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Crap From The Past - Bonus: The Last Day of WLOL/Minneapolis, February 26, 1991 (February 26, 1991)

Curate note: Radio show.


This audio is part of the collection: Open Source Audio

Date: 1991-02-26

Notes

This is the last ten hours (minus one) of 99.5 WLOL-FM/Minneapolis on February 26, 1991, taped off the air on cassettes and reassembled into convenient one-hour segments.

WLOL had been a top 40 radio station in Minneapolis from 1981-1991. The station was given to Minnesota Public Radio, and the entire WLOL staff was laid off. They went out in style, and their last day on the air was spectacular. Beginning at 8 AM, the station devoted one hour to the music of a particular year, for each of the 10 years they were on the air. At 6 PM, once they finished with the music of 1990, they played their legendary WLOL montage, which would traditionally air at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve. After the montage, a message from the program director, and "Miss You Much", the station went dark. A short while later (I'm not sure how much later), it played music without live jocks for a period, then signed off with Prince's "1999" fading out. This is the complete 10-hour last day, complete with both sign-offs. Now THAT's the way to flip formats!

The one-hour segments were stitched together from 45-minute blocks, with song portions spliced in to cover the breaks in switching cassettes. The pitch was corrected as well as possible, based on a comparison of BPM with known BPMs from various CDs. There is one unusually painful splice ("I Wanna Dance With Somebody"), but on the whole, this technique worked nicely. I think that from the mid-'80s on, the music was on carts, which were tape-based and may have had pitch variations from machine to machine. Basically, I got as close as I could, assuming that they didn't deliberately play their music too fast.

8-9 AM - 1981 - recorded by Ron Gerber on Maxell XLII-90 cassette with Dolby C NR; pitch corrected; played on Tascam deck at KFAI, September 2002; splice at "Boy From New York City"

9-10 AM - 1982 - recorded by Ron Gerber on Maxell XLII-90 cassette with Dolby C NR; pitch corrected; played on Tascam deck at KFAI, September 2002; splice at "Mickey" and "Don't Fight It"

10-11 AM - 1983 - recorded by Ron Gerber on Maxell XLII-90 cassette with Dolby C NR; pitch corrected; played on Tascam deck at KFAI, September 2002; splice at "Beat It"

11-11:30 AM - 1984 - recorded by Ron Gerber on Maxell XLII-90 cassette with Dolby C NR; pitch corrected; played on Tascam deck at KFAI, September 2002; tape ran out at 10:30 during "Against All Odds"

11:30 AM-12:30 PM - not recorded; if you've got this, please contact Ron Gerber at www.crapfromthepast.com

12:30-1 PM - 1985 - recorded by Mike L from Bloomington, MN; supplied to RG on CD-R; pitch corrected by RG; splice at "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)" occurs during a talk break

1-2 PM - 1986 - recorded by Mike L from Bloomington, MN; supplied to RG on CD-R; pitch corrected by RG; splice at "Wild Horses"

2-3 PM - 1987 - recorded by Mike L from Bloomington, MN; supplied to RG on CD-R; pitch corrected by RG; painful splice at "I Wanna Dance With Somebody"

3-4 PM - 1988 - recorded by Mike L from Bloomington, MN; supplied to RG on CD-R; pitch corrected by RG; splice at "Sweet Child O' Mine"

4-5 PM - 1989 - recorded by Mike L from Bloomington, MN; supplied to RG on CD-R; pitch corrected by RG; splices at "The Living Years" and "If I Could Turn Back Time"

5-6 PM - 1990 - recorded by Mike L from Bloomington, MN; supplied to RG on CD-R; pitch corrected by RG; splice at "Ice Ice Baby"; transition to portion recorded by Ron Gerber at "Cradle Of Love"

6-6:30 PM - montage and goodbyes - recorded by Ron Gerber on Maxell XLII-90 cassette with Dolby C NR; pitch corrected; played on Tascam deck at KFAI, September 2002; splice with about a minute left to portion recorded by Mike L; about one minute of dead air at end

last half hour - not clear how long they aired music without jocks, but this was the end - recorded by Mike L from Bloomington, MN; supplied to RG on CD-R; no pitch correction required

This was a labor of love to assemble, since this station meant so much to so many in the Twin Cities. Feel free to download or stream what you like, and if you share it, please give proper credit to Ron Gerber of the KFAI-FM/Minneapolis radio show "Crap From The Past", and Mike L from Bloomington, MN.

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Reviewer: Desslok - - April 16, 2008
Subject: Great stuff
While I didnt have a WLOL in the seattle neck of the woods (the closest I got was KUBE which was ok but nothing super special), I can at least live vicariously through you. I weep, for it sounds like a damn fine station!

Thanks Ron!

Reviewer: crusiera - - March 24, 2007
Subject: Amazing radio
This is when commercial radio was actually good. WLOL played some great music and they actually cared about their output unlike these stations with "music that moves." I mean, when stations sign off, they never put a whole days worth of goodbyes and songs they played long ago. Thanks Ron for posting all this on here