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Jackson Market's Best of all Time?

B

bobrall

Guest
Morning Show
Midday Jock
Afternoon Drive
Evenings
Overnights
Specialty Programming
News
TV Anchors (2)
Newspaper Columnist (Local)
Advertiser doing his own commercials
Radio Station Promotion
Best of anything else...
 
This is gonna be tough,considering most of these readers never saw a turntable,cleaned the heads on a cart machine,and wouldn't know where to start editing down an aircheck with a razor blade. "All-time" to some of these younguns means beginning in the 90's. Should be interesting to watch,though.
 
I was in Jackson back in the early 80's at WSLI. I admit my opinion is dated but I will offer up a few...

Newspaper Columnist...Orley Hood
Advertiser doing his own commercials..Toby Trowbridge at Van-Trow Oldsmobile
TV News Anchor...Bert Case
As far as morning show can it be anybody but Farmer Jim Neal
 
Morning Show-Burt & Kurt-WJDX Afternoons-Bob & Al-WSLI Evenings-"Super" Rick Shannon-WRBC Overnights-Jim Chick-WJDX
 
OldGM: I thought this was a great post....but, come on...TZ was right, maybe we are older than we thought? I would say the Bob and Al afternoon show was probably the best prepared I ever heard in my Jackson days. I remember the day Al posted his "shoppers alert" for his wife who was Christmas Shopping...and he got many reports about her whereabouts! If Bob is on here, I am sure he can elaborate on that show...it was great! Bob?
 
Was thinking on this, and maybe the point is the best in the market WAS that long ago. In my 30-plus years in the market, off the top of my head I'd go with the Burt&Kurt mornings at WJDX, afternoons would be Bob & Al at WSLI as easy ones, if entertainment and ratings were the yardsticks. Midday's could go to several of WJDX or WRBC jocks of the 60's to 70's era because the market was so deep with talent.(Plus,I got buddies that I'm not gonna tick off by choosing.) Nights, Dennis John Bailey at JDX was supreme,imo. Wish I could've sounded like that. Overnights- Perez on ZZQ. Advertiser- J.L.Jones Furniture was great, if nothing else than entertainment value. Funny part was they weren't trying to BE funny. As Best Branding(I made this one up)- The Flying J air traffic reports on JDX with Nancy Bell gave the station an "authority" image, reason for listeners to keep listening while on the way to and from work, and made Nancy Bell a star. She was one of the first female voices in mornings in the market,which gave bleary eyed guys something different to hear on the way to work.
 
This is simply impossible to determine. How do you compare the morning shows of the 50s with those of the 70s with those of the 90s and now?

Personally, I think Bill Tanner was MUCH better than Bob Burton- but then, I worked for Bob, and you couldn't get me to say something positive about him if you had a knife to my throat. How do you compare a Rodney Randall (Jay Marks) to Bob & Al, even though they were all contemporaries?

Sorry, but no matter what market, you can't compare "best of" that way.

Side note: Where is Nancy Bell these days? I remember when I was leaving to go do middays at KSLQ in St. Louis (after Bob "Ego" Burton told me I wasn't good enough for middays in Jackson.) She was telling me how much she had loved living there and how much I'd like it. I was in St. Louis for 30 years. Smart lady... :)
 
Tanner was definitely big league, especially as a programmer.
Forgot one category,though- Bet the Best Copywriter of all time was young Eudora Welty at WJDX.
 
Under the category of, the best of everything else, the choice of selecting MISS-103 as a station name was a perfect fit. Although it is no longer here, TYX was a great choice because it was so easy to remember, and probably Z was the next best. There were undoubtedly a few others, but they are gone.

Although I don’t recall names, announcer wise, there was a guy/girl morning team at Y101 several years ago who were very entertaining. Not sure of the station, but there was also a morning person who did impersonations, what I remember most was that his “Governor Bill, King of the Hill” impersonation was hysterical. I can’t recall any locally humorous announcers. . . no idea who Farmer Jim is or was.

As far as promotions I think that the house giveaways from MISS-103 were the biggest. Of course there was a time when stations offered lots of nice prizes and trips. I (barely) remember a giveaway promoting a Lamborghini for him and a Porsche for her. . . I thought that was cool. Ever since the contests became national, I really don’t pay attention anymore.

As far as TV, the face I most connect with news anchors is Howard Ballou. Stephanie Flynt as a news reporter (I always thought Stephanie stood the best chance of going national from all our TV news people).

Agreed. Newspaper Columnist. . . Orley Hood.
 
The remodeled King Edward Hotel reopens this week. Who remembers WJQS being located at the hotel before T. Tommy? bought it and moved it to Terry Road. Was it Terry Road? Shortly after that the King Edward closed. John Friskello (spelling) worked there. Who else?

And going way back, does anyone remember WJXN being located at the Deposit Guaranty Bank building? I was told they were in the 50's.

