The following (portion of an) e-mail was received today by Uncle Ricky, the curator of ReelRadio.com, the #1 site for listening to airchecks of Top 40 radio since it began in 1996.
Ron Jacobs was the Program Director of KHJ, the most successful Drake format Top 40 station of all time. He also created the Cruisin' series of aircheck LPs. And, I'm happy to report, is a member of RadioWest.ca.
"Richard: I love how seriously you take this, how you steadfastly maintain your ethics and high standards and have fought through all the obstacles and bullshit over the years to keep it going. Everyone in, or into, Top 40 Radio should be thankful that you had the foresight to conceive ReelRadio and the expertise to implement and maintain it, especially since ReelRadio began when most people would have thought a 'web site' was where spiders hung out. Mahalo for your patience in putting up with my pestiferous pursuit of perfection. I treasure our association and am proud to be so splendidly represented in your pages, most recently by the CRUSIN' series."
And, yes, it does cost $12/year U.S. to listen to airchecks. But it was either Start Charging or stop being able to add new airchecks every Sunday morning. (The site has permanent funding that should keep it alive forever, but no provision for all the labour each week associated with the level of audio artistry required to make new airchecks sound SOOOO good.)