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Airwaves: December 4, 2009

Southcott Returns to KGIL

The smooth voice of Chuck Southcott has returned to the airwaves of KGIL (1260 AM, 105.1 HD-3).

The well-known and highly-respected expert on standards, or what Southcott calls the Music of Your Life, has opened up his own playlist a bit in order to match the sound of Retro 1260 quite nicely, combining standards with Doo-Wop and traditional pop oldies.

Hear him 6 to 8 AM weekdays.

Old Time Fun

Friends and family of old-time radio fanatics have an easy place to find gifts to appease OTR cravings ... RadioSpirits.Com.

From books to CDs, calendars to DVDs, Radio Spirits has it all in nicely-packaged collections to suit any tastes. For those who enjoy analog audio, many programs are still available on cassettes ... though digital CDs and DVDs have certainly taken over in popularity. It seems even OTR fans like the convenience of CDs.

Of course much of the content of OTR programs is available from online sources, often for free. One such source is www.otr.net. So why would you want to buy something you can get for free? Packaging and overall content. Radio Spirits products, as well as other similar sellers of OTR collections, do a phenomenal job of packaging, and go to great lengths to make sure you get something of value. And of course physical books and calendars are a bit hard to download over the net.

Letter Bag

“Where has Chuck Cecil been? Tuned in KKJZ (88.1 FM) recently and heard him again. It has been a long time since I heard his voice over the air. I believe he was one of the first radio personalities I heard as a youngster growing up in Southern California. This would have been back in the mid ‘50s on KFI (640 AM). I believe this was Anthony Broadcasting. Some people never go away.” -- Jim Purcell

Right on all counts. Cecil was a big part of KFI’s success during those days on the station owned by Earle C. Anthony. More recently he has been syndicating his program “Swingin’ Years” around the country. I can’t recall exactly when KKJZ picked up the program, but that is the place to hear him locally. Saturdays and Sundays from 6 to 9 AM.

“Your article of November 27 brings up a suggestion I made to KOST (103.5 FM) via e-mail a bunch of years ago. The last paragraph about being a traditionalist rang a bell with me.

“Instead of trying to be ‘the first radio station on the block’ to play Christmas music, and then the music comes to a crashing halt, abruptly stopping on Christmas day, we should take a cue from our European cousins. Their holidays don't stop on Christmas Day but extend to the New Year. My suggestion was and is that the start of Christmas music on the radio begin on Thanksgiving Day, not before, and go through Christmas and end on New Years Day. This will extend this wonderful holiday time of the year for their listeners.” -- John Jouver, Glendale

I like the idea. Fits in more with the “twelve days” and all. Thanks.

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