• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

AM 600 Question

T

thebeach33445

Hey Guys:

I have a question for all of you. I am trying to figure this out.

Could anybody tell me the history of 600 AM from 1975 to 1981. Now this is the info that I have:

I know 600 became WMBR in 1975 when the 75 AM swaps happened with 1460. Would anybody know what 600 WMBR fomat was in 1975. I noticed some info on this board says that it was country first then oldies before becoming talk WOKV in 1981. True or false. I also saw on another board that it became MOR/AC in 1975.

But I saw in the broadcast yearbooks that in 1978 and 1979 it was called WSNY MOR/AC and in 1980/1981 it simulcasted WAIV FM's AC format as WAIV AM.


Thanks for your help on clearing this up for me guys!! My notes are all scrambled and I want to get this section in order and correct.

T.J.
 
T. J.,

WMBR - AM 600 (Miami Beach Radio) programmed an MOR music and full service format known as "Bright Personality MOR". Sometime in 1978 the call letters were changed to WSNY Sunny 60 with virtually the same Bright Personality MOR programming. In 1980 Sunny 60 became WAIV-AM 600 The BIG Wave and was a 100% simulcast of adult contemporary WAIV -FM 96.9 97 Wave FM... In 1981 WAIV-AM 600 became WOKV with a Pop Country music format which was basically country cross over hits... Within a year the Pop Country transformed into adult contemporary with a leaning towards oldies... Sometime in the late 80s, I'm thinking 1989, WOKV-AM 600 became News-Talk and remained with than format until the former WPDQ-AM 690 was acquired. The WOKV call letters and News-Talk format moved to AM 690 in the early 90s with the WPDQ call letters moving to AM 600. The new WPDQ format was Adult Standards, but that format didn't last very long. WPDQ eventually became All Sports formatted WBWL The Ball. Cox Radio later sold WBWL to Radio Disney but retained the WBWL call letters...

Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380
Ormond Beach - Daytona
[email protected]
 
Mark:

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for that info!! It really helped me clear up all of the mess that I have for AM 600!!! Just one question: Did WMBR in its MOR days have any talk shows with its MOR Music?

Thanks again!!

T.J.
 
How interesting! I knew that WMBR is the former WJXT... and I also knew that WMBR (Radio) had its roots in Miami Beach.. but it made no sense why someone would call it "Miami Beach Radio" in Jax.

Oh well.. take me out of New England or South Florida, and this historian isn't quite up to snuff. (But boy am I glad I left S. FL after some 30 years.. love it up here.)
 
It's strange for sure.

From what I gather, the WMBR call was sequentially issued in the 1920s and the slogan was put together after the call was issued to Miami.

I understand the predecessor(s) to the FCC had a category of license for itinerant broadcast operations in the early days. Like modern pro sports franchises, if the pickings got lean, they packed up and moved to another city.

Also, it might have been harder to change calls back then.

I never heard either WMBR TV or radio make reference to "Miami Beach Radio" while here in Jacksonville but it does seem that the original meaning of the call was tied to Miami Beach.

Florida is great during the winter but I think the smart ones leave during July and August.
 
The weather is horrible beginning in May, lasting all the way into mid-October. Humidity is extremely high and if you have asthma, be careful!

But I moved to Jax not because the hurricane-alley that is Palm Beach County. Frankly, I'd had it up to here with snotty, obnoxious New Yorkers, and grew tired of the gangs, and all he minorities fighting for turf.

I learned some Spanish on purpose; it;s a great langauge and for the most part, Hispanics are terrific people. But you also need to know Jamaican, Creole, and other dialects in orer to live there today. I hardly consider "Noo Yahker" language to bepropler English. Especially the way they talk down to people. Never have I met such hateful individuals.

You all have no idea how good you have it in the Jacksonvillle area... certain areas excepted, of course. LOL. On the whole, people are extremely nice here, andyou;re not expected topo learn their languages and customes. I prefer a society that pchooses to blend together, and not by force or charges of racism. I can't stand racism in any of its forms, anyway.

Back to Radio, I believe it was fairly easy to obtain the call letters of one's choice. I wasn't there then. But my work as an historian seems to indicate that.

The FCC either sequentially assigned calls, or you could request them.
 
wrko said:
WMBR = Miami Beach radio.. in Jax? Come on!
Click to expand...

YES... The WMBR call letters were originally assigned to a radio station in Miami, before those calls were re-assigned to AM 1460, FM 96.1 and TV 4 Jacksonville, where the call letters stood for Miami Beach Radio. I don't believe any reference to the original call letter meaning was ever given over the air on any of the Jacksonville WMBR staions, that being WMBR-AM 1460, WMBR-FM 96.1 nor WMBR-TV 4... However, Miami Beach Radio is the orginal meaning that was coined with the WMBR call letters...

Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380
Ormond Beach - Daytona
[email protected]
 
wrko said:
WMBR = Miami Beach radio.. in Jax? Come on!
Click to expand...

