Gran Torino

Long before the 2008 Clint Eastwood movie of the same name I owned two of them. I am speaking of the Ford Gran Torino. One a 1973 four door station wagon olive green with fake wood side panels that I drove most of the 11th and 12th grade. I went everywhere in that thing; assisted my dad in his piano tuning business, drove him to church trotted off to his preaching engagements and in later years to my job at WEAS. The thing looked like a tank and finally died when I lost the transmission in it.

Next was a tomato red two door Starsky and Hutch special. I loved that car. Unlike the TV show which featured a ‘74 model mine was a ‘76 without the broad white racing stripe. I had bought it from my station manager for a $1,000.00 and she let me make payments of $50.00 a paycheck. Good job security I suppose. I kept it detailed and made the local Western Auto my second home. One Sunday after church, I wrecked my baby by rear-ending a black Trans-Am or Camaro similar to the Smoky & the Bandit car Burt Reynolds drove. There was hardly a scratch on the car I hit. My eight year old beauty sustained major front end damage. The plastic grille was smashed along with a huge dent in the right front quarter panel. The one and only body shop estimate I got was for $1,200.00. Oh my God! 200 more than I paid for it. To top things off I was ticketed for driving too close, made a court appearance and covered the $50.00 fine. Unfortunately, I didn’t have collision insurance or $1,200.00 so I had to drive her wrecked.

 

Despite all the cosmetic flaws, I kept the Torino running good. I had a great honest mechanic at the Ford dealership who would do maintenance and repairs on his lunch break and charged me cost for the genuine Ford parts. I learned a lot about cars from this veteran wrench turner. He was a master diagnostician who seemed to know everything. God places the right people in your path.

I, on the other hand, was a complete novice. I bought a cheap Western Auto ratchet set and got started making repairs on a trial and mostly error basis with a Chilton’s manual by my side. One day I decided to remove the non functioning Eight Track stereo. Hey, I worked at a radio station so this should be reasonably easy. Right? I exorcised the unit and left a yawning hole in the panel which was never filled with a new radio. My dad ribbed me constantly for my amateur surgery. The patient did not survive. As a substitute I took along a Sony portable radio for musical accompaniment and news on the 30 minute ride to work every day.

From that point forward I decided to learn all I could about cars; their intricate electrical systems, ignitions, and parts. Self education paid off later in life when I embarked on a lucrative 13 year career in auto parts following my life in radio; obtaining an ASE certification along the way, all thanks to my initial tinkering with the Gran Torino.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for viewing the Whistle. Come back soon! Check out my companion blog Gospel Aircheck at http://gospelaircheck.blogspot.com

Oops!

Please read or listen to the "Radio Rewind" post/podcast Skate, Skate, Skate first. I will see you in a minute to clear up my story…(thanks to digital technology, many of the errors in the post have been corrected. The podcast remains unchanged.)

Normally I take pride in the accuracy of my posts, but a previous blog needs correction. Over the years I have kept both written and spoken word diaries on tape and I will from time to time refer to them when writing these posts. Skate, Skate, Skate, posted last week, was a mostly accurate account I made straight from my memory without diary backup. I even neglected to consult a 1984 calendar for dates.

This morning I went back to my sources to fact-check and confirmed that the Christian Youth Skate was indeed held on Saturday nights at the Savannah Skate Inn as reported beginning June the 9th, 1984. However, the Youth Skate I brought over to Skatetime USA in the summer of ‘84 was on Mondays from 8 until 10:30 pm, not ever on Saturdays as I recalled previously. I can’t confirm that we directly competed with Skate Inn on my own radio station’s Christian Monday’s but I do log in early 1985 that we had just restarted doing Mondays at the Skate Inn and I was now volunteering (March, 1985).

