93.5 Port St Joe

[Tibbs4]

My guess that CCENG dude done it right up prior to this 'sale'... but man, it might be on auto-pilot unless CCENG is willing to accept old double decker buses, old radio signs, historic legal documents..i could go on...


Let's think about the real issues...

1) A weak signal is an over saturated market is a rough road.
2) A format that will be marginal at best, virtually unsalable in PCB.
3) Oh "hell" will it even be on the air most of the time?


Seems like CC may have come out better ....


Average price of a radio station in the market is close to $200k. And that's still not a guarantee of survival....what doth that say?

 

[cceng1]

They are doing sports talk...new callsign is WTKP.....simulcasting their 100.3 signal "The Ticket" out of FWB.

 

[Tibbs4]

Well, despite all my attempts at light-hearted humor at RH's expense, I do wish them the best and hope he hits a home run with this. What is the status on Freedom Radio? Rob, do you need a strobey report?

 

[Rob]

On the air but dead air most of the time. Weak signal even in town. Hale needs to get his ass in a sling because he's got a good thing going but if he's on flea power, 0 listeners, the 1.400 am signal is completely off the air, maybe storm damage?

-Rob

 

[jovialjay]

Originally the station that was WJST operating 94.5 C started out as WJST 93.5 A.

WJOE at 1080 was built by Wilbur Powell from Fort Walton Beach (WFTW) in late 1956. There were numerous ownership changes over the years. The FM, WGCV, signed in 1977, with ownership different from WJOE. New owners came in, buying both AM and FM. A guy named Don Crisp bought the AM & FM in 1982. As best I can recall, there was proposal to move the FM to 94.3 (an "A" channel, limited to 3kw in those days), in order accommodate an upgrade elsewhere. This may have had its origin in the upgrade proposal of WGEA-FM at Geneva, Alabama. I'm thinking that Crisp was able to take the accepted move to 94.3 up a notch to 94.5. 94.5 was then a "C" channel, allowing the upgrade to 100kw.

The upgrade done, the stations were sold in 1983 to Brown Broadcasting, affiliated with John Brown University of Siloam Springs, AR. WJOE became WJBU, with WGCV changing calls to WJST. Initially, WJST was on a shorter, 500' tower (with the AM) at the new studios, near the elementary school. In 1986, WJST moved to the 1,000' tower.

Brown sold to Champion in 1986, who immediately sold the stations to Asterisk, Inc (Dick & Fred Ingham), who also owned WTRS/Dunnellon and WDKC/Fort Pierce (and later WAMR and its FM at Venice). Fort Pierce was sold, and the mananger (and former owner) there, Ron Kight, came (back) to Panama City as the new WJBU/WJST manager. I worked for Kight as the sales manager of WJBU/WJST for about 15 minutes in late summer of '87. I can still hear him telling his son (one of my salespeople), "Oh JEFF...nuke this coffee for me please". Kight's wife was the office manager. WJST was country, and could've given WPAP a better run for its money than it did, but Kight also tried to be the PD, and that was bad. Within a year, WJST had become southern gospel for a few minutes before a call letter change to WZRR, with a format change to SMN's "Z-Rock" format.

You cannot make this stuff up, and Rev/Dr Wooten can testify to the facts. To be sure, the whole mess caused Bo Bowman (WPAP's GM) to become bald headed from laughing so hard!

 

[amfmxm]

A friend of mine called me 3 or 4 years ago about buying this station--all excited about taking Panama City by storm--and I told him to just take the money and make a bonfire--a quicker and easier way to kiss it goodbye. He and his money guy shifted their sights to other investment opportunities, and he's now managing six stations up north. Good move!

Don't get me wrong--I understand the allure. But somewhere along the way, you've got to use those third-grade math skills and count the dozens of radio stations, TV stations, newspapers, magazines, cable channels, online advertising outfits, specialty ad folks (swizzle sticks and urinal pads are hot items)... and lack of humans. Those folks on the beach from Atlanta aren't gonna stop and buy a car on their way out of town--so unless you're selling beer & shrimp, they're useless.

One hundred thousand watts serving sand & swamp. It don't make no sense.

 

[Tibbs4]

I have to wonder how Powell is feeling knowing school starts in a few weeks and revenues are finished fir 2012. Wait. No one has warned em, i bet. You get what you think you didn't pay for....

 

[Poledo]

Well, is The Ticket East going to get the rights to any college football games from good teams or will they have to settle for "Troy State Football" this year.

 

[cceng1]

Don't laugh at Powell....from what I hear they have some deep pockets...I for one am not going to jump to any OO based conclusions...

cceng

 

[radioboy]

Re: 93.5 Port St Joe - more on WJOE 1080

The late Don Sports sent me this bit of information concerning WJOE-AM 1080 back on Dec. 30, 2005:

Alan:

As a pioneer employee of WJOE I enjoyed your Guest Commentary on the Opinion page of RADIO WORLD, received today.

I first went to Port St. Joe as a theatre manager of the Port Theatre and the St. Joe Drive in theatres working for Martin Theatres.I was just a few months out of the army and had long been interested in radio. WJOE's first manager, Marty Begley, walked into my office at the Port Theatre one day in 1957 and offered me a job as a staffer at WJOE. I accepted and went on to a small market radio career that lasted until 1997 with the last 38 at WCLA AM/FM in Claxton as owner and general manager. I work there until late 1958.

WJOE did not have a big staff and probably had much too little business in 50s when it was built by a Ft. Walton Broadcaster. I was there until 58 when Begley and a partner purchased the station and had to do all the announcing/sales/engineering themselves. At first the station was 250 watts at 1570 or 80 (Mexican Clear). I was in Port St. Joe recently and found the original building in Ward Ridge. It looked abandoned, but had been in use for something as it was in good condition.

-Don Sports



While growing up, we spent time every summer at Mexico Beach, located between Port St. Joe and Panama City. My grandfather had given me one of those round Panasonic "Panapet 70" AM radios in the summer of 1970, and it was about that time that I discovered WJOE on 1080, which was playing country at that time.

WJOE was the loudest station on the dial, although I also remember listening to "59 WDLP" every once in a while. With country being my genre of choice (even as a teenager), I listened to WJOE every summer for years.

In the late 1990s I met a woman named Beth Adkins, who also worked at WJOE in some of its earlier days. Beth brought in a picture of the WJOE control room, circa about 1971. I wish
I'd been able to get a copy of it. Beth lives in North Carolina now and is in poor health, but has stayed in touch with me for over 10 years.

Even now, when I'm at the beach I miss 1080 being on the air. Asterisk managed to kill it for good, I believe.

 

[jmtillery]

Re: 93.5 Port St Joe - more on WJOE 1080

Even now, when I'm at the beach I miss 1080 being on the air. Asterisk managed to kill it for good, I believe.

You are correct that Asterisk Communications found no value in WJOE and ultimately mailed the license back to Washington for cancellation. The company was more interested in owning and operating 100kw WJST-FM as a Panama City station. The same thing happened in Dunnellon where it owned WTRS-AM-FM. After the FM was upgraded and moved to Ocala, Asterisk shut down WTRS-AM and sent the AM license back to the FCC. Asterisk has never been very keen on operating AM stations and rather concentrates on FM, instead, where the company attracts the "bigger" ad dollars.