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Mississippi AM Top 40 (from before many of you were born)

J Alex Bowab said:
Maybe my age is showing (68) but the title of this thread suggested to me a discussion of WJXN 1450 The Colonel Station and WRBC 1300 Rebel Radio doing battle in the late 50s ... WJXN, the weaker signal, bowing out in favor of country around 1961-62 ... then WWUN 1590 taking names/kicking ass starting around 1965. WJDX was a dinosaur until new life was breathed into it around 1970-71.
Well, when you go back to the 50's you're talking about maybe before even I was born. Guess the Eudora Welty years at WJDX was a little mellow, but beginning with the Tanner years at JDX it was a fire breathing dragon! We're all oldies but goodies, Alex.
 
TZ...Being across the "street" so to speak, the JDX signal, programming and personalities could not be matched by WWUN...and this (sadly)
let to it's eventual decline...but it was interesting to watch, no? JBI and best regards....
 
jboyd said:
TZ...Being across the "street" so to speak, the JDX signal, programming and personalities could not be matched by WWUN...and this (sadly)
let to it's eventual decline...but it was interesting to watch, no? JBI and best regards....
As a teenager, though, I dug WWUN, along with WRBC and JDX, so there was a good fight for awhile. As an aspiring jock, I admired all those guys. But once I saw the starship that was 62JDX, that was the target for me.
 
jboyd said:
Rob...of course, you speak the truth...but be careful...there are posters hereon that think anything before 1985 is "Old School"...and others not in the business telling how to be "professional"...Yours, Alex's and other's experiences are irrevelent and inconsequential..therein lies a sad commentary about where we are today. BTW.. "Those who fail to learn from the past"....JBI (Just another annoying "Old Timer" Sorry....

I hope you weren't talking about me. ;)

It sounds like the people you're describing are who run radio nowadays, because none of it sounds like what I hear in these classic clips.
 
I grew up listening to JDX and really enjoyed those clips. as mentioned earlier it always amazed me how they could end a song at the top of the hour and go into the news without ending early or cutting the song short. And they did it with songs that didn't fade out on the end which made it even more cool. One of my pet peeves of todays radio is they mess up the seques between songs. Since everything is computerized, the voice track at the beginning is drowned out by the music ( no actual DJ present to adjust the volume, or to speak louder). The cross fading drives me crazy on songs like "Stairway to Heaven, Slow Ride" etc.) the next song or annoucer starts before they stop singing. Thats a big no-no in my book. It's almost as bad as talking over the vocals after an intro. You should never start a song until the previous has completley ended unless the song fades out on the end. They are also doing that on TV. On scenes that fade to black, the commerical starts with only a frame or two between. The fade to black is often as important to the film as the film itself. When you listened to JDX back then, you were listening to an actual performance by the jock. They knew how to cue up songs at just the right moment without screwing up, The levels were always right because they could reach for the knob if something didn't sound right. A computer cannot read your mind and get everything right, and fix things on the fly if something doesn't quite work. A computor can never replace a real disk jockey.
 
i for one don't miss cueing vinyl, nor do i miss the sound of cue burn !!! as far as mkt testing songs, if the test is conducted in your mkt great, but to use a list of songs tested in chicago and apply it in mississippi, to me is toopid !!! i disagree about computer replacing a real disc jockey...of course it depends on how the system is set up, our current system at blakeney communications is set up so as to where we have volume controls, we can adjust the levels as we talk over songs or music beds, and we have the freedom to have fun while being informative too. maybe we are not the norm, as far as not having to talk but every 15-20 minutes, between answering phones and social networking on fb with listeners, almost everything i put on air goes on my fb page, traffic, wx, teasing upcoming contests etc, keeps me pretty busy !! also having the internet to get info is sweet !!! im not the most talented guy , but i love what i do !!! and take pride in running a tight board, im glad i dont have to back time into anything anymore !!!!
 
flytrap said:
I grew up listening to JDX and really enjoyed those clips. as mentioned earlier it always amazed me how they could end a song at ... A computor can never replace a real disk jockey.
The timing was a vital part of what added to the listening experience. Not just back-timing going into news,etc., but in the tight delivery,as well. You just couldn't walk in and get a job at those places because you could push buttons, ya know. Recorded calls from listeners hitting the post over the intro of songs helped to keep you alert, for example, and some of the best segues out there have not been heard because you can't do it with voicetrack. You had to stay on your toes. Some jocks stood while on-air to move around. The fun of sharing those old airchecks back then was not in the music played, but what the jocks "said" and to match it (Or copy it. Thanks Robert, for "Morning Has Broken", by the way). The last second live interaction with music made the listener want to know what's next, as was said here before. Any ipod can play music. Like a lot of us,mine has more oldies than most oldies stations have, and more classic rock than most classic rock stations have. Heck, I love good music. In those days, it wasn't the high fidelity of the sound as much as it was the personality of the stations. It was a great time for radio.
 
timing is everything...always has been always will, thats a no brainer, i do phoners with listeners and contest winners...these things havent changed, computers arent a setback if utilized properly...all stations dont vt at least we dont..on sundays we do, but hell who wants to work 7 days a week?? finding part timers that have the drive to want to do this full time, even near a college town is a challenge.
 
Part timers...a thing of the past...and what a shame...many of us started that way,,besides, no teenagers want instructions or rules anymore.....JBI
 
Right on JBI...I started part time at 16.Full time at 17. age 23 found me at my fav station WTIX New Orleans.Nice gig working for the man that invented Top 40(Todd Storz). The 60's were the golden age in radio.We were all lucky to be a part of history.
 
radioagaga said:
timing is everything...always has been always will, thats a no brainer, i do phoners with listeners and contest winners...these things havent changed, computers arent a setback if utilized properly...all stations dont vt at least we dont..on sundays we do, but hell who wants to work 7 days a week?? finding part timers that have the drive to want to do this full time, even near a college town is a challenge.
Good for you doing the phoners and contests. Don't see anybody attacking computers here,though, just talking about the the old days. By the way, tell Larry and Debbie that the Best Man at their wedding said hey.
 
Lee Arthur "The House Rocker" Rhodes passed away about a year ago, March 11th, 2011. His Saturday night soul show moved from WOKK-AM (Country) to WALT-FM (Top 40) in the mid 70's. He always used an instrumental by E-W-F to get him into the live ABC Newscasts. And his longtime sponsor was the Miller distributor, "be sure and pick up plenty of Miller Ponies for your next good time."
 
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