1966 Oldsmobile 442 (WCFL Radio New Car)

[doorsovdoon]

WCFL in Chicago, it's 5:28 in Marina city, time for the Larry Lujack clunk letter of the day! Today's letter is from.. "bap bara baaam"... me! Dear uncle Lar, I'm doing a 1/25 model kit of the WCFL News car as a homage to the once great radio station that entertained so many in the windy city for so many years, when AM radio ruled and boss jocks were the kings of the airwaves. The car is a 442 that will be dressed down to the Cutlass, that was always first on the scene wherever there was a story in Chicago! Hopefully I do it justice and you approve of the end result as you look down from the great radio station in the sky.

Right then, as soon as one build finishes another is on the table before the paint has had a chance to dry on the last one, haha! Looking forward to this one. If it's anything like the '67 Olds 442 I recently did, this will be a fun build:)

[Monty]

Bad (& obscure) joke:  turning a muscular 442 into a radio reporter's Cutlass is putting the cart* before the horses. 

* carts were endless-loop tape devices (looked like 8-track tapes) that contained recorded commercial or news content.   

Edited August 11, 2020 by Monty

[doorsovdoon]

That joke definitely needed a rimshot, ?! Yeah, Fidelipac, or NAB cartridge as they were known.

[doorsovdoon]

Shaved the 442 badges off and the vents on the front wings. The front grill is too detailed for me to 'de-442 it' so will be left alone, I might be able to move the side light lenses from the centre to the sides as on the Cutlass but that's about as far as I'm comfortable going with changing the grill/bumper piece. One more visual alteration I have to do is make a trim piece that runs down the centre of the bonnet. Wheel centres were kindly supplied by Chris (ChrisBcritter) on here, thanks man:)

[Deuces ll]

??

[espo]

This should be fun. My radio station when I lived in that area was  "WIND the Windy City station" . The DJ was Dick Beyonda or something like that. He billed himself as the "Wild Italian" .  

[doorsovdoon]

52 minutes ago, espo said:

This should be fun. My radio station when I lived in that area was  "WIND the Windy City station" . The DJ was Dick Beyonda or something like that. He billed himself as the "Wild Italian" .  

Yes, Dick Biondi, he's one my favourites to listen to on the old airchecks. He did loads of great shows, "Pop goes the music" "Super gold Rock and Roll" he even did his own songs. He worked at so many different stations, KRLA, WBZ, WNMB, would love to have been around when these guys were on the air!

[espo]

20 hours ago, doorsovdoon said:

Yes, Dick Biondi, he's one my favourites to listen to on the old airchecks. He did loads of great shows, "Pop goes the music" "Super gold Rock and Roll" he even did his own songs. He worked at so many different stations, KRLA, WBZ, WNMB, would love to have been around when these guys were on the air!

So his old programs are still out there ? I knew him from the late '50's thru '61 when I left the area. Sounds like he had a successful career in Radio. Looking at your pictures of the tires and wheels it is hard to tell if these are unpolished hub caps or wheel backs. I was going to suggest some hub caps that may work if you haven't already found what you needed. From the picture of the car the hub caps remind me of what was used on the Chevelle at that time. These would be the full wheel covers from either the '66 El Camino or the '66 Chevelle wagon. The center emblem on these would be the Chevrolet "Bow Tie" but Oldsmobile had the same basic hub cap but with an Oldsmobile emblem in the center. These were just small plastic pieces of trim that GM used. The cost of one hub cap design that could be used on two or three of their lines.   

[doorsovdoon]

Yes, some of them. There's probably loads that I haven't listened to yet. Did you know him personally? He's still around and was still on radio up until 2018. There's a site called Reelradio.com and there's a few uploads on Youtube where you can find a few of his recordings, and tons more of other stations and jocks. If you like old radio and feel like a bit of time travel visit this site- https://archive.org/details/schweizerairchecks  it's free, with hundreds of recordings from the 60's to the 2000:)

[espo]

I'll have to do that. I was in high school at the time and lived out in what was then consider the "sticks". I think we all felt like we knew him, he was that type of a DJ, but no I never got to meet him. That said if he's still doing radio he must not of been any older than we were at that time. 

[doorsovdoon]

I've started making the trim on the hood. I found a bumper guard in my spares stash to start the front, I'll carve some sprue to make the centre line and use a bit of filler to tidy it up.

[doorsovdoon]

1 minute ago, espo said:

I'll have to do that. I was in high school at the time and lived out in what was then consider the "sticks". I think we all felt like we knew him, he was that type of a DJ, but no I never got to meet him. That said if he's still doing radio he must not of been any older than we were at that time. 

I've learned that radio personalities were a big comfort to many people back then. like you said, you felt like you knew them. Dick said in an interview that, there was a woman that would call him every night for two months and ask what time it is, he finally asked why one night 'why do you keep calling asking what time is it?' she replied, 'I just wanted to hear a man say goodnight to me before bed'

[espo]

1 minute ago, doorsovdoon said:

I've learned that radio personalities were a big comfort to many people back then. like you said, you felt like you knew them. Dick said in an interview that, there was a woman that would call him every night for two months and ask what time it is, he finally asked why one night 'why do you keep calling asking what time is it?' she replied, 'I just wanted to hear a man say goodnight to me before bed'

I believe it. If you recall your teen years can be difficult  at best and he always played the music we enjoyed and while he would be a little goofy at times he was always a positive influence on the air and that might have been why he was so popular with us as teens.   