YES... The WMBR call letters were originally assigned to a radio station in Miami, before those calls were re-assigned to AM 1460, FM 96.1 and TV 4 Jacksonville, where the call letters stood for Miami Beach Radio. I don't believe any reference to the original call letter meaning was ever given over the air on any of the Jacksonville WMBR staions, that being WMBR-AM 1460, WMBR-FM 96.1 nor WMBR-TV 4... However, Miami Beach Radio is the orginal meaning that was coined with the WMBR call letters...

Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380
Ormond Beach - Daytona
[email protected]
 
jmtillery said:
T. J.,

WMBR - AM 600 (Miami Beach Radio) programmed an MOR music and full service format known as "Bright Personality MOR". Sometime in 1978 the call letters were changed to WSNY Sunny 60 with virtually the same Bright Personality MOR programming. In 1980 Sunny 60 became WAIV-AM 600 The BIG Wave and was a 100% simulcast of adult contemporary WAIV -FM 96.9 97 Wave FM... In 1981 WAIV-AM 600 became WOKV with a Pop Country music format which was basically country cross over hits... Within a year the Pop Country transformed into adult contemporary with a leaning towards oldies... Sometime in the late 80s, I'm thinking 1989, WOKV-AM 600 became News-Talk and remained with than format until the former WPDQ-AM 690 was acquired. The WOKV call letters and News-Talk format moved to AM 690 in the early 90s with the WPDQ call letters moving to AM 600. The new WPDQ format was Adult Standards, but that format didn't last very long. WPDQ eventually became All Sports formatted WBWL The Ball. Cox Radio later sold WBWL to Radio Disney but retained the WBWL call letters...

Some corrections needed on this:

WOKV went news/talk in 1981 -

-PP
Click to expand...
 
Also, for a very brief time, maybe for a month between when 600 switched from "The Ball" to Radio Disney, they simulcasted oldies WKQL at 96.9.

Their signal has dropped off a lot in the last few months in the Charleston area, as what used to be the 2nd or 3rd strongest Jacksonville AM (besides 690 and 550) now barely comes through. Is it poor engineering by Disney?
 
P. P.,

You say WOKV-AM 600 flipped to News-Talk in 1981? If that is the case, why was the station calling itself "OK 60" and programming Pop Country in 1981 and 1982 when I personally visited the station during a job search?

At the time I was the Program Director and Operations Manager at WGGG-AM 1230 Gainesville and drove up to Jacksonville with a co-worker/friend in search of a job with WAIV-FM... WAIV and WOKV were located off Lennox Boulevard at the WOKV-AM 600 5-tower transmitter site, with studios and offices located in an "U" shape building. Programming and operations was located in the left wing while administration and sales was located in the right wing. At the time WAIV (which had been Top 40 formatted V 97) became "97 WAVE FM" and had just switched to adult contemporary (same format as WGGG) with Arthur Crofton doing morning drive. In fact I met Arthur the morning I visited the station. I also met and spoke with the program director of WOKV who specifically told me the WOKV format was Pop Country after I had asked, having never heard a format quite like WOKV's music format. That was in the Summer of 1982.

I think what you meant to say is the call letters were changed from WAIV-AM to WOKV in 1981 which would be correct. However, in 1981 the format was Pop Country (hybrid of Top/40 country crossover hits) with a flip to oldies based adult contemporary within a year... The flip to news-talk took place several years later when Rush Limbaugh went national with WOKV becoming one of the first stations in the nation to affiliate with the EIB Network and the Rush Limbaugh Show...

You had said "some corrections are needed on this", indicating more than one. Other than the time discrepency WOKV switched to News-Talk, what other corrections are needed?

Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380 Ormond Beach - Daytona
[email protected]
 
WOKV dropped music either at the very end of 1982 or the early part of 1983. They switched to ABC Syndicated Talk, featuring hosts like Michael Jackson (not the pop singer) and Dr. Joy Browne. It was all syndicated with the exception of the morning show, sort of like it is now, but with very little local news. Rush was added to the talk lineup later in the 80's. I worked part time at 97 Waiv in 1985, and WOKV was definitely talk at that time, and I remember the switch away from music happened in my freshman year of college. 82/83

All the other WOKV stuff that Mr. Tillery posted appears to be accurate from my memory. I had forgotten the Country crossovers, but that is definitely correct.. stuff like Oak Ridge Boys, Steve Wariner, mixed in with soft A/C artists. They called it "OK 60 Un-rock Radio." The movie Urban Cowboy in '81 had made country very mainstream.
 
One additional note. Rush Limbaugh may have come about in the 90's rather than the late 80's. I'm not sure when his show began.
 
First, my info on the 1980s' is second-hand, was told to me years ago by the former GSM of the stations - Mary Kay Bock.

However I do know that Rush went national in 1988 and WOKV-AM 600 was one of the original 30 affiliates.
(personal knowledge on this one and subsequent info: as I live in the market).

WOKV moved to AM 690 in 1994 (after a brief simulcast)

AM 600 was first "music of your life" type format (under GM Palmer Pyle, yikes!) - then sports as "The Ball".

I do know after Radio Disney started on AM 600 their ground sytem was stolen (2001 or 2002?) - and was only
replaced in the last year or two.

-PP
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom