Old 92 ZEW "Antenna" Gone From Bank Building

[J Alex Bowab]

Good point about the fixation over the WGCX call letters. As to significance, I had two theories: one was that the GC stood for Gulf Coast; the other reminded me of one of the first stations to adopt what is called Classic Rock - they took the calls WCXR, believing that the calls suggested the format. The CX in GCX may be because someone thought CX suggested Classic.

Does it make much sense? No, but it's no more a leap of faith than getting "Arrow" out of WWRO ... and how many times did someone adopt lite rock and put "LT" somewhere in the calls ... or having the calls include "MG" and call it "Magic" ... or "KS" somehow means the station calls itself "Kiss" ...

For the religious station (relocated from East Brewton to Navarre) to use WGCX was their right, but I doubt it benefitted them any more than the WSGN calls did anything for a non-commercial station in Gadsden.

For the record, the WOWW 107 calls go back to when the station was country, and was #1 in Pensacola (ahead of WXBM); they lost their mojo and went alternative as "New Rock One Zero Seven" ...

 

[Poledo]

For the record, the WOWW 107 calls go back to when the station was country, and was #1 in Pensacola (ahead of WXBM); they lost their mojo and went alternative as "New Rock One Zero Seven" ...

I was drinking from my WOWW 107 coffee mug at work this morning. WOWW call letters would seem more appropriate for an oldies station than Alternative... nah, they would still work for any format! I can't think of a single English language format that wouldn't benefit from having WOWW as their calls and moniker when the Nielsen people start sending out diaries. Before they flipped to CHR, many people still referred to 107.3 as Wow 107... now no one knows there's a station on 107.3. Most people I know still remember Country WOWW 107 flipping to "One Zero Seven" and then flipping to oldies, but they don't have a clue what format 107.3 is now.
Hey CC, 107.3 would be a great new home for WNTM!
We could also use a C1 station to keep up with Auburn and Alabama Football next fall.

 

[StrayKats]

If I'm not mistaken, before 107.3 became WOWW wasn't it also a station which played soft AC and oldies (1960s, 1970s) ? For some reason, the call letters WAJM seem right, but I'm not sure. However, I remember picking up the station in Montgomery early in the especially foggy mornings, blocking out 107Q from Columbus, Ga.

 

[passtheword]

If I'm not mistaken, before 107.3 became WOWW wasn't it also a station which played soft AC and oldies (1960s, 1970s) ? For some reason, the call letters WAJM seem right, but I'm not sure. However, I remember picking up the station in Montgomery early in the especially foggy mornings, blocking out 107Q from Columbus, Ga.

yes, 107.3 did have a soft AC-ish format, seems like in the early/mid 80's. I remember hearing the station every year during the summer when my family and I would go down to the beach. The calls were WAJB. The WAJM calls were used at one time by 103.3 in Montgomery (now WMXS).

 

[tomservo]

If I'm not mistaken, before 107.3 became WOWW wasn't it also a station which played soft AC and oldies (1960s, 1970s) ? For some reason, the call letters WAJM seem right, but I'm not sure. However, I remember picking up the station in Montgomery early in the especially foggy mornings, blocking out 107Q from Columbus, Ga.

yes, 107.3 did have a soft AC-ish format, seems like in the early/mid 80's. I remember hearing the station every year during the summer when my family and I would go down to the beach. The calls were WAJB. The WAJM calls were used at one time by 103.3 in Montgomery (now WMXS).

The WAJB calls only lasted until 1980, when it became WOWW. It stayed with those until 1996 when it changed to WYCL.

 

[The Wattcher]

I am foggy on this, but for some reason I remember that right after it became WOWW they built a new TX site in Cantonment
that didn't live up to expectations. Signal problems or something. Anyone know?

 

[tomservo]

I am foggy on this, but for some reason I remember that right after it became WOWW they built a new TX site in Cantonment that didn't live up to expectations. Signal problems or something. Anyone know?

I'd be interested in hearing about that, too. They have a 1400' tower in Barrineau Park that is listed as an AUX site now, maybe that was the old site you're thinking of?

 

[J Alex Bowab]

WAJB goes back I believe to perhaps 1971. I also seem to recall that freq was allocated to Gulf Breeze and their tower, about 400 ft, was in G.B. It was not a beautiful music, but rather MoR. About the 107.3 tower that is now said to be an aux one: I recall that most of the other Pensacola stations were scurrying to move their xmtr sites to Baldwin County, either on the WJTC or WPMI towers, but that WOWW, as a Class C, could not move any more to the west because of 107.1 Gulfport. At that time, the FCC did not allow implementing a DA to short-space another station. Only later, they allowed short spacing up to 8 km (5 miles). The creation of the C0 classification, later on, probably made it possible to move into Baldwin County. The Barrineau Park tower always had me wondering whether a single stand-alone FM could justify the expense of stacking steel 1400 feet, without generating tower-rental income from other stations sharing the site.

