• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Help me with my memory...

N

NewtotheNasti

I grew up in High Point in the early '70's and have since lived all over the country. My earliest memories of radio are of sitting with my teenage babysitter as she listened to (I think) WCOG-AM and hitting redial over-and-over again trying to win a prize.

Is my memory correct??? Was WCOG-AM a dominant player in the early '70's???

Whatever became of it??? Anyone have any old airchecks???

For you history buffs who like listening to old air-checks, the Cincinnati board several months ago had some great airchecks from the mid-to late '60's that were unbelievalby fun to listen to. Search it out, it's worth it..
 
WCOG was Greensboro's AM Top 40 "back in the day" (when WTOB was Winston-Salem's AM Top 40).

Last I heard, WCOG was Radio Disney.
 
Thanks for the heads-up errandboy!

I'm curious, was the TRIAD slow to convert to FM? It seems strange now that we were listening to AM music stations as late as '74-'76. Was the Triad slower to make the transition to FM than larger markets???

Thanks again,
 
If my memory is correct, WCOG was Thoms station - maybe the flagship of that group that was made up of mostly top 40 stations that operated around the region. I know one was WKLM in Wilmington (980AM). They ran an automated format from reel to reel tapes that, I believe were made in Greensboro.

In the 80s. the station was owned by Bernie Mann and for a while was located off West Market Street in an office park. It aired the Transtar Oldie's Channel format. Studios were later moved on Piedmont Parkway along with WWWB and calls for changed to WGLD and format switched to Transtar's AM Only.

When AM/FM bought Mann's stations, what was WCOG became The Ticket and was a pretty good sports station with Matt & TJ doing mornings.

Station was later sold to Truth Broadcasting and went Disney. Truth sold it to ABC about a year and a half ago.
 
In many smaller markets, Music on AM held on into the late 70's despite FM taking larger chunks of the pie each year. Where I grew up, we had two very good AM T40 music stations, loaded with talent that were still cranking the hits up until about 1980. One went country at that point, the other took the Music of Your Life route.

So, no, The Triad was not to slow in having music depart AM....in many mid and small markets, it happened all at once it seems. Around 77-78-79 the AM T40 owners not only saw the writing on the wall...they also could actually read that writing too!
 
1320 WCOG was the leading top 40 station in Greensboro in the 60s. WPET had a pretty good top 40 format early on as well.
Guys, what is this stuff about music leaving AM????? We still play it every day on AM STEREO 900 WNMB in North Myrtle Beach. More oldies, excuse me, classic hits, than you can imagine! The station is also simulcast on Cable Channel 15 in the North Myrtle Beach and Little River area, and we stream those oldies....I mean....classic hits.........at www.wnmb.net all the time. I glad we don't know any better!
 
Good for you, Bill. I doubt you will find corporate radio doing much music on AM, but stations owned by real radio people can make it! Particularly if you know how to sell it and how to interact with your market! Keep it up - I will check you out next time I'm in the Myrtle Beach area!
 
Bill,

You really BELIEVE in what you are doing with this station, and that belief motivates you to keep the music on AM. I'm sure you realize that the person who buys that station off of your estate (if AM survives you) will consider everything you've done on it as utter stupidity and a waste of good resources. But then, they will have to make a living off of the station...you don't.

Whoever owns this station after you will change the format to talk so fast it will make you spin in your grave, and you and Peggy Lee can sing "Is That All There Is?" for eternity.

Enjoy the oldies, and "...let's keep dancing."

Matt Smith
 
What a stupid post to throw cold water on a mans station that he believes in. I visit Myrtle Beach quite frequently and enjoy listening Bill, Thanks.. No reason to run down the station and aftermath.
 
I think you missed Matt's point. Bill's AM music station is successful because of HIS passion for it. Matt's point is well taken that the next persion to own the station may not have the passion for what it was, and follow the leaders in corporate radio and blow up the music format.

Bill, I hope you are grooming someone to take over! Don't sell out! Keep the hits coming - on AM!
 
WNMB is an excellent radio station! I actually heard AM Stereo for the first time last month on AM 900 (by surprise as I didn't realize my car radio was equipped for it), and it sounded really good.
 
AM stereo does sound good. First heard it on WATA in Boone years ago. I think it sounds as good if not better than FM. The base sound really pops. Anyone heard digital AM yet????

;D ;D

Z Man
 
XTalker said:
In the 80s. the station was owned by Bernie Mann and for a while was located off West Market Street in an office park. It aired the Transtar Oldie's Channel format. Studios were later moved on Piedmont Parkway along with WWWB and calls for changed to WGLD and format switched to Transtar's AM Only.
Click to expand...
Let me add some more details here. I have fond memories of WGLD's AM Only years, but the station was beautiful music after WGLD-FM became Joy 100, a Format 41 affiliate (if you don't know that one, Chick Watkins of AM Only also developed it, and they did mostly vocal easy listening for FM stations that didn't want to be "beautiful music" any more. That format evolved into mainstream AC, from what I've heard). THEN it was oldies.

In 1994, WGLD became WWWB "The News Station". What a shame. They simulcasted WMFR at one point.
 
XTalker said:
When AM/FM bought Mann's stations, what was WCOG became The Ticket and was a pretty good sports station with Matt & TJ doing mornings.

Station was later sold to Truth Broadcasting and went Disney. Truth sold it to ABC about a year and a half ago.
Click to expand...
Didn't know about that last change. It was WTCK when it was the Ticket. When Truth bought the station they changed it to Christian Talk and I think it simulcast WTOB.

Then came Disney, which had been on WKEW since 1998. When Truth bought WKEW, they added the Greensboro signal to WPOL, which had been black gospel since 1994.
 
XTalker said:
I think you missed Matt's point. Bill's AM music station is successful because of HIS passion for it. Matt's point is well taken that the next persion to own the station may not have the passion for what it was, and follow the leaders in corporate radio and blow up the music format.

Bill, I hope you are grooming someone to take over! Don't sell out! Keep the hits coming - on AM!
Click to expand...
Why does this sation not show up in the Arbitron ratings if it's so sucessful? Is this proof Arbitron is wrong?
 
;D My Good Friend Tommy Walker KIX and TOB was PD of WGLD-FM When Bernie Mann Owned It!
 
Yes he did.. I've last contact with him for many years now. I saw him on the WKIX Rewound thread that was posted on here with all the KIX Jocks from yesteryear..Russ Spooner, Charlie Brown Dale Van HOrne and all the rest of the "Good Guys">>Thats when radio was FUN!
 
vchimpanzee, you don't have to have ratings to be successful. That's the problem with radio these days. It is all about ratings and being number one. Truth is, a small, well programmed AM with a passionate owner line WNMB can provide a real nice living for it's owner and staff. See, ratings don't really matter! It is results. A good sales person can sell a station with no ratings - and once they try it, they'll be back. Why do you think WSJS has always outbilled most of the FMs in the market? Surely wasn't ratings. Sure, usually in the top 10, but always in the top three or four in revenue!
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom