Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Blame it on the Razorbacks":

A. J., while I'm not employed in the radio industry, I am in in a situation where a distant entity tries to control what goes on locally. They don't seem to understand that a LOCAL market, no matter if it's in Mobile, AL or St. Louis, MO, drives our business..."it" can't be driven by their think-tank in "The Ivory Tower". I believe that's the problem, and mistake, of consolidation and distant entities: they are only concerned with the bottom line they think they create, NOT what it could be if the local market was tapped and run as it should be!

So what, if a couple of songs were liked in Washington State, it doesn't mean they'd be well-liked in the South or in the Northeast! The secret is, give the customer what they WANT, not what you THINK they may want
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I.m sure many of you work at a business where the thermostat is controlled hundreds of miles away. Talk about micro-managing.

Need Some Memory Help

Hello, AJ,

I was wondering if you remember a fellow name Mac Young, who was from
Hot Springs but moved to Little Rock. He worked at KXLR for a short time,
then went to KMYO (Cameo, it was called), then to KARK AM, when it was
still KARK. I knew him when I was growing up in Hot Springs and he worked
at KBHS when it was on 590. He was terrific on the air, had a great voice,
could really do live reads well. I lost track of him, heard he died in an
accident between Little Rock and Conway, but I've never had a confirmation
on any of that. Also, there was a fellow who moved from what was KZNG AM
when it was on 1470 in Hot Springs, who moved to KAAY, did overnights for
awhile, then got a good offer to go to a station in Des Moines. Maybe you
might jog my memory on him.

....................................................................................
The name is very familiar but I have no first hand knowledge of either mentioned. However, I am sure some of our readers do. Please post a comment if you have knowledge of either of these guys.

Great Credit Card Web Site

A Friend of mine has a web site with some very useful credit card info. Take a look: www.morecreditcardinfo.com

Blame it on the Razorbacks

Yesterday was an all time low as far as hits on this blog. Weekends are always slow but yesterday was the pits. I take full responsibility for not finding some provocative topics. There is just so much you can write about the KATV tower collapse and raccoons. Those two topics were responsible for more hits on this blog that anything else.

I think a topic well worth discussing again on this blog would be the playlist for KAAY. I guess KAAY covered 3 generations. The playlists and the programming reflected this. I find readers to this blog are from a wide age base. The Beaker Street influenced audience (which is right behind the KATV tower and raccoons)seem to have little interest in the top 40 side of KAAY. And the converse is probably true. Being involved with the programming side mostly, I find the differences in radio then and now are worth much study. I don't think I could live in a radio station environment where the playlist was determined by corporate or expensive music research. We had a music director who was responsible for determining the playlist. He used phone calls to the station, record sales and input from the jocks to determine the weekly playlist. Phone calls were a good guide for every jock.
The calls were mostly girls. If a guy called it was to request a song for a girl.
Anyone working the industry today? How is your music selected? Do you think it builds listners?

Howard Stern Comment

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Big News: You Can Now Get Howard Stern on XM":

Howard Stern is another good reason NOT to subscribe to XM...I don't want my hard-earned $$$ to fund his paycheck....Bud, Mobile, AL

WRKO Saluted on XM Radio Today

Sonic Sound Salutes
4:00 PM - 9:00 PM

WRKO Boston, MA NOW Radio 68 Featuring the late GREAT Jackson Armstrong. Hear NOW Radio 68 at Nantasket Beach, Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage and we'll count down the WRKO "NOW" 30 Survey

Sherwood Pictures

As you know I have been promoting the movie "Fireproof". I have been impressed for a long time with Sherwood Baptist Church and their entry into the movie business. Take a look at numbers of DVDs they have sold on Facing the Giants which also did very well at the box office. (the Fireproof info is a little dated now)
(from their website)
SHERWOOD PICTURES
In 2003, Sherwood Pictures premiered its first full length motion picture, Flywheel, in three theaters in south Georgia. It aired on numerous Christian television networks around the world including TBN, Family Net, INSP, Faith TV, and Cornerstone TV, and has sold approximately 200,000 DVDs to date. The thousands of letters, e-mails, and phone calls from viewers has made this a powerful new avenue of ministry for the church. In 2006, Sherwood produced its second feature, Facing the Giants, which was picked up by Provident Films (a Sony company) and released September 29th 2006 in 441 theaters nationwide. The movie expanded to include 1,010 theaters by the end of it's 17 week run. Over 1.5 million DVDs were sold in 56 countries and 13 languages. To date, almost 7,000 decisions for Christ have been reported. Sherwood's third movie, Fireproof, is set to release nationwide in 800 theaters on September 26th. God has amazed and blessed us with results that only He could have orchestrated. May He get the glory! For more information on these movies, visit www.FlywheeltheMovie.com, www.FacingtheGiants.com, or www.fireproofthemovie.com.


MEDIA PRODUCTS
Media productions are available for purchase through The Source, Sherwood's in-house bookstore. Audio cassettes, CD's, and DVD’s of our movies and the pastor's messages are available, as well as books, music, and other films. To contact The Source, call (229) 431-9330 or visit The Source.

KAAY Transmitter Pictures

Scroll down on this link for some shots of the KAAY old and new transmitter and Felix McDonald long time Chief Engineer.

http://www.comp-unltd.com/~jabender/mvi/citadel/ltlrock/index.htm

Big News: You Can Now Get Howard Stern on XM

Read my post below and you can see I am not a big Howard Stern fan, so the big news fell of deaf ears.

I have had no comment what-so-ever on the Clark Weber Book.(scroll down and read post on Clark Weber's book)

Has anyone seen it?

Is it out there?

If you have an interest in radio you should be following books on radio and picking them up when you can get a good buy. The go out of print quickly and increase in value.

Jerry Sims Where are you?

Wednesday is a busy day for me. I have meetings morning, afternoon, and night. As much as I would like to post some audio, it is impossible today. Jerry teased me with some reel to reel tapes he had and sent me one digital conversion with the promise of more.
Jerry, I really needed one today.

I would like to write briefly about an alarming trend most of the networks are now using after being pioneered by MTV. That technique is the bleeping of profanity. The lip movement is still there. Even a very small child can guess very quickly what the bleeped word or words was. I'm sure the big thing with kids now is to guess the bleeped words. It is faster to just cut the offensive word out. The networks have discovered the bleep may be more effective than airing the word. I'm sure the F.C.C. is very pleased their rules are not being violated.

I saw a Jimmy Kimmel special that ran before the Emmy awards. It ran during the family hour and fortunately my kids are grown and gone. The show was filled with word bleeps but all the lip movement and gestures necessary to make sure you knew what each word was.

I've heard no complaints. We are not on a slippery slope, we are on a full down hill run in the moral fiber of our society.

I feel 30 years in the broadcast business attempting to comply with the F.C.C.
was a lost cause. I should have become a smut merchant like Howard Stern who for years paid F.C.C. fines that were paltry compared with the salary he made.

I guarantee the F.C.C. will continue to relax standards, and push paid services that they do not have to regulate but bring in tremendous income in the auctioning off of public airwaves to the highest bidder.

More Tony Alamo

Understand that the newest post on this blog is always stacked on top of previous posts. To understand the Tony Alamo posts you need to scroll down to the first Alamo post and then read up.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Comment from a Kool Aid drinker":

It is so sad that, when people are presented with solid evidence, they continue to deny, delude and divert...even sadder, they point the finger of blame at the truth-seekers and truth-unveilers, saying THEY'RE deluded. This happens all too often in all walks of life, in all forms of communication, etc.

To be sure, our rights are to be innocent until proven guilty, but when evidence is overwhelming and obvious, someone like the Kool-Aid Drinker ought to just stand by with mouth closed, eyes and ears open...it is better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool, rather than open it and remove all doubt! Bud, Mobile, AL
................................................................................
On this blog I have posted current news reports about Tony Alamo because he had a compound here in Alma AR before his conviction and serving time in a Federal penitentiary.

Comment from a Kool Aid drinker

I know for a fact that Rev. Alamo has been feeding and housing the homeless and poor for many years in CA., AK., TN, and NY just to name a few states and also many foreign countries. Alamo is a spritual man of the lord. These charges are only allegations which will ultimately be determined to have no merit whatsoever.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................

I know for a fact when Tony Alamo ran a "compound" in Alma, AR, the homeless and poor were given very stark housing and food and expected to work long slave type hours in several businesses he owned around town for no pay. The abuse of children and adults is widely documented by local television stations. It was very hard for the authorities to build a case as Tony was quick to hide behind religious freedom. Also, access to the "compound" was tightly controlled to the authorities, the public and the poor and homeless.

More Fireproof Reaction

A.J., this movie was fantastic! Opening night, it's gross receipts put it at #3 for the weekend Saturday morning. When my wife and I went Saturday afternoon, the 4PM showing was sold out and we barely got a 7PM seating...the theater was packed out! They even started adding additional times because of demand!

Michael Catt called our paster (they're very good friends) and marvelled at how well the movie was doing. I/we believe EVERY married couple, and every couple considering marriage, should see this movie!!!

I have to admit, the scene where the main character was trapped in a burning home, resuing a child, got to me...I am a former firefighter/Paramedic, and had a burning roof cave in on me. Just by the grace of God, my partner and I got out with minor burns...but I KNOW what it's like to be in a burning hell...even with the turnout suits, you feel like your being cooked alive.