[doorsovdoon]

He is certainly one of the best. oh yes, the wheels, they're wheel backs from Chris (chrisBcritter) I cant find the post now but I think he said they are copies from a Studebaker. I was going to make resin copies of the wheels from my '70 Pontiac build but Chris came to the rescue with these, which look much closer to what is on the Cutlass. I've sanded the peak of the cap flat, I just need to figure out how to do the small ring around the flat bit, I may just leave them flat in the centre and detail them.

[cobraman]

Born and raised in Chicago and latter Oak Lawn. Thanks for the memories.

[doorsovdoon]

"That was Bread, 'It don't matter to me' ..maybe Bread don't matter to you but it matters to me if you gonna pay the bills!" "This is Dick Biondi It's 1:29 in Chicago at the Voice of Labor." ??? WCFL, Big Ten Music???  "Here comes 'Dawn' ??? Candida??? "

A couple excerpt from a broadcast on WCFL from 10/09/1970! Thought it be fun to put some here as I build this car up:)

Got some more done on the hood, I took a piece of sprue and shaved it down until there was hardly anything left. I still have to clean it up and shape it a bit more to look right.

 

[doorsovdoon]

Bonnet/hood is taking shape. This centre trim piece has taken two days to complete. It's so fine I can barely get sand paper in there to shape it! I've just got to smooth out the scratch marks and a couple of nicks then I can start painting the car.

Edited August 13, 2020 by doorsovdoon

[doorsovdoon]

Modifying the wheel backs and the fixing caps now. The original wheel backs are too wide for the new tyres I'm fitting, they hit the back of the wheel centres. I found some spares in my stash, I think they are from the '64 Impala, but they needed modifying to fit the original hub fixings. I drilled the holes out a little wider and cut off the lip on the hub fixing, they fit in the recesses like a glove! Also got a couple of coats of paint on the body. The last picture is a mock up to get an idea of how it will look:)

[doorsovdoon]

[Watertown]

On 8/12/2020 at 1:13 PM, espo said:

So his old programs are still out there ? I knew him from the late '50's thru '61 when I left the area. Sounds like he had a successful career in Radio. Looking at your pictures of the tires and wheels it is hard to tell if these are unpolished hub caps or wheel backs. I was going to suggest some hub caps that may work if you haven't already found what you needed. From the picture of the car the hub caps remind me of what was used on the Chevelle at that time. These would be the full wheel covers from either the '66 El Camino or the '66 Chevelle wagon. The center emblem on these would be the Chevrolet "Bow Tie" but Oldsmobile had the same basic hub cap but with an Oldsmobile emblem in the center. These were just small plastic pieces of trim that GM used. The cost of one hub cap design that could be used on two or three of their lines.   

The "Cruisin'" record series provided year-by-year snapshots of radio as it was broadcast. Here's a link to a Youtube post with "Cruisin' 1960" featuring Dick Biondi. (Includes commercial breaks) Amazon has the albums available as well. Link: 

 

 

[Watertown]

I'll be watching this build, as I just love the inspiration for it. I remember "Uncle Lar' and Little snot-nosed Tommy" from the WLS morning show. Especially loved "Animal Stories."

[Deuces ll]

1 hour ago, Watertown said:

The "Cruisin'" record series provided year-by-year snapshots of radio as it was broadcast. Here's a link to a Youtube post with "Cruisin' 1960" featuring Dick Biondi. (Includes commercial breaks) Amazon has the albums available as well. Link: 

 

 

??

[doorsovdoon]

6 hours ago, Watertown said:

I'll be watching this build, as I just love the inspiration for it. I remember "Uncle Lar' and Little snot-nosed Tommy" from the WLS morning show. Especially loved "Animal Stories."

Yeah, WLS was CFL's biggest competitor. I've listened to a few of those animal stories, some of them are hilarious, like the robber and the German Shepherd who got punched in the mouth holding up a store! xD

[doorsovdoon]

I have my own 'Animal story' wish I could have sent it in to Larry and Tommy!

My sister in law recently got given a puppy and asked my girlfriend if she would kindly go down to the pet store to get a dog tag for her collar.
She wanted to get a ready made one but instead I suggested we drive down to the pet store where they have a machine that stamps out your dogs name and number on a custom shaped tag, nice touch I thought and only costs five bucks.
I was about to get out of the car to use this machine but my girlfriend said ''no,no.. I'll go, you'll probably screw it up anyway''
Ok, no problem I thought.
After about fifteen minutes she marches out with a face like thunder straight toward me. She opens the car door and I ask what's wrong, I thought maybe the staff were rude to her or something... no, it was the machine... or rather, my girlfriend not knowing how to use the machine!
She handed me the dog tag as she was telling me about ''that stupid machine'' and  ''We should have just got a ready made one'' I looked at the bone shaped dog tag to see what was wrong.
She told me that written on the instructions was ''Enter Your Name and phone number''......... which she did!
Stamped plain as day on the tag was 'NICOLA' (my girlfriends name) I looked up at her with a grin that couldn't for the life of me be hidden! I knew from the look she was giving me she was saying... Don't even think of laughing or your a dead man! That was it, I almost died! xD I had to get out of the car because I couldn't breath from laughing so hard! I dropped my keys but couldn't pick them up as I was bent over with laughter! I pointed at the keys on the floor and hooted a whistle at her, I said ''here girl, fetch'' ? She stood there arms crossed not impressed! That day if looks could kill I'd be a dead man for sure!

[Watertown]

Gareth, you sir, are a very brave man.