Stoney's Beer Funky Radio Commercial

Stoney's Beer is based in Pittsburgh. I found this commercial on an Evatone Soundsheet demo from the late 70s. Was this a joke commercial, or a really politically incorrect real spot?

Listen to or download the spot here.

If you know anything about this commercial, leave it in the comments.

Cool Art Deco NBC Radio Studios Hollywood

Found this postcard recently, it's the NBC radio studios at the corner of Sunset and Vine in Hollywood. The building was new in 1938. The Art Deco painting is a perfect fit with the old style linen postcard. Click to view larger, and see more about the building at the Dear Old Hollywood blog here.

Here's another shot of the intersection, a photo this time.

PAMS Nashville My Hometown and more

I wondered if there was a Nashville version of the My Home Town song from PAMS. Turns out a friend of mine had the record! Click here to listen.

WKDA didn't sell the whole concept, but they did sell the B side of the record. Here's the story of Elm Hill Bill.


PAMS jingle company has a page with more examples. And here are a few more versions,

Portland Maine, Louisville Kentucky, and Austin Texas.

PAMS Winston-Salem My Hometown Record

Listen to or download "Winston-Salem My Hometown"

Here's a slice of retro for you. PAMS jingle company in Dallas made this generic song available to local radio stations around the country in the 60's. The station would find a local sponsor, write some lyrics, and presto!, a local hit.

There were over a hundred localized versions of this record, all recorded in Dallas. Radio Use Only blog has an amazingly complete story for you to read.

Bonus retroness: Thalhimer's Department Store was the local sponsor for this record through the local Top 40 station 1380 WTOB. Here's where you might have stumbled upon this record back then.

Marine Corps PSAs from 1969

Today's the birthday of the founding of the Marine Corps, so here are some public service radio announcements from 1969 from former Marines. Jack Webb, Art Buchwald, and Jonathan Winters were among the celebrities who recorded these for the Corp. Click the names to listen to Jack Webb, Art Buchwald, and Jonathan Winters.

Jerry Reed- One of the Good Guys

Jerry Reed was a brilliant player and songwriter, and even a movie actor, but he was also a good guy in my corner of the world, voiceover acting.

Jerry recorded a lot of commercials at my studios over the years, including the Southwest Texas Dodge Dealers, and a lot of syndicated spots for tire dealers. But here are two recordings of his that he did just because someone asked.

Old West Gazette was a daily radio show written and produced by Bob Sanders and sponsored by Greyhound Bus. It ran from 1980 to 1982, and one day we asked Jerry to guest star in an episode. He said yes, and I went to his office to record him. Click here to hear the show.

The other voice actor is David Cobb, legendary WSM announcer who coined the phrase "Music City".

Another time Jerry came in to record a PSA for Murci Homes, an organization for special needs children. He had a prepared script to read dry, but he couldn't get into the rhythm. He picked up an old guitar propped up in the corner of the room, tuned it, and did the whole spot live, picking and talking. Listen here.

Jerry used his movie star status to bring more movie projects to Nashville and Tennessee. He also started a video company, TSC Productions, that produced fishing and outdoor shows. Jerry was a major talent, and a good person. R.I.P.

Radio Station License Plates

Here's a collection of license plates from some Nashville radio stations of the 1970s. Click any image to enlarge, and if you have any of these to show, post a link in the comments section.


WLAC -AM was still top 40 when this came out.


WSM-AM was news/talk all day and country at night, including the Grand Ole Opry Saturday nights.


SM95 was WSM-FM, soft pop and west coast rock.


Here's a bonus plate, the Exit/In, Nashville's hip spot for every kind of music in the 70s. Among the acts I saw there were Barefoot Jerry, Harry Chapin, Jan Hammer, and Stanley Turrentine.


If you want to see more souvenirs of Nashville radio in the past, check out the NashRadio group on Yahoo.

J. Geils "Love Stinks" radio commercial

Love Stinks The J. Geils Band put out this album in 1981. The music is great, and you can click the link above to order on Amazon.com. But the radio spot promoting the album is one of the best of all time. Click here to listen. I'd like to know who produced this spot, so I could show my appreciation.

