WHKK Aircheck - Unknown Program

We have a little mystery for our listeners to figure out on the blog this week.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been posting a collection of sixteen inch lacquers that originated from WHBC in Canton, Ohio.  These included a few network shows recorded for time-shifting, but many local programs from the station dating from the 40s and early 50s.

This disc came in the same collection, but is different from the rest.  It’s a single-sided twelve inch disc with a WHKK label and sounds like it was recorded off the air using a microphone in front of a radio.  There’s no writing on the label to identify the contents.

The program on the disc is some type of afternoon call-in show, where people call in with advice and household problems.  The host of the show talks about leaving WHKK in Canton and moving to a station in Akron.  The callers tell the host how much they’ll miss him and give him best wishes on his new job - one refers to him as “Gary”.  The host reads commercials for Yeager’s department store and Sparkle supermarkets.  He refers to the program as “The Answer Line” show and “The Question Line”, but the actual title of the show isn’t clear.  The host and callers also mention the Christmas and New Year’s holiday season.

WHKK was a leader in the Canton market in the 1950s with rock and roll and the station changed its call sign to WHLO in 1960, according to Wikipedia.  So this excerpt would date from sometime in that decade.  I don’t hear any internal topical references in the program that would help narrow down a year, but perhaps someone would recognize the host of the show and that might help determine when it was broadcast and what the proper title of the show would be.

Our little mystery show was transferred direct from a single-sided twelve inch 33 1/3 rpm lacquer with a blank WHKK label.  It sounds as though the program was recorded with a microphone in front of a radio.  However, the disc is cut quite well and doesn’t resemble something usually done on a home machine.