The book, "The Love Dare" will be out soon...everyone should buy and go through it, or give it to someone, as soon as it's available. Thanks to Michael Catt and Sherwood Baptist Church for another great movie! And thank YOU, A.J., for advertising it on the blog! Bud, Mobile, AL

Fireproof Reaction

AJ-

Thanks for drawing attention to "Fireproof". My wife works for Dayspring Cards and they actually underwrote showings in Siloam Springs and offered reduced price tickets. We saw the movie yesterday and it's a very compelling story, the acting is surprisingly good, and it's an incredible reminder of what's truly important in life. A few years ago my daughter recommended the book "The Wedding" and told me that it's a book men (and women) should read. I plan to return the favor and recommend the movie to her and my son-in-law.

Contest

You regular readers will know that I have been running a contest to find an Emperor Holiday comedy bit. No one has come close. However, in a new book "Clark Weber's Rock and Roll Radio" with a subtitle "The Fun Years 1955-1975" the is an audio CD included where Clark talks about "The Fun Years' and part of that is a brief discussion of "Emperor Weber". The excerpt you will hear was produced by Mark Century and syndicated around the country. This is one of the very early episodes. There was one exactly like this except the name was changed to Emperor Holiday and the task was to invade Oklahoma to take over the oil wells. (a great idea even today). Casey Kasem was the voice of Lt. Cavindhish.

I strongly recommend this book. It is coffee table book size and is a great conversation piece. Their are plenty of great pictures and the type is very large.... (I'm sure for us old folks) I really suggest this book for anyone interested in rock and roll radio from the inside.

I got mine through Amazon but I'm sure you can get if from you favorite bookseller.

Play the clip in the player on top to the right.

I don't even want to talk about the Razorback Game

I have made an "Emperor" find. It's not what I was looking for but anything is better than nothing.

Tony ALamo Comment

Crime News has left a new comment on your post "Tony Alamo, Alma & Foulke AR":

Yesterday, FBI Special Agents arrested Bernie Hoffman, also known as Tony Alamo in Flagstaff, Arizona. A federal Arrest Warrant was issued for Alamo by United States Magistrate Barry A. Bryant in the Western District of Arkansas for violating United States Code Title 18, Section 2423. This statute is defined as knowingly transporting a minor (under 18) across state lines with the intent to engage in sexual activity. If convicted of the alleged crime, Alamo could be imprisoned for 5 to 30 years.

XM Radio Salutes WTOD

Remember if you don't have an XRM radio it is available on the web.

Sonic Sound Salutes
4:00 PM - 9:00 PM

WTOD Toledo, OH 15-60 AM From ?The City of Glass? salute the Bowsher HS Rebels, The Swanton Bull Dogs. Cruise the White Hut and hear local bands The Mods, The Sting Rays and the Rogues. Toledo?s HIT Music station, AM 15-60, WTOD

Fireproof Opens Today

New Beaker Street Aircheck

This is part 1 of Clyde Clifford Beaker Street 4-3-71 Pt.1. Top Player on right.

More Tony Alamo

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Tony Alamo arrested in Arizona":

Interesting article from KDKA: http://kdka.com/national/Tony.Alamo.arrested.2.825859.html

...and he'll be tried in Arkansas.

Tony Alamo arrested in Arizona

As Drudge would say "developing".

New Beaker Street, Clyde Clifford Aircheck

On the right is a new player with a new Beaker Street aircheck. Sorry the quality is so poor. It was obviously recorded off the air, probably with a mike stuck in front of a speaker. I may eventually replace all the podomatic airchecks with this system.

Tony Alamo News Story

From a Fort Smith-Fayetteville TV station:

http://www.4029tv.com/news/17525594/detail.html

Tony Alamo

Vdog write: My comment about Tony Alamo that has to do with KAAY is he has bought airtime from 1-2AM weeknights in the overnight hours.
I also want to chime in on the country music. Its been stated in a previous blog that its not the country music that keeps KSSN #1, its Bob Robbins. Also stated before back in the day, the biggest competition for KAAY was Brother Hal at KLRA.
Currently in the ratings, KKPT (The Point 94.1) is nipping on KSSN's heels to be the #1 overall station. Also the current home of Beaker Street.
My point is this, its still the people that make or break a radio station.
.............................................................................

Many thanks for the comment. I did not know Tony Alamo had bought time on KAAY but I am not surprised. I am sure he used several 50,000 watt stations and probably TV.
He is a master at working the media. I question his claim to a million hits on his website, however, I am sure it is high traffic. It takes a cult leader like Alamo to turn the worst possible publicity and turn it into something that will benefit him.

You are also right on target with the country comments. Brother Hal played country music but it is the personality that gave us fits. I remember great celebration at KAAY when I beat him in one 15 minute segment in AM drive. It only happened in one book. You are right to about Bob Robbins. It doesn't matter what music he plays, he is the hoss.

Tony Alamo, Alma & Foulke AR

Again not much to do with KAAY. However, Tony Alamo has made international news. Tony's first "compound" was in Alma AR. Actually Dyer, AR which is like a suburb or Alma. Tony was long gone by the time I moved to Alma. The state and feds shut down the Alma businesses and the Dyer compound and sent Tony to jail. I believe he served his time in a federal pen in Texarkana. This may account for the location of Foulke, AR being chosen for the his new headquarters. (It's near Texarkana). Read previous posts about "the Foulke Monster" on this blog. (use upper left search box and search this blog) There is the KAAY connection. Once again, the fine folks of Foulke make the news. Who knows maybe even ANOTHER movie. (there were two movies about the Foulke monster) (The camera techniques are similar to Blair Witch Project)(Foulke monster movies are available from Netflix)

Back to Tony Alamo. If you haven't heard the Foulke location was raided by state and federal officials and 6 children were taken into protective custody. Tony was in California at the time where he seems to spend a lot of time.

Country and Western music comment

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Gazmik has left a new comment on your post "Music ...":

If you need a little more "western" in your country and have fun with it as well, catch the group "Riders In The Sky"...they've been around for 30+ years now and are a hoot to watch and listen to! I caught them on Crook and Chase this past weekend.

I grew up on rock & roll, but listen to a little country from time to time..."99 Lite" (another "slogan station") WMXC plays a lot of cross-over music.

I enjoy comedy, so I always enjoyed the likes of Ray Stevens and Justin Wilson.

Fom time to time, CMT airs the program, "Crossroads"; I happened to catch Allison Krause and Union Station one evening and really enjoyed that music.

Otherwise, I'm a talk radio type of person.

Gazmik has left a new comment on your post "Music I Grew Up With":

What do you think of the country music now compared to the country before the impact of people like Graham Parsons and Emmylou Harris and their country rock influence?

When I was a youngster, my parents listened to Johnny Cash, Hank Williams (not Junior), Pasty Cline, Skeeter Davis and the Davis Sisters, Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers, etc. But now, I feel like country is totally different, and maybe a little bit sappy and over-commercialized.
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Without a doubt country music today is yesterday's rock and roll. This is why the country market is so big. If the record companies would look at sales in country and gospel music they would find large increases while the rap hip hop or whatever it is, is down. True, country music has changed. It used to be called country and western. There was also blue grass.

I personally like a lot of today's country. And I like it because of the mass audience it is attracting. Even among the kids you will find country fans.

At KAAY we always played a lot of "cross-over" country songs. The strangest crossover song I remember was Tex Ritter's Hillbilly Heaven. Do a search in the upper left window and search tis blog for Hillbilly Heaven. There is an mp3 file of this song.

Something I didn't realize until lately: John Ritter was Tex Ritter's son.

iPod Cimment from reader

Which iPod is that? Is it the Touch, or is it the Nano with the 8 or 16 gig of memory?

The Touch, I'm not impressed with. My girlfriend has one, and everything is done using the touch screen. It's not very convenient for walking, biking or other activities. To do things like change the volume or skip to the next track you must look at the display. And if you don't hit the volume just right, you can have it suddenly jump to full volume!

.............................................................................
My biggest complaint against all Apple hand held devices is the battery. It is not consumer replaceable. When the rechargeable battery goes, you have to send it in to Apple. The send you another device that they have replaced the battery in already. That means all your songs are lost forever. Hope you have them backed up.

AM Car Radios

Thanks Bud for this comment:

"It's been years since car radios that had a decent AM chip. Remember how good the old AM only car radios sounded."

Yes, I remember...in fact, if you have an older vehicle, there is someone who does resoration on those older classic radios! See here: http://www.bobsradio.com/

Bob will go completely through the radio, replacing old capacitors and out-of-tolerance resistors and other parts, plus all the essential things to make it like new again. The newer, later parts have higher ratings and tighter tolerances for better performance. He can even convert an AM radio to AM/FM without altering the appearance of the radio.

Also, there is a gospel station here in Mobile that is still operating AM stereo. Needless to say, I think the industry, in all their "infinite intelligence", tried to sanction the harder-to-use C-QUAM rather than the better Kahn AM stereo system. Bud, Mobile, AL

Music I Grew Up With

Gazmik has left a new comment on your post "No Winner Weekend":

Have you ever posted anything on the music that you listened to growing up that may have influenced your move into radio as a career?.............................................................................

No I haven't and thanks for giving me a new direction.

