Nerwspaper Column Regarding The KAAY Celebration

Thanks to H. W. Duncan:

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/jun/28/blasts-from-past-in-store-for-kaay-radi/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=midday-6-28-18&utm_content=midday-6-28-18+CID_4fc42b26aeb7eecb34c43bdecce9944b&utm_source=Email%20Marketing%20Platform&utm_term=Blasts%20from%20past%20in%20store%20for%20tribute%20to%20Little%20Rock%20radio%20station%20KAAY

The reports are just now trickling in...

Bud S. (Staceys4@hotmail.com)

CALS Ron Robinson Theater Celebration June 29, 2018

From Larry McDonald's Facebook post:

"My brothers, sisters and I attended a celebration of KAAY radio at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater Friday night in Little Rock. Our Dad, Felix McDonald was the Chief Engineer at the station for over 50 years. KAAY was a huge part of our lives growing up. — with Lynn McDonald, Nancy McDonald Rinehart, Cindy McDonald Terrazas and Larry Mcdonald."

More to come!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

KAAY Memories From Keith Parish

"Thank you Bud, for all the work you and the others do on the blog. I had listened to KAAY growing up, it’s hard to really pinpoint my earliest memory; earliest I can recall would probably put it around '72 or '73 which would've put me at 5 to 6 years old. I arrived at that from songs I distinctly remember hearing played on KAAY, Elton John's "Honky Cat", Stealers Wheel "Stuck in the Middle" among many, many others.  I know I went through several transistor radios and no telling how many batteries. I would listen when I went to bed and was supposed to turn it off but I seldom remember ever doing that, most times I would fall asleep or the batteries would go dead. 

I’m  quite sure some of my listening was Beaker Street I just don’t have any distinct recollection of. KAAY was the ONLY station I knew of that played the whole "Rockford Files" theme single, one of my all-time favorite shows, and "one more for the road...." Boz Scaggs "Lido Shuffle" would wake me up so I could listen. Sometime along the way I got an upgrade, my grandpa got me a portable 8-track player with a detachable speaker and an AM tuner.  I got a portable cassette recorder when I was probably 7 years old, most if not all were recorded off air with a mic, from that radio, I was very careful to try and produce quality recordings (not sure if I achieved that).

As I got older I began to pay more attention to the DJ’s and other air staff. I can remember my mom introducing me to Ray and Ram, she didn't care much for rock'n roll, but she liked his morning show, to which I was immediately drawn to. At some point like many others I moved on to FM, found KLAZ, KKYK and KLPQ- Q94, and reintroduced to Ray and Ram when they would do the morning show simulcast, probably around 1980. I would sometimes almost be late for school wanting to listen just a little bit longer to see what Ray would do next!

I was in my early teens but still a kid not thinking how things would change, if I’d known about the changeover of KAAY in 1985(I was in 10th grade)  I would probably have recorded all of the last day, as I recall my dad showed me an article in the state paper about it after the fact. I had originally wanted to get into radio and ended up not pursuing it as that my life and work took me in a different direction.  Looking back even behind the scenes or technician would've been ok too.

I have always loved music and the radio, still do. I think because unlike TV I could be doing other things and focus my attention on other things but yet it was still there. I miss the way it used to be, we are fortunate we have two stations in nearby Clinton, AR (3 if you count the FM translator) that are locally owned, KGFL AM 1110 5kw daytime only, and KHPQ 92.1 FM, they are for the most part satellite fed, with some local programming. But the owners and families are deeply involved in the community. 

There’s probably more, sometimes reading on the blog will trigger memories for me and I’ve gotten where I try and either write them down then or do a note on my phone or iPad.

