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Looking for logo of WVOC Columbus, GA

A

Art Sutton

Guest
When WRBL sold off its radio stations, WRBL AM became WRCG and WRBL FM 102.9, became WVOC, a well done AC. I am trying to locate a logo of the old WVOC in Columbus. If anyone has a copy, please contact me.
Thanks.

Art Sutton
Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting
Toccoa, GA
 
Art Sutton said:
When WRBL sold off its radio stations, WRBL AM became WRCG and WRBL FM 102.9, became WVOC, a well done AC. I am trying to locate a logo of the old WVOC in Columbus. If anyone has a copy, please contact me.
Thanks.

Art Sutton
Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting
Toccoa, GA
Click to expand...

Sorry, no logo! But WVOC eventually became WNKS "Kiss 102.9", a CHR station, during the 1980's, and became WVRK, ROCK 103, at some point during the 1990's. In any case, 102.9 had both a powerful 100,000-watt signal, and a tower that measured around 1,500 feet, with a signal that could be heard as far away as Macon and Albany. Which is still the case today. Can anybody else fill in the blanks?
 
radionut925 said:
Sorry, no logo! But WVOC eventually became WNKS "Kiss 102.9", a CHR station, during the 1980's, and became WVRK, ROCK 103, at some point during the 1990's. In any case, 102.9 had both a powerful 100,000-watt signal, and a tower that measured around 1,500 feet, with a signal that could be heard as far away as Macon and Albany. Which is still the case today. Can anybody else fill in the blanks?
Click to expand...

I know this is going way off topic.

Back in the late 80's/early 90's, Rock 103's signal drifted much further south than Albany. It reached Bainbridge, Dothan and Montgomery. At one point it was co-owned with Rock 103.5 in Panama City so, by fine tuning the dial on your car radio a little bit, you could listen to "a" Rock 103 all the way from Atlanta to the beaches.
 
poledo said:
Back in the late 80's/early 90's, Rock 103's signal drifted much further south than Albany. It reached Bainbridge, Dothan and Montgomery. At one point it was co-owned with Rock 103.5 in Panama City so, by fine tuning the dial on your car radio a little bit, you could listen to "a" Rock 103 all the way from Atlanta to the beaches.
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There was also co-owned Rock 103 (103.5 WJAD Leesburg), which I know was owned by Cumulus at the same time was WVRK. WVRK is now owned by Clear Channel though. Was 103.5 Leesburg co-owned before Cumulus? The logo was the same. M&M Partners owned WVRK before Cumulus.
 
ssnake said:
poledo said:
Back in the late 80's/early 90's, Rock 103's signal drifted much further south than Albany. It reached Bainbridge, Dothan and Montgomery. At one point it was co-owned with Rock 103.5 in Panama City so, by fine tuning the dial on your car radio a little bit, you could listen to "a" Rock 103 all the way from Atlanta to the beaches.
Click to expand...

There was also co-owned Rock 103 (103.5 WJAD Leesburg), which I know was owned by Cumulus at the same time was WVRK. WVRK is now owned by Clear Channel though. Was 103.5 Leesburg co-owned before Cumulus? The logo was the same. M&M Partners owned WVRK before Cumulus.
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Are you sure? I'm thinking WJAD hadn't moved and was still on 97.3 out of Bainbridge at the time. So long ago...
 
I remember 102.9 very well. I listened to it while in college. If my radio could get it, it was on WNKS-FM back in the late Eighties. Anyone remember Willie Lee McGee, the wino in the dumpster behind the station? Remember Marcia Shipley, Bear O'Brian, Dr. Dave, Donnie Walker, Steve Leon, and "Friday Night Rocks". The CHR format at WNKS missed some tunes and took its time to play others. Everyone played "Serious" by Donna Allen before Kiss touched it. Oh and the Little Joe's ads.

KT
 
I worked at WVOC in its country incarnation for a few months, part time while also at WULA-WKQK/Eufaula. This was just a few months before Aylett B. Coleman brought in the crew that launched Kiss-FM in 1984 (they did a "sneak-preview" playing "Kiss On My List" by Hall and Oates every hour, and each of the jocks did an hour or two on the air).

WVOC, you might recall, was in the mansion on Wynnton Road at 13th Avenue. When the time came for the format flip, the engineer (Bill Thompson) was ready with a brand new Pacific BMX board, 6 TomCat cart machines (remember those), and other such goodies. The initial studio for Kiss was the old V-103 production room. They ripped out all the old equipment and built new counters for the new stuff. It was pretty cool to watch the transformation.

