Retro Radio - Classic radio air checks from the 70s and 80s

The Tampa Bay area was in a severe drought. Listeners calling in for the "Mystery Personality" contest contributed their unusual methods of conserving water. This day also includes the CBS top of the hour time tone. I took great pride in timing everything to exactly meet that every hour. Back-timing records to have a "cold" ending to hit the time tone is a lost art... as is rad...

This was my first afternoon at K99 - WQYK. It was also the first (and only) country format station I ever worked for. I don't like country music, so I'd turn the monitors off when the music was playing. Then I just did my usual stuff at the breaks. Ironically I was #1 in the Tampa market and after two years I had elevated to being one of the highest rated country DJs in the country. (I still got f...

Friday morning and it's foggy. J. Paul Emerson has news, Brian Brewer is doing traffic for Gary McHenry and the area is under sever drought conditions. (Sounds familiar.) This demonstrates station branding at the excess. Blair Broadcasting programmer insisted on the station ID starting every break. And that meant the whole brand "93FM/WFLA FM". Telescoped like this it gets repetitive...

As we get ready for the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics, let's go back to the day after the 1984 Summer Olympics. This air check features Gary McHenry (who is almost co-hosting with me) Tedd Webb discusses the '84 Olympics and Major League Baseball deciding on expansion (not), plus evening talk host Paul Gonzalez teases the legal discussion coming up that night. Since this is a real recording of...

What do you remember about the 70's? That's the question on the talk show segment "People Radio" that I originated weekday evenings from 9:00 to Midnight. One thing to remember is that talk radio was much more difficult in those early days. Callers didn't have cell phones, so they literally had to pull over to a phone booth or call from home. Plus the notoriously cheap WLW di...

Burt & Kurt were still doing mornings and I was in mid-days for a brief period after arriving in Tampa. On this morning Burt (Bob Burton) was off and I filled his spot on the comedy team with Kurt (Kurt Kilpatrick) The WLCY promotion was the "$100,000 Contest, Contest." It was a modified rip-off of "The Last Contest" with listeners vying for duplicate prize packages by simply identifying what...

BOO! This final segment of the 1979 Halloween night broadcast feature listener ghost stories and strange experiences. At the end of the show the strange stories continue on NBC News when it appears nothing has changed since then... inflation, government funding, interest rates. It's the ghost of administrations past making an appearance. Make sure you listen to Part 1 and 2 (the two previous p...

This hour features stories from touring Fisher Hall with Miami University Historian Sue Frazier as well a speculation about Ronald Tammen , and stories and haunting experiences from Miami alumni.

This is the first of three episodes of Halloween night at WLW filled with mysterious tales. This first hour was a partial rebroadcast of a feature about Miami University and the strange tale of Ronald Tammen 's disappearance from Fisher Hall . Told by Dean Everett Lykens it includes more stories of encounters in the building and on the campus of Miami University and Western College . The Fishe...

In !973 Columbus Day was a Monday Holiday rather than the old traditional date of October 12th. This "Goodbye Columbus Day Day" was a live tribute I wrote and presented on WOXR. (With apologies to Stan Freberg.) I had just started doing mornings in Oxford (north of Cincinnati) and I perceived this production as a big deal. So I had the girl I had just started dating record it in her dorm...

The afternoon drive slot at WFLA AM was fun because it paired me with traffic reporter Gary McHenry. I always tried to have a bit planned to bounce off him. Beyond some odd news item or fact it was all unplanned improv. You never hear radio like this anymore because the traffic is recorded from some remote location as is the on air talent who "voice tracks" (records breaks to be played l...

Traffic reports from the Goodyear Blimp! with Arch Deal are highlighted with Mike Weber and Martin Giles anchoring this afternoon drive segment. Also featured are Tedd Webb with sports, Alan Archer Accuweather, and Steve Cheney makes suggestions for weekend TV watching.

News1 Radio - News/Talk without politics! This is after the format had been on the air replacing the WLCY music format for a month. Mike Weber & Martin Giles were in the afternoon drive slot before moving to mornings. The show featured CBS Network news segments, Tedd Webb with sports, Arch Deal traffic, Alan Archer weather, and a variety of talk subjects. This day gold was at $459.79 an ounce,...

Mike Weber does middays on AM 1380 WLCY . It's the day after the 1980 primary elections. Howard Hewes steps in before his afternoon shift.

Mike Weber does middays on WLCY 1380 AM . The station was doing a "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" campaign in support of the hostages in Iran.

Mike Weber morning drive on WFLA-FM The Jacksons are coming in concert and there is confusion about coupons for tickets. Tedd Webb is doing sports reports including the NCAA allowing college football TV broadcasts on Saturday afternoons, Rowdies exhibition soccer, and Bandits football. Lee Hall has news of Walter Mondale visiting Tampa and potential female VP running mates in the 1984 presidential...

K-99 afternoon drive with Mike Weber Later that evening "Night Court," starring Harry Anderson and created by comedy writer Reinhold Weege, premieres on NBC TV; runs for 9 seasons. Adrian Dantley ties Wilt Chamberlain's NBA record for most free throws made in a game by converting 28 of 29 free throws in Utah's 116-111 win over Houston at Las Vegas. Tampa doesn't have a hockey...

The first "business day" of 1984. Continuous Country K-99 afternoon drive with Mike Weber. It's also the 25th anniversary of Alaska Statehood.

Jerry Springer sits in with me to take calls about the Who Concert tragedy at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum the night before. This WLW air check features calls from witnesses who were there and opinions on how to prevent it happening again. (A ban on general Festival Seating is called for.) You will also hear classic radio commercials about retail establishments in Cincinnati that are no longer...

It's difficult being on the air when a tragedy occurs. This is the evening of the WHO concert tragedy at the Cincinnati Riverfront Coliseum . 11 died in the crush of an estimated seven thousand people trying to get in for "festival seating". This is the reporting that evening as the information was coming in. I was wrangling coverage by Pat Boyso and Jeff Hildebrandt on mobile radios...

After some months of reviewing my previous laid back performance and tuning my style to an updated station format I relaxed into more of a morning radio sound. (And perhaps drank more coffee.) The results were tangible in the ratings. I dominated the market with an Arbitron rated 36 share and Radio & Records magazine named me Top-40 Secondary Market Personality of The Year in 1977. I also got...

Listening to this makes me wonder how I ever got hired. Coming from a laid back AOR (Album Oriented Rock) station I was definitely laid back, and using that signature affected 70's DJ voice. But,,, here is the first morning I was on the air at KCRG. Starting with the sign-on, National Anthem and all. (Remember when radio stations weren't on 24 hours a day? Ironically this particular record...

My talk radio skills evolved after the gauntlet of three months of nightly programs. This night my guest was Councilman Jerry Springer who had been Mayor of Cincinnati in 1977-78. (Yes... THAT Jerry Springer.) He was on my show several times and one time during a commercial break he leaned back in his chair and said to me "This is fun. I think I'd like to do this. (be a talk show host)&qu...

The switch is on to TALK radio at WLW. There had been a "Sports Talk" show tat ran for an hour in the early evening with Phil Sampp and Bob Trumpy, but this was new for the market and for me. This is the first talk show I hosted. (produced, scheduled, engineered, screened calls, etc.) It was literally a one man band. Compared to talk radio today it was very primitive. I did everything my...

It's February 3, 1980, a Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati. The weather is cold, gas prices are climbing, the Iran hostage crisis is underway, President Carter has submitted his new budget, in sports there's basketball. Here's an aircheck of part of that 6 hour show that day. Yes, an actual live person on the air that long with no satellite feed. Even so, I was the only person there, doin...