1970's WILZ St. Pete memories

[zappafan1]

(I copied this from a response I made to a topic on WILZ, the newest post being in 2009. I thought I'd start a new post in case those following the old post are still around.) Hey, Guys: I don't know if you two still follow this post but I thought I'd give it a shot. I worked for a time at WILZ when Art Millman was there. I did the commercials for The Chupko Show, Pat Chupko being the DJ, and the guitarist for our band "Storm." I was the drummer for the band. A local newspaper even started a comic strip about the show. We opened up the format a bit by playing mostly new release stuff, but we covered anything from John Coltrane to Frank Zappa. We had lots of calls of all ages saying they liked what we put on the air. Geez.... doing editing for the commercials on 1/4" tape was a lot of fun, actually. I still have a 1/4" tape copy of the spots I did for the show. I recall Art being out of the studio for a while one day, and I quietly opened the door up on Pat the DJ room with a fire extinguisher in hand, and sprayed the room, moments later finding out it was a class 2 unit..... there was dust EVERYWHERE (control board, tape carts, etc), which we had to clean up before Art got back, all the while keeping the show going. It was great working there. John

 

[dwtpa97]

What year(s) was that? WILZ always had a good sound - unfortunately, at night they had signal problems in Tampa. But they had a good daytime signal and some great jocks.

 

[zappafan1]

What year(s) was that? WILZ always had a good sound - unfortunately, at night they had signal problems in Tampa. But they had a good daytime signal and some great jocks.

I believe it was 1973. We lived on Vina Del Mar, which was right across the bay from the station..... took a boat to work on many days. Now, looking on Google Earth, I see that the entire area was razed and new residential complexes have been built, and nothing there to make me want to visit to remember times past.

 

[badjef]

What year(s) was that? WILZ always had a good sound - unfortunately, at night they had signal problems in Tampa. But they had a good daytime signal and some great jocks.

I believe it was 1973. We lived on Vina Del Mar, which was right across the bay from the station..... took a boat to work on many days. Now, looking on Google Earth, I see that the entire area was razed and new residential complexes have been built, and nothing there to make me want to visit to remember times past.

It's too bad google earth historical imagery doesn't go back that far. It would be interesting to see the area.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[necrat123]

What year(s) was that? WILZ always had a good sound - unfortunately, at night they had signal problems in Tampa. But they had a good daytime signal and some great jocks.

I believe it was 1973. We lived on Vina Del Mar, which was right across the bay from the station..... took a boat to work on many days. Now, looking on Google Earth, I see that the entire area was razed and new residential complexes have been built, and nothing there to make me want to visit to remember times past.

What are the coordinates so we can look from "above" , those of us not as familair with the area, but are curious to see what it looks like today.

There is a website which has a ton of historical topographic maps (I can't think of the URL off the top of my head), I bet you could find one with it marked on them.

 

[SolidGold16]

I didn't work at WILZ, but I do remember when they first changed the format. I was 14 years old and living in Maximo Moorings at the time (34th St. & 54th Ave. So.-Bayway) it was 1972, and there was an ad in the comics section of the St. Pete Times. It's been many years, but I seem to remember seeing "WILZY the dog" in these cartoons. I was tired of listening to WLCY and WKXY (Sarasota, the "Mighty 93") and was looking for something new and different. When I saw the ad, I tuned in just to see what it was all about. They were running contests for a free meal for two that day, so I called in and much to my surprise, I won. I believe it was something to do with a Firemen's benefit ball...I was too young to go, so my parents went. Days later, I decided to try again, and called in several minutes after the "first caller" would win a free meal at some BBQ restaurant. I was the first caller! I figured out not too many people were listening to this station. I sort of became my own secret radio station, since no one I knew listened to it and they couldn't even get callers for giveaways, I felt like I was the only listener.

