Other Eastern North Carolina Radio Memories...

[tothedj]

Thank you for the great stories about WMBL & WBMA(later WBTB)over the last
few weeks, i'm glad to know many remember the days when 740 and 1400 AM
was listened to by many.
How many others out there have other Eastern North Carolina "Radio Memories"?,
From Elizabeth City to Calabash and everywhere inbetween, stations like WGAI,
WGBR, WOOW, WNCT-AM(when it was a music station in the 1970's) WRMT,
WOKN, WQDW, WISP, and others bring back the days when radio was fun.
I'm sure there will be plenty of posts, and i look forward to hearing from you.

 

[mobley]

We did do a thread some months ago about Top 40 stations of long ago..but, my earliest radio memories are among my earliest memories in life. My older cousins used to listen to rock and roll on the radio via WKLM-AM, which was Wilmington's only Top 40 station at the time. This was my early intrduction to rock, even though there was a lot of non rock product on the Top 40 as well. WKLM had this automated format that was called "Downbeat". Only a few songs were frontsold. At the top of every hour, they would play a musical bridge by the Ray Coniff Singers, follwed with a tag saying "Now more music on Down-beat-beat-beat" They also had these melodramatic newscasts with the echo empahsis on dateline locations..(like Washingtooonnn, Berlinnnnn) and so on

KLM was a daytime operation, so after sundown, WGNI-AM would play Top 40 for 4 hours or so, from the Miljo Drive In. The Miljo DJ's included Russ Spooner, who later worked at WKIX, WGH, WMAK in Nashville and WSB in Atlanta. Another Miljo DJ was the late Sheldon "Dino" Summerlin who later worked at WAPE, and was the GM of WWNC in Asheville before his un-timely death. If I recall, WGNI was block formatted the rest of the day, with some MOR and with "Hayseed and His County Cousins" at some point during the day. Evidently, Hayseed was a well known figure in the area back in those days.

Later, WKLM would drop Downbeat and go block programming, picking up Hayseed and an R&B jock whose name escapes my memory. WHSL then signed on with a 24 hour Top 40 format and it seems like WGNI flipped to MOR with CBS programs. A year or so later, WGNI went back to Top 40 and KLM went back to Top 40 full time. At one time, Wilmington had three Top 40 stations, until WKLM went Country. In it's last year or so as a Top 40 KLM was smokin' with Pams series 18 jingles and a jock named John Fox, who to my young ears, was amazing! Maybe this will jog some memories. Hey X-talker!, you were around back then...How accurate is my recollection?

 

[XTalker]

mobley, it may be better than mind.

I worked at GNI from 1964-65, then back from the Army in late 1968 through Christmas of 1979. Spooner taught me how to "cue a record". Worked with Russ, Dino, Jim Henderson (went to Detroit), Tom Stanley (now in Whiteville), and the legendary Billy Smith (now keeping Myrtle Beach from floating away).

Of course, the best of them all was Bill Weathers. He came to Wilmington in the early 60s and I think he actually started the Miljo show. Bill did mornings at GNI and was known as "The Morning Mayor". He was also PD and later became GM when Allen Jones moved to Raleigh.

Spooner also worked at WKLM for a while (when the studio was on Princess Street in the old cafeteria building. In the DownBeat days, they were at the corner of 2nd and Princess (across from Futrel's Drug Store) and often on a hot summer day, you could see the reel to reel machines through an open studio window.

I was hired at GNI one night when Spooner's replacemnt didn't show at midnight. He called Weathers (who wasn't about to come in) and said "Fenley's here, want to put him on?" Made a whopping $1.25 an hour and was in heaven.

 

[XTalker]

KLM had a speaker on the wall outside of the studio - and a reverb button on the console. Fox used to press the button and say something like "from the bottom of the John Fox hole ...."

 

[JimA]

WKLM Wilmington, WEAM Arlington,VA-Washington,DC, BIG WAYS Charlotte, BIG WISE Asheville, WCOG Greensboro, another am in Sylva were all top 40 "downbeat" stations in the mid 50's/early 60's. Also, had WHHT, Durham until 1949.
http://www.geocities.com/rduradiowaves/radiorip.html Also, had WNBE-TV, New Bern 12 now WCTI Harold H Thoms according to legend ran all the stations cheap and did "downbeat" and rumor has it he go his start up money from doing bootleg alcohol. , In 1962, to save even more money, he used the Shaffer radio automation system on all his stations. It was made mistake. The system would screw up constantly, time clock would keep going on and one, no one listened, and the other stations went after his properties live.