As for Cantonment, WJLQ did have a 500 footer there for a while. Started out as WCOA FM mounted on one of the AM DA towers, then Cantonment, then as the Jeffersons would say, they were "movin' on up" to the WPMI tower 1500' at Wilcox Road.

 

[J Alex Bowab]

And for the record, WAJM was a tax writeoff for the Advertiser-Journal Montgomery newspaper, hence the call letters... I remember it back to 1964/65...

 

[Poledo]

I don't know anything about 107.3 ever being allocated to Gulf Breeze but I do seem to remember that WOWW 107(.3) had studios at the Tiger Point Country Club... I think... I was just a kid back then.

980 AM used to be the only radio station allocated to Gulf Breeze, but they even started out as a Pensacola Station. I don't know why they changed their allocation to GB... perhaps it had something to do with the directional multi-tower array they built across the bay on Garcon Point. 980's studio was located in an old hotel next door to the landmark "Allan Davis Sea Shells" (across the street from the Gulf Breeze Waffle House). I believe the format was A/C-oldies and they went by the name "98 the Fox" or "Foxy 980"... maybe they just used a fox for their mascot... that was just so long ago and at a time FM radio in this area was cool. WABB, G-100, Q-100, TK-101, WOWW 107, The Great 108. There was plenty of great programming on FM in the 1980's, we didn't need AM radio for variety... so the station went pretty much unnoticed until they went with to the current urban format (while ironically being the only radio station licensed to a city with no black residents at all).

So what does this have to do with 92 Zew? I'm posting it anyway.

 

[passtheword]

WAJB calls only lasted until 1980, when it became WOWW. It stayed with those until 1996 when it changed to WYCL.

I stand corrected. It seems the calls were changed in 1980 (after seeing the info on the FCC site). It doesn't seem it was as long ago as that, but it guess it was. I do recall hearing the station playing some type of soft AC/MOR format with some country (maybe some lighter country) thrown in the mix.

WAJB goes back I believe to perhaps 1971. I also seem to recall that freq was allocated to Gulf Breeze and their tower, about 400 ft, was in G.B. It was not a beautiful music, but rather MoR. About the 107.3 tower that is now said to be an aux one: I recall that most of the other Pensacola stations were scurrying to move their xmtr sites to Baldwin County, either on the WJTC or WPMI towers, but that WOWW, as a Class C, could not move any more to the west because of 107.1 Gulfport. At that time, the FCC did not allow implementing a DA to short-space another station. Only later, they allowed short spacing up to 8 km (5 miles). The creation of the C0 classification, later on, probably made it possible to move into Baldwin County. The Barrineau Park tower always had me wondering whether a single stand-alone FM could justify the expense of stacking steel 1400 feet, without generating tower-rental income from other stations sharing the site.

I never heard the station play beautiful music, but wikipedia mentions the format was beautiful music at some point. With wikipedia, it's anybody's guess. That was years before I ever heard the station, so totally clueless on that one.

980 AM used to be the only radio station allocated to Gulf Breeze, but they even started out as a Pensacola Station. I don't know why they changed their allocation to GB... perhaps it had something to do with the directional multi-tower array they built across the bay on Garcon Point. 980's studio was located in an old hotel next door to the landmark "Allan Davis Sea Shells" (across the street from the Gulf Breeze Waffle House). I believe the format was A/C-oldies and they went by the name "98 the Fox" or "Foxy 980"... maybe they just used a fox for their mascot... that was just so long ago and at a time FM radio in this area was cool. WABB, G-100, Q-100, TK-101, WOWW 107, The Great 108. There was plenty of great programming on FM in the 1980's, we didn't need AM radio for variety... so the station went pretty much unnoticed until they went with to the current urban format (while ironically being the only radio station licensed to a city with no black residents at all).

I do remember hearing that station back in the mid 80's when I was vacationing in Gulf Shores. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory I was thinking that 980 was originally licensed to Pensacola. I do recall hearing the station and the format was AC-oldies, or just oldies...cannot remember exactly, but the calls were WCHZ, and the station was known as the "Big Cheese". A really "chees-y" name, I thought. I guess that was during the pre-foxy days that you mentioned. 980 may have been allocated to Gulf Breeze at that point.

 

[J Alex Bowab]

980 is getting away from the original topic, but here goes. Station goes back to early 50's as WBOP, a general market daytimer. Not long afterward, it became the city's first and only black-oriented station (and had some great call letters!). Years later, the owners, the Roden brothers (who had other black stations) put WBOP FM 101.5 on (and it became WTKX). They also bought 1230 from WNVY and moved to get fulltime operation. 980 did become WCHZ (Big Cheese), and it was AC the one time I heard it.

I seem to remember WBOP 980 originally transmitting from one of WCOA's 3 towers during the day, then signing off at the same time COA went to their 3-tower DA-N mode. WCHZ I believe had its tower on Palafox behind the studio. The WCOA sharing goes back to when their site was close to the water's edge, several miles farther south than it is now.

