Cool Video of Starliner @ MSAP and the pre WPFM/ House of Pizza Tower

[Tibbs4]

I guess there's nada else to talk about on here, so I just thought someway there has to be something
on youtube.com about Miracle Strip Amusement Park and sure enough there is this great video of the
Starliner roller coaster and the Tower of Pizza. Which leads to the question dealing with raydio...

Charlie, when did the WPFM letters go up on the tower? They're not there in the 1983 clip. Had to be 84 or 85, right?
I know they were there in 1986. Was it Hurrican Opal that caused it to be taken down? I can't remember a damn
thing. I need a beer. That'll bring back the redneck riviera memories, speakin' of which? RNR, you cold up there?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cze7oFmYFVI

P.S. --- Please Rob come up with something to say. We're struggling at this point to bring up roller coaster videos.
Castro has to have called or something.

 

[redneckriviera]

I guess there's nada else to talk about on here, so I just thought someway there has to be something
on youtube.com about Miracle Strip Amusement Park and sure enough there is this great video of the
Starliner roller coaster and the Tower of Pizza. Which leads to the question dealing with raydio...

Charlie, when did the WPFM letters go up on the tower? They're not there in the 1983 clip. Had to be 84 or 85, right?
I know they were there in 1986. Was it Hurrican Opal that caused it to be taken down? I can't remember a damn
thing. I need a beer. That'll bring back the redneck riviera memories, speakin' of which? RNR, you cold up there?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cze7oFmYFVI

P.S. --- Please Rob come up with something to say. We're struggling at this point to bring up roller coaster videos.
Castro has to have called or something.

Yeah, it's already snowed a couple times. Wish I could remember why I left F*ing Lower Alabama to come back up here!

Cool coaster footage. 1983? I was just a toddler, then, so we'll need one of the oldsters to chime in. On the other hand, in a weird coincidence, the Starliner is now down at Cypress Gardens, where I was a hot jock back in the... er, seventies... at the Big 54/WGTO ("Gulf To Ocean"). They needed a new attraction--CG had been on the slide ever since 'GTO moved to Orlando and became WFLF ("Fluff?")...

 

[cceng1]

hey RNR...it is a very small world....I moved 540 from Cypress Gardens to Pine Hills (Orlando) built new studios on Marshall Farms Rd in Ocoee and a new 6 tower array about 10 miles due west of Disney World...we put about 138kw ERP to the east from that site....now all of that is going away, 540 and 740 are being combined into one monster transmitter site NW of Orlando (six towers)...did you know "Dr Frank"at WGTO? He was the engineer there when it was at CG. The new studios I built in Ocoee were vacated when Paxson bought it and last time I drove by there about 6 months ago, the building was still empty (built new in 1989).

Tibbs...As far as when the PFM sign was put on the tower, I can't really remember. I think it done when Barry Turner and Culpepper owned the station....sorry to those on the list who knew who Barry was...I know most of the employees hated him (me included)

Charlie

 

[redneckriviera]

hey RNR...it is a very small world....I moved 540 from Cypress Gardens to Pine Hills (Orlando) built new studios on Marshall Farms Rd in Ocoee and a new 6 tower array about 10 miles due west of Disney World...we put about 138kw ERP to the east from that site....now all of that is going away, 540 and 740 are being combined into one monster transmitter site NW of Orlando (six towers)...did you know "Dr Frank"at WGTO? He was the engineer there when it was at CG. The new studios I built in Ocoee were vacated when Paxson bought it and last time I drove by there about 6 months ago, the building was still empty (built new in 1989).

Tibbs...As far as when the PFM sign was put on the tower, I can't really remember. I think it done when Barry Turner and Culpepper owned the station....sorry to those on the list who knew who Barry was...I know most of the employees hated him (me included)

Charlie

Though "Dr. Frank" rings some sort of bell, it seems to me that I'd already headed north (to be a PD in Greenville-Spartanburg) by the time he came on the scene. Our CE was a local... a good ol' boy--but, man, that signal was clean as a whistle... certainly the best AM signal I've ever heard. This was 1977-1978 & Hubbard Broadcasting (still a great outfit) owned 'GTO.

Yeah, I'd read about the 540/740 thing. Are they going to be able to locate the site far enough out to enable those signals to encompass the entire metro area--day & night? BTW, anybody who thinks there's no money left in AM radio should be guided through all the relocations of the Big 54. What's this latest one costing CC? Whatever the amount, they must figure they'll get it back via higher ratings & higher rates.

