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Ft Walton History
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
robfwb said:
did you ever actually hear KPIG? quite awful. sounded like a broadcast school lab to me...
"the emperor has no clothes"
TXDXer said:
That would've been Wilbur Powell, of Crestview, FL. I think the company was "Vacationland Broadcasting". I worked there from late 1966 to 1968. Dick Peterman (aka Paxton) was the Station Manager. In addition to my show, I was the engineer for the Zoe Rowley show each weekday morning, and do remember the daily Piper Garden call-in gardening tips segment. The station was known as "The only golf course with a built-in radio station."
Nice to see that "Sandy Beach" is still alive and kickin'! Sandy was one of the good guys in the biz with a great set of pipes. WNUE was indeed a rockin' little station. I was lucky enough to do some weekends and fill-ins in the mid 70's. The station really got going when M.D. Smith brought in Bob Baron as a consultant. He set up a rotation system that was a hand operated version of Selector and brought in some very talented jocks. It was a fun place to work and it's really sad that places like that got crushed by the Great Consolidation. Gabby Bruce, Phil "Sanchez" Baker, Rock n Roll Bob (K) Kitzmiller, Mike O'Malley, Scot-On-The-Radio (Jack Hixon) are just a few of the people I got to know. I never dealt with Dutch directly, but he was a big time figure for local radio and the Choctaw Indians teams. Good memories! 
Hey Mike! Great to hear from you!
I have been out of radio since 2006 in NW FL(thanks to Cumulus) last at WNWF/WFSH which moved to Destin in late 2005, now WFSH is dark! To update you, I am alive and well in FWB still working at Eglin Radar Site
C-6 (tracking satellites) and now listening to SIRIUS XM satellite in the truck to work..favorite is 60's on 6 with Cousin Brucie (grew up listening to WABC!)
Gabby is doing well in Destin, has advertising business; Mike O'Malley has
been a country music consultant for several years operates out of NJ/NYC;
Bob Kay, not sure, Don Mooring in NC farming; Larry White in PA maybe
still working Scranton; Ricky the "K"Kauffman is on internet radio with his
"SOLID GOLD TIME MACHINE" from Dallas; Dutch Van no longer with us,
also, gone are "Red" Gilson, owner of WFSH Fish Radio for many years, and
Sports Writer for NW FL Daily News and WFSH Sports John O'Connor, all the voices of Choctaw and Niceville HS Football. Someday hope to get
a rule "15" low power AM or FM and play what I want to hear!
Steve Williams (aka Sandy Beach/WNUE)
I have been out of radio since 2006 in NW FL(thanks to Cumulus) last at WNWF/WFSH which moved to Destin in late 2005, now WFSH is dark! To update you, I am alive and well in FWB still working at Eglin Radar Site
C-6 (tracking satellites) and now listening to SIRIUS XM satellite in the truck to work..favorite is 60's on 6 with Cousin Brucie (grew up listening to WABC!)
Gabby is doing well in Destin, has advertising business; Mike O'Malley has
been a country music consultant for several years operates out of NJ/NYC;
Bob Kay, not sure, Don Mooring in NC farming; Larry White in PA maybe
still working Scranton; Ricky the "K"Kauffman is on internet radio with his
"SOLID GOLD TIME MACHINE" from Dallas; Dutch Van no longer with us,
also, gone are "Red" Gilson, owner of WFSH Fish Radio for many years, and
Sports Writer for NW FL Daily News and WFSH Sports John O'Connor, all the voices of Choctaw and Niceville HS Football. Someday hope to get
a rule "15" low power AM or FM and play what I want to hear!
Steve Williams (aka Sandy Beach/WNUE)
Wow! talk about a blast from the past! Thanks so much for the updates Steve. Talking about a low power fm reminds me of a story a GM told me when I was working in the Cayman Islands. Years before he had been a GM in Tulsa and built his dream house. He wanted to have a wireless music system so he got one of the little xmtrs from Radio Shack and put it on his roof. He did his own imaging and everything. Just one problem: the height gave him a little too much ERP and in one rating period someone down the street from him actually wrote his little pirate station down in the book. He had nightmares for years about the FCC coming after him...you can just imagine the headlines: Tulsa radio exec nailed for running pirate radio station...
I would certainly make sure the ERP did not exceed 100mw authorized
by those small xmtrs that churches and real estate people use to broadcast
their message to the immediate vicinity. Even if someone heard it, the part 15
broadcast is not required to ID itself although some do. I would believe today
the FCC is one of those federal agencies that have been affected by the budget cuts in DC, the only thing they're doing is managing frequencies, their
field offices are targeting big operations not little guys, but who knows! The
Tampa office has more problems in Miami and S. Florida then to be monitoring airwaves in NW FL. All you would need to do is steer clear of interfering with corporate station frequencies so they did not report it(that would be asking for trouble).
by those small xmtrs that churches and real estate people use to broadcast
their message to the immediate vicinity. Even if someone heard it, the part 15
broadcast is not required to ID itself although some do. I would believe today
the FCC is one of those federal agencies that have been affected by the budget cuts in DC, the only thing they're doing is managing frequencies, their
field offices are targeting big operations not little guys, but who knows! The
Tampa office has more problems in Miami and S. Florida then to be monitoring airwaves in NW FL. All you would need to do is steer clear of interfering with corporate station frequencies so they did not report it(that would be asking for trouble).
