Friday, December 28, 2007

Soul On The Air #3: George Vinette, 1968

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As promised, here is the third installment of my "Soul On The Air" series of vintage R&B radio airchecks. (The prior two installments appear in the links section.) With New Year's Eve rapidly approaching, I thought that a seasonally-appropriate aircheck would be great. As I write this, I now realize that today's featured aircheck is not only seasonally appropriate, it's also from TODAY'S DATE, 39 years ago!

WYLD-AM (940 on the dial) was one of New Orleans' two R&B radio powerhouses of the '60s and early '70s (the other was WBOK, an aircheck of which - interestingly enough, from the same date as today's feature - will be featured at another time). By the mid-'70s the station switched its contemporary R&B format to its FM frequency and, after a couple of decades as an adult urban contemporary station, became a gospel station ("WYLD for Jesus" is the station's motto). That's really all I know about the station, and I know absolutely nothing about George Vinette, whose entertaining patter and fine selections make this 45-minute slice of December 28, 1968 a real treat.

As always, there's the mix of hits we all know and love, presented in their original context (Johnnie Taylor's "Who's Making Love" starts things off with a bang, and his "Take Care of Your Homework" is played shortly thereafter), and then lesser-known stuff. I first heard James Brown's "Believers Shall Enjoy" and "Little Groove Maker Me" from this aircheck, along with Jackie Moore's "Here I Am," and it's fun to hear a live version of Otis Redding's "Can't Turn You Loose" and Stevie Wonder's "For Once in My Life" getting great voiceover treatment by Vinette. It's also neat to hear about the big New Year's record hop that's about to happen at the I.L.A. Auditorium (am I hearing this correctly?) - George's enthusiasm about the show is infectious and it makes me want to jump into a time machine and go to the show myself! Of all the fun on this aircheck, however, the biggest treat comes at the end. After playing Joe Tex's "That's Your Baby," George picks up the phone and starts to chat with Joe Tex himself. Unfortunately the aircheck ends before the interview concludes, but check out the "skinny legs" story that Vinette and Tex get into right before the cut-off point.

I will be traveling this weekend and will have limited internet access, so this post will be the last of 2007. I want to take this moment to thank all of you for making 2007 a big year for "Get on Down ..." and I look forward to socking more soul power to you in the new year. I wish for nothing less than the very best for all of you in 2008! God bless you all.

(POSTSCRIPT - I'd like to welcome the lovely and knowledgeable edie2k2, aka "Ms. Old School," to the blogosphere! Her brand new blog is now in the links section.)

3 comments:

EFM Radio said...

That's uncanny that this aircheck 'treat' was done to the exact day 39 years ago, Stepfather. Whoa!
I'm front and center--bouncing to "Who's Makin Love..to yo' ole ladee, while you was out..."

J-A-M-M-I-N..*getting up out the chair to do the hucklebuck* lol You know these airchecks send me to the M-O-O-N!!! I am so excited. I can barely stand it..and I thank you so very much. Leave it to 'me' and this is all you have to do 24/7..
This series is the best thing going.

I have to say, after I found your blog, it messed me up for 'my' FORMER way of doing things. I guess my webpages filled a need at the time, but now I find myself glued to Blogspot and I'm loving it.

I'm a neo-phyte, true, but I really want to mesh into this network and not only give what I have to share, but I want to learn.

I already started a new blog--and had a major crisis last night already, in that I spent about 2 hours on this blog I was doing on Minnie Riperton and just as I got to the LAST pic for it, my pc CRASHED! I couldn't believe it. Had I started from the beginning, rather than 'adding' this info to the intro blog--it would have drafted it for me..but Murphy's Law reigned...*GROAN* You talkin bout lookin crazy.

Anyway, I'm at http://msoldschool.blogspot.com
and I could use some support. It's alot of work and I have a deep appreciation for you blog vets, believe me!

*uh oh..."Love Makes A Woman" is on" The danceflo is callin..and I'm in boppin mode*

Bravo!

Vincent the Soul Chef said...

Thanks for all the tremendous support, not to mention the shares! I hope you had a great holiday and wish you a happy and SAFE New Year! Keep on fighting the good fight!

Peace and blessings.

p.s. and off I go to check out Ms. Old School...

Tsunny King said...

Ok ....This my SHHH right here. Im from New Orleans and I grew up listening to WYLD, and its AM station 940. This is a awesome set. WYLD is a New Orleans staple. You have to post the WBOK aircheck! Got a question whats that Otis Redding Live version of Cant You Loose off of is the Whiskey A GO GO album.