For the last several years, “WLS/WCFL Rewound” has been one of the highlights of Labor Day weekend. This year, it’s more than 66 hours of unscoped or restored airchecks from Chicago’s legendary AM Top 40s WLS and shorter-lived WCFL from the ‘60s through ‘80s, beginning at 6 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 5, and continuing past Midnight next Monday on streaming Oldies outlet Rewound Radio.
Curators Ted Gorden Smucker and Bill Shannon say this year’s show will spotlight National Radio Hall of Fame members, including new inductees Charlie Van Dyke and Fred Winston. NRHOF members already include Dick Biondi, Larry Lujack, Yvonne Daniels, John Records Landecker, and Chickenman creator Dick Orkin.
Other Rewound highlights include a segment of WLS’ Big 89 Countdown for 1971, Bob Dearborn and John Driscoll from WCFL’s final day as a Top 40 in 1976, and Winston’s return to WCFL in 1981 after the station returned briefly to Hot AC. There are also planned appearances from Turi Ryder, Don Geronimo, Chuck Knapp, Bob Sirott, and many more. Here’s the trailer.
When N/T WABC New York began airing its own classic Top 40 era airchecks in 2001-09, unscoped and/or restored full-length airchecks were still hard to find. They’re more present than ever now, including on the Facebook group Sharing Airchecks, where many of the offerings are unscoped. One of the chief contributors is syndication veteran Rob Frankel, who co-produced WABC Rewound.
Frankel did his first aircheck restoration in 1975—to his knowledge, the first anywhere. He is currently a producer of the syndicated Classic Rock show Time Warp with Bill St. James. Frankel has done posts on about 50 radio stations. In recent months, those include multiple airchecks from many all-timers (WABC, KHJ Los Angeles, CKLW Detroit) but also lesser-known stations (KENO Las Vegas), legendary R&B outlets not sufficiently well documented elsewhere (WWRL and WLIB New York) and NYC’s underappreciated WNBC.
Much of Frankel’s collection can also be found at Big Apple Airchecks, Matt Craig’s long-running site with thousands of airchecks for trade or sale, including the WABC shows. Craig is also the host of the syndicated New York’s Best Rock, a tribute to the ‘70s/early ‘80s AOR era of WPLJ New York. The site is also peppered with jingle composites and a recurring spotlight on current talent.
Listening to classic radio in real time always prompts the question about whether one romanticizes the past too much and another about whether one is mired there. I’ve listened to a half-dozen current stations in the last two days that were unhosted in middays, including at least one that wasn’t supposed to be jockless. I feel OK about seeking out classic radio. I’ve also heard stations that sound better now than in the ‘80s.
In general, listening to the increased amount of available audio has given me insight on classic stations that I didn’t get to hear in real time. It’s not unlike finally noticing the drumming on a song you’ve heard for years. I’ve always held that if current owners aren’t fiscally able to continue “radio” as we know it, a new generation will reinvent it on a future platform. Today’s audience already has fewer hang-ups about what constitutes “new” and “old” music. Anyone who finds a way to bring radio values forward–in two years or 20–will likely benefit from what is being preserved now.