I used to call in and talk to Jack Armstrong and others until they got tired of hearing from me. All the jocks knew my by my voice, and wouldn't even bother to ask my name. I remember asking him to play "When you're hot, you're hot" by Jerry Reed, and the reply that he would rather break that record than play it Since I lived near the transmitter/tower site on 38th Ave. So. I used to ride my bike over to see if there was someone there in the shack. I had wild thoughts of getting inside and taking over the station and playing what I wanted, figuring no one was listening anyway (remember, I was only 14 ;D ) I remember that the site was pretty wooded in those days, overgrown with weeds and brush, and there was an old rusted advertising sign lying on the ground in the weeds that had "WILZ 1590" with a girl wearing a hula skirt, presumably left over from the early days when they played polka and swing music "WILZ from the Tropic Isles". Anyway, I knocked on the door, but no one answered, but I tried again sometime a few months or maybe a year later, and "Howard Hewes" answered the door. I think he'd just started working for WILZ recently and drove a pink Cadillac, IIRC parked nearby. I guess WILZ had abandoned their Tierra Verde studios by this time and were operating out of the 38th Ave location? Howard just stuck out his hand and says "Hi, I'm Howard Hewes". I talked to him for a few minutes, asked him if I could come into the shack, but he wouldn't let me. It looked pretty small, cramped and dusty from what I could see, with tape carts piled everywhere. I didn't hang around long, my dreams of station takeover were shot!

When the station became "Z16" (don't remember exactly when, maybe 1973/74) they went downhill, too much top 40 and not enough oldies for my taste. If I wanted just top 40, there was always WLCY. I moved from Florida in mid-1977 and I think, but don't know for sure, WILZ was already gone before then - at some point it became WRXB. I live in California now, but the last time I was in So. St. Pete, I drove past the transmitter site and it didn't look anything like I remembered. Most of the trees, palmetto brush, and weeds have been cleared out. You can see the transmitter shack from the road, which you couldn't back in the early 70's. Ah, nostalgia, you can never go back...

Thanks for reading. That's my personal memories of WILZ, "The sound of Solid Gold for the Tampa Bay Area!"

 

[dwtpa97]

Very interesting history - thanks for posting.

 

[SolidGold16]

Very interesting history - thanks for posting.

Thanks, sorry about the multiple typos in my message. I can't see any "edit" or "modify" button to make corrections ???

BTW: I still have some aircheck tapes of WILZ (c. 1972/1973) somewhere. I used to record extensively from the radio, I couldn't afford to buy LP's.

One of these days I need to dig the tapes out and post them somewhere. I'm not even sure how much I have, I haven't played them in many years.

 

[dwtpa97]

If you ever convert them to CD, I'd be interested in a couple. Perhaps you could post a notice in this forum at that time?

 

[SolidGold16]

If you ever convert them to CD, I'd be interested in a couple. Perhaps you could post a notice in this forum at that time?

I'll try to do that, when/if I can find the tapes. They are buried in my garage somewhere. I live in Southern California now, have dragged those tapes around with me for the better part of my lifetime (sometimes I wonder why ;D ) A lot was also recorded off WKXY, WLCY, WDAE-FM (When they changed to the "FM-101" format, playing pop/rock around 1973-75).

BTW, I was at Bay Point Junior High from 71-73 and then Lakewood High 73-76.

A few months ago, I did find some WILZ airchecks posted online already, on youtube. Here's a pretty good long one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD5dx1mcZPw

There may be more lurking around, but I couldn't find any on REELradio. I know none that I have are as long as the one on youtube, because I couldn't afford to run the tape that long while recording announcements and ads, I was trying to get music to play on my cassette recorder. Who knew that many years later, the news, announcements and information would be more valuable and interesting than the music? I know I didn't think about that aspect at the time. I just wanted to be able to play my favorite songs when I wanted, instead of waiting to hear them on the radio

 

[dwtpa97]

That is a great aircheck on YouTube. I personally have an old Jack Regan show from around May 73, plus a few from some of the other stations you mentioned. They're a real treasure!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

 

[HadYourPhil]

Thanks for all that great history! I never knew anything about 1590 prior to WRXB.

Speaking of WRXB, does anyone have a copy of their gospel jingles? I think they are really good, but I can only get 'RXB when I drive through Tampa Bay.