Rock Radio Scrapbook


AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of January 18, 2015
Edition #818

Talent: ALAN FREED
Station: 
WINS New York
Date: 
March 23, 1955
Time: 
1:00:02 (unscoped)
        26:51 (scoped)
 

Courtesy: www.alanfreed.com

A look at the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart from July 9, 1955 shows plenty of the usual suspects. Eddie Fisher is at number-17 with Heart. Sammy Davis, Jr., shows up at #16 with That Old Black Magic, and again at #7 with a double-sided hit Something's Gotta Give/Love Me or Leave Me. Higher up the list, Frank Sinatra checks in at number-five with Learnin' The Blues, and there's Nat King Cole in the number-three spot with Blossom Fell.

But there's a new kid on the block. At 30, he's not really a kid but the teenagers just love him. His name is William John Clifton Haley, Jr., better known as Bill Haley. He has a group called The Comets, and on this day he is making history. (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock is the first rock 'n' roll song to reach the number-one spot in the history of the Billboard chart. It will not be the last.

As rock 'n' roll emerged, so did rock 'n' roll radio. Deejays like Alan Freed, Hound Dog Lorenz, John R., Hunter Hancock, Zenas Sears, Red Robinson and many others championed the emerging genre, often against stiff opposition and ridicule from the older generation. But rock 'n' roll was like a flood, surging against the barricades. Nothing could hold it back.

This aircheck of Alan Freed on WINS New York takes you back to those early days of rock 'n' roll and rock 'n' roll radio.

Enjoy Freed from March 23, 1955 (UNSCOPED) here.

Enjoy Freed from March 23, 1955 (SCOPED) here.

(The Sam Ward Collection)

More 1955 airchecks here!


Talent: CAMEL ROCK 'n' ROLL DANCE PARTY
Station: ARMED FORCES RADIO TELEVISION SERVICE (AFRTS)
Date: 1956
Time: 29.09
(unscoped)

Hard to believe all this talent once gathered in one place.

Little Anthony and the Imperials, The Drifters, Otis Williams and the Charms, The Cleftones, The Chordettes, Ivory Joe Hunter and Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps are heard LIVE as Alan Freed presents the Camel Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party on the Armed Forces Radio Television Service (AFRTS).

Enjoy the Camel Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party here.

(The Sam Ward Collection)

More 1956 airchecks here!
      

 




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