THE HOT ITEM ON SteveMcVie.COM!!
Update: March 27, 2009



The History of 96-3 The Rose
WRZE Cape Cod.
January 11, 1993 - March 25, 2009

Now available on 2 CDs.
I'm asking 10 bucks to cover expenses!
If you'd like to order click here to Paypal me,
and I'll send it right out to you.



If you don't have a Paypal account, E-mail me at mail@stevemcvie.com and
I will gladly send you all the information if you'd like to order via snail mail.


THIS WEBSITE NOW ALSO AVAILABLE AT HTTP://WWW.HOTHITS.ORG !!



 HOT HITS IS ON FACEBOOK!
CLICK HERE AND JOIN "HOT HITS" FACEBOOK GROUP!
Thanks to Facebook, more former Hot Shots have been identified. See the bigger list near
the bottom of the page.

Steve's MySpace page!!   Steve's Facebook profile      Your feedback here....It's the BLOG SPOT


NEW FEATURE: Click here for selected Non Hot Hits Audio courtesy of Steve McVie's Blog-spot!!


NEW AUDIO (COURTESY OF MARTY GLENN)
WCAU-FM Terry Young October 1981

Hot Recurrent: Bob Brown on WHYT 5/26/83

Also available in the Hot Hits Group on Facebook.

More Audio added in 2009!!!:
WCAU-FM Glen Kalina July 18, 1983
WNVZ-Norfolk, VA Greg South May 1984  
WCAU-FM Terry Young July 18, 1983
WCAU-FM Terry Young September 1982
WCAU-FM Barsky July 20, 1983

 
WANT MORE, CAN'T GET ENOUGH:
Get the entire aircheck via MP3, CD or FTP download
of any Hot Hits audio files!
Just click "BUY NOW" to order using Paypal. $1 per file!


Disclaimer: Steve McVie never charges for any intellectual property included in any aircheck.
Your purchase covers the production, duplication, storage, labor, archiving, and preparation of the materials.
Steve McVie recorded these original airchecks on high quality cassettes and mastered the recordings using Adobe Audition.


Now available: Classic Aircheck CDs for sale

Steve McVie's Howard Stern Collection:
$9.99 on MP3 CD

1983-WNBC
1984-WNBC
1988-WYSP w/ Sam Kinison
1990- WXRK w/David Lee Roth
1997-WBCN Stern goofs on Z100
1998- WPXC Press conference
2002- WPXC replay of September 11 broadcast
2005-WPXC November 11
2005-Last day on terrestrial radio 12/5/05

Add $6.99 for postage/handling.
These airchecks will be available on CD only for $19.99 each
Add $6 for postage/handling. Allow 3 weeks for delivery.




Disclaimer: Steve McVie never charges for any intellectual property included in any aircheck.
Your purchase covers the production, duplication, storage, labor, archiving, and preparation of the materials.
Steve McVie recorded these original airchecks on high quality cassettes and mastered the recordings using Adobe Audition.


Coming Soon: The Music of your life!!! original radio recordings.

 Welcome to the world's #1 Aircheck Website & Home of "The Flashback Channel!!"

  Playin' the Hottest Flashback Hits of the 70s and 80s. The Better FlashbackRadio!



Aircheck Trading: I will trade for any Hot Hits airchecks you may have. I will also send you an mp3 of selected airchecks from this list. Just E-mail me and allow two weeks for delivery via ftp. I never charge for any intellectual property on any radio recording, but do accept donations to keep this website running.


Complete Lists of Hot Hits Airchecks and Steve McVie's Aircheck Database



  


  

Classic Radio Station T-shirts for sale!!
Want them, just e-mail me and we'll make a deal Mail@SteveMcVie.com

WPXC-Hyannis, MA (4)
WBLI-Long Island SOLD
KPWR-Los Angeles “Stop the violence
WERZ-Portsmouth, NH (10)
WERZ-Portsmouth “Pete Falconi Mega Meeting ‘92”
WJLK-Asbury Park, NJ (2)
WBBO-Ocean County, NJ
WXKS-Boston
WXKS-Boston ”Kiss Concert 20”
WPLJ-New York “Mojo Radio”
KLAL-Little Rock, AR
WZAT-Savannah, GA “Ron and Ron”
WHTZ-New York “Quick Lick” SOLD
WBBM-FM Chicago
WRZE-Cape Cod (2)
EZ Rock 105.5 (?)
KQKQ-Omaha “Summer Jam 92”

The following are from the 80s:

WKPE-Cape Cod “Cape 104” SOLD

WKPE-Cape Cod “Skin the Bears-Super Bowl XX”

WKPE-Cape Cod “Morning Zoo”

WKPE-Cape Cod “Summer of ’85 Hot Shirt” SOLD!