BTW, the cast of characters I worked with at 'VOC were: Bill Bowick, mornings; David McManus (aka John Alexander-also OM/PD), late mornings; Mac Farish (aka Bob Roberts), early afternoons; Joe Cook, afternoons; Sharon (?), nights, and Rasheeda Ali, overnights). Marcia Shipley (Ludgood) and another lady whose name escapes me were news hounds, and several other parttime and fill-in folks. Oh, and lest we forget Philup Space, whose office was the AP closet under the staircase. Whaddaguy!

The Kiss-FM studios were moved from the mansion to the building farther down Wynnton (across from Channel 9) about 6 months after they launched the CHR, so that would have been mid-1985.

I had a great time working at V-103 for that short period of time. Then I spent a VERY short time at WDAK and WEIZ... in fact, come to think of it, Allen Woodall Jr. still owes me a paycheck.

Oh, and as far as the V-103 AC logo, John Rodriguez, the market manager at Cumulus/Macon, was at VOC during the Bluegrass Broadcasting days. Don't know if he was there in the AC days, but he might know where to find a copy of that logo.

TDO
 
Man those are some of the names that inspired me to want to be behind the mike@! Bill Bowick and Breakfast on the veranda! Wow... I started off loving country, and around the time that VOC made the change, me being 14, I changed music taste to. I was always back and forth between KISS and the Q!...Joe Cook was the first "personality" I ever met in person!
 
Does anyone know what happened to Joe Cook? I remember he used to go back and forth between Columbus and Montgomery (WBAM I think).

I enjoyed Kiss-FM when they first came on. Phil Beckman did mornings with Marcia Shipley and Beth Ann Schaffer with the news and they had a sports guy whose name I've forgotten. They had the first big production morning show. Unfortunately the station didn't last--they promoted it as a CHR but then didn't play the right music as someone mentioned. I've got a Ledger TV Book somewhere with the Kiss Crew on the cover.
 
Wow I wonder about Joe Cook too, I grew up in very rural Russell County in Alabama and had the pleasure of getting both the Columbus Market and Montgomery quite well. I listened to WBAM and WHHY....I love to see a scan of that TV Cover!!!
 
Joe's at WDEF-FM (Sunny 92.3) in Chattanooga, TN, doing afternoons. Great voice. Inspired a lot of my delivery style, but my voice comes nowhere NEAR the velvety sound he puts out.
 
Wow. Just stumbled on this.
Kiss-FM was a great place to work whyle Aylett Coleman owned it. Money was no object. We moved from that great mansion further east on Wynnton to a lawyer's office we converted. Top-shelf studios... Totally soundproof. The sports guy was Dan Lynn, who I would love to know what happened to.
One of Kiss' problems was the on-air attacking of WCGQ. I didn't like that and took as little part in that as I could get away with. I think our music was mostly on top of it; the music problems detailed above hasppened long after Aylett sold it.
Columbus was an interesting place to work. Very isolated from the rest of Georgia IMHO, due to the interstate being there only as a spur, and afterthought.
I've got a lot of pictures of the early Kiss-FM and a lot of great memories. And the barbecue in that town... YUM!!
(starts salivating while thinking about Chicken Comer's)
 
Hadyourphil,

One of "those" breaks that sticks with me 25 years later is hearing you ramp up "Easy Lover" with something like, "It's Phil with Phil and Phil on Kiss-FM."

Lost it right there. Never been the same since.

Or at least that's what I tell people. Blame it on Beckman.

And you're right about the soundproofing of that control room... you could turn the monitor all the way up, walk out in the hall, close the door and hear n-o-t-h-i-n-g!

David
 
Like Diamondtwo, I loved hearing Phil in the morning on Kiss. Great morning show that made you laugh out loud. The on-air jabs at 'CGQ were cute but soon grew tiresome and offered nothing to the listener. I recall one that compared the Q's music to the Mike Douglas standard, "The Men in My Little Girl's Life". Kiss had that monster signal and great jingles, too.
 
I need to dig out some old airchecks, I have a tape somewhere of Cat Collins last shift on Kiss summer 1985 before he left for Y102 Montgomery, as well as an aircheck 12/31/85 of the 1st anniversary of 102.9 becoming CHR ... including a flashback moment of the first moments of Kiss with Phil Beckman announcing the new line-up that I'm going to try to recall from memory: (himself, Marcia Shipley, and Beth-Ann Schaffer as the Kiss Crew in The Morning, Dave Foster from 10a-2p (left to do middays as "Commander" Dave Foster at Country Y106 Atlanta), Russ Brown 2p-6p, Cat Collins 6p-10p, Mark 'The One' Gunn 10p-2a, and Jim Kelly overnights. Then Phil Beckman hits that famous JAMS top of the hour bed from one of the KIIS Los Angeles CHR packages and stumbles and says I think ".... Virginia's .... I mean Georgia's great new radio station, the switch is on to the all-new all-hit Kiss FM! (jingle) I don't know where I am."

