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CKLW Announcer All Night Meltdown From 1975
This is a fairly long clip of Chuck McKay (Chuck Williams) on the CKLW all night show Feb. 1975. The clip starts off sounding fairly normal but as the night wears on Chuck gets a little unglued until things start to get uncomfortable after about 2am. He kind of runs a gamut of emotions about the station and a few other things...
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Re: CKLW Announcer All Night Meltdown From 1975
He was either extremely high or having an emotional issue in my opinion. It would be interesting to know if this was indeed his final show on the big 8. But to tell you the honest to God truth folks, I don't care lol. One note, he said near the beginning , it was March , not February.
- RadioActive
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Re: CKLW Announcer All Night Meltdown From 1975
According to a comment left on the YouTube page where this appears, it was, indeed, his final show on the Big 8:
"His real name was Greg Aust, raised in Kansas City. He was a radio nomad....he had incredible talent and when he was fired or he got mad and quit without notice he could always get a job at another major market station.
He was used to leaving.. some jobs lasted a week, others a day and a couple times he was unhired before he arrived. He left CKLW the first time for another job. He came back when he needed a job and he wanted morning drive shift. They gave him all night and after a week it ended with the legendary tape heard here.
His brother Jeff, also a DJ, told me Greg was angling for a job at KFI in LA at the time so he did not care if he was canned at LW....which he knew he would be. Booze and pot were in play that night per witnesses."
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Re: CKLW Announcer All Night Meltdown From 1975
I wonder if he actually got the job at KFI, and did he stay very long? Sounded like his first stint at CKLW lasted longer when he was known as Chuck Williams. He indicated that he was eventually kicked out of Detroit. I found it funny when he said he only ended up at a bigger radio station, WLS in Chicago, only to later tell them to buzz off. Sounds like the ego heard on the aircheck was not an act.
I think the March reference near the beginning was on a commercial promoting an upcoming event.
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: CKLW Announcer All Night Meltdown From 1975
[call letters] I'm a pretty big deal [time/temp] does anyone have a deeper voice than me? [artist name] Here's a pun with the song title [call letters]
Sounds pretty standard for the era to me.
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Re: CKLW Announcer All Night Meltdown From 1975
This aircheck reminds me of the infamous October 1969 incident in which Roby Yonge was on WABC overnight and stopped the music to talk endlessly about the "Paul is Dead" Beatles rumour. 77 was then Music Radio, one of the most listened to stations in the world and became that way for its tight format - little talk and a lot of rock.
So when Yonge went on a rant, stopped playing music and started taking phone calls, the P.D., the legendary Rick Sklar, tried to call and order him to stop. But there were so many callers on the line that he couldn't get through. Infuriated, the story goes that he rushed down to the station in the middle of the night, still in his bathrobe, and immediately replaced Yonge with fill-in newscaster Les Marshak.
It was the end of the line for Yonge, whose contract likely was not going to be renewed in any event. So I guess he didn't have a lot to lose. He, too, began talking on air about how this was probably going to get him fired but it was too important to not say something. Somehow it didn't end Roby's career and he had a successful run at a series of Miami radio stations.
But that night remains infamous, as Yonge suddenly disappeared in the middle of a shift and never returned.
Here's a small sample of what happened that very early morning.
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Re: CKLW Announcer All Night Meltdown From 1975
I used to listen to AM1000 out of Chicago while driving truck all night back in the 90's. The evening host for a year at that time was a guy named Eric Till, he made no bones about how much he hated the weather and was counting the days until his contract was over and could skedaddle back to Florida. His final show was just three hours of insulting the station management and callers . I was surprised they let him stay on the air but he was on to the last minute and signed off saying everyone listening can kiss my ass. I wonder now if he stayed employed somewhere warmer. It must have been an on air name, nothing comes up on a Goggle search but the former director and producer from England. I'm sure AM 1000 wiped his info from their records long ago.