Building A Brand
Somewhere around 1976, Big Apple Airchecks was born when I met two guys from the New York Institute of Technology who recorded radio stations and traded them with other guys across the country. They got me interested in it, and they helped me build my collection, and trade with people all over the country, and Canada as well. I was in high school at that time, and ended up going to New York Tech in September 1976. I joined the college radio station, WNYT and pretty much immediately I got a regular weekend shift, and an occasional shift during the week. That's where I "honed my craft" and dreamed of being on the radio.
In 2000, I got my first computer, and built a basic website at Tripod. It was only a couple of pages, and I quickly outgrew that. I was visiting some friends at WBLI a couple of years later, and one of them told me that she had a 16 year old kid build her site. That's how www.bigappleairchecks.com was born.
So, I contacted him, and for $100 he built me a great site using Microsoft Publisher. That worked until my Windows 7 computer died, and Publisher wouldn't work on Windows 10.
Big Apple Airchecks has contributed to the Paley Museum in New York City, Reelradio.com and Airchexx.com. I've also had airchecks used in several movies and PBS documentaries. My collection has many historical aspects to it, as well as entertainment value.
Back to the drawing board, and around 2021 I had this guy from Texas, a former DJ who was building websites while he was in graphic design school, build a brand new site using WordPress and various plug-ins. I had no clue what he was doing, but would eventually learn because about a week after the site went live, he ghosted me. He wouldn't answer any texts, phone call or emails.
I learned on my own how to update the site, and even build new pages. Yay for me! So that was one brand that grew from a 2 page website to an over 20 page site that people around the world know about. I'm often contacted by people who want to listen to old radio to bring back their childhoods. Then there's the DJ who has nothing of his own because of fires, floods, moving and divorce. One guy even told me that after the divorce his wife dumped everything!
In 2020, during the pandemic, the owner of airchexx.com brought back an online radio station, www.hitoldies.net and asked if I wanted to do a show. That's how the idea of New York's Best Rock was born. The first few shows weren't branded that way, but the show eventually needed a name, and that's how New York's Best Rock was born.
Why New York's Best Rock? That was the tagline of the late, great 95.5 WPLJ, an ABC owned station in New York City. They had some great jocks including Jim Kerr, Pat St. John, Jimmy Fink, Carol Miller, Bob Marrone and the late Viv Roundtree and John Zacherle. At one time or another, I got to meet them all, and become friends with some of them.
When I finally decided to make NYBR something, I asked Bob Marrone to be the voice of the show. I'll send him stuff to record, and my friend Richie Norris will produce it for me.
Right now, NYBR is on 37 different internet stations. Along the way, stations went off, stations dropped me or I dropped them for one reason or another.
Some stations play the show once and week, others twice, and a couple play it 4 times or more.
I have a music library that is huge, and no two shows are alike. I always hope that the stations and their listeners appreciate the time and effort that goes into producing the show. A one hour show takes approximately 3 hours to produce, and I always hope that the effort shows.
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