Keith"

 

 

(Great memories, Keith!  By the way, Keith has found some tapes he's repairing, we should have some audio for the blog in the coming months!  Thank you, Keith!  Bud S., staceys4@hotmail.com)

Remembrance of ReelRadio founder Richard Irwin (From Greg Barman)

Hey all,

As some of you may know, Richard Irwin (aka "Uncle Ricky") passed away on June 6 in Sacramento CA.  He was the founder, administrator and tech guru behind Reelradio.com, likely the highest-quality paywalled radio aircheck site on the internet.  He had been in declining health for several years. He shut down his site a few months ago to deal with his health, and seek someone else to run it. 

But no one else could run it, not the way he ran it.  His standards were obsessively high.  It went beyond that airchecks had to be good technical quality.  He edited them to his own satisfaction, and even used an audio processor to present them on the site.  He wouldn't allow Mp3 versions of airchecks.  He stuck with the RealAudio format, which was cutting edge back in the day but no longer.  He knew UNIX to run the system that hosted the site, and did all the paperwork and payments associated with licensing and other legal requirements.  Who else would or could handle all of that?

He fought an impressive battle against the mighty RIAA in 2014-15.  The RIAA had cracked down on him for running untelescoped airchecks, claiming it amounted to being a streaming music site.  Irwin contended that Reelradio was a museum site, not an on-demand music site.  Irwin dropped the unscoped airchecks for a while and changed his site significantly to comply.  Behind the scenes, he obtained legal help.  Then, one day the site returned back to normal.  The unscoped airchecks were back with no further explanation.  I called him up to congratulate him, and I asked if he could share what happened.  He clammed right up, and wouldn't say a word.  That made me wonder if he so successfully embarrassed the RIAA that they made him sign an NDA to make the problem go away!  If the RIAA had prevailed this may have prevented others from posting unscoped airchecks elsewhere, so I'm glad that Irwin was a fighter.

He could be cranky too.  He insisted that contributors shared their airchecks exclusively with him.  I incurred his wrath one time when I shared one exhibit elsewhere.  His site was pirated endlessly by people who took the airchecks and posted them elsewhere, often for money.  He blames the piracy for the decline of his subscribers.  In reality, it's impossible to avoid theft on the internet.  Plus, there are other (and free) aircheck sites.  And, it's aging demos -- the audience that appreciates this kind of radio history is shrinking. 

So, hundreds of high quality exhibits are lost, possibly forever, unless his estate or the ReelRadio board members find someone to host them.  I have many exhibits there that I will now post elsewhere, most likely the Facebook groups "Radio Jingles and Airchecks", "Chicago Radio Timeline", "I Love AM Radio", "The Broadcasting Club", plus "The Mighty1090 KAAY Blog"  and maybe others.  

LA Dailynews columnist Richard Wagoner posted this remembrance:

https://www.dailynews.com/2018/06/12/wagoner-on-radio-remembering-the-man-behind-a-beloved-radio-website/

And ReWound Radio's Allan Sniffen has this audio tribute:

http://rewoundradio.com/Allan%20Sniffen%20-%20Salute%20to%20Richard%20Irwin%20-%20Rewound%20Radio%20-%206-9-18.mp3

Greg Barman

Wayne Moss aircheck - May 23, 1972

Here’s an aircheck of Wayne Moss on KAAY, doing afternoon drive in 1972.   Years ago I posted this elsewhere, on a paywalled aircheck site, and I promised the owner that I wouldn’t post it anywhere else.  That site recently went under and likely not coming back.  So now I have posted it here -- on the site where it truly belongs!

I got this aircheck from a fellow I met in 1975 on my first-ever fulltime radio job.  It was at WMYK(FM), licensed to Moyock NC but targeted toward the Norfolk VA market.  It broadcast from a few trailers at the tower site, just south of the NC/VA state line.  This guy was a guest of either the station PD or owner and I dubbed the aircheck from him.  He said he knew Wayne Moss and he regaled me with lots of KAAY stories.  The only one I remember was how KAAY arranged for interns or part-timers to work for competing stations, and learn about their upcoming promotions.  Then they would tip off KAAY so the Big K could counter them with even bigger contests and promotions.  Young spies!  Did KAAY really do that?  I don’t know, but it was a great story.

