Bob Shannon, WCBS-FM, RadioMaxMusic

Curator’s Notes:

Here’s a quick aircheck featuring Bob Shannon in his familiar PM Drive spot. What I notice is that Shannon seems off his game this particular afternoon, with unnaturally long pauses as if he’s thinking of the right thing to say. Hey, that’s just an observation. Shannon later dropped out of sight, leaving CBS-FM and the gig he shared with his wife, Connie T. Empress at WLNG. Rumors have abounded over the years, but I have no information… most likely no more than any of you.

I worked along with Bob Shannon at a certain internet station that will remain nameless…

Bob Shannon, WCBS-FM, RadioMaxMusic

Doing a special edition of his famous “Behind The Hits” segment, Shannon plays host, via telephone, to Freddie “Boom Boom” Cannon, who was one of the pre-psychedelic 1960s artists who rose to prominence along such artists as the Beach Boys, and so on. Without giving it away, you really must listen to this, as Bob Shannon (Don Bombard) and Cannon talk as if they are best friends… and they very well may be!

This is a wonderful recording, a gift to us from Contributor Steven Green, who reminds us that Jesus is the road to Salvation! I’ll leave that right there.

“… Not only you’re my favorite DJ, you’re my favorite bass man as well…”

Bobby Jay has always been one of our all-time personal favorite CBS-FM jocks. Your curator got to know Bobby when we were both on RadioMaxMusic internet radio. There is simply NO ONE around who knows 1950s Do-Wop music better than Bobby Jay!

This is a composite aircheck, put together by our Contributor Steven Green. It combines two different broadcasts, the first from 05.07.1993 and the second from 06.02.1995. The quality is okay. It certainly could have been better, but you know… recording quality depends upon the head alignment of the recording device and sometimes minute flaws in the cassette shell casing will make a tape sit on the heads just a bit off center, thus, you hear a somewhat muffled sound during playback. Such is the case here, where this C-90 had three different recordings of CBS-FM, two on side A and one on side B.

The second part of this recording, apparently, was the final “Friday 50s” show for Bobby Jay. He has numerous callers mentioning that on the show. This is also from the latter half of the original Oldies format featuring the music exclusively of the 50s, 60s & 70s, as the station would soon move to a more 60s/70s/80s oriented format, before updating it to mainly 70s/80s Classic Hits in the 2000s… And the rest, as they say, is history!

WCBS-FM’s Don K. Reed

We’ll let ya in anytime seven to midnight…

In the days before Jack-FM, CBS-FM had a number of great Oldies personalities and specialty shows. 1994 was perhaps the middle of the greatest era for this Oldies outlet (thought so by many whom I’ve talked to over the years), and the personalities who called this station home are fondly remembered even today!

One such specialty program was “The Do-Wop Shop”. Specializing in rare and in some cases forgotten 1950s early Rock & Roll music, Don K Reed is the jock best known as the host of this program. Bobby Jay also hosted this show for a number of years after Reed’s departure but it’s Don K who is still best remembered for a show that went away along with most of the 1950s & 1960s music during the two year “Jack FM” hiatus before CBS-FM returned with it’s current Classic Hits format.





Now, this particular Sunday evening, Reed’s guests are The Orioles, whom he featured in the second hour of his program. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1955.

This aircheck was recorded by, and donated to us by Contributor Steven Green of Austin, Texas. Many thanks!

The post Don K Reed and The Do-Wop Shop, 101.1 WCBS-FM New York | October 23, 1994 appeared first on Airchexx.com.

Don K. Reed

Don K. Reed features two Christmas oriented Do-Wop albums this particular night, and while it’s not all Christmas music, there’s plenty peppered in on this Christmas Eve, 1994.

This recording came by way of a mislabeled cassette. The recording, we know was from the Saturday night Do Wop Shop prior to Christmas day, which, in 1994, was Saturday, December 24th. How lucky to have this show fall on the one-night one wants to be home with the family, but such is life in the world of radio broadcasting! In this recording, while we had to scope out the music (which is very unfortunate), notice the Christmas songs recorded in the Do-Wop era!

This is an original recording made by Contributor Steven Green. Mr. Green recently donated half a dozen cassette original recordings, all of them are of various jocks on WCBS-FM.

The post Don K. Reed’s Doo Wop Shop Christmas Special, 101.1 WCBS-FM New York | December 24, 1994 appeared first on Airchexx.com.