98 Rock-Honolulu SOLD

WQGN-New London

WHTZ-New York SOLD

WZPL-Indianapolis

WZOU-Boston

KKLQ-San Diego

WILI-Willimantic

WWDC-Washington, DC

WAPP-New York

WLYQ-Norwalk, CT

WKSS-Hartford, CT (2)

KYRK-Las Vegas “Power 97”


Are a former Announcer or know of any?
Join the following who have contacted me or contributed to this site:
Garry Leigh-KITS/WTRK
Don Rossi-WFBL
Dan Stevens-WFBL
Dave Laird-WFBL
Robb Stewart-WFBL
Todd Parker-WFBL/WCAU-FM/KITS!!
Bill O'Brien-WCAU-FM
Bill Catcher-WFBL/WNVZ
Dave Robbins-WBBM-FM
Joe Dawson-WBBM-FM
Tony Davis-WFBL/WBBM-FM
Dan Collins-WTIC-FM
Jon "Doc" Holiday-WTIC-FM
Lee Malcolm-WHYT
Harv Blain-WHYT
Bob Ransom-WHYT
Louie Alexander-WFEC
  R.J.Heim (Robert Walker)-WFEC
Carol Anne Strippel-WFBL
Mike Lisi-WFBL
Steve Kelly-WNVZ
Frank Foster-WBBM-FM
Rich Hawkins-WCAU-FM
Tim Watts-WMAR-FM
MJ Kelli-WNVZ
Johnnie Michaels-WTIC-FM
Lee Goodman-WFBL
Big Tom Winston-WMAR/WMKR
Chris Logan-WFEC
Michael Carr-WFBL
Don Rooney-WFEC
Bobby McGee-WTIC-FM
Bob Campbell-WNVZ
Bill Lenkey (Lee)-WTIC-FM
Doug Ritter-KITS
Jim Curtis-WNVZ
Bill Bass-WNVZ
Jack Scott-WHYT
Bob Ryan-WTIC-FM
Bob Brown/Reynolds-WFBL/WHYT
Bob Garrett-WCAU-FM
Richard Sands-KITS
Mike Joseph
Michael A. Joseph (Son)
And many thanks to the others who have sent Hot Hits Airchecks!
I'd love to add you to the list!
E-mail 
me

Wikipedia has a nice snapshot of the Hot Hits format:
Click here to view Wikipedia's Hot Hits page.

The original "Fusion" jingles are available!
Fusion Jingles!
If I had $1,200 to blow, I'd buy them myself!!


Steve's Hot Hits Story
Chapter 1-How it all started:  It was 1979. I was 16 years old.  I grew up in New Haven, CT as your basic radio groupie DJ wannabe.  My two favorite stations were WAVZ New Haven and WTIC-FM "96 Tics" in Hartford.  Before June of 1979, I had never actually rolled an "aircheck" of any radio station, but just assumed that was what radio was supposed to sound like.  Jingles after every song! Nothing but currents! Radio formatics I grew to expect as a teenager.  There were two developments that occurred on July 1, 1979 that would ultimately impact my life.  WAVZ moved from AM to FM as an Adult Contemporary station KC101.  They played lots of oldies, and was quite a conservative station.  In addition, "96 Tics" in Hartford must have anticipated this competitive move by WKCI (KC101), and also made formatical adjustments.  No more jingles, lots of oldies, and an end to the Mike Joseph formatics.  As a teen listener at the time, I was disenfranchised.  Around that time, a fellow schoolmate John Stempick also voiced his displeasure about the local format changes.  But all along, John had been recording the TIC-FM weekly Top 10 countdowns with Bill Lenkey (now Bill Lee).  We would listen to those tapes over and over.  We would also make fake cassette tapes of "96 Tics" as if it never went away.  

Chapter 2- WFBL:   In approximately February of 1980, I was innocently tuning up and down the AM dial searching for Top 40 music, which in this era was hard to find.  Mixed among the static, I thought I heard something familiar.  It sounded like a familiar jingle.  I moved my AM radio everywhere in my house trying to hear this station.  After settling in the upstairs bathroom, this station kept fading in and out.  HOT HITS!!?? WFB??? I grabbed a portable cassette recorder and waited and waited for the station to re-appear.  It was 5,000 watt WFBL in Syracuse, New York at 1390 from 250 miles away.  I made a personal commitment at that time to record every single moment of that station, because with the demise of AM Top 40 at the time, I knew it was only a matter of time before Hot Hits would again disappear.  Sure enough, on November 16, 1980 that prediction would become true as "The Music of your life" meant the death of HOT HITS. 

Chapter 3- WCAU-FM: By October of 1981, I was 18 and off to college at Bryant College in Rhode Island.  My friend John Stempick called me to urge me to return home as soon as possible.  He had a surprise for me.  What could that be.  The only thing I imagined was that HOT HITS was back.  John had gone on a weekend excursion with his family to Atlantic City, NJ.  He had recorded the entire weekend of the new Hot Hits station in Philadelphia, PA WCAU-FM.  HOT HITS was back!! As my personal committment continued, I recorded every heard moment of WCAU-FM. 

 The rest of the story: After WCAU-FM, there was WBBM-FM Chicago, WHYT Detroit, KITS San Francisco, WMAR Baltimore, WNVZ Norfolk, and even little WFEC Harrisburg.  I never took the format for granted, and cherish every recording.  With the help of the internet, I started to find others who not only remembered this format, but who had additional recordings of HOT HITS.  I am lucky to have a fabulous website administrator who helped me launch this site inexpensively.  After more than 6,500 visitors and hundreds of new airchecks collected, the fascination with Hot Hits has actually grown.  I have heard from dozens of former Hot Shots, and I am thankful for their contributions to the aircheck database.  Recently, I received a telephone call while I was at work from Mike Joseph himself.  I wish I could have talked longer.  Although it was a fascinating discussion, there were so many questions I've always wanted to know about the quirkiness of the format, such as "Why three jingles in a row four times an hour?" Finally, I recently received an E-mail from Mike Joseph’s son Michael A. Joseph: “ Hi Steve Ok, I give. What’s the fascination with my father’s now archaic HH format?”  My reply was the story you just read!