[NJARC] Philadelphia Radio

[Robert Flory]

Personality radio is not dead.

Pierre Robert has been celebrating his 25th anniversary at WMMR lately.
Many of his contemporaries are still around but have moved around the dial
as stations come and go.

I kick myself for not holding on to some cassettes that I found in the
attic of a house I lived in back in the 80s.  They were tapes that a
soldier's wife recorded for him while he was in Viet Nam.  Most of them
were off-air recordings of WNEW FM and had such great period pieces as
promos for the upcoming Three Dog Night concert and the new Black Sabbath
album.  Many of the recordings had a female disk jockey whose name escapes
me now but who many would recognize.  That was a novelty in the 70s.

I think that some recordings of that era would make an interesting bridge
for some young people into our world.  Many teenagers appreciate classic
rock music and might be interested to hear what it was like to listen to
the radio when that music was new.

Yesterday I heard that the Library of Congress, which adds 25 historically
significant recordings per year to its collection, included Jimi Hendrix's
"Are You Experienced?" this year.  I thought I pushed the wrong button on
my car radio when I hit NPR and heard Jimi surfing a wave of feedback.

Rob Flory
robandpj at earthlink.net
www.home.earthlink.net/~navyradio  WWII Navy Radio
www.home.earthlink.net/~robandpj    Les Flory Television and Electronics