First, it seems like I was always in radio. As a kid, my uncle Dan Winn was chief engineer for KARK (AM in Little Rock) He would take me to the studios on Saturday morning. He would rummage through his desk and find all kinds of great trinkets. RCA pencils and stuff. He was also the sound engineer for Robinson Auditorium and had two seats front row balcony.(permanent complimentary) He would often take me to concerts that passed through. I remember going every year to The Four Freshman. While I was in high school I got a part time job at KBBA in Benton AR. THe station was day parted to play all kinds of music. The last hour of the day (in the winter that would be 4-5PM since it was a daytimer) the station played R & B. That was my early exposure to rock and roll. The early Coasters, I really remember. To work there, though you had to have a knowledge of country, since they played an hour of country. It was a great time to grow up. I learned to appreciate big band, jazz & folk. To this day, I still enjoy going back to mid 50s music. As rock and roll and Elvis came of age, I got a job in Little Rock at a single format top 40 station, still a daytimer. Finally, I made it to the big time KXLR which was 5000 watt full time. Until KAAY came to the market, no one thought of going 24 hours. I have programed or managed top 40, rock and roll, country, black and disco. And I still like it all even some of the disco. If I were in radio today, it would probably be talk or country.

No Winner Weekend

All my teams lost this weekend. Starting with the Razorbacks. What can I say?
Alma, and Van Buren also lost. What can I day? If I sound depressed I am. I need someone to leave a comment and change the subject. Clark Webber of WLS has a book which I have ordered. Mainly because he has a chapter on the WLS -WCFL wars. Many hard back radio books have been out of print for a while and some sell for premium prices.

Joe Walsh

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Concert Ticket Prices":

Here is a link of Joe Walsh on the air with his vintage Collins 20V3 transmitter, AM mode:

http://amfone.net/index.php?ind=media&op=file_view&iden=150

make sure your speakers are turned on! Bud, Mobile, AL

XM Salutes WLS

WLS Chicago, IL The BIG 89 Hear DJ's Ron Riley, Clark Weber, Larry Lujak, Dick Biondi, and Art Roberts. Catch the Big 89 WLS Sock Hop this Friday night! And we countdown the Silver Dollar Survey (starts 3PM Central time and goes til 7)

F.C.C., Sirius, & X.M.

First a comment:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Interesting XM-Sirius Article":

Interesting, that shares have dropped. I've been exposed to Sirius through sales when I was at a local heavy-duty truck dealership and sold quite a few units...never had any exposure to XM. However, with Dish Network, we have Sirius music, as well as Dish's regular music channels- a waste of space, in my opinion, since they play the same stuff. Nonetheless, Howard Stern, nor Oprah Winfrey, would NOT be the reason for me to buy into either service, nor invest my hard-earned dollars in either of their payrolls.

I have also been of the mind that, if it's in the airspace, we should be able to receive it. But, according to law, we cannot freely unscramble or otherwise decrypt a signal, so, other than satellite TV, I have not subscribed to anything digitized ...and all the time I'm on the road, I scan on AM radio or operate Ham radio. Bud, Mobile, AL
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When I was a kid, I bought the line from the FCC that the airwaves belonged to the public. As I got into radio, I bought the line, that stations were granted license to broadcast in the public interest. Stations owned their equipment but did not "own" the license. There stations had a very minimal filing fee.

Today the FCC has discovered there is big money in the public airwaves. I guess we the public no longer own the airwaves. The FCC auctions off frequencies, charges for satellite spectrum and the latest money grab is the changing from analog to digital as mandated by the FCC. Commercial TV rolled over and invested billions in updating equipment. The FCC has already auctioned off the low channel analog frequencies for BILLIONS of dollars. There is no question HD is better. I bought into the hype. Why not let the market drive the evolution to HD. If it is so good the public will buy into it.

Thank God the FCC never mandidated AM stereo. Despite the FCC hopes that AM radio would go away, last time I checked AM stations in several major markets were close to the top in the rating heap. Will HD radio suceed?

I just bought a new car radio that plays SD cards, USB cards, has an ipod input jack, mp3 CD and regular CD, and it has AM & FM. The AM is rather poor.
It's been years since car radios that had a decent AM chip. Remember how good the old AM only car radios sounded.

New from Apple

I was looking at the new iPod from Apple only to discover that they have opened a retail store in China but when you "select your state" from their list, Arkansas is not even listed.

Nothing to do with KAAY

Nothing to do with KAAY, except I did a short voice track for the opening.

Blake has done a concert at my Chruch and is really great.

Interesting XM-Sirius Article

http://www.bnn.ca/blog/3516.html

This may give you insight into the future of satellite radio.

More Concerts

Aren't comp tickets great? I got to see Bonnie Raitt at Red Rocks in Colorado with tickets from JVC. Bruce Hornsby opened for her, and she brought her father John out to do a couple of songs with her.

I saw the Voodoo Lounge tour at Soldier Field in Chicago. We didn't have tickets so we went to the ticket office at the gate and didn't have any choice in the tickets that we bought.

Concerts

Well, TicketMaster was always the one that was used around here when the "Three Stooges", a.k.a. the prosecuted city commisioners were running things, before and after they were sent to prison. Bud, Mobile, AL

More Concert Memories

Gazmik has left a new comment on your post "This is your blog and your comments are necessary":

Wasn't JAM a concert promoter?

I don't remember too many ticket prices. But, on my wages back in the 70s, I didn't have too much of a problem buying them. I saw bands like the Grateful Dead, Styx, Angel, Heart, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Nazareth, UFO, Rush, and Frank Zappa back then.

Then in the 80s, I always liked going to First Avenue to see bands. I don't think I paid more than $10 there. And I got to see Leon Redbone there.

I think that the highest price I paid for tickets was to see Paul McCartney or the Rolling Stones in the 90s. If I remember right, it cost me around $35 to see Van Morrison (John Lee Hooker opened for him). And it was fairly reasonable to see Boz Scaggs and Taj Mahal at the Minnesota Zoo.

The first concert I remember was when I was young when my parents took me to a George Jones/Tammy Wynette concert.

Concert Memories

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "This is your blog and your comments are necessary":

This is one area of my life where my memory doesn't serve me well. I guess it is because I didn't attend that many concerts, and when I did, it was usually with tickets from the radio station where I was working at the time. In Pine Bluff, I saw Steve Martin, Barbara Mandrell and the Statler Brothers, Willie Nelson and others. In Little Rock, it was the Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, and others. The price that sticks in my mind is in the $10-12 range, but even that is fuzzy. I do remember that a friend of mine (who I voiced commercials for in Arkadelphia on the radio) gave me and my wife two tickets to the Voodoo Lounge concert at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. That was the Rolling Stones (with Bryan Adams opening) in 1995. The tickets were $95 EACH. If we had not received those free tickets, I can assure you we would not have attended.

Richard Robinson

This is your blog and your comments are necessary

What are some of the concerts and ticket prices you remember?
What are some of the show promoters you remember like Beaver Productions and Carousel Attractions?

Concert Ticket Prices

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What are your memories of Ticket Prices?":

Emerson, Lake and Palmer and The Eagles with Joe Walsh (who is, incidentally, a Ham radio operator, WB6ACU) were two memorable concerts I really remember here in Mobile, AL...back in the mid- to late-'70's, ticket prices were $5 general admission, $7 "down front". There were other concerts as well and I went to a lot of them, BUT, the city commissioners who took turns running what was back then the Municipal Auditorium, were busted and sent to prison for "misappropriation of funds"...in other words, they were stealing from the coffers of the auditorium and shorting pay to the bands coming here!

Needless to say, many acts went to Pensacola, FL and Biloxi, MS for a long time. Even at that driving distance, one could take $20, buy a ticket, pay for gas both ways and buy a burger and shake.

Here is a link to Joe walsh and a small sampling of his antique Ham Gear: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wb6acu.png.

I spent a lot of money going to concerts...even still have a T-shirt or two...one memorable shirt is from Journey. It's a jersey with a tower, with lightening bolts emitting from it and "JRNY" in big letters on the tower, like a radio station. I have another Journey T-shirt in radio motif, and I have both (hopefully) safely stored away.

BTW, WABB here in Mobile is sponsoring Bayfest has gone retro in their announcing the event, sounding a LOT live Beaver Productions!

Bud, Mobile, AL

A Mike McCormick Heard From

I was at KAAY in 1964 as a newsman working for B. Bruce Jenkins. My air name was Michael J. McCormack.
I came to Little Rock radio from KSTT in the Quad Cities (Davenport, Iowa, Moline, IL etc.)
and stayed about 7 months before getting an offer to go with KILT in Houston, TX.

I have fond memories of my time there and knowing so many talented people. For awhile I shared an apartment with Rob Robbins (Don Hayes of Basrop, LA.) We used to fly over to Salisaw, OK to see his girlfriend, Vicki Sallee. They later married for better or worse.

Best wishes,

Jack R. Rader

What are your memories of Ticket Prices?

What acts and ticket prices do you remember?

What do you think of ticket prices today?

Click on the word "comments" in the line below this post and leave your comments.

TIcket Prices

Scott Reed has left a new comment on your post "Yet another KAAY Clyde Clifford Beaker Street":

I lived in St. Louis in the early 70s and the price for concerts was generally $3, $4, and $5. Of course record albums were selling for about $3-4 then too.

I remember by the mid 70s tickets went to $4, 5, and 6.

Also in 1976, they held the first Superjam at the old Busch Stadium. I think tickets were something like $12 for a 5 group lineup.
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What do you think? Are concert ticket prices today out of line?

Leave a comment.

Yet another KAAY Clyde Clifford Beaker Street

This aircheck is much better than the previous Beaker Street aircheck. In this one you will actually hear Clyde talk. Something missing in the last one. It starts coming out of a newscast with the show open.

Also interesting in this aircheck is a spot for a Rare Earth concert at Barton Coliseum, Aug 19th, 1971. Tickets are $4 in advance $5 at the door. Can you believe it. How many of you were alive when concerts were this cheap?

