Rock Radio 50 Years Ago ~ JANUARY 1976

We Rock to a New Beat & Dream On to a New Retro Year   

Happy 2026 Rock & Roll fans! Are ya ready to Rock around the clock for another year of nostalgic reverence with the iconic Music of 1976?! 

From vintage Radio surveys to a Wolfman Jack birthday tribute, to our perfect-for-the-moment January vintage Song of Note, we’re ready to dream on about the good ol’ days.

Welcome to the New Year at Blast From Your Past as once again we venture into Rock & Roll Radio’s Solid Gold Oldies and the pioneering Rock Radio Jocks who brought them to us, 50 Years Ago this Month …!  

º JANUARY 1976 Radio News & Muse ♪ 

What was your fave DJ playing when you turned on your tinny transistor radio 50 Years Ago? Were
you Rockin’ out in Augusta, Georgia, Great Falls, Montana, or Rochester, New York? You might remember …

This month we’re treated to three storied Rock Radio Stations of the 1970s that, however long or short their fan popularity, helped shape the broadcast landscape of the decade. Were you listening to Wolfman Jack at …

Along with our annual salute to Wolfman Jack’s birthday (January 21^st) he is also featured on the cover of WAUG/Augusta, Rockin’ 105, January 1976. He slips into syndicated weekend duty in the healthy DJ lineup of eight energetic jocks. Do you remember listening to (in order, starting at 6a.m.): Jim Chase, Brian Scott, Jack Dillon, Trashman, Pamela Sweet; and weekenders: Rick Spires, Ed Turner and Rick Shaw? 
       In the beginning of its broadcast life in 1952, WAUG was a daytimer (required to go off-air at night). Both its longer broadcast hours and Rock format flaunted on the January ’76 survey, seems to have been short-lived, as its Christian format power is greatly reduced at night. Everything was more fun back in the ‘70s! 

Join us as we jog west to Great Falls, Montana, where the locals knew KEIN Radio 1310 is pronounced “keen.” It’s the grandaddy of Montana Radio, becoming its oldest Radio station, on the air since 1922.

       Licensing to “dime stores” became a thing, around the time the F. A. Buttery & Company department store set up its transmitter in Havre, Montana, known as KFBB. After several station call letter changes, it settled on KEIN in 1972 and is currently broadcasting a comedy format. What makes it special this month?
       KEIN’s “The Electric Thirty” music chart sports a classic New Year boo-boo … the survey is stamped January 3, 1975, but the tunes are clearly from January 1976. Oops! Their goof makes it that much more valuable in my Rock Radio survey collection 50 Years later.  

Let’s zigzag back to the east for our Featured Radio Survey station’s “Official Copy 1” for their 1976 “new BBF,” best known as WBBF 95/Rochester, New York. Mind you, it had been around since 1947 originally branded as WARC, and WBBF since 1953. But hey, who are we to question its New Year need to refresh?

       Ironically, the January 7, 1976, “The New BBF” survey, flaunting flashy 1970s cartoon art, reaches backwards to feature their Top 100 of 1975. They were, though, not inclined to change their standard chart headings, so “The Albums” section begins the Top 100 tunes, the center’s “Better Music” still lists their current Top 30, and “The Words” likely used for featured song lyrics, continues the Top 100 list. Um, are you confused yet?
       Although lauded sports journalist and talk radio host, Chuck Wilson, began his broadcast career at WBBF, cover DJ Mike O’Brian gets the spotlight this month. Mike may have been a popular Rock Radio DJ in 1976, but by 1995 he traded in his studio microphone for a local TV studio to whisk you away on great summer day-trips!
       As of a fairly recent report, he remains active as Mike the Getaway Guy on Facebook and YouTube and still talking travel.

 Enjoy the memories of what and who you were listening to … as we dive into the news of 50 Years Ago this Month! 

January 15^th: Released on this date, Frampton Comes Alive double live album is a coup for Frampton, following four mediocre albums. In a 25^th anniversary salute, a remixed and extended album was released in January 2001, with Frampton and the band performing live at Tower Records in L.A. (Remember them? The online version is a click away.)  

January 16^th: Pop icons, Donny & Marie (Osmond) have been in the public eye since the early 1960s. But it was January 1976 when they became the darlings of the TV musical variety shows. In addition to records, the siblings made TV their home in the studio until 1979. She’s a li’l bit Country and he’s a li’l bit Rock & Roll—well, siblings don’t always get along, ya know.  

Well, Rock & Rollers, this is as far as I could get on New Year's Eve … but I don’t have a life, so I’ll be back at it today (New Year's Day) … albeit maybe a little late … to finish this up for you. HAPPY NEW YEAR! C’mon back soon for more retro Rock news, our January 1976 Song of Note and Featured Radio Survey  … 

Let's Rock JANUARY 1976 and … Dream On!  

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LinDee Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and author by way of Rock & Roll. Two books (of three planned) are published in her Blast from Your Past^TM series, available on Amazon: Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959^TM (eBook only; coming soon in updated print edition) and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties^TM (eBook & print). Coming soon-ish … Book 3 – The Psychedelic Seventies!^TM 

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