'60s deejay Ricky the K spins oldies via Internet

The difference is, he's making his obsession pay off by creating his own station on the Internet for a three-hours-a-day, five-nights-a-week dose of mirth, music and vintage Winston cigarette ads. 

``This is the HBO of radio,'' said Ricky the K, a New Jersey transplant. This is '60s radio.'' 

If you don't remember radio when the original stations were rocking with new music from ground-breaking artists, dial up www.60sradio.com for a sample of Ricky the K's ``Solid Gold Time Machine.'' You'll get you an almost endless supply of great music. And it's stuff that you don't hear on what local stations try to pass off as ``oldies.'' 

That's because Ricky the K, a/k/a Rick Kaufman, owns about 10,000 singles and albums, and what he doesn't have on wax is on CD. And he's not afraid to play 'em. 

We're talking everything from the Shadows of Knight version of ``Gloria,'' or the Hombres with ``Let It All Hang Out,'' to Ray Stevens and (because Kaufman is a Jersey kid) king-size doses of doo-wop. The music format encompasses material from the early '50s through 1971, and none of the songs is played more than once every twelve weeks. 

Kaufman also covers the other missing element, which is entertainment, complete with weird sound effects and ongoing conversation with Tonto, the Lone Ranger's faithful sidekick. 

``To be a great disc jockey you have to be able to ad lib,'' he said. ``That's what made '60s DJs. The guys were characters,'' he said. 

The way he sees it, great Top 40 began to die in 1968 when some programming genius decided that DJs should do nothing more than keep the music running and just talk over the beginnings and ends of songs. 

Couldn't agree more. And Kaufman is right on the money when he sizes up the ``researchers'' who make a good living feeding radio programmers bad advice. The disastrous results are available for sampling daily on the radio. 

``They program oldies for people who really don't like oldies,'' he said, explaining that advertisers want young listeners, not people who love his brand of radio. ``They're trying to skew younger.'' 

Meanwhile, the improving technology should improve his sound quality, and that means good things for him. 

``There's gonna be a time when this music will be completely off the radio and I'll be the only place to get it,'' he said. ``I hope it gets worse. It only makes it better for me.'' 

And if you want to hear the show while you're driving around, Ricky the K has a solution for that, too. 

``You tape it off your computer,'' he said. ``Then you drive around and listen to it.''