CBS-FM and that’s the sound of, yes, you know who. The Dells…

Don K. Reed and the Doo Wop Shop is open for business one more time, just after Thanksgiving on New York’s Oldies Station. This is another in the series of Doo Wop Shop airchecks we received from Contributor Steven Green, who recorded these tapes while in New York.  Thank you, Steven!

It’s remarkable how laid-back Don K. Reed is. Records run out and for a second, you can hear that record scratch… talk about authentic! For those of you who love and cherish the Doo Wop groups of the early Rock & Roll 1950s, this show will appeal to you.

For the sake of presentation, this aircheck is scoped down to 34:54, from two sides of a C-90 cassette. We have the master, unscoped copy in our archives just in case we are ever able to post unscoped airchecks. Meantime, enjoy yet another Doo Wop Shop from CBS-FM!

The post Don K. Reed and the Doo Wop Shop; 101.1 WCBS-FM New York | November 27, 1994 appeared first on Airchexx.com.

It’s Friday October 28, 1983. Your heading home, in New York, after a busy Friday, as you tune around the radio dial. This recording is an example of what you would have head. I was driving around New York, and just tuning up & down the dial, and recording what I head. You’ll hear many of the big players, like WHTZ Z100, WPIX-FM, WNEW-FM, WRKS 98.7 Kiss , WAPP, WBLS, WYNY, WKTU, WNJR, & WPIX. You’ll also hear some of the afternoon & early evening personalities like Jack Da Wack, Mike Wade, Meg Griffin, Mary Thomas, Rosco, Don K Reed, and others.

So close your eyes, turn up the volume, and for 18 minutes, go back to Halloween weekend, 1983

Now, a message from our founder…
Do you think you could spare a moment? Airchexx.com survives, literally, on the donations from people just like you. The ads you see take about 3 months to build up enough revenue just to get a small check. If you enjoy these archives, which so many out there do indeed rely upon, could you spare a little bit of cash? All of it goes to the hosting fees and miscellaneous costs of running this website. Thank you in advance.

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

The post New York City Afternoon Drive Radio | Friday Oct 28, 1983 appeared first on Airchexx.

It’s November 1983, and it’s the weekend! You are driving around New York, as you tune around the radio dial. This recording is an example of what you would have head. I was driving around New York, and just tuning up & down the dial, and recording what I head. You’ll hear many of the big players, like Kick 106 WKHK, WHTZ Z100, WPIX-FM, WRKS 98.7 Kiss , WYNY,  & WPIX. You’ll also hear someNew York personalities like Jack Da Wack, Don K Reed, Danny Hernandez (aka Ray Rossi & Bobby Valentine) Ken Lamb, Cliff Powers, Leigh Hamilton, Robert Burns, Marc Sommers and others.

So close your eyes, turn up the volume, and for 18 minutes, go back to November 1983

Now, a message from our founder…
Do you think you could spare a moment? Airchexx.com survives, literally, on the donations from people just like you. The ads you see take about 3 months to build up enough revenue just to get a small check. If you enjoy these archives, which so many out there do indeed rely upon, could you spare a little bit of cash? All of it goes to the hosting fees and miscellaneous costs of running this website. Thank you in advance.

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

The post New York Area Radio Dial Scan | November 1983 appeared first on Airchexx.

Ingram… Lundy… Together again… kind of.

The last time we heard Dan Ingram & Ron Lundy together was May 10 1982, when they shut down Musicradio 77 WABC. That was until this day in 1984 When Ron Lundy, now on WCBS-FM New York, was filling in for morning man Harry Harrison, when old friend Dan Ingram drops in. The men spend a few minutes on the air together, and it’s feels good to hear them again. The aircheck is in two parts.

Part 1

Part 2

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

Now, a message from our founder…
Do you think you could spare a moment? Airchexx.com survives, literally, on the donations from people just like you. The ads you see take about 3 months to build up enough revenue just to get a small check. If you enjoy these archives, which so many out there do indeed rely upon, could you spare a little bit of cash? All of it goes to the hosting fees and miscellaneous costs of running this website. Thank you in advance.

The post Ron Lundy with guest Dan Ingram, WCBS-FM 101 New York | 1984 appeared first on Airchexx.

