Do You Remember AM Radio?

[Cachoo]

Not the crap today with conservative talk radio but when AM ruled while FM was emerging??? I live in a Plains state and we could always get WLS Chicago at night at a time when they were playing hits. We also could get a station from the Minneapolis/St Paul area at night sometimes. During the day it was a local station (KLEO.) Big steering wheels, car radios with big push buttons and pop in glass bottles. Any memories?

 

[PRlady]

Not the crap today with conservative talk radio but when AM ruled while FM was emerging??? I live in a Plains state and we could always get WLS Chicago at night at a time when they were playing hits. We also could get a station from the Minneapolis/St Paul area at night sometimes. During the day it was a local station (KLEO.) Big steering wheels, car radios with big push buttons and pop in glass bottles. Any memories?

WIBG in Philadelphia. I can still remember the names of some of the DJs. One of them, John “Records” Landecker, picked me up hitchhiking my way home from school.

What’s funny is it started as a religious station and the call letters stood for I Believe in God but it was Top40 when I was in junior high.

 

[Aceon6]

I still listen to WBZ on AM 1030. I’ve been trying to replace my 40 yo clock radio, but keep it in service because of AM.

 

[Susan1]

WING (1410) was the popular music station here. Steve Kirk was the most famous DJ. WHIO (1290) was adult/easy listening music. It is now talk radio. And a country station (980 - wow that just popped into my head, and I never listened to it; I can't think of the call letters though). I'm sure there were others.

 

[Cachoo]

Our local country station KFDI is still blasting away on AM. It has become more known as the station you go to when you're driving and hear the tornado sirens. I think they had mobile units before it was a thing.

 

[genevieve]

When I was a kid, FM radio was already taking over for music, but AM radio is what we got in the car. Also, I think the scary stories my sister and I listened to in the summertime were from AM.

I missed the AM radio of Road Runner by a few years...

 

[kedrin]

I'm originally from Chicago- so another WLS listener, although the kids wanted WLS and we had to fight with the parents, who wanted WGN. This suburban kid spent her mornings listening to the farm report- I never knew why I needed to hear Wally Phillips tell me how many pork bellies had sold. I remember it being a revelation to learn that you could pick up WLS as far as Arizona.

 

[MacMadame]

Grew up on AM radio. FM didn't start to immerge until I was in High School really. One of my neighbors was a DJ. His name was Tom Early and he did a morning show, I think.

My mom kept the radio on some Top 40s station pretty much all day.

 

[moebius]

back then there were stations playing top 40 or adult contemporary music.

 

[Peaches LaTour]

Count me in!

I, too, listened to WLS after we moved to South Bend in my junior year in high school.

There was some radio station we used to get that was supposed to be broadcasting from Mexico with Wolfman Jack.

I scan my little transistor radio on AM late at night to see what is there but, sadly, I really can't find anything worth listening to.

 

[Kruss]

@PRlady John "Records" Landecker was also on Chicago's WLS when I was a kid!

I also remember Larry Lujack ("Uncle Lar") and Tommy Edwards. I also remember the signal fading whenever the car drove under a bridge.

 

[barbk]

Two I remember: WABC out of NYC. You'd be at Jones Beach along with thousands of others with many transistor radios tuned to WABC. When they did their station identification, it was the signal to turn and toast some other part of your body. (Well, not me -- I was out there in a long-sleeved shirt doing my best not to become a tomato, and often failing.) Then there were the border blaster stations that cranked out the power just over the border into Mexico. XERB? I remember rolling through southern Utah one hot summer night. The road was quiet and we were cruising along to avoid the incredible daytime heat, listening to the radio blasting tunes all the way from Mexico and watching a farmer with a similar goal plowing his field at midnight. Good times.

 

[just tuned in]

My dad listened to the Barry Reisman show every Sunday. (I think it was Sunday.) "Contemporary" Jewish music and lots of commercials for foods. Barry read those commercials himself and it always sounded like his mouth was watering. He made herring sound delicious.

 

[paskatefan]

My dad listened to the Barry Reisman show every Sunday. (I think it was Sunday.) "Contemporary" Jewish music and lots of commercials for foods. Barry read those commercials himself and it always sounded like his mouth was watering. He made herring sound delicious.

Are you from Philly, PA? Barry Reisman is still on the radio (WWDB-AM TALK 860 Jewish Music with Barry Reisman, weekday mornings 9-10, "Bagels & Lox" - Sunday mornings 9-10).