Cannibalizing a party my main employer held would have been asinine, I was only 18 though. “Friendly” competition between the rinks was common then and it is a fact that Tommy Edwards, Skate Inn manager, resented the inference I made in a commercial for Skatetime USA that their facility was superior to his. I agree that it was unethical of me, Tommy had a point. No copies of those Skatetime USA commercials have survived, so I have no way of confirming content.

Two parties on the same night? It is reasonable to assume that both parties occurred on Mondays; why would have Tommy been so angry about just a line of copy? I am almost 100% sure now that there were simultaneous parties for at least a while.

I made the same hourly wage at Skatetime USA. The Monday party was an hour shorter than Saturday. I left the radio station early on skate nights and had floaters fill in on my shift.

It was Skatetime USA that had the Technics SL-1200 turntables not the Skate Inn. Their turntables did not provide the instants cues of the Technics. They were good consumer units, but I don’t remember the brand. I discovered a photo on Facebook of the Savannah Skate Inn sound booth from the era that confirms this. Both rinks sounded great! I give Skatetime USA the nod for sheer oomph.

My memory has been jogged by tapes that record certain events in minute detail. The whole skate party controversy is basically mentioned in passing. High school graduation angst is front and center. But a detail I inadvertently omitted is that Skate Inn discontinued the gig by “laying me off”. I blame slow ticket sales. My role was not as proactive as I had thought. There was a very brief gap between gigs. Monday Christian Youth Skate lasted a few weeks and I have confirmed it ended on Monday, August 20, 1984; corroborated by a personal letter I received, an ‘84 calendar and the audio diary. I don’t record when it started; by the time I logged it in the diary it had become a weekly routine.

Stay tuned.

Radio Waves

Anyone who has followed my blogs over these last few months knows I have written all original material. This morning I will make an exception by drawing your attention of a couple very significant developments in the whacky world of radio as reported by http://radio.about.com/

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" 
- Said by David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s
The Telecommunication Act of 1996 (approved by the 104th Congress on January 3, 1996).

This law allowed companies to buy more AM and FM radio stations than ever before. Critics argue it was a green light for large companies to dilute programming with similar cookie-cutter formats, replace local DJs and radio personalities with remote voice-tracking technology, and cut staffs by automating many formerly-manned air-shifts.

Large companies like Clear Channel Radio - who at one point owned more than 1200 radio stations - defended these practices.

Significance: In retrospect, deregulation and consolidation probably made the AM and FM radio industry less competitive, less creative, and more vulnerable to upcoming technologies which were poised to take advantage of a changing paradigm for audio distribution.

Deregulation of the Radio industry and consolidation of operations and staff served to homogenize programming and weaken the value of AM and FM radio stations, allowing for other technologies to come along like Internet Radio and Satellite Radio able to chip away at that portion of the available audience that was becoming disenchanted or disenfranchised.

Commercial AM and FM radio began to make itself less compelling at a time when new technologies were about to redefine the concept of "Radio" - and compete head on against it.

In my opinion, the period commencing with the introduction of Real Audio in 1995 through the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 should be viewed as the delineation between what I refer to as the end of the "Era of Commercial AM and FM" and the beginning of what is now the "Modern Radio Era".

Now, the next blurb is what I consider the wave of the future, it will forever impact the radio industry and bring radio back to the future…good bye AM & FM

WiMax - WiMax came in 2008. WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It can provide broadband wireless access up to a 30 mile radius.

Significance: As the WiMax infrastructure begins to build out, Internet Radio stations will be able to stream programming up to 60 miles in diameter through this technology. That pretty much covers almost every metropolitan area like a blanket - and will put Internet Radio on the same footing as AM and FM radio stations for attracting listeners.

Stay tuned

Skate, Skate, Skate

In  May of 1984 I was wrapping up my senior year of high school having the time of my life working in radio. Spinning the gospel music in the afternoon following school gave me an easy way to earn money part time while studying for finals during songs and preaching shows. We played Lp’s and 45’s directly to air not from carts like the bigger stations did so I actually spun vinyl as the disco DJ’s did and still do.