Parts of this aircheck are scoped and at the end George Jennings apparently did a rare late night DJ segment. He introduces the days lineup starting with Doc Holiday. This would have been Ray Brown a/k/a Doc Holiday. My guess is George is the only one they could find to cover that shift for some reason.

Be sure the player shows 8-14-1971 in the window:

Xm Saultes WFUN

Sonic Sound Salutes WFUN in Miami, FL
4:00 PM - 9:00 PM

60's on 6 "Sonic Sound Salutes" continue as we re-create great 60's radio stations across America. Terry " Motormouth" Young transforms the 60's on 6 into these great stations every Friday with their original jingles, DJs, and local happenings. This week, tune in for WFUN in Miami, FL. 60's on 6, The way it was, is the way it is.

Pigs....how can I work lipstick into this

When Frank Broyles was building the Razorback program, they gave broadcast rights to any station that would pay the line charges and carry the games. . In Little Rock all but one or two stations would carry them.

As the Razorbacks became more and more successful broadcast rights became a revenue producer and Frank quickly forgot who brought him to the dance.

Now television is the big cash cow. Witness this from ESPN:
The Southeastern Conference has signed a 15-year deal with ESPN reportedly worth more than $2 billion to televise sporting events, including football and men's and women's basketball.

The agreement announced Monday is the longest ESPN has ever signed and matches the length of the powerhouse league's deal with CBS earlier in August.

"This agreement makes the SEC the most widely distributed conference in the country," said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. He declined to disclose financial terms.

"The bottom line here is that fans of SEC football will have more access to games and better distribution than they ever have in the past," Slive added.

The deal begins with the 2009-10 season and ends the league's look into starting a network to carry its sporting events.

ESPN will have rights to every SEC home football game not on the network package and all league matchups will be shown on some outlet, including at least 20 a year on ESPN or ESPN2. That includes two primetime Thursday night matchups and Saturday night games.

"We're thrilled with the historic nature of this deal," ESPN executive vice president John Skipper said, adding that college sports have been "part of our DNA" for nearly 30 years. "It's not hard to figure why we'd want to be involved with it, given the quality of SEC sports, for 15 more years."

Alabama coach Nick Saban said the league's exposure nationally helps in recruiting and image.

"One of the reasons that this league has developed into one of the top leagues in the country is because we have tremendous exposure," Saban said. "I think we had the best exposure from a TV standpoint in our last contract and this one is only going to enhance it more."

The new deal will also add a second and third night of SEC basketball coverage on ESPN and ESPN2 each week. ABC will add two nationally televised regular-season hoops games and broadcast the SEC tournament semifinals and championship game.

ESPN's various outlets will carry more than 5,500 SEC events over the 15-year period, including league championships in women's basketball, baseball, softball and gymnastics.

The deal will end the SEC's affiliation with Raycom Sports, which has aired basketball since 1986 and SEC football since 1992.

9-11

In looking for a 9-11 video to share on this blog, I was shaken to the core by the comments left on good videos by obvious un-americans. It makes you wonder what the world is coming to.

We can not let the press, or a presidential campaign, or the internet, change our love of this country, respect for the office of President, or our trust in God.

Sirius XM stock dives on wider loss forecast, debt issues

Shares of Sirius XM Radio Inc. fell sharply on Wednesday after the satellite radio company forecast a wider loss and slower subscriber growth for 2008 than analysts expected.

The New York-based company, which completed its acquisition of rival XM in July, told analysts at a media conference Tuesday that it expects to post a $350 million adjusted loss from earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2008.
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How many of you in the radio business could continue in business with a $350 Milllion loss?

Arkansas - Texas Game

A comment from a reader:

The Arkansas-Texas game has been postponed to Sept.27th due to Hurricane Ike.
I remember listening to Razorback games on the radio around the late 70's-early 80's,and the game was on
four stations in Little Rock.
KAAY,KLRA,KXLR,& KARN. The radio stations used to put out posters every week with the Razorback saying GO HOGS beat Texas,SMU,etc..
Around '88 or '89 the UofA copyrighted the Razorback name and logo.
The two stations in Little Rock that currently carry the Razorbacks are KABZ (1037 The Buzz)
& KARN. Another thing that has changed this season is that ISP Sports from North Carolina is in charge of the broadcasts of the games and coaches shows. KATV is still the flagship station for the Razorbacks.

Nancy Jennings passed on Sept 10 Last Year

I think the best tribute to Nancy I can give is to reprint a comment to this blog from Nancy about her husband, George Jennings.

George was my husband,and we were married for 45 years. I have been an observer of the radio biz during all that time. Did any of you ever realize how many newsperson I met and fed over the years. George always called us the last of the white collar migrantory workers. When we were engaged the year of 1960-1961, I was at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Tx, my sweet husband was broadcasting at WRR in Dallas and he would sign off with Sinatra version of "Nancy with the Smiling Face". I bet you never knew what a romantic person he was. I was always surprised at his inventiveness to keep me guessing. One cold day in Arkansas, I walked into the house and my piano was covered with daffodils, just what I needed after a hard day at work. I knew Spring was near.

We raised two fine boys together, and they turned out to be very nice people. I don't know how I would make it now without my Dean. Dean is my spacecadet who is a computer nerd. He lives in Boise, Id. after 10 years of creative nagging, he finally gave me a granddaughter called Genevieve. She called George "Grumps" and she calls me
"NanNan

Most of all, I remember our "children" that George trained and raised. I always told him I would never work for him, so I don't understand how any of you worked for or with him. He just about drove me crazy. He worked 14 hours a day, and he let me do my own thing. I was never burden with pushing him in his career, he did that himself. All I had to do was raise the boys, and keep house, and make him good food. He loved my cooking. I had a few fans outside the immediate family, AJ and Jim, didn't I make a mean dish of Spaghetti and meatballs.

George and I have had many adventures and were never afraid of the future. God always seem to take care of us. We've had money and we've been broke, such is life.

Someday, before I get too old, I would like to sit down with a bunch of you people, and you entain me with your "war" stories. You gave George great joy and headaches over the years, but he always bragged how good each and everyone became. He was sooooo proud of all of you. I think he taught you backbone and to never be afraid. Go for it kids, there still a lot of spark in all of you. Also know, George is f#%(&ing laughing his ass off at you all now that he's in heaven and you're not.

Love Nancy
12:18 PM

KAAY Clyde Clifford Beaker Street

Here is an aircheck from 6-26-70:

Wooooo Pig Soooooooooie

On Saturday Sept.13th, an old rivalry in football will take place. Arkansas will travel to Austin to take on Texas.
For the 1972 Arkansas-Texas game there was a bet between KAAY and WOAI in San Antonio.
If Arkansas wins,WOAI will have to give KAAY 100 pounds of steak. If Texas wins,KAAY will have to give WOAI 100 pounds of pork.
There was a side bet between Wayne Moss and a DJ at WOAI. The one who lost the bet would have to work the winners airshift and treat them to a night on the town.
At the end of the spot it said you can listen to the game anywhere in the country on either KAAY or WOAI.
Does anyone remember who won that game in 1972?
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Thanks for bringing this up.

Hot topic this week. The score for the game you asked about was:

1972 Texas 35, Arkansas 15 Austin

Now for all you history buffs here is the entire Arkansas-Texas series:

