Vintage AM Radio Airchecks from 1973

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

Ever wonder what it would be like to time travel? Well, just sit back and relax in your favourite armchair, put on the headphones and enjoy the short six and a half minute trip back to 1973. Here is a collection of 23 AM broadcast band radio airchecks / ID's from 23 U.S. states as recorded at Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. Equipment used was a Realistic DX150A hooked up to a long wire antenna. Please bear in mind these recordings were made using an open mike placed in front of the speaker. For example, WTMJ Milwaukee makes an NBC colour TV announcement (blooper) and you will hear a voice in the background ask "how can that be"?

1. KKJO St. Joseph, MO 1550
2. WCFL Chicago, IL 1000
3. WWWE Cleveland, OH 1100
4. WOWO Fort Wayne, IN 1190
5. WHO Des Moines, IA 1040
6. WLAC Nashville, TN 1510
7. WWL New Orleans, LA 870
8. WBAP Ft. Worth-Dallas, TX 820
9. WSB Atlanta, GA 750
10. WBZ Boston, MA 1030
11. WHAS Louisville, KY 840
12. WWVA Wheeling, WVA 1170
13. WRVA Richmond, VA 1140
14. WCCO Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 830
15. KAAY Little Rock, AR 1090
16. WTIC Hartford, CT 1080
17. WBAL Baltimore, MD 1090
18. WJAR Providence, RI 920
19. WVOK Birmingham, AL 690
20. KOMA Oklahoma City, OK 1520
21. WTMJ Milwaukee, WI 620
22. KSL Salt Lake City, UT 1160
23. KFAB Omaha, NE 1110

Russ Edmunds' Mediumwave DX Airchecks 2: 1996-2013

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Russ Edmunds, who has kindly shared another collection of mediumwave airchecks (click here to check out all of his contributions).

Russ notes that the reception location was Blue Bell, PA using a Hammarlund modified HQ-150 and a 4' air core amplified loop.

Russ also shares details about each recording in the following table. All recordings have been embedded below:

Independent Broadcasting Authority London (557 kHz): June 15, 1973

Photo by Hugo Sousa

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Nigel Thornbury, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: Independent Broadcasting Authority London

Date of recording: 6/15/1973

Starting time: PM

Frequency: 0.557 MHz

Reception location: Birmingham, England

Receiver and antenna: NordeMende Globe Trotter II, internal ferrite rod

Mode: AM

Notes: Beginning of local independent stations in the UK in 1973

Twin Cities Radio Compilation Capitol Insurrection: January 6, 2021

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:

This is a compilation of radio broadcast from Twin Cities, Minnesota radio stations when the news of the January 6 US Capitol storming was first mentioned.

Time stamps for the following stations and their time of broadcast:

00:00 WCCO 1:07 CST

01:24 KTLK 1:08 CST

02:08 KYCR 1:20 CST

03:31 WLOL 2:04 CST

06:43 WWTC 2:08 CST

09:39 KDIZ 3:06 CST

JOUF-AM (C-Quam Stereo): March 23, 2021

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Anthony Messina, who shares the following audio clip and notes:

Notes: Short recording of JOUF-AM heard in full C-Quam Stereo. Note the wide stereo separation that C-Quam can achieve. Shame it never fully took off in the U.S or most other places.

Date of recording: 3/23/2021

Starting time: 11:27PM EST, UTC unknown

Frequency: 1.314mHz

Receiver location: Via Japanese KiwiSDR

Receiver and antenna: Via Japanese SDR

KCBS Sinuiju (North Korea) 873 kHz: October 21, 2021

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording and notes:

873 kHz KCBS Sinuiju, North Korea at 1633UTC on Thursday, Oct 21, 2021 with instrumental North Korean music. Signal held out pretty decently for over 6 minutes. 250KW 3500 miles.

Receiver location: McGrath, Alaska

Receiver and antenna: C.Crane CC Skywave and Gary DeBock 5" FSL antenna

KCBS (mediumwave): January 8, 2021

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker who shares the following recording of KCBS made on January 8, 2021 starting at 1747 UTC in McGrath, Alaska, on 873 kHz.

The Voice of Peace Radio Ship Inaugural Broadcast with Abie Nathan: May 19, 1973

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:

Aircheck of the start of the Voice of Peace radio ship. Voice of Peace was an offshore radio station that broadcast in the Middle East for 20 years from the former Dutch cargo vessel MV Peace, anchored off the Israeli coast on East Mediterranean. Founded by Abie Nathan and the New York-based Peace Ship Foundation, the station broadcast almost continuously between 19 May 1973 and November 1993. With sounds of the creaking ship, Abie Nathan talks about the struggles, challenges and problems to get the Voice of Peace on the air in an emotional broadcast.

