Just thought you guys would like to know that on that internet movie site, there is a really cool movie called 'Independant Radio Station". Its a promo for WMCA as it looked in 1952. VERY cool shots of the old station equipment, turntables (they must have tracked at 10 grams!) transmitters, and the COOLEST mixing boards (looked like RCAs to me). What was interesting is when they show the OUTSIDE of the transmitter site (at the beginning and at the end, with the Neon lights). That exact site, 50 years later, is STILL in operation!!!!. You cant miss it, the Art Deco dsign is very distinctive. It is in a located in an out of the way spot around Secaucas, NJ. If you want to see it, you can see the BACK of the site by taking the NJ PATH train from Journal Square to Newark. To see the front , you would have to drive there, but its in the middle of nowhere (and i mean that). How do i know this? I pass it every day on the way to Work, on the PATH train to Newark, NJ. From the train, you can see the back of the site, and the letters "WMCA" in reverse!! I believe that WMCA is still on the air as a religous station.
I'm sure that most New Yorkers, or former New Yorkers (as in my case!), already know about this site . If not, you should check it out when you have some free time! A really well done and informative place to spend some time. It's like setting the "way back" machine to the 60s and 70s (and beyond). You know that you're "messed up" when the commercials/jingles from that time are still fresh in your mind and mean as much as the music does. Yep, I'm a lost cause! http://www.musicradio77.com/
NYC AM radio 1960's: WABC was a great station, but my prepubescent loyalties were always with WMCA. Somehow - even back then - WABC seemed "preprogramed", and WMCA had the edge. WABC lasted much longer, but they never strectched. In WMCA's final years - they began to play assorted album only tracks in order to compete with the surging AOR on FM. To some this may appear as a last ditch desparation move (and it probably was), but to the young Uncle Al that needed a dose of Zeppelin or Pink Floyd or Janis or Jimi on long drives in his dad's Delta 88 equiped with AM only - they were a godsend. P.S. - my dad always let me listen to MY stations on long drives. He would critique what he heard - but never from a "this is all crap" perspetive. He had an opened ear, and that really helped me to appreciate music beyond the popular sounds of my adolescence. Consequently - I always give my kids the radio on long drives, and if I have anyhting good to say about what I hear - I let them know it. If I dislike it - I tell them why: I never say "this is crap".
Try also www.reelradio.com for a trip way back, Wolfman Jack, Jack Armstrong, Don Steele and a whole lot more. Whoever keeps that site up, gets contributions from all over. I even saw one of my record buddies throw some old WRKO stuff in there. Similar stuff....
WMCA was my choice also growning up. There was many a night that I used to keep my transistor radio on all night listening to it. One of their most progressive DJ's in the very late 60's was Alex Bennett. I remember him playing King Crimson before the LP was even released in this country. Does anyone remember "GO" it was their week newspaper available free at most independent record store.
1960's Top 40 Radio All, Very interesting thread....for me, being essentially in the late years of grade school and high school in the 1960's (class of 69), any discussion of the Top 40 radio stations from that period is of great interest to me. Most markets had one or two local Top 40 outlets and at night, signals skipped in from Top 40 stations from vast distances. Growing up in Peoria, Illinois I listened at night to: WLS--Chicago, WCFL--Chicago, WABC--New York, KXOK--St. Louis, KAAY--Little Rock, AR, WKYC--Cleveland, KOMA--Oklahoma City, WHB--Kansas City. Occasionally, I heard WFIL--Phildelphia and CKLW--Detroit. In the 1950's and 60's Top 40 Radio was a wide format, regional in nature (the big hits in St. Louis could be quite different than in Chicago) and omnipresent in our lives. The beauty of the format was that we, as listeners, were exposed to everything from Dave Brubeck and Tony Bennett to the Rolling Stones, Doors and Jimi Hendrix. We learned that "great music" took many forms...far different than the narrow formats of today's Radio. Thanks for sharing your memories! Bob
