A
AMandFM
Guest
Does anyone have a page about radio in the Paducah area? Formats, who owns what, etcetera.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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Bristol has a big hold on the money properties and Stratemeyer has others... WKYQ is the main top dog at 93.3 and Country.. Sister 96.9 is the other 100kw giant for Bristol and is true CHR... Many other low personality formats on the "A" Class FM's and AM has now seen is sole contender fade with talk offered on a sister FM (57/WKYX)..... Murray has a Country that does well... Mayfield has a some minor success... Economy is very stable and they seem to do well in this micro-politan area (that is a part of the greater Cape-Carbondale-Harrisburg-Paducah TV ADI (top 100 market)....
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AMandFM
Guest
WH-what? No Clear Channel? It sounds a little bit like heaven.
Just ran across a site for Withers Broadcasting. Their rock station in Paducah looks cool, other than Bob and Tom.
(Syndicated morning radio shows...the biggest scam ever.)
Thanks, Skipper!
Just ran across a site for Withers Broadcasting. Their rock station in Paducah looks cool, other than Bob and Tom.
(Syndicated morning radio shows...the biggest scam ever.)
Thanks, Skipper!
Yes.. Withers has moved into Paducah the last few years and has also moved just outside of Evansville in Mount Carmel... Russ has alot of stations in the "Bootheel" of Missouri, besides his family's long running ownership in Cape...(Sikeston, etc)...Dana, his daughter of WSIX fame, has a few, too...
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John-Summers
Guest
This is the first time I've ever seen anyone mention Paducah on this or any other board. I jocked for year at 570 WKYX "The River City's Real Rock" in its Top 40 days back around 1974-75. Frank Carvell was the PD who hired me and was morning man, along with newsman John Stewart. I heard somewhere that Frank and John were rather rudely canned a couple of years ago. Anyone know what either one of them are doing now?
"Kicks" was a fun place to work at the time with friendly people, mostly. We owned the town despite good competition from 1560 WDXR. Paducah was a great small city to live in and my wife and I loved it there. Too bad it's an unrated market. There are a lot more signals there now and I'd like to see how everyone there is really doing.
"Kicks" was a fun place to work at the time with friendly people, mostly. We owned the town despite good competition from 1560 WDXR. Paducah was a great small city to live in and my wife and I loved it there. Too bad it's an unrated market. There are a lot more signals there now and I'd like to see how everyone there is really doing.
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voicenky
Guest
John,
This is a guy from the "Kicks Broadcasting Club", I ended up working @ 570 as a night jock & moved on from there, believe it or not...33 years later, it still keeps food on the table. I'd love to catch up with you.
This is a guy from the "Kicks Broadcasting Club", I ended up working @ 570 as a night jock & moved on from there, believe it or not...33 years later, it still keeps food on the table. I'd love to catch up with you.
(1979) And I broke Brain Sergent's heart when I wouldn't leave Junior College a quarter early to work in Paducah... I wanted to and ended up three months later with my AAS and working at 'CIL-FM in Carbondale (up I-24), and attending SIU.... ALWAYS listened (to John and others) in the daytime from Evansville, before 1280/WGBF did a drubbing on 1330/WJPS.... "Fif-fif-fif-fif-fif-fi-tee-seven-ex!" WKYX-Pa-doooooo-Ka...... ;D
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John-Summers
Guest
Nice to hear from both of you! I’m honored to be even slightly remembered after all these years. I came to WKYX from a brief tenure at KIRL in St. Louis. Most tenures there were brief. Mine was two months. Frank hired me to do afternoon drive, 4pm-8pm. KICKS was a great-sounding station and the money was good, so I was more than happy to accept. Frank did 5am-9am, followed by a young woman named Leslie who did a one-hour chit-chat kind of show. Production Director Charlie Brennan did 10am-noon, followed by Mike Stewart from noon til 4pm. I was followed by John Larson from 8pm-midnight. In the middle of my show, at 6pm, was a talk show called “Opinion Line,” hosted John Stewart, then Mike Stewart, and finally by Frank Carvell. Frank was great at it. I was the call-screener and producer.
Later KICKS jocks during my time there were Barry Chase AKA Mike Chapman (a great guy, now unfortunately deceased), Bill Cheney (deceased), Bryan Sargent (nice guy and a fine talent) and an unusual fellow who replaced Frank in the morning when Frank ran for town council, Dave Christian. Dave was a comedy writer from Minneapolis who had grown up in L.A. (he claimed) and who was as un-Paducah as you could imagine. He managed to piss off every politico in town. The thing about him was, he was a really funny guy who was just a little too out there for Paducah.
