Hey Alan I have the same thing as i was driving on Captial Cir NE going to lunch as I get to Captial Cir NE and Park Ave I hread 107.9 WFSD-LP mess up the 107.7 (WAJP). If u go to Captial Cir SE toward Southwood to the Flea Market 107.7 comes in better if u go southeast side of Tallahassee.
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New Spanish FM Radio Station hit the airwaves in north florida
- Thread starter Louis_009
- Start date
Alan McCall said:
Alan,
I'm surprised I remember very much about the Perry radio market... I was first introduced to the market in the mid 70s quite by accident when I made a road trip there with my dad. My dad was a forester and often would take trips to Perry to buy heavy equipment parts for timber harvesting equipment. He would take me with him on several occassion back when I was a young teen, around 13 maybe 14.
At that time Perry only had two AM stations: WGKR 1310 and WPRY 1400. WGKR was your typical hometown station complete with "The Trading Post" and other local programs. Mostly when in the area I would listen to WPRY because it was Top 40 and I didn't care for the country very much on 1310.
On one our our frequent trips to Perry, I had convinced my dad to drive me over to the WPRY studios for a visit. The only person there was the on-air jock. I don't remember his name, but I do remember he was quite friendly. I took a brief tour of the studio which was located in the very front of the building near the sliding glass door entrance on Ash Street. The studio looked vintage even back then, complete with 45s still in the original record sleeves as they came from the record companies. The singles were kept in a cardboard box next to the turntables.
Years later, I believe it was RAHU Broadcasting, owned by local Don Hughs, which bought WGKR from Gene Ketring. Shortly thereafter, Harry Hagen was awarded the CP for WNFK-FM 105.5 and also acquired an AM-FM in Blountstown, Florida. Hagen decided to sell WPRY/WNFK to concentrate on the Blountstown combo. Hughs wanted the FM to add to WGKR, but Hagen would only sell WNFK if the buyer also acquired WPRY. Since this was before FCC first allowed AM-AM douploies, Hughs decided to return the license for WGKR and retain WPRY with WNFK since WPRY had a 24-hour license and WGKR was a daytimer. This is the reason WGKR went silent and WPRY was moved to the former WGKR tower/studio site since Hughs already owned that property when he acquired WGKR.
Regarding the FM, WNFK (originally WPCI) operated as a class A on 105.5. The station moved frequency to 92.1 A sometime back as a result of station frequency moves in the Tallahassee market. Paul Stone who at the time owned 101.5 C2 Quincy wanted to upgrade that station to a 100kw C1. He had figured out how to do it by moving a few stations. First, he had to get rid of 101.9 C3 Monticello. He did so by moving the Monticello station to 105.7C3; however, in order to make 105.7 C3 work in Monticello, he had to move WNFK from 105.5 to another frequency. Hence Stone paid Hughs to agree to move WNFK from 105.5 A to 92.1 A.
Alan, it would be my pleasure to meet with you sometime in the near future. I will be happy to let you know the next time I will be in the area so we can make plans. Perhaps lunch? And would you be available to show me around WCVC?
Thanks again, Alan.
Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
New York - Orlando
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]
These moves also created several holes for new stations in the area making the then vacant 105.5 Apalachicola an easy one step application to a C-2, and a new 101.9 for Bainbridge. Don Hughes and Jerry Rasor wanted to sell WGKR before they took control of WPRY. The asking price was 135,000. The original plan was not to turn the license in. I've got the sheet on it somewhere in my tons of useless radio junk.
fwillis said:
Interestingly I had already conducted an engineering study that showed 105.5 A Perry could upgrade to 105.5 C2. We had figured out that 105.5 would fit in Perry site restricted as a C2 simultaineously with 105.5 as a class A in Apalachicola but Paul Stone beat me to Don Hughes and got a contract before I could do anything with it.
Yes, I did leave out the part about selling WGKR and went straight for the kill instead heading to the license surrender since that was the way it played out. I had met with Hughes back in 1995 to negotiate an acquisition of WPRY and WNFK. At the time WNFK was dark and in the process of moving frequency, and WPRY had already moved to the former WGKR site.
I'm sure that your "tons a useless radio junk" isn't junk at all. I'm sure you have many nostalgic memories in those archives that you will treasure for many years... I've saved a few items myself that I wouldn't part with for anything.
Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
New York - Orlando
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]
fwillis said:
Actually I didn't see much equipment during our visits. I was more concerned with financial statements and engineering studies as well as legal compliance. I did see the tower and the transmitter although I don't remember too much about the transmitter. I had planned to update all the equipment once we had reached an agreement. However, we didn't seem to have very much luck on one issue, so the deal never went past the negotiation and pre-contract stage.
Do you happen to know what ever happened to Don? I had heard that he had passed away. Is that true?
Mark Tillery
J. M. Tillery & Associates, P. A.
New York - Orlando
Online: www.jmtillery.com
Blog: http://jmtillery.blogspot.com
E-mail: [email protected]
He passed away in back around 99 or 2000. The stations were on life support before he passed away. No ground and an early 1960s Collins AM transmitter on WPRY. WNFK had a 1kw. Gates transmitter same vintage, no limiting or processing equipment all fed to a little Sparta console. Both stations had a city limit signal range. I'm not a Perry radio expert. I just passed through frequently on trips from Florida to Georgia. Don's daughter took the stations dark, and sold them. They were dark for almost a year.
Mark, please accept my apologies for the late response. I was using the official US census results. I would love to see more diversity up here in Tallahassee, almost nothing would delight me more than to have more cultural options; it's one of the things I miss most about Orlando. There's certainly a good shot that things have changed since the last census, and its owners might have more updated demographical information than what I was citing.jmtillery said:
I wish the new station the best of luck, but, I have to admit the signal is very weak (when it comes in) on both radios I have attempted to use to pull the signal in from multiple locations in eastern Tallahassee. In terms of the transient population (students), I think the real question is how the signal is near FSU's campus. I will investigate the next time I am there. I'm curious how it works with ratings- do students "count" for the Tallahassee books if they are officially selected to complete diaries in their home market?
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