About the aircheck – It covers just over one hour, telescoped from 3:27pm to 4:30pm on Tuesday, May 23, 1972.  There’s a heavy spotload, LOTS of commercials. Only once do you hear 2 songs back to back, at the top of the hour.  There are several political ads, with an Election Day coming up 1 week later.  Mary Donald has the news at :55 and :28.  The big full sound of KAAY really impressed me ever since I heard this aircheck. 

Enjoy!

Greg Barman


(or download here)

Recent comments

Here are more comments recently posted on the blog.  Click on a comment to read it in larger type. Each comment is documented with the name of the post where it was attached, and you can jump to the post by typing its name in the search box located at the upper left corner of this web page.  Happy reading!

The Skunk Festival, Jan. 1973

From Facebook entry by Vickie Hahn Wyeth:

 

‎

"The Skunk Festival, Jan. 1973, in Little Rock. War Memorial Stadium, I think. It was in honor of Loudon Wainwright III's hit song, Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road. Loudon was there, and the other guest was Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. And people brought pet skunks. This photo is of Sonny Martin and Mark."

Thank you, Vickie!  She was prompted by Doug Virden to send this to me, and I was alerted on Facebook.  Thanks, Vickie and Doug, for alerting me!

Another piece of history revealed!

Bud S. (Staceys4@hotmail.com)

Celebration of the Mighty 1090 KAAY

Blog friend Doug Virden is hosting a "Celebration of the Mighty 1090 KAAY" at CALS Ron Robinson Theater on June 29, 2018, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock, AR 72201.  The event will take place at 7PM.  For more information, see the Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1875563855807913/permalink/1876456722385293/?notif_t=event_mall_comment&notif_id=1526558493328859

Wish I could go, but other life events are taking place that I must take care of....

Thank you, Doug!  Send plenty of pictures!

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)

From Doug Virden: Valerie Pruitt Info

As per Doug Virden: Valerie Pruitt, chairman of Youth Home's annual Eggshibition fundraiser....

http://m.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/apr/01/valerie-pruitt-20180401/#.WsLJ9iLMD3w.mailto

Something for the KAAY blog, started out as a news reporter for KAAY.  If my memory serves me correctly she was there on the last day reporting the afternoon news.

(There may be a survey pop up, just click "skip survey" for the article.  Thanks, Doug!  Bud S., staceys4@hotmail.com)

Clyde Clifford For Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame?

Folks, I have heard from "moparjeff" several times about starting something like this and it looks like things are maybe taking off...here's his e-mail to me:

"We have a good following going on Facebook to get Clyde Clifford in the RRHOF.  There are almost 300 people liking the idea.  I have been encouraging them to write letters to the nominating committee, although I don't know how many of them have, but I do know it's a good number of them.  From the research I have done, this appears to be the best way to make this happen.  The award Dale (Seidenschwarz) would be eligible for is the Ahmet Ertegun Award as a non-performer.  The recipient of this award is chosen by a subcommittee of six people from the main nominating committee.  The nominating committee meets in September.  The address is: The Nominating Committee, Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, 1290 Avenue Of The Americas, New York, NY 10104. 

I have been sharing the blog address whenever I can.  Please feel free to share this on the blog.

Your KAAY Beaker Street friend, Jeff"

Thank you, Jeff!  I wish all the success to you and the fellow nominators out there!

Bud S. (Staceys4@Hotmail.com)

More comments

Here are more comments recently posted on the blog.  Click on a comment to read it in larger type. Each comment is documented with the name of the post where it was attached, and you can jump to the post by typing its name in the search box located at the upper left corner of this web page.  Happy reading!

Staunch Allies Get A Shout Out. (David B. Treadway on Facebook)

KAAY's night signal rolled right over Satsuma, Alabama, where it swept a young Bud Stacey into the ozone. I never knew he was out there until years after the station was sold away to the Christians. He and some friends put an excellent blog on the 'net, entitled mighty1090kaay (link below).  (David B. inserted a link to our blog in his Facebook post- thanks, David B.!  bs)

If you're still a fan of the station, I highly recommend you give this blog some of your spare time!

