Rock Radio Scrapbook

AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of October 2, 2016
Edition #905

Now in both Real Audio and MP3

Talent: FRED KLESTINE
Station: WKBW Buffalo, N.Y.
Date: October 12, 1970
Time: 9:16 (scoped)

"If you're good, you'll always work somewhere." - Fred Klestine

Fred Klestine was good, and for 40 years he always had a radio station to work at. He started in the 1950s at WWOL in his hometown of Lackawanna, N.Y., where he had been working at a steel mill. The authoritative-sounding Klestine - he would have made a great newsman - went to WBNY before winding up ay WKBW in the 1960s. Klestine was a steady midday presence at 'KB during its golden years of the '60s and early '70s.

Strait-laced on the air, but funny off of it, Klestine left 'KB in the early '70s only to soon wind up at jazz-centric WADV. This was perfect for Klestine, a jazz buff who knew many of its performers personally. He worked there until the early '80s when he signed on with WBUF, a very successful adult contemporary/oldies outlet in the '80s and early '90s. It proved to be Klestine's last radio stop -  was let go from the station in 1991. Klestine died May 24, 1992, one week after suffering a stroke that left him in a coma. He was 68.

Enjoy Fred Klestine on WKBW here.

Enjoy Fred Klestine on WKBW here.
 

(The Mark Yurko Collection)

More 1970 airchecks here!