From 1959 to 2005, Harry Harrison was a staple on New York City Radio. He spent 9 years on WMCA, 11 on WABC, and 25 years on CBS-FM. The final 2 years, Harry’s show was on the weekend. That’s almost 45 years on New York Radio! Not an easy feat. Given the title of “Morning Mayor,” Harry spent most of his time on the radio waking NYC every morning, with a friendly, comfortable style. While many jocks of the era are remembered for being funny, or fast talking, or outrageous, or some sort of shtick, Harry was just your friend, easing you into a new day, with the info you needed, along with some great music. -Ellis

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

AND NOW THIS MESSAGE

Airchexx exists every month thanks to the contributions of visitors such as you. Won’t you make a donation to help defray our costs today?. Thank you.

The post Harry Harrison, WCBS-FM 101 New York | 1984 appeared first on Airchexx.

“It’s your engineer, Jocko, your Ace from Outer Space, way up here in the stratosphere! Back on the scene with the record machine, sayin’ oop-pop-a-doo and how do you do?” -Jocko Henderson

Douglas “Jocko” Henderson, also know as “The Ace from Outer Space,” was one of the most unique jocks of the 1950s & 60s. He would start every show by blasting off in his virtual rocket ship, and decades before “Broadway” Bill Lee, he would talk in rhyme. Jocko would talk over the records, and rhyme everything he said in a style that would later influence countless other disc jockeys. He is now widely acknowledged as the father of rap music because of his rapping style on the air.

Jocko’s on air career started in Baltimore at WSID. He then moved up to Philly, where he was on air at WHAT & WDAS. By 1954, Jocko made the big time, doing his Rocket Ship Show on 1280 WOV (and later WADO) in New York City weeknights at 11 after Alan Freed. Jocko was on of the first DJ to do radio broadcasts commuting back and forth daily between two cities, broadcasting from Philly in the afternoons and New York at night. Jocko was also a show promoter, and put together many shows over the years, in Philly & New York. He continued on the radio in Philadelphia on WDAS until the mid 1970s. In the 1980s & 1990s, he would occasionally appear on the air at WDAS-FM, & WCBS-FM. This aircheck features Jocko’s 1990 appearances on WCBS-FM on the 1991 Radio Greats Reunion.

***To Play Aircheck, Click The Video Below***

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

AND NOW THIS MESSAGE

Airchexx exists every month thanks to the contributions of visitors such as you. Won’t you make a donation to help defray our costs today?. Thank you.

The post Jocko Henderson, Radio Greats Reunion on 101 WCBS-FM New York – | 1991 appeared first on Airchexx.

Ed Baer spent more than a 50 years on New York area stations, including as a “Good Guy” on WMCA, (Dan Ingram helped Ed land the WMCA gig!) followed by stops at 101 WCBS-FM, New York 97 WYNY, 1050 WHN, and he was on air at WHUD Peekskill, New York, for 14 years, working as WHUD’s morning man. He stayed in that morning show position until he retired in 2000. He was also heard on Sirius Satellite Radio, where he did the morning show on the 50s and 60s channel, Monday through Friday, and their Country channel on weekends. Ed Baer was one of those solid dependable jocks, who sounded great in whatever format he was doing. And you could tell he loved what he was doing. His voice was warm, intimate and very, very real. Ed passed on January 1, 2019. This aircheck features Ed Bear on New York 97, WYNY from 1980.

***To Play Aircheck, Click The Video Below***

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

AND NOW THIS MESSAGE

Airchexx exists every month thanks to the contributions of visitors such as you. Won’t you make a donation to help defray our costs today?. Thank you.

The post Ed Baer, 97 WYNY New York | 1980 appeared first on Airchexx.

In 1958, John Zacherle arrived in New York city, and launched his scary alter-ego, Zacherly on WABC-TV. Dick Clark nick-named him “The Cool Ghoul.”He became a sensation in New York by hosting pre-1948 Universal horror films, on WABC’s Shock Theater. With the star’s popularity growing, the show soon was rechristened Zacherley at Large. He switched his horror-fest to WOR in 1960, and then he moved to WPIX-TV in 1963, hosting cartoons and Three Stooges shorts during the day and the legendary Chiller Theatre movie series on Saturday nights. After leaving Chiller in 1965, Zacherle went on a long career as radio disc jockey in the New York City market with stints on WNEW, WPLJ, & WXRK. In the 1980s, WCBS-FM invited Zach to host a Halloween special for several years. This aircheck features Zacherle’s first Halloween special from 1984.