It's done from a listener's viewpoint, though insiders check in from time to time. It gives a perspective that we did not get on the air--and it's got everything about the station. It also links back to the late AJ Lindsey's (Doc Holiday #2) blog, which is another treasure in itself.

Very belated thanks to Bud, Greg Barman and Dave Schmidt and all others who are keeping the legend alive.

More comments

Here are more comments recently posted on the blog,  Click on a comment to read it in larger type. Each comment is documented with the name of the post where it was attached, and you can jump to the posting by typing the name of the post in the search box located at the upper left corner of this web page.

KAAY Signal Restored

In an e-mail from Doug Virden:

"The nighttime directional signal for KAAY has been fully restored after nearly 15 years.  The nighttime signal had to be cut back because a power plant was built a mile away from the towers right in the directional signals path.  This forced the signal to be reduced from 50kw to around 17kw at night.  According to Barry McCorkindale this led to a significant loss in revenue.

Two-thirds of the revenue the station brought in was from the nighttime signal.  There was a higher rate charged during skywave hours.  Once the nighttime signal wasn't coming through anymore the prime revenue started leaving.  More revenue left when the station was off the air twice for weeks.  There are currently less than 30 ministries still on KAAY, once revenue is lost its doubtful its coming back.  I believe it cost more than twice of what the current yearly revenue is for the station.  From my understanding it was either restore the signal or turn in the license and shut down.

 

     I'm sure the company is going want a return on their investment.  Keeping the status quo with programming won't cut it.

 

A couple of ideas for programming would be to move the sports talk station to KAAY or block all the ministries that are left into the late night and overnight hours and play 60's and 70's music for the rest of the time.

  

There is now FM competition on the religious front in Little Rock.  Salem runs three stations in Little Rock one is a full time religious block station where a lot of programs that were once on KAAY went, next is a Contemporary Christian music format, and a conservative talk station.  Younger listeners will go to these stations for that type of programming.  Another issue is the ministers that have time on KAAY are getting older and there is NO younger ones coming in to take their place."

 

I tuned into 1090 this morning, there was a good strong signal.  Good job!  Thanks, Doug!

 

Bud S. (stactes4@Hotmail.com)

We get comments....

A lot of people read this blog, and they leave comments to the postings.  But to see the comments, you have to click on the "comments" link at the bottom of a posting.  Lots of comments are still being added to popular posts from years back, and there is no way that anyone is going to check all these older posts for new comments.

So, for the next few weeks, we will be relisting comments that have been posted over the past year.  The comments have been lifted from the blog's "dashboard," and they aren't formatted all that pretty, but at least you can read them.  Each comment is documented with the name of the post where it was attached, and you can jump to the posting by typing the name of the post in the search box located at the upper left corner of this web page.

We hope that you will enjoy the info and memories contributed by our readers.  (Also, the last comment in today's batch contains a nifty link that takes you to a dropbox account of collected Beaker Street audio files!   By the way, Bud S. has some leads on new Beaker Street audio, which he is trying to track down.  We'll let you know....)

Finally, a comment about comments:  our blog uses Blogger (run by Google) for its postings.  Blogger is great for presenting essays, audio files, etc., so that the blog becomes a history or archive on its topic.  This has worked great for documenting the story of KAAY.  But it makes comments secondary (otherwise, Blogger becomes Facebook).  So, we will stick with Blogger and do a bit of extra work to flush out your comments.

Here's the first batch --- click on a comment to see it in a larger type font.

---Dave S.

KAAY Question

This, from Bill in Las Vegas:

"Years ago, I found online somewhere, a bunch of playlists (not the mp3's, just a copy of the paper list) for Beaker Street. I think there were some from maybe 1966 and 1967. I cannot find them anymore. Have you seen them anywhere?

