Best Jocks in Eastern and Southeastern KY

[kayman]

Who are the best jocks of the past in the mountains?

Who are the best current jocks(the few that are left) in the mountains?

 

[knoxbob]

When I lived in SE KY back in the early 80's the morning man on WHLN in Harlan wasn't bad. Someone once told me his name but I have forgotten it now. Last name might have been Morgan. His on air name was Dudley Dowright.

 

[radiorob2.0]

The most successful of the past was Buddy Kincer (Kaye) (Scott). He was one of the best screamers of the day. I don't remember where he got his start but it might have been WNKY Neon. The jocks who were at WIFX when I first showed up were G.C., Jim Bright and Fred Spears. I believe Bright and Spears both passed on.

 

[Onesimus]

I thought Randy Walters at WSGS circa '79-'81 was very good.

The most interesting person in SE Kentucky I ever met was Louis Bouck? the late production director of WMTC Vancleve. It took me forever to find the station, put he was nice enough to give me a tour. He worked there for over FORTY years before he passed away.

 

[kayman]

Fred Spears and Jim Bright were both great. Both passed away before their time and are missed. I was around at WXKQ when the SMN competition with WIFX happened. Gregg Yaden finally gave in after about 6 months of back and forth with SMN and went to Broadcast Programming's AC format on the big reel to reel.
Gregg left in 88'. He came back in 91 and they changed to country. In 2007 they became Classic Hits.

I also remember the WIFX 3 days of country. It has us at WXKQ worried but we didn't let it be known. He had the fox with a country guitar painted on his building and on a sign on US 119. Ted Meadows couldn't stand it and they had major feedback against the move. So they switched back.

 

[hillbillyhomeboy]

Not sure if you consider Richmond Eastern Kentucky, but my current favorite is Mike James on WCYO, 100.7...he has a large market sound.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Fred Spears and Jim Bright were both great. Both passed away before their time and are missed. I was around at WXKQ when the SMN competition with WIFX happened. Gregg Yaden finally gave in after about 6 months of back and forth with SMN and went to Broadcast Programming's AC format on the big reel to reel.
Gregg left in 88'. He came back in 91 and they changed to country. In 2007 they became Classic Hits.

I also remember the WIFX 3 days of country. It has us at WXKQ worried but we didn't let it be known. He had the fox with a country guitar painted on his building and on a sign on US 119. Ted Meadows couldn't stand it and they had major feedback against the move. So they switched back.

Spears and Bright were great on the air but each had ego issues (may they rest in peace). When I was there back in 82, Spears had a blow up moment and quit, about an hour later he mellowed all was normal. Bright and I were in competition for the morning job at WEKY Richmond around 1991. Bright got the job but he didn't hang out long.

WXKQ went stereo around the time WIFX did, maybe just prior. The difference was WIFX was true stereo, early on WXKQ just activated the pilot but fed mono programming, kinda silly considering the trouble stereo brings to the signal all for mono programming; but hey the little red light was on.

I remember the good old days when WTCW-FM (now WXKQ) would sign off at 10pm with Kate Smith's God Bless America. IIRC the only FM on the air past 10pm was WSGS and maybe WREM until midnight. That's okay, I had WLAC, WNOX and WLS to keep me happy at night.

 

[cscott]

Being a SE KY boy myself I discovered this board by accident and wanted to chime in with some thoughts. My father-in-law owned the Whitesburg stations from 1954 until he sold them in the late 80's. I joined the station in 1965, and worked there on the air before marrying Don's daughter and setting out on my own to see the world. Buddy Kinzer and I keep in touch and certainly he was talented but my own candidate for mountain jock of all time would be Ron Statzer, who worked at WTCW duing the mid 60's. He came to Whitesburg from WNVA in Norton. In fact I replaced him at TCW when he left for a news job at WAKY in Louisville. I was crazy on the air but Ron was good and crazy. I was only crazy, not that good. Ron died tragically in an aircraft accident during his run as a highly popular morning TV show host, either in DC or Cincinnati. There were a few of us who did well in Country on a national level but to me Ron was the best who ever came out of mountain Top 40.

Craig Scott

 

[brian_stevens]

Ron died tragically in an aircraft accident during his run as a highly popular morning TV show host, either in DC or Cincinnati.

Sounds like Steve Douglas. Anchored at WLW-T in Cincinnati. Died while hosting P.M. Magazine in D.C., iirc. Same guy with a change in name?

 

[cscott]

Absolutely the same guy. As I recall the Statzer name wasn't thought of as a good one in Louisville. His days in Louisville, Cincy and finally DC were all under the name Steve Douglas. I had totally forgotten the name change until your catch. cs

 

[Lavarock]

Anyone remember Mark Allen at WREM Jenkins back in the 70's and 80's? The station was owned by the local doctor in town (Dr. Musgrave) and the call letters were his wifes initials (Racheal Ellen/Elizabeth? Musgrave). Signoff was "Laura's Theme". With studios atop Pound Gap and also in the old Consolidated coal building in "beautiful downtown Jenkins", we spun the hits. The record library was actually in an old bank vault, which the coal company used for money at one time.

