts out with Gillian telling us the date of this recording, and a ‘This Date in History’ segment (a nuclear test explosion). You’ll hear about a total eclipse occurring in NYC and seen around North America this date before the recording runs out.

Ed Williams, WCBS-FM New York | July 10, 1972 is a post from: Airchexx.com

WCBS-FM held a special event for their 25th anniversary. This is the first incarnation of CBS-FM’s Oldies format, with lots of songs from the dawn of Rock ‘n Roll up through the very early 1980s. The on-air celebration included old airchecks from the station’s relatively humble beginnings through much of the late 70s. This particular recording is of the final hour of Bob Shannon’s show, which ended early so that WCBS-FM could air a special retrospective.

Heard throughout the aircheck, plenty of weather as severe storms were moving through Queens and Brooklyn, having caused considerable damage as the northern end of the line moved through Connecticut. Also features a full newscast.

Our thanks to Frank Bruno for providing this fantastic aircheck!

WCBS-FM 25th Anniversary with Bob Shannon | July 7, 1997 is a post from: Airchexx.com

After the ill-fated “Jack-FM” format crashed and burned, CBS brass woke up to the fact that blowing up the personality-heavy Oldies format on 101.1 FM probably wasn’t the wisest thing.

Listen now as All News WCBS 880 interviews Cousin Bruce Morrow and Bob Shannon about the return of CBS-FM! Narrated by your webmaster, this includes a great WCBS-FM jingle montage at the end you won’t want to miss!

Thanks to contributor Gary Podoto for providing the WCBS 880 aircheck!

From a cold Winter Sunday night, “Weekend 101” and the Do-Wop Shop featuring longtime host Don K. Reed. There’s not much featured on this aircheck to indicate that it was recorded in 1978, other than those who remember those old jingles who might have been able to round down the general late-70s era. No commercial breaks, but Reed does do a couple of weather reports (this was right after the Blizzard of ’78 if I recall correctly) and one traffic report. Notable because no music station I know of does traffic reports on a Sunday night anymore!

This is all Do-Wop, mid and late 1950s music. A staple of the WCBS-FM format for over two decades, in fact, right up until CBS ditched the original 60s/70s Oldies format for the ill-fated “Jack-FM” Variety Hits format in 2005. Most will fondly remember this program for it’s content and just hearing Don K. Reed’s voice is a real treat by itself!

New York’s OLDIES Station – 101 CBS-FM!

Courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks, here’s an original tape which took quite a bit of time to re-master. Dick Heatherton is upbeat and fun, and the music spans three decades! At this point in the ‘Golden 101″ era, CBS-FM is playing everything from the 1950s to then-current songs, with an emphasis on late-50s and early 60s music. Interestingly enough, CBS-FM plays enough current music to do a music survey!

The historic nature of this aircheck becomes readily apparent as soon as the first newscast, read by Bill Gillian, begins. President Richard Nixon has announced he will resign at noon the following day, and he will hold a news conference shortly to tell the American people of his plans to resign. That news conference may just be one of the most famous presidential news conferences in history, unfortunately, while WCBS-FM did carry it live, the news conference took place after this aircheck is over.

Its another ORIGINAL aircheck which you’ll find nowhere else except right here, at Airchexx.com!

Matt Seinberg’s “Big Apple Airchecks” (http://bigappleairchecks.com)

The audio quality of this tape is superb! A couple of records (and you can really tell that this is vynl, or vynl recorded onto magnetic tape cartridges) have a bit of distortion, the kind that record collectors and old time disc jockeys will be able to tell right off, that have been played so much that the grooves are slightly worn out. That’s one of the charms of hearing this broadcast again.

A sign of the times for those of you who were computer hobbyists – and in 1993, that’s really what personal computing was all about, playing games in DOS and finding out what the new programs were that ran in the new Windows 3.1 Operating System. Win 3.1!! WOW! If you remember actually using that version of Windows doesn’t make you feel old, few things will!

I loved hearing this aircheck while editing. The music is mainly 50s-70s fare, although I did hear a couple of 80s stiffs (Huey Lewis & The News – “The Power of Love” was still a fresh song in 1993). Listen for a couple of mentions of Morning Mayor Harry Harrison coming up soon, and even one for Ron Lundy’s midday program! This truly is the WCBS-FM that everyone LOVES to remember! You will, too!

Date of Recording: February, 1977 (Exact Date Unknown)
Station: WCBS-FM 101.1 New York
Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks
Featured Air Talent: Dick Heatherton
Aircheck Entry: 1,406

Comments:

Here’s our third aircheck featuring Dick Heatherton on WCBS-FM. Although the news is cut out of this recording, you hear the start and end of two newscasts. Bill Gilliam is the Newsman.
This tape came in with four different airchecks on it and no date of recording. The closest we can get to dating it is by the chart positions of the current music – yes, in 1977 CBS-FM still played currents in between the 50s and 60s Oldies. “Torn Between Two Lovers” is number 2, Abba’s “Dancing Queen” is number 15. That narrows things down to about the 2nd week of February, but still no exact aircheck date without news stories to help pin it down.