Thanks

Bill

Las Vegas, NV"

 

I sent Bill a reply and I'll be looking into it; in the meantime, anyone know where these playlists might be?  I believe, if memory serves me correctly, that Beaker Street actually started in November 1967....

 

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)

Beaker Street Tribute

Happy (belated) New Year, everyone!

Without further delay, here is some information from blog friend Doug Virden:

" A radio show paying tribute to Beaker Street is on for an hour every Friday night.  The show airs from 9-10pm on radio station KCCK 88.3 FM in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and hosted by John Helm.  The station is run by Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids and is a non commercial station funded by donations.  They specialize in Jazz music and have a blues program following the Beaker Street Hour.  If you are outside the area, you can go to the station's website at kcck.org and hit the listen live button.

You can also listen through the tuneinradio app on your phone just search "kcck"."

 

Thanks, Doug!  Usually by that time, I am dead to the world, after a hard week; business is booming in my industry.  I suppose this is Central Time, as well.  I will have to make an effort to stay up and listen!

 

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)

Merry Christmas!

I like radio-related things, of course!  I can only imagine that Santa likes me so much, he'll bring me radio goodies!

Wait!  Who could this be?

I'm sure after a long shift at the mall, these Santas are enjoying some soothing tunes in front of the Admiral console in the lounge before heading out for the evening!

Nonetheless, we here at The Mighty 1090 KAAY Blog wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)

Other Telephones

(From Doug Virden)

Remember seeing the old black telephone on the blog from the transmitter visit in 2011, there are two other telephones at the transmitter.  The one pictured on the blog then is the 302 model which 1st came out in the late 30's and was in circulation through the 50's.  I'm assuming it was the original telephone at the transmitter.  Barry McCorkindale took it home with him a couple of years ago when he was out at the transmitter.

   

The other two telephones are still there one is the rotary dial phone we are most familiar with which is the 500 model.  I'm guessing it was added sometime in the 60's.  The telephone was modernized sometime in the 80's with a touch tone telephone,I believe the color of the touch tone is ivory.  Telephone service was shut off at the transmitter building due to leases still be paid on those phones around the middle to late 90's.

 

The black one sits in the workshop area while the ivory one sits to the right on a shelf as you walk in the building on the top level.

 

Thanks, Doug!  We here at The Mighty 1090 KAAY Blog appreciate your contributions.  Keep up the good work!

 

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)

KAAY's New Transmitter

(A bit late, due to my extremely busy schedule, but better late than never...my fault entirely. bs)

"I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, now it is time to start posting again.  The new 50kw transmitter was still in the crate when I visited there in September.  There is an engineering firm from Baton Rouge that will be installing the new transmitter.  Read on another FB page about a month ago that their firm would be there soon to install it.  That company also completed the ground work on the towers.  A new ventilation system was also installed upstairs to keep the transmitter climate controlled.  The building originally didn't have a/c, the heat and humidity would eat the new transmitter up within two years without it.  Remember reading stories about how the old RCA kept the building warm on very cold days and nights.  

The other transmitter is a 5kw backup transmitter, it was sent from an affiliate in Dallas to get the station back on the air a few years ago when water from the roof leak destroyed the one in the workshop area.  The Harris 50kw transmitter installed in the early 80's will be used as a backup.  That is the one with the blue cover in the previous post.  The new transmitter is approximately the same size as the 5kw in the pic and will be placed right next to it."

 

Thank you, Doug...keep up the good work!

 

We appreciate those who go to the trouble of contributing; things have been somewhat slow at The Mighty 1090 KAAY Blog and I think we've pretty much tapped out what is out there.  Who knows, there may be someone out there, sifting through their oddball tapes and finding some "new" audio, or finding a shoebox full of memorabilia that they'd be willing to share.

 

(I know there is more stuff out there, but I have had a hard time convincing people of donating samples for the blog....)

 

Nonetheless, as bits and pieces surface, we will continue to share them here.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Bud S. (staceys4@Hotmail.com)