Charlie Stroud aka “Charley Brown” was a prominent air personality on KDWB/63 during the 1970s. In 1995, he took his act to St. Cloud and became the host of “Electric Avenue” on KKSR “Star 96.7.” By this time, KKSR had moved up 3 channels from 96.1 to 96.7 on the FM dial. Doing so allowed them to increase power from 6,000 to 50,000 watts.
I had a personal love and interest for this program. Two years earlier, I hosted “Saturday Night Fever”, a similar show, on the ill-fated WTCX 105.1 in the Twin Cities. Both Charlie and I spotlighted the “pop” hits of the 1970s with lots of phones and energy. I can tell you from personal experience that this type of interactive show is incredibly fun to do. Instant adrenalin rush!
This recording was made from Brooklyn Park which is approximately 60 miles distant from KKSR’s 50kW transmitter. There’s a bit of white noise in the stereo signal. I used my beloved Pioneer SX-3900 receiver, connected to a Radio Shack 6-element FM yagi antenna. The yagi was mounted to the bottom half of a broken Shakespeare CB antenna which functioned as an 8 foot mast. This makeshift mast was strapped to my upstairs deck post with bungee cords and fed with 300 ohm “twin lead” cable. Height of the antenna was approximately 20 feet above ground level. Sounds and looked ridiculous, but it worked great! The recording was made using an inexpensive Sony cassette deck and TDK D90 tape.
This show was an authentic throwback to Top 40 radio of the 1970s! Notice the “K-D-Double-U….” jingle that Charlie uses here:
KKSR_FM_Charley_Brown_July_1995