Songs about the joy of listening to music on the radio

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I am going try something here. I hope you like it. I am going to link to actual airchecks from back then. They contain not only the songs, but the DJ’s, the commercials, sometimes even the newsbreaks. The presentation back then was very different. This is about as close as one can come in 2023 to the actual experience of listining to these stations back in the day. I hope for older members these airchecks will be nostalgic, and that younger members will find them interesting historical artifacts.

Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon A Time in Hollywood’ set in 1969 featured snippets from airchecks from the The Real Don Steel’s shows on KHJ ‘Boss Radio’. That is a good place to start.

The Real Don Steel KHJ April 2, 1969

COOL THREAD. REALLY COOL THREAD. I want to make a mix CD of radio-themed songs. Hats off to OP.

@AprilR: Rancid was one of my favorite bands when I was a teenager. Thank you for reminding me that that song exists.

Someone posted a Donna Summer blurb, put here's the full version:



Someone posted Mexican Radio by WALL OF VOODOO, but the video isn't playing, so here's another version:



And of course, Joy Division, which evolved into New Order:

Starland Vocal Band was a one-hit wonder with their classic Afternoon Delight. But I always loved this minor hit about listening to the radio late at night:

Lets not forget talk radio!

This aircheck is from WCFL Chicago on July 11, 1972. The DJ is Larry Lujack.

In 1978 many Top 40 stations and "urban" stations were playing a lot of Disco music as the genre was at the height of its popularity. On this day 45 years ago WKTU in New York City switched went all in switching to an all Disco format and would soon become the most listened-to station in the country. Other stations around the country would soon follow WKTU's example. Somebody bothered to record the format switch and here it is. Boogie on down.

why no Queen?

In the UK during the 1960s BBC had a restrictive playlist. In order to get around these restrictions DJ's would broadcast from ships in international waters where the authorities could not arrest them. This became known as Pirate Radio. Radio Caroline was the most famous pirate radio station.

Radio Caroline Theme Song


Don't Touch That Dial with Johnnie Walker on Radio Caroline 1968

It was 50 years ago today.
Dan Ingram was considered the DJs’ DJ.
He was the DJ on the air when I got home from school.
Dan Ingram WABC New York October 6, 1973

Fixed

All of the airchecks I have posted so far have been from top 40 formatted stations. At the height of the Top 40 format’s popularity during the late 1960s a new type of rock they called “underground” at time that centered on albums not singles like top 40 formatted radio emerged. The format was known at first as “Progressive Rock”. Its first audiences were hippies and college students for whom the music and the style of the DJ’s played on Top 40 radio was too "teenybopper" or “bubblegum” for them. As the ‘70s went on the playlists were tightened on what was now called “Album Oriented Rock” or “AOR”. These stations became the soundtrack of 1970s white teenage America.

For the first aircheck in this series, we go to Los Angeles on March 20, 1969. The station is KMET, the DJ is B. Mitchell Reed who was played by Ray Chase in the recent movie Licorice Pizza.

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