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HELL HAS FROZEN W/ WNCV
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
On a radio dial... long, long ago... well, not that long ago... WNCV was indeed licensed to NiCeVille. It was nice back then. Everything's nice in Niceville.
My head's foggy. If you want, I'll graph it out for you later. It's a pretty incestuous mess with Ron Hale mixed up in it somewhere. See, I told you he knew more about radio than you... or me.
Someone stop me, I must be back on the pipe.
My head's foggy. If you want, I'll graph it out for you later. It's a pretty incestuous mess with Ron Hale mixed up in it somewhere. See, I told you he knew more about radio than you... or me.
Someone stop me, I must be back on the pipe.
Poledo - I wanna hear that story (on and off the, uh, pipe.) It generally requires a pipe of one form or another when dealing with any "issues" pertaining to the aforementioned subject matter.
Rob - yep! WNCV was at 100.3 with a small signal way back. It was always AC as far back as I can remember. Seems like it did pretty decent back in the mid 90's. This was before Z-96. 98.1 was GREAT classic rock, 99 Rock, was 99 Rock and 105.5 was oldies, K-92 was country and WMXZ was somewhere in the fray of being jazz to Hot AC/Top 40. Seabreeze was fairly new and 102 was still Wave as AC transitioning into Classic Hits? Time flies.
This re-inventing of lite AC music is a trend again. It's not a bad move. And, it may have legs. I have always said the 50+ demo is where suddenly radio will discover the hidden pot 'o gold. Look at TV --- all ads to enhance, detox or deter our old bodies... Buyers beware --- 2011 it will be en vogue to be as old as Wooten.
Wait, that's not possible....
Rob - yep! WNCV was at 100.3 with a small signal way back. It was always AC as far back as I can remember. Seems like it did pretty decent back in the mid 90's. This was before Z-96. 98.1 was GREAT classic rock, 99 Rock, was 99 Rock and 105.5 was oldies, K-92 was country and WMXZ was somewhere in the fray of being jazz to Hot AC/Top 40. Seabreeze was fairly new and 102 was still Wave as AC transitioning into Classic Hits? Time flies.
This re-inventing of lite AC music is a trend again. It's not a bad move. And, it may have legs. I have always said the 50+ demo is where suddenly radio will discover the hidden pot 'o gold. Look at TV --- all ads to enhance, detox or deter our old bodies... Buyers beware --- 2011 it will be en vogue to be as old as Wooten.
Wait, that's not possible....I do think coast 93.3 playing more oldies would be a bonus. I do miss Tom Kent - Why would they move country from 92.1 to 105.5? 105 FM is a weaker signal and doesn't hold much merit unless your in along 98 between fwb and destin..Crestview prob can get Dothan. I think this area needs some re tweaking as I think people are being bummed out and just going back to CD's.
If you want to go "down memory lane" a bit, I remember before the onset of FM stations
the AM signals were good back then (before deregulation and Bill
the AM signals were good back then (before deregulation and Bill
SORRY! my last thread got cut off prematurely (must of hit the wrong key). As I was saying,
back in the day when AM radio was dominant on the coast, Mobile had WABB; Pensacola had
WBSR and WCOA, Ft Walton Beach had WNUE 1400 (Top 40) where I spend many weekends
running AT40 Casey Kasem)and WFTW, then adult standards(Frank Sinatra, etc) and Niceville had WFSH! then playing country. In Okaloosa County, you could hear Panama City's
WGNE (Genie) and WDLP 590. And even then, folks listened to WTIX New Orleans and WNOE
New Orleans on the beach! Then as the late 70's and 80's came FM, with TK-101 and Q100
from Pensacola, the others followed, soon the "mom and pop" individual ownership gave way
to Corporate operations taking over, cloning most signals and making most formats "vanilla".