John Zacherle passed away October 27 at the age of 98.

***To Play Aircheck, Click The Video Below***

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

AND NOW THIS MESSAGE

Airchexx exists every month thanks to the contributions of visitors such as you. Won’t you make a donation to help defray our costs today?. Thank you.

The post Zacherly’s Halloween Special, 101 WCBS-FM New York | October 31 1984 appeared first on Airchexx.

If you grew up in the metro New York City in the 1960s, or 70s, you probably listened to Dan Ingram. He hosted afternoon drive on WABC for 20 amazing years. (He also hosted morning drive for one year, but everyone seems to have forgotten that!) After Musicradio 77 left us in May 1982, Ingram disapeard for a couple of years, until he resurfaced at 92 WKTU in 1984. WKTU tried to get into the CHR fray with WPLJ, WHTZ, WAPP, and I guess you could include WNBC as well. WKTU could never really make a dent into the ratings, and the format flipped to Rock the following year. Ingram disappeared once again. It seemed so obvious to many, that there was only one radio station where Dan Ingram should be working… WCBS-FM. His former WABC co-workers, Ron Lundy & Harry Harrison had been at WCBS-FM since the early 1980s. In 1991, Ingram fan finally got what they had been hoping for when Big Dan signed up for weekends on CBS-FM. He fit right in & sounded great! He hadn’t been on air in years, but didn’t miss a beat. Hear it for yourself with this aircheck I recorded of Dan’s first on air shift at 101.1!

***To Play Aircheck, Click The Video Below***

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

AND NOW THIS MESSAGE

Airchexx exists every month thanks to the contributions of visitors such as you. Won’t you make a donation to help defray our costs today?. Thank you.

The post Dan Ingram FIRST SHOW, 101 WCBS-FM New York | October 19 1991 appeared first on Airchexx.

I’m warning right up front, that this aircheck is a little hard to listen to. It’s Dan Ingram’s final radio show. WCBS-FM had returned to it’s “modified Oldies” format 3 months earlier, after the Jack FM debacle. Dan was invited back to host a weekend show. You can hear Dan’s wit is still intact, and he even used current pop culture references, but his delivery is slower. With Dan, so much of his talent was in his timing, and his timing seems a bit off. His energy also seems a bit low. I think his engineer was not used to working with him. Even the new Dan Ingram jock shout doesn’t quite feel right. I don’t know why I expect a 72 year old Dan to sound just like 32 year old Dan sounded in 1967. I also don’t know if Dan’s health issues were starting to come into play here. Dan did have a great honor in 2007, and I think it was the reason he was invited back to CBS-FM. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2007.

***To Play Aircheck, Click The Video Below***

Part 1

Part 2

From the Ellis B Feaster You Tube Radio Aircheck & Classic TV Channel.
www.youtube.com/EllisFeaster

AND NOW THIS MESSAGE

Airchexx exists every month thanks to the contributions of visitors such as you. Won’t you make a donation to help defray our costs today?. Thank you.

The post FINAL Dan Ingram Radio Show, 101.1 WCBS-FM New York | September 16 2007 appeared first on Airchexx.

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!

The post Bobby Jay and the Top Hits of 1958, WCBS-FM New York | 1991 appeared first on Airchexx.

“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!

The post Don K. Reed and the Do-Wop Shop, WCBS-FM 101.1 New York | January 15, 1989 appeared first on Airchexx.

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.

The post Norm N Nite, WCBS-FM 101 New York | November 22, 1981 appeared first on Airchexx.

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!

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

The post Cousin Brucie, WCBS-FM New York Radio Greats Reunion | June 09, 1988 appeared first on Airchexx.

Curator’s Notes:

Here’s a quick aircheck featuring Bob Shannon in his familiar PM Drive spot. What I notice is that Shannon seems off his game this particular afternoon, with unnaturally long pauses as if he’s thinking of the right thing to say. Hey, that’s just an observation. Shannon later dropped out of sight, leaving CBS-FM and the gig he shared with his wife, Connie T. Empress at WLNG. Rumors have abounded over the years, but I have no information… most likely no more than any of you.

I worked along with Bob Shannon at a certain internet station that will remain nameless…

The post Bob Shannon, WCBS-FM 101.1 New York | October 17, 2011 appeared first on Airchexx.