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1010 WCOC?

I was traveling down Old Hwy 78 about two months ago, and the studo site is still there, with a yellow "La Que Buena" van parked out front for sale. The site, as far as I know, is abandoned, and WCOC has been off the air for around three years now.

-Travis
 
Thanks Travis - I found the studio (looks like an old house) using google earth. I can actually see the van too....LOL

It looks like the tower is across 78 on another piece of land.

Was this station profitable during the years when Paul Johnson owned it? I heard that he passed away in February. Where was the focus for this station? Mostly the Jasper area? Or the Birmingham 'burbs?
 
Back in the days when I first listened to this station, back in 2001, it was a Classic Country station as WPYK. I'm not sure who the owner at that time was, then in 2002 it flipped to Regional Mexican or Tejano as WCOC. Up until 2004, the station carried Preaching and Bluegrass Gospel in English on Sundays. When it was Country, It's main targets would have been Dora, Sumiton, and Jasper, although it also put out a good signal towards Cullman County.

Once it flipped to Spanish, It probably tried to target the western portions of Birmingham, but I'm not sure... Some of the others here on this forum can possibly fill in the rest.

-Travis
 
The building is all ripped up, People have stolen the copper wire and water lines and a torn up mess, what a shame.I talked to the people at the transmitter site behind there house,they let me look at the site,tower is fine and as the building,I was told by the eng. bill morrow that it is crap, called the owners in Ga. got voice mail, no one ever called back,and wrsm, that place is about to fall in,same with the copper there,everything is all ripped out. Someone put in a nice transmitter building, but it is empty, the old harris from the main building was stripped for the copper and now there is no sign ot at all. Shame all the good little stations went dark and all we have is the big corp crap radio. And yes the tower is across 78 behind a house there this old man and his wife and daughter live there, they want to lease it out,the owners of the station are in Ga and have not sent any money for rent on the tower site at all after the station went dark. The last one to call them was Dave Hedrick at wgad in gadsden,he as well got v. m. and no one ever called him back.
 
On November 28, 2007, the station informed the FCC that it would be going off the air on December 1, 2007, due to "financial difficulties being experienced by the licensee."[13] The application noted that the station would resume broadcast operations "following a reassessment of station operations to determine a means to improve station revenues" and requested authority to stay silent pending this reassessment. On September 26, 2008, the station filed for an extension of this temporary stay silent authority.[14] On November 19, 2008, the FCC granted the requested extension with a scheduled expiration date of May 18, 2009.[14]

The September 2008 filing also states that negotiations are currently in progress for the sale of this radio station. ( Last info )
 
In '85, this little station in the middle of the country tried to serve B'Ham as K-Rock "Bama's Best Rock". K-99 was long gone, 95 Rock switched to I-95, so the Ham was without a rock station. It lasted about 6 months. I went over and bought some albums for a buck a piece, when they threw in the towel. Back then the studio was on the North side of 78. I think it later became a LPTV studio.
 
ALRocker said:
In '85, this little station in the middle of the country tried to serve B'Ham as K-Rock "Bama's Best Rock". K-99 was long gone, 95 Rock switched to I-95, so the Ham was without a rock station. It lasted about 6 months. I went over and bought some albums for a buck a piece, when they threw in the towel. Back then the studio was on the North side of 78. I think it later became a LPTV studio.
Click to expand...

AM 1010 has had several formats over the years. Y'all remember the station's short-lived existence as WDLE (when the owners tried to move/change the COL to Gardendale, hence the calls)? I think that lasted only a few months before the WPYK calls arrived back on the scene. :D
 
I have a vague memory of the station having a classic country format at some time in the late 80's or early 90's. For some reason "Pick Country" comes to mind. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

PS: I've added some of this info to this history page for the station on my site. Hope you guys don't mind. :)
 
Zach, this station did go by pick ten ten when they did a top 40/hits type format. That was before the rock, country, spanish days. May of been in the early 80's. I remember the WDLE days, too. I turned it on one morning expecting to hear K-Rock, but instead one of the rock jocks was doing the Gardendale obits., followed by some country song. I knew the switch to country was coming, but that caught me off guard, to say the least.
 
That seems very odd that they would try to "serve" Gardendale before actually making a facilities move.

Did 1010 sign off at sunset, or did they make use of their 41 watts of night power?

Would a resurrected version of this station survive? With the Jasper stations, and of course B'Ham, this area seems to be a bit over-radio'ed.