This experience with tight cues on our Technics SP-15 turntables was a joy. Immediate starts from a dead stop were possible with those units. When I wanted even closer starts or begin within a selection I would revert to a method called a slip cue. You would allow the platter to run underneath the record while holding the vinyl manually then releasing the record when needed. Pow! you were rockin’. High torque and perfect precision from the direct drive motors provided years of trouble free service. All but one of my non Internet radio homes used this particular model. In ‘84 a couple of them would set you back the price of a good used car, worth every penny.

Anyway, my station was hosting a Christian Skating party on Monday nights and was using our morning man Dennis Allen and others as guest DJ’s. I had no concept of their compensation but I was soon to find out some very good news. Our sponsor, Savannah Skate Inn, not actually a hotel, rather a roller rink wanted an additional skate party on Saturday nights aimed at a slightly younger clientele. The rink’s manager, Tommy Edwards, apparently wanted yours truly to host. He worked out my compensation. I was to be paid three times my hourly rate at the radio station. Wow!

Six days following my high school graduation Contemporary Christian Music rocked the Skate Inn. Church youth leaders brought in bus loads for our premiere. Admission was only $3.00, a dollar less with a coupon and free skates rental. A quarter of each admission was put into jackpot that was awarded to the largest group represented. What a win win scenario!

I was a bit nervous at first facing a live audience but soon overcame the butterflies when I realized the interactions directly with patrons presenting song requests and their putting together a face with a voice. One mother had assumed my age was 35. “Thanks ma’am, I’m only 18,” was my grateful reply. I was perched in the booth among my peers spinning my own Christian Rock ‘n Roll records, playing the Hokey Pokey, couples skates, etc.

One faux pas has haunted me to this day. During one contest, all girl skate, I proclaimed to a skater taking her for a boy, “That’s all girls!”. “I am a girl,” was her curt reply. Egg all over my face, I proceeded with the segment gesturing an apology to the young lady.

Savannah Skate Inn had a nice equipment setup: Two direct drive turntables; not the reference standard Technics SL-1200 found in discos and rinks worldwide; although not suitable for a broadcast environment, a compact disco mixer, a cool Teac C-2 rack mount cassette deck (the $1,000 consumer version of the professional Tascam 122B), cheap microphone, massive amplification and huge pro theater style loudspeaker cabinets. Music to hear and feel.

Two months passed with various success and little controversy until one day at my main radio job I received a phone call from the manager of cross town rival Skatetime USA requesting I move the Christian Youth Skate and my record collection to his facility. I had seen crowds dwindling at the Skate Inn and saw the handwriting on the wall. Manager Tommy had already cut 30 minutes from the 3 1/2 hour party and would have continued sans salary so I was ready for the new gig. I preceded thinking I would get sales commission for the new Skatetime USA account but was shocked to find out that although I did all the leg work with contracts and producing commercials it became a “house account” because the client had initially called the station so no commission was issued. Bull malarkey. I missed out on the commission but it was now too late to un-burn a bridge with Tommy who understandably felt betrayed by me and my commercial spots for the new Youth Skate now directly competing on Mondays. The next assignment was a newer facility who the manager touted as sounding better, louder and gave more liberty in music selection. In my youthful exuberance I cannibalized a loyal account to make a buck. What a backfire!

The sound booth at Skatetime USA was a little bit different from Skate Inn. They had the superior Technics SL-1200 turntables, industry standard to this day for club DJ's who still use vinyl. Instant starts just like the more costly SP-15's. I was reacquainted with these decks at radio home number four, WBKI, the only time I've seen these semi-pro machines used in a broadcast environment. Generally, rink equipment is primitive and clunky compared to fully professional gear. I often fantasized a rink with superior broadcast equipment.  A live remote from the party would have been a super idea allowing dual payment. Although the station would have weaseled out of paying me somehow just as they had with the deserved commission. 