WBOP 980/1230 provided a needed format until WBLX pushed it to the background.

As for re-licensing 980 to Gulf Breeze: when they built the night time facility, there were requirements that a facility provide a certain level (signal strength) of service over a minimum amount of the corporate limits of the city; and it was easier to persuade the FCC to go along with the facilities upgrade if it provided the first fulltime service to that community.

I don't know whether the night facility properly puts the required signal throughout the corporate limits of Pensacola or Gulf Breeze, but it would seem that it gave the latter community its first local fulltime service. That's probably irrelevant now, as I believe 1620 is also licensed to Gulf Breeze.

 

[J Alex Bowab]

The mention of Fox reminds me that WCHZ did not last long ... and yes for a while thereafter it was WFXP, FoXyPensacola.

 

[The Wattcher]

I am foggy on this, but for some reason I remember that right after it became WOWW they built a new TX site in Cantonment that didn't live up to expectations. Signal problems or something. Anyone know?

I'd be interested in hearing about that, too. They have a 1400' tower in Barrineau Park that is listed as an AUX site now, maybe that was the old site you're thinking of?

Apologies for the thread drift. Barrineau Park may be the site I am thinking of. Isn't that near Cantonment? I did a little digging:

1980 Broadcasting yearbook lists WAJB with a Gulf Breeze address and a tower height of 400 feet
1982 Broadcasting yearbook lists WOWW with a tower of 469 feet ( I think this is from the new site that had signal problems)
1987 Broadcasting yearbook lists WOWW with a CP for a tower 1421 feet

So maybe they built the 1421 feet to solve the problem or they built it to keep their Class C rating?

 

[tomservo]

To go even further off topic and into obscurity, I have WRNE listed as being a one time AM stereo broadcaster. As far as I know it's the only area station to do stereo, unless 1620 has run it being an expanded band station. I've no way to know since my only AM stereo radio doesn't have a pilot light, it just runs everything through the decoder.

WRNE is mono now from what I can tell. It's a shame, since they still play music.

Wattcher: Cantonment and Barrineau Park aren't too far apart. There's a 2 meter ham radio repeater based in Cantonment that seems to put out a massive signal, I'm wondering if it's on the 1400' tower now, or the 500' one J Alex mentioned earlier. It seems to be the only Florida 2m repeater I can hit on low power from Foley, Alabama.

 

[Dr. Bob]

I apologize for the thread resurrection but I noticed didn't reply when I have some facts that may be of interest. I was the chief engininner at WOWW from 1982 until 1990. I also did contract work in the area and helped build and proof WRNE's two tower array on Garcon Point.

The origional WAJB transmitter site and 400' tower was located on the Tiger Point origional (west) golf course near hole #4 and the studios were at the clubhouse. The station was licensed to Pensacola When Colonial purchased the station in 1980 the studios were moved to Davis Highway and the format changed to country. When I arrived in 1982 the station was still using the Tiger Point site but had constructed a new 500' tower in Molino (on a hill near Molino Lakes). The origional antenna didn't work as planned so I relocated the antenna from the Tiger Point site to Molino and the performance was satisfactory.

The Molino site was really too far north for only 500' and it was latter discovered that no additional height could be obatined at that location due to an approach path for Pensacola Regional. In the late 1980's, the FCC forced FM stations to construct maximum facilities or accept a forced downgrade. Since WOWW couldn't relocate to WPMI's or WJTC's tower, they constructed a 1400' tower west of Molino in 1988. This provided good coverage of Pensacola but not so good coverage of Mobile. BTW, we did beat WXBM several times in the ratings during my time there but after the station sold in 1990, things went downhill quickly.

As for WRNE, as J Alex said for many years it used one tower of the WCOA array even after WCOA relocated. Eventtually WRNE was forced to relocate as the new Bayou Chico bridge would claim the site. It was easier to get the FCC to approve the changes if the applicant provided the first service to a community and operated with AM stereo. WRNE constructed a two tower array on Garcon Point to provide the required day and night coverage to Gulf Breeze (which it did easily). I can't say if the array would have provided the required night coverage of Pensacola at that time but my guess was that it did not. Also, a tower worker was killed during construction when he rode the winch line (unsafe on these towers) to begin work one day.

Bob

 

[tomservo]

Bob, thank you so much for sharing this information. I incorporated some of it into the history pages on my site for WRGV and WRNE.

Do you happen to know when 107.3 moved from the tower west of Molino to the current site? I'm showing it co-located with WPMI-TV and several other FMs now.

During part of my adolescence, my parents had a Toyota with AM stereo and I seem to recall picking up WRNE while on vacation in Gulf Shores and it sounding pretty good. Now that I live in the area and have my little AMAX Walkman, though, they've turned C-QUAM off. Looks like it'd been off for a long time. Maybe 5 years or more.

 

[The Wattcher]

Thanks for the info Bob. It answers my question.