WHOT - The Brooklyn Station

We'd planned on posting a classic WHOT Labor Day show this week, but at the last minute we had a special request to post WHOT's "Bob Murphy Day" broadcast, so here we go! Actually, it also happened to be a Fourth of July show, so it it does meet the holiday extravaganza criteria! Our love of Hall of Fame Mets announcer Bob Murphy has never been a secret. The man was a legend - and we (like many others) loved him. So much so, that we'd often just lapse into "Bob Murphying" at random times with little or no provocation! It just so happens that during this particular Independence Day show, the Murph energy was strong. SO strong, that we officially christened it "Bob Murphy Day" on The Hot One, with hosts and listeners alike serving up their best Bob Murphy! All the while, we're bringing another marathon holiday show to the airwaves (one that starts out unusually quiet but quickly erupts with sounds of freedom). This show offers up a sampling of everything that made WHOT a wild listening experience: from Jim's crazy stream-of-consciousness sign-on and early music-and-calls portion of the show, to the manic full-studio assemblage of staff and associates (very likely the most people we ever had in the studio at one time!), to the Hayes Family Fireworks Extravaganza, to post-fireworks wind-down and late-night "adults only" portion of the show (ably anchored by a somewhat-hazy Hank Hayes and Tommy Edison). It's all here in one super-sized package. Note that by this point in WHOT's history, we were broadcasting so often that shows were being "scoped" - having the music cut out - to save tape when airchecking. We have restored ALL of the music on this broadcast so you can enjoy it in ALL of its ten-and-a-half hour glory as originally presented. Oh, and kids - do NOT try some of this at home (even with your parent's permission). Enjoy the happy recap!

As we celebrate America's 250th birthday, this week we take you back to another big Independence Day celebration, Liberty Weekend of 1986! It was the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty and The Brooklyn Station was ON THE AIR (naturally) celebrating along with the rest of the country, and blanketing the East coast with music and mayhem! Of course, we have the ever-present sounds of the Brooklyn fireworks (a staple of the eighties!) plus coverage of all the Liberty events, live look-ins, reports on the big fireworks, and all the crazy fun that The Hot One brought to every July Fourth! There's plenty of swinging music, and more fun than a mat of firecrackers! It's eight crazy hours of freedom the way the Founding Fathers would have approved of (I could totally see Ben Franklin running his own underground radio station)! So grab an ice cold lemonade (or something stronger), fire up the BBQ and find a great spot for the fireworks - we'll provide the soundtrack to all your Fourth fun, Liberty-style. Enjoy!

This week's classic WHOT broadcast took place during the Blizzard of 1983, a storm that dumped 22" of snow in New York City (with over two feet in some areas) and cut a path from Virginia to Maine. Of course, The Brooklyn Station was on the air during the afternoon and evening with a marathon broadcast of historic proportions! A Snow Show is destined to be a night of fun, but a BLIZZARD Snow Show is something else entirely! The earliest parts of the broadcast are missing, but we pick up the show just as a VERY excited Hank is preparing to depart (he later gets snowed in with his family, as you will hear throughout the evening!). Despite having to deal with some early phone problems, Jim then swings through the night taking calls from a snowed-in city and keeping the rock rolling! The original aircheck was severely scoped and only consisted on one 60-minute tape of random portions of the show. This also happened to be the night I heard The Hot One for the first time, and was running a tape of the show at home on a dinky mono radio with a wire for an antenna! As a result, we were able to restore back as much of the show as possible (until I finally dozed off as the sun came up). Along the way you'll hear Hank playing snowbound Scrabble, some "inside" radio tapes, a plethora of jingle parades and a replay of the Thanksgiving '82 show (which has been featured here in the past) before the tape runs out. We strongly suggest you grab a hot cocoa, a warm blanket and relive the Blizzard of '83 with us as it happened - enjoy!

It's a classic Halloween broadcast from The Brooklyn Station this time around, complete with the spooky sounds of 1986, live and local on the AM and FM band! There's a lot going on with this aircheck - of course, there's plenty of Halloween fare for the trick or treat crowd, plenty of calls from staff and listeners alike, a super-creepy autoharp soundtrack and the haunting sounds of the graveyard. I'm also pretty sure this particular show was THE start of Pirate War I, as there was some questionable jamming and whatnot going on, but I can say no more (PLEASE say no more). Pesky unpleasantness aside, it was a typical WHOT Halloween show, unpredictable and always the potential for mayhem, both manageable and unmanageable. In other words, a lot to unpack in six-and-a-half hours of broadcasting, but I leave that to you, the listener. Give it a spin over tricks and / or treats - IF YOU DARE. Enjoy! 

Another holiday, another marathon broadcast! The Brooklyn Station wraps up a special "Beatles-Monkees Weekend" with a seven-and-a-half-hour Labor Day transmission on both the AM and FM bands, as well as an FM simulcast with fellow pirate WFUN-FM, making the Big Signal a little EXTRA big for the holiday! It's a jam-packed show punctuated by an AM signal that was getting out like gangbusters, as well as the palpable excitement of the WHOT Good Guys who were 27 days away from seeing The Monkees in concert and pretty stoked about it! There's all the craziness you would expect from The Hot One - an abundance of listener calls, a radio interpretation of our favorite classic TV show of the moment, Ben Casey, regular check-ins with the old Labor Day Telethon, a look ahead to the upcoming 6th Anniversary Show, and a LOT of laughter! Plus plenty of great music and a huge helping of Beatles and Monkees sounds to make your Labor Day swing. We've added light restoration (only when needed as the tapes were unscoped) to make this a COMPLETE broadcast for your listening enjoyment This is WHOT at its best, making the holiday fun for the hosts and listeners alike - a Labor of Love!

