Radio

Radio Nerds! Watch This Bit of Awesomeness!

Back when I was getting into the business, me and all the other people at these small-town radio stations would pour over tapes from California Aircheck, a company that specialized in offering samples of radio announcers and radio stations from around North America. We’d study these things as if we were looking for new sub-atomic particles in the trails of proton decay in order to understand what made these jocks so great. We’d then try to imitate their styles the next time we had an airshift.

Yeah, a lot of this stuff sounds unbelievably cheesy when compared to what we’re used to today, but back in the day, this is the shit is that made so many of us want to be on the radio. We loved it.

Jonathan Brandemier. Steve and Garry. Charlie Tuna. Shotgun Kelly. John Landecker. Stations like CKLW, WLS, WCFL, WLW, KHJ and WBZ. God, I wish I still had some of those cassettes.

But hey, there’s always the Internet, right? Watch this.

A Video History of the American Radio Personality! from Kurt Kelly on Vimeo.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38031 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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