Must've been cool to have the WPFM calls on the Pizza Tower. Tibbs, do you have any actual pics of the building when they were up there?

 

[PHRaCaS]

I guess there's nada else to talk about on here, so I just thought someway there has to be something
on youtube.com about Miracle Strip Amusement Park and sure enough there is this great video of the
Starliner roller coaster and the Tower of Pizza. Which leads to the question dealing with raydio...

Charlie, when did the WPFM letters go up on the tower? They're not there in the 1983 clip. Had to be 84 or 85, right?
I know they were there in 1986. Was it Hurrican Opal that caused it to be taken down? I can't remember a damn
thing. I need a beer. That'll bring back the redneck riviera memories, speakin' of which? RNR, you cold up there?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cze7oFmYFVI

P.S. --- Please Rob come up with something to say. We're struggling at this point to bring up roller coaster videos.
Castro has to have called or something.

Was the "Starliner" once called the "Tornado" ?

Here is a a couple of pics of our PD from 1977 when I was CE of WQEN in Gadsden.

Maybe ya'll will recognize some of the other radio guys that set this record.

Scroll to the far right picture across the top:

www.superq104.com/Q104 Photo Gallery 04.htm


mikie

 

[ShadowB]

I know the calls were up in 1985 or 86. I always thought it would be cool to broadcast from the tower but my first summer on "The Great 108" was the first summer they didn't .Think it was the same year that the haunted house burned..Missed it by that much!

 

[BIG APE]

: ;D Damn..What the hell is that coming out of the center of that picture on the wall??? Looks like a "Giant Vibrator"  BIG APE!

 

[Tibbs4]

Ape --- you're not referring to the wall behind Barbie Benton picture in the WQEN set are you???
I saw nothing, wonder where it could have gone???;D

I loved the Haunted House, Shadow. It was so awesome. My first experience on PCB as a non-college
student was sort of innocent until that place. Had to come back and git a job there. In Panama City,
I mean. There are some cool pictures of that on flickr....the Haunted House, I mean. How/why did it
burn? Now it's just another parking lot isn't it??? Was was the name of the street off of Thomas Drive
things moved to after the tower? Down by the h2Ohhh? I cannot remember. There's a major resort
down that way now, right? I think it had to be 1984 when they call letters went up.

 

[steve63]

The illuminated WPFM calls were definitely up on the beach Tower in 1984. Still there in 1987 on another trip, but I think they were gone by 1991. Hurricane Opel caused a lot of damage in 1995 and the tower came down not long after that.

WPFM didn't seem to use the studio up on the tower very much that summer of '84, no idea what was really up there as far as gear goes. I do remember they were still using mono cart machines for the spots (a stereo sony walkman on FM 108 was practically glued to my noggin) and a lot of vinyl for the music in the main studios, which was still being used in 1991 when I visited the Magnolia Beach Rd studios.

Those were different times on the Panama City FM dial. Apart from the non commercial stations from Gulf Coast Community College, there was only 92.5 WPAP, T-94 (WJST in Port St Joe, across the eastern time zone), 98.5 WGNE playing easily listening, a low power Christian station on 100.1 and 107.9 WPFM. WPFM owned Front Beach Rd, seemed like it was on in every car and every business that played music.

The FM dial in PCB was wide open and the skip conditons were something else. That summer of '84 I used to regularly listen to B97 WEZB New Orleans, 94Q WQID Biloxi, 97 WABB and WKRG 99.9 (G100?) Mobile, WJLQ Q100, WTKX TK101 and WOW-Y107(.3) Pensacola, 99.3 WFTW Fort Walton Beach, 106.7 WKMX Dothan and WJAD Bainbridge Ga, all doing some kind of CHR that summer. I got most of these stations when the skip was in on a sony walkman cassette/fm radio unit, a JVC boombox and most of the car radios my relatives had. I've also heard Jacksonville 95.1 WAPE and Tampa's Q105 in PCB on other trips. It's kind of a shame the dial is so cluttered up now. How does anyone other than WPAP make money?

What ever happened to Jeff Davis who spent a good chunk of the 80's at WPFM?

here's some WPFM stuff my flickr page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7576734@N02/1448578998/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7576734@N02/1447727007/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7576734@N02/1472823114/in/set-72157602173546478/

The Tornado was at Petticoat Junction, which had its last year of operation in 1984, the park's contents were sold at auction the next year and I think the Tornado was torn down. A mega Walmart now sits close to the old Petticaot Junction site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7576734@N02/503879009/in/set-72157600229066252/

 

[Tibbs4]

I dont remember actually going to Petticoat Junction, but I sure do remember it. It was always so cool to
have two theme parks down there. That WPFM logo was on a handful of billboards, etc., in the 83-86
years. Thanks for the Magnolia Beach Road name, it has driven me crazy that I could not remember
the name, yet it was so simple. You know how it goes, you just get into the pattern and drive.

