> Brian I am trying to create the Radio History Jacksonville
> Website and I know you worked for Cox and the other owners
> of the Cox's Jacksonville cluster. If you do not mind would
> you be willing to provide info about these stations and
> picutres of the stations and history that you could help
> with in building the history pages of 95.1, 96.9, 102.9,
> 104.5, 600, and 690.
>
> Also Heather could be a help of years at Cool 96.9. And
> please tell best of luck with the new job at 106.5 The
> Promise. I am glad to hear that she is back on the radio.
>
> Oh I will give you credit if you submit anything. Thanks.
>
> Mburg
>
My big problem is I only moved to Jacksonville in 1997, so I really don't know much about radio here except what I've heard from old-timers - I've actually learned more about Jacksonville radio from Braswell's one post than I had in the 8 years prior.
As for my experience at the stations:
102.9 was Mix 103, "The Best Mix of the 70s, 80s, and 90s" when I started working there - I think it had just changed a few months prior (someone please clue me in to when Soft Rock 102.9 flipped to Mix 103).
Kevin Gossett was on the morning show briefly when I first started (I think). He left for Chicago or something and was replaced with Monk & Kelly (I think in early '98). I worked for Monk & Kelly from Nov '98 to August of '99 as their producer. John Harrell did traffic with all the different morning shows. Heather Shea was on middays. Brian Taylor did afternoons for most of the time I was employed there until he left for a PD job somewhere in Alabama (Birmingham or Montgomery) and I think was the assistant PD/music director for Mix 103 (Cat Thomas was PD). Mark Bell came on and replaced Brian on afternoon drive when he left. Shannon West was on nights, and had her weekend Smooth Jazz show (Jaxx Jazz or something like that). John Harrell hosted the Saturday night 70s show. Sometime toward the end, the slogan changed to "The Best Mix of the 80s, 90s, and today", and the music got softer. Then it flipped to 102.9 The Point - "The Best of the 80s and more". It was jockless for quite a while - long enough that Heather Shea actually filled in for my wife on Cool when she was on maternity leave with our first kid in November 2000. We loves us some Heather Shea.
690 WOKV was a very different beast when I started there in December 1997. The weekday lineup was like this:
6-9am "Miller In The Morning" with Mike Miller (live local talk)
9-noon "Dr. Laura"
Noon-3 Rush Limbaugh
3-6pm Mike Dorwart (live local talk)
6-7pm Dr. Dean Edell
7-10pm "The Black Avenger" Ken Hamblin
I can't remember if it was Jim Bohannon or someone else from 10-midnight
Art Bell, of course, was there on overnights.
After a while, they ditched Hamblin and put on Greg Knapp from 7-10pm, yet another live local talk show. When Mike Dorwart decided he wanted to leave afternoons, he moved Greg into afternoon drive, where he stayed until they did the major reshuffling of the lineup that ultimately gave us the schedule they've got on now. Greg went on to some station in Gainesville (Sky?) and then to Texas, where he's still on the air on KLIF in Dallas.
AM 600 was The Ball - I know that Bill Riley did mornings, there was a show called the bullpen where they had a variety of daily hosts, including Dan Hicken. Rick Ballew was on afternoons, and then The Mac Attack replaced that. There was a big blowout of all the local talent except for Cole Pepper when Cox came in (or shortly thereafter), and it became ESPN Radio until its sale to Disney. Cole went to WOKV as Sports Director.
95.1 was so consistent for the majority of the time I worked for Cox, it's almost silly to go into who was on the air...Mornings was Hoyle, Eden, Steve, Amadeus, and Ashley until Hoyle left, then just the four until they dumped Ashley. They just added someone recently, right? Middays has been Tony Mann the whole time. Afternoons was Trane until they "wished him well in his future endeavors", replaced by Chase Daniels, evenings was Billy Goat until he quit to pursue other interests (he's since come back a little), replaced by Jay Styles. Cat Thomas has been PD the whole time.
Rock 105 was quite different when I started, too...Lex & Terry were on mornings (as they have been for a long time), Charlie Logan did middays until he joined the XM crew in DC, and Rick Tracy was on afternoons. Woody Carlson was the evening jock, I think, until he left and got a PD job in Illinois. Michele Michaels came in on overnights at first, and when Woody left, became MD and took the night shift. She's now their promotions director - I like her a lot. They replaced Logan with Jay Sinclair (who I enjoyed working with a whole lot), and then Sinclair with the current guy Gregg Stepp. Maynard became the king of the evenings when Michele stepped down the hall to become promotions director (when Rock went to pure classic rock, they didn't need an MD anymore - that was a Cox change - the AOR to Classic Rock thing). He recently left for a PD gig in Mobile. David Moore has been the PD this whole time.
Cool 96.9 was Cool all the way up to last Christmas. When I first started (again, in Dec. '97), Dave and Heather were on in the mornings, Pat Garrett was on in middays (and was assistant PD and MD - Cat Thomas was PD of Cool as well), Smokin' Joe Beamer was on in afternoons, Steve Knight was on from 7-midnight, and Greg St. James was on overnights (I think that was his name). Smokin' Joe died and Tom Murphy took over afternoons. Shortly before that, they bumped Pat Garrett up to PD. They brought in Rick Ryder for the overnights when Greg (was that his name? Damn!) left, and when Steve left, Rick moved up to evenings and "Lee Roberts" voicetracked the overnights. Then Rick left, and they brought in Doc Brock for evenings. They flip-flopped Tom and Doc at some point in mid-2002.
Shortly after that, Lee Roberts had his past catch up with him and left the station (read about that in the other thread). Ross Jackson initially replaced him, but then Ross had his own odd problems and was replaced by Tony Hamilton (a GREAT jock, IMO) on overnights. Pat Garrett was replaced by Scott Walker on September 10, 2003 (I know because I was working on September 11th memorial sweepers for Pat when they announced the change). We all know what happened next.
You can now hear Heather on 106.5 The Promise from 5:30-10:00am weekdays.
I think that covers what I know. I'm sure there are people and things I've forgotten.
I do have to say it was fun thinking about most of those people, and in some ways, it was even fun thinking about the others, too.
Brian V.