Dick Heatherton, the “Leader of Lasagnaland” sounds good here. The recording is a little muddy, probably because its a 2nd generation recording. The original source tape may have sounded a bit better.

More in our series honoring Murray the K.

This only runs about 10 minutes long but you get a good idea about what Murray Kauffman’s show was all about. Son Peter Altchuler is interviewed about mid-way through this aircheck and comments briefly about his father’s career. Listen carefully to Ronnie Spector’s long comment’s about Kauffman’s career. Did you realize that a handful of these huge NYC DJs took their shows to the stage as an act? How many jocks today could be creative enough to create their own Broadway-type show? And one wonders what happened to radio? Listen to this. It’s truly a fascinating look at a man who really fashioned the early days of AM top 40 radio, and unfortunately we only get 10 minutes, cut off in the middle of Ronnie Spector’s comments.

Thanks Ray Bozzanca for the donation!

When Dan Mason returned as President of CBS Radio in the Spring of 2007, the first thing he did was make it clear that many of the blunders of the past few years needed to be fixed. The “Free-FM” brand was slowly dissolved, leading to the return of K-Rock. San Francisco’s KFRC was relaunched on a new frequency just a few months after that station had dropped its heritage format. All that remained was dealing with that pesky Jack in New York.

On July 12, 2007 at appropriately 1:01pm, Jack shifted over to 101.1’s HD-2 signal and made way for the return of a slightly modified WCBS-FM. Dan Taylor and Bob Shannon were brought back, but were joined by newcomers Broadway Bill Lee, Joe Causi and more 80’s music.

This version is nearly 45 minutes long and includes a scoped last hour of Jack-FM and the first scoped hour of Oldies WCBS-FM. Our thanks to Frank Bruno for this particular recording.

A shorter, high quality recording is available thanks to Lance Venta at the Format Change Archives!

It’s not often I get New York FM stations up here in Massachusetts, but this particular July morning we had a bit of a tropo opening along the east coast, giving me the opportunity to hear WCBS-FM for the first time ever from this location (It’s never been heard at this location due to a line of hills, and I’m at the bottom at about the lowest elevation in the area).

Enough about my DX hobby. This is a unique aircheck for another reason. Dan Taylor is back at the helm of WCBS-FM’s morning show, after first relinquishing it to a Monkee (Mickey Dolenz), then the station flip to Jack-FM. Taylor sounds superb, even if the signal isn’t so good from about 200 miles away.

This is the re-tooled WCBS-FM, playing “New York’s Greatest Hits”!

I’ve converted this recording to mono, to improve audio quality.

This begins with Top-of-hour IDs from WWFS “Fresh 102.7” and “CD 101.9” before heading into today’s brutally hot weather forecast from CBS-FM. You then get treated to about 10 scoped minutes of a scoped 30 minutes of New York’s Greatest Hits.

John Zacherle 1918-2016, Film, TV Actor and Radio Broadcaster

We interrupt this program because of a local weather emergency. This is NOT a test!

Comments:

With that statement and EBS tones, (at 38 minutes in) the whole tone of this FRIGHTFULLY GREAT aircheck is set in stone!

This has to be the best Haloween special I’ve ever heard. WCBS-FM really did it up right, letting John Zacherle take over the hosting duties for a night of scary fun. Contributor Ray Bozzanca sent this in, in pieces (and unscoped for future use by us if we ever are financially able to pay royalties…) which your webmaster lovingly scoped down to something acceptable to the powers that be.

The music is scoped out, but anything not subject to royalties is left over, which is most of this 3 hour show. Zacherle has a wierd sense of humor, but so appropriate as he picks just the right music for a Howlin’ good time!

Adding to the frightening nature of this aircheck, about halfway through, WCBS-AM Newsradio 880 Meteorologist Craig Allen cuts in with the old EBS (Emergency Broadcast System) alert sounder to give a weather emergency. A word about this… the old two-tone alert and the way the announcement was made really gave a sense of urgency to the situation. In your webmaster’s opinion, the current EAS alert, which is a series of computer tones to trigger an automated message, doesn’t do much of anything to scare the pants off listeners – but that’s what its SUPPOSED TO DO! The old system DID wake up listeners. I know, I used to drop what I was doing to listen to it. Editorial finished.

This runs 1 hour, 15 minutes, scoped.

