ITEMS FOR SALE:
E-mail Steve for details
-Professional Cassette Recorder (Nakamichi MK-2) Refurbished ($100)
-Wireless Microphone System ($100)
These items will eventually be sold Ebay or Craigs List.
(This section was previously available at stevemcvie.net, now extinct)
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The History of 96-3 The Rose
WRZE Cape Cod.
January 11, 1993 - March 25, 2009
Now available on 2 CDs.
I'm asking 10 bucks to cover expenses!
If you'd like to order click here to Paypal me,
and I'll send it right out to you. |
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Now available: Classic Aircheck CDs for sale
Steve McVie's Howard Stern Collection:
$9.99 on MP3 CD
1983-WNBC
1984-WNBC
1988-WYSP w/ Sam Kinison
1990- WXRK w/David Lee Roth
1997-WBCN Stern goofs on Z100
1998- WPXC Press conference
2002- WPXC replay of September 11 broadcast
2005-WPXC November 11
2005-Last day on terrestrial radio 12/5/05
Add $6.99 for postage/handling.
These airchecks will be available on CD only for $19.99 each
Add $6 for postage/handling. Allow 3 weeks for delivery.
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ATTENTION: Fans of "The Music of Your Life" Radio Format:
I recently acquired an entire box of cassettes containing hours of recordings of what I believe is "The Music of your life" format on an unidentified AM station. Most of the DJ chatter was edited out and what is left is hours and hours of the music of this timeless format. If you would like a copy of these tapes (on CD or cassette), click here to E-mail me.
Welcome to the world's #1 Aircheck Website & Home of "The Flashback Channel!!"
Playin' the Hottest Flashback Hits of the 70s and 80s. The Better FlashbackRadio!
Aircheck Trading: I will trade for any Hot Hits airchecks you may have. I will also send you an mp3 of selected airchecks from this list. Just E-mail me and allow two weeks for delivery via ftp. I never charge for any intellectual property on any radio recording, but do accept donations to keep this website running.
 
Complete Lists of Hot Hits Airchecks and Steve McVie's Aircheck Database
Are a former  Announcer or know of any?
Join the following who have contacted me or contributed to this site:
Garry Leigh-KITS/WTRK
Don Rossi-WFBL
Dan Stevens-WFBL
Dave Laird-WFBL
Robb Stewart-WFBL
Todd Parker-WFBL/WCAU-FM/KITS!!
Bill O'Brien-WCAU-FM
Bill Catcher-WFBL/WNVZ
Dave Robbins-WBBM-FM
Joe Dawson-WBBM-FM
Tony Davis-WFBL/WBBM-FM
Dan Collins-WTIC-FM
Jon "Doc" Holiday-WTIC-FM
Lee Malcolm-WHYT
Harv Blain-WHYT
Bob Ransom-WHYT
Louie Alexander-WFEC
R.J.Heim (Robert Walker)-WFEC
Carol Anne Strippel-WFBL
Mike Lisi-WFBL
Steve Kelly-WNVZ
Frank Foster-WBBM-FM
Rich Hawkins-WCAU-FM
Tim Watts-WMAR-FM
MJ Kelli-WNVZ
Johnnie Michaels-WTIC-FM
Lee Goodman-WFBL
Big Tom Winston-WMAR/WMKR
Chris Logan-WFEC
Michael Carr-WFBL
Don Rooney-WFEC
Bobby McGee-WTIC-FM
Bob Campbell-WNVZ
Bill Lenkey (Lee)-WTIC-FM
Doug Ritter-KITS
Jim Curtis-WNVZ
Bill Bass-WNVZ
Jack Scott-WHYT
Bob Ryan-WTIC-FM
Bob Brown/Reynolds-WFBL/WHYT
Bob Garrett-WCAU-FM
Richard Sands-KITS
Dan McCoy-WNVZ
Dick Mastriano-WFBL
Mike Joseph
Michael A. Joseph (Son)
And many thanks to the others who have sent Hot Hits Airchecks!