Swine Flu Radio PSAs 1976

Back in 1976, Gerald Ford and the Center for Disease Control wanted you to get a shot for the Swine Flu. Here are some government produced public service announcements sent out to radio stations across the country that summer:


Give a listen:

Passalong :60
Passalong :30
Skeptic - Truckdriver :10
Skeptic - Woman :10
Skeptic - Male Executive :10

Radio QSL Cards Part 2

Here are some more radio QSL cards from the 1960s. Back then, if you heard a faraway AM radio station, you could write them and give details of what you heard, and they would send back their QSL card as confirmation. QSL actually came from ham radio, but stuck through to the AMs. If you missed Part 1 of the QSL cards, see them here. As always, click any pic for a larger version.

Darryl Starbird's Hall Of Fame Auto Museum

It was always a good time when Darryl Starbird's Auto Show came to town. They had the three ingredients for a good time - cars, girls, and rock 'n roll. Listen to a 1970s radio spot here.


Years later, Darryl's got his own museum close to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The pics you see here are from the museum website. See more here.

Transistorize Your iPod!

I never went anywhere as a kid without my transistor radio. As I grew up, I didn't hear my favorite songs on the radio anymore, so I began to collect them. But hearing "Monday, Monday" on giant stereo speakers didn't pack the emotional wallop of hearing it on the 2 and a quarter inch speaker. When the iPod Shuffle came out, it hit me. Now I could hear what I wanted the way I did in the 60s. Here's how you can, too. Click any pic to enlarge it.




Gather an old transistor radio, and some basic tools. Hey, this IS like the 60s. What we're going to do is wire the output of the iPod to the volume control audio input on the radio.



Open up the old radio and do some disassembly. Stick the tiny screws to a piece of tape for storage. This speaker has a hole in it that causes buzzing when you turn up the volume, but here's an old trick - layer rubber cement on until the hole is covered. No more buzz!




Now, prepare the plug that goes into the iPod. Solder a wire to ground tap, and a small 3.3K resistor to each out channel. This converts the stereo output signal to mono. I put a piece of paper inside the plug to prevent shorting, and screwed on the top of the plug.




Drill a hole in the back of the radio case for the wire. At this point, thread the wires from the plug to the radio. Now solder the ground wire and the hot wire to the two exposed tabs on the radio's volume control. Attach a 9 volt battery to the radio, plug the plug into the iPod, and turn both on. The sound should be coming through the radio speaker. Make sure the volume control on the radio is working properly. If turning it up makes the volume go down, reverse the two wires you soldered on the volume control.



Carefully replace the radio and the new wires into the case, and reassemble the radio.

I hung the iPod on the back of the leather case because I can still take it off to go to the gym, but if you have room, you could build it into the top of the radio case in place of the ferrite antenna. My radio already had a broken antenna wire, so I left it alone.



Now go to www.reelradio.com or www.airchexx.com, and grab some vintage airchecks from your favorite childhood station. I've loaded Bill Berlin WKDA Nashville, Dr. Don Rose from WQXI Atlanta, and various jocks from WKBW Buffalo, WEAM Arlington VA, and WOWO Fort Wayne IN. Make an iPod playlist with airchecks, your fave songs, and some old commercials.



Load it up and enjoy! Even the old school earphone works! Will Apple build these for us oldsters? I hope so, but why wait around?

AM Radio QSL Cards

Back in the old days, you could listen to the AM radio band at night and hear stations from all over the country. Of course, you can do that today, but they're all playing the same syndicated music format, so who cares? If you sent the station a letter telling them where you heard them, what time and what they were playing, they would send you a souvenir QSL card, usually signed by the station engineer. Here are a few blasts from the past, click for larger pics. Part 2 was added March 2008. See it here.



I was on Estero Island in Ft. Myers, Florida when I picked up WABC New York city.



WOWO Fort Wayne Indiana.


A blank QSL card I picked up when I worked at WSM Nashville in the 1970s.

Chickenman Radio Serial

Back when people actually listened to the radio, the best comedy serial of the 1960s was Chickenman. Episodes ran on the local radio station at odd times, and it was always an occasion to stop and listen. Several years ago, Dick Orkin, the creator and voice of Chickenman, put out the entire set of 273 shows on a 14 CD set:



You can read more about the history of Chickenman and buy the set here, on the website of Dick's Radio Ranch.

Radio Station Belt Buckles

Most radio stations used to give away custom belt buckles, especially in the 1970s. Here's a few from my collection: WLAC Nashville, Radio Luxembourg, WSM Nashville, WQXI Atlanta, and a BTO buckle direct from the record label. You don't want to sit down wearing one of these unless you have no belly. Trust me.