As far as the all time most prolific (worked at more stations than anyone else), I nominate Bob Ralls. Or was it Bob Rall? I have to go look that up since he posts here.
 
Great memory you have Henry. The Big change happened at WJQS in the 64-65 time period. T Tommy and a partner by the name of Zimmerman bought it and changed the logo to Audio 14. Lee Hodges was a long time Manager at the Terry Road location. John F was there as well as Art? (later w/WJDX (Richards?).
They were located in the King Edward on the west side of the building, street level.
I cherish the memory of meeting John after his shift at the lobby "Coach and Six"
oyster bar, for raw oysters and a brew.
John was killed in a home invasion in recent years...he was disabled and defenseless...sad for a radio icon of Jackson. JBI
 
I remember seeing a picture of the WJQS staff that included Art Reed and John Friskillo. Not sure what era it was from - probably early 70's. Lots of history in those little ole 1kw Jackson AM stations like WJQS and WJXN.

RFB
 
When Dumas Milner owned WJQS (and the hotel) there were rumors he wanted to buy the Mutual Radio Network and move its headquarters to Jackson. He also owned Pine Sol, White Rain Shampoo and National Car Rental...in addition to Milner Chevrolet, as I recall.
John Friskillo used the name John Jay back then.
(And, Bert Case had hair)
 
OK, I'm game...

Morning Show.... Bill Tanner and Jim Reihle on 62/WJDX early 70s
Midday Jock.... The late Cramer Haas, WJDX
Afternoon Drive... Sergio Fernandez, WZZQ-FM/The Rock
Evenings... Christopher Stone. WJDX
Overnights... Art Reed, WJDX
Specialty Programming, Street Talk on WJDX, 70s
News... Howard Lett, WJDX
Best of anything else... album rock DJ... Wayne Harris on WZZQ, 70s
 
When I worked at WVIM Vicksburg in the 1960s, Cramer Hass was there too. He was a good guy and the pet of Old Man Shay, the owner. Mr. Shay was always telling me "Cramer would do it this way. I want you to do it this way."

After moving around other stations, I eventually joined the Navy, and after boot camp was sent to
CT (Communications Technician) training school in Pensacola, Fla. And guess who was there at the same time, as a Marine? Cramer Hass.

Him being a Marine and me being a sailor, we could not socialize. (Marines consider themselves superior.) But we still frequently talked to each other.

I get sent to Morocco and he gets sent to Vietnam. The war was going on.

Later, much later, I put together info from a Walter Cronkite report (with Cramer's actual voice) on CBS and the Robin Williams movie where Robin is a DJ. Robin's famous line "Good Morning Viet Nam" was actually in real life announced by Cramer Hass. With literary license, Robin was playing Cramer Hass.
 
I'll just toss in random mention of a few folks who stand out in my memory. I didn't make it to town until after the "golden age" of Jackson AM radio (i.e., prior to the Tanner firing and walkout), but these names deserve remembrance. Tanner and Reihle were obviously a class act, and I would also have to give props to Uncle Walt at WRBC in mornings. Dave Dunaway, Jim Chick, and Jay Marks set high standards in middays at JDX. PM drive brings to mind Bill Crews and Ray Zoller. Gary Phillips brought distinct, and distinctly different, personalities to his work at WRBC, JDX and mornings at WZZQ. Harry Nelson at WRBC was destined for bigger things with RKO, as was Dennis Jon Bailey, who owned late nights at JDX. I remember Dave Perkins as a detail-oriented guy who made things cook behind-the-scenes at JDX, plus he was one of the nicest and most unselfish people I ever worked with.

In Jackson briefly, at Y-16, Gene Wooten (I think his air name was Funky Bobby Case) was such an impressive production whiz that he made the jump from Biloxi to New York City in one fell swoop. News guys that come to mind include Lamar Evans, Dudley Evans, Randy Bell, and as mentioned earlier, Howard Lett.

As soon as I press Post I'll think of dozens of others I should have mentioned. So much talent flowed through over the years, some left, some stayed.
 
Rob, Jay was afternoon drive (Rodney W. Randall) not middays. And he was the best pure jock (as opposed to personality) I EVER heard in Jackson. When I was at JDX someone compared me (foolishly) to him, and I couldn't have been more honored. Even if they were mistaken, being compared to Jay made quite an impression. He didn't sound much different at JDX than he did when he was at Y100 or WMAQ in Chicago. Smooth, flawless execution.

JDX had an incredible news team in the early-mid 70s- WAY better than the market size would indicate. I can still remember Howard and heard his voice instantly. And Howard, Randy, and Lamar (don't recall knowing Dudley) were good guys to work with as well.

I still laught when I remember Bob Burton telling me I wasn't ready for middays in Jackson the same day I was offered middays at KSLQ in St. Louis (a city I spent 30 years on the air in, most of the fulltime gigs being either middays or afternoon drive.) What a buzzing dolt the man was...

Side note: Whatever happened to Corky May from WRBC?
 
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