WNDE 1260 Station Composite 1977

This air check was recorded by legendary Indiana broadcast engineer Bob Hawkins. Boogie Bob was living in Cinti at the time. Chris Bailey had left Cincinnati to program WNDE. Bailey never pulled a regular shift at Windy. This is the first of only two times Bailey jocked at Windy 1260. 

Hawkins was a big fan of Bailey's work in Cincinnati and had gotten word that Bailey was going to fill in on WNDE that night. Hawkins and a friend grabbed a radio and a cassette recorder, hopped in the car and drove west up I-74 to Indpls.

This copy of the air check starts about 20 minutes into Bailey's shift. By this point, Hawkins had arrived in Indy and was recording this from his car parked in the front lot at the WNDE studios.

A few moments are missing from the original of this tape. Bailey references his predecessor at WNDE, Howie Castle. By this point, Castle was PD at WIFE. Over the intro of a Chicago record that WIFE wasn't playing, you hear Bailey scream "Howie Castle…eat your heart out baby!"

Another is at the end of the check, Steve Michaels intros a Stones song as Elton. This tape fades before Michaels realizes his mistake. On the original you hear him shout…"it's the Stones man…this is a bitch!"

IIRC, this all happened when Marvelous Mark the regular night jock was briefly "suspended." You also hear "Brother" Barry Chase do a couple of breaks before Steve Michaels and that ill fated Stones intro.

I'll never forget the first time I heard this air check. Bob was engineer at WCSI Columbus before he joined Emmis for the build out of WENS. I'd been hired at CSI and was introduced to Bob. We talked a little about Cinti radio when he asked if I'd ever heard Chris Bailey. I had not. Bob racked up this tape in the CSI production room and played it at full volume.

Bailey wasn't at WNDE for long. The legend is that when Bailey was fired, the WNDE jocks resigned in protest.  Mike O'Brien returned. Scott Wheeler moved up to middays from weekends.

I loved this station, never got to hear it enough, I don't think it had the night-time power and so I only go it on trips through Indianapolis, which meant an hour-and-15 minutes to an hour-and-a-half listening time tops and then static and fade. The jocks were always energetic and loud, (just like this recording). A lot of people didn't like AM radio for this reason, however, I did! Always had to back the energy up with music to match, and from the limited time that I listened to Windy Indy; they did!

My favorite DJ ever was WNDE's "Big Ken" Cocker who was there in '77 and '78. He was terrific.

Those 70's screamers were great! I had the good fortune of playing AC radio back in the 70's but always wanted to be a Top 40 jock. Thanks for sharing this high energy blast from the past.

Excellent rockin sound...