DON'T LIKE ATLANTA RADIO, STAY CLEAR OF JACKSONVILLE

[gregg75]

On vacation in Jacksonville and radio here is a joke. It seems few stations have
a clear idea of what they are. I would wager that Chattanooga, Macon and Valdosta have better stations.

The only thing consistant is tons of commercials. NO 98 AT 9 IN THIS CITY.....but
the beach is nice though.

 

[wpb1999]

Chattanooga has stations that are a hell of a lot better than Jacksonville. I had to go down there for business last year, radio was awful.

 

[atlantaboy]

Florida radio in general is terrible if you have my musical taste (Alternative/Hot AC)

 

[acheron1982]

From a rock perspective, Savannah still bites the bullet as being the worse. 95.5 WIXV is a classic rock station in Savannah and I would be surprised if the playlist is more than 200 songs. To make matters worse, their 200 song playlist has never been updated in 10+ years with the exception of a few newer songs from southern rock artist.

106.1 (active rock) would be ok if you could pick it up.

 

[upstate29651]

106.1 (active rock) would be ok if you could pick it up.

Wha? 106.1 is very receivable in Savannah & is one of the better active rockers in the Southeast.

G

 

[electroboy73]

Wow, this is where Cox radio does quite well, IMO. I love WAPE. It's a great, well balanced CHR. And I love the fact that it's so legendary. WAPE has quite a history of being a strong CHR for, what...like 60 years?

 

[acheron1982]

@Upstate - Yeah, you are right. It is a good active rock station though I personally enjoyed them better when they leaned alternative in the mid 2k's. Still, their signal reaches Savannah but if you live in Hinesville or Statesboro, you are stuck with 95 which royally sucks for a classic rock or mainstream rock station. Its the small playlist. Do me a favor, go to rockofsavannah.net and check out their last songs played list on the right of the screen. I guarantee one of the last 10 songs played will either be Tom Petty or Stone Temple Pilots at least 80% of the time. I use to live near Claxton and was forced to listen to them back in the early 2000's and their playlist is STILL the same.

I guess when I critique stations, I look at the playlist. Not necessarily the style of music but the size of the playlist. For example, in Atlanta, while the format may not be all that great, I'd have to say DAVE really has a pretty impressive playlist when it comes to variety and no repeats. Also really enjoyed KZ106 in Chattanooga.

 

[kilamanjero]

Wow, this is where Cox radio does quite well, IMO. I love WAPE. It's a great, well balanced CHR. And I love the fact that it's so legendary. WAPE has quite a history of being a strong CHR for, what...like 60 years?

I can speak as some that resided in a city where Cox Radio dominates as well for nearly 7 years, Birmingham. Wherever Cox wins, the listener always loses. Cox has horribly programmed stations from most genres, but especially urban. They can't program a quality urban station if their lives depended on it. Orlando is a just a recent market that has fallen victim to the Cox Radio curse when it comes to urban format. It's that way all the way across the state from Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Orlando, SMH...

 

[gregg75]

Haven't logged on since the original post.

They did get a new station in JAX while I was there.......JACK. I did catch some of it, but it
wasn't consistent. They are the 55th city to get JACK radio.

The top radio there seemed to be religion, talk and country, as many were on board. They also had a semi-Dance station but not to my tastes (more to a 20 year old). None of their other formats seemed
strong or able to gel........more like hit and miss.

 

[bclark71.]

Wow, this is where Cox radio does quite well, IMO. I love WAPE. It's a great, well balanced CHR. And I love the fact that it's so legendary. WAPE has quite a history of being a strong CHR for, what...like 60 years?

Agreed. I live in Jacksonville now after spending 40 years in Atlanta and as a pop music fan, WAPE knocks the socks off Q100. And I am with you, I love the history of The Big Ape. Imagine if Z93 or 94Q had survived all these years.

I was back in Atlanta this weekend and flipped over to Q100 only to be treated to Stereo MC's "Connected." What in the hell is Q100 playing that for? Of course, now I just laugh and flip the station because I know I will be home soon and will have a real CHR at my disposal.

 

[electroboy73]

Wow, this is where Cox radio does quite well, IMO. I love WAPE. It's a great, well balanced CHR. And I love the fact that it's so legendary. WAPE has quite a history of being a strong CHR for, what...like 60 years?

Agreed. I live in Jacksonville now after spending 40 years in Atlanta and as a pop music fan, WAPE knocks the socks off Q100. And I am with you, I love the history of The Big Ape. Imagine if Z93 or 94Q had survived all these years.

Awesome. Def agree with you there! Hey does WAPE still do the famous Tarzan-yell at the top of the hour? And whatever happened to the site where the original AM 690 WAPE studios were. I read about the swimming pool that was right at the station snd next to the transmitter. In the 60's n 70's, were there really public fans and listeners that got to hang out at the station, poolside, with the station playing while participating in contests, giveaways, etc? Sounds almost like an urban legend, by now. But, how cool would that have been spending the afternoons at a pool with tons of hit music and fun? What radio station, these days would EVER have the balls to try that again?

Any thoughts?

