WRKO-FM and couple of sundry items.....

["PETER GEORGE, N1GGP" <PGEORGE@WELLESLEY.EDU>]

RE: Post Records (more to come !)...............
     That first WRKO Now 30 Album was horrendous to say the least in terms
of audio quality.  Even as a kid of nine, I knew the difference between
STEREO and "simulated stereo".  Some of the cuts on that first album sound
like they were dubbed from original 45s.  (They probably were !)  K-tel
was notorious for doing that during the '70's.  The second album was much
better.  Looks like "Buzz" Curtis got all of the "kinks" out.  I had a
WIXY "wixy/1260" Top-30 Album I bought in the "cut-out" rack.  My buddy
Bob Bittner has a copy of a WPOP/1410 Post Album in his collection.  I
have another friend who has a WOR-FM 98.7 Oldies Album somewhere in HIS
collection as well.  Post Records.....more to come ! 
     If have a chance to browse the "Archives", read the story of the
FIRST  WRKO......a.k.a. "WRKO F-M.....ALL MUSIC !!!!!!!"  Read the 
history of 98.5 and how FM Top-40 came alive for the first time in 1966.
I would love to get in touch with anyone who was involved with ARKO.  At
age 6, WRKO-FM was my favorite radio station.  My brothers thought me
to be "kooky" at the time (today they still do :-) ).  Once I let them
listen to "ARKO", they were hooked.  But when WRKO/680 hit the air on
March of 1967...WRKO-FM became a 50/50 simulcast.  I had to wait for
6:00 pm when the automation kicked in....."And now ladies and gentlemen...
(thunk !)   "And the hits just keep on coming on WRKO-FM/Boston !" (jingle)
"WRKO....F-M... ALLLLLL MUSICCCCCC !!!!!" (arko speaks.....) "TWO IN A ROW !!!".Ahhhh, what fun radio used to be.
     On another note...... who was up at 3:00 am on March 19, 1972 when
WCVB-TV hit the air.  Yes, I was up bright and early at 2:15 am to watch
the last breaths of WHDH-TV Channel 5.  After they signed off they went
to the test pattern that they used every night before the transmitter
was shut down.  Ken Stahl's voice said "WHDH-TV Channel 5, Boston,
Massachusetts conducting this maintenance test pattern.  Our programming
will begin at 5:45 am this morning....."  (Blank carrier for 10 minutes) and once again "WHDH-TV, Channel 5, Boston, Massachusetts " (minus the program note)
and at 2:30 am.....(
kerplunk !!) WHDH-TV was dead.  13 minutes later, the
colorful WCVB-TV test pattern hit the airwaves with a 1,000 cycle tone
and then (ironically) the first voice of WCVB-TV was Ken Stahl.  The last
voice of WHDH-TV and the FIRST voice of WCVB-TV was the same man.  After
the obligatory "National Anthem" at 2:57 am, WCVB-TV signed on with the
"WCVB Preview", a 30 minute overview of what you could expect on the NEW
Channel 5, hosted by Arnold Zenker and featuring a "who's who" of the
OLD Channel 5 (Jack Hynes, John Henning, Chet Curtis and a soon to be
star of Channel 5...Natalie Jacobsen).  Does anyone else out there
remember the switchover that early morning ?


That's a 30 for this edition !

- -Pete-

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Peter Q. George, N1GGP                  *  "Scanning the bands since 1967 !" 
P.O. Box 1183                           *                  +
Randolph, Massachusetts 02368-1183      *                  |
USA                                     *      73         +|+    de N1GGP
PGEORGE@wellesley.edu                   *                +\|/+
XERB@bigfoot.com                        *               + \|/ +
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