Two distinct details I remember clearly from Skatetime USA was once the manager had me play “Good ‘Ole Boys” from the then current Dukes of Hazzard TV series. One could feel this mostly Christian crowd groan in disapproval. There had been a famous song I often played by the Southern Gospel group Dixie Melody Boys which was a reply to the popular Waylon Jennings ditty, the Gospel gospel version answered;

“Good ole boys won’t make it into heaven; Good ole boys won’t wear a crown; Good ole boys won’t live forever where the saints of God are found…”

Next, a live local band joined the party one Monday night. Suddenly I became emcee and apparent fan of the unknown act shouting like a boxing ring announcer, “Ladies and gentlemen…Second Wind!” The band then exploded with a few original numbers. It was a pleasant surprise that evening for sure.

By the third Monday in August of ‘84 the party was discontinued by the manager who had been so instrumental in pulling me away from the Savannah Skate Inn just a month prior. He paid me in advance and told me the bad news. I actually took it in stride probably because I had brought a new friend along and didn’t want her to see me in an unpleasant light. It seems likely that we left the party early that night because it was not yet dark outside. Afterwards, on into early '85, I made one or two unpaid appearances at Tommy’s place. I don’t recall patching things up with him or if it had ever been an issue between us. He had only communicated through my station manager. Time has erased the details. Ironically, Tommy never restricted my creative freedom or had other entertainment take the spotlight.

Three years later in 1987 I found myself at Paulding County Skate Center playing upbeat Christian records for listeners of WSPZ, my second radio home. This experience was quite vanilla compared to my previous. I don’t remember any money being offered and possibly shared hosting duties with the stations other personalities. My production values had blossomed so the commercials are the part best remembered. I began them with line, “Skate, Skate, Skate..” My voice was split via multiple tape tracks, filtered and made lower. I then borrowed my top 40 DJ voice for the copy with a funky bass beat playing underneath. For many years to follow my work buddy Corky Cheek, whom I’d also work with at WDCY and WBKI, would greet me by intoning Skate…Skate…Skate. Press play to sample the original commercials.

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Stay tuned

We’re Douglas Country!

Radio home number three has been very hard to write about because it ended in a bitter divorce. Just like the child, little J-O-E, in the famous Tammy Wynette song I needed shelter from the awful truth. I realize now, 18 years later, having survived a bad first marriage in real life a decade ago this radio separation thing was a walk in the park. Both marriages lasted only 10 months.

Third time around was another unique situation. This new owner held a General Radiotelephone Operator License (GROL). I was impressed with his credentials and his engineering background in both radio and TV. The honeymoon soon ended when I discovered his hardnosed, dictatorial approach to managing our staff. This radio home was now owned by one individual owner operator not a corporation or church organization like my previous employers. Imagine Fidel Castro rolled up into Adolf Hitler. So as not to defame the dead, I’ll call him Bill.

The church that had owned WSPZ had become desperate to unload this albatross hung around their neck. So desperate, in fact, that Bill wound up paying less than a tenth of the original asking price of the station less the studio building, which he’d lease from April until we moved the following summer of 1990.

Bill, 58 years old, entered with flattery, focusing his attentions on my office of program director. He seemed to value my role and appointed me architect of the new image. What an ego expedition this turned out to be for me. I came up with the new call letters WDCY-AM, representing We’re Douglas County. We realized the focus of the former owners was too broad. They had assumed our 2,500 watt signal would penetrate the Atlanta environs and marketed us as such. We decided to do a heavy local push by adding a news director and field reporters, making our presence known in the business community, covering nearby high school sports events and doing live remotes ad nauseam. Bill had some great ideas; made some tough adjustments to staff and bruised many egos along the way, but I must say that it was never boring. Bill and I were just too different. He never had a proper understanding of our Southern Gospel music format often referring to it as Barber Shop Quartet. I was an impetuous 24 year old bent on winning control over the old man’s station. Boy, was I wrong!