 

[XTalker]

I believe Tom Poston of WCOG had a great deal to do with the Downbeat format. I know everyone who worked at WKLM was scared to death when Poston came to down.

 

[XTalker]

The memories keep coming back ... gotta stop this and get some work done.

I ran the board for Spooner on the Miljo show for a while. We had only one set of 45's and he would take most of the new stuff with him - then bring them back to the studio after the show. Used to bring me a Miljo Pizzaburger. Would kill for one of those today!

 

[mobley]

Those Pizzaburgers were great. By the time I was coming of age, it was long hair, bell bottoms and all that, so places like the Miljo were kind of passe. There is an aiircheck of Bill Weathers somewhere on the web. It's a site that guys like Stanley B and Glascow Hicks have contibuted to. Unfortunately, I can't find the address.
Anyway, Bill Weathers was very good. Very pollished and a lot like the jocks on WGH in Newport News at that time. It was a sad time when he passed away. Seems liike he had some kids about my age.

One Wilmington radio memory that really stands out ws the coverage of the riots that later led to te Wilmington 10 trial. I remember WGNI staying on after midnight that night. The next morning WGNI had extensive coverage of what had transpired the night before. Seems like you were on the air that morning. Ex-talker. It was a very strange time to be living in the Port City.

 

[Marathon Don]

How many others out there have other Eastern North Carolina "Radio Memories"?,
I'm sure there will be plenty of posts, and i look forward to hearing from you.

Previous posts reminded me of some of Wilson's local celebs over the 70's & 80's.
WGTM had Jim Rochelle, Bill Bunn, Thomas Ward, Bob Johnson & Mark Six (all now deceased), as well as "The Golden Boy", Buck Jones, Jim Apple, Greg Flowers, Alton Britt, Mac McKee & Frank Silverthorne.
WVOT had Terry Tunes, Mike Edwards, Randy Steele, Andrew Scott Honeycutt, Jim(?) Overman, Jim Lafferty, Bill Benjamin, Michael Buscemi, Jamie Eller, Dan Mills & Maurice Brown.
I don't remember much about WLLY's personnel except that Raymond Frazier, later known as Kevin O'neal, worked there during his teenage years. His dad was GM.

I know where some of these folks landed, but others have vanished into the woodwork.

 

[XTalker]

I was covering the riots (like all others in the market). I remember when they firebombed the small grocery store on (I believe it was 7th and Orange). The place was burning like crazy and the fire trucks were a block away. It sounded like there was shooting coming from nearby. A couple of black guys and I grabbed a fire hose and pulled it in behind that store and put the first water on that fire.

Meanwhile, five or six houses nearby burned!

In the end, I think what everyone thought were shots being fired, were actually exploding cans of food on the store shelves.

Never understood why the burned that store. They guy that owned (a white guy) gave credit to the neighbors and ran tabs on their purchases. I suspect he lost a lot of that in the fire, too.

 

[boboradio]

I believe Tom Poston of WCOG had a great deal to do with the Downbeat format. I know everyone who worked at WKLM was scared to death when Poston came to down.

Mike,
I always enjoy reading your comments.
I believe it was Jim Poston of WCOG not Tom. Poston was Harold Thoms' right hand. Poston was the manager of WAYS in the last days of Thoms' ownership. The property at 400 Radio Road in Charlotte was in such disrepair under Poston that when the Kaplans bought the station, they had to rebuild the transmitter site and put up a new tower array, at least that was the story being told by the BIG WAYS engineering staff in the early seventies.
Also one other interesting tidbit about Jim Poston. When he managed WCOG in Greensboro he lived in Statesville which is 50 miles away. I remember one year at Christmas that Harold Thoms gave Poston a new car. I'm sure that made the commute bearable. Unfortunately Thom's generosity didn't filter down to the underlings on the air or in engineering.