Post by John Quincy on Jun 25, 2007 18:41:45 GMT -5
I just posted a great aircheck of Weird Beard recorded in November 1968. WB recorded it originally for Louisville musician Mickey Lunsford, who at that time was serving on the USS Forrestal in the Mediterranean. (At that time radio stations often would send tapes of their programming to play on Navy ships.)
The original aircheck is three hours long. In it, WB counts down WAKY's Top 30. Unfortunately we had to scope down the songs for online presentation, but nearly all commercials and newscasts were left intact.
Evidently WB recorded each half-hour on a full track reel-to-reel recorded at 7.5 ips in the WAKY studios, then dubbed each half hour to a consumer quarter-track reel-to-reel at 3.75 ips which he sent off to Mickey to play on the ship. We're delighted that Mickey hung on to the reel and, nearly 40 years later, made it available to the world through 79WAKY.com.
WAKY and WB sounded pretty good. Rich Gimmel was the WAKY newsman on duty. At the time of this recording, Bill Crisp didn't know it, but he was in his last weeks as Program Director. (Bob Todd would become PD on January 1, 1969.) You can hear Bill's voice on several pieces of production.
The WAKY jingles you hear are custom acapellas produced by Tom Merriman of TM Productions fame. Each jingle was recorded in a different key. If you matched them up with a record that was in the same key, the jingle and song would blend in a pleasing manner. One WAKY air personality told me that WB used his training as a musician to identify the keys of each song WAKY played.
If you're a WB fan, or just remember listening to WAKY in the late '60s, I encourage you to download and enjoy this gem:
79waky.com/airchecksweirdbeard.htm
The original aircheck is three hours long. In it, WB counts down WAKY's Top 30. Unfortunately we had to scope down the songs for online presentation, but nearly all commercials and newscasts were left intact.
Evidently WB recorded each half-hour on a full track reel-to-reel recorded at 7.5 ips in the WAKY studios, then dubbed each half hour to a consumer quarter-track reel-to-reel at 3.75 ips which he sent off to Mickey to play on the ship. We're delighted that Mickey hung on to the reel and, nearly 40 years later, made it available to the world through 79WAKY.com.
WAKY and WB sounded pretty good. Rich Gimmel was the WAKY newsman on duty. At the time of this recording, Bill Crisp didn't know it, but he was in his last weeks as Program Director. (Bob Todd would become PD on January 1, 1969.) You can hear Bill's voice on several pieces of production.
The WAKY jingles you hear are custom acapellas produced by Tom Merriman of TM Productions fame. Each jingle was recorded in a different key. If you matched them up with a record that was in the same key, the jingle and song would blend in a pleasing manner. One WAKY air personality told me that WB used his training as a musician to identify the keys of each song WAKY played.
If you're a WB fan, or just remember listening to WAKY in the late '60s, I encourage you to download and enjoy this gem:
79waky.com/airchecksweirdbeard.htm
