WQXY Logger Reel Airchecks
I was lucky enough to get this goldmine through E-Bay: Logger reels recorded at this easy-listening station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Among easy-listening songs (with those automation hums sometimes in-between), and commercials, are live hourly newscasts, and a weather report around the bottom of the hour. Every once in a while, the station aired public-affairs programs as well. I am putting some of this material on this page, with more on the way.
Please keep in mind that these tapes were recorded at a very-slow speed. Some have better sound quality than others. I have found that if I put any kind of filtering on this audio, it winds up sounding worse, so I'll have to present it unfiltered.
Even though the station was "Stereo 100", the logger reels are in mono.
This station is now "New Country 100.7 The Tiger", WTGE.
Mar.
22, 1970
Download(12.6MB)
This clip includes music, a syndicated public-affairs program
called "Viewpoint", a Louisiana state PSA for the 1970
census, and a news report.
Aug.
30, 1972
Download(63.7MB)
The last 4 hours and 25 minutes before the station signed off -
Yes, for a while there, they did sign off. Also for a while
there, this station went under the slogan "Music, Only for a
Woman" - although the newscasts seemed like anything but.
Lincoln J. Harrison, one of the people at the
station during this time, sent me this E-mail. A big
thank-you for letting me put this here. A minor correction he
sent in later is in bold.
I started working part-time at WQXY-FM as a teen during the early
seventies. I remember loading those logging tapes onto that old
recorder (it might have been a Crown) and wondering what they
would sound like if I ever had to listen to them. As it turns
out, the old tapes that you've uploaded sound good enough for me
to remember the music, and some of the people who drew me into
the broadcasting business so many years ago. Assuming you are
interested, I'll tell you what else I remember, though these
recollections are hazy. During the late sixties and early
seventies, the bulk of WQXY's programming came from Ampex tape
machines installed in a Schafer automation system The
system was spread across about four racks of equipment in one
room and two more racks in another. I recall three
350-series music playback decks and one so-called spotter, all
running 10-1/2" reels. The spotter was a fourth Ampex 350
with a special reel of tape. On that reel, about two inches
of oxide had been removed every minute or so. The spotter
contained the commercials for the station, and the system used a
photoresistor on the deck and an ancient stepping relay to keep
up with the position of -- and laboriously cue up -- every
commercial. Since there was only one spotter, each
commercial break could contain only one commercial. All of this
was before WQXY had cart machines. The production room had two
more Ampex 350 decks. One handled the station IDs. The
other was usually left free for production work. As I recall, a
gentleman named Felix Martin recorded the station's early custom
automation reels, dubbing music from albums played on Fairchild
turntables and adding the familiar 25 hertz automation cue tone
to the tapes using a Schafer device called a TRU-8. Martin's
reels were organized into series 1, 2, and 3, with the reels
labeled "1" containing the slowest music. The
reels contained about 90 minutes of music, so three reels loaded
after midnight would just last through the unmanned night
shift. Mancini, Chacksfield, The Living Brass, and Art Van
Damme were some instrumental favorites. I also recall hearing Nat
Cole and John Gary on the station. Chris Albright hosted a live
morning show. Albright later worked at WJBO-FM. Dave
McCown -- heard on at least one of your log tapes - managed WQXY
for a time and recorded some of the station IDs. And, the
remarkable Dick Martin hosted his classic "Moonglow with
Martin" program from 9pm to midnight. Dick Martin was a
hip and erudite sophisticate -- something of a radio
legend. He spun Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Sergio
Mendes. That was big-city radio in Baton Rouge. But, there
came a time when all the home-brew music programming -- including
"Moonglow" -- bit the dust. WQXY started using the
"Music, Only for a Woman" format syndicated by Peters
Productions. Interestingly, the syndicated announcer
pronounced "Baton Rouge" in a way that was different
from citizens of the region. It sounded like "Badden
Rouge." WQXY had already begun an amazing run of bad
luck. First, fire destroyed the upper story of the small
Wooddale Boulevard office building that housed the station. The
station's studio equipment survived, and the engineer moved the
gear into a house trailer located behind the damaged shell of the
original building. Then the trailer was hauled across town
and set up behind the offices of a company called Gulf Union.
Gulf Union owned WQXY at the time. I think the WQXY
trailer was somewhere near WBRZ[TV]'s Highland Road studio
building. Then Lamar Simmons and Gene Nelson of top 40
AM station WLCS took control of WQXY, and the FM station started
using a classy beautiful music format from Jim Schulke's Stereo
Radio Productions. Simmons and Nelson installed WQXY in a
frame building a few steps away from WLCS. Then another fire
broke out. Most of the equipment again survived, though the
fire melted a few dials and switches. Simmons and Nelson
then moved the station to the noisy WQXY transmitter room behind
WBRZ-TV. I did not work at the station during that period,
but I can recall hearing fans and machinery running in the
background during WQXY newscasts. Then the WQXY studio relocated
to a small storefront space that -- I'm told -- had previously
housed a highly questionable movie theatre. I returned
briefly to WQXY at that time. The station ditched the old
tube-type Schafer automation and replaced the Ampex machines with
Revox A77 decks. I recall cutting through a dark parking lot
to pick up news reports from WLCS, one street away. Later, both
WQXY and WLCS moved into terrific new digs near the top of the
swank One American Place building. The WLCS control room had
a beautiful view to the west, overlooking river traffic on the
Mississippi. I eventually moved up the broadcast ladder,
relocating to Los Angeles to work in network television. I
lost contact with both WQXY and WLCS, but I never lost my
appreciation for that time in Baton Rouge radio history.
Sept. 5, 1972
This was the day of the Olympic hostage tragedy in Munich.
The incident began overnight in US time, so the first news of it
here was on the 6AM newscast after sign-on. The programming day
began with a commercial.
Download(63.7MB)
After hours of conflicting reports, the awful truth finally
came out. Here is the 10PM newscast. Unfortunately, this side of
the reel ran out before the newscast ended.
Download(563KB)
Mar. 9, 1973
Download(35.3MB)
This clip is of the last 2 and a half hours before signoff.
Instead of a newscast at midnight, they had one at 11:55PM before
signoff. By this time, the station was using the national anthem
at signons and signoffs. It also ditched that "Music, Only
for a Woman" slogan for a new one - "The Velvet
Sound". There was an ID logo theme as well, with a variation
of it used as a news theme.
Mar. 10, 1973
Download(26.3MB)
This clip of over an hour-and-a-half of programming begins with
the 6AM signon. After the 6AM newscast, the station ran the
University of Texas "Longhorn Radio Network" program,
"In Black America". After the bottom-of-the-hour
weather forecast, the Longhorn Network program "Men and
Ideas" is run at 6:30. There's a 6:59 newscast, followed at
7 by the Longhorn Network program, "University Forum".
There is a 3-minute-long volume drop during this program.
Mar. 11, 1973
Download(63.7MB)
The signon this day didn't begin with the national anthem, but
with the beginning of the Moody Blues "Days of Future
Passed" album!
E-Mail: sr@sammyreed.com