French Brown's West Florida Broadcasting Service built WFBS in 1956. Brown had been a principal in WCNU in Crestview. The transmitter was always at 118 Wright Parkway, but the studios were in the old Miramar Hotel. M.D. Smith, III bought the station in 1960, but it didn't move to 1400 'till late '63. The studio/office building was built by Smith, but I'm not sure of the year. The facade of WNUE was almost identical to WAAY.J Alex Bowab said:
I think the 950 became unavailable because WMOZ/Mobile (960/1kw-D) applied for and was granted a CP for 5kw-D in the mid/late-60's, but by then, WMOZ ownership (Edwin Estes) went through a protracted fight that ended with their license being revoked. There were several new applications eventually filed for 960, but it was years and years before a grant was received. 960 returned to the air with 5kw in 1986, licensed to Pritchard. All that kept 950 from being available for application at FWB.
In 1980, WNUE billed just over a million bucks. 10 years later, it was silent due to not enough business to pay the bills. I bought the silent WNUE from the Smiths for $10,000.00 in 1990. There was no real estate included, and no equipment other than the tower, ATU, the 1956 Gates BC-1J and the 1979 Harris MW-1A. Dutch and Carolyn VanBuskirk were minority partners with me, and Dutch was the day to day manager. My original plan was to automate the station with Adult Standards. Dutch wanted to go news/talk/sports, and I went along with him. Larry White came back to be the PD, and he and Dutch did a daily show together.
At roughly the same time, I made a deal to buy WBBK-AM/FM in Blakely, Georgia. Dutch and Carolyn were to be minority partners in that venture, too. We experienced some disagreement difficulties after a few months (none of that needs rehashing now), so I agreed to sell my interest in WNUE to the VanBuskirks, and they would have no interest in WBBK.
Unfortunately, the WNUE format was much too expensive to sustain, and things quickly turned very bad. The sale of my WNUE stock to the VanBuskirks was never completely consumated, so I ended up with the station back in my hands in 1992. Dutch had hired Zoe Rowley, and her program was the only thing bringing in any $$$. Everything was in such a mess, and SO many people were owed money --- including the IRS (who only wanted $18,000.00 in back withholding taxes). In the end, we surrendered everything to the IRS and they sold the station to a new owner.
I never would have thought the presence of 5 kw on 960 in Mobile area would preclude the existence of 950 in Ft W... given the poor ground conductivity in the area between. After all, 1360 in Mobile coexists with 1370 Pensacola... and 1410 Mobile does not preclude the existence of 1400 in Ft W ... and 1270 5 kw in Mobile (Prichard) coexists with 1260 in Ft W.
Tibbs2 said:Off the history record...
It's pretty scary, Rob...I have to say Mix 103.1 music is spot on for a Mildly Hot AC. I am surprised its ratings are so low. 98.1's modulation is wimpy. It should be a blaster. WAAZ is strong sounding technically, JW on his game there and playing old style real radio...
As for PCB ~ Sunny is hotter AC than I remembered, I guess because of 100.1 and 95.1. 95.1 carries great in the car (down here at Seaside, loud and clear.) Hard to believe David Nolans on there. 97.7, 105.9 and 107.9 aren't my kind of music cause I a moldz...I mean oldz... Bob is pretty much ok. Sounds alive and better than I remember. Talkers are ok, but whoever that guy on afternoons is on 101.1 is pitiful and rude. Bad call longterm there, maybe? Am I wrong. Destin FWB ~ haven't listened to all that much Z 96.5 or the two Country stations. I can't see Hwy 98 being all it could be if tweaked. Seabreeze is a nice respite from the usual fare. I gotta say, there are a dozen Classic Hit type stations on the coast and they all play the worst most overplayed 500 songs. Oyster radio was a bit refreshing esp. the new 104.5 in the afternoon. Didn't hear so much of the blues that was mentioned.
Charlie ~ I only get a few days here after all, beer Friday? Just arrived and virtually turn around. Not the fun trip of a week i was hoping for. Where's the sun and heat? Heat as in warm, saw THAT HEAT. YeaH! CW ~ you have to be making the big bucks cause Sunny's full of spots - get it???
RNR ~ I will check out YOUR dotless station ... I can't bring myself to do it because its not you anymore.
Thanks for the Shout-Out, Brother Tibbs. Hope you and Charlie sipped on a rum drink in my honor. And thanks for the Emerald Coast Radio Update (or more accurately, the Redneck Riviera Radio Roundup). Sounds like you found too many jukeboxes... not enough personality--just like everywhere, nowadays (that's "oldz" speak)--with Seabreeze the exception. My students tell me that I'm just in the wrong demo...
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