It's another classic WHOT marathon Fourth of July broadcast, this one from back in 1985! This is a show that had been "lost", but was recently unearthed so we can now present it to you in (almost) its entirety.. The last tape of the show is missing, but we STILL have over EIGHT HOURS of wild underground broadcasting that we can share! Jim kicks off the proceedings early in the day, sharing the sounds of freedom in Brooklyn (it's worth noting this was considered a "light" year for fireworks, yet they are constantly present!). Hank and Pete arrive later (and rather LOUDLY), with Chuck Simpson coming in from Philadelphia (alas, he did NOT bring the Liberty Bell with him). Along the way, there are giveaways of the new HOT promotional pens (you too can write like a pirate!), and the saga of the WHOT T-Shirts continues (we were having problems getting them made). There are lots of surprises, including an unexpected visit from one of our more "interesting" listeners (who just decided to show up), a visit from a fellow pirate, a couple of blown fuses (of course) and Hank and Pete with the annual Hayes Family fireworks outside the studio! It's an Independence Day BLAST, presented in only the way The Hot One knew how to do it. Grab some bottle rockets and a cold beverage and party like it's 1985 - enjoy!

It's New Year's time again, which means it is also time for another classic New Year's Eve broadcast!
This time around we feature another show that was previously "lost" but, has now been rediscovered and posted for your calendar-flipping enjoyment! It was 1981, and the New Year was fast approaching. Still keeping the AM and FM separate, we have a (just about) complete WGUT-AM festive extravaganza, featuring Hugh Hughes and Gus Guts. As was usually the case, the New Year just wouldn't be the same without an AM broadcast blanketing the eastern seaboard!
The signal was certainly blanketing this night - there are calls from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Upstate New York, Long Island, Washington DC and even Ontario! Of course, there are also plenty of calls from around Brooklyn, as WHOT's regular listeners check in as well.
It was a big night of partying and propagation on the AM band, plus the music and fun you also expect from The Largest Underground Broadcast Facility on the East Coast!
So pour yourself a glass of something bubbly, turn back the clock by 43 years and ring in 1982 with us. Enjoy!

As we do every year, we present our annual posting of "A WHOT Christmas Carol" featuring Jim Nazium in the role he was born to play - Ebenezer Scrooge! Originally presented on Christmas Eve of 1988, this was to be an annual event on The Brooklyn Station, with adjustments made every year to keep the script up-to-date on the latest goings-on, but alas - it was the ONLY presentation as the FCC shut down The HOT One in the summer of 1989. Most of the WHOT staff is featured here with enough in-jokes and asides to keep you guessing forever! Sit back and admire the tree while we give you the Dickens. Enjoy!

Santa's loading his sleigh and that means it's time for another classic WHOT Christmas show! This time around we present another broadcast that had been AWOL for many years - sadly, the first couple of tapes are still missing and have not surfaced yet, but most of the show has survived and is presented to you here! This was right around the time that The Hot One was growing in leaps and bounds, gaining more and more listeners with every broadcast. That (of course) makes for a jolly Christmas Eve celebration, even with Jim breaking the headshell on one of the turntables! Hank arrives at the studio with a load of new Christmas loot; Chuck Simpson stops by the studio to spread some holiday cheer and I can't seem to get to the studio (no cabs to be found on Christmas Eve - the aircheck begins with Jim flying solo chatting with Tommy Edison and me lamenting my situation!) but I DO finally manage to appear! Our friend Scott make a brief appearance, and oh yes - there's even a historic simulcast of Hank and Jim's "The Christmas Song" on both WHOT and WKRB-FM! It easy to see why Christmas shows were always warm and welcome affairs, right down to another crazy sign-off. It's a classic visit to Christmas past that we hope you will enjoy. Merry Christmas! :)

A timely offering this time around as we present a fully-restored (from the original scoped airchecks) classic WHOT broadcast!
As luck would have it, on the evening of September 22, 1988 the NY Mets clinched the National League East Division just as WHOT was taking to the air (in fact, you can hear both events overlap in real time with a temporary "simulcast"). As a result, the broadcast that followed was a celebratory affair - and a wild one to boot!
In addition to the post-game hoopla, there is a studio "invader" that gets dealt with VERY harshly, some talk about the current hurricane season and some further celebration of the 48th consecutive weekend of WHOT broadcasts.
With the 8th Anniversary of The Brooklyn Station coming up, there is also a trip down memory lane with listener Jim from Woodside, as we dig DEEP into the aircheck archive to listen to snippets from the earliest days of WHOT (oh so many moons ago) and discuss the evolution of the Largest Underground Broadcast Facility On The East Coast over the years.
But wait - there's more! What show wouldn't be complete without a late-night, wee-hour descent into insanity and sing-alongs? Of COURSE we have that on this show, along with other moments of assorted madness (the listeners would expect nothing less).
As we know, the post-season would not go so well for the Metropolitans that time around - and that led to another insane show to be posted at another time!
Put the champagne on ice and get ready to celebrate some clinchers and anniversaries with us. Enjoy!