News Radio KYW 1060 AM (Philadelphia, PA) aircheck - 7/9/1977

[@radiotvphononut]

If "News Radio" stations sounded like this today, I'm be more inclined to listen to them. In my area, most of the popular talk shows have moved to FM and the one AM talk station only plays Mike Gallagher, FOX sports, and Dave Ramsey during the day. I'll listen to real news or a local talk show host; but, I'm not listening to some windbag giving his opinion on radio stations across the country. Back in '77, the announcers had a better voice for radio and even the commercials were more entertaining. Now, radio is mostly boring dreck.

[@RoughJustice2k18]

I tend to agree. Most of the modern radio stations in my home state nowadays play BS (real music doesn't exist anymore) or loads of commercials, political and sport talk. Nothing worth listening to. In 1977 all we had in terms of commercial radio stations were AM (no FM broadcasts until some years later) but at least the ones we had played half-decent songs more often back then. One station would play episodes of The Goon Show. Nothing like the comic genius of Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe to brighten your day. I miss those days.

[@defaultuserid1559]

You should listen to KYW right now then as it's all news all the time 24/7 and sounds pretty much the same as 1977.

[@xaenon]

I can't stand radio anymore - not even the music stations. Radio used to be entertaining; now it's just annoying. It doesn't seem to matter what time I turn a radio on - it's almost always one of the following: 1) a 10-minute commercial block - including ads begging for more advertisers 2) the deejay yammering about something nobody gives a flying moose turd about 3) one of those equally-obnoxious 'morning zoo' shows. If by some miracle I do hear music, it's either the last 8 seconds of a song I like, leading into one of he above, some completely talentless drivel that passes for 'top 40' today, or a song that has been played so many times in the last month or two that I even though I liked it once upon a time, I've come to hate it because the station has an unnatural fixation with it.

[@defaultuserid1559]

@QuadRaSphere Records and Radio I dunno. You could listen to KYW and turn on a teletype and press random keys. That would work I bet.

[@NickG123]

WCBS 880 is one of my favorites. I am located on Long Island in NY, we have the biggest radio market in the US. There is also a great show on 77 WABC with hits from the 50s-70s by legendary DJ "Cousin Brucie", he was big in the 60s. NY radio isn't dead yet (unless you include z100 FM)

[@bigdaddyl-rob7445]

"Sandy Ster-A-bin...HARRISBURG!" just listening to his iconic voice, WOW!!! Great tape and the commercials were part of my childhood! My Mom listened to KYW all the time in the kitchen, GREAT memories!

[@joelfrombethlehem]

I remember this date! I was driving on the Schuylkill Expressway - eastbound and was in this traffic jam and listening to KYW. This was on a Saturday morning. Thanks for putting this tape on KZbin for those who remember how life was in Philly in the late 70s, like me, those too young to remember, and all those not born yet who want to know what life was all about in Philadelphia

[@realmccoy]

Wow, that is so cool how you actually remember this very date!!!

[@stevenikazy2943]

Dick Covington and his iconic voice. Was privileged to have worked with him in the early 90s.

[@atschirner]

Got to love the teletype in the background. It's the real thing!

[@RuneTheFirst]

Maybe not. Teletypes went obsolete about then but KYW used fake backgrounds way before and for 2 decades plus after this when teletypes were relegated to museums.

[@alantschirner6063]

Thanks Ray, in our Midwest market the TTY were still in service in the early 80’s. Real or previously recorded they are sounds from the past. As National Lampoon said “we can get away with so much on the radio”

[@70sleftover]

KYW just recently stopped their use of the teletype sound in the background. The real teletype was probably still used in '77, I'm sure.

[@DesiluTrek]

Growing up with this, taking it for granted, and hearing it now I still did until reading your comment. It made me realize it's now such an anachronism!

[@mattcom2]

It is the real thing...on tape. There used to be a live mic in the alcove in which eight or more wire service printers were still banging away when I worked there in 1971-72. A multiple four-letter-word shouting incident which aired live, the legend goes, caused the switch to a recorded sound track. This was back in the day when protecting the station's license was priority one.

[@tinicum54]

I'm from Philly. Probably listened to this station at least once that day, like everyday. Those traffic reports were invaluable.

[@danielt.8573]

Listening to this old recording is more entertaining to me than current radio and television.

[@rgo5609]

Thanks I was 19 years old back then I can get a refresher of what was going on back then !

[@defaultuserid1559]

This is great. I'm going to play this at 7 AM tomorrow morning and see if anybody notices. I was probably driving in to work when this was broadcast and KYW was one of the radio buttons just for traffic and weather.

[@billmyke746]

I remember those days too. High five to a fellow old guy!

[@spunkyspice4777]

I have a bunch of cassette recordings like this. Some even include KYW.

[@xaenon]

That sounds remarkably good for a 44-year-old cassette. Cripes, I just realized I was 13 years old when this aired.

[@Tall_Order]

I was born in 80. But this is even nostalgic for me. The news back then was better too. I would gladly ditch this horrible world I live in right now to live in the 70s. The first thing I would do is start programming software for Commodore computers.

[@blenderbachcgi]

Cassettes don't degrade if you don't play them a million times. The audio will stay on there for a long time.

[@mssarahrenee]

I was 7 months!

[@danielt.8573]

@@blenderbachcgi Even that isn't absolutely true. You can play your cassettes a lot of times as long as you keep them away from extreme temperatures and magnetic fields.

[@blenderbachcgi]

@@danielt.8573 Well, everyone should be smart enough. No one will be putting a magnet near a cassette or putting a cassette in a microwave. So if you just treat them right, they will live forever...

[@Lafayette320]

Great station. KYW was at 1100 (Clear Channel) in Cleveland from 1956 to 1965 until an FCC decision allowed Group W back to Philadelphia and for NBC to return Cleve. Group W had been a dynamic, dedicated ownership and was popular. In Cleve. it included TV 3, Radio 11 and FM 105.7. In NBC's return to Cleve., the call letters became WKYC, i.e. KY Cleveland. These call letters stand even today but only for Channel 3, owned by TEGNA. AM (WTAM) and FM (WMJI) are under distinct and separate ownership.

[@pcallas66]

This station is owned by CBS. Our radio station is KDKA 1020 AM, which is also owned by CBS. KDKA was the first commercial radio station ever and went on the air November 2, 1920 and the first broadcast was the Cox-Harding election results. It is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but was in a town called East Pittsburgh in 1920, which is about 12 miles east of Pittsburgh, This is a cool tape and sounds good. Thank you for sharing.

[@wmbrown6]

WAS owned by CBS. They dumped all their radio stations in 2017 onto what is today known as Audacy.

[@70sleftover]

Not only a snapshot of KYW Newsradio 1060 (and what exactly was newsworthy at the time) in July 1977, but this is a treasure trove of radio commercial memories for those of us who grew up in the 1970s in the Delaware Valley. Never forgot that Central Penn National Bank jingle (which ends this tape a bit wobbly in classic old cassette style)! Also "what can you get for 21 cents?" Among the answers, "A guitar pick" stuck with me for some reason. And evidence that BankAmericard became VISA in '77, the new name sounding even to my young mind a little too futuristic and corporate. And that Wawa jingle which was the first I was aware of, when Wawa was mainly concentrated in the western suburbs and not so much near where I lived.

[@Wa3ypx]

1977, it was 96 deg. OMG!!! Global warming. The planet will be dead in 10 years.

[@666shockavenue7]

I love things like this, thank you for uploading this

[@daviddreyer6104]

KYW NEWS Radio 1060 AM is still on the air!! and still sounds like this today!! actually they just made an fm copy of station 103.9 fm that started up in Oct. 0f 2020.

[@whiskerlesswalrus]

I speak to a ham in the morning who works for KYW-TV and before the split between the radio and TV organisations I asked him about the teletype sound behind the guy talking and he had a USB drive with that sound effect on it in his desk so they could add it to the on air audio

[@JAB58]

For some reason listening to this station relaxes me 😊

[@ericnancewoehler3888]

Thank you so much for posting this. It's wonderful. I see the handwritten date on the picture of the tape, but it seems like this broadcast had to be from July 19 (as opposed to July 9), 1977. Early in the aircheck, the announcer mention's "tonight's All-Star Game" (which was played July 19) and Roman Gabriel's reporting to the Eagles' training camp (which was reported July 19 in the Philadelphia Inquirer).

[@roberthansen2008]

Thank you for sharing this memory.

[@williammitchem8274]

Hey I was raised in Delaware, Newark wow what a blast from the past. I belive I was in Philidelphia for the Peter Frampton concert in this time frame. Wow

[@AMStationEngineer]

I worked at Fitch Audio, we did most of the concerts at the Spectrum, and "the Vet"...

[@EternalSunRa]

Love it thank you for posting . I remember all those names of the reporters.

[@micmac99]

Ken Matz worked for a time as a TV new anchor in San Francisco for ABC-owned KGO 7

[@MutethatBozo]

Listening as I'm tinkering with a Heathkit PT-1 tuner. Works alright. Nice shape generally, except there's an odd hollow kind of bell like sound in the upper midrange on certain FM stations. I think I'm closing in on the culprit, but any thoughts would be appreciated. I did a bit of FM radio, back in the 80's and 90's, at a station that still used the old carts and turntables. It's fun to hear some of the old stuff. :)

[@gravityissues5210]

Sandy Starobin….I remember when he died, only then did I learn he was blind. He was so much more subdued here than he became, including his sign-off which got really flamboyant by the time I was listening in the 80s and 90s.

[@scottmorley3672]

Thank you for this.

[@briankelleher6943]

Good to hear my Uncle Ed’s voice again! And just like in the broadcast, that’s how he spoke regularly 😂

[@Tubeydoobeydo]

This is such an incredible walk down memory lane for me. I was 16 in the summer of '77 and the jingles in the commercial spots really are fun to hear again. Do you have any recordings from WIP, WFIL or WIBG from this era?

