Mike Schweizer was a much-admired working broadcast engineer beginning in the 1980’s. Mike became interested in radio at a very early age, building a crystal radio as a child. Like many young radio enthusiasts, young Mike stayed up all night listening to stations around the country. His daughter Jennifer Waites told BARHOF’s David Ferrel Jackson that Mike sent postcards to those stations with reports of how he heard their signal and they would send him cards back, which he collected. Jennifer said Mike always loved the music, personalities and concept of radio and he knew from when he was a child that he wanted to try it himself.
Schweizer was the assistant chief engineer for University of San Francisco’s college radio station KUSF and was with the station for over 33 years. Not only was Schweizer an integral part of KUSF, but he also had his hand in the workings of many radio stations in the Bay Area. Between 1966 and 2006, he recorded hundreds of airchecks off the radio, not just of his favorite station, but of all kinds of San Francisco-area stations, plus a few from elsewhere. The Mike Schweizer Aircheck Collection has 289 examples of straight-off-the-airwaves radio and is an invaluable resource for researchers and radio fans.