Arkansas-Texas series

Texas 55 wins, Arkansas 21

John C. Futrall

1894 Texas 54, Arkansas 0 Austin

Coach D.A. McDaniel

1903 Texas 15, Arkansas 0 Austin

Coach A.D. Brown

1905 Texas 4, Arkansas 0 Fayetteville

1906 Texas 11, Arkansas 0 Fayetteville

1907 Texas 26, Arkansas 6 Fayetteville

Coach Hugo Bezdek

1908 Texas 21, Arkansas 0 Austin

1911 Texas 12, Arkansas 0 Austin

1912 Texas 48, Arkansas 0 Austin

Coach T.T. McConnell

1916 Texas 52, Arkansas 0 Austin

Coach Norman Paine

1917 Texas 20, Arkansas 0 Austin

Coach J.B. Craig

1919 Texas 35, Arkansas 7 Austin

Coach Francis Schmidt

1928 Texas 20, Arkansas 7 Austin

Coach Fred Thomsen

1929 Texas 27, Arkansas 0 Fayetteville

1932 Texas 34, Arkansas 0 Fayetteville

1933 Arkansas 20, Texas 6 Austin

1934 Texas 19, Arkansas 12 Austin

1935 Arkansas 28, Texas 13 Austin

1936 Arkansas 6, Texas 0 Little Rock

1937 Arkansas 21, Texas 10 Austin

1938 Arkansas 42, Texas 6 Little Rock

1939 Texas 14, Arkansas 13 Austin 1940 Texas 21, Arkansas 0 Little Rock

1941 Texas 48, Arkansas14 Austin

Coach George Cole

1942 Texas 47, Arkansas 6 Little Rock

Coach John Tomlin

1943 Texas 34, Arkansas 0 Austin

Coach Glen Rose

1944 Texas 19, Arkansas 0 Little Rock

1945 Texas 34, Arkansas 7 Little Rock

Coach John Barnhill

1946 Texas 20, Arkansas 0 Austin

1947 Texas 21, Arkansas 6 Memphis

1948 Texas 14, Arkansas 6 Austin

1949 Texas 27, Arkansas 14 Little Rock

Coach Otis Douglas

1950 Texas 19, Arkansas 14 Austin

1951 Arkansas 16, Texas 14 Fayetteville

1952 Texas 44, Arkansas 7 Austin

Coach Bowden Wyatt

1953 Texas 16, Arkansas 7 Fayetteville

1954 Arkansas 20, Texas 7 Austin

Coach Jack Mitchell

1955 Arkansas 27, Texas 20 Little Rock 1956 Arkansas 32, Texas 14 Austin

1957 Texas 17, Arkansas 0 Fayetteville

Coach Frank Broyles

1958 Texas 24, Arkansas 6 Fayetteville

1959 Texas 13, Arkansas 12 Little Rock

1960 Arkansas 24, Texas 23 Austin

1961 Texas 33, Arkansas 7 Fayetteville

1962 Texas 7, Arkansas 3 Austin

1963 Texas 17, Arkansas 13 Little Rock

1964 Arkansas 14, Texas 13 Austin

1965 Arkansas 27, Texas 24 Fayetteville

1966 Arkansas 12, Texas 7 Austin

1967 Texas 21, Arkansas 12 Little Rock

1968 Texas 39, Arkansas 29 Austin

1969 Texas 15, Arkansas 14 Fayetteville

1970 Texas 42, Arkansas 7 Austin

1971 Arkansas 31, Texas 7 Little Rock

1972 Texas 35, Arkansas 15 Austin

1973 Texas 34, Arkansas 6 Fayetteville

1974 Texas 38, Arkansas 7 Austin

1975 Texas 24, Arkansas 18 Fayetteville

1976 Texas 29, Arkansas 12 Austin

Coach Lou Holtz

1977 Texas 13, Arkansas 9, Fayetteville

1978 Texas 28, Arkansas 21 Austin

1979 Arkansas 17, Texas 14 Little Rock

1980 Texas 23, Arkansas 17 Austin

1981 Arkansas 42, Texas 11 Fayetteville

1982 Texas 33, Arkansas 7 Austin

1983 Texas 31, Arkansas 3 Little Rock

Coach Ken Hatfield

1984 Texas 24, Arkansas 18 Austin

1985 Texas 15, Arkansas 13 Fayetteville

1986 Arkansas 21, Texas 14 Austin

1987 Texas 16, Arkansas 14 Little Rock

1988 Arkansas 27, Texas 23 Austin

1989 Texas 24, Arkansas 20 Fayetteville

Coach Jack Crowe

1990 Texas 49, Arkansas 17 Austin

1991 Arkansas 14, Texas 13 Little Rock

Coach Houston Nutt

2000 Arkansas 27, Texas 6 Dallas (Cotton Bowl 2003 Arkansas 38, Texas 28 Austin

2004 Texas 22, Arkansas 20 Fayetteville

Ronnie Milsap was almost a Sell Out

Ronnie Milsap was almost a sell out in Alma last night even though the Razorbacks were playing in Little Rock and it was on pay for view.

It was a great show. I've seen him twice in this area. Both times he was LOUD. And I like it loud.

For those of you who missed the show here's a Ronnie Milsap song:

Ronnie Milsap to Appear in Alma AR

I can remember taking a road trip with Tommy Riggs a/k/a Rock Robbins, to hear Ronnie in Memphis. At that time he was doing R & B and a great entertainer.

Ronnie appears in Alma Saturday night at the Alma Performing Arts Center.

The hurricane has pasted. We had some flooding in Fort Smith but it only lasted a couple of days. Lots of wind and rain.

The sun is out and refugees from New Orleans that were at Fort Chaffee are heading back to New Orleans.

KHJ featured on XM Radio

Sonic Sound Salutes
4:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Sonic Sound Salutes the great 60's radio stations from across America. KHJ Los Angeles, CA 93 KHJ, Boss Radio Home of the Reel Don Steele, Humble Harve, Robert W. Morgan, The Big Kahuna. The station that took LA by storm in 1965. Catch Humble Harv?s Boss 30 Countdown Wednesday nights, on 93 KHJ.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAAY

We have to mention on the blog that Sept. 3rd is the 46th birthday of KAAY

I had planned to do a video for the occasion....and still will. We are getting what is left of hurricane Gustav or whatever it's name is. Consequently I have been very busy getting projects done that have a "have to" rating.

It's hard to believe that 46 years ago today, The Baby Elephant Walk was being played over and over along with the DJs taking turns reading the Little Rock phone book and announcing current songs but the Baby Elephant Walk is all that played.

To see the original jocks and what songs would have been announced go to:
http://kaay1090.blogspot.com/2006/09/another-kaay-silver-dollar-survey.htmlDouble click on the survey to read it clearly.

Notice the date on the survey is just a couple of weeks after the sign on broadcast.

Much is owed that original staff. They set the standard that KAAY was to live up to.

Tommy Riggs a/k/a Rock Robbins

I've written extensively about Tommy on this blog. I try not to repeat myself. Understand that Tommy worked for me at three different stations, KXLR, KAAY, and KCLA. All those times Tommy alternated with his fascination for live performing and bands.
The longest he worked in radio I believe is when he came to Pine Bluff and worked for me as Program Director and when I went to Kansas City to manage a station Tommy was promoted to manager. It wasn't long to the lure of week long or even month long engagements at clubs lured him away from radio.

An interesting snip it from the Stax Records page. Scroll down about three quarters, and start reading with Charlie Oakle.:http://staxrecords.free.fr/news.htm

Comment on post below

Gazmik has left a new comment on your post "George J. Jennings Link":

I've always liked the old time radio shows! I still listen to some old X Minus 1, Dimension X, Lights Out and Box 13. I always tried to stay awake to listen to Beaker Theater.

Of course, I'm also a big fan of the old black and white sci-fi movies

George J. Jennings Link

Bud Stacey found this link as he searched for KAAY stuff.
http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=119078&article=1845316

I'm not sure if they got that photo from me or not. I have a 8 X 10 black and white print. It is one of my favorites because it includes the RCA 77 D mike and the original newsroom of KAAY in the Channel 11 building. George was probably 25 at the time. He was collecting old time radio shows, starting a family, and grumping a lot. While the industry was full of drugs and booze, George had a briefcase full of Diet Dr. Pepper and Neo snyferin. I still have some of the old time radio shows and plan a project to use them. George and Nancy, along with some neighbors had a business that put old time radio shows on 8 track tapes that were sold through Cracker Barrel. They also manufactured the golf tee game you see on the tables at Cracker Barrel.

Mark Winston

Mark Winston started in radio broadcasting in 1972 as a Morning Drive Announcer and Music Director. Over the years he found himself spending more and more time in the production studios at the various stations.
He was a Production Director and/or Program Director at KAAY-Little Rock (a 50,000 watt AM giant back in the early 80's), as well as many other stations around Kansas, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. He now owns and operates Winston Creative Sound Studios in Wichita, Kansas- a 1,500 sq.ft. state of the art audio and video production facility where they produce commercial and industrial projects as well as complete CD projects for Christian and Southern Gospel artists. Mark accepted Christ at the age of 15 during a revival at church. Currently he and his wife Cindy, along with their daughter Kelsey are active members of Crossway Christian Church. Over the past 20 years he has served in different ministry positions and has written and produced many contemporary Christian songs.
Mark Hosts “The Music Café” on CJLU & CITA.

WHB spotlighted on XM Radio

Today is a great rewind of WHB. Lots of great airchecks. Tune it in on XM Radio. If you don't have an XM radio, it is available on the web. Channel 6.

Gary Weir a/k/a Bozo

I was listening to a local (Fort Smith AR) talk radio station this morning and to my surprise they were talking about Arkansas Bozo. A lady called in, Tracy Winchell and said she worked at the TV station in Little Rock in production on the Bozo show. She went on for several minutes talking about Gary and what he is doing now. I thought this was very unusual because Fort Smith is very isolated from Little Rock. We have our own tv and radio stations and even though KAAY has a marginal daytime signal in Fort Smith it is not well known in the area, nor is any Little Rock media. Even though the state capitol is in Little Rock, Fort Smith is largely ignored. The city limit on the western edge borders Oklahoma. Fayetteville is almost the same way. Little ROck folks think of Fayetteville as a nice college town. (Home of U of A Razorbacks).

Gary, the only think Tracy couldn't attest to is the accuracy of your tip sheets.

Bob Robbins

Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. ® Announces DJ Hall of Fame and Radio Hall of Fame Inductees:

Bob Robbins has been recognized as the number one disc jockey in Little Rock for over 20 years, leading his station to win a number of industry awards. His career started in Little Rock at Top 40 powerhouse KAAY (Little Rock, AR) in 1967. He moved to KSSN-FM (Little Rock, AR) at the station’s inception in 1979 and was named CMA Broadcast Personality of the Year in 1996. KSSN-FM’s awards include: 1990 NAB Marconi Award (Best Medium Market Station), 1990 Arkansas Broadcasters’ Association Most Admired Station, 1991 Billboard Country Radio Station of the Year, 1991 CMA Station of the Year, and 1996 NAB Marconi Award (Medium Market Station of the Year). He remains at KSSN-FM (Little Rock, AR) as morning air personality .
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Obviously, Bob does not have the "up and down the dial" gene of most D.J.'s. Many of the Little Rock personalities are constantly changing stations, mediums, or getting out of the business. Many congrats to Bob for keeping on doing what he does best. Being the best country or leave out the word country D.J. in the market.

Billy Bob Thornton listened to KAAY!

