Ever since I was a kid, I’ve LOVED radio! The passion began when my parents gave me an inexpensive Lloyds AM pocket transistor for my 3rd birthday back in 1967. I spent 16 years on the air before hanging up my headphones in 1999. There’s a few brief airchecks of me here in Radio Geek Heaven, if you’re interested. I might even do it again someday if the right opportunity were to present itself. Who knows? But I figured that since I have this website, it would be fun to create a little “corner” where we could listen, reminisce, and talk radio. Everybody is entitled to have one guilty indulgence in life, right?
If you have thoughts or suggestions on how to make this website better, I’d love to hear from you. If you’d like to have your product or business featured on this site, I’d REALLY love to hear from you! The recession has made me poor. Hopefully, this new venture will become a profitable one. If you’ve just found this site and are enjoying it, I’d like to know that, too. Drop me a note and let me know “where you’re pickin’ up the broadcast!” Please leave your comment below or e-mail me: CheapoLife@gmail.com .
#1 by Tom Archibald on February 3, 2010 - 12:14 pm
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Thanks for this site Drew. I love it. Can’t wait for more.
#2 by Drew on February 4, 2010 - 7:42 am
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Thanks, Tom. I’m adding content every day, so keep checking back!
#3 by AP on March 1, 2010 - 3:01 pm
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Did you use to have a show “Durigan’s Basement” that aired in the Mid 90′s on the old south MSP metro WTCX station?
#4 by Drew on March 2, 2010 - 6:35 am
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Sure did! “Saturday Night Fever, Live from Drew Durigan’s Basement.” Aired from November 13, 1993 – February 5, 1994. The station was then sold and became the southern half of REV 105.
In 16 years of on-air radio, hosting that show was probably the most enjoyable 13 weeks of my career. Thanks for remembering!
#5 by AP on March 3, 2010 - 12:58 am
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Hey, It got me thinkin, so I found an old mixtape and I’m pretty sure you were doing some 100 song ’70s countdown which I have recorded. That was the best, I was able to hear 3 70′s Saturday Nite shows at once, you, 105.1 and 94.5. I was definitely sad when both 105 signals were sold shortly thereafter.
#6 by Drew on March 3, 2010 - 6:26 am
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That was New Years Day, 1994. I started at 4PM and counted down the Top 105 Songs of the Seventies. Last song played at midnight. Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life.” (Sorry, that’s what all the stats say.) Right before I played Debby Boone, I played “Stairway to Heaven” as an “extra” since that was the #1 most requested song of the 70s and would have been huge on the charts if it had been released as a single.
I always knew that show had more listeners than we were given credit for. We had zero ratings because we had zero promotional budget and were only on-the-air for a year before being sold. I pleaded with the owner to keep the station and flip the format to full time 70s Oldies. At the time, that format was “new” and nobody else was doing it locally, except for KS95 on Saturday nights. There’s no doubt in my mind if we had done this, the station would have shown up in the metro ratings and been able to make money.
#7 by AP on March 3, 2010 - 7:10 pm
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Can’t agree more Drew. Yeah I take a look at the Top 40 book and there are some “why did that song chart so high” and groups like Led never met the official criteria. But for the most part most songs that are in there up till about the year 1989 or so deserve to be there. I had the same bewilderment when I found out “Feeling That Way” and “Anytime” by Journey only made it to #83.
I remember heading up to school fall 1994 and when I came back for winter all of the great fringe stations I recieved using a great Sherwood 70′s stereo with a TV antenna mast were dark or changed format. It would definitely be nice to get that type of radio with a local flavor back soon. Definitely appears to be a pipe dream but I will always be the eternal optimist
. I really don’t understand the thinkings of some PD’s or corporations that if you have a good popular format and keep listeners occupied with great songs with a lot of variety (i.e. play pretty much anything that charted) , and hear a snippet or two about the artist, you would definitely get listeners and revenue.
I loved reading about the CB stories. I bought an old RV which came with one and they are definitely fun.
#8 by Drew on March 4, 2010 - 9:21 am
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The thinking is to dumb programming down to the lowest common denominator. This way, you minimize expenses and maximize potential audience. It worked for a few years during the massive radio consolidation days of the late 1990s-early 2000s. But then, people got tired of hearing the same homogenized garbage on every station. New technologies like XM, Sirius, Internet radio, etc., became available on a mass scale. The large corporate operators were suddenly in trouble: listeners were leaving, revenue was dropping, and they were leveraged to the hilt into all these stations which they paid way too much for. We’re now seeing the fallout of this in the form of bankruptcies and “reorganizations.” Video didn’t kill the radio star. RADIO killed the radio star!
Did you grow up in the Cities? I’m curious if you recognize any of the characters on those CB tapes?
