Loose Radio, Stereo Jones & Mikal in the Afternoon

[MikalT]

Thirty-five or so years ago Nick Chandler (the Boogie Man) and I walked into the WJBO studios and Roger Davidson, then General Manager of WJBO-AM/FM hired me to do news. Nick was then working at WIBR, nose-to-nose with Kandy Kane late at night and I had met him through a mutual friend Michael W. May in Ruston, then on KRUS.

From the news slot, I graduated through the WJBO-FM ranks to Music Director of Loose Radio 102.5. Davidson said that the ratings were strong with women and said that I could play basically anything that I wanted to. Well... there was some pretty crazy stuff on vinyl in those days, but I poured through boxes of discs and developed one of the largest LP collections known to Baton Rouge radio at the time. I remember that Eddie Allman of the Gris Gris magazine did an article on us, Jeff Hedgemon was getting into the first disco stuff, Michael Moore (not the crazy guy with glasses) was our Production Manager, Kirk J., and... Omicron... the midnight cowboy! WOW!!

Then one day, Roger Davidson came in and told us all that the call letters would be changing from WJBO-FM to something else. It was up to us to pick the calls from about four or five options and WFMF is what we came up with. I can still remember donning purple leotards a feathered hat, weird shoes and dancing my way up on to the Bon Marche Theatre stage during a matinee to promote the new WFMF call letters (and I'm not even gay). How's that for a "blast from the past"...

Then it was on to WIBR with Joe London (a.k.a. Joe Ponsock....sp?) Sitting in the music room with Joe one afternoon and putting Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama on the turntable for the first time. I said, "Joe... this is going to be a hit". And he agreed. B.Z. Bob Earle, Steve St. John, Catfish Bill Carrigan, Pappy Burge, Bob Furlow... worked with all those guys... what a great bunch!

Even worked with Scotty Drake at Gene's place in the tower in downtown B.R. He had an LCS slot and I was down the hall twisting elevator musak on the reel-to-reels on WQXY. Bill Murray showed me the finer techniques of how to properly "clean the heads" as Don Grady peered in through the window while doing the WLCS news from across the hall.

Aaahhh! Those were the days!

Mike Thoreson
circa 1973 or so...

 

[BaronBean]

Then one day, Roger Davidson came in and told us all that the call letters would be changing from WJBO-FM to something else. It was up to us to pick the calls from about four or five options and WFMF is what we came up with.

When you guys chose "WFMF," did you take into consideration that the call letters might stand for Whole F'ing Manship Family...or was it a simple case of serendipity?

Loose Radio was legendary in those days. It was even listed in the phone directory as "Loose Radio," as I recall. Made it easier for the stoners to find the number. ;D

I can only imagine what the late Mr. Davison was thinking when he heard a Bill Cosby track at 78 rpm on the air for the first time.

 

[waynewatkins]

MikalT, what great memories. I can relate to bunches of them! Loved the top floor suite overlooking the river of WLCS/WQXY. Then I ended up in the cane field across the river at WIBR. And what a cool production studio Michael Moore ran atop WJBO/WFMF.

Thanks for the memories!

 

[jmkcool]

Joe Martin and Michael Lea had both worked for Gene Nelson....and both had spent many sessions sharing the pipe and lampooning his demeanor and voice inflection as he would scold you because you "Sounded Like Shit" on the air....I first met Gene during a job interview in 1979....and when he began his pontifications about radio...it was all I could do to laughing at how dead on they had both been....Good Times.......

 

[MikalT]

BaronBean... well serendipity had little to do with it (grinnin')... if I recall, the biggest reason for choosing WFMF was because it had "FM" in it. I did have a special appointment with ole Mr. Manship one day however. Seems that Don Grady (then PD) insisted that I play C.W. McCall's "Convoy" in between Uriah Heep's "The Wizard" and Kinky Friedman's "Wild Man from Borneo". Well... that wasn't going to work, so I challenged him and ended up face-to-face with Charles Sr.... in his own office in the old State Times-Morning Advocate building. I think that I worked for FMF for about another two weeks after that (laughing)... just before Randy Rice stepped in. One of Randy's first moves as PD was to take a razor blade to all of the albums in the library... regular rotation and Bill Drake (rest his soul)... virtually the beginning of the end of Loose Radio...

Wayne... yeah the LCS tower was great! I was living in Spanish Town at the time and often one of the LCS jocks would have to break through one of my windows to rouse me for a shift after recovering from a night of cocktails (that may have just been my imagination... hard to remember after 35 years). I remember the WIBR cane fields... do you remember the "Shack by the Track"? Michael Moore's studio (the old WJBO studios) was visited by Ed Asner one night when I was on the air. A rather large production crew knocked on the front door of the studio and when I answered the door... Ed Asner was staring me in the face. They were there to film a scene in "The Life and Assassination of the Kingfish" and so I ushered them all upstairs to the old studio and watched as they filmed part of the scene. I believe that I may have had some dead air that evening (grinnin')...

jmkcool... are you talking about the Joe Martin that founded I.T.I. on Airline Hwy.? ... or his son Joe Martin, Jr.? Anyway... yeah Gene laid into me one day for being late for my shift... something about introducing me to "Five Finger Bertha" (jeez! It was 10 years or so before I figured out what the hell he was talking about, and there's not even a 12-step program for that!) I believe that that day every cart machine in the building mis-fired... and instead of cueing the mic pot, I inadvertantly pegged it during a most embarassing moment (12 tacos that night) ... well, needless to say... I shredded that aircheck.

~~Mikal T.

 

[jmkcool]

Mikal T......Neither....Joe Martin from Lafayette....He talks about doing overnites from the WLCS xmtter site ( sponsored by Shoneys ).........and the time Roger Cavenass (RIP) convinced him a tab of LSD would make his first shift at WNOE lots o fun.....To this day he's still convinced GOD called in to request "Spirit in the Sky"