The late Bill Brown @ WCBS-FM

Comments:

There are few recordings out there from before the Oldies format took hold at WCBS-FM. Still, many do remember the somewhat-progressive Rock format which was heard at 101.1 FM prior to 1972. Its an odd format that took many elements of AM top 40 radio – the jock talking over the music, Jingles, and one or two spots every other record or so. Hardly what one remembers as progressive rock. But what makes this stand out is the playlist. No doubt, Bill Brown is picking much of the music himself. Some album songs, a few hits (Its nice to hear “Mercy, Mercy Me from Marvin Gaye), and some low charting music, like the Steppenwolf cut early on in this scoped presentation.

Our Contributor, Steve Green, says this is one of his recordings. Taken from the source tape, it held up pretty well over the years, aside from some tape rumble and lack of low end frequency response. We’ve tried to clean it up a bit with some light processing, but essintially left most of this intact, as recorded from 1971.

Bill Brown passed away on October 11, 2011. Click HERE to read the memorial posted at wcbsfm.com

Listen to the wide variety of cuts in this pre-Oldies WCBS-FM jingle library. They are used often, out of stopsets and in segues. Runs 14 minutes, total.

Cousin Brucie at WCBS-FM

Hello cousins, it’s your Cousin Brucie!

Curator’s Notes:

We should consider this an Airchexx Exclusive since nearly everything our Contributor sends are original recordings. This came in on cassette. Unlike some tapes we get in, this one was in nearly perfect condition, obviously recorded on a high-end machine!

Here’s some of the things you are going to LOVE about this aircheck. Cousin Brucie fans will note that most of this 17-plus minute scope is all Brucie talking with listeners and reading live commercials. I’m personally struck by his ability to sound like he’s chatting with you in your own living room. There’s nothing fake about him at all… he’s always been this way. It’s one reason why his loyal fans adore him and even the few detractors admire him. Bruce Morrow always captures his audience and his positivity makes the show so good. It helps that WCBS-FM was the only go-to station for Oldies of the 50s through the 80s. He had the best music in the world to choose from!

WCBS-FM Logo, original Oldies format circa 1999

A young Dan Ingram featured in a 77 WABC Promotions Photo, circa 1978

Our Word for the Day on the Ingram mess is Contravene…

Curator’s Notes:

In writing liner notes, sometimes there are no words… Listen, kemosabe. Nobody is better at one liners than Dan Ingram! Period. Now, obviously, Big Dan doesn’t make a funny every break, but most. If you take the time to really LISTEN to this tightly scoped aircheck, you’ll be laughing before it’s done. I’m not posting the punch line, you need to hear it, every time!

This is posted on the occasion of Dan Ingram’s 83rd birthday. Happy Birthday, Kemosabe and here’s to many more!

About this aircheck tape.

This came in recorded HOT! What I mean by that is, the levels were so high that theres a bit of distortion on the recording. Its more noticeable at the beginning than at the end. Cassettes can be a wonderful thing. In this case, obviously recorded on a high-end recorder, it runs 50 minutes, unscoped. For the purposes of archiving, I had to once again, edit the entire tape and bring it to you scoped, to comply with current copyright law. If at some time in the future, laws are relaxed regarding online music content, perhaps I will be able to post unscoped tapes, but trends being what they are, it does not look like that will happen anytime soon.

The commercial breaks are mostly spliced out, however, I kept two in. One is a hilarious live read from Dan Ingram about an Italian Restaurant and the other is a computer store, which I kept in for historical purposes. I mean, really… anyone out there want a new palm device? Blackberrys became all the rage 15 years ago but who uses one now? (Someone does, I’m sure).

This is an ORIGINAL aircheck available nowhere else! If you find it online somewhere else, send an email confidentially to steve@airchexx.com.

WCBS-FM Logo, original Oldies format circa 1999

Date of Recording: 1991 (Exact Date Unknown)
Station: 101.1 WCBS-FM New York, New York, USA
Format: Oldies (1950s, 1960s & 1970s)
Featured Air Personality: Bobby Jay
Contributor: Ray Bozzanca
Airchexx Entry: 457

Curator’s Notes:

Update – 10/23/2017: It’s been more than a decade since this aircheck first appeared on Airchexx.com and returning this brought back a few memories. First, I met Bobby Jay at the Flemington NJ studio’s of radiomaxmusic.com, where Jay, former jock Bob Shannon (Don Bombard) and I performed jock duties at different times. Bobby Jay intimately knows the Do-Wop era and music, being a part of the group, “The Teenagers” (of Frankie Lymon fame). His programs from the Do-Wop era were legendary on WCBS-FM 101.1 in it’s longtime Oldies incarnation prior to flipping to “Jack-FM”. In addition, Jay is one of the kindest men in show busness. Somewhere in the airchexx vault is a tape that Bobby hand picked for me for use on the site, which one of these days will get posted in all it’s glory.