After Cat left Kiss went from a six jock rotation to five.

A couple of sidenotes, I did have an opportunity under the next ownership to work with the two last people from the original Kiss ... Marcia Shipley who was incredible both professionally and personally .... and part timer Charlotte O'Hara (Nelson) ... Charlotte later did weekends at Z93 Atlanta and then Y106 in the 90s. Both fantastic talents. Also a gentleman who was the production director Bill Allen, who was one of my mentors and was like a father to me, I'm not sure if he was with Kiss before Jim Martin brought it, but I think he was with V103 at some point in the 80s. He passed on a few years ago and I miss him dearly.

I also did in 2001 catch Cat Collins filling in weekends on Q100 Atlanta shortly after Q's launch. I think Cat was serving in some full time position (marketing?) with Q100, not sure what role.

Other memories ... Mr. Leeroy?
 
Also a gentleman who was the production director Bill Allen, who was one of my mentors and was like a father to me, I'm not sure if he was with Kiss before Jim Martin brought it, but I think he was with V103 at some point in the 80s
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Bill Allen was at V103 when I worked there in 1984. I was doing weekends and fill-in at the time. Bill would come in on Sunday afternoons while I was running a syndicated countdown show, and catch up on production while no one else was around. I learned so much just standing in the production room watching him splice down a "testimonial" interview with a client of a doctor or a weight-loss clinic or some such thing, into a :60 spot.

He was a great guy, and I was saddened to hear of his passing a few years back.

TDO
 
Thanks for all the kind words about Kiss!
I remember driving to Columbus from Roanoke,VA with Russ Brown and Ashby Coleman (Aylett's son) in the car. We were pulling a trailer with a bazillion carts in it and other necessary stuff. Got to C'lumbus on Dec 30. Spent New Year's Eve getting things ready in our new studio in a room at the back of the house. At 11:59PM, we took over. First song was "Listen to the Music" because that was the kickoff song for Aylett's other station in Roanoke, K-92. I was on flubbing the state's name and introduced the jocks. Cat Collins' name was literally dreamed up about 30 minutes earlier. Think I suggested "Collins" due to their broadcast gear.
I have a cassette somewhere of the kickoff. The whole thing was saved on reel tape but disappeared.
Unfortunately for me, I had to come back at 5 or 6 (forget which) to do the first "Kiss Crew in the Morning" show.
Enjoyed it right up until Aylett sold it 18 months later...
 
Also a gentleman who was the production director Bill Allen, who was one of my mentors and was like a father to me, I'm not sure if he was with Kiss before Jim Martin brought it, but I think he was with V103 at some point in the 80s
Click to expand...

I worked at WVOC-FM from 1979 until the move to the old lawyer offices around 1984. I did overnights when I first got there from 1979 to 1980 and then I did mostly production and copywriting until 1982. I then became the Music Director when we went from AC to Country along with doing copy with Bill Allen. Bill Thompson, David McManus and I were sent up to Roanoke, VA to meet with Russ Brown and Coleman to learn the Coleman way of how they wanted the station to be run after Coleman bought it. Around the end of 1984 I left and I went on the road with the Country Rock Group "ALABAMA" doing Promotions for them until I left to manage the Atlanta group, "GEORGIA'S OWN". In 1986 I came back to Columbus and Jimbo Martin owned the FM station then and told me that they also had an AM side at that time. I was asked to run the AM side but Jimbo and I could not come to terms on the monetary front so I quit the business and took up golf. Bill Allen and I remained friends until his passing (from brain cancer) and we co-wrote a few stories and a book that made it to the quarter-finals of the L. Ron Hubbard Writer's of the Future competition. BTW, Bill and I had both served together in the Army in Viet Nam and that's how we first met ... and we both agreed that the brain cancer was probably from the Agent Orange that we both came into contact with out in the fields in Nam. The entire 6+ years that I did in Columbus was a blast and I made some great friends there that I still stay in contact with. Oh yeah ... and if any of you knew David McManus, he passed away last month from Heart problems.

Take care!

Gary Edwards
 
ThePowerCow said:
So when the air is right, Atlanta had two V-103's on the dial. I'm sure 102.9 made it up there most days before the translator glut.
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When I was there from 1979 to the mid 80s, we were told by residents that we could be heard in places like Decatur, Snellville, and Lawrenceville. So I guess we traveled well to the East. I know we could hear our signal all of the way down to Panama City Beach, too. Of course, at that time, we did have the highest tower in the world. Yep, the World. Of course that record has fallen nowadays.
 
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