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Former owner of WKXY A.G. (Tony) Fernandez passes.

MichaelCrose

MichaelCrose

A.G. (Tony) Fernandez Passed away yesterday. He was a true classic Tampa Bay broadcaster and the former owner of WKXY in Sarasota from 1949 to 1999. I met Mr. Fernandez in the mid nineties when his station was airing my show from Peoples Radio Network. Visiting the station was both fascinating and very educational from a historical standpoint. Here was a building frozen in time. Once a bastion of activity with many employees from talent, news, traffic, sale and administration now being run completely by a satellite dish, a 486 computer and Mr. Fernandez with his two sons Charlie and Tony. All of the programing was automated from that computer located in what was once the news studio. The main broadcast studio with it’s turntables big microphone and old board was empty and silent like the production rooms, sales offices and lobby. Old photographs and clocks on the wall told stories of Sarasota broadcasting history.

I so enjoyed hearing Mr. Fernandez tell me stories of the old days and how he built the station. How he miscalculated FM radio. (It needed big tubes so it would never be in cars.) My thoughts go out to Charlie, Tony and the family. I think we can all agree that parts of our lives were molded and guided by what were grew up listening to out of that little box in our cars and homes. For thousands of people in lower Tampa Bay the Fernandez family played a big part of that.
 
Here in South Tampa, in the mid-to-later-1950s before WALT 1110 went Top-40, we used to listen to WKXY because they played a lot of Top-40. They were a great station for many years. Very sorry to hear about Mr. Fernandez's passing away.
 
Well, that's 2 local giants in the past week... Tony Fernandez and Bob Nelson.... Nelson's funeral is today @ 3pm at !st Baptist church of Sarasota on Main st.

RIP both local giants.... you will b missed...

wfg
 
Tony and his brother Charlie gave me my start in radio in 1967 when I was only 15. I pulled records for request shows, ran the board for football and baseball and they let me read the midnight news just before sign-off. I worked for free, but it gave me my start and I'm still in the business 45 years later. Tony was a class act and a real broadcaster. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to know most of the Fernandez family. They are very special to me, almost like a second family. Tony will be missed.

My thoughts and prayers got out to "little" Tony, Charlie and the entire Fernandez family.
 
Sorry to hear about his passing. When I lived in Bradenton from 1967 - 1971, WKXY "Mighty 93" was my favorite Top 40 radio station (never liked WLCY nearly as much). I still have some cassettes that I made from then, and several "Wixie Tunedex" charts I saved from 1970 & 1971. What a great time for Rock/Pop music, and what a great station it was! A permanent part of my childhood...
 
Viewing will be Thursday evening 6-8pm, Toale Brothers downtown Sarasota. Services Friday at 8:30 AM Toale Brothers Chapel downtown Sarasota.
 
It was mentioned in a previous post that WKXY was listened to in Tampa and the same in St. Petersburg, where their former tower location on the outskirts of downtown gave outstanding daytime reception in St. Petersburg and decent night time reception in St. Petersburg.

The (St. Petersburg) Evening Independent's "Teen Scene" insert on Thursdays in the 1970's listed the weekly top 10 of WKXY as well as WLCY, WFSO and WYND.

WKXY 930 was a heritage class act station for decades and I miss them to this day; The Fernandez family obviously took a lot of pride in doing it right and as mentioned the reception for a 1,000 watt station (in it's heyday) was outstanding. While at NAS Pensacola in the 1970's I was surprised at how well WKXY came in in Penscacola during the day. (it was a little bit of home in Pensacola).

The comedy team of Rick and Suds (later they were on WIOD-610 Miami and WSUN-620 St. Petersburg when both were co-owned by Cox.)

According to Radio Years.com, A.G. Tony Fernandez was born and rasied in Tampa, and then according to the obituary, after serving in WWII, Mr. Fernandez settled in Sarasota and WKXY was one of his first endeavors, but he was a community leader at many different levels.

The Sarasota/Bradenton and Tampa Bay area can be proud and greatful to have had such a fun heritage station to listen to for decades.

Even their commercials were well produced and fun; I always liked the the Bai Hut commercial song......................"On Sarasota's Famous North Trail, You'll Find.............................. the Bai Hai Hut!" and everytime I pass the Bai Hai Hut and the Great Western I think of Mr. Fernandez and WKXY and always will.

I also had the privelege of talking to Charlie probably about half a dozen times in the 1980's after the tower move, giving him reception reports from St. Petersburg, as well as the area from Punta Gorda to Nokomis
.

My condolences to the Fernandez family.

I am hoping that the Herald Tribune will do a story on Tony Fernandez, the Fernandez family has contributed much to Sarasota over the years.

drt,
st. petersburg,fl
 
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