Links to Other Places

Other CKLW pages on the Web:

Other related sites worth visiting:

  • Former Big 8 D.J. Charlie O'Brien has contributed a lot of really great content to this site, and now he's started his own site, called the Charlie O'Brien Radio Page. It's designed as a "virtual radio station", with all pages a different radio station "department." Charlie offers airchecks from CKLW and from 1050 CHUM Toronto, as well as many other features. Be sure to give Charlie's page a visit!

  • Here are some photos of a Florida reunion, submitted by Colin Kennedy in February of 2003. You'll recognize several names from CKLW, although their pictures don't look exactly the same as those you may remember from the covers of those weekly CKLW hit lists!

  • This site has been honored by Windsor Online, which selected this site as their very first Windsor Site of the Week, for the week of June 16th, 1996. Thanks to the folks at Windsor Online for this recognition!

  • 1050 CHUM Radio - this was another Canadian station (from Toronto) that I used to listen to on occasion at night, especially when the interference on CKLW was really bad. Until recently CHUM was an oldies station, and even though their AM station changed format in 2001, they still play oldies 24 hours a day via streaming audio on the Internet. Their web site includes the 1050 CHUM Charts Database, where you can view the songs on the CHUM Chart (the longest running hit record chart in North America) for any week from May 27th, 1957 to June 6th, 1986. Definitely worth a visit!

  • 440 International - this is a site on the radio industry put up by a guy that used to work at KHJ (the Drake format station in Los Angeles) during the 60's. There's a lot of info on 60's radio throughout the site. You might especially want to visit 440: Satisfaction and Favorite Radio Stories.

  • The Aircheck Factory - Tom Konard's Aircheck Factory finally got a web site! Several hours of CKLW airchecks are available for purchase.

  • Boss Radio Forever - the Drake-Chenault format used on CKLW originated in California, and the earliest major success was at KHJ in Los Angeles, a.k.a. "Boss Radio". This site began as a master's thesis on Drake-Chenault radio (originally published in 1976), and the author has updated it and placed it on the Web (along with some more recent material). As you read this, realize that as changes to the format were made at KHJ and the other RKO stations, they were also being made at CKLW, so in a way this site helps explain some of the changes that came about at the Big 8.

  • One of the very few reasons you might have tuned to another station for a few minutes back then was to hear the adventures of Chickenman.

  • If you are an aircheck collector, or just want to remember some of the D.J.'s from your favorite radio station, take a look at Chris Andrews' Aircheck Swap List (this was an article I found on Usenet news, and I put it up here with Chris' permission - I just thought it was a great list of some of the old D.J.'s, and in some cases it may also give an indication as to the era that they worked at a particular station).

  • The classic Philadelphia radio site - this site is devoted to music stations in the "heyday" of Philadelphia radio - primarily WIBG and WFIL, but also including WHAT, WIFI and a few others.

  • DeeT's 70s Page - if you are into 70's nostalgia, this is the page for you!

  • Jeff Roteman's WLS Page - a tribute to WLS radio, Chicago. If you lived in West Michigan as I did, WLS was one of the alternative choices for Top 40 music in the daytime, and on nights when CKLW's signal was being wiped out by the station in Mexico on the same frequency.

  • Jingle Web - a Dutch site dedicated to the art of jingles and radio tunes.

  • jinglefreaks.com - Doug Allen is a radio personality living in Massachusetts, and a big time collector of "Radio-Stuff" looking to buy or trade radio jingles, air checks, old radio shows, old commercials, radio station equipment, mugs, bumper stickers, tee-shirts, and basically anything to do with radio.

  • Johnny Mann Singers - These are the folks that produced those great and memorable jingles used on CKLW, and also on other Drake-format stations like KHJ "Boss Radio" Los Angeles, KYNO Fresno, KGB San Diego, KFRC San Francisco, WRKO Boston, WOR-FM New York, WHBO Memphis, KAKC Tulsa, and KRTH Los Angeles. Don't miss the Letter from Bill Drake! By the way, the Johnny Mann Singers are still making great-sounding radio jingles!

