Just unearthed! Recordings of entire days of WBEN Radio… Unheard since the days they were broadcast over 35 years ago! Names like Clint Buehlman, Van Miller and the NBA Buffalo Braves! Read on!
WBEN AM/FM/TV, 1960
So where did these tapes come from? In 1995, Lin Television performed a massive cleanout of the 2077 Elmwood Avenue building they had just purchased as a part of their buying WIVB-TV.
Among the “treasures” I found dumpster diving, was a box of Reel-to-Rel tapes that appeared to be WBEN Radio Logger tapes from the early 70s. Many of the reels were blank… But even those with the audio intact were nearly useless… The tapes were recorded at 15/32 IPS. That is very slow, and at the time the tapes were rescued, the only way to hear the tapes properly involved about 4 hours of work for an hour of final product. For 13 years, I’ve been trying to figure out how to play these tapes back… And now… thanks to a new reel deck.. and some new digital audio editing programs, viola!
The audio quality is not the best… Its warbly sometimes… And it jumps quite a bit… And These logger tapes were in the Engineering Shop because there were problems with the recording…. But what is really amazing. Imagine your grandparents listening to WBEN all day… That’s what you get here. Things were slow to change at WBEN. Clint Buehlman’s Show in 1973 was not really all that different from the show in 1953. Van Miller is in great voice and cadence calling Buffalo Braves basketball. As far as I know, these are the only complete recordings of Braves basketball in tact.
Below, you’ll find exactly what and who is on these tapes… and some brief cuts from each.
Clint Buehlman
One of the most often asked questions to this website is, “What was the name of Clint Buehlman’s theme song?” The answer is, there were dozens of light airy instrumentals that were used to open each hour of the Buehlman show, after newsman Jack Ogilvie introduced Your AM-MC after each newscast. Listen below for several such opens, along with other snippets from the Buehly.
Newsman Jack Ogilvie (right) and AM-MC Clint Buehlman spent mornings together for over a quarter of a century starting in 1951 and ending in 1977.
Buffalo Braves Basketball
As Van Miller’s one time producer in both radio and TV, I can tell you I don’t know that he ever sounded better than behind the mic courtside at the Aud during Braves games, as shown to the left with Dr Jack Ramsey, standing.
Another of those popular questions is Do you have any Braves Games? Apparently, the answer has been yes for quite a long time… only they’ve been stuck on tapes I couldn’t play. But now, I have at least three Braves games in their entirety.
Braves vs Lakers: December 19, 1973
Kareem Abdul Jabbar visits Memorial Auditorium
Braves vs Bucks: February 2, 1973
Wilt Chamberlain visits Memorial Auditorium
Van Miller interviews Fred Hilton and Randy Smith in the WBEN studios circa 1972.
Some Highlights from WBEN Friday December 28, 1973
WBEN’s Al Fox interviews a cow.Dick Rifenburg (l) and Clint Buehlman (r) receive an Award for Ski Coverage.Ward FentonDick RifenburgJack OgilvieKen PhilipsLou DouglasLou Douglas in Studio AStan Barron showing some kids around the studio.
Some Highlights from WBEN March 15, 1973
Random Highlights from WBEN 1973
Ed Tucholka at the WBEN-FM automation center.Virgil Booth on the Channel 4 set.Marty Gleason at the Editors Desk.Reformatted & Updated pages from staffannouncer.com finding a new home at buffalostories.com
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Steve Cichon
Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News.
He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.
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By Steve Cichon
