The FINAL Beaker Street on KAAY - April 3, 1985

The Day The Music Died.  That phrase has been used to describe what happened to so many AM Rock stations that wound up dumping their cherished music formats during the 1980’s.  It was happening all over the country, even to big legendary stations like WABC/New York, WLS/Chicago, CKLW/Windsor-Detroit, KIMN/Denver -- stations that nobody thought would ever give up the music that made them great.  Sadly, it became KAAY’s turn to throw in the towel on April 3, 1985, when it capped several days of reminiscences about its legendary history with a final Beaker Street show, AND with Clyde Clifford, at the final hour before Midnight.

We are fortunate that this Blog has great accounts of that Final day from people who were there.  The first one is from Barry McCorkindale:

http://mighty1090kaay.blogspot.com/2010/04/last-day-last-hour-part-1-barry.html

And, from the final PD, David Treadway:

http://mighty1090kaay.blogspot.com/2010/04/last-day-last-hour-part-2-david-b.html

The last KAAY Beaker Street show featured many of the songs it helped to make famous back in the day:

Arthur Brown – Fire

Deep Water Reunion (with Barbara Raney) – Cindy’s Cryin

Allman Brothers Band – Revival

Quicksilver Messenger Service – Fresh Air

Leon Russell – Delta Lady

Jamie Brockett – Legend of the U.S.S. Titanic

Jefferson Airplane – Wooden Ships

Black Sabbath – The Wizard

Joni Mitchell – The Circle Game

Here is the aircheck of the final hour of that final day on KAAY.  Clyde Clifford gave tribute to his co-workers, his listeners, the music, and the grand old RCA 50,000-watt transmitter…..and “put the old girl down”:

(or download here)

This brings to a close our Beaker Street aircheck series, for now (until some “new” old tapes of the show re-surface, I got a feeling they’re still out there, somewhere).  We hope you have enjoyed this series as much as we have in putting it together. 

Next time:  The Reunion

Greg Barman