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Bessmer AM 1450 the old wenn,wyam,wsmq. now w??? mexico radio

rangerscotty

rangerscotty

. Was off last fri. Still off today , monday and the guy living there looks to be gone. Any one have any info ?
 
WZGX is owned by the same group that owns WJHX in north Alabama and WIXI in Jasper, which they just purchased a few months ago. Seems like there is another station they own in the group which I can't think of off the top of my head. WZGX used to simulcast WQCR in Alabaster, although I don't believe they were ever co-owned. There appears to be no info on the station's FCC record as to the reason for 1450's disappearance. Going the way of Dora's WCOC maybe...?
 
passtheword said:
WZGX is owned by the same group that owns WJHX in north Alabama and WIXI in Jasper, which they just purchased a few months ago. Seems like there is another station they own in the group which I can't think of off the top of my head. WZGX used to simulcast WQCR in Alabaster, although I don't believe they were ever co-owned. There appears to be no info on the station's FCC record as to the reason for 1450's disappearance. Going the way of Dora's WCOC maybe...?
Click to expand...

With WZGX 1450 [probably] reaching the most potential ears, I can't imagine it sitting idle for very long.
 
BTW---WENN was never on 1450. They were and are now on 1320. Their FM frequencies were 107.7, 105.9 and 105.5.

1450 was at one time WBCO (meaning Bessemer Cut-Off). They may have had a callsign before that, but I can't remember.
 
Charles1 said:
BTW---WENN was never on 1450. They were and are now on 1320. Their FM frequencies were 107.7, 105.9 and 105.5.

1450 was at one time WBCO (meaning Bessemer Cut-Off). They may have had a callsign before that, but I can't remember.
Click to expand...

Charles...I'm not so sure that's the case (WENN never being on 1450). I looked up one of the Broadcasting Yearbooks from years ago and one edition had 1450 in Bessemer listed as WENN. It was around the same time period that WEZB at 1320 moved to 1220. Could be just an error, but there might have been some complicated call sign swap-a-roo with 1220, 1320 and 1450, even if it was a temporary measure to park the WENN calls on 1450.
 
Here is the post I made a few years ago about the possibility of WENN being on 1450:
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=125207.0

...and here is the Broadcasting Yearbook from 1958 which lists WENN at 1450:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1958/Radio-AL-NE-1958-BC-YB.pdf

and the 1959 Yearbook lists 1450 as WEZB:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1959/Radio-AL-NE-1959-BC-YB.pdf


It would be interesting to know if anybody could validate whether WENN was on 1450 at one time, albeit temporarily.
 
passtheword said:
Here is the post I made a few years ago about the possibility of WENN being on 1450:
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=125207.0

...and here is the Broadcasting Yearbook from 1958 which lists WENN at 1450:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1958/Radio-AL-NE-1958-BC-YB.pdf

and the 1959 Yearbook lists 1450 as WEZB:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1959/Radio-AL-NE-1959-BC-YB.pdf


It would be interesting to know if anybody could validate whether WENN was on 1450 at one time, albeit temporarily.
Click to expand...
So WENN been on the air since 1959,what year did they switch to 1320.I know they went on 107.7 in 1969,went to 105.9 in late 1997 and went to 105.5 In 2006.1320 became WAGG In 1982 I think.A.G gaston bought WENN In 1976,that's when they had the walkout with Shelley the Playboy,Thin man and Tall Paul
 
I stared there in ,i think 1974. I was told it was wenn till 1963, then went country with the new call wyam just after wyde went country. I have all the jingles from both, And wsmq.
 
WENN was on 1450 at one time; I remember it. It was owned by John McLendon (of Mississippi, not the Gordon McLendon of KLIF fame), who also owned (what were then called) Ebony stations KOKA Shreveport WOKJ Jackson, KOKY Little Rock, and WOKS Columbus Ga. Notice all the stations except WENN had "OK" in the middle ... perhaps to avoid confusion with WVOK they went a different route.

There was another chain of black stations that used "OK" - WGOK WLOK WXOK KYOK WBOK (Mobile Memphis Baton Rouge Houston New Orleans).

I speculate that WENN gave up a fulltime freq for a daytime one, since 1450, located outside the population center, and low powered, was not as effective. At that time, 1220 was also black, with calls WEDR (they had a sister station in Atlanta, WERD).

WEZB was once on 1320; they played top 40 music but their presentation was more like an easy listening station; this was around 1960 that I recall it.

As for the speculation about "parking the calls," I don't think anyone back then had that idea ... that came along much later.
 
????? Please tell me more.
 
Hope new one is on the way last big one got the old one some years back, think it was the RCA. Swr meter was all over the floor.
 
Charles1 said:
1450 was at one time WBCO (meaning Bessemer Cut-Off). They may have had a callsign before that, but I can't remember.
Click to expand...
According to Broadcasting Yearbooks:
1220 began in 1949 as WEDR, changed to WEZB in 1959
1320 began in 1953 as WEZB, changed to WENN in 1958
1450 began in 1950 as WBCO, changed to WENN in 1957, WEZB in 1958 and WYAM in 1959

So, WEZB began on 1320 in 1953, moved to 1450 in 1958 and 1220 in 1959.
WENN began on 1450 in 1957 and moved to 1320 in 1958.
(In the '58 and '59 Yearbooks, there is mention of "station acquired - July 1958" for both 1320 and 1450 (or something like that). That's probably what makes the WENN calls look parked for that year.)

A bit of confusion may arise because Broadcasting Yearbook was published at the beginning of the year and reflected the activity of the previous year ... MOST OF THE TIME ::).

By the way, WEZB ("wEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEzeebee ") played easy listening popular music - not "real" Top 40. My mother listened to it all...the...time (except at night, of course :D. We moved away in '57 before EZB went full time on 1220.).
 
By the way, WEZB ("wEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEzeebee ") played easy listening popular music - not "real" Top 40. My mother listened to it all...the...time (except at night, of course :D. We moved away in '57 before EZB went full time on 1220.).
Click to expand...

So, are you saying that WEZB's format was about the equivalent of what we now call "vocal easy listening" (traditional soft AC)?
 
1450 soon to be back. After the LMA was over the owner found a mess. Looks like all new studio equipment and the transmitters.....we will see. Looks like I will have long hall with this one
 
Harris transmitter repaired
Looks like the audio chain will be ready sometimes this weekend.
I will be testing some this weekend. Thank you Ralph Lindstrom for all your great help and and all the long hours
 
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