Ancient History Search - Meridian, MS

[kwthom]

Hi, there!

Digging around the Broadcasting Yearbooks from 1970 & 1971, I think I know which stations they would have been listening to, the likely candidates seem to be WCOC (910), WMOX (1010), or WOKK (1450). I recognize instantly that's not a given, as it could have been from an adjacent community as well. I just don't know.

My parents would typically listen to the radio as dad got ready for work early in the morning. He worked at the base (called NAS Meridian at the time), mom stayed at home. It seemed like a home-spun radio program, and to be honest, at ten years of age, I was really getting interested in rock, and probably in 1971, I found Casey & AT40 blaring from a still unknown radio station in the area.

The one thing that dad recalled was that the 'air talent' would tell these goofy stories, and the only fragment of them he recalls is about some "big ol' fuzzy buzzard dog!" That still tickles his funny-bone nearly 50 years later.

I know - a lot to go on...

Any clues, any repositories of east-central Mississippi radio history I should go wander thru would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[J Alex Bowab]

I was in Jackson in the year you mention ... in Mobile prior to that, so I was marginally familiar with Meridian. WMOX was on class IV frequency 1240 (250 watt) in the earlier in the 60s, then moved to 1010 to increase to 10 kw. It was sorta top 40, but wasn't memorable. WCOC 910 played MoR (a lot of Billy Vaughn instrumentals as I recall) and ran CBS news. WOKK 1450, another Class IV, was country. They acquired the 910 freq (5 kw D, 1 kw N, NON-DIR), a much better facillity. WQIC 1390 was the only black station in town, 5 kw-D. They took the vacated 1450 freq vacated by WOKK, which gave them less day coverage, but they got a fulltime signal. Another black station took over 1390, WTNK, so WQIC no longer had the format exclusivity.

One station you did not mention was WDAL 1330, 5 kw daytimer. It was probably country at the time. They had WDAL FM which later went contemporary as WJDQ and did well once the migration to FM began. WOKK also had an FM, WALT. Both of these FMs were Class C, so were able to kick out max power.

 

[kwthom]

Hey...bits of possibilities there, Alex.

It was probably a country station - though could have been the MoR, and I know the radio they were using at the time was AM-only. They weren't adept at 'scanning the band'; once they kinda found something they liked, they stuck with it.

So, candidates would be WCOC, WOKK or WDAL.

Unless there was something that was close-by that people in Meridian (especially out by the airbase...) would listen to.

 

[J Alex Bowab]

Close by? Philadelphia, Quitman, Newton, York, Butler? None of those AMs were particularly powerful, and I doubt anyone in Meridian skipped over the local stations to grab one of them.

 

[Doctor_Technical]

>>>the 'air talent' would tell these goofy stories, and the only fragment of them he recalls is about some "big ol' fuzzy buzzard dog!"

Any chance he is talking about WSLI's Farmer Jim Neal and his "Old Feist Dog"?

Or was some DJ in Meridian doing a (I'm being Mississippi-polite here) "derivative" take on Neal?

 

[kwthom]

Good questions, Doc - I just don't know, and that's about all that dad recalls.

So, was their any chance that WSLI was received in Meridian?

 

[rfburns]

Good questions, Doc - I just don't know, and that's about all that dad recalls.

So, was their any chance that WSLI was received in Meridian?

In the 70's? Yes, you could probably pick up WSLI, WJDX and WWUN out of Jackson.

 

[kwthom]

So, it's possible he mis-heard that phrase all those years ago. Interesting.

EDIT: Found this thread at the time of his passing here...

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?486723-quot-Farmer-quot-Jim-Neal

 

[J Alex Bowab]

In the 70's? Yes, you could probably pick up WSLI, WJDX and WWUN out of Jackson.

Meridian is 90 miles from Jackson. WWUN, I don't think so, on top of dial 1590. WJDX at 620, somewhat ... WSLI, at 930, to a lesser degree. After those two, the third strongest would have been WRBC at 1300, not WWUN.

More likely, your parents were listening to a local station personality ...Maybe Ken Rainey on WOKK, Len Maith on WMOX, or whoever.

 

[J Alex Bowab]

If you are tempted to look at Radio-Locator for Jackson-930 coverage, don't: the current facility is not the same as "back then." Day power has been lowered (and the night DA is gone, and the xmtr site is different).

 

[kwthom]

'' the current facility is not the same as "back then." ''

Fully recognize that possibility & hadn't been there on this search.

"Maybe Ken Rainey on WOKK, Len Maith on WMOX, or whoever."

Well, again, not much more to go on from this....but this all came about as they were reminiscing a bit about the times around the radio...

Very well likely, the last generation to be enthralled by what was coming out of the magic box.

 

[Gearshift Gary]

Meridian is 90 miles from Jackson. WWUN, I don't think so, on top of dial 1590. WJDX at 620, somewhat ... WSLI, at 930, to a lesser degree. After those two, the third strongest would have been WRBC at 1300, not WWUN.

More likely, your parents were listening to a local station personality ...Maybe Ken Rainey on WOKK, Len Maith on WMOX, or whoever.

...."More likely, your parents were listening to a local station personality ...Maybe Ken Rainey on WOKK"......
It's too bad Ken is not a member here, I bet he would have some good stories.

 

[Pat3]

So what became of WDAL 1330. When did it disappear. I've never heard of it.

 

[J Alex Bowab]

So what became of WDAL 1330. When did it disappear. I've never heard of it.

'Twas the AM station that spawned what is now WJDQ 101.3 FM. When I was in radio in Jackson in the 70s I was familiar with the station; Don Partridge was the head honcho (also did air shift). If you google "Don Partridge WDAL" several sites will come up.

