Beaker Street Memories

A few reminiscences. I grew up in Evanston IL, a northern suburb of Chicago. And while the big city rockers like WLS and WCFL provided no shortage of great listening, I was an active DX-er and was fascinated by that exotic station from Little Rock that boomed in every night on 1090. What really made KAAY unique was Beaker Street, which sounded like nothing else on AM in Chicago or anywhere else. In the early 70’s, album rock and “progressive FM” was on the air locally but it lacked the mood of Beaker Street with the “Head” music bed, Clyde Clifford’s laidback style, and the blues and country-flavored music that rarely made it on the air in Chicago. It was strange and spooky, and I loved to listen to it at night as I went to bed. For a young man who was fascinated with radio and eager to work in it, Beaker Street and KAAY was radio magic for me. I occasionally airchecked KAAY and years later I was glad I did.



Here are two airchecks of Beaker Street. Both have mostly good skip reception with some fading. The first is Clyde Clifford from June 1, 1972. The music selection is tremendous, including Eric Clapton, the Grateful Dead, The Flock, Robert Johnson, Leon Russell and Judy Collins. It’s interesting to hear the spots for the New Orleans club called “A Warehouse”, with the $4 concert price tickets - imagine that!



The second aircheck is with Ken Knight, from December 1974. Note the Spanish ID and “Greetings QSL’ers”, the ad for a hard rockin’ local band, and the intro for Beaker Theater.



I’m looking to trade Beaker Street airchecks with other collectors, so feel free to email me at: click here

Greg

Note: I will be posting the airchecks later. We are working out transfering one of the checks.