Everybody listened to the Great 108. The feel and attitude on PCB was perfect during the 80's decade.
Prior to that, I heard some crazy stories, but the 80's had some mighty beautiful assets that still provide
fond memories of finding white sand in the craziest places.

Thanks again for the cool memories, Steve! Someone will get a picture with the WPFM calls on the tower.

 

[ShadowB]

I first went to PCB in the winter of 85/86 to talk to Jeff Davis about a job. The station ( wpfm) sounded HUGE! It was on in every store and in every car on Front Beach Rd. I KNEW I had to move to "The Beach" so I did! Didn't have a gig but I packed up and moved in with a girl I knew and her sister ( that is a long story!) and got a job working part-time on "The Great 108" man that was fun! That spring and every Saturday I did the "Tan of the week contest" remote at the surf hut then handed it off to Young Preston Young across the street at the Breakers...think we did about 8 remotes every weekend! Oh and we ran OVER 30 min. of spots an hour, MORE if Little John did a remote..see he kind of went on and on!!! hahaha Looking back that was the best station I have ever worked at. Had the most fun and got next to no money but it was still a blast!!!
Jeff is in Atlanta working for a record company now and has been for years, talked to him a wile back and we always say the same thing....Boy it was fun!!!

 

[NWFLRadio10yrs]

I don't know if this will help or not, but I moved to PCB in the summer of '85 and WPFM was still in the tower. In the spring of 1987 I won an album from them and had to go to the Magnolia Beach studios to pick it up, so they moved out of the tower sometime between '85 and the spring of '87 (if I can remember correctly it seems like they had just moved when I won).

As for the tower itself, it hosted a T-shirt shop in the base for many years after WPFM moved out. It was heavilly damaged in 1995 during Hurricane Opal and was torn down on December 1, 1995 (I remember that day because I went out to watch the demoltion and it was also the same day I got hired at Island 106).

Maybe someone has some insight on this, but I heard that someone tried to shoot one of the DJ's at WPFM while he was on the air in the tower. Does anyone know anyhting about this? I heard something about him being on the air then you hear a "crash" and he says "Oh S##T!" and the radio station went dead. Did this ever happen or is this something someone made up?

 

[cceng1]

I do remember getting a frantic phone call from Bill Thomas (Birdman) and and his side kick Lou about 7am one morning...there was a water spout coming straight for the tower....they said "holy sh*t" on the air and went to dead air as they went down stairs.

Both Skip Bishop and Jeff Davis (real name Mark Elmore) are both in the record business.

Charlie

 

[Jenny Woo]

The Bird is now working at the big studio in the sky. I worked with him at his last gig and that's where I met CCENG, finest husband and engineer a radio girl could ask for

 

[steve63]

I seem to recall Bumper Morgan doing the liners and ID's on WPFM in the late 80's, but never hearing any jingles on WPFM. Can anyone confirm or deny? Bumper was one of the reasons WPFM sounded so big.

The Surf Hut was one of my favorite places in PCB. The sand covered floor, Surfer Joe T-shirts and the multi-colored surfboards attached to the front top of the building like an awning. Right next to it, WPFM sponsored the Surf Hut's wooden hut from which they did surf reports in the morning. On the front was a 3'X4' piece of wood with a painted WPFM logo with the sun and surf. I remember seeing it on the same site after the Surf Hut closed and always regretted not picking it up and taking it back home with me.

If anyone has any pictures of the Surf Hut I would love to include it on my flickr page dedicated to PCB and Front Beach Rd. I would be more than glad to give credit to the photographer. There is next to nothing on the Surf Hut online.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7576734@N02/sets/72157600228994130/

I also have groups of photos of MSAP, Long Beach Resort and Petticoat Junction, many of which are vintage postcard images on my flickr page. Please fell free to look around and leave a comment. I am positive you'll see a few things that don't exist anymore in PCB.

I have found a couple of pictures on flickr of the Top of The Strip Tower with the WPFM panels here,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78469770@N00/171067407/
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=171068092&size=o

Although it looks like they were blacked out by 1990, the date on the photo. Click on the all sizes function for a closer look. Somewhere I have an old brochure of the Miracle Strip Amusenment Park with a night shot of the park with the tower in the back with the illuminted WPFM panels. I will try to dig it out and put up a link here.