The 1330 Meridian daytimer, in following decade, moved to 1240 for fulltime (freq occuped by WMOX many years prior), and changed city of license to Marion MS. Meantime, WPRN in nearby Butler AL, moved from 1240 to the vacated 1330 for more daytime power.

Alas, according to Radio Locator, both stations are now dark. The American Radio History website has all the Broadcasting Yearbooks, searchable ... you can, year-by-year, trace the evolution of these stations.

 

[J Alex Bowab]

In my prior posts, I've touched on how the Meridian area stations have played a lot of musical chairs. Now that I think more about it, this market has had more of this activity than others, to summarize:

WMOX moved from 1240 to 1010... so WPRN in nearby Butler moved from 1220 to 1240. Then WDAL 1330 moved to 1240 (and changed city of license), whereupon Butler moved to 1330.

WOKK 1450 bought WCOC's more desirable 910 freq... they later had WALT 97 FM ... Somewhere along the way the WALT calls (and format) swapped over to the AM side.

Once 1450 was freed up, WQIC 1390 moved to 1450, and a new station (WTNK) was born on 1390.

Along the way, a new station on 1290 entered the foray... now 1290, 1240, and 1330 are gone.

Who's next?

 

[DavidEduardo]

In my prior posts, I've touched on how the Meridian area stations have played a lot of musical chairs. Now that I think more about it, this market has had more of this activity than others, to summarize:

WMOX moved from 1240 to 1010... so WPRN in nearby Butler moved from 1220 to 1240. Then WDAL 1330 moved to 1240 (and changed city of license), whereupon Butler moved to 1330.

WOKK 1450 bought WCOC's more desirable 910 freq... they later had WALT 97 FM ... Somewhere along the way the WALT calls (and format) swapped over to the AM side.

Once 1450 was freed up, WQIC 1390 moved to 1450, and a new station (WTNK) was born on 1390.

Along the way, a new station on 1290 entered the foray... now 1290, 1240, and 1330 are gone.

Who's next?

Wonderful recollections about the Meridian area stations.

As a DXer, my first verification came from 500 watt WBKN-1410 in nearby Newton which I heard testing its brand new facility. The chief engineer asked for reports, so I sent one and got an answer, introducing me to verifications. The same gentleman gave me the name of another Cleveland, Ohio, DXer who I called and was introduced to the world of radio clubs.

Oddly, a couple of years later I went to Newton with a group of staff members from WJMO in Cleveland where I worked part-time. I was 13 or 14 and we went to help register folks to vote. I did not really grasp the danger until I got there, but the experience has served me for the rest of my life!

Strangely to me, it seemed like "Meridian" was pronounced more like "Mrid-jun" than "muh-rid-ee-un".

 

[rfburns]

In my prior posts, I've touched on how the Meridian area stations have played a lot of musical chairs. Now that I think more about it, this market has had more of this activity than others, to summarize:

WMOX moved from 1240 to 1010... so WPRN in nearby Butler moved from 1220 to 1240. Then WDAL 1330 moved to 1240 (and changed city of license), whereupon Butler moved to 1330.

WOKK 1450 bought WCOC's more desirable 910 freq... they later had WALT 97 FM ... Somewhere along the way the WALT calls (and format) swapped over to the AM side.

Once 1450 was freed up, WQIC 1390 moved to 1450, and a new station (WTNK) was born on 1390.

Along the way, a new station on 1290 entered the foray... now 1290, 1240, and 1330 are gone.

Who's next?

1290 AM is still on the air. WNBN Meridian, Ms - built / owned by Frank Rackley until he passed away a few years ago. His estate is in the process of getting the ownership / licensing issues resolved. I did some contract engineering for Frank in the late 90's. WNBN was an... interesting... facility.

 

[kwthom]

<...>Oddly, a couple of years later I went to Newton with a group of staff members from WJMO in Cleveland where I worked part-time. I was 13 or 14 and we went to help register folks to vote. I did not really grasp the danger until I got there, but the experience has served me for the rest of my life!Strangely to me, it seemed like "Meridian" was pronounced more like "Mrid-jun" than "muh-rid-ee-un".

Arriving there, courtesy of the U S Navy in early 1971 was a culture shock to me and my parents.

We moved at the end of the fall semester from dad's last duty station in New England, so January 1971, I return to school. Quite the way-back machine. The battle-scars from the civil rights era were still readily apparent; as an elementary-grade student, I was only vaguely familiar...that is, until I changed campus'.

 

[J Alex Bowab]

RFB: Radio-Locator no longer lists the 1290 station - that's why I listed it as dark. I think it had been off the air at one time. Bcstg Yrbook says it came on air in late 1987. I question the judgment of anyone who would put a new AM on the air at that time - particularly one that is a daytimer with after-dark flea power.

 

[rfburns]

RFB: Radio-Locator no longer lists the 1290 station - that's why I listed it as dark. I think it had been off the air at one time. Bcstg Yrbook says it came on air in late 1987. I question the judgment of anyone who would put a new AM on the air at that time - particularly one that is a daytimer with after-dark flea power.

If you check the FCC CDBS, it shows up as DWNBN. Frank Rackley passed away years ago and his estate didn't realize the importance of hiring a broadcast attorney to handle the legal affairs. The FCC finally pulled the license after notifying Frank's estate. At that point, they hired an attorney and filed for an STA, along with getting the ownership issues straightened out. They were on the air as of last week when I came through Meridian, which is perfectly legal, as long as their ownership change / STA filing is under consideration by the FCC.

Interesting fact about WNBN - Frank Rackley was unable to build it at the originally licensed coordinates in 1987, so he found another location a few miles away and built it there... without filing for a license modification. An FCC inspector caught that one some time back and fined the station, but I don't think it was ever corrected. To my knowledge, the licensed coordinates and the actual transmitter site location do not match.