If you want to revitalize AM radio you have to bring this back. This was the greatest DJ to ever grace the airwaves.
It seems like I've always heard of Wolfman Jack but he was never on the air in my area, and it was pre-internet so I had no way of hearing him. Tell me what you liked about his style and how many stations was he on?
The fcc should follow the Dutch....Turn over empty frequencies to people like us ....Check out radio venlo 1035 mw site . There's a list of low power MW stations 100 to one watt. It must be easy to get a license ...So many stations . People like us could bring life back to the band.
@carl-blare He was syndicated on stations all over the USA and even Canada.
At the end of the 60s he moved to WLS Chicago and then WABC/WNBC New York. Maybe you were too young? Both at nighttime could be heard all over the eastern half on the continent.
I listened nightly to his live show on WABC. He started on a 250,000 watt blaster...yes you read that right....in the early 60s across the Texas Border on a Mexico station XERF, in English for an American audience and played rock and roll. At night could be heard over all the USA/Canada and even in Australia. He was fantastic and you listened just for him. Those phone calls he did on air like the sample I posted and hundreds of others was a highlight of his act. He made entertaining radio. One of a kind.
He was in the movie American Graffiti and his best stuff can be heard there.
I did see Wolfman Jack in American Graffiti. Strange I missed him on AM dxing... I guess he was before Art Bell, and I do remember some local night programs... oh well.
I never was a big fan. I don't like fast talking, loud-mouthed and generally boorish DJ's. Now, Pete & Geets (from Toronto's CFNY), they were my kind of DJ's.
Sorry, but that's just my opinion.
@artisan-radio No need to be sorry for your opinion. CFNY was a different type of station than hit parade stations in the 60s and 70s. Chum had a few good evening DJs. Wolfman Jack was different as he didn't just read the commercials and announce the songs. He was part of the show with bits of his own input, his expressions and the phone calls on the Wolfman telephone and his style. You didn't listen to his shows for the music, you could listen to any station for that, you listened to him.
"Who's this on the Wolfman telephone"
"Connie"
"Hi Connie"
"hi"
"Are you naked"
"No"
"I just love being naked, I'm naked right now, does that excite you"
"yeah"
"Must be in the cereal you're eating....bye!
He made radio fun.
Cousin Brucie in his hey day was also very entertaining. I picked up all of this DXing in the evening including the CBS Radio Mystery Theater from Buffalo on WBEN in the 70s.
Radio was great back then. And wasn't plagued by all the noise on the A/C power and local interference from everything in your home. My nice 6 tube "long distance" tabletop Marconi was my best friend growing up.
I can listen to certain types of radio shows. Some oldies (not just the tried and true Top 10), some classical, some jazz, some alternative. The DJ's can hurt the show, but generally they're just there (and sometimes not even there). That's what I mostly try to do with Artisan Radio, although we do have some DJ-hosted shows that attempt to follow the philosophy that the DJ's add a bit, but not get too much in the way.
Then there are the radio personalities that I've enjoyed. I tune in to listen to them, not the music or information they're playing. Pete & Geets I've mentioned. I also happened to love the quirky mixture of music programming they brought to the table, so it was a double win. It's really the only time it's happened.
Halford & Brough, who are currently sports talk hosts here in Vancouver with Sportsnet 650. I don't even particularly like sports talk, yet I listen to their chemistry & interesting brand of humor. I'd probably listen no matter what they did.
There aren't any more I can think of right now. To me, DJ phone calls, pranks, inane jokes all remind me too much of Jerry Springer TV, and I'd rather forget the few times I've made the mistake of watching it (to be precise, as much of it as I could stand).
All that being said, Wolfman Jack certainly had his legion of fans, so there must be something there I'm just not seeing.
@artisan-radio Gerry Springer! Now that was more like professional wrestling. Most of it a scripted act. The two villains came face to face and on cue a fake fight. And the studio audience shouting Gerry Gerry on cue also. All rehearsed beforehand!
Wolfman Jack was an act with the phone calls also. Even with the one I posted from Youtube but it was entertaining. When you think of it most entertainment is acting to script and a character being played except sports. Nothing is really real. Radio dramas are done with the actors/actresses in a room and a producer doing the sound effects, music, etc and it's the listener makes it real...if you know what I mean. Or watcher if it is video(TV show or movie)
I like your Teenage Dreams hosted by you. A show like this I listen for the unique product being offered, obscure records and artists of the era and the host(you) adding to the interest with info on the artists and songs. In fact, a jazz station here in Toronto listener supported has a feature where an amateur person that has a show something like yours can get on the radio and have an hour time slot to be on the air presenting it live. This doesn't have to be jazz but anything and it's a once a week feature. Your shows would be good for this! I think if you submitted an sample it would get accepted!
But really getting back to AM revitalization I don't know what the answer is because I don't think stations are going to go back to radio shows/dramas and bring back Suspense. And that would have to compete with a 60" TV. The noise interference is so bad it has ruined it beyond repair I think. But I am not getting rid of the Procaster.
Pete & Geets is new to me and I am curious so I looked at archive.org but found nothing so I went to YouTube and found a batch of goodies!
You wouldn't know them as they, like most on air personalities were known locally if you listened to that station.
Only a few on air DJs would be known outside of their local area and become famous mostly on AM as with skywave could be listened too all over the country and sometimes continent.
By skywave one night I caught WCCO Minneapolis, 50 kW on 830 kHz, and discovered the Night Show with Tommy D. Mischke. At the moment he was throwing cups, staplers, pencils, anything at hand, against the wall in annoyance that an intern had screwed up the scheduling of a guest. I became a huge Mischke fan, then one night he gave a long very sincere explanation of why he had decided to leave the show. He went to his next venture called "The Mischke Roadshow" in which he drives all over the country finding novel and quirky guests which gets posted as a podcast. I talked a lot about this on my Low Power Hour. Mischke gave me permission to air his podcast, and the latest one is No. 161, titled "Turn it up, Radio", consisting of his on the air pranks on KSTP, 50 kW 1500 kHz from St. Paul, Minnasota.