If you are a child of the 60s, you listened to rock on the radio. Remember the DJs ??????

Yeah, we even used to get Windsor TV in the middle of Michigan back in the day before it all went digital.
 

chic said:
I remember my transistor but not any of the radio stations I listened to that far back. FM was becoming popular at the time so AM radio was okay for 2 min. songs or portions of songs, but FM was really where it was at.
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One of the Toronto FM stations changed their format to "All Album Sides " where they played the entire one side of an album, straight through with no commercials. That was around 1978 If I remember it correctly. A small suburban FM station had all female on air staff, and their call sign was CSHE. The guy who owned Sun Records in Memphis, Sam Phillips, who discovered Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Howling Wolf, also had an all female announcing staff at his Memphis AM radio station. The call Sign was WSHE.

Yes it was a gimmick, but so was Sam Phillips whole life story. He started Memphis Recording Studios by recording Sunday church services on an old 7 inch Ampex reel to reel tape recorder, and selling the tapes to the pastors, who mailed them out to other small town radio stations to be played again, later. The Sun Recording studio where Elvis first paid $3 to record "Blue Moon Of Kentucky " for his Momma, was previously a shoe repair store. Believe it or not, Sam Phillips sold his personal services contract with Elvis Presley to RCA records for a mere pittance, $35,000. The worst move he ever made, for sure. JimB.
 
I grew up in rural Iowa in the 60's and 70's so there were not a lot of local radio stations to tune in. As teenagers we listened to KIOA in Des Moines Iowa as they played top 40 type music. In the evening it was a different story. You could tune in far off radio stations such as WLS in Chicago and KAAY the mighty 1090 in Little Rock Arkansas. Both played top 40 music and came in crystal clear. I still remember John Records Landecker and Larry Lujack at WLS. We loved hearing Animal stories with Uncle Larry (Lujack) and Little Tommy. They were hilarious. You can listen to Animal Stories on the web.
 
I used to record songs on a tape recorder from a rock station, do not remember the name, and then play them at dances or just listening.
 
In major urban cities of the West by the late 60s, album oriented rock (AOR) FM stations of the Counterculture generation significantly dominated former AM radio popular music much sooner than it seemed in the East. Of course, FM stations were also better for music audio quality, especially due to less interference by adjacent radio spectral bands. And generally such FM rock DJ's were laid back, so didn't play the AM flamboyant personality game.
 
I don't know if we had "local" deejays but we listened to the ones out of New York City.

~Symphony Sid played Jazz late at night.
~Jocko played R & B, I thought he was the coolest.
~Alan Freed played Rock & Roll

I also listened to the ones @Pepper posted in reply #4.

jocko-rocketship.jpg
 
I can remember when my parents with much ceremony presented me with an early AM transistor radio for Xmas, circa 1964. It cost the then princely sum of around $20. My model was a Westinghouse that looked just like this, but was gray In color.

Transistor radios later came down in price, and cheap Japanese imports could be had for as little as $5 or less on special sale. They were revolutionary tech for the time, the “must have” item of then-teenaged culture. Really cool or fortunate kids had an AM/FM radio in years to come. I saved until I could buy one, but it was an off-brand that couldn’t draw in too much.

I listened to WABC New York on my early radio, with ”Cousin Bruce Morrow” relentlessly playing Top 40 hits, even those you couldn’t stand…he was annoying at times, too… 🎶

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I was a child of the 50's. I really didn't begin to listen to music until the 1960's. I don't remember any of the disc jockeys. Although, in the 1970's, I do remember all of the great DJ's on WCBS-FM in New York City. Harry Harrison, Bill Brown, Don K. Reed (The Doo Wop Shop), Jack Spector (Saturday Night Sock Hop), Norm N. Nite, Dick Heatherton (Joey's brother), Dan Ingram. Great music. Golden 101.
 
One of the "secrets " of the pop music radio stations was the use of "cover names " for on air announcers who had odd or hard to pronounce actual names. In Toronto there were a few memorable "on air names " One that was used by a number of guys was Gardiner Eastbound, which sounds good, but it actually refers to the Gardiner Expressway, a major Toronto highway. Another one was "Phil Inn " aludding to the DJ's temporary status at the station while somebody else was on vacation. Another was "Don Valley " which is a Toronto ravine in Don Mills.

A Hamilton DJ used the name " Mickey the Monkey " he had a local hit with his record " Rocking With The Monkey Man ". Keith Hampshire was the on air name of Gary De Blitzer, who hit it big in the UK on one of the offshore "pirate radio ships " that were anchored just outside the UK's 12 mile territorial waters limit. Jim.
 