I believe a pivotal moment for Bill was a Gospel concert he had masterminded, not meeting his expectations, although I saw it as a success during the culmination of Southern Gospel Music Month in September of ‘90. I pled the cause of Gospel music, but he seemed soured by the experience and preferred to go to what he called Country and Western. Who called Country that anymore? Secretly, I knew a secular format would not work for me and would probably quit should we change. Anyway, for the first time ever I was forced to take an on-air partner and produce a morning show modeled after the morning zoo fluff shows popular those days. The Mabry & O’Neal Morning Show was born around November with promotions director slash occasional news reporter, Angie Mabry. We both worked hard at it but the show was incompatible with our audience. We seldom ever referred to the Gospel music or religion at all.

By February of 1991 Bill had trimmed the now bloated air staff taking on some air time himself. This change put me on-air 6 days a week thereby stealing vital time away from the office and production room tasks necessary for perfecting our sound. The balancing act proved humanly impossible and I resigned during the inevitable and ultimately ill fated format change to country and a new slogan, We’re Douglas Country.

Stay tuned

My First Radio Station

Gosh. My first station; what an odd, yet wonderfully unique format. It was a Gospel station with at least three dayparted formats. That meant we played a different style of music or programming depending on the time of day you were listening. Southern Gospel in the morning then time brokered religious programs mid-day, followed by traditional and urban contemporary Black Gospel. I loved it all. By 1986 I began my afternoon drive show with 30 minutes of Southern Gospel; the the rest of my broadcast was Contemporary Christian till 9pm. The listeners were confused, but what an education I gleaned from Gospel 90 WEAS AM (later WWJD) in Savannah, Georgia. I got from it a deeper appreciation for all forms of music as well as a priceless lexicon of Gospel trivia. 

The station was originally licensed to Savannah on 900kc in 1950 despite legal objections from the local broadcast community. See http://www.lawskills.com/case/ga/id/18820/Then it was known as WJIV. They played what was termed at the time "race records". Modeled after the highly successful WDIA in Memphis, Tennessee, WJIV served the African American community exclusively for about a dozen years. Forward to about 1963; WJIV station owner, E.D. "Dee" Rivers, Jr, moved the call letters "WEAS" from his Atlanta station on 1010 AM, today known as WGUN, to the Savannah station. In my research I discovered that Rivers also made an unsuccessful bid for a TV station called WJIV-TV. Coinciding with the call sign change was a shift to a "Hillbilly" format, what we know now as Country. What a contrast! But it seems these listeners were under served and Rivers once again filled a demographic need. I imagine the sounds of Patsy Cline and Hank Williams were interspersed with preachers and the occasional Gospel tune. A few years later in '68 the 100,000 watt WEAS-FM was born. It began as an automated "Beautiful Music" or "Easy Listening" format. The FM later programmed  "Progressive Rock" till the mid 70's. That's when I believe the "E-93" brand became reality. They were now serving the black community full time, the format that's a ratings winner for them until this day. I understand that the AM and FM were simulcasting in the morning in those days. The AM split away from the FM mid-day with preachers and Southern Gospel music 'til sun down.

By the time I joined WEAS-AM in May of 1983 it was mostly Southern Gospel. During the next 3 years the format evolved into the hybrid I described. Each disk jockey picked his own music. I could usually tune in at home and know which DJ was on by the music he or she played! It sounds as though it would be chaotic, but it worked, mostly.