  • Live Radio on the Internet - the largest collection of working links to radio stations broadcasting live on the Internet.

  • Marc Denis' CKGM Montréal Super 70s Tribute Page - a comprehensive tribute site to one of Canada's great gone-but-not-forgotten Top 40 stations, 980 CKGM Montréal.

  • Marc Denis’ 1470 CFOX Montréal Radio Archive - relive the great moments of the little Pointe-Claire station that could and did... bigtime, 1470 CFOX.

  • Michael Spears - a former CKLW D.J. - you knew him as "Hal Martin"! You might want to listen to his RealAudio Airchecks.

  • Musicradio 77 WABC - a page that was inspired by the page you're reading now, and that is devoted to another great station of the same era. Only problem we have with this page is that they claim that WABC was "The Greatest Top Forty Music Radio Station of All Time." We who listened to CKLW know better, of course!

  • Oldies But Goldies - a site about oldies from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Be sure to check out Oldiemeister's Hot Links!

  • Oldies Unlimited sells CD's with music from the 50's, 60's, & 70's, but the Web site has a lot to interest those of us who think that the greatest music ever came from that era.

  • Plannine's Classic Top 30 Homepage - old songs (many that have been forgotten by radio) become new again on the "ClassicTop30" Charts.

  • Radio Days! - a historical tribute to Michigan stations WCEN (1150 AM) in Mount Pleasant and WMTE (1340 AM) in Manistee.

  • RadioActive Online Newsletter - "This is the web site for people with an interest in the Top 40 radio format of the fifties and sixties, the oldies format of today, the history of broadcasting, Dee Jays, airchecks, and the related music."

  • RadioDailyNews - Radio and broadcasting news, links and information, plus a "Radio History and Lore" section.

  • Rock Radio Retrospective Alive! - relive the golden years of top 40 radio at this site. If you're looking for more sites like this one, visit their list of Rock Radio Sites

  • Rock Radio Scrapbook - an airchecks site "Celebrating the Golden Age of Top 40 Radio." There are a few CKLW airchecks at this site.

  • Ron Smith presents Oldies Music - a page dedicated to the music of the 50's, 60's, and 70's.

  • Soulful Detroit & Northern Soul - By the mid sixties, the seeds of a new music genre, planted by Berry Gordy Jr. of Detroit, had taken the world by storm. As a result of Motown's success, record companies blossomed all over Detroit and as many as 400 labels plied their wares during that fruitful era.

  • vuolovideo.com - Art Vuolo's site offers audio and video airchecks (SEE the DJ's at work!). The WNIC (CKLW) Motown Reunion from 1988 is available, along with many other Detroit and CKLW-related items (Art is located in southeast Michigan, so no doubt he covers that area rather well!). dedicated to the art of jingles and radio tunes.

  • WDRC tribute site - this one remembers an Oldie But Goodie... WDRC in Hartford, Connecticut.

  • Windsor Star "About Windsor" Page - Here's all that it says about CKLW: "Two television and a handful of radio stations broadcast from Windsor. CKLW 'The Big 8' was a dominant player in the music industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s, broadcasting to crazed teens in Ohio, Michigan and Ontario. In its heyday, the AM radio station is credited with spawning the rock and roll careers of such area acts as Bob Seger and Ted Nugent. It's now joined the talk-radio set." Not a lot said, but enough of a tribute to justify the inclusion of the link here.

  • WOLF 1490 Tribute website - the Syracuse, New York local version of the Big 8. Jim Edwards (Big Jim Davis) spent part of the sixties (1965-66) behind the board at WOLF, before he went to CKLW.

  • The Worlds Best Radio Related Websites!! - find more pages like this one at this directory of sites.

  • WRKO / The Big 68 Remembered - a tribute site for WRKO (680, Boston), a "sister station" to CKLW in the RKO/Drake days.

  • Resources for Michigan Telephone Users - information and links of particular interest to Michigan telephone users. No, it has nothing to do with CKLW, but a lot of people from Michigan visit this page so I decided to put a link here.

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