#9 by AP on March 5, 2010 - 2:37 am
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Naw, the CB stuff was a little before my time. Yeah I grew up in the Cities and always looked forward to traveling either for fun or work and tryin to pick up the fringe local stations.
#10 by Mike on March 11, 2010 - 1:58 am
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Drew,
Found you through PDXRadio.com. Great to hear the KPOK jingles again. Was there in 1972-73. It was a blast.
The KEX jingles are a great memory as well.
#11 by Drew on March 12, 2010 - 7:01 pm
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Hi Mike,
Thanks for the note! Those jingles are the kind of rare audio I could try for years to find with no luck. Joel just happened to find my site and was gracious enough to share them with us.
#12 by Marianna on March 22, 2010 - 12:45 pm
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Howdy-do! I just discovered your site while looking for new job/assignment opportunities (thanks for the listings!). Very interesting to read and hear about your old radio recordings, industry news, and other site comments, etc. (and I’m glad your page is NOT white, which is such a drain on the eyes, nevermind energy). I work in another branch of audio: video broadcast sound recording/gathering. I’ve always been interested in radio, but my career path’s never gone that way, but with the slow job market, who knows, maybe nows the time to include good ol’ radio (“What do you have when the video’s bad? RADIO!” har.). Your site definitely gets me passionate about sound all over again. Anywho, I enjoyed reading about how you got interested in radio as a young boy. I, too, have a childhood story that pointed to my sound passion later in life: when I was a young girl, I was fanatic about the original Battlestar Galactica tv series in the late 70s. Back then, my family had no VCR and I wanted to experience the Galactica world on my own time. So, I grabbed my boombox (with cassette recording capability) and placed it up against the tv speakers. When the network aired an episode, I recorded the tv show’s audio. What happy, leisurely days I spent by listening to my audio recordings of Battlestar Galactica.
I still have those cassette tapes… Good luck on your venture here and the world of radio. Cheers, Marianna
#13 by Drew on March 23, 2010 - 3:04 pm
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Hi Marianna,
We must be twins separated at birth. I did the same thing! I loved watching “The Flintstones” and “Gilligan’s Island” but didn’t always want to wait around until 4:00-4:30. So, I put the pencil mic of my Spartan-Atlantic “shoebox” cassette recorder next to the speaker. No video, but at least I had the audio. As a bonus, I also got the phone ringing, my mom talking, me fighting with my little sister, or whatever else happened to be in the background. LOL! This was in 1973. As I began creating this website 36 years later, I realized it was priceless. The recording was off of WTCN-TV 11, the independent station in Minneapolis/St. Paul which was then owned by Metromedia. I used it to put a WTCN composite together which includes TV theme intros/outros, commercials, the local booth announcer, and the infectious “Metro-Media-Television…eleven, eleven, eleven, eleven” jingle! It’s on the site if you want to hear it.
#14 by Richard Sigurdson on March 24, 2010 - 2:09 pm
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Somewhere found on the ‘net I have a recording that must have been you on WTCX… I heard a WDGY Jingle/ID: ” and if you were listening to WDGY, you would have heard this” or something like that. I have been listing to and recording airchecks since the late 50′s… I started using a WIRE RECORDER! Now that is showing my age. You’ll find my stuff on Rick Burnett’s site. I have friends that went to Brown’s and went in and out of radio…. I went to NEI, went into TV and have been there going on 38 years. … love the ‘checks…
#15 by Drew on March 27, 2010 - 6:25 pm
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Hi Richard,
Yes! I remember that! It was either the second or third “Saturday Night Fever” show that I did. Would have been November 20th or 27th, 1993. That show included a tribute to WDGY.
I had an off-the-air cassette recording of WDGY’s flip from Rock to Country from September 2, 1977. At 3PM, they launched into a montage of the WDGY jingles, 1950s to present. From that tape, I took 3 of the 1970s jingles. I then chose 3 songs and “matched” them to the WDGY jingle of that era. Before I played them, I did a quick bit about the history and significance of WDGY. Then, I said “If you had been listening to WDGY, it would have sounded…something like THIS…” Followed by the jingle, then cold into the song. One of the songs was the Sweet’s “Little Willy.” I can’t remember right now what the other 2 were.
Where did you find the aircheck of this? I’d love to hear it. I recorded and saved all 13 complete “Saturday Night Fever” shows, straight off the WTCX studio monitor. But those tapes have been in safe storage for several years. Last time I listened back to that particular show was probably 1997 or so!
