KAAY brings back some fond memories for me too. I grew up in very rural
northern Illinois and was a loyal fan of rock legend WLS whose
transmitter was a mere 70 miles away. I was 15 and travelling with my
family on a vacation trip in 1968 when I discovered the Beaker Street
program on KAAY late one night. I was absolutely mesmerized by the music
bed that played constantly in the background whenever the mic was open.
It was many years later before I learned that this was done to cover the
noise from the transmitter cooling fans since Beaker Street originated
from a small studio at the transmitter site. The music bed gave the
station a very original sound unlike any other station that I had heard.
Plus they played long album cuts that couldn't be heard on other AM
stations. When we returned home I was excited to find that KAAY boomed
into my rural Illinois home at night. From then on WLS had the early
evening and KAAY owned late night on my Hallicrafters S-120 receiver. I
still have the sky blue QSL card that I received from KAAY to
acknowledge my late night reception in May of 1968. The card was signed
by Chief Engineer Felix McDonald. It notes that the transmitter then was
an RCA 50FI with three 500 foot towers.
Patrick Griffith, N0NNK
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
KAAY Little Rock Beaker Street what a late night show. Back in 73 a friend of mine and I drove around late at night in his 65 Vette to listen to Kaaay AAA AAA YYYY with I would like to say John Diamond on Beaker Street. I didn’t listen to the local radio stations here in North Dakota as they didn’t play the music I wanted to hear. I always wondered why we could only hear KAAY at night. I have been a Ham Radio operator for 27 years and now I do know why we had to drive around so late at night just to hear the best AM station. At least part of it HI HI (Ham Radio laughing) Oh those were the days…..good music, fast cars and thinking I new it all
Terry KFØHR in North Dakota
Post a Comment