Comments on: When Listening Was Still Easy

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 17 May 2011 03:23:54 +0000

I listen to KMOX, WLS, WGN, WBBM, WJR, WTAM Cleveland, WBZ Boston, KDKA Pittsburgh, WLW, WHAS, WWL New Orleans, WBAP Texas, and many other good AM stations on my crystal radio in the winter and fall from my location in Kentucky.
It's still amazing to me to get these DX stations with no batteries, electricity or amplification.

By: William Owen

William Owen — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 02:40:18 +0000

A blast from a simpler past. I was thinking about simpler times and recalled all the nights of late night driving in the South in my 1963 Chevy and listening to John McCormick, the man who walks and talks at midnight. This was in the times before FM radio and now satellite radio. The clear channels KMOX (St. Louis), WWL (New Orleans), WLS (Chicago), and WSM (Nashville) would come pouring into the AM car radio as I drove to and from. He had a soothing voice and a way with words that I fear will nt be heard on the airwave again. We need a few more sound bytes posted to let those of us who remember hear that time again.
Thanks

By: Warren Loescher

Warren Loescher — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:04:52 +0000

I constantly traded duties with anyone on the police force in order to stay with the night shift - to patrol the quiet streets with John McCormick on my radio. He kept me entertained – yes – but also kept me alert to my duties and awake to the pulse of the world.

By: John Perin

John Perin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:43:58 +0000

John McCormick is the best radio announcer I have ever heard, His all-night programs were treasures over "the 50,000 red-hot watts of CBS owned and operated KMOX in St. Louis" as he voiced at the start of each broadcast. Each of those shows began with the recording of Blue Barron's "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" onwhich he had done the narrative. Somewhere, I have some reel-to-reel tapes of John's shows from 1964, but I would certainly enjoy hearing some airchecks of those here and maybe some information on John as well. Thanks.

By: prof

prof — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:01:23 +0000

Hey Liz, I’m with you. I’ll try to dig up so more easy listening airchecks here in the future.

By: liz r

liz r — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:47:22 +0000

thanks for this great site and the airchecks. i’m 41 and i became familiar with st louis through friends in the late 80s and so with their radio programming – having been a dxing radio “geek” girl since my childhood days of under-the-blanket-transistors. i loved the fact kmox played what i referred to as “Dad music” at night; a comforting, cozy reminder of my own dad who died in 1989. there are certain songs i can’t hear without thinking of late-night kmox. i also loved to listen to the “man who walks and talks at midnight”. in an age of an am dial polluted with paranoid conspiracy fearmongers, religious nuts, and syndicated right-wing hate, i love, crave, and appreciate these dying formats, and not in an ironic way.

By: larry mumford

larry mumford — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 17:10:05 +0000

I’ve been looking for radio shows from Tony Oren and John NcCormick for a long time. What a classic piece of recording. I just love this stuff. I grew up in St. louis and am still here. I’m 56 years old, and I also use to stay up all night to listen to these shows. Great job.

By: prof

prof — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:20:14 +0000

No, no John McCormick. I do have a couple more KMOX airchecks here somewhere I’d like to post eventually.

By: Mike Hill

Mike Hill — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:35:40 +0000

Do you have any audio of John Mc Cormick from KMOX? I grew up listening to him at night.

By: David Schroth

David Schroth — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:45:19 +0000

I, too, remember Tony Oren from the 1970s and 80s. He did the midnight-to-dawn program on KMOX when John McCormick, “The Man Who Walked and Talked at Midnight,” was on vacation. Both were fine announcers. Two readers referred to John McCormick.

To Dion Miller: I listened to Mr. McCormick’s program from 1966 till he retired in the late1980s. Every morning at 4:30 he reported the temperature in cities across the nation and the world, including the City of Light, the Eternal City of Rome, and Hong Kong, the land of too, too many tailors, as he always worded it.

To Claude Phipps: Yes, I, too, remember his mentioning The Little Theater off Skyway Drive. St. Louis newspaper reporter Clarissa Start wrote a nice article about Mr. McCormick in 1971 in the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch.” He was a very private person. I remember how he would tell anecdotes about people he had known in Hollywood many years earlier, usually ending his story with the words: “Other days and other ways.”

He often played records by Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra. Every Sunday morning at 3 O’clock he would feature the soundtrack album from a Broadway or Hollywood musical, and would tell portions of the story between musical numbers. His nightly program ended at dawn, when he would play a recording of The Lord’s Prayer and conclude his program by announcing: “And now, the night has separated from the day”

In my judgment, Mr. McCormick was one of the finest radio announcers, along with Mike Rapchak in Chicago. He is in the St. Louis Radio Hall of Fame