#16 by Radio Nick on April 29, 2010 - 12:51 am
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hey I was wondering if you would be able to help me i used to be a dj for a station in topeka kansas called us103 i need to know if you have any old airchecks of me from 2006-2008. thanks
#17 by daveh on April 30, 2010 - 4:44 pm
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Drew –
Love the site and the tapes – I was in radio in Fargo in the early 80′s – mostly college and some behind the scenes work for KVOX – during the Chuck McKay days… I used to have some aircheck tapes of folks from CA – Charlie Tuna, etc…Chicago – Larry Lujack (WLS) and of course – Rick Dees – I think he was in Memphis – Unfortunately an ex-roommate got mad one night and destroyed all..
but I still have the memories…
#18 by Drew on May 2, 2010 - 9:15 am
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I remember the 1280/KVOX vs 15/KQWB days of the 1970s! And later, WDAY-FM dumping the elevator music and becoming “Y94.” Never lived in Fargo, but heard it all from my grandparents’ place and also from our family cabin near Park Rapids, MN. That was some damn good radio for a market of that size.
#19 by Drew on May 2, 2010 - 9:17 am
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Hi Nick,
The only tape I have of Topeka is the 8/20/1983 dial scan that I recorded enroute to my first radio job in Colorado. Hopefully, someone will see your comment and be able to help you. Good luck!
#20 by kim on October 6, 2010 - 3:20 pm
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wow talk about MEMORIES!! what an excellent idea!!! still love ya!!
#21 by James Erickson on October 7, 2010 - 4:02 pm
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I have been working in radio and TV in the Fargo market since the late 60s. I have a couple of control boards that I would like to donate to a good home. complete with repair manuals, scematics and history.
#22 by John Ebeling on December 29, 2010 - 8:21 pm
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Interesting site. I have been FM DXing since 1948. I grew up in Duluth and recall the WEBC-FM self supporting tower being erected back in 1947 or so. They had a 5 minute weather cast from Eau Claire & Rice Lake @ 7:45 a.m. Sometimes the distant FM signals would fade out. Made for interesting listening. Also recall KPIR in Duluth. I have a signed copy of Roger Johnson’s thesis on the history of WEBC somewhere around the house. But I ramble on.
#23 by denis shaw on January 10, 2011 - 4:21 pm
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i’m still on the air.
#24 by Drew on February 10, 2011 - 9:17 am
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Hi John,
Didn’t WEBC-FM originally use the call letters WDUL (W-Duluth?) Do you happen to remember which frequency they used? Did WDUL start out in the original 40Mhz FM band, were they on 105.1, or possibly another frequency entirely?
#25 by Radiofan10 on March 8, 2011 - 7:25 pm
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Hey Drew I have a couple of airchecks that are just recent (like in 2010 or so) from around the Longview, Texas Area. The first one is from the Shreveport station KRMD-FM that I recorded in Gilmer, Texas, and the second one is from Longview station KYKX-FM which was recorded in Longview, Texas. I recorded them on an MP3 player and the quality is crystal clear and I was wondering if you would like to have them. Just comment back if you want them.
Thanks
Jordan
#26 by Michael Hamm on May 24, 2011 - 1:39 am
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Just wanted to say nice site. I’ve seen some references to the Ocala, Florida area and WTRS…I actually worked at WTRS twice…around 78 when it was still in Dunnellon and around 89…also worked at the old WFUZ…and WWKE(your music and prize connection). I’m obviously an old fart…but still in radio at WPIG in Olean, New York…my hometown…If u saw the movie “Wayne’s World Two”, there was a scene in the WPIG control room…our claim to fame.
Mike
#27 by Dave Luukkonen on July 16, 2011 - 9:48 pm
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Hi Drew…
This all sounds so familiar; I was behind the mike from 1977 to 1995 in Saskatoon, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg.
I worked with Racoon Carney at CKY in 1987; great guy! Do you remember the late Ron Abel? Another great guy from those days.
I also did some K-tel spots- that was an experience. The owner paid poorly on a per spot basis, but he’d come in with a dozen of them to do, so a couple hour’s work paid pretty well.
The only one I remember was “Ladies of the 80′s!”
Ah… the old days. Who knew we’d get this old?
Sorry for the long comment, but your page fired a lot of neurons in my memory bank!
Dave
#28 by John Ebeling on November 4, 2011 - 7:55 pm
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Yes, WEBC-FM started out on hthe old 42-50 Mhz band as WDUL & another experimental call which I don’t recall. As WEBC-FM, they were on 92.3 with a power of 65KW. They also programed to the city busses for a year or two, using a sub-audible tone to increase the volume of commercials.
A correction on the 5 minute newscast mentioned earlier: it was from 7:55 to 8 A.M.
#29 by Drew on January 24, 2012 - 8:55 am
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When did WEBC-FM move…and to which frequency? 105.1? Or somewhere else?