IF I OWNED A RADIO I WOULD DO....

[firecop947]

It seems we old radio farts go off on different tangents . So, since I started it, here I go AGAIN. Last I heard Rob was in Charlotte. I think he and his wife divorced. His youngest daughter was born on my birthday while I was at WFMA. Liked Allen a lot. I don't care for Gordon, he told me in 1990 that he thought I should get out of radio! I did like his Saturday morning "Goldies" show anyway.

 

[allenv]

My reply would have been "I'll get out of radio if you'll stay off you know who".. Then again in 1990 that may have been yet to "come"

Allen

 

[allenv]

Rob is a great guy who caught up in a bad soap opera.I always felt like he got
shafted.I found him to be a stand up guy.He didn't BS you, or lie to you or make promises and he was very instrumental in making SAY what it was...
Henry Hinton told me and I should get out of the business. I just smiled and thanked him for the advice.

Allen

 

[mjcarter1981]

I love the elevated production room in that building.How many times did I almost bust my butt coming down out of that thing.I wonder what Gordon Finney is up to these days?? I always thought he was a pretty good guy.They had a good group there with Rob,Allen,Gordon etc...WSAY was a cool station with great call letters.It wonder if WSAY is in use????

I was with WSAY after the "SAY Team" moniker was already gone...would have loved to crank out a few "I pity the fools that don't listen to the SAY Team!" ;D

 

[XTalker]

I love the elevated production room in that building.How many times did I almost bust my butt coming down out of that thing.I wonder what Gordon Finney is up to these days?? I always thought he was a pretty good guy.They had a good group there with Rob,Allen,Gordon etc...WSAY was a cool station with great call letters.It wonder if WSAY is in use????

I busted my butt at least once every day! The first room was the news room when I worked there as News Director in 1980. It was a good station and Joe knew how to sell it. Too bad someone came along and bought the fm and moved it to Raleigh.

If I owned a station in a town like Rocky Mount, the old WCEC would be a great model! I know the Telegram hated WCEC. The station would break some really good stories that would end up on the front page of the afternoon paper!

 

[firecop947]

Mike, were you still at WCEC/WFMA in 1983? That was when I came along. Rob Lynn became the PD, when Ray Massie left. Ray has since had a great career programming some big country stations in St.Louis, Milwaukee Nashville, last I heard he was in Phoenix. Rob hired me while I was still in college to do the night show. He taught me a great deal. I loved working there. Remember Mark Kravitz? A great sales guy too.

WCEC was automated and went live with a simulcast of WFMA at 10am weekedays when Joe Warner hosted "Partyline." A great local show.

WCEC was a good local station and you're right, the local paper hated to not get the story first.
Kris

 

[ZAX Double J]

I love the elevated production room in that building.How many times did I almost bust my butt coming down out of that thing.I wonder what Gordon Finney is up to these days?? I always thought he was a pretty good guy.They had a good group there with Rob,Allen,Gordon etc...WSAY was a cool station with great call letters.It wonder if WSAY is in use????

I busted my butt at least once every day! The first room was the news room when I worked there as News Director in 1980. It was a good station and Joe knew how to sell it. Too bad someone came along and bought the fm and moved it to Raleigh.

If I owned a station in a town like Rocky Mount, the old WCEC would be a great model! I know the Telegram hated WCEC. The station would break some really good stories that would end up on the front page of the afternoon paper!

I've nearly fell out of both production rooms (that's what they are now) on numerous occasions. I could never understand why they were elevated like that. I know they wouldn't pass for hadicap accessability now and it would cost a lot of money to re-do them now. I wish First Media had done that when they gutted the building back in 2002-2003. We do have some major handles to hold on to now though.

Yeah it was a huge loss to loose a 100Kw stick here in Rocky Mount. Unless you had a ton of money to buy back the frequency and move it back there's little hope for that kind of power output here. It is surely needed here too.

 

[JimA]

From the Joe Warner collection of WCEC pictures

http://imageevent.com/sercy/earlyrmradio

Good early history of WCEC AM & FM before it was WFMA in on the WRVA-FM site

http://www.geocities.com/rdurw/wtrg.html

I never knew the Warners sold Capitol the Tobacco Radio Network which became NCNewsNetwork. History & memories

 

[mjcarter1981]

I've nearly fell out of both production rooms (that's what they are now) on numerous occasions. I could never understand why they were elevated like that. I know they wouldn't pass for hadicap accessability now and it would cost a lot of money to re-do them now. I wish First Media had done that when they gutted the building back in 2002-2003. We do have some major handles to hold on to now though.

Yeah it was a huge loss to loose a 100Kw stick here in Rocky Mount. Unless you had a ton of money to buy back the frequency and move it back there's little hope for that kind of power output here. It is surely needed here too.
[/quote]

Honestly John, with all of the mold that they discovered when the renovation was going on, in retrospect, they should have just brought in a double wide and put in the studios, etc. and just torn down the original building. If I remember correctly, it was either Mr. Prettyman or Alex K that said that's what they should have done. And let's not forget the whole tower mess.

 

[ZAX Double J]

I've nearly fell out of both production rooms (that's what they are now) on numerous occasions. I could never understand why they were elevated like that. I know they wouldn't pass for hadicap accessability now and it would cost a lot of money to re-do them now. I wish First Media had done that when they gutted the building back in 2002-2003. We do have some major handles to hold on to now though.

