"These airchecks are actually from 33 1/3, 12" records. I bought them on eBay at a price of $16.50. They are called Microlac Records, and appear to be made of aluminum with a coating of vinyl. Five are recorded and three are blank. Three were not labeled so you can imagine my joy when they turned out to be three of Ed Bowman's airchecks from 1961. All were scoped and I recorded them as they are, scratchy, noisy and all. The seller lives in Indianapolis and owns a record store. A friend gave him these records after buying them at a garage sale. No more is known about them.

"The quality on these airchecks is interesting. Whether these were recorded straight out of the board or not, I do not know. It is obvious that the spots, jingles and talent were not equalized, thus some spots are very muffled-sounding, perhaps due to frequent use of the vinyl cuts.

"According to Allen Bryan, these airchecks would have been cut to vinyl from tape, as were all locally-produced promos, and spots. Before cart machines came into use, all the PAMS jingles, etc., were cut onto vinyl ETs (Electrical Transcriptions) and cued up to play on-air. That's why the early WKLO control room had four turntables.

"Listening to these airchecks and realizing that almost everything non-live was on vinyl, helps to appreciate the concentration the DJ had to have in keeping everything cued-up and in order. One disk could hold several cuts and had to be labeled for clarity. And to confuse the DJ, spots, in the early days, could be recorded at 78 rpm or 33 1/3. Allen was also surprised to learn that these airchecks were on ETs and were done, perhaps, for someone who didn't have access to a tape player."

Tim England writes: "This is a weekly show the new department put together recapping the news. This show and doing the 'Question Man' series were my first two assignments for WKLO News. With 'Question Man,' I would choose a question of the day and go out onto the River City Mall (4th Street) and get opinions. I'd then edit them for inclusion in the newscasts. Here, though, is Kentuckiana Week in Review. In it, you'll hear reports from all of those in the newsroom at the time."

Tim England writes: "I wanted to be full-time in the newsroom where I had been doing part-time work for about six months. Finally, I got my wish, but as they say 'Be careful what you wish for.' The owner of the station group, Charles Sawyer, died and the new management team that took over decided that emphasizing news was not the direction they wanted to take. The newsroom was reduced from 7 to 3 people, and I was among those told to do something else. I was offered an option to submit a tape for deejaying again, but I wasn't interested. I was ready to leave, which I did two years to the day of my starting there."

"This interview I did during the Kentucky Derby week steam boat race. I think it was 1976 or '77...End of April.

"I was reporter for WKLO, sent to the top of the Belle of Louisville to do reports from there. You won't believe it (well maybe you will), but KLO didn't have or want to spend a lot of money on frivolous things like walkie talkies, etc. for the news people, so an engineer there constructed a wooden box with a rope handle and put an automobile battery inside it. That was my power source. I also had to carry a mic, a notebook, a pen, a recorder, extra tapes, etc. Heaviest damn thing I ever had to lug around. And I'm little...just 5 feet tall. And that was when mini-skirts were in. Try to handle all that and hold your skirt down in a high wind on the river. I am woman, hear me roar!!

"Well, I was standing on top of the Belle out of the sun next to the pilot house when a wooden window slides open and John Wayne leans out with a drink in his hand and honest to God says, 'Well hi there little lady.' So, I proceeded to interview him and talk to him. You can hear the paddle wheel churning in the background and all his entourage (Derby festival folk no doubt) guffawing at him like groupies.

"A few minutes later this very young rookie cop came over acting like he was going to save my virtue from a dirty old man. I politely tried to shoo him off and I would handle my virtue and my cool interview in my own way!!

"And, then as several of us on top of the boat were later milling around up there I noticed this (also young, but wow, weren't we all?) WAKY reporter kept following John Wayne around up there, with his microphone poised. He never asked him anything, but just kept following him around like he thought John Wayne was going to miraculously start spouting out, 'Keep it on WAKY!'"

This aircheck is the last few minutes of WKLO-AM as a legal entity. This would have been a few weeks after we started calling ourselves "KJ-100" on both AM and FM, but still had to do legal IDs as "WKLO-AM, WCSN-FM, Louisville." As of midnight on whatever night this was, WKLO-AM officially became WKJJ-AM. The voice you hear is Horace Roth, the station's national accounts manager, who had been around approximately forever and whose raspy voice was quite distinctive, to say the least.

This aircheck captures the last few minutes of the FM side's automated beautiful music format, including one of my smooth-as-Cheez-Whiz "sunshine melodies of WCSN" drop-ins. (WCSN was the descendent of WKLO-FM.) A few more seconds of elevator music follows but then gets abruptly cut off by consultant E. Alvin Davis promising that "if you loved the sunshine sounds we've been doing for years here, you're gonna be crazy about this...welcome to JJ-100." And then "Renegade" by Styx.

I still remember the angry phone calls from WCSN fans who drifted off to sleep the night before to Percy Faith and Mantovani, only to be jarred awake the next day by Led Zeppelin and Foreigner. It's weird to hear E. Alvin refer to "JJ-100," since shortly after that the decision was made to go with KJ-100 instead.