On the AM band, we had WIBG for Top 40 music. Hy Lit was one of the best known DJs back then.

At night I would listen to WABC & "Cousin" Brucie (with the transistor radio under my pillow)! We met him in person @ the Rock & Roll HOF in the summer of 2009. I answered some trivia questions, & won some prizes - a "Cousin" Brucie Sirius XM t-shirt & bobblehead!

 

[Japanfan]

The past is safe, because we survived it. Comforting in the unsettling times we find ourselves in.

 

[Cachoo]

I had forgotten about transistor radios! Springsteen released a song he had originally started in the late 70's called "Save My Love." He said he thought about those teenaged nights when you are listening to these stations on your tiny transistor radio hoping that certain someone is also listening hoping to hear the same song. Great stuff.

 

[aliceanne]

I grew up with WEAM and WINX on AM radio in DC. There was one FM top 40 station. I can’t remember the call letters, WPGC? I also remember Cousin Brucie on WABC in NYC. The radio used to be on all the time in the kitchen in the summer. I always hear screen doors slamming and feel hot breezes whenever someone talks about top 40 radio.

 

[TOADS]

WABC.. grew up with that station in the 60s. Cousin Brucie, big Dan Ingram and the Ingram fligram. Chuck Leonard, Harry Harrison, Charlie Greer, Ron Lundy. Who could forget the commercials for Dennison’s, a men clothier. Money talks, nobody walk, located on Rt 22.

They were great times. WABC was the soundtrack of my teenage years....

 

[attyfan]

Grew up listening to KHJ, with (among others) "The Real Don Steele". It is now a Roman Catholic station.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

WGH - for Greater Hampton (Roads) in SE VA in the '60s. Lots of Motown/British Invasion/girl group/surf/rock music (aka Top 40).

 

[Peaches LaTour]

Grew up listening to KHJ, with (among others) "The Real Don Steele". It is now a Roman Catholic station.

I remember The Real Don Steele! But I don't remember what channel he was on????? I listened either in Boston or Chicago in the late 50's & into the 60's.

Was A.M., radio still around during the Cousin Brucie/Beatles American Arrival hysteria?

 

[GarrAargHrumph]

The type of AM radio you're talking about predates me. However, I listen to AM now in NY, for the news stations. 1010wins and 880.

 

[sk9tingfan]

Two I remember: WABC out of NYC. You'd be at Jones Beach along with thousands of others with many transistor radios tuned to WABC. When they did their station identification, it was the signal to turn and toast some other part of your body. (Well, not me -- I was out there in a long-sleeved shirt doing my best not to become a tomato, and often failing.) Then there were the border blaster stations that cranked out the power just over the border into Mexico. XERB? I remember rolling through southern Utah one hot summer night. The road was quiet and we were cruising along to avoid the incredible daytime heat, listening to the radio blasting tunes all the way from Mexico and watching a farmer with a similar goal plowing his field at midnight. Good times.

"Cousin Brucie, Cousin Brucie…. "Cousin" Bruce Morrow was the best!

 

[icecat]

WLS in Chicago... so many memories! When I was really young I used to listen to the WLS Barn Dance in the evenings, then they added Dick Biondi with awesome early rock and roll, Dex Card and the Silver Dollar Survey of all the top records ( that was printed out weekly and always available in an record shop.) In the 60's they had rival listener groups. Clark Weber in the morning had Weber's Commandos VS Ron Riley in the evenings with Riley's Rebel Raiders. Then Art Roberts, after 9:00 PM, had the top three songs of the night for which listeners could vote by calling the station. There were so many busy signals that we figured out that you could talk to each other between the beeps. They also hosted sock hops at the various high schools. One of my favorite dances was at Brother Rice High School when Weber introduced Paul Revere and the Raiders!!
Then AM rival WCFL burst on the transistor radio scene, so we had 2 rock stations. School mornings, mom still had WGN on with Wally Phillips and then Milo Hamilton who gave tons of news and weather plus school closings, and of course, the farm reports with Orion Samuelson. It was an era to be remembered, that's for sure.

 

[Simone411]

Back in the day, everyone in my area listened to KEEL 71 with "Lovable Larry Ryan". He played the top 100 songs every weekend.

Now KEEL 71 is news talk show that is also found on 101.7 FM.