Never been the same since and probably will never be same again! Yes, I listen mostly to CDs
in the car on the way to work (incidentally working "out of radio" for 7 years, no withdrawl
nor regrets)
"Stonecold" Steve Williams aka "Sandy Beach" WNUE days (1969-1980)
back in the day when AM radio was dominant on the coast, Mobile had WABB; Pensacola had
WBSR and WCOA, Ft Walton Beach had WNUE 1400 (Top 40) where I spend many weekends
running AT40 Casey Kasem)and WFTW, then adult standards(Frank Sinatra, etc) and Niceville had WFSH! then playing country. In Okaloosa County, you could hear Panama City's
WGNE (Genie) and WDLP 590. And even then, folks listened to WTIX New Orleans and WNOE
New Orleans on the beach! Then as the late 70's and 80's came FM, with TK-101 and Q100
from Pensacola, the others followed, soon the "mom and pop" individual ownership gave way
to Corporate operations taking over, cloning most signals and making most formats "vanilla".
Never been the same since and probably will never be same again! Yes, I listen mostly to CDs
in the car on the way to work (incidentally working "out of radio" for 7 years, no withdrawl
nor regrets)
"Stonecold" Steve Williams aka "Sandy Beach" WNUE days (1969-1980)
Man, great comments! Didn't 98.1 use the old WNUE call letters back in the early days for a while? I used to know the history on that. WWSF were the main call letters on and off again, cept for the 1995 stint as classic rock (WXCR). And the WTKE and WRKN fiascos. I do think the WHWY calls are pretty cool. Too bad the station is not making the impact.
I think it's because were in country overload and 98.1 tends to play one song in stereo next song in mono which drives me crazy. I think if they were to become either a talk station or classic hits..the ratings would improve.
Crestview doesn't needsa country station they can hear 95.5 and 93.7 as well as the BIG DAWG (as their RDS says)
not to mention they have this flame thrower FM 104 where we shut off overnight (would be great if they aired TRUCKIN COUNTRY overnight (forgot what that nationwide show is)
Somethin's going to switch here in the FT Walton area of FL. I predict 98.1 will be making the switch..
Crestview doesn't needsa country station they can hear 95.5 and 93.7 as well as the BIG DAWG (as their RDS says)
not to mention they have this flame thrower FM 104 where we shut off overnight (would be great if they aired TRUCKIN COUNTRY overnight (forgot what that nationwide show is)
Somethin's going to switch here in the FT Walton area of FL. I predict 98.1 will be making the switch..
98.1 FM in North Florida never used the WNUE calls, however, 98.1 in Orlando, a spanish language
station now has the WNUE call letters. 98.1 FM was WWSF(original city of license was Andalusia,
AL, but moved transmitter to Escambia Farms and studios to Ft Walton Beach late 80's. WNUE,
meanwhile went dark, call letters reassigned, then came back on doing Choctaw football and sports talk as WFAV, then oldies, then later a clone of 98.1 the ticket (WTKE). As mentioned
before, radio has evolved into corporate conglomerates and now the word is on some Northeast
markets that Cumulus is negotiating a buyout of Citadel which means more changes coming perhaps to Cumulus markets because they will have to rob one market to pay for another and
so on. check the stock market trading for these companies
station now has the WNUE call letters. 98.1 FM was WWSF(original city of license was Andalusia,
AL, but moved transmitter to Escambia Farms and studios to Ft Walton Beach late 80's. WNUE,
meanwhile went dark, call letters reassigned, then came back on doing Choctaw football and sports talk as WFAV, then oldies, then later a clone of 98.1 the ticket (WTKE). As mentioned
before, radio has evolved into corporate conglomerates and now the word is on some Northeast
markets that Cumulus is negotiating a buyout of Citadel which means more changes coming perhaps to Cumulus markets because they will have to rob one market to pay for another and
so on. check the stock market trading for these companies
Steve - I don't know why I thought 98.1 ever used WNUE as the call letters back before WWSF. It makes no sense that it would. Man, I am really slipping on my memory. I did find my old WXCR dox that showed the old call letters as WCTA (1952-1976); WQHQ (1977-1980) then it was WKYD through 1988, when it became WWSF in 1989. It went to Metro Cities in 1992 and that's when it evolved into the Top 40 and headed to offices in FWB. The signal was originally 10kw, then 26kw all at 256 HAAT, then became 100kw / 256 HAAT in 1980. It went to max power in 89k / 1022 HAAT in 1991, although I thought the 100kw on a better stick was prior to that, that's what is typed on the history/background for the great and always helpful (back then) folks at the FCC. I bet you've seen that old tower in the Black Forest. Talk about the middle of nowhere. Rob would have liked those strobeys. It did have a good signal in Eglin, but those strobey's sure upset those in DC because they were on such a nice, alumniumed (foil) colored tower complete with lots of wires radiating off it and tied into sticks on the ground and even a fence. The cows glowed at night and the milk was radioactive. Get it? (rob) This new found sobriety is not so positive on the skull, but good on the rest CCENG. I miss my Hendricks. I wonder if that tower has fallen yet, CW?
