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Old WDAK Columbus studios for sale

A

artsutton

Some of you familiar with Columbus area radio in the 60s and 70s may remember when WDAK and its FM were located in a historic Columbus home. They called in Wynnwood. Owner Allen Woodall converted the old home into the studios and offices for WDAK.

It's for sale. Appears to be a foreclosure. It's right across the street from the AFLAC office tower. Needs a lot of work but what a show place it was when WDAK was there.

http://www.kpdk.com/property/property.asp?PRM_MLSNumber=122979&PRM_MlsName=ColumbusGA

Down the street, the old WRBL FM was sold off to Bluegrass Broadcasting and the calls were changed to WVOC. They renovated an old mansion for their offices and studios too.
 
During my years in the industry, I was an enthusiast... a fanatic... to visit as many radio stations as my empty little pockets could afford. There was a time when there were some really interesting physical plants. Some by design... some by happenstance. Apparently the cost to own and maintain realestate figured into the financial equation differently back then. There were not as many people chasing around to buy unique old buildings as investments so radio folks could afford them.

I didn't see many "big-time, show-off palaces"... but a lot of creative, unique spaces that maybe we could categorize as in the "ginger-bread house" category.

I think there were more owners in the business who could "feed their ego" by creating a show-place studio. Today the economics of our society has caused everyone to focus on the management of business and let the old ego and fun fade into the back ground. People who owned restaurants, retail stores, banks, funeral homes and other businesses also played the ego show-place game at times. Did these show-place facilities do anything for the business operation? We could sit around and discuss that for hours. I think it helped the owners get up every morning with a little more enthusiasm. "I am SOMEBODY! Look at MY place!" That same attitude rubbed off on the staff sometimes. I didn't get a lot of apologies from my guides as I toured stations back then. Today you can often imagine that you are seeing a tear in the eye of the person showing you around a station. Doesn't matter is it is a pig-pen, or if it is shiny and pristine. Most today are business-like efficient... but lacking in dream and imagination.

I just wish my empty little pockets of those days and figured out some way to carry a camera and buy some film. I don't have pictures of the treasures I saw.

[After Thought: I also saw some real dumps... some pig-pens.]
 
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
During my years in the industry, I was an enthusiast... a fanatic... to visit as many radio stations as my empty little pockets could afford. There was a time when there were some really interesting physical plants. Some by design... some by happenstance. Apparently the cost to own and maintain realestate figured into the financial equation differently back then. There were not as many people chasing around to buy unique old buildings as investments so radio folks could afford them.

I didn't see many "big-time, show-off palaces"... but a lot of creative, unique spaces that maybe we could categorize as in the "ginger-bread house" category.

I think there were more owners in the business who could "feed their ego" by creating a show-place studio. Today the economics of our society has caused everyone to focus on the management of business and let the old ego and fun fade into the back ground. People who owned restaurants, retail stores, banks, funeral homes and other businesses also played the ego show-place game at times. Did these show-place facilities do anything for the business operation? We could sit around and discuss that for hours. I think it helped the owners get up every morning with a little more enthusiasm. "I am SOMEBODY! Look at MY place!" That same attitude rubbed off on the staff sometimes. I didn't get a lot of apologies from my guides as I toured stations back then. Today you can often imagine that you are seeing a tear in the eye of the person showing you around a station. Doesn't matter is it is a pig-pen, or if it is shiny and pristine. Most today are business-like efficient... but lacking in dream and imagination.

I just wish my empty little pockets of those days and figured out some way to carry a camera and buy some film. I don't have pictures of the treasures I saw.

[After Thought: I also saw some real dumps... some pig-pens.]
Click to expand...

Inflation has a lot to do with it and the cost of energy. A dollar went a lot further in those days and frankly you had to have x number of people to run a station in a market the size of Columbus and physically you needed more room than you do now. Equipment was larger, etc. but yes, it was mainly an ego thing but the owners had more spending power with their dollars back then to "show off." I think Allen Woodall was a history buff too and saved this old house from destruction by putting his two radio stations in it.
 
Brings back some memories! My great-aunt has lived in the Columbus area (she's in the small community of Salem Alabama) for many years. She's now 87 and still lives there.

Sometime in the early 70s I went to spend a couple of weeks with her and my late uncle and I remember her showing me that building. Seems like they might have been a country station at that time. Country and southern gospel music on WPNX were about all she listened to.
 
artsutton said:
...... owners had more spending power with their dollars back then to "show off." I think Allen Woodall was a history buff too and saved this old house from destruction by putting his two radio stations in it.
Click to expand...

Sometime around 1980 I was living in "The Rust Belt" and my employer purchased a small medical provider company based in Columbus. I went down to see how they were handling the insurance, safety and malpractice issues. I remember rolling into town and finding a Burger King or some kind of fast-food place just before I got to downtown and I stopped for breakfast. It was a residential looking neighborhood with some solid upper-middle class neighborhood that had some maturity. The burger-doodle was in one of those homes. I assumed at the time that the zoning people told them that the only way they could sell burgers there was to keep the grand residential look.

We had one of those, built new from the ground up with design dictated by local zoning board to match the nearby residences in Zionsville, IN.