Late 1983 enter a new manager from Arkansas one Charles Lewallen. He was a minister and believed in strict format. He objected to diluting our music selections with other variations of the Gospel form. One time he told me not to play a certain New Gaither Vocal Band selection because it sounded too "rock". That seems so ridiculous now. Gaither? Rock? I was 17 in October of 1983 when Charles changed our call letters to WWJD. The new call sign didn't easily roll off my tongue and was ten plus years before the unrelated WWJD bracelets. The acronym did NOT represent "What Would Jesus Do". Our name stood for, "Walking With Jesus Daily". A possible motive for the switch was a disassociation with our sister, WEAS-FM. Being a green teenager I complied with whatever management said. I had very little to do with the business end of radio until much later in my career.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in their January 30, 1985 issue that Mr. Lewallen had wrongfully fired a female black announcer, Lucy Frazier, in summer '83. The report said she was suing the station for damages in US District court in Atlanta. I don't know how the case was settled but it explains a lot! Charles abruptly disappeared early 1984 or slightly before. The paper quoted him as saying, it was, "inappropriate for a black woman to play white gospel records ."

At the time we had a staff meeting admonishing us to remain quiet on the situation.  Obviously, this manager had an eye on brand issues and image of the station, hopefully not skin color or gender. I'm not qualified to psychoanalyze his motive as racial. His side is not very well represented in the article. I think this incident prompted the addition of black Gospel music to our line up. Borrowed from our FM, Lester "Leck" White was eventually added mid-days to provide some soul.

During this whole time the glue that held our little 5,ooo watt station together was my dear friend and mentor Gloria. She had interviewed and hired me in the spring of 1983 and served as manager for my entire 3 1/2 year tenure. She had been pushed to the side briefly when Lewallen took over. I overheard a conversation between she and another DJ. She had felt slighted by the apparent demotion and threatened to quit. Long story short, she outlasted the new "manager" many years.

I would describe Gloria's management style as easy going, much like her on-air persona. Our DJ's pretty much had free reign. Not that we were allowed to play Led Zeppelin records or anything, I just mean we played almost any Gospel we wanted. We all felt trusted. She had a few exceptions though.  A lot of upbeat Contemporary Christian numbers were forbidden, such as the Imperials' "Water Grave", from the "Sail On" album. A great many of the "Do not play" list were deliberately scratched through on the record album and rendered unplayable; a primitive, but effective insurance of compliance.

This changed in September of 1986. We were going to switch to Contemporary Christian! As a 20 year old Christian youth who loved mainstream top 40 this was super news. The station had now been granted approval for 24 hour operation. For the 36 years prior to this occasion we were a "Daytimer", signing on at sunrise and signing off at sunset. As a concession to more powerful clear channel AM stations, our transmitter power was greatly reduced at night. We probably deferred to the powerhouse 890 AM WLS Chicago. I was made music director and coined  J-900 as a brand for our new sound.

The novelty wore off. I  found out that the "format" would only apply to certain dayparts. CCM would be heard only after 3:30 pm. I saw this as a weak commitment to the music. The local conservative preaching shows must have dictated our sound. Bummer! Our aim was to reach the youth demographic with the hotter sound. It was reasoned that most kids listened after class. A few outspoken callers to the station during that time of day were Christian private school students who reported that parents did not allow them to listen to any secular music. In them we had a small captive audience to supplement our regulars probably confused by our diverse sound. (Click on the Mp3 below for a sample.)

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We ventured past midnight to the likes of Michael W. Smith's "Rocket Town" and maintained the show until I left the station for the Atlanta market in late November of '86. I had declined an opportunity to work for the 50,000 watt sister station WGUN in Atlanta, interviewed at Love 86 WAEC-AM, and by February of 1987 found my self at a new home, the 1Kw daytimer, WSPZ-AM in suburbia.

Stay Tuned.

Tower Collapse

Working in small and medium market radio has had its foibles. For instance,  budget restraints in the technical department. I may not know what I am talking about but I believe that all of my chief engineers were moonlighting away from their main gig. My first chief, Dennis, was employed by the number one station in the market and retained by my station part time. At my second radio home Richard was another fine engineer on call to us but yet again his allegiance was to a big Atlanta FM. I had a great rapport with these guys and tried to learn as much about their craft as I could. I knew their hands were tied by our smaller budgets so a lot of maintenance was differed. Still, it was no less frustrating when something major got screwed up.