Here is another Flickr photo of the Tornado at Petticoat Junction with the giant pirate in front.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darthbengal/391681781/

There will never be another place like Panama City Beach in the 80's!!

 

[ShadowB]

I know John Young did the ID's in the early to mid 80's.Not sure after that, could have been Bumper. Don't remember any jingles but we did have shouts and stingers with some music behind. I do remember we had some cool bumps that went..." W (we built this city) PFM! " Preston would take bits of songs and make some cool stuff.. As for broadcasting from the tower, they did it only in the summer and the first year they didn't was 86. It had no bathroom in it so you would have to go all the way down to well go...OR just let it go off the side!

 

[Tibbs4]

Shawdow:

Right arm out and Country Ham~! Remember the Sun Country Wine Cooler 2 Liter bottle promos? They had Peach, Original, and
some other nasty flavor. Some remotes at liquor stores (like Mrs. Newby's on Thomas Drive) and the Delchamps at or near Edgewater
and Charlie Lahans in Laguna Beach provided talent beyond belief. Also, some of those bottles made to it one of those great stations in the sky where yes, ya had no choice than to Not wait for a ride down....talk about getting s-t-o-n-e-d on the sand....!

The ID's were pretty cool. A sound like you'd hear on Match Game, then WPFM-Panama City, a hot sounding co-ed saying
'Its the only station I listen to' or I think 'It's my favorite radio station' then "The Great 108" ...Music Blast into the next hour.
Any one have that? I have some, hah, Cassettes of it.

Bumper didn't do those that I remember, maybe later. I'll see if I can find out. Bumpers the best. Course there were two Bumper
Morgan's. The king of Id's is still with us. Then again, maybe he did and I just have forgotten. Bumper has a much deeper
voice than I remember.

Was there an ID that said Rockin' the Gulf Coast with 100,00 watts --- WPFM Panama City? Maybe just my imagination. or
was it Rock 103? I can't remember.

Oh,
and there is an old Power 108 sticker on flickr.com, to, right Steve? That was a sad time. Not as bad at Rock 108 when the
PFM calls disappeared or ever worse WLHR. Still, ain't alot of magic on that frequency on the World's Most Beautiful White
Sand Beaches....

 

[Tibbs4]

The Bird is now working at the big studio in the sky. I worked with him at his last gig and that's where I met CCENG, finest husband and engineer a radio girl could ask for

No finer post hath been written in 2007. Maybe that Woo girl is really not Charlie's alter ego, after all. ;D

 

[ShadowB]

Yup the ID's sounded like that...bigger than life and we would play some upbeat tune after it..Jeff told me to never play a slow as SH*# song after that id or I would be working overnights on the 2 way radio! I recall one night when Little John took the van to a club after his remote and the GM..( Tim...?) called on the 2 way looking for him...he called me at the station and told me to find him!! A few hours pass and I find him and tell him Tim was looking for him and he says " F*#K Tim" or something like that!

 

[steve63]

Yes Tibbs, the Power 108 days were kinda said, despite the effort the staff gave at the time.

Once Island 106 came on the air with all the other stations in the docket 80-90 explosion, it was never the same for the Great 108. Putting other stations' transmitters sites on Back Beach Rd and other "in town" spots, like right behind the business park where Island 106 had their offices and studios, didn't help the WPFM signal with the tower some 20-25 miles away, just south of Rt 20 and east of US 231. By that time 107.9 had some issues with penetrating through concrete and steel motels and hotels onto the actual beach. By the early 90's I seem to recall a lot of picket fencing and even fading.

At one poinit WPFM was the only station on 107.9 in the south east other than West Palm Beach and Macon Ga. Radio-locator shows there are now eight other 107.9's in Alabama, Georgia and Florida with in 200 miles of PCB, including a proposed LPFM in Tallahassee. The often intense e-skip/tropo on the Gulf Coast isn't going to be of any help to anyone on that frequency. Wasn't work done on the TX site at one point to create a better signal in PCB?

The less said about Rock 108 (wasn't it alternative rock briefly?) and WLHR the better. Hot 107.9 was a step in the right direction. Us old timers can be happy that WPFM is back on 107.9 despite the fact they still don't have a website or even stream audio.
As you know all too well Tibbs, PC has got to be the most over radio-ed market in the country.

Here's the Power 108 sticker I picked up at a record store or stereo shop

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7576734@N02/1472822454/

On a side note, anyone reading this ever work in the WDLP studio in the volcano at Alvin's Magic Mountain? Only in PCB