As children, he and his younger brother Jimmy were eager participants in the family ritual of listening to albums each night before going to bed, absorbing everything from Elvis Presley, Ray Price, and Jim Reeves to The Beatles and other British Invasion stars. At one point, Virginia actually brought Billy Bob out to the highway so that they could wave at Elvis when The King's tour bus passed by. After lights out, Billy Bob and Jimmy would lie in their beds and listen to classic rock from station KAAY on their transistor radio. Billy Bob took his first crack at the drums when Virginia bought him his own drum set for his ninth birthday. A year later, he made his performance debut at a PTA meeting, delivering Barry Sadler's patriotic hit, The Ballad of the Green Beret. The members of the popular Malvern rock band, the Yardleys, allowed the twelve-year-old Billy Bob to try his hand on a professional set of red Ludwig drums. Inspired by the inventive and witty classic rock of Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, he started forming his own bands, beginning with the British Invasion-inspired McCoveys (named after legendary baseball player Willie McCovey).
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Thanks Bud for finding this.

Reverb

I have written several times about the reverb at KAAY. Oddly, the reverb topic brought in lots of readers. Especially the one where I discuss the garden hose reverb we built at KXLR.

For all you reverb fans, and I am one, here is an interesting article:

http://www.record-producer.com/learn.cfm?a=4593

Matt White a/k/a Sonny Martin

I have written before of Matt and I hope you will look at the previous posts.
I have hoped out loud on this blog that Matt would contribute because he has so much history on KAAY. I have even emailed him through the fishing place but got no response.
A reader to this blog found Matt's bio on the station website where he works in Searcy AR. Here is the link to the bio:

http://www.kwck999.com/page.php?page_id=2918&jock_id=725

The reader who sent me this link said:
He's still working? WOW!

Yes and I think Matt is my age or a year or two younger.

Lot's of the "old timers" are still on the air.

Radio is one medium that doesn't judge you by your age.

I hope those of us who are "older" will never use that as an excuse.
I look on age as a state of mind and I hope I can continue to stay up with technology and continue to try to be creative and be ready for the rapid evolution in entertainment.

Hang in their Matt and never ever give up.

RCA Microphones

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "RCA 44-BX & RCA 77D":

Oh, boy, those mics are sweet! I'd not had the fortune of having worked with them, but I have played with some decent mics in the past, having been a sound tech in the Mobile, AL area for about 15 years. And having to use lower-end mics for singers, I always worked that EQ and reverb HARD to make 'em sound good.

I'd always worked in live venues with instruments and singers and have played with a few ribbon mics, but not with just plain speech and announcers. When I did some announcing intros and outros for programs for churches to go to local radio stations, I had to use what was afforded me...there again, judicial useage of effects. It was fun, however! Bud, Mobile, AL

Contest Comment

I remember some contests where they spliced clips from a number of songs together, and you had to name all the songs.

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I remember those too but I can not recall what those contests were called.
They were fun to put together and try to stump the audience.

There was always a dedicated listener who would get them all right.

RCA 44-BX & RCA 77D

I grew up in radio surrounded by the RCA 44-BX and RCA 77D. They are the greatest microphones the world has ever known. I substantiate that with the fact that these microphones, many well over 60 years old sell for almost $2000.

I bought a Nady ribbon mike the other day for $60. It sounds ok but the real sound of an RCA is wrapped up in the mystique of Elvis, Johnny Carson and hundreds of entertainers who used these microphones.

The secret of the RCA is that it is a large ribbon diaphragm microphone with great coupling transformers. The RCA will make your voice sound better than it is. Many recording studios today still use the RCA for voice work and some instruments.

I have one, pictured to the right. Elvis may have even used this very microphone at the Robinson Auditorium in Little Rock, very early is his career. I can't prove that but if my uncle were still alive he probably could.

A comment was left about a much earlier post. Be sure and click on the link to read the early post. I would like to hear from even more KBBA alumni. The station was started by Preston Bridges and Lavelle Langley in the mid 50s. I was in high school and KBBA was my first radio job. I remember skipping school, so I could work the board at KBBA while all the regular announcers did a remote broadcast at a high school track meet. That's right, a track meet on the radio.

Here's the comment:
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post http://kaay1090.blogspot.com/2006/08/those-wonderful-rca-microphones.html
Ah yes... KBBA. My first radio job. I believe that RCA ribbon mike in your picture was the one I used to see collecting dust in the transmitter room. The control room was using a Shure mic by the time I worked there in the late 1970's.

regards,

A KBBA alumni

Contest Comment

Russell W. has left a new comment on your post "Name the sing contest from a reader":

A curious twist to the 'song fragment' contest: playing a clip of a given record backwards. Not all that easy if the snippet comes from something other than the song's hook.

This brings to mind a couple more contests from way back:

ZAP: The caller has to guess which of the station's call letters are replaced by a sonovox "ZAP" ... versions of all four combinations would be randomly placed onto one cart, and after the caller makes their guess, the next cut is played. If it matches, they win.

A small station in Selma, Ala. used to have a contest called "What's Cooking?" -- the jock would start reading one ingredient, adding another one after each record, and the object was to guess what the recipe was. I have a clip of one, and the callers had some awfully creative guesses.

Name the song contest from a reader

I remember a contest that ran just the first second or two of a song – sometimes just the first note (!) and the caller had to identify the song. The contest song nuggets were pre-produced onto tape, and the announcer could play the same “nugget” more than once if the caller was having trouble identifying the song. There were always the easy ones to identify, guaranteeing a winner.

But then there were the difficult ones – sometimes a very popular “oldie” that sometimes took several callers to get it right. The harder contests might span an hour or more by taking one caller at a time until someone finally got it right. The reward would be a prize, -AND- you got to hear the entire song from beginning to end.

Thanks for a few comments on Contests but I need More

Here's one:
This brings to mind an aircheck I have of David Letterman in the late '60s, jocking on his college's carrier-current AM station in Indiana. Dave does a really good parody of the "secret sound" contests. Caller: "Is that a set of horse dentures hitting a metal shotgun casing?" Dave: "You're RIGHT!!"

We need a return to the good old days of radio contests - back when stations gave away smaller prizes to more listeners. Not the "be the 300th caller to qualify for the luxury Caribbean cruise!" stuff you see today.

One thing I learned from the small-ticket prizes we gave away when I worked at KOTN in the late '80s: you've made the listener's month. Even if it's just a free Big Mac or a TCBY waffle cone, they just WON SOMETHING ON THE RADIO.

Just my .02 in tarnished slugs. Please keep doing this blog! I read every word you write, as clearly many others do. Generally I comment on blogs when I feel like I have something to say, but otherwise keep silent.

--Russell Wells, Savannah GA
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I always liked the small contests. And Russell you are right on with the smaller prizes comment. If I had a $5000 budget, I would rather give 100 people $50 than one person $5000. You get far more word of mouth and station loyality with lots of winners.

We gave away lots and lots of records and albums. "Spin it and Win it" < name it and claim it, etc. We once had a cart with all the "spin it and win it different phrases we could think of and alternated them.

I thought sure I had written about the acre of records give a way but I couldn't find it. I'll have to do that soon. Meanwhile, leave your comments about radio contests.

Toys for Tots Remembered

A. J., I remember the Toys For Tots broadcasts...and, as I mentioned before, I'd always wanted to drive up there and participate. Never got to it, since I was supporing myself in high school and had little money to spare. Needless to say, I still have those memories! Bud, Mobile, AL

Secret Sound Contest Remembered

One contest that was really big around the late 80's was The Secret Sound Contest. A caller had to guess what the sound was.
If the answer wasn't right, the jackpot would increase. The sounds could be anything from a pulley being pulled to a car door closing. Some of them were really tough. The station that orginally did it was K-LITE 94, which is no longer on the air. Another station did it for a brief period, however I can't remember which one it was.

DJ Marathons

Chennai, Aug 20 (IANS) A popular Tamil radio jockey (RJ) is aiming to enter the Guinness Book of World Records by attempting to stay on the air non-stop for over 136 hours.Big Dheena, of Adlab’s radio station BIG 92.7 FM, is one of Chennai’s most popular RJs. He will begin his record-breaking performance Aug 21 - the day Chennai was founded - and continue non-stop for 136 hours or more. Chennai, earlier known as Madras, was founded as a British trading outpost Aug 21, 1639.

“The current Guinness record is held by Stefano Venneri (Italy) on the Radio BBSI station in Alessandria, Italy. He performed for 135 hours from April 21 to 26, 2007,” P.B. Ramaswamy, cluster director of BIG 92.7 FM, Tamil Nadu, told IANS.
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The only DJ marathon KAAY did was Matt White a/k/a/ Sonny Martin and that was for Toys For Tots from the Marines Toy Hill. I don't recall how many marathons he did but it was
many. He was awake for the entire time, even though he did not do the actual D.J. work.
He had a microphone from the remote unit. I wish someone who was at KAAY at the time or even Matt himself, would write a detailed story of Sonny Martin and Toys for Tots.

Contest Memories

My memory is not as good as it used to be, but I do remember the contests on KAAY. The "For the People" bumper strip contest is the one that is uppermost on my mind. It was a classic. In Pine Bluff, Buddy Dean conducted a contest in 1978 or 1979, where the station was giving away $1,410.00 (for 1410 AM, KOTN's frequency). That year he got a bit miffed, because after only a few clues, someone found the prize document underneath a mailbox at a street corner. Needless to say, I was driving all over Pine Bluff (as were many others) to attempt to locate it. Unfortunately, it wasn't me that found it.