My first radio station had numerous technical issues although I believe our owners had very deep pockets. One DJ in our FM department once commented that, “Someone could pee down the street and knock us off the air”. Crass but true, he was almost right because it only took a mild thunderstorm to kick both AM and FM off the air.  The FM’s signal was almost always monaural not the clear stereo of our competition. Lightning once fried a transmitter making us sound no better than a citizens band (CB) radio. I was advised to switch it off and go home an hour early.

Around Saint Patrick’s day of 1985 some water craft on the Savannah River severed our STL (Studio Transmitter Link) line. All the air staff were moved out to the remote transmitter site to broadcast directly. The FM had emergency equipment there but we in AM were stuck with two Marantz Superscope portable cassette recorders and one patch cord directly wired to the transmitter. In an earlier post, Beam Me Up Scottie, I described the poor audio experience. It  lasted two days but seemed much longer. Bell South dropped us a new line in short order.

Five years later at my new radio home, WSPZ-AM, located just west of Atlanta, a tornado blew down our broadcast tower. This time I was off the air for two weeks without the luxury of a back up plan. Luckily for the staff, we reported for work and were paid. The station was awaiting FCC approval of transfer of ownership and feared the collapse would hinder the sale.

Station number two was the opposite of my first. WSPZ was owned by a smallish local church. The owners had spent an obscene amount of money on all new professional studio equipment and had for its size the best AM audio this DJ has ever herd. I feel that the owners were overextended when we first learned the station was for sale, 2 1/2 years prior to the tornado. A sizable investment was wasted on a 1Kw signal with 500 watts critical hours. The power was increased in about 1988 which meant another wad of cash for a new transmitter for only an increase to two and a half thousand watts. You may think that’s more than double the power but remember engineers tell us that to actually double your output on AM there has to be a ten fold increase in wattage. So, obviously, an allowance of 10,000 watts would have actually paid off.

what’s ironic about SPZ, the station’s listed price of $750,000 in 1987 was lowered numerous times and actually sold for a mere $70,000 a tenth in 1990. That’s what I call poor return on investment. For three years I was basically babysitting. I made a decent living doing something I loved and do not regret a thing. It is funny that my original radio home was owned by tightwads who refused a lot of the basics on stations with enormous potential while my second place was owned by free spenders beating a dead horse. I guess you can’t have it all.

Stay tuned.

Breakfast with Burl

  The radio station I listened to most as a kid was Z-102 in Savannah, Georgia. Now, I realize that the station was only another Z-100 New York clone. This CHR format over populated the FM dial all across the USA in the 1980’s. Yes it was derivative but I enjoyed the station and copied their style often when I became a Contemporary Christian Music DJ. One unique element of good old WZAT-FM was Burl Womack. His show “Breakfast with Burl” was on my car radio every morning on my way to high school. Burl was allowed to play Southern Gospel music along with Adult Contemporary and hits of the day. Strange combination of styles but it worked! Burl had the number one show on the number one station in the market for years.

  Womack was a mature man with an easy going style and mellifluous baritone. He’d get to a point in the show where he would pour another cup of coffee (a sound effect from a cart tape, no doubt) address the topics of the day, read the school lunch menu and, as best as I can recall, played his choice of Gospel music until at least 8:00 AM. He seemed to be actually having breakfast with you. The show was aptly named. To this day I wonder why he didn’t make the jump to television, he reminded me of David Hartman, one time host of ABC’s Good Morning America.

  I met Burl on two separate occasions once at at the Savannah Skate Inn roller rink where I hosted a Christian Youth Skate and then again a few months later when he emceed a Dixie Melody Boys concert at a private school auditorium in Garden City. What struck me most about the main was his vocal power in person. His speaking voice was laid back and boomed even though he spoke softly. I was intimidated and our exchange was minimal, after all what did I as an 18 year old upstart have to offer? It was a mystery to me why he was at the skating rink and at the time I felt he gave me the brush off although he was probably hurried or surprisingly, shy. A few months later at the Gospel concert he did a splendid job as emcee and I saw a humorous side to the man not always evident on his radio show. That night I was asked to stand as representative of my radio station during the concert. Typical of me I was embarrassed, quickly stood, waved, said nothing and sat down.