In the same building was a guy who signed up "black lung" claims. There were lots of unfortunate miners sitting around, coughing.

Along with me (Mark) there was Earl Stevenson, Randy Donahue, Joe Coe, Steve Curran, Chuck Leffler (the owners son) and a host of others.

The engineer during most of that time was John Palumbo from Whitesburg.

I was somewhat unique for that station as I came from DC at the time and didn't have a "Southern" accent.

Whether I was good or bad, I leave to others to judge. At least Earl and I got the station to begin playing a rotation of music (easy, county and rock) rather than just the country they had been playing.

After we would go off the air, we would still be getting calls for requests. Seems they were hearing WCFL Chicago fade in

There were a number of other DJ's who really didn't measure up. I remember 1 girl who was hired whose whole patter was "That was Johnny Cash, this is the Beatles and it 2 o'clock".

Behind the station was the CATV system fro the local cable company. Lots of antennas stuck in the ground and pointed every which way.

When the Doctor filed bankrupcy (and let some of us go with no unemployment), the station was taken over by the Bank Of Pikeville and Gene Sturgill was in charge. I was asked to come back and was offered (for a great price) a giant apartment on the floor above the station. I had access to the request line at night (after signoff) and was allowed free long distance, as long as I kept it under control. When heavy snow or ice prevented DJs from getting to the station, I was a live-in DJ and had the whole day. I would often pre-program hours of taped music so I would not go crazy working all day.

I have other recollections, but will not bore you with them.

 

[trapper12]

When I lived in SE KY back in the early 80's the morning man on WHLN in Harlan wasn't bad. Someone once told me his name but I have forgotten it now. Last name might have been Morgan. His on air name was Dudley Dowright.

His name was probably James Morgan.

 

[radiorob2.0]

Anyone remember Mark Allen at WREM Jenkins back in the 70's and 80's? The station was owned by the local doctor in town (Dr. Musgrave) and the call letters were his wifes initials (Racheal Ellen/Elizabeth? Musgrave). Signoff was "Laura's Theme". With studios atop Pound Gap and also in the old Consolidated coal building in "beautiful downtown Jenkins", we spun the hits. The record library was actually in an old bank vault, which the coal company used for money at one time.

In the same building was a guy who signed up "black lung" claims. There were lots of unfortunate miners sitting around, coughing.

Along with me (Mark) there was Earl Stevenson, Randy Donahue, Joe Coe, Steve Curran, Chuck Leffler (the owners son) and a host of others.

The engineer during most of that time was John Palumbo from Whitesburg.

I was somewhat unique for that station as I came from DC at the time and didn't have a "Southern" accent.

Whether I was good or bad, I leave to others to judge. At least Earl and I got the station to begin playing a rotation of music (easy, county and rock) rather than just the country they had been playing.

After we would go off the air, we would still be getting calls for requests. Seems they were hearing WCFL Chicago fade in

There were a number of other DJ's who really didn't measure up. I remember 1 girl who was hired whose whole patter was "That was Johnny Cash, this is the Beatles and it 2 o'clock".

Behind the station was the CATV system fro the local cable company. Lots of antennas stuck in the ground and pointed every which way.

When the Doctor filed bankrupcy (and let some of us go with no unemployment), the station was taken over by the Bank Of Pikeville and Gene Sturgill was in charge. I was asked to come back and was offered (for a great price) a giant apartment on the floor above the station. I had access to the request line at night (after signoff) and was allowed free long distance, as long as I kept it under control. When heavy snow or ice prevented DJs from getting to the station, I was a live-in DJ and had the whole day. I would often pre-program hours of taped music so I would not go crazy working all day.

I have other recollections, but will not bore you with them.

Please bore us .

Whitesburg was my second childhood home. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, WIFX was my first radio experience. G.C. had just purchased the signals with someone named Craft, the company was Kincraft Industries.

The studios were atop of Pound Gap in an expanded trailer next to a Mom & Pop Grocery atop the hill. Looking back, the facility beyond the modified trailer was above average for what you would expect. The FM transmitter at the time was on a hill above the station. I never saw the place but was told the antenna wasn't very high off the ground. The AM was dark for a few months before becoming an early affiliate of SMN's Country Coast to Coast. The commercials were fired manually. The AM, like the rest of the band, had no signal in the mountains. Even in Whitesburg it had issues.