The Escambia Farms tower used to belong to CC.....and even after 98.1 moved away from it, it was maintained to satisfy some tower rental clients (Southern Link being one of them).....the last I heard, it was dismantled down to about 400 ft. I haven't heard anything else is several years.
cceng....mourning the end of deer season....it ended tonight, 30 minutes after sunset.
cceng....mourning the end of deer season....it ended tonight, 30 minutes after sunset.
stonecold49 said:
WNUE returned from its silent period as...WNUE. I (with Dutch and Carolyn Van Buskirk) bought the station from the Smith family. We wanted to change the calls to WFWB, but they were assigned to a drilling rig in the North Sea, and we couldn't get them released. We also looked at changing to the station's original calls of WFBS (owner W. French Brown, Sr. operated as West Florida Broadcasting Service), but there was a problem getting those, too.
Originally, I planned to put adult standards on 1400, but Dutch wanted to go news/talk and sports. I viewed him as the dean of Fort Walton radio, so we did it his way.
By the way, this station was originally a 1kw day-timer on 950. M.D. Smith II moved it to 1400 in 1961 to get nighttime operation (WPCF/Panama City was originally on 1400, but had moved to 1430 to get 5kw fulltime shortly before). Maybe it made sense at the time (and the Smith family made a ton of money from the WNUE operation), but it seemed incredibly stupid in 1990.
At the time of the WNUE purchase, we also entered into an agreement to purchase WBBK-AM/FM in Blakely, Georgia, which we operated under an LMA that began on July 1, 1990. I was operating another business at the time, so Dutch was the 'overseer' for all the stations. Unfortunately, that arrangement did NOT work out.
I agreed to sell (and finance) my 60% interest in WNUE to Dutch and Carolyn, and to proceed with the WBBK purchase by myself. I assumed full responsibility of the Blakely stations effective January 1, 1991, with Dutch doing the same at WNUE.
I never got a dime for WNUE, but just forgot about it – I had my hands more than full in Blakely. The Blakely purchase was a stock purchase...assumption of 100% of the debt. Apparently, my due-diligence was terrible – the $325k debt was really $529k, and the operation could not generate enough revenue to pay the bills and service the debt. After over a year of clawing and struggling to survive, I had no choice but to take the corporation into bankruptcy. The bankruptcy petition was filed in early April, 1992, and the station was destroyed by fire on April 29, 1992. That bankruptcy filing probably kept me from going to prison for arson. Oh, the insurance company tried mightily to make that happen, but I had nothing to gain (and everything to lose, which I did), since the bankruptcy trustee would receive any insurance settlement for benefit of the creditors. The debt was more than double the insurance proceeds, so the stations would not get rebuilt from any insurance settlement (not by me, anyway).
What the insurance company (The Hartford) really wanted to come from the arson charge, was for me to drop the claim. That came straight from the sheriff’s investigator’s mouth. Instead of dropping the claim, I sued the insurance company in federal court. After a number of ridiculous stalls and delays by the insurance company, the judge finally ordered the case to be tried. Within 48 hours of the judge’s order, the Hartford settled for the full amount of the claim. Shortly thereafter, the arson charge faded away. Score one for the hard-headed little guy.
Shortly after the Blakely fire, I became shockingly aware that I still owned 60% of WNUE. It seems that Dutch had never filed the application with the FCC, and I was notified that I (personally) was on the hook for over $18,000.00 to the IRS, along with a pile of other debt. The details are unimportant now, but after learning those details, I fired Dutch and assumed operation of a deeply in debt WNUE. It lasted for about a year, but the IRS finally seized the assets and padlocked the door.