By the way, Scotty mentioned WRSM. That station has been donated to yet another non-profit religious broadcaster. Joy Christian Communications couldn't get it together (not exactly a shocker) Too bad WRSM got caught up in that nasty estate dispute after the passing of the owner. I can't believe BOTH of these stations were hit by the ever present meth-head copper thieves. How in the hell could they strip a building like 1010's studio, which is in plain view on a busy highway? Or WRSM, where there are several residences nearby? Where is Sheriff Buford T. Justice when you need him???
 
stereolane said:
That seems very odd that they would try to "serve" Gardendale before actually making a facilities move.


By the way, Scotty mentioned WRSM. That station has been donated to yet another non-profit religious broadcaster. Joy Christian Communications couldn't get it together (not exactly a shocker) Too bad WRSM got caught up in that nasty estate dispute after the passing of the owner. I can't believe BOTH of these stations were hit by the ever present meth-head copper thieves. How in the hell could they strip a building like 1010's studio, which is in plain view on a busy highway? Or WRSM, where there are several residences nearby? Where is Sheriff Buford T. Justice when you need him???
Click to expand...

WRSM has since changed calls to WKDG ("Kingdom" Radio). The group has two stations IIRC...WKDG and an FM somewhere in GA. They do have a stream online for Kingdom Radio, not sure if WKDG is actually on the air, though.
 
If they are on ,Its somewhere far from the old site,nothing there but a good tower and trans. shack,the rest is total junk now. All of that side of the street is just a torn up mess ,all empty buildings falling in and doors kicked in and holes everywhere from dope thugs looking for copper, One time great little radio stations now trashed. I hate to see that.
 
WKDG AM 1540 is silent. Last I heard them (then WRSM) was in October. They were briefly on the air for two weeks or so, and have been off the air ever since.

At least Walker County still has two AM's on the air... and even better, they actually play music (WJLX-Oldies and WIXI-Country). Oh, how I wish there were still some Rock stations on the AM dial around here....

-Travis
 
rangerscotty said:
If they are on ,Its somewhere far from the old site,nothing there but a good tower and trans. shack,the rest is total junk now. All of that side of the street is just a torn up mess ,all empty buildings falling in and doors kicked in and holes everywhere from dope thugs looking for copper, One time great little radio stations now trashed. I hate to see that.
Click to expand...

Does anyone know the real story behind the estate / probate dispute over WRSM? This went on for some amount of time, and how ironic that while the heirs fought, nobody bothered to secure the facilities, and the value of the assets was reduced to zero by Alabama meth addicts. Frankly, i'd love to walk in on some copper thieves at one of my tower sites, and introduce them to my 2 friends, Smith and Wesson... They would either leave crying or in a body bag. Knowing your neighbors, and having them keep a watchful eye can be priceless security. Obviously, the owners / heirs of WRSM were too blinded by sheer greed to consider that.

Back to my question about 1010....... Was this station ever profitable during any of it's various format experiments?
 
Very well said. And mt too. with my styer m40, love to catch some, I dream of that day, Back in the 80s, they pulled up the ground copper at tower #3 in the middle of the day at wyde...then on 850 @ 50kw, bet they had some burns. On wrsm who was the owner that passed away ?. There were two I was told but only knew one. And wpyk was a hard sell,I did some, hade to give that up quick,Rob Numan worked afternoon 3-signoff and sales from 9-2 and he was a good salesman,but he had only a sold, the station was always in the hole , that was 95-96 as far as I knew.wrsm did some better but not that great.that was early 82 I think.
 
The court case was Chapman v Steadman. Chapman was the winner. I don't know the details, but all of this began when one of the elder Steadman's (I believe) passed away. This is from the FCC's website, in 2004:

QUOTE:

UNAUTHORIZATED ACTION BY MAJORITY SHAREHOLDER

IT MAY HAVE BEEN A VIOLATION THAT MAJORITY SHAREHOLDER STEADMAN TOOK THE STATION OFF THE AIR WITHOUT NOTIFICATION TO THE FCC AND THE MINORITY SHAREHOLDER CHAPMAN. IT IS THE UNDERSTANDING THE THE CHAPMAN'S THAT MAJORITY SHAREHOLDER STEADMAN DID NOT NOTIFY THE FCC WHEN HE TOOK THE UNAUTHORIZED ACTION. MINORITY SHAREHOLDER CHAPMAN PUT THE STATION BACK ON THE AIR BEFORE THE END OF THE TWELVE MONTH PERIOD. MINORITY SHAREHOLDER CHAPMANS' HAVE BEEN ATTEMPTING THROUGH LEGAL COUNSEL TO HAVE MEETINGS WITH MAJORITY SHAREHOLDER STEADMAN BUT STEADMAN FAILS TO ATTEND SHAREHOLDER MEETINGS TO DISCUSS ISSUES OF THE LICENSE.

---------------------

Seems to me like a lot of legal expense, time, and trouble, and all for an AM daytimer on a lousy frequency that (from what I gather) was in a trailer.
 
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