Favorite WAKY Aircheck

[John Quincy]

Of all the airchecks on the 79WAKY.com Website, which is your favorite? Are there any that you've downloaded that bear repeated listening? If so, why?

[1240WINN]

The airchecks I have especially enjoyed on this site have been:

(1) Weird Beard, especially the 1966-1967 ones: There is just a lot of enthusiasm and personality showing at this age. As WB matured, the later airchecks seem a little more sedate. And the aircheck of him playing trumpet with "This Guy's In Love With You" is hilarious.

(2) Nixon Visit 1960: The news aspect is interesting, but it is really neat to hear the MacLendon era "Even Newer WAKY" and Art Keller. (The Tom Perry and Jack Grady airchecks are in a similar vein and are also worth multiple listens)

(3) Tim Tyler 1966: There is very little of the mid-60's WAKY stuff, but this is a great sample of Top 40 radio.

(4) Byron Crawford newscast: It was just nice to hear this piece of history

(5) John W. Walker 1969: These airchecks have a nice selection of tunes and Dude's deep voice. But I like this one for a strange reason. One part of this has an Arby's commercial with the "squeeze it to eat it" slogan that is one of the earliest commercials I remember hearing on the radio. (Nowadays you have to squeeze it to FIND it!) And I still occasionally visit the South 3rd Street Location mentioned in that ad, as I have since about 1969.

(6) Jim Miller 1972: Mark the Spark as a Rock & Roll DJ!

[bruiser]

Does an aircheck exist of the Christmas day show where the Duke got, shall we say, a little tipsy while on air? Best I remember, Bill was mad because he had to work that day, and he asked for the listeners to spread some Christmas cheer around the studio. Apparently several did just that, and they had a good time.

[TimTolbert]

The air check that is especially dear to me is Tom Dooley doing his tonto bits when he returned to WAKY in the mid '70s. If you listen to this check you'll hear him asking Tonto if he knows Tim Tolbert at Jasper, Indiana and he replies,"Yes, Indeed". ;D
Now, for the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey says.

Back in the mid 60s, when I started in radio in Paoli, Indiana, my buddy Tom Holiday (Tom is a first cousin to WTMT's Kenny Holiday) and I would visit every station we could find and visit the legends and get ideas for our own shows.
.
One day we ended up in Louisville and stopped at WAKY at their original studios at the Kentucky Home Life building. We met Bill Crisp, Tim Tyler, Jim Brand and we stood in the newsroom with Bob Watson and Byron Crawford and watched the Real Tom Dooley at work.

Here's a little bit of trivia for you. When WAKY moved to the new showcase studios on Fourth Street, Tom Dooley was the first jock on the air there.

Then when Tom Dooley returned to WAKY in the 70's after leaving KHJ in L.A., I was doing evenings at WITZ in Jasper, Indiana and I was known as Keem-O-Sabe and I talked to Tonto. (Dooley plyed the third person on his show, and talked to the "Masked Man", AND Tonto).

So, I wrote Dooley a letter explaining who I was and telling him I was a big fan and had listened to him even before his early WAKY days, when he worked in Cincinnati at WSAI.
I included a copy of Dooley's Showtime Revue (which you can also see here on the WAKY site),
to prove I really did know him and this was on the level.

I asked Tom to do me a favor. When He came on at 3pm, to talk about my letter and to put me down on the air.

I wanted to prove that AM radio ( particularly WAKY) still had a lot of listeners even as far away as Jasper, and not everybody was listening to 50,000 watts of power in FM stereo.

I didn't hear a thing from Dooley, but had my recorder on at the given time, just in case.

Right on the money at 3PM, Tom Dooley did his thing and read my letter right on cue.

At the Station, we received several phone calls wanting to know why Tom Dooley was putting Tim Tolbert down.
And that is, "The Rest of the Story".
It has now been 30 years, and I am playing Southern Gospel on the air and I am a Gospel concert promotor.
I never had the chance before, but now thanks to John Quncy's WAKY website, I can personally say to the Real Tom Dooley, "Thanks for the Memories, and may God continue to Bless you and your ministry".
Always a fan and oh yes, "Keem-O-Sabe",
Tim Tolbert

[Max]

Guess I'll weigh in on this one...my favorite is Bill Bailey's WAKY 23rd Anniversary Vignette aircheck-hilarious!

[Travis]

Hhmm... Is that the one which features Bill Bailey promoting Reed Yadon's Card Shop? The Duke talks about an upcoming appearance at the shop where he will be manning the "Bill Bailey Award-Winning Kissing Booth" and invites women to drop by and pucker up.

I don't have a sound card at my present location, so I can't verify the check, but it's classic Bailey at his best, regardless of what aircheck it may be on.

[Max]

No, it's not the same one. Although the one you refer to sounds alot like one he did at WKLO, where he was inviting female listeners to play 'smacky-mouth with the Duke'. The one that is my favorite is so but for a small portion. Guess I'm almost as much a 'sight-gag' person as much as I am one who sees the humor by reading into the gag...but the bits that make me love this check are the intentional sounds he makes drinking his coffee and a goofy/sinister laugh he does afterwards that my dad and his best friend always did when I was a kid. This could also be due to the fact he's almost the same age as my dad. It's for this reason I have not taken and probably will not take it off WAKYOnline, although I have done some changeouts of airchecks, not just music. But that one is available on the Airchecks page of this site. Hope you can find a computer with a soundcard, Travis. Are you on a laptop?

[Travis]

You've got to hear Bill Bailey's bit on his award-winning kissing booth. He may have done a "smacky mouth" bit on WKLO, but this one was done at WAKY as part of a promotion for Reed Yadon's card shop.

I don't have a sound card on the workstation computer that I'm using to make this post (I'm running a water treatment plant and it's 4:50 AM) but I'll track it down on my home computer and get back to this thread.