I'd love to add you to the list! E-mail me:
Wikipedia has a nice snapshot of the Hot Hits format:
Click here to view Wikipedia's Hot Hits page.
The original "Fusion" jingles are available!
Fusion Jingles!
If I had $1,200 to blow, I'd buy them myself!!
Steve's Hot Hits Story
Chapter 1-How it all started: It was 1979. I was 16 years old. I grew up in New Haven, CT as your basic radio groupie DJ wannabe. My two favorite stations were WAVZ New Haven and WTIC-FM "96 Tics" in Hartford. Before June of 1979, I had never actually rolled an "aircheck" of any radio station, but just assumed that was what radio was supposed to sound like. Jingles after every song! Nothing but currents! Radio formatics I grew to expect as a teenager. There were two developments that occurred on July 1, 1979 that would ultimately impact my life. WAVZ moved from AM to FM as an Adult Contemporary station KC101. They played lots of oldies, and was quite a conservative station. In addition, "96 Tics" in Hartford must have anticipated this competitive move by WKCI (KC101), and also made formatical adjustments. No more jingles, lots of oldies, and an end to the Mike Joseph formatics. As a teen listener at the time, I was disenfranchised. Around that time, a fellow schoolmate John Stempick also voiced his displeasure about the local format changes. But all along, John had been recording the TIC-FM weekly Top 10 countdowns with Bill Lenkey (now Bill Lee). We would listen to those tapes over and over. We would also make fake cassette tapes of "96 Tics" as if it never went away.
Chapter 2- WFBL: In approximately February of 1980, I was innocently tuning up and down the AM dial searching for Top 40 music, which in this era was hard to find. Mixed among the static, I thought I heard something familiar. It sounded like a familiar jingle. I moved my AM radio everywhere in my house trying to hear this station. After settling in the upstairs bathroom, this station kept fading in and out. HOT HITS!!?? WFB??? I grabbed a portable cassette recorder and waited and waited for the station to re-appear. It was 5,000 watt WFBL in Syracuse, New York at 1390 from 250 miles away. I made a personal commitment at that time to record every single moment of that station, because with the demise of AM Top 40 at the time, I knew it was only a matter of time before Hot Hits would again disappear. Sure enough, on November 16, 1980 that prediction would become true as "The Music of your life" meant the death of HOT HITS.
Chapter 3- WCAU-FM: By October of 1981, I was 18 and off to college at Bryant College in Rhode Island. My friend John Stempick called me to urge me to return home as soon as possible. He had a surprise for me. What could that be. The only thing I imagined was that HOT HITS was back. John had gone on a weekend excursion with his family to Atlantic City, NJ. He had recorded the entire weekend of the new Hot Hits station in Philadelphia, PA WCAU-FM. HOT HITS was back!! As my personal committment continued, I recorded every heard moment of WCAU-FM.
The rest of the story: After WCAU-FM, there was WBBM-FM Chicago, WHYT Detroit, KITS San Francisco, WMAR Baltimore, WNVZ Norfolk, and even little WFEC Harrisburg. I never took the format for granted, and cherish every recording. With the help of the internet, I started to find others who not only remembered this format, but who had additional recordings of HOT HITS. I am lucky to have a fabulous website administrator who helped me launch this site inexpensively. After more than 6,500 visitors and hundreds of new airchecks collected, the fascination with Hot Hits has actually grown. I have heard from dozens of former Hot Shots, and I am thankful for their contributions to the aircheck database. Recently, I received a telephone call while I was at work from Mike Joseph himself. I wish I could have talked longer. Although it was a fascinating discussion, there were so many questions I've always wanted to know about the quirkiness of the format, such as "Why three jingles in a row four times an hour?" Finally, I recently received an E-mail from Mike Joseph’s son Michael A. Joseph: “ Hi Steve Ok, I give. What’s the fascination with my father’s now archaic HH format?” My reply was the story you just read!
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