  Burl has been nominated in 2009 for a lifetime Career Achievement Award by the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame. Good luck to you Mr. Womack you deserve the honor. Your many years on the Savannah airwaves are fondly remembered by your fans and I am one.

Stay tuned.

Beam Me Up Scottie

Ever been embarrassed by the company you work for? In the early part of 1985 I was flirting with a new career Building airplanes for Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah, Georgia. In fact I was allowed by my radio job with the Rivers’ 900 AM Gospel outfit at least five weeks away from my regular afternoon DJ gig to train for a new job  on the assembly line riveting school. While I was not in class I took on the mid-morning shift. For about 2 1/2 hours a day I babysat the station seeing that it was prime time for our bread an butter brokered preaching shows.

One weekend during this time our underwater studio to transmitter link was severed by, I was told, a submarine.  All of a sudden dead air from both our AM and FM studios.  Management decided to move air staff out to our transmitter on Hutchinson Island.

The 100,000 watt WEAS-FM  had  actual functioning studio equipment suitable for broadcasting out at the site. We at the AM on the other hand had nothing. I am not exaggerating, we literally had two Marantz Superscope portable cassette players with one patch cord attached directly to our audio processor. I would play one cassette on air and use the alternate player to cue the next tape. When one tape ended I had to manually switch the patch cord from one Superscope to the other. Not even a simple mixer or microphone was available. I was assigned to enter the production room facilities at our regular location following my evening training in Pooler to make mix tapes and dubs of reel-to-reel to play during the crisis. I guess these tapes were used for music and preaching when I was not on air. Thank God we were only a daytimer. This setup was all we had. The tapes sounded like crap. Cheap. Cheap.

This time of my life was pivotal for me. I was now ashamed of our highly unprofessional emergency station that sounded as if a 5 year old was using his Fisher Price tape player to broadcast Gospel preaching shows.  Fortunately, a new line was dropped by the phone company and we were back to normal in less than a week. My passion for this low paying job began to wane. The station did not represent the brand quality I heard elsewhere in the market. I was not proud as I once was of the 5,000 watt station that employed me. My perception was forever changed.

I didn’t accept the job out at Gulfstream and returned full time to radio. As the months passed I slowly slipped into the old routine while extremely dissatisfied making the best of the situation. In those days all I ever looked forward to was change. Our hands were tied by sloppy ownership who seemed to neglect the AM at every turn. Keeping sales people was impossible. Had it not been for the preachers and our FM sister we’d have probably gone dark. The Gospel music or the PSA’s we played couldn’t have supported us.  Bad decisions such as call letter change in October of ‘83 were contributing factors to the station’s eventual demise in 1987. Prior to the identity swap we had professional ID’s and jingle packages. As a youngster I felt these elements made a radio station sound pro even if the talent didn’t. No Investment was ever made in the new WWJD branding. An outsider from Arkansas  hired as “Manager”  invented the new call letters but stopped short by not injecting a new image listeners could relate to or advertising the station in other media. I was too young and inexperienced at the time so I took all these events as normal even though I knew our sound never measured up to other stations. We had potential without focus. I was emotionally driven lacking business knowledge I now take for granted. After the new guy failed in the wake of controversy we DJ’s were left by ownership to fend for ourselves with a tongue twister name and make up it as you go philosophy. I was as though we were mocking listeners saying, “Here we are, we were WEAS-AM, used to sound better, now listen anyway.”

For more information on this topic see “My First Station” on my companion blog, Radio Rewind at http://gospelaircheck.blogspot.com

Stay tuned.

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