Yeah it was a huge loss to loose a 100Kw stick here in Rocky Mount. Unless you had a ton of money to buy back the frequency and move it back there's little hope for that kind of power output here. It is surely needed here too.

Honestly John, with all of the mold that they discovered when the renovation was going on, in retrospect, they should have just brought in a double wide and put in the studios, etc. and just torn down the original building. If I remember correctly, it was either Mr. Prettyman or Alex K that said that's what they should have done. And let's not forget the whole tower mess.
[/quote]

Yeah they should have done exctly that leveled the place and started from scratch. I think we got a handle on the mold now. Not sure what they did, but I think Ernie got it fixed since I haven't heard much about it recently. The spots on the celing in the studios are gone too except a few that are barely noticeable now. Again thanks to Ernie.

 

[ToddJenkins]

Why did WSAY-FM change calls to WDWG? I liked them.
As far as I can find on the net, the WSAY calls are unassigned.

 

[ZAX Double J]

Why did WSAY-FM change calls to WDWG? I liked them.
As far as I can find on the net, the WSAY calls are unassigned.

First Media Radio bought first WSAY and WRMT from Joe & company. Then they later purchased WKTC (95.5) and WZAX (originally at 99.7 and now 99.3) since they then owned two country outlets they merged WSAY and WKTC into - WDWG. I know I work for First Media Radio Rocky Mount. MJCarter probably knows the more finer details since I believe he was there during the merger/acquisition in 2002-2003, but in a nutshell that's what happened.

 

[mjcarter1981]

Why did WSAY-FM change calls to WDWG? I liked them.
As far as I can find on the net, the WSAY calls are unassigned.

First Media Radio bought first WSAY and WRMT from Joe & company. Then they later purchased WKTC (95.5) and WZAX (originally at 99.7 and now 99.3) since they then owned two country outlets they merged WSAY and WKTC into - WDWG. I know I work for First Media Radio Rocky Mount. MJCarter probably knows the more finer details since I believe he was there during the merger/acquisition in 2002-2003, but in a nutshell that's what happened.

First Media wanted to use their "Big Dawg" logo in Rocky Mount like at their Beckley WV WJLS, so they got WDWG...DaWG.

 

[XTalker]

Mike, were you still at WCEC/WFMA in 1983? That was when I came along. Rob Lynn became the PD, when Ray Massie left. Ray has since had a great career programming some big country stations in St.Louis, Milwaukee Nashville, last I heard he was in Phoenix. Rob hired me while I was still in college to do the night show. He taught me a great deal. I loved working there. Remember Mark Kravitz? A great sales guy too.

WCEC was automated and went live with a simulcast of WFMA at 10am weekedays when Joe Warner hosted "Partyline." A great local show.

WCEC was a good local station and you're right, the local paper hated to not get the story first.
Kris

I was only there about seven months in 1980. PD was Rick Mendelson. I knew Rob, he was a great guy. I remember Mark. Thought he was a good salesman! I left WCEC when I got an offer in Raleigh at WKIX/WYYD. In like the area .. have a daughter who lives in Nashville.

 

[IBDO]

Sell, sell, sell!!!!!!!

 

[Sportsword]

I know we all have different tastes, and to each their own. Always glad to hear thoughts from different genres. As for me, I agree with you guys about 4 Christian stations in the same town,but collectively can't do better than one secular radio station in Rocky Mount.

To me, if I had an AM station, I would hire QUALIFIED people. If you've ever been to WLLY, WVOT or WGTM you know that the people there are not really that qualfied to do the job. When the FCC said you don't need a radio license, that's when General Mangers and owners decided to hire the cheapest people instead of the best qualified. I mean, why pay $12 an hour for a guy who is experienced when you can pay $4 or LESS for someone who can play music and talk on the air?

(yeah, I know about the minimum wage, but some stations here don't pay that)

I'd like to get more community involvement, by creating something almost everyone can at least get on board with, sports. I am not saying to make it a sports station, just provide local sports. I also think since Wilson has Barton College, why not work with students to teach them about radio? WVOT, when it was beach and shag, used to do that. They had employees from Barton College, Western Carolina U, South Carolina and I even ECU.

Gosh, there is a lot I could do if I had my own station, but you guys are getting my hopes up, we know the Wilson stations are not gonna do much (even though WVOT is off the air at the moment)

 

[ZAX Double J]

To me, if I had an AM station, I would hire QUALIFIED people. If you've ever been to WLLY, WVOT or WGTM you know that the people there are not really that qualfied to do the job. When the FCC said you don't need a radio license, that's when General Mangers and owners decided to hire the cheapest people instead of the best qualified. I mean, why pay $12 an hour for a guy who is experienced when you can pay $4 or LESS for someone who can play music and talk on the air?

(yeah, I know about the minimum wage, but some stations here don't pay that)

Well put. When the FCC done away with that that was where things started gonig down hill. I think it was a ploy to let certain entities into the business that otherwise wouldn't get in the door because they couldn't pass the exam. Now if they can even pass the drug screening they're hired let alone run a board. I am an SBE Certified Radio Operator (CRO)which inessence is the same thing as passing the old FCC exam. I plan to keep renewing it for the forseeable future.