Note: The tape was recorded in the Middle East and was provided to me. Unfortunately, what was previously recorded on the tape did not erase when the broadcast was recorded. You will hear in the background Angie by the Rolling Stones, whistling and a talking played at half speed and double speed -- none of these were part of the broadcast. We did our best to edit and filter out those background sounds.

Frequency: 1.539 MHz

Radio Free America: 1973

Radio Free America broadcast for about 10 hours in 1973 from this converted WWII minesweeper

Radio Free America was a religious pirate station that was on the air for a day on September 19th, 1973 from a converted WWII minesweeper located about 12 miles off Cape May, New Jersey. The founder and operator was Carl McIntire whose WXUR in Media, PA was shut down by the FCC.

As described in this article the broadcasts lasted only about 10 hours due to technical difficulties, but there was time enough for a number of listeners along the U.S. east coast to hear the station on 1160 khz mediumwave. And although this item isn’t technically about shortwave, there were reports that McIntire intended to re-start his station on shortwave, but a review of the historical record doesn’t turn up any mention of that happening..

A longer article in 2014 (upated in 2019) describes the history of Radio Free America and McIntire’s battles with the FCC and notes that he was a pioneer of pirate radio as well as a controversial religious figure. Wikipedia on McIntire has some other interesting history, including “in the 1970s when McIntire organized a half dozen pro-Vietnam War "Victory Marches" in Washington, D.C. The march of October 3, 1970 was supposed to have featured South Vietnamese vice-president Nguyen Cao Ky, but the Nixon administration ensured that Ky would not be present.”

It’s unknown how many other recordings of Radio Free America exist in the surviving radio listening community in 2020. My recording was made, as I recall, on a Hammarlund HQ-180A tube receiver which I used for years as my main DXing receiver and which also had a reputation as a superb mediumwave receiver.

It’s difficult to make out all of the details clearly, but McIntire can be heard with an opening ID at approximately 1 minute 42 into this recording as he says: “Radio Free America, out in the North Atlantic…goes on the air. It’s now 12:24, September 19th, 1973….at 1160 on the dial….this is Carl McIntire….” There is an even clearer ID at about the 3 minute 30 second mark when he goes on to talk about “the right to free speech” and “free radio” and says “this is Carl McIntire speaking to you from the North Atlantic, Radio Free America just on the air [for] two minutes..”

There is even more great stuff later, at around the 30 minute mark, when McIntire notes that “NBC Cameramen” are due on the ship, and talks about the ship being anchored “just outside the 12 mile limit…we’re going to cruise off Atlantic City, on up to Asbury Park, Ocean Grove in that area, and we will cruise back down along the Delaware coast, and the eastern shore, so we can get a big strong signal if it’s necessary into the Washington, DC area. If the FCC is listening I say to these men in that commission, gentlemen fear God. . . that is my pray to you….all we want is the kind of liberty that the Constitution gives us..”

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following recording

Russ Edmunds' Mediumwave DX Airchecks: 1968-1978

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Russ Edmunds, who has kindly shared another collection of mediumwave airchecks (click here to check out all of his contributions).

Russ notes that the reception location was Parsippany, NJ (in a garden apartment) using a Hammarlund modified HQ-150 and a 4' air core amplified loop.

Russ also shares details about each recording in the following table. All recordings have been embedded below:

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Radio Luxembourg: September 25, 1990 (Part 2)

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Anthony Pavick, who shares the following recording and notes:

Starting time: 2230 UTC

Frequency: 1.440

Reception location: Kirkwall, Orkney

Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-2003 with whip antenna

Notes: Aircheck of Radio Luxembourg from late October 1990 (recorded Sep 25, 1990)

Note: The following recording is Part 2, click here for Part 1:

Radio Luxembourg: September 25, 1990 (Part 1)

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Anthony Pavick, who shares the following recording and notes:

Starting time: 2230 UTC

Frequency: 1.440

Reception location: Kirkwall, Orkney

Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-2003 with whip antenna

Notes: Aircheck of Radio Luxembourg from late October 1990 (September 25, 1990 recording date)

Note: The following recording is Part 1, click here for Part 2:

National Radio of Kampuchea: April 19, 2012

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Timm Breyel, who shares the following recording and notes:

National Radio of Kampuchea @ 918 kHz (MW) heard at 23.00 UTC in West Malaysia. Strong reception up to 00.00 UTC; signal was faintly heard up to 05.00 UTC.

Date of recording: 4/19/2012

Starting time: 23.00 UTC

Frequency: 918 kHz

Reception location: Subang Jaya, Malaysia

Receiver and antenna: Tecsun S-2000/ internal ferrite

Radio Americas: March 18, 1968

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jim Nail, who shares the following recording and notes:

This station was a regular into Louisville, Kentucky. It's been off the air for many decades.

You can find other great recordings on my YouTube Channel: W4OXB's Vintage DX Audio Recordings

Frequency: 1.160 MHz

Receiver location: Louisville, Kentucky USA

Receiver and antenna: Hammarlund HQ-129x, 4 foot square indoor box loop antenna

Sputnik 1 as heard on shortwave via WTCN-AM (Minneapolis, MN): October 5, 1957

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:

WTCN-AM (Minneapolis, MN) "Twin Cities at Night" interviews by Bill Diehl on Sputnik 1 with calls from listeners including one listener playing audio from Sputnik 1 as heard on his shortwave on 20005 kHz. Sputnik 1 audio can be heard about 4:20 into the recording. FYI ... Bill Diehl was very well known for being a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper, a rock-and-roll disc jockey on WDGY-AM in the 1960s, and a popular announcer on WCCO-AM afterwards. Bill passed away in 2017. WTCN-AM is known today as WWTC-AM. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957, orbiting for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere.

CFZM: July 28, 2019

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:

Last night I took advantage of a clear Saturday night to head out to my favorite "dark sky" astronomy site south of Bourbon, Indiana to do some stargazing. I took my 5" telescope along with my favorite "accessory", my newly cleaned, aligned and recapped RF-2200. While waiting for sunset and darkness I recorded one hour of The Mighty KBC's Giant Jukebox and followed that up with a recording of three hours of Toronto's CFZM "Zoomer Radio and their weekly program Saturday Night Bandstand. While not SWBC, listening to Zoomer is a great way to spend a Saturday night under the stars. There is some fading and a strange growling noise which I believe was caused by having my digital recorder too close to the radio. Also some thunderstorm static can be heard from storms which popped up near the end of the recording. Both recordings were made with either the RF-2200's whip antenna for KBC or the internal ferrite swivel antenna for CFZM. Enjoy!

Broadcaster: CFZM

Date of recording: 7/28/2019

Starting time: 0210

Frequency: 740 kHz

Location: Bourbon, IN

Russ Edmunds’ Mediumwave Airchecks: 1969 - 1978

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Russ Edmunds (WB2BJH), for sharing this collection of mediumwave airchecks dating from 1969 to 1978. (Click here to check out all of Russ’ contributions.)

If you’ve subscribed to the SRAA podcast, you might only automatically download the first of these recordings. I would encourage you to view and listen to all 29 recordings on this dedicated Shortwave Radio Audio Archive post.

Click here to download a spreadsheet with full details of each clip.

Final sign off of BFBS Malta: March 31, 1979

Final farewell from the crew of BFBS Malta in 1979. L-R Standing Peter Attrill (Snr Engineer), Paul Zammit (Labourer), Hector Frendo (Chief Clerk), Tony Farrugia (Technician), Richard Astbury (Station Controller), John Crabtree (Programme Organiser), Terry Magri (Technician), Les Austin (Librarian); Sitting are; Judy Edmonds (Volunteer), Eileen Curmi (Typist), Isabel Darmenia (Assistant Librarian), Diane Clark and Linda Miller (Volunteers). Source: Source: RAF LUQA REMEMBERED

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Sarah Boucher, who shares the following recording (believed to be an FM off-air recording) and notes:

Recorded by John Bruno, Richard Astbury was the last announcer to speak from Floriana, followed by the Evening Hymn and Last Post, an instrumental version of L-Innu Malti and a church choir sings God Save The Queen, accompanied by a Church Organ and a Military Band. The final program was the Eurovision Song Contest 1979, won by the host nation Israel. The studios of BFBS Malta are still around as of 2018 as for the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. This occurred on the final Saturday of March in the seventies because of the withdrawal of British troops ordered by President Anton Buttigieg.

Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 31: January 9, 1978

Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the final recording in this collection--recorded exactly 40 years ago today. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.

In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.

I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.

In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.

I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.

Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 30: January 8, 1978

Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the twenty first recording in this collection--recorded exactly 40 years ago today. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.

In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.

I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.

In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.

I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.