(The medical company had their corporate HQ offices discretely buried in an old building that looked like it might have been a wholesale grocery warehouse back in the day.)
 
artsutton said:
...... and frankly you had to have x number of people to run a station in a market the size of Columbus and physically you needed more room than you do now. Equipment was larger, etc. but yes, it was mainly an ego thing
Click to expand...

Because the world of political talking heads puts the discussion of jobs and job creators in our face and in our ears daily, we all are aware of some terminology and concepts that used to not be part of our discussion in small towns and in radio.

Here is a discussion that I NEVER heard while I was in the radio business. When companies today talk about adding employees, they use some numbers that seem a bit inflated. The cost of adding an employee is not just the salary of that employee. Today we have to add the cost of benefits, the cost of Workers Comp insurance, the cost of unemployment, and the cost to own and keep clean and painted "x" number of square feet of floor space for each employee. More employees = more restroom space, = more Xerox machines and floor space, etc. Today's space is fully air-conditioned. How many of us worked in stations where only the Control Room had a window air-conditioner that ran continuously on a warm day. (The big studio may have had an A/C, but it was only turned on when something was scheduled in the studio.

There are a lot of reasons why we will not see (and hear) stations today that are carbon-copies of our fond memories of pre-rock'n'roll and early rock'n'roll.
 
gregg75 said:
"Big Johnny Reb" WDAK...........I still remember that. I guess Johnny was a southern rebel and
proud of it.
Click to expand...

Just a note of history. 1590 WALG, in Albany was known as Johnny Reb Radio from way back when. The owners of WDAK also owned WKAK and WALG in Albany. I suspect that is where "Big Johnny Reb" came from. By the way, WALG was Top 40 and featured the Rebel Yell with the ID.
 
Mr. Woodall Sr. (Allen's Dad) had Big Johnny Reb Radio in McRae, Albany and Columbus. He bought one jingle that said "Johnny Reb Radio in your town"...He called it Big Johnny Reb because he was going head to head with WRBL Radio in Columbus that was "The Little Rebel."
 
ricksegers said:
Mr. Woodall Sr. (Allen's Dad) had Big Johnny Reb Radio in McRae, Albany and Columbus. He bought one jingle that said "Johnny Reb Radio in your town"...He called it Big Johnny Reb because he was going head to head with WRBL Radio in Columbus that was "The Little Rebel."
Click to expand...

Thanks for the lesson Rick. I did not know that. The only history I heard was from the WALG point.
 
ricksegers said:
Mr. Woodall Sr. (Allen's Dad) had Big Johnny Reb Radio in McRae, Albany and Columbus. He bought one jingle that said "Johnny Reb Radio in your town"...He called it Big Johnny Reb because he was going head to head with WRBL Radio in Columbus that was "The Little Rebel."
Click to expand...

WRBL promoted itself as "Wee ReBeL".
http://revolution-21.blogspot.com/2010/09/1959-tv-s-marching-through-georgia.html

"WRCG was formerly WRBL ("Wee-Rebel Radio" although the call letters originally referred to "Wireless Radio's Bill Lewis" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRCG
 
ricksegers said:
Mr. Woodall Sr. (Allen's Dad) had Big Johnny Reb Radio in McRae, Albany and Columbus. He bought one jingle that said "Johnny Reb Radio in your town"...He called it Big Johnny Reb because he was going head to head with WRBL Radio in Columbus that was "The Little Rebel."
Click to expand...

WDAK/Columbus, WALG/Albany, WDAX/McRae and WMOG/Brunswick were all called Big Johnny Reb Radio.
 
jovialjay said:
ricksegers said:
Mr. Woodall Sr. (Allen's Dad) had Big Johnny Reb Radio in McRae, Albany and Columbus. He bought one jingle that said "Johnny Reb Radio in your town"...He called it Big Johnny Reb because he was going head to head with WRBL Radio in Columbus that was "The Little Rebel."
Click to expand...

WDAK/Columbus, WALG/Albany, WDAX/McRae and WMOG/Brunswick were all called Big Johnny Reb Radio.
[/quote

WAYX Waycross was also a Johnny Reb station. I've got a photo during the WAYX Johnny Reb era with Big Jeff doing a radio marathon.
Click to expand...
 
WDAK's Rebel Yell sounder was from Stan Freberg and one of his albums. I tracked it down doing some research. BTW there was an announcer on the 1967 aircheck from WDAK being traded on the boards (and file sharing services). A similar sounding announcer was on a WDEN 1970 aircheck as Chris Edwards (and again in Rossville, GA in 1973). Is this Charles McHan or someone else on these tapes? I've seen that name associated with the cuts but was he the jock or just the guy who made the airchecks?
 
When Charlie McHan was at WDEN in Macon, he was doing some fill-in on-air as "Chris Kringle". For the most part, though, he was an engineer and a radio aficionado, and I hear he made lots of air checks. (Gotta love the old radio guys!)

Wish I could contact him for old times sake. I hear that he lives in Jacksonville Beach.
 
BTW being only one call letter away from the WKRP TV show, we watch with interest.

Also Chip Rogers Ga State Senate, former owner is going to GPB.
 
I sometimes buy up old radio vinyl and various other pieces of station stuff. has this facility been sold? craig scott....savannah
 
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