Hey Trusty:
Thanks for the story you told on the history of WQXI in your days. I want to tell you that was a really big help with my research. I am writing to you because you said you visited WQXI. Would you remember the month and year you did that? Please take your time with your answer.
This would really help me round it down to when WQXI went from MOR to Top 40. Info I have been trying to find for months now.
Thank your for your help on this Trusty. I really appreciated it. When I am done with some of my research I will send you some of my finished product.
T.J.
I moved to Atlanta in '57 when I was 10 years old. I do remember riding in the car by this large plantation on Peachtree on top of a big hill and watching crews take about a year to remove dirt to level the property to below street level and construct Lenox Square. A couple of my mother's car's presets were WTAM/970 and WQXI/790. Both played popular music (I think WTAM was a little more "mellow".)
To the best of my memory, WQXI didn't become Top 40 overnight. If you remember
Your Hit Parade on TV every week, it would have singers sing the top 10 records - mostly
Sinatra/Patti Paige/Mitch Miller/Perry Como/etc. It was funny watching those singers struggle through more and more Elvis songs as Rock and Roll took over (and Little Richard was NOT Nat King Cole).
WQXI was like that, but with one difference: where
Hit Parade couldn't change, Quixie did. WAKE had been playing Rock and Roll for a few years, and was ready to be imitated. QXI had a stronger signal (especially at night) and an established audience where WPLO had to start from scratch. Quixie was also heavy on promotion; if it could be promoted, Quixie would promote it. It had contests, free concerts and anything else to get and keep listeners who became super loyal while WPLO was always playing catch-up. PLO was a great station, but OXI got a (slight) head start and never looked back.
There was something that made Atlanta Top 40 different than any other in the nation: Heavy emphasis on R&B. It wasn't just because Atlanta had a large urban population; it was that, while other markets shyed away, or "whitened-up" R&B records and artists, Atlanta embraced them - saw the value in them - and became one of the greatest Top 40 markets in the nation.
Anyway, maybe some of my ramblings, while not giving you an exact month and year of OXI's changeover, will give a background of its involvement and evolvement. It was heavily involved with the kids and schools - something it couldn't be today because of Atlanta's growth and sprawl. (Matter of fact, the Top 40 station that was more involved with its listeners was WFOM.)
I would love to see your finished product. In the little spare time I had this past summer, I downloaded all the Atlanta station listings from the Broadcasting Yearbooks (and earlier publications) that David E. put online and made a spreadsheet that I can easily reference. Check your PM's.
And if you know where all that Lenox Square dirt went, please tell me. I sometimes still wonder about that.
