Rock Radio Scrapbook
AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of
December 27, 2009
Weekly issue #561
Subject:
THE
BEST OF THE DECADE
Station: CFTR Toronto (also aired on other
stations)
Date: December, 1979
Time:
15:40
(Graphic courtesy Charlie Ritenburg)
(Description by Doug Thompson)
In the late 1970’s, after having been at CHUM Toronto for 9 years, then forming my own creative company That Commercial Place, and running that for 5 years, I was hired by CFTR and Rogers Broadcast Productions to create a multitude of radio programs – among them, the 1977 and ’78 year end countdowns. For 1979, instead of the usual countdown, we decided to go with a 10-hour overview of the entire ‘70’s – hence the title “The Best Of The Decade”.
Each year had its own hour. Dan Williamson was the host (he was at CFTR at the time). The news segments were written and voiced by CFTR News Director Robert Holiday.
A few weeks before production started, I flew to Dallas and working with my usual music arranger, the late Wayne Harrison, we wrote and recorded the musical theme. (This shows the kind of budgets we had back then).
It took several weeks to pull the interview clips together, and in some cases, actually do the interviews and then write the script. After that, it was off to the CFTR production studio, working after hours so as not to disrupt the daily work schedule. It took 10 nights until the program was completed.
You can certainly tell that this was pre-CD production as there are audible clicks and ticks in some of the 45’s we used from the CFTR music library.
The Best of the Decade, 1979, can be heard here.
Produced by
Doug Thompson
(The Doug Thompson Collection)
More from Doug Thompson's
Production Corner here!
Talent: FRANK
BRODIE
Station:
CKLW Windsor, Ont.
Date: January 1, 1970
Time:
12:34
Talent: RON
SHERWOOD
Station:
WKNR Dearborn, Mich.
Date: January 1, 1970
Time:
15:54
Floyd and Naomi Howard. Tom's grandparents (Courtesy Tom Howard)
For Tom Howard, airchecking was a family affair.
When the long-time radio buff moved from Michigan to southern California in 1961, he faced the problem of how to record his favourite Detroit-area stations. The answer: get family members to record it. His grandmother, Naomi Ruth Howard, did much of the recording on a tape recorder. He picks up the story:
"I asked my grandmother if she would record CKLW for me. She had a Concord AM radio built into the tape recorder. I showed her how to feed the tape on the reels. I know it was hard for her to do... Sometimes she would have to wait when my cousins or uncle came over or a friend to help her get the tape started, sometimes she did fine. She would tape in the kitchen, the phone would ring and stop the tape. I said well after you get it ready why not move it in the back bedroom and close the door and forget it's going. That worked she said. She loved music and this was nice doing this for me. I got those tapes from Feb. 68 first one Mike Rivers show. The last tape was Pat Holiday April 15, 1971."
Other family members also helped out, as Howard explains:
"My uncle ... sometimes would tape CKLW and WKNR for me. When my mother would go to Detroit to visit her mother, I got her to take the cassette radio recorder and she would tape CKLW and WKNR. She would be on the Detroit side of Telegraph (Mich.) and WKNR came in good."
Many of the CKLW airchecks on Rock Radio Scrapbook were taped here. (Courtesy Tom Howard)
Howard finishes the story...
"My grandmother I got to see the last time in October, 1984. I was back when the Tigers won the World Series. It was one week to the day she passed in October 1984 - she was 89 years old. I thanked her many times and told her I still have all the tapes she made. I said they are super to listen to and that I knew a few of the DJ's on the tapes she recorded and they didn't have anything on the tape other than what she recorded. I said many others in Ca. loved to listen to CKLW, from Michigan and Ohio, I knew out here."
Thanks to Tom's uncle - who was rolling tape at his nephew's request - we have a chance to hear Detroit rivals CKLW and WKNR side-by-side on New Year's Day 1970. On that day, CKLW was counting down the Top 100 of the '60s, while WKNR countered with the Top 113 of 1969.
Enjoy Frank Brodie, CKLW, January 1, 1970 here.
Enjoy Ron Sherwood, January 1, 1970 here.
(The Tom Howard Collection)
More 1970 airchecks
here!
|
Click here for technical help |