Before G.C. relocated the stations to Whitesburg he move the station across the road where he operated AM 1000, 94.3 and 102.3. Being this was 1985 you might wonder how he was able to operate two FM's. His brother purchased 102.3 and long before LMA's were hip G.C. was able to finagle the rules so he could operate the station but on paper was far enough away of a duopoly.

You mentioned the WCFL confusion. By 1985 the AM was contemporary christian at the same time WCFL had the format. The guy who ran the AM looked up at WCFL the way rock and rollers thought of CFL ten or fifteen years earlier as the station to strive for.

Here is a question, above Jenkins there is (or was) a self supporting tower. I had always thought that was 1000 AM and/or used for 94.3. I was told that it was owned by a third party and had nothing to do with the stations. Anyone know the story?

 

[trapper12]

There use to be an AM station in Hyden. I think it was called WSLK on the 1600 band. There were days when you could hardly pick it up and some days when it would blow you away. Anyway while it lasted, not all that long btw, they played some really good music and actually had some really good DJ's for what it was. One strange and interesting point. They could not operate a sustained daytime signal. Had to run a daily signal test to keep from interfering with a London station. I had never heard of that before or since.

 

[Lavarock]

The studios were atop of Pound Gap in an expanded trailer next to a Mom & Pop Grocery atop the hill. Looking back, the facility beyond the modified trailer was above average for what you would expect. The FM transmitter at the time was on a hill above
Here is a question, above Jenkins there is (or was) a self supporting tower. I had always thought that was 1000 AM and/or used for 94.3. I was told that it was owned by a third party and had nothing to do with the stations. Anyone know the story?

WREM's AM tower (1000kc) was a self-supported one across from the old convenience story at the gap. It was located on the north side of the hill and at the 2000 foot level (1000 feet above average terrain). The property access was restricted as it was some kind of national Forest or something, I don't remember.

There was a Collins transmitter and a Gates transmitter up there. The site had both electric from KY and VA. When we did radio remotes from Pound Virginia to the station (which was legally on the KY side of the state line, the audio loop went from Pound to Roanoke, through West Virginia and down through Pikesville to jenkins; even thougth we could see Pound from where we were. It was a telco requirement. Anyway, we only paid for the airline distance. years later rado links would be used for this, but hey, this worked!

The board was a Gates and really easy to operate. There is a photo here http://blog.itskona.com/markdj.jpg of me at the controls when we were in town.

One time the hardware shop across the street was cleaning a washing machine with gasoline (so we heard) and it ignited. The fire caused damage to the phone company and headed towards the gas stations on opposing corners. We immediately started grabbing equipment to head up to the transmitter site (which we had moved from earlier). I had the console and many records in my Camaro. Others brought turntables, etc. We reassembled the station and continued transmitting.

Our link from the studios in town to the transmitter site was via dedicated phone line. We used staylevels and gain controllers to maintain audio levels. Our remote control for the transmitter was a unit which would submit voltages on a pair of wires (different voltages and polarities) to rais and lower power, and so on.

So once we created a tape cart with a musical bed; I think it was the Star Spangled Banner, however might have been a commercial. In any event, the audio burst caused it to trip a fuse on our controller receiver at the transmitter site. The CE had to replace the fuse. I labeld the cart and set it in a protected place.

Later on we had a terrific ice storm. The control lines were down but audio was still up. FCC regs say you must shut the station down but we could not and the road was trecherous to drive up the mountain. I remembered the audio cart and BAM, off we went. The next morning the CE got up there in a 4WD, replaced the fuse and we returned to the air!

As was the custom at the time and the location., if our CE was out of town or sick, the engineer from another station would help out. Even though the stations were in competition, the Cheif Engineers helps each other with parts and so on.

Once one of the transmitters was broken (was it the Gates?). The company could not get an engineer out to fix it. Doc loaded the thing in a pickup, took it to the airport and aboard his DC3, where it soon landed in Louisville to be fixed.

The local phone company central office was across the street. The tech's name was Jay as I remember. We would take phone requests and have contests. Sometimes people would not hang up and tied up the only inbound line we had. Since Jay had a special audio link off of our audio board (we could switch a mike to that channel and not go out over the air). We would just announce on Jay's private music link that we needed him to drop the current caller from the line finder and usually the caller dropped in a minute or less.

I have a photo of that self-supporting antenna somewhere. By the way, near the top of it was a CB antenna, one of the tallest in that part of the state I'll bet.

Gary Slemp had worked at the station at some point I had heard.

Our main competition in the area was Witesburg, Neon, Pikeville and Norton.

I heard that WREM was considered for use in the movie "Coal Miners daughter" however they chose WNKY instead; primarily because WREM (or the new station if it was in place yet) looked too new

 

[Lavarock]

**UPDATE: here is the link to a photo: http://blog.itskona.com/WREM.jpg

Note the antenna on top which we never used.