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Friday, February 4, 2011

AM TO FM THREE DECADES OF RADIO IN UTAH (GREG CARLISLE)

This is a very affectionate look at radio thru 3 decades in the Utah area. This documentary was bought by a very good friend of mine and she had it shipped to me. It's very personal to me for many reasons, the biggest is that I was part of the listening audience of the 70's for Utah radio and was heavily influenced by KCPX 1320 AM in Salt Lake City.
Long before all this streaming and high tech junk there was an entire world ruled by several DJ's who worked for KCPX. I pulled the station in at nights in a small town in Montana called Gardiner which is actually the north entrance to Yellowstone Park. Back in 1975-1977 I lived in many places because of my mother's employment and we landed in Gardiner who had no radio or TV, but at night it all changed when the radio signals came in and KCPX came alive. I ran home from school, and intently tuned into such great people as Jordan Mitchell who had the 2pm to 6pm shift, "Skinny" Johnny Mitchell who was on from 6-10 PM and Doug Wright who helmed 10pm-2am. the signal came in from about 4 or 5 pm until 9 or 10 am the next morning. On weekends it was Casey Kasem and American Top 40, and yes I fell in love with all of it!!
I was so addicted that when I landed my first job when I was in the 6th grade, I set my tape recorder up to record as much as possible while I ran projectors at the small local theater!!!
This DVD is one of my all time favorites as many of the people I listened to over those years talk about the impact radio had in the entire area during those 30 years. I even ordered a record that "Skinny" cut called Pres. Board & Jimmy Smarter and the flip side of the 45 was First Annual Streak In. I called the station every week to have them send me the official American Top 40 list which they did without hesitation.
It is a time gone by, but I hold it very dear to my heart and man, you had to be there to experience it all!!
This fantastic disc may be obtained by calling KUED television in Salt Lake City. Thanks Liza!!


From left to right "Skinny" Johnny Mitchell (evening man and "Battle Of The Records" host), Lynn Lehman (morning show) and "Wooley" Waldren, the greatest program director ever.

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