 

[nfladxer]

Let's not play the "Let's put Jacksonville Down Game" again! I agree Jacksonville could use more format variety, but the fact is, radio everywhere is lacking the creativity, relevence, and locality, it once enjoyed. I really don't think "Jacksonville", or any one city, is to blame, you might want to point your finger at a few corporate boardrooms!

 

[secondchoice]

Wow, this is where Cox radio does quite well, IMO. I love WAPE. It's a great, well balanced CHR. And I love the fact that it's so legendary. WAPE has quite a history of being a strong CHR for, what...like 60 years?

Agreed. I live in Jacksonville now after spending 40 years in Atlanta and as a pop music fan, WAPE knocks the socks off Q100. And I am with you, I love the history of The Big Ape. Imagine if Z93 or 94Q had survived all these years.

Awesome. Def agree with you there! Hey does WAPE still do the famous Tarzan-yell at the top of the hour? And whatever happened to the site where the original AM 690 WAPE studios were. I read about the swimming pool that was right at the station snd next to the transmitter. In the 60's n 70's, were there really public fans and listeners that got to hang out at the station, poolside, with the station playing while participating in contests, giveaways, etc? Sounds almost like an urban legend, by now. But, how cool would that have been spending the afternoons at a pool with tons of hit music and fun? What radio station, these days would EVER have the balls to try that again?

Any thoughts?

IIRC They had a "homemade" Water cooled transmitter. I saw it's sister at WFLI. WFLI had almost FM quality sound back in the 1970's when I listened. I believe one of the owners lived on site of the Big Ape.

 

[kal30005]

Awesome. Def agree with you there! Hey does WAPE still do the famous Tarzan-yell at the top of the hour? And whatever happened to the site where the original AM 690 WAPE studios were. I read about the swimming pool that was right at the station snd next to the transmitter. In the 60's n 70's, were there really public fans and listeners that got to hang out at the station, poolside, with the station playing while participating in contests, giveaways, etc? Sounds almost like an urban legend, by now. But, how cool would that have been spending the afternoons at a pool with tons of hit music and fun? What radio station, these days would EVER have the balls to try that again?

Any thoughts?

Yes they still do the ape call. WAPE is a decent station but I wouldn't say that are BETTER than either Star or Q100. The are definitely the most unique station in Jacksonville.

I lived in Orange Park pretty close to the old 690 location from 1973-1981. I remember the pool and there were lots of stories about the pool and some pretty crazy parties they used to have there. Look up WAPE on wikipedia and there is a pretty thorough description of the very unique building and pool. I recently saw some photos somebody had posted as well.

690 WAPE was a true legend in radio. They had some great talent go through that station. I still remember when they first brought in the Greaseman. For several weeks leading up to it, they had a contest saying they would replace the DJ who left with somebody off the street. People would come in and get in front of the microphone as an "audition". Then one night this guy comes in for his audition claiming to be a truck driver who was passing through town and the rest was history.

That station had some very clever marketers. Unfortunately, they just got overrun by FM radio and Y103, which was a pretty good station in it's own right in the late 70s and early 80s.

Funny thing is I don't think there is ANY connection between the 2 stations. 95.1 simply purchased the call letters and started calling themselves the Big Ape.

 

[kal30005]

I believe one of the owners lived on site of the Big Ape.

Yep. There are also some details of that on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAPE_(defunct)

 

[atlantaboy]

Not sure about recently, but all through the 90s and early 2000s WAPE had one of the narrowest playlists in the country - I remember scanning through R&R and seeing WAPE's playlist with about 20 currents and that's it, much worse than Q100 is now - they literally played half the songs most other CHRs did

The big ape call might be cool, but the Big Ape was definitely nothing to brag about from around 1990-2005 or so - especially since Jacksonville didn't have a Hot AC option either

 

[robbie roundhouse]

From a rock perspective, Savannah still bites the bullet as being the worse.

Somebody's clearly never been to Raleigh.

 

[taylorengineer]

WFLI was also owned by the Brennan-Benns family who owned WAPE, WVOK Birmingham, and WBAM - The Big Bam - Montgomery. They were legendary for their engineering expertise - the Brennan transmitters were unsurpassed in audio performance and had a sound unlike any other station in those days.
The transmitting tubes, at least the high power ones, were indeed water cooled. That is used in television today but not in AM/FM transmitter design. I would have tried to figure out a way to distill liquor and cool the transmitter finals at the same time. But that's just me.......
Too bad today's stations can't have swimming pool lobbies! I never had a chance to see the old studios but know people who were there back in the day and the stories are wild!!

 

[acheron1982]

Robbie is right. While what savannah has (with respect to rock) sucks, Raleigh does not even ahve a "rock" station. They have a Bob or Sam or something and that is it. They do have a classic hits station but it leans pop vs rock (much like 106.7 here in Atlanta). The only rock option Raleigh has is the buzz out of Greensboro or Rock 103 in Fayetteville (spelling) which both come in poorly depending on the side of town.

Folks, another town that has horrible rock radio is..... New York City. What few stations they do have are located over in Jersey and have a very low wattage.