I was all of 20 years old when I arrived at KWKR to take over the 7:00PM-1:00AM shift. This was recorded during my first week on the air at “The Fine Ninety-Nine Nine.” Seriously, I wasn’t that good. To this day, I’m not sure why Program Director Lee Barr chose to hire me over the other 100+ more qualified applicants for this job.
Thankfully, I’m not on this aircheck. Instead, I have taken this 37 year old tape and edited together a composite of the station’s imaging. Here is what we called the “First Generation” of KWKR jingles and recorded liners. This was used from the time the station first signed on in November, 1983 until replaced with our new “digiburp” package in June, 1985. I believe every cut which aired is included here.
At the time this was recorded, KWKR did not yet have an aircheck skimmer. The only way to record ourselves was by using the control board’s audition channel. This was recorded directly from the large standup Harris Micro Mac board onto an Onkyo stereo cassette deck. Because it’s a “board signal”, there is a bit of distortion on the peaks and no audio processing. A TDK SAX 60 cassette was used, which explains why this tape has held up so well over the years. In short, a fun look back to my first days at the station where I learned how to be a flamethrowin’ CHR night jock!