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A New Spin
By DAVID HINCKLEY
So he has set out to address this with "Ricky the K's Solid Gold Time Machine," which he records five days a week, three hours a day. To hear it, there's only one catch: You have to buy it. Kaufman put the show on the Internet, so listeners need a computer with Real Audio or Windows Media. The address is www.60sradio.com. Kaufman uploads a new show each weekday, which can be accessed any time over the next 24 hours. Kaufman is the deejay, and the music is all 1955-1971. "For a lot of early rock fans, it's over by the time you get to 'American Pie,' " says Kaufman. "That's one of the things they don't like about a WCBS-FM — too much '70s and '80s. We superserve people who want only the earlier stuff." Considering that WCBS-FM completely dropped their entire oldies format as of last Friday, Kaufman's Solid Gold Time Machine may end up to be the only place to get a healthy helping of this music and personality type of radio. Kaufman also plays '50s and '60s songs that don't make the rotation of regular oldies stations, like "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" or "Ringo." He plays about 3,000 songs, so it's twelve weeks between repeats. What further sets Kaufman's show apart is its sound, sent out with a deep reverberation that replicates the distinctive boom of 1960s WABC. The jingles and the ads do that, too — because many of them are from the old WABC. "We have over 100 original jingles and 500 ad spots from the '60s," Kaufman says, meaning listeners can again hear about "Denison's Men's Clothier, Route 22, Union, New Jersey," Palisades Park and Robert Hall. As a bonus, some of the spots are read by the deejays: Scott Muni, Dan Ingram, Cousin Brucie, Jack Spector, Gary Stevens and so on. "Dan Ingram is my favorite," says Kaufman. "The best top-40 jock ever." Kaufman grew up in Livingston, N.J., and while he now lives near Dallas, he says his heart remains with the city. And the Jets. "I always wanted to be in New York radio," he says. "But by the time I turned 21, it was changing. The fun was going out of it. Today, most radio isn't programmed for people who like music. It's programmed to become a button on the car radio." He joined the business anyway, and produced the first Crazy Eddie spot. Kaufman does his new show with an imaginary partner, Tonto, and tries to keep it zany. This week he played the famous "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy" bit, and did an audio comparison of Froggy's voice with Muni's. "If I'm having fun," says Kaufman, "I figure the listener is, too." Original Story Date: 060705
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t's
this simple, says Richard Kaufman: In the '60s, radio was fun. Today,
he says, even stations that play '60s music aren't fun anymore.