WAAY Huntsville, AL aircheck Rick Dewey 10 July 1969

Rick Dewey was the youngest DJ at 5 Top 40 rock stations, starting at age 18. At WAAY Huntsville, Alabama, he was age 20, working the late afternoon drive / evening shift, 5:30 - 11:30 PM, Monday-Friday (if memory serves). Note from Rick: "This aircheck was my last night on the air at WAAY, 10 days before the first NASA Moon Landing. Being my last day there, my energy level was sort of off the charts, excited to be returning West in a few days to my friends at college and also taking a dare from a local friend in Decatur to see if I could be the craziest (and loudest) that night I had ever been on the air. This was the only night it got this semi-nuts, but it was fun. (A little background: I had mostly lived in Decatur, started radio at WSHF Sheffield in 1967, switched to WAJF Decatur, KOVO Provo, UT [while in college], then a summer at WOWL Florence and WAAY [sort of the pinnacle for many DJs who wanted to work in radio yet stay local, as it was the top station in North Alabama in the 60s]; then it was back to KOVO before volunteer church service overseas for two years in England, and finally back to Utah at KIXX and KOVO before finishing radio in 1976, sequeing into freelance writing for my career.) Elsewhere on YouTube I'm posting an aircheck from KOVO 2 months after this night, and I might put on an aircheck from KIXX about 2 and a half years later, a MOR ("middle of the road") music station, my 6th overall. But WAAY was one of the funnest. Note that they went all out getting the best jingles in the world - from PAMS in Dallas - spending in today's money about a million dollars for the decade of the 60's, I was told. We had a great program director in Glen Buxton and other great guys to work with like Jim Kell. The owner, Mr. Smith, was amazing to work for, going all-out to secure the jingles and talent to compete, quality-wise, with stations in much bigger markets, and letting us be creative. It was a fun, great time to be in radio!"