Paladin1950 said:
I was a child of the 50's. I really didn't begin to listen to music until the 1960's. I don't remember any of the disc jockeys. Although, in the 1970's, I do remember all of the great DJ's on WCBS-FM in New York City. Harry Harrison, Bill Brown, Don K. Reed (The Doo Wop Shop), Jack Spector (Saturday Night Sock Hop), Norm N. Nite, Dick Heatherton (Joey's brother), Dan Ingram. Great music. Golden 101.
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I forgot Ron Lundy & Cousin Brucie (Bruce Morrow) would fill in from time to time.
 
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We had a DJ who was very popular in our area that went by the name of Lil' Gil David. He was a.k.a. as "The All Night Satellite" being on the air from midnight until 6 a.m. on WSBA in York, PA, on radio station 910.

But the big guy on that station was Ed Lincoln. I think he spent 38 years on air while at WSBA. My guy was Tom Stanwood or "Mr. Cool."
 
Dr. Don Rose and "Emperor" Gene Nelson were the two biggest in the San Francisco Bay Area when I was a teen. Gene Nelson signed off every morning with "Put on the coffee,Bubbles. I`m comin` home."
 
We had a small town radio station. It had to shut down at sunset. The strange thing was it had all the best records before everybody else. It was playing the Beatles in October, '63. It was playing "Good Vibrations', by the Beach Boys, before it was supposed to be released. The record was a big deal, because the Beach Boys spent $35,000 ( in '60s money-about $240,000 today) on studio time- an unheard of sum back then. I have no idea how a teeny station got songs before other stations.
 
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Dick Biondi, WLS AM Late at night, AM would skip 1000-mile radius.
Spike at the Mike Odell & Wolfman Jack. I had a lil portable c-Cell
Radio, would read and listen in the background til well past 1 am
many nights, especially weekends. I never was a ear on speaker
guy, just background soft music. Wasn't into hard rock. Didn't
really care for the Beetles / Rolling Stones all that much. Patsy Cline,
Woody Guthrie, Hermans Hermits, CSN, Pink Floyd, Beech Boys,
still Later on, Kansas & Heart. Bands would send sample 45's to
Stations for prerelease testing. Loretta Lynn would travel to stations
and do live stuff. Maybe 25 years of just Country Nashville stuff.
 
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Roger W Morgan
Snappy patter rolled off his tongue
KISN radio Portland OR

60s radio rocked
The transistor radio was our cell phone

but

as far as DJs go;
Mark and Brian, out of LA, captured me
Never missed 'em
but....that was the '90s (or there 'bouts)
 
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My first radio (Christmas present) was called the Rocket Radio. It looked like a little rocket ship and you changed the channels by pulling out the antenna from the nose cone. It had no speaker but instead had little earphone/plugs. The year was approximately 1955.
There were still soda fountains in all the drug stores. And in restaurants some even had a device mounted to the table with a music menu and a slot for coins so you could choose your music without leaving your seat.
There were phone booths in all the stores and on nearly every street corner.
Living in a large city we kids walked and rode our bikes everywhere without worry or fear. Double Bubble and Bazooka bubble gum, Pez candy dispensers, Jaw Breakers. Penny Gumball machines were every where.
"Pop Cickles, Ice Cickles," "My Boyfriend's Back," "the Queen of the Laundromat," ", the One Eyed, One Horned Flying Purple People Eater."
What more could a kid ask for? It was a different world back then, growing up in the 50s and 60s. People weren't so suspicious and afraid of each other.
 
Back in the 80s,we used to go to Carson City,NV a lot-not as crowded as Reno or Tahoe-and we would stay at a hotel/casino called the Ormsby House. One weekend we stayed there and Wolfman Jack was staying there as well. The guys played Blackjack at the same table with him several times.
 
In 1964-65 I lived in a small mountain town in Colorado. The only station we could listen to at night was KOMA out of Oklahoma City. Pure Rock and Roll it was. Later on, we moved to Colorado Springs, but I still only listened to KOMA!

The local rock station and one coming in from Denver could not compete with KOMA....
 
I grew up in the 50s too....Elvis and the cardboard portable record players come to mind......don't remember any DJs...My love of music started when I was older, I was too busy working and raising a family earlier.
 
Ohhhhh, Dick Biondi of WLS in Chicago was THE disc jockey we all loved back in the late '50s, early "60s. I especially recall his (?) made up song....... "On top of a pizza, all covered with cheese, I saw my first meatball, til somebody sneezed. It rolled off the table, and on to the floor........." And I forgot the rest of the words.
 

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