When I was running a movie theatre in Pine Bluff in 1978-1980, I was also working part-time at KCLA "Razorback Country" there in the city. I conducted a contest at the theatre, with none other than a Mr. A.J. Lindsey, where patrons received a ballot at the theatre and numerous locations, and voted for who they thought would win the six top academy awards. The grand prize was a complete waterbed outfit from A.J.'s Waterbed Store. There were other prizes too. The promotion/contest won a circuit award from Commonwealth Theatre Circuit (now defunct). It was a great contest. We got hundreds of entries and it was successful in large part because of A.J. Little did I know at the time that our paths would cross again years later, when I began doing research for graduate school on KAAY. We just never know, do we?

Contests with radio stations are great ways to promote listener involvement. I wish the stations would do more in this area.
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Radio stations have always relied on giving away movie passes. They make great small contest prizes. Everyone wants them. The movie distributors are clamping dowm on allowing theaters to give away passes. Many movies now carry the phrase "no passes".

Contests are extremely important in radio. We felt they built audience and helped ratings. In fact, at a point in time Pulse would put an asterisk on your rating
if they felt you ran a contest that was completely aimed and artificially influencing ratings. One contest was an "answer your phone with........" and you will $1000, or "don't say hello
say KAAY 1090:. We never ran a don't say hello contest. THey were mostly aimed at surveys that relied on phone interviews surveys like Hooper.

Just a little thumbnail history as to how wound up in the above comment. I had just got married and returned to KAAY from Lin Broadcasting's TV station WAND in Decatur, Il. I moved into the sales department and was reasonably happy. At a broadcasters convention I met a new owner of KCLA in Pine Bluff. After a few days, I got a call with a job offer to manage KCLA. We moved to Pine Bluff. I spent several years managing KCLA. I had been doing some consulting for a station in St. Louis. That owner bought an FM in Kansas City. We moved to Kansas City to turn a country FM, black. We were picked by white folks. I then was offered Manager of KOKY in Little Rock. From there back to KCLA. I was interesting in owning a radio station but at that point in time, stations were already very expensive so I started looking at other businesses I could own. I decided Pine Bluff didn't have a waterbed store so I opened one. This led me out of broadcasting and to the contest mentioned in the comment above.

Whatever happened to KTHS?

Here is another where are they now story. I was listening to the show The Zone on 1037 The Buzz this morning and heard that KTHS in Berryville now carries The Zone.
The Zone is on weekdays from 10AM-1PM weekdays. KTHS and a station in NWA are now affiliates of The Zone. I mention this because KTHS was on 1090 before KAAY. I wasn't born yet when KTHS was in Little Rock, however I read the history.
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If you haven't read the history Dave is referring to, search this blog for KTHS.

Again, I must speak against the trend to promote only a station name, like "big dog", "alice" etc. The listener has always been conditioned to call letters. In the early days of top 40 much effort and even money was expended to get a good set of call letters. Often the call letters spelled something, I.E. WAKY, KEEL, WONE, (even though I never remember them calling themselves "one". Just like we never just called ourselves "Kay". T.V. stations are falling into the same trap of building an image based on a channel number, which on cable is meaningless.

I have not received one single comment on the "contests" discussion. If I don't get at least one, THIS WILL BE MY LAST POST.

Thanks Bud for a great link

Click on the picture for a video of Rock & Roll legend Roger McGuinn's collection of small transistor radios...a poster mentioned listening to KAAY, which was his favorite R&R station:

http://growingbolder.com/media/Entertainment/Music/Childhood-Gift-Changed-Music-67033.html


I have a friend and fellow Ham operator who, as a kid, used a small transistor radio in bed late at night to listen to KAAY; it ate 9-volt batteries like crazy, so, being a Ham, he built a little 9-volt power supply he could plug into the wall and listened without eating any more batteries!

Bud

What are your memories of contests?

What contests do you remember from any station? Particularly from the top 40 days.
I mentioned yesterday, the Hi-Lo game which many stations ran in different forms. At KAAY we ran so many different contests it's hard to recall specific contests. Many were seasonal related. Like at Thanksgiving there was a turkey shoot. The listener on the phone was ask to load their imaginary shotgun and shoot at the turkey. There was a game cart which had random hits and misses. The listener had to trust the rotation of the cart. The jock didn't know what was going to come up.

Now what contests do you remember? Just click on the "comments" word below, type in you contest memory. then scroll down and put the dot in anonymous circle and then click on "publish your comment". It will appear in a few days. Your comments will keep this blog going.

A Word About Contests

Listening to XM radio this afternoon, I heard an aircheck that had the old Hi-Lo contest. That reminded me of many of our contests at KAAY. Most involved audience participation. The normal format was three cuts on a cart machine. The open was played going into a record asking contestants to call. After the record, spots, and stuff, the contest intro was played, the contestant put on the air and the game was played. AFTER the winner was declared, the contest CLOSE was played. Often times, the jock forgot to run the close. Then when a new jock tried to play the contest again and got ready for the open, what he got was a CLOSE, making everyone look bad. A good jock would have played the cart thru on cue to make sure it was in the right position. Few did. Many a jock got caught. This was true with any of the carts that involved several segments. Like the news cart. It could contain many elements, i.e. an open, middle, weather intro, and close. Lord help if George J. Jennings was doing your news and you started him off with a bad cart intro. We usually has several different contests going at the same time. Some might require a mail entry. Others might require registering at a sponsor. There was great variety and not once did we just simply take "the 7th caller."

Golden Oldie

KAAY began in September of 1962.

Here is a good presentation of the era that set the stage for KAAY:

http://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

Arkansas Airwaves comment by Dave Montgomery

I ran across my copy of Ray Poindexter’s “Arkansas Airwaves” today and flipped through its pages once again. It’s been quite a while since I went through the book. I was reminded how much radio history is in that book and how much I have forgotten! What a wonderful history of KTHS, and no detail was left out. For your readers interested in the genesis of KAAY, from the first days of KTHS in Hot Springs, this is the book to have.



There’s not much contemporary history of KAAY in the book, but it mentions the application to transfer license to Multimedia. I’d bet you have enough information to write that missing KAAY chapter in Ray’s book with what you’ve gathered in your blog work and your other sources.



One thing I regret is that during my time at KAAY, I took few photos of the buildings, the people, and the studios. I can still draw the floorplan of the 7th street studios and the Cottondale Lane studios in my mind, but I don’t have the photos that show the inside.



There’s a copy of “Arkansas Airwaves”, listed for sale on this website for about $45 - http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/hammon/67325.shtml



The listing says “signed by author”.



/DM/
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Thanks Dave, I think the $45 for a signed copy would be a good investment. Many radio books that are out of print are $100 or more.

Buddy Carr & B.Bruce Jenkins

I have seventy four - seven four - street level degrees on the Buddy Carr Car Pool Party Program... Another treasure of my adolescence, this off-air gem includes genuine atmospheric noise and B. Bruce Jenkins with: KAAY COMEX NEWS - FIRST AT 45! Although a bit lighter on bells & whistles than the 1961 WFUN Fundamental News, this was what Bill Clinton could have heard as a kid in Arkansas.

The pioneers of the "big production" Top-40 newscasts felt a real need to make a big deal about finishing the news and getting back to music. As with the WFUN Funcast, getting there is the best part. KAAY Communications Exchange (COMEX) News begins to end about 3:22 into this aircheck, and actually finishes about a minute later. I'm still in awe of the passion of the "superhero" voiceover in these production elements. When he says, "In the meantime - Com-EXtras at anytime.. And NOW..." it's like you know something wonderful is going to happen.

And our reward, short as it is, is one set from Buddy Carr and the Car Pool Party Program. Whoopee! It's a hot tune from the "Kay Silver Dollar Sound Survey - here in Kay country."

Found here:

www.reelradio.com/ricky
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This is the aircheck that is referred to above:

http://kaay.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-01-15T09_24_55-08_00

Comment

It's interesting how a radio station could positively affect so many lives...we'll probably never know how many people KAAY influenced during it's Top 40 heyday. In another vein, KAAY is still influencing people in a positive way.

Thank you, A.J. and all the other personalities behind KAAY...you were, and still are, awesome!
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What's also interesting is that behind the scenes the character of most of the employees is top notch. Most are still married. Most are not addicted. During the age of payola, the station or the jocks were not involved.

From day one, KAAY had two religious blocks per day. That was for financial reasons as it is today. Nothing wrong with that.

I hear so frequently from people who were influenced as a youth by KAAY. That is a great personal reward. I just hope we have radio stations today that can have a positive influence on youth.

Many thanks to Bud for finding this on the web:


Monday, October 29, 2007
Remembering Duane Allman
Today marks the death on the person who most influenced me on the guitar – Duane Allman.

I was all of 12 when I awoke at 1 am in the morning and turned on the radio to KAAY, Little Rock. From 11 pm to 6 am, the radio show "Beeker Street" was on. They played all the music you would never hear on AM radio. I awoke to the most incredible guitar playing. I did not know who it was. My brother had been listening and said that maybe it was the Allman Brothers Band. I had never heard of them, even though "Ramblin Man" was a hit at the time. Later that week, I bought the Beginnings LP, which had the first two LPs repackaged. I did not hear the song, but I still loved what I heard on the record.

