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change for WZRX-AM in Jackson

oh yeah, he was supposed to have it back on in oct. 09....

he just now got around to figuring out the old transmitter needs lots of work.

I'll stick to Vicksburg, I took over the mess at wvbg, have done a lot to straighten it out over the last year.

I still consider myself new to the broadcast world, I grew up around a lot of 2way radio stuff, took an interest in broadcast engineering and mark jones gave me a chance to figure it all out.
 
WYIG Y16 was still one of my favorites. It was the only station I ever heard "Martian Boogie" by Brownsville Station. I don't think I've heard that song since. Sadly Y-16 didn't last too long. Right after WCCL 1590 got killed by Miss 103 in 1981 WCCL tried a sort of classic hits/oldies during the day and more album rock at night trying to fill the void left by the loss of ZZQ. I really liked that format. First time I ever heard Pink Floyd and Zeppelin on AM. I still have one of those old "WCCL rocks Jackson" bumper stickers on the bumper from my old truck in the scrap pile some where. That didn't last long either because they went to adult standards shortly afterward (WYHT). My favorites never seem to last. I also liked the album rock format they had in the late 80's before they put on the Z-Rock satelite feed. Sounded good in AM stereo.
 
Now, I remember Y16.

The talk show that is airing in the afternoons at 5:00 on WZRX is hosted by Jason Lewis. I am not familiar with him.
 
> reference to Donald B. Brady?

Yup. Don worked for me and Craig Scott at Majic 107 in the late 80s. Don was a different kinda guy, to say the least. But, I liked him.

The key to understanding Don is that he is very, very bright -- far brighter than most people. That makes him seem a bit quirky. But he was a good talent and the most honest person I have ever met.

I would get a semi-annual call from Don for a while. I haven't heard from him in quite some time. I hope he's well.

DE
 
DEADElvis, you're right about Don. He's quirky, and strange, but he is also very friendly, and a great guy. We were very good friends for a long time but when I left Mississippi I lost track of him. And he is absolutely brilliant, but never found a good way to put those gifts to work.

I'd love to see Don again. He was one of my favorite people, quirky or not. I think quite highly of him...
 
WZRX is no longer simucasting with 620 on the weekend. They have been broadcasting talkshows (not about sports) for several weeks.
 
I wonder if Clear Channel will try and get Rush Limbaugh away from WJNT since they do have a stake in Premiere Radio Network, which syndicates Rush.
 
For "Flytrap"... Martian Boogie was decidedly a WHBQ song I imported when I tried to reconstruct John Long's format on 1590.
 
WWUN and WYIG Y 16 was the same station. I think 1590 was WYIG in 1977. I'm not sure how long Y-16 lasted, but the way I remember it, W-1 was country in the mid 70's and went to top 40 as Y-16 around 76 or 77 when I was around 12 years old. It seems it went back to country shortly after around 78 or 79. It did really well as country until Miss 103 came out in 1981. It was on Y-16 when I heard Martian Boogie. Haven't heard that song in years.
 
Of course, WWUN started out as Rock n' Roll in the early 1970s. They were just down Northside Drive where my Mississippi Radio Network had its studios. At the time, WRBC was the only Top 40. Lasted about a year after WJXN had switched to country. WRBC was loaded with commercials. When the first Pulse (or some survey) came out and WWUN had a great showing (they had very few commercials), WRBC dropped a bunch of their cheaper advertising. If they hadn't, they would have lost them anyway as the audience was shifting over to WWUN. Only problem with WWUN, they had a very basey signal. You had to turn up the treble on your radio in order to understand them. Which I didn't understand because they were using WOKJ's old 1590 transmitter and towers and WOKJ had sounded pretty good, I think.

Ooops, I forgot. This thread is about WZRX. That was after I had left Jackson and went to live in the French Quarter in New Orleans, where I think I was kind of a slut. I don't remember. I stayed drunk the whole time.
 
I was the chief engineer of WWUN from the first day...they did not use any processing at the beginning...it was not deemed necessary by their Baton Rogue engineer consultants...that quickly changed over the first three months...we added processing and swiftly shot to number ONE in the "hooper" ratings....we used Dorrough...what memories....JBI
 
Henry, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think WWUN went top 40 about 1965, not in the 70's ... believe, too, that WJXN got out of top 40 and went country about 1962... so that was a three year period in which WRBC was without direct competition. Recall that you and I did the WKXI/MRN venture starting in 71 and by then WWUN had been around for some years.
 
Alex, good to see you posting on here. If you're ever in Houston, I'll take you out to lunch.

You're right about WWUN in the 1960s and you're right about WRBC having serveral years by themselves
as the Rock n' Roller. WWUN did sign on as Rock n' Roll. And was so the whole time after that that I was in Mississippi.

And to Boyd Ingram: Man, you know everything. I think all of us posting here about the old days in Mississippi should be turned into a book for all the young whipper-snapers to study.
 
Thanks Henry...but there is lots I DO NOT know...but it was a thrill to see the battles in the trenches by local owners in the 60's. I have been in strategy meetings when format changes, outlandish contests, and other events actually required a pledge from the staff not to divulge the change...and I have seen some staff members walk for breaking the pledge.
A book? Things are so different today, it would have to be cast as a history only...JBI
 
I'm too young to remember the old top 40 WWUN, but I had a friend who always listened to W-1 during the 70's and it was country. Seems like I remember it was a little more hillbilly and played a lot of trucker songs. But this was during the early days of the CB craze. After the short stint as top 40 Y-16, they changed the call letters to WCCL and went back to country, but this time it had a more modern sound with less hillbilly. After Miss 103 came out and ate their lunch they flipped to sort of a hybrid oldies-classic hits format, with more rock and album cuts at night, maybe trying to grab some of WZZQ's old listeners, since there was no rock station in Jackson after ZZQ went country.
 
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