Lovable Larry Ryan is now a morning host along with "Mr. Weather" on The River - 95.7 KLKL. They play hits from the 70's, 80's and 90's. The morning show is actually called Ryan Radio Show, and Mr. Weather has a section called Mr. Weather's Words of Wisdom which is hilarious at times.

You have to click on that link every day to see what words of wisdom he's going to share.

Today's words of wisdom:

Word of Wisdom from Mr. Weather, Wednesday March 18, 2020 Year of Our Lord: “The brain is the most outstanding organ. It works 24 hours a day 365 days a year from birth until you fall in love.

With all the craziness that they both possess on the morning show, it's almost like listening to KEEL 71 AM again - like a trip down memory lane.

 

[gkelly]

I don't remember specific programs, but I do recall sometimes receiving stations from as far away as St. Louis when driving in Maryland

 

[Garden Kitty]

Every summer we'd go up to the mountains and the house didn't have any tv. We'd spend the nights playing cards, reading and listening to WABC AM which was about the only channel we could receive up there.

 

[Cachoo]

One specific memory: Does anyone remember "The Deerhunter" and the Pennsylvania steel town with so many Ukrainian-Americans? My relatives live in New Jersey and those times we drove I would love finding those AM radio stations in the native tongue or polka music or some local guy talking about local issues. I think my folks thought I was a little weird. I think Pennsylvania is gorgeous.

 

[Peaches LaTour]

WLS in Chicago... so many memories! When I was really young I used to listen to the WLS Barn Dance in the evenings, then they added Dick Biondi with awesome early rock and roll, Dex Card and the Silver Dollar Survey of all the top records ( that was printed out weekly and always available in an record shop.) In the 60's they had rival listener groups. Clark Weber in the morning had Weber's Commandos VS Ron Riley in the evenings with Riley's Rebel Raiders. Then Art Roberts, after 9:00 PM, had the top three songs of the night for which listeners could vote by calling the station. There were so many busy signals that we figured out that you could talk to each other between the beeps. They also hosted sock hops at the various high schools. One of my favorite dances was at Brother Rice High School when Weber introduced Paul Revere and the Raiders!!
Then AM rival WCFL burst on the transistor radio scene, so we had 2 rock stations. School mornings, mom still had WGN on with Wally Phillips and then Milo Hamilton who gave tons of news and weather plus school closings, and of course, the farm reports with Orion Samuelson. It was an era to be remembered, that's for sure.

I remember almost all of this!

I had forgotten about WCFL until you mentioned it & how we could talk around the busy signals.

I remember riding around with my friends in her mother's '57, bright red ragtop Chevy, (before it became a classic), listening to the radio & rushing to find a payphone to call the station if the had a trivia question with a prize for the right answer or if they opened up the request line.

It is hard to believe that once-upon-a-time, things seemed so simple.

 

[easilydistracte]

The Soft Rock Hits thread reminded me of this thread.

My family lived on the northern tip of Hawai'i Island ("The Big Island") and the mountains prevented us from being able to tune in to the radio stations that broadcast from Hilo and/or Kona. Strangely enough, we were able to tune in to the radio stations and tv stations broadcasting from Honolulu. There were a bunch of them, with all kinds of programming, including a couple of radio stations that broadcast exclusively in Japanese.

My parents both had to leave early in the morning for work so my siblings and I had to get ourselves ready for school. I remember sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast, with the morning sun shining in through the window over the sink, and listening to KPOI, KORL and later KKUA (the "new station"). We had an aqua-colored AM radio that sat on the counter; it had circular dials and was hard to tune and the sound would get crackly every once in a while.

We mostly listened to "rock & roll," but that term encompassed so many different types of music in those days. All the bands of the British Invasion and their North American counterparts; Motown, R&B, pop. Then, later in the 60s and 70s, bands like Blood, Sweat & Tears; Chicago; Tower of Power; War; Earth, Wind & Fire. Also, Dionne Warwick when she sang all those Bacharach/David songs; Aretha Franklin; Gladys Knight & the Pips. Sometimes, if a song got popular enough, it got played on the "rock" stations. "Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra comes to mind; also "Somethin' Stupid", the song he did with his daughter Nancy. Plus "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris; "Love is Blue" by Paul Mauriat.

Wow, great memories! I remember being completely transfixed whenever "One Fine Morning" by Lighthouse was played on the radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvVN_KRriTM . As others have said, a much simpler time. The future seemed to hold so much promise, then, and it seemed that there were no limits to what could be possible.