At a public auction in 1994, Jim Popwell from Hawkinsville, Georgia (my employer at the time) was the only person present to make a bid on the assets. He offered $4,000.00 and bought himself a radio station. I voluntarily signed the license over to him.
Jim changed the call letters to WFAV (long time call sign of the Cordele, Georgia FM station), and put the station back on the air with a standards format in the fall of 1994. It was not a profitable operation, but Jim sold the station about a year later for nearly $200k, so he made money on the deal.
As for Blakely, I finally had no choice but to convert the Chapter 11 (reorganization) to a Chapter 7 (the end of the road) in late 1993. Gil Kelly from Donalsonville bought the licenses, transmitters and towers from the bankruptcy court for about $40k, and made a ton of money – both from operating the station and from a later sale.
Ain’t radio ownership great fun???
What a great piece of radio history. Most of us try to figure out these stories from bits and pieces of FCC info and our own observations from the outside, but things are often very different from the inside. Thanks, Jay.
Well said, RNR.
Jay, I have to say that what you wrote should be mandatory reading for all high school and college students and especially any human wanting to get into any business. Especially radio.
No textbook or professor who hasn't experienced the sheer terror of business ownership can't truly relate. I have read your post a dozen times and have to admit that I cannot read it all at once without getting sick. That "pain in your gut" feeling and the horror of being trapped and unable to escape feeling is the worst. I, as well, remember seeing bits a pieces of all that happening and I think it was RNR that sent me a link for the sale of the station a while back. Man, I "feel your pain." Jay, how ya doing today? Just know that even on FM and big signals that that area is tough. I thank Hurricane 0pal every day. People may laugh at Dave Ramsey's advice, but he is 1,000,000% right about not doing a deal with a) partners and b) debt. Funny, that Ramsey would be on Hales Freedom station in FWB/Destin. Proof that most "owners" don't listen to their stations or at least advice given on them. Jay, I wish you or someone would honestly tell me how Ron Hale has managed to survive all this time with all his issues and stay afloat in that market. I still thank CCENG for a simple true answer on my dream of trying to buy WPFM like 25 years ago, when I called him and asked if there was chance to make it work and he gave me Gill's number at Bromo Communications. That was enough to keep me away for a decade or more before I went fishing again. Then I got bite. 0uch.
Jay, I have to say that what you wrote should be mandatory reading for all high school and college students and especially any human wanting to get into any business. Especially radio.
No textbook or professor who hasn't experienced the sheer terror of business ownership can't truly relate. I have read your post a dozen times and have to admit that I cannot read it all at once without getting sick. That "pain in your gut" feeling and the horror of being trapped and unable to escape feeling is the worst. I, as well, remember seeing bits a pieces of all that happening and I think it was RNR that sent me a link for the sale of the station a while back. Man, I "feel your pain." Jay, how ya doing today? Just know that even on FM and big signals that that area is tough. I thank Hurricane 0pal every day. People may laugh at Dave Ramsey's advice, but he is 1,000,000% right about not doing a deal with a) partners and b) debt. Funny, that Ramsey would be on Hales Freedom station in FWB/Destin. Proof that most "owners" don't listen to their stations or at least advice given on them. Jay, I wish you or someone would honestly tell me how Ron Hale has managed to survive all this time with all his issues and stay afloat in that market. I still thank CCENG for a simple true answer on my dream of trying to buy WPFM like 25 years ago, when I called him and asked if there was chance to make it work and he gave me Gill's number at Bromo Communications. That was enough to keep me away for a decade or more before I went fishing again. Then I got bite. 0uch.
"It went to Metro Cities in 1992 and that's when it evolved into the Top 40 and headed to offices in FWB."
WWSF-98 Surf debuted as Top-40 in 1989 with studios in FWB and a full 100KW. I was at B-105, WYZB (Hot AC) at the time. By the way, WNUE returned to Top-40 for about a year, in, I think, 1987. WKSM was also Top-40 at the time.
WWSF-98 Surf debuted as Top-40 in 1989 with studios in FWB and a full 100KW. I was at B-105, WYZB (Hot AC) at the time. By the way, WNUE returned to Top-40 for about a year, in, I think, 1987. WKSM was also Top-40 at the time.
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