[@misterm5325]

Thank you for taking the time to post this.

[@joeblow8593]

I listened to their other station, WINS. "This is 1010 WINS New York. Group W Westinghouse Broadcasting, serving New York, New Jersey and Connecticut with all news all the time"

[@edphillips9118]

One of the soundtracks of my growing up in the Delaware Valley.

[@mikemoyercell]

Kyw is still somewhat like this. That is the channel I listen to. They still have that weird noise in the background too!!

[@RuneTheFirst]

Yep. Fake for 50 years. Never had the machines in the booth.

[@gravityissues5210]

They do? I thought they got rid of the teletype sound back in the late 90s. It’s rally iconic though.

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

I really like 👍 these radio 📻 broadcasts. 1977, when News Radio 📻 was a lot better, and not 👎 dominating the whole AM band, as it does today. This can work pretty good 👍 as a sleep 😴 video. Your friend, Jeff.

[@d-mack-ga5340]

"Traffic is slow on the Schuylkill Expressway" ...SHOCKER!

[@70sleftover]

Traffic tieup on the Schuylkill? Extreme heat? Sounds familiar. Great to hear again the Harrisburg report from inimitable Sandy Sta-Ra-Bin...Ha-Ris-Burg (although i guess he didn't drag out the enunciation as much as he would later on!). Love the reference to the Delaware Expressway (I-95) which was standard in the '70s. I was delivering newspapers as a kid back then and remember that hot summer. Interestingly, earlier in '77 we experienced the coldest winter we've had in my lifetime (so far).

[@davidw7155]

Absolutely love these classic radio clips. I have a few from 1980s Toronto area, should I put them up? Plus a few tapes from early (London’s) Capital Radio with cuddly Ken…?

[@lsmftymf]

KYW-AM 1060 can be easily heard in Chicagoland on most evenings, especially when atmospheric conditions are favorable. Most remember the Tom Maloney sports reports.

[@wmbrown6]

Sounds like KYW's tone of the time on the TOH and BOH was 732 Hz @ 0:00.5 sec. - a leftover from their days, pre-1965, as an NBC affiliate.

[@wmbrown6]

Unless the pitch was -0.5%, in which case the tone would be 735 Hz - and I nailed the duration at :00.4 sec. Though in its early years of being all-news they had no tones on the hour and half-hour, I wonder if that frequency and duration were a leftover from their days as an NBC affiliate.

[@russellphillips905]

KYW 1060 am is on FM 103.9 now and am 1060 I’m outside philly about 1 hr

[@gsnfan]

7:02 "...but the prices are down!"

[@bobblofinshlof9741]

This aired about 28 years before I was born

[@ABCEasyas--]

Group W, the same group that distributed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987).

[@steverich6001]

Good background stuff

[@ABCEasyas--]

81 degrees at 7 a.m.? Oof!

[@horseathalt7308]

Global warming? Lol...

[@JoeSlops]

@@horseathalt7308 no..its called summer

[@wmbrown6]

It was around that time that, in NYC, the mercury hit 104 degrees.

[@superhet7281]

Great stuff! HOW did this tape get to Mississippi??? I grew up NOT listening to KYW. As a teenager at the time, the last thing I cared about was news/weather/traffic.

[@mikeyfromnj]

Hi !!! Thanks for posting these radio programs, brings back lots of memories!! By any chance, do you have any more of this station that you could post, say from 1971-1973? There's a few commercials that I would like to hear, but this seems to be the only way that I will get to hear them, that is in this format. Thanks !!!!

[@vintagelife3504]

When am sounded good

[@v12alpine]

It still sounds good, the problem is modern radios cut off all the high end. If I tune in with my HAM set to 12khz bandwidth it's nearly FM quality.

[@vintagelife3504]

@@v12alpine What kind of ham radio

[@v12alpine]

@@vintagelife3504 apache labs SDR. But most HF (shortwave) HAM radio analog or digital from the 80's and up covers the AM band and has adjustable bandwidth to get the crispy treble out of AM. There are many online SDR's with adjustable bandwidth you can listen to as well for free.

[@thegodzone]

how far are you from Liberty Mississippi ,I have an old turntable I am looking for someone to redo

[@jaedenceron1127]

First comment! Thanks Brian!

[@galaxyflyer1]

Too cool!

[@danschreffler1280]

I enjoy!

[@ferranmelero7727]

Great

[@luisreyes1963]

Back then, Laetrile as a "miracle cure" & the health scare of the day was Legionnaire's Disease. How times change. 😑

[@ScottKnitter]

Love the great radio voices. Why do so many current radio voices sound so immature and amateurish?

[@gailsmith5023]

Why is it off the air?

[@boobalayuber7005]

MONIQUE MOORE/BOOBALAY/NYLA MOORE

[@joshuagalka3526]

Okay!

[@juliusmay8712]

I wonder could Philly lose kyw newsradio, given audacy's cost cutting and other reasons