Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Time to Revisit Murray the K

Back in September 2008 I wrote a journal entry  about radio personality Murray the K as the anti-chart guy.  As I am writing this journal entry I am listening to an aircheck of Murray the K from WINS on October 15, 1963 on Rewound Radio.  I believe that Alan Berman has this aircheck on tape.  With internet technology recordings of old radio shows can be transmitted much more easily.  I remember spending countless hours in the 1990s recording radio tapes and trading them with people over the country.

Any there is a good Wikipedia article about Murray, thus is not necessary for me to repeat his biography.  He passed away at age 60 in 1982.  He last appeared on a syndicated radio show called Soundtrack of the 60s which was heard in NYC on WCBS-FM.  Cousin Bruce Morrow on SiriusXM and Dick Biondi on WLS-FM in Chicago are still active in oldies radio when they are well into their 70s.  I think that Murray would have been active in oldies radio had he lived longer.  The Wikipedia article stated that he lived in Los Angeles, so he may have gotten a gig on KRTH.

1 comment:

Peter said...

Murray actually disliked oldies. That's why, when WOR-FM switched to an oldies format, he left the station (along with everyone else). Any evening that he wasn't on the air, and in the hours after he signed off, he went to every club that showcased new talent, looking for the next promising band. That's how he found The Lovin' Spoonful at the Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village and The (Young) Rascals at the Gordian Knot on the Upper East Side. It's how he discovered Cream and The Who (in England, of course) and brought them to the States for their first US gigs. From 1958 until 1967 on NY radio stations, listeners didn't tune in to hear what was old on Murray's shows. They set their dials to 1010 or 98.7 to hear what was new.

 
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