Beaker Street KAAY Clyde Clifford

Excerpt from the Ottumwa Courier (That's Iowa for you Arkies)
Published October 01, 2007 12:07 am -

Onward to Oktoberfest
Browsing Around

BY CINDY TOOPES Courier staff writerThat takes me back to high school summers in the late ‘60s. I used to listen to the radio while lying on a blanket in the back yard, hoping to get a tan. His voice will always be on file in my head.

Hearing about Dic Youngs reminded me of another radio voice from the ‘60s — Clyde Clifford on KAAY Radio, Little Rock, Ark. For most of the day, the station played a Top 40 format; but, after 11 p.m. KAAY’s signal was underground music with “Beaker Street” hosted by Clifford.

“Beaker Street” began late in 1966 and ran through 1972. It was the first underground music program broadcast regularly on a commercial AM radio station in the central United States.

The Internet gurus in the newsroom squawk about Wikipedia, that free encyclopedia on the Web. I’m here to testify that at least a few facts are right in the article about KAAY.

The article reminded me the station was called the “Mighty 1090.” KAAY did send the signal about the latest in rock to kids in the Midwest, definitely in Ottumwa.

I’m one of those kids. I had a transistor radio and I soaked up the music from bands I didn’t hear anywhere else. They had names stranger than Beatles or Rolling Stones, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Pink Floyd, Savoy Brown, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, just to name a few.


I hear Clyde Clifford is still out there on the radio waves. That’s fun news for the 40th anniversary of those late ’60s years.

So, next Sunday night I’ll search for Magic 105.1 FM, KMJX, central Arkansas. My ears are ready for a flashback.

Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com.