Rock Radio Scrapbook
AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of
May 30, 2010
Weekly issue #582
Talent:
JOE DONOVAN
Station: WHAS Louisville, Ky.
Date: October 24, 1996
Time: 12:08
"The Friend You Can Depend On"
He played requests, and answered his own phones. He did contests, played mostly vinyl, chose his own music, and broadcast live every weeknight from midnight-5 a.m. His playlist consisted of over 18,000 songs - all original arrangements from his personal archive - and a whole hour of his show was devoted to the rarest of the rare. He played virtually EVERYTHING that charted from the '50s through the '80s.
We're talking about Joe Donovan, who from 1977 to 1997 broadcast his iconic "Rock & Roll Revival" on the all-night show on WHAS Louisville. Thanks to the powerful 50,000-watt, clear channel WHAS signal, Donovan's show was heard in 38 states and four provinces. It was a sad day for many Donovan's fellow "Nighthawks" when did his final WHAS show on August 27, 1997 and his show was replaced by talk.
Donovan fans will remember the "Odd and Obscure Hour" at 3 a.m., 60 minutes of songs from the deepest parts of his musical archive. There was also "Name It and Claim It," with a prize to the listener who could match the artist's name to a portion of a song (Joe would actually mail out the song on cassette to the winner!) But perhaps best of all was Donovan's on-air personality - laid-back, relaxed and perfect for the all-night time slot (he also did Saturday Night Revival and Friday Night Revival Shows with much the same approach.)
We've looked for an aircheck of Joe Donovan's all-night show for some time. This aircheck - contributed by Adam Hamby, who has a Facebook site on Donovan - captures the "Odd and Obscure Hour." It's DXed - which is the way we remember hearing it - but well worth your time if you enjoy great personality radio that isn't afraid to be different.
Enjoy Joe Donovan here.
(The Adam Hamby Collection)
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