I bought a $10 folk guitar from a classmate – I was in the 6th grade – and started to figure out how to play. My sister gave me a few lessons and I learned G, C, and D chords. A few weeks later, I bought the Fillmore East LP. I then heard the song – You Don’t Love Me – I had heard the part when it was just Duane playing by himself. Within a few months, I had all the Allman LPs, thanks to my mom, who was nice enough to buy them for all of about $7.00 each. By then, I was absorbing all I could from Beeker Street – Robin Trower, Hendrix, Marshall Tucker, Rush, Mahogany Rush, Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath, Yes…the lost goes on and on. My LP collection grew quite a bit that year. I spent hours playing along with records trying to learn it all. I got a Teisco electric guitar and amp by the time I was in 7th grade, and continued to buy a new guitar every year, using my money from weeding the bean fields during the summer.

Those few moments over the Christmas holidays in 1973 changed my life. I never did really play professionally, and I can’t play at all like Duane Allman. However, it has been a lot of fun and I still love to play and listed to music of all kinds.

Thanks, Duane.
Posted by The Road Traveler at 4:22 PM


Here: http://fendersixstring.blogspot.com/2007/10/remembering-duane-allman.html

More on Ratings

From a comment:

The ratings systems that were used in the 60's, were demographics used to measure ratings. For example, one station was #1 with one group and another station with another demographic. Were ratings measured during the time of day and between age groups?
Arbitron just released the ratings of the stations in Little Rock late last week. You can check the overall ratings at arbitron.com.
The top 5 stations in Little Rock are KSSN,KOKY,KKPT(The Point 94.1),
KHLR,(Halleluah 94.9), and KABZ (103.7 The Buzz). These are the overall ratings from 6am-midnight.
The Point 94.1 ratings jumped in part to adding Beaker Street.

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I will dig up some of the old Pulse ratings and show some examples of the information they contained.
You could take a Pulse book and prove your station leading in something. It could be left handed midgets.
In order to use the ratings for sales or advertising purposes you had to be a subscriber.

I notice in the current Arbitron for Fort Smith AR, that two of the top stations are not shown in the public information because they are not subscribers. Those who subscribe can see the numbers but to the general public the release of the ratings do not show the top two stations in the market.

KAAY Silver Dollar Sound Survey

Here is a memory from another site:

DXing, at least in terms of nighttime skywave reception, didn't mean all that much to me as a small child--after all, I was put to bed at 7 or 7:30 every night (and the radio was usually in my sister's room)! But I do remember hearing KAAY-1090 and their "Silver Dollar Survey," which confused me at the time--I thought I heard them say "Silver Dollar CITY", but my sister insisted it was just a theme park and not a *real* town, and didn't have its own station! And I can recall being intrigued by the Mexicans that were audible all over the dial on sunrise skip (some things never change!
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When KAAY first started in Sept. of 62, Jim Hankins a/k/a Mike McCormick named the music survey "The silver Dollar Sound Survey". He got the name from somewhere else and I never knew why it was called that. The name was kept for several years and the third or fourth program director changed it. It went through several design changes over the years. A copy of the Survey with the original jock line up is posted on this site. Just do a upper left search window for "silver Dollar Survey" and click on search this blog. Also, scroll down for the contest to find more surveys that are not posted on this blog. I have nad no winners so far.

Lee Abram's KAAY Comment

Lee Abram was a big executive with XM Radio and has a distringuished past radio. He used to write a very interesting blog that I have quoted may times. I missed a comment he made about KAAY. Thanks to Bud for finding this and passing it on:

http://leeabrams.blogspot.com/search?q=KAAY

New Additional Contest

The prize is a KAAY Tee Shirt Large, probably from the late 70s. This is original, never worn or given away until now.
Just find a KAAY music servey that has not been previously published on this blog. To check, just enter "music survey" in the search window upper left, then click on search this blog.

You can email me a scan of the survey, or sent a web link or mail me the actual survey and I will scan it and return it to you.

Email me at ajlinds@yahoo.com.

More Alma Rock & Roll Show

Please be advised that this whole
show is a bogus. The Coasters name
is owned by Carl Gardner and no one
else. Myles Savage need to get a job.
Also he is using the photo of one of my guys J.W who is only an employee with the Coasters and not the lead singer. Carl Gardner is the lead singer. Kindly cease and desist from advertising the name The Coasters on your show.

Veta Gardner
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Please understand this is not my show. I have nothing to do with it other than I live in Alma. I suspect it is an independent promoter bringing it in. I suggest you contact the Alma Performing Arts Center, www.almapac.org who can put you in contact with the promoter.

Remembering Tommy Riggs a/k/a Rock Robbins

I failed to do this in July the birthday and death month of Tommy Riggs.

Much has been written about Tommy on this blog. Please enter "Tommy RIggs" in the seach box in the upper left of this blog and click on search this blog.

Go to this link and there are some great Tommy songs to download:
http://www.steveriggs.com/Dad/memorial.html

Truth In Labeling

carl.gardener has left a new comment on your post "Rock and Roll Coming to Alma AR":

This show is not anyway part of The Coasters. None of these singers has ever sang with The Coasters. The public is being duked to think that these people have sang with these groups and they haven't. I should know I'm the lead singer of The Coasters and that's the web page below.
Carl Gardner of The Coasters
www.thecoasters.com

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Even back in the early days of Rock and Roll, I remember having booked Fats Domino. At the time there were impostors appearing as Fats and they were not. Fortunately, I got the real thing but I had many anxious moments.

Rock and Roll Coming to Alma AR

As most of you know, I live in Alma AR. It is a bedroom community to Fort Smith. We do have an entertainment venue as good as any in Fort Smith.

This coming Saturday we have the following event:

8/9/2008
The Stars from the Platters, Coasters, Drifters and Temptations
Myles Savage, star lead singer from The Platters, brings his star studded show from Las Vegas to the Alma Performing Arts Center for a romantic evening of world class entertainment. Returning to Alma after a three year absence, organizers say this show is better than ever. Hear the many great hits made famous by the stars and musicians of these famous musical groups. The Stars are all former members of these groups and enjoy keeping their music famous. Don't miss their authentic performances of "Only You," "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," "The Great Pretender," "Poison Ivy," "Charlie Brown," "Love Potion #9," "My Girl," "Old Man River," "Up On The Roof," "Under The Boardwalk" and more. Stars is a bonus show not included in Alma PAC's season ticket package. $45 (VIP), $40, $35 and $30.
7 p.m.
Alma Performing Arts Center
101 East Main Street
Alma, Ark.


For years individual members of groups will put together rewind shows. I was interested in maybe booking The Four Preps. When I looked into it they would appear as either the Four Preps or the Four Lads (I think). One guy had sung with both.
The problem any promoter has today in a small market is cost. The Alma PAC has 1500 seats. When you divide the cost of the act by the seats you get a price most folks in Alma won't pay. When you listen to aircheck tapes on this blog, you will hear big names with a $5 ticket price. You see kids, those were the good old days. But, alas we had nothing like Hanna Montana. This was before Disney got so heavly into entertainment. Walt was busy building a theme park.

Did You Encounter Problems Accessing this Site?

A few days ago, alert reader Dave Montgomery emailed us that trying to access this site with Internet Explorer resulted in an ERROR. And he went on to suggest it was probably the site meter on the blog that I use for counts, and referrals, and all sorts of information. He was right. I didn't catch it as many of you, as well as I, use some other browser. The problem only seemed to affect I.E. I quickly removed the counter and that solved the problem, except I didn't have a good counter. I use other counters on other blogs but they don't have as much info as site meter. Thanks to a computer guru of mine, I have a new free counter that gives me most of the info that site meter did.

I hope they become aware of their problem; Microsoft, Sitemeter or whomever.

I have had no responses to my contest with the free gas card or the portable reel to reel tape recorder. If you are new to this blog, do a search in the upper left and search this blog for "free gas card".

I ran across some old KAAY tee shirts I would like to give away. Let's start another contest for any KAAY music survey that is NOT posted on this blog. It can be a scan, link, actual survey or whatever you can come up with. I will post a photo of the KAAY Tee shirt soon. This was the actual shirt given away by KAAY. (Not a repo).

Ratings

I want to put in a comment about the ratings. How were ratings done? Now ratings are divided into different groups. For instance between the age groups between men and women. The overall ratings posted on Arbitron are listeners 12 and older. The ratings are ranked with all these groups mixed in together. Just check out the ratings @ arbitron.com.
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Thanks for the comment. When I started in radio in the late 50s while I was still in high school, there were several rating services. C.E. Hooper had Hooperatings. They were telephone surveys. The sample size was usually around 1000. They were fast and you could get the results back quickly. Several stations could pay or just one. You only got legal copies if you subscribed. It was often rumored that subscribers usually got better ratings. I have no first hand experience with that. I felt Hooper offered a reasonable service. There was not much demographic data and I don;t believe they called after 9 PM, Programmers liked Hooper because you could get the results quickly. Sales didn't care too much for Hooper unless you had a strong number one.

There were several other smaller rating services whose name escapes me.

Pulse started becoming the most popular rating service in the 60s. They offered
larger sample sizes, more demographics, county by county counts, but slower service.
It took several months from the end of the survey to the arrival of the book.
Pulse used the diary method. I have a problem with that mythology because it requires the person to remember to write down the stations they were listening to and the time. You could break out a DJ show in 15 minute increments. Pat Walsh, long time KAAY manager was a big ratings fan. He subscribed to Pulse books from markets all over the country along with all the counties in Arkansas.

I have no experience with Arbitron and cannot comment on it.

Little Rock University did car radio surveys for several years. They had students at high traffic locations who would interview people stopped at a light. The had a great sample size and good demographic info.

KAAY Blog Reaches Iran

Iran, Islamic Republic of Yazd