600-WPDQ

[Time Traveler]

Just curious...I used to travel through Florida every year in the late 60s and early 70s. The first two Florida stations that I would always tune in were WAPE and WPDQ. It is my understanding that WAPE went Country around 1981. How long did WPDQ hold out as a Top 40 station? How competitive were they to WAPE? When did the WPDQ calls vacate 600?

 

[sonnyT]

I'm too young to remember how competitive they were (I listened to both), but I remember sometime in either late 72 or early 73(?) that 1460 and 600 switched call letters and PDQ went to 1460 and WMBR became 600. 600 remained top 40 I believe for a short while then went more MOR; PDQ 1460 stayed strong as a R&B station up into the early-mid 80s. That's the best as I can remember...

 

[Time Traveler]

Interesting...I was aware that the WPDQ calls had ended up on 1460 at some point, although I never heard it.
I kind of gave up on AM Top 40 after about 1973 or so, anyway. Seems like a strange move though, to move to a challenged 1460 frequency from that very solid 600 AM, particularly when your main competitior has 50kw at 690....

 

[BobDillehay]

Here’s the way I remember it.

Three stations were involved in this swap. 600, 1460, and 1360.

Prior to the swap:

1460 - WMBR had studios and transmitters at 146 Wamsley Road.

600 - WPDQ had a studio at 660 North Laura St downtown and a transmitter site at 6869 Lenox Ave.

1360 - WOBS had studios at the corner of King and Forbes Streets in Riverside and a transmitter on the Southside.

Then the swap:

WMBR kept the Wamsley Road studios and connected to the 600 transmitter site on Lenox Avenue. 600 became WMBR.

WOBS kept the Riverside studio and connected to the 1460 Wamsley Road transmitter and changed the call letters. 1460 became WPDQ.

1360 picked up the Laura street studio and changed the call letters. 1360 became WCGL.

I was the Chief Engineer for 1460 and 600 at the time. 600 was owned by Belk Broadcasting. WMBR was owned by Rounsaville. I don’t remember who owned 1360 at the time

I think this happened in 1975 or 1976.

Bob Dillehay

 

[BobDillehay]

I forgot to mention, there was an FM involved in this.

Belk Broadcasting also owned 96.9 – WPDQ-FM

It was picked up by Rounsaville during the swap and the call letters were changed to WAIV.

Bob Dillehay

 

[BIG APE]

WPDQ was neever a threat to the Kaplan's at the "BIG APE" best I can remember! Whew! Long time ago, and many Tequilias..Bob, I remember the swap, but I don't remember the reason?

 

[Time Traveler]

Thanks for all the information!!!!

 

[TommyR]

I have an early 70's commercial (on a channel 17 production demo reel) for WPDQ-FM "Stereo Rock 97."

There's a shot of a radio with an overly excited DJ playing over it, then the radio is smashed, startling the kids listening in the background. The announcer (over the WPDQ logo) says, "WPDQ-FM declares WAR on bubble gum radio!" And it goes on from there about how Stereo Rock 97 is different.

Hey, go figure...over 30 years later, and that signal's still pumping out much of the same music.

 

[RMarino]

When I moved to the area in '93, WPDQ was on 690, but the station was dark. WOKV was on 600. Shortly thereafter the two switched. WOKV's talk format moved on to the formerly silent 690 frequency, and the WPDQ calls went to 600 and became "adult standards."

 

[HadYourPhil]

A whole thread could be easily done on the call letter switcheroo that has happened many times in Jax. When WPDQ was on 690, they were half oldies and half religion as I recall...