Monday, August 31, 2015

Eric Thomas In The Control Room, And More

Folks, Eric has been VERY gracious to share things out of his personal file- and his personal life- for the posterity of the blog.  We, as fans of KAAY, have always wondered what it's like behind the scenes.  Quite often, the comments have been that a deejay's life is not glamorous, no matter our imaginations....

Nonetheless, I have always been a "nuts-n-bolts" guy and love digging through things, seeing how they work.  Eric has once again sent some pictures and files for us to enjoy!

The first, is of Eric in the studio during the summer of 1981:


...and Eric today with his lovely 5-year-old daughter:

"Ah, before digital photography! Also attached is a picture of the control room circa 1981. I guess you guys have seen it with the shag carpet on the walls and the cut out shag KAAY logo? I had to bend my head down to get the logo in the picture - a true face for radio! But I do have my cans around my neck with the plug in my back pocket a la Larry LuJack, haha! This was the control room as it was from when the building opened in the ‘70’s until the early-mid 1980’s. Looking at the picture just to the right and out of the photo was the big picture window looking out from the 2nd floor toward the Arkansas River. In fact, the river was probably less than 100 yards from the building. In between was the parking lot, a levee and then the river. Several times during the late night hours a big barge would be going up or down the river and shine it’s bright search light right through the control room window. That always deserved a wave.  I wonder if those guys were listening to the station?

The other photo is of the control room rack that was to our backs in the studio. The nerve center!

(Speaking of the building back then, just recalling the little things, the men and women’s bathroom signs on the 2nd floor read “Elton’s” and “Olivia Newton’s.” Classic 1970’s radio humor.)

Take care, Eric"

Eric also sent along a 9-page manual of the KAAY Procedures Manual; some may or may not appreciate this, but I hope you do!


Thanks, Eric!  What great material!  Don't you folks agree?

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

"Top 40 Top 40 Stations Of All Time": KAAY #8

Heard from Doug Virden, who sent the link below...and I would have thought KAAY would have been higher!  Oh, well, everything's about politics, I don't try to understand it all.  Thank you, Doug!

http://www.examiner.com/article/top-40-top-40-stations-of-all-time-koma-wls-and-wabc-top-the-list

"...here's an attempt to rank and identify some of the greatest of those Top 40 stations of yesterday, keeping in mind that strongest consideration was given to stations that were prominent and dominant for at least most of the era from the late '50s through the '60s."

WAKY, KAAY's LIN sister station, achieved #17.  My hometown station, WABB in Mobile, AL (where Wayne Moss once worked in between stints at KAAY) garnered an honorable mention.

"Undoubtedly, many other stations merit consideration, but everyone has the right to their own opinions and the right to cherish memories of their personal favorite stations of the glory days of Top 40 radio."

Again, thanks to Doug Virden!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Monday, August 10, 2015

Radio Yesterday with Barry Mac! June 12, 2005

Barry Mac brings us another KAAY retro-show, from June 12, 2005. 

This show features:  A non-charting classic from Buddy, Aretha sings with an Allman Brother, Sly takes a stand, a different kind of Woodstock, Gladys talks about Daddy, and our one-hit wonder of the week.  Plus, an Arkansas political flashback.


(or download here)
Greg Barman

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

WOW!!!

Dear reader and visitor, it is because of YOU that we keep this blog going...I just logged in a few minutes ago and was astounded by seeing we had 339,634 page views!!!!  My, how six years have flown by!  We've been truly blessed and fortunate to have all the material we've gotten.  But, again, we're about to reach the end of some things by the Fall of this year, so look around- EVERYTHING regarding KAAY's history is important!

I don't care if it's a 5-second station i.d. and you do or don't know who it is... if you can tell us at least a little something about it and maybe we can guess or i.d. the deejay, we'll do that, too.  Ticket stubs from a contest at KAAY...John's Jeans ad sold by the salesmen on KAAY- ANYTHING!

OK, OK, you get the picture!  On my own personal situation, the l-o-n-g hours of two jobs is smoothing out and I'm starting to realize some extra time- and I'm not spending ALL that time sleeping.  We finally paid off my daughter's massive medical bills and I'm doing some damage-control in the aftermath, financially.  Bills will never go away, but I am looking forward to maybe quitting this 2nd job one day and spending more time chasing radio...

One of the newest things that you may have seen on the KAAY- Mighty 1090 Facebook page is the emergence of AM radio stations again PLAYING MUSIC!!!  Right now, I'm using my Realistic DX-440, my Realistic passive loop antenna placed on a little Lazy Susan to hear a 500-watt (night-time power) WGAD AM 930, Gadsden, AL here in Satsuma, AL!!!

So with that, I want to THANK YOU for visiting, contributing and commenting!  By the way, we COULD use MORE of the latter, please!  Here's my set-up, listening to WGAD:


Bud S (staceys4@hotmail.com)

Monday, August 3, 2015

Eric Thomas' KAAY Concert Flyer

"Hello Bud,

Hope all is going well. I wanted to share this flyer with you, and you may have seen it before. Just in case here it is. I found this in a miscellaneous KAAY folder so I am assuming it was advertised on Beaker Street maybe???
Wow! What a lineup! I would probably have enjoyed this much more than Woodstock.
Take care, Eric"


I agree!  With a line-up like that!  Thanks again, Eric!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)