Original Comments:

Contributor Ray Bozzanca offered this long ‘check of the legendary Bobby Jay doing what he does best, presenting the hits of the Do-Wop era on WCBS-FM. The reverb is ON for this recording of the Joe McCoy era, Top Oldies station in its prime!

From the best era of WCBS-FM - New York's OLDIES Station!

WCBS-FM’s Don K. Reed

“Bringing the Memories on a Sunday Night here on the Do-Wop Shop…”

Curator’s Notes:

The most difficult part of being the curator of this online museum is finding adequate words to describe some of our airchecks. This one is especially difficult, because, not only is the audio fidelity nearly perfect, the program itself is quite rare. When WCBS-FM returned with its modified Classic Hits format from Jack-FM, one of the popular shows that did not return was the Do-Wop Shop. Don K. Reed did a wonderful job as host and was well loved by many.

There are few things that I can say about this aircheck that will enhance the listening experience. I will say that this is an original recording. The source tape is a TDK 120 us EQ Bias D-90 – 45-ish minutes on both sides. The machine that recorded this obviously was a high end recorder as levels are nearly perfect. I did not add any effects to master this recording, simply scoped down from the original unscoped tape.

This begins with the last two songs of the Sunday night Countdown with Bobby Jay. Then, its onto the Top of the Hour and the Do-Wop Shop theme song. There’s a few different cuts of this you’ll hear in this aircheck. No CBS national news or local news updates, but Reed does run down sports a few times during his show.

Overall, if you remember the Do-Wop Shop and love the music of the 1950s, this aircheck will simply make your day!

WCBS-FM Logo, original Oldies format circa 1999

Recording Date: 11.22.1981
Station: 101.1 WCBS-FM New York (Wikipedia) (Website)
Format: Oldies
Branded: “New York’s Oldies Station”
Ownership: (Then) CBS / (Now) Entercom (Website)
Featured Air Personality: Norm N. Nite (WGAR/WMJI/WCBS-FM/WNBC)
Contributor: Ray Bozzanca

Description by Contributor

On May 1,1982 Norm N Nite would start the Top 20 countdown shows on WCBS FM N.Y. The first Top 20 countdown show featured the year 1966. This aircheck is from Novemeber 22 of 1981 when Norm N Nite countdown the Top 10 songs of 1961 in his last hour of his show.

The Top Ten Countdown was a regular feature.  Each Countdown featured a different year, from that particular date.  This is a really fun aircheck!  Few jocks are as knowledgeable about the artists and the music than Norm.

From 2005 – 2014, Norm N Nite hosted a weekend show on Sirius Satellite Radio (SiriusXM) along with fellow New York City radio legends Cousin Brucie and Pat St. John.  He is now retired and resides in Cleveland.

101.1 WCBS-FM Logo, pre Jack-FM

Cousin Brucie at WCBS-FM

Date of Recording: 06.09.1988
Station: 101.1 WCBS-FM New York
Format: Oldies
Branded: “New York’s Oldies Station”
Ownership: CBS, Inc / (Today) Entercom Communications (Wikipedia)
Featured Air Personality: Bruce Morrow (Cousin Brucie) (WABC/WNBC/WCBS-FM)
Contributor: Frank Davis

Boy did I sound young!

Curator’s Notes:

This is really Part 1 of a two recording set of Cousin Brucie hosting a show on the Radio Greats Reunion. This was a Saturday, and we also have the Sunday, 6/10/1988 broadcast featuring Bruce Morrow.

This begins with a quick aircheck of Les Marshack on the overnight show in 1969 on WABC.. and right into Marshack on the phone with Bruce Morrow. They get to talking about his days at MusicRadio 77 – well, both of their days at WABC, and it just gets better from there. They went back in time with a discussion of the day Marshack took over from Roby Younge on WABC. If you haven’t heard this, its an interesting look back to when WCBS really played up 1960s radio and music… one can thank Joe McCoy for this great programming on WCBS-FM, back when it really WAS New York’s OLDIES station!

MusicRadio 77 WABC circa 1977

101.1 WCBS-FM Logo, pre Jack-FM

Cousin Bruce Morrow, 101.1 WCBS-FM New York | September 9, 2002
Bruce Morrow, WABC New York – 1969
Cousin Bruce Morrow, WINZ Miami, Part 1 | September, 1974
Cousin Bruce Morrow, 77 WABC New York | September, 1965
Cousin Bruce Morrow, 66 WNBC New York | September 5, 1975
Cousin’ Bruce Morrow Hosts the 2nd “Radio Greats Weekend”, 101.1 WCBS-FM New York | June 10, 1988