We were housed in a former shoe store, next to Paducah Bank on a side street downtown. We had this strange automation system using photographic timers, which we had to set and which would trip each cart machine. Spots were timed to ½ second. It was weird but it worked. The station was incredibly tight. And what a signal! I learned a lot working there. The jocks actually had to write the commercial copy and produce it, and we ran 18 minutes an hour, so there was a lot of it just for AM. We also did spots for FM, which was live-assist automation and had no jocks. I learned to write good, creative copy at KICKS, an ability which has served me ever since.
Feel free to send me a personal message anytime. Include your e-mail address and I’ll get back to you.
By the way, there's a funny story involving "57-X." Perhaps I'll tell it next time out.
Regards,
John Summers
Later KICKS jocks during my time there were Barry Chase AKA Mike Chapman (a great guy, now unfortunately deceased), Bill Cheney (deceased), Bryan Sargent (nice guy and a fine talent) and an unusual fellow who replaced Frank in the morning when Frank ran for town council, Dave Christian. Dave was a comedy writer from Minneapolis who had grown up in L.A. (he claimed) and who was as un-Paducah as you could imagine. He managed to piss off every politico in town. The thing about him was, he was a really funny guy who was just a little too out there for Paducah.
We were housed in a former shoe store, next to Paducah Bank on a side street downtown. We had this strange automation system using photographic timers, which we had to set and which would trip each cart machine. Spots were timed to ½ second. It was weird but it worked. The station was incredibly tight. And what a signal! I learned a lot working there. The jocks actually had to write the commercial copy and produce it, and we ran 18 minutes an hour, so there was a lot of it just for AM. We also did spots for FM, which was live-assist automation and had no jocks. I learned to write good, creative copy at KICKS, an ability which has served me ever since.
Feel free to send me a personal message anytime. Include your e-mail address and I’ll get back to you.
By the way, there's a funny story involving "57-X." Perhaps I'll tell it next time out.
Regards,
John Summers
Frank Carvell teaches middle school and coaches football in Paducah. He started teaching while he was still on the air. John Stewart passed away two years ago from cancer. WKYX is now a news talk station that in addition to being on 570 am, it's also similcasted on WNGO and is now on 94.3 fm. Greg Dunker does the morning show. Rest of the day is Glenn Beck, Rush, Hanity, O'Riley, etc.
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John-Summers
Guest
Thanks for answering my original question, Mr1derful. I'm sorry to hear about John - he was a great guy - but I'm glad to hear Frank is teaching. I recall he and I having a conversation in which he told me he had always thought about teaching, and he had started taking classes at PCC around that time. Glad to hear he reached his goal. I always liked Frank. He'd gone over to WDXR for a while right before I left Paducah and he tried to hire me over there, but the U-Haul was already packed and the electricity turned off so I had to tell him no. Anyway, thanks for the update.
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radiogeek40208
Guest
AMandFM said:
Bristol does own the most stations.... country, CHR, classic rock, talk, urban a/c
Withers owns a active rock, CHR, classic country and oldies station.
And Stratmeyer owns a poorly programmed A/C station in the market.
Other than that, is a thread on Paducah radio really needed?!?
Quote from: AMandFM on August 30, 2007, 08:36:15 pm
"Does anyone have a page about radio in the Paducah area? Formats, who owns what, etcetera.
Thanks! "
radiogeek40208 wrote...
"Bristol does own the most stations.... country, CHR, classic rock, talk, urban a/c
Withers owns a active rock, CHR, classic country and oldies station.
And Stratmeyer owns a poorly programmed A/C station in the market.
Other than that, is a thread on Paducah radio really needed?!?"
radiogeek, you're right: Bristol dominates Western Kentucky with 93.3 WKYQ(still country and still #1 after more than 30 years), Mainstream CHR Electric 96-9(WDDJ), Newstalk WKYX(now similcasted on 94.3 FM, 570 AM, and 1320 WNGO-Mayfield), Classic Rock 94-7 WQQR, Classic Country Willie 102.1, ESPN 1560 WPAD, Urban AC 1450 WDXR(The Touch). Bristol about owns everything in Paducah!
Amoung the Withers properties, you have 106.7 WZZL. It's 40% Active, 50% Classic Rock. Then there's CHR 105-5 The Cat(WREZ), Oldies WGKY (satellite) and Real Country Format WMOK-AM in Metropolis, IL, right across the Ohio from Paducah.
K98, the Stratemeyer station, is nothing but a satellite AC. Hits and Favorites, with John Tesh at night. Compared to Bristol and Withers, Stratemeyer doesn't do any promotion or marketing. NONE! I haven't even seen a bumper sticker! K98 is listed as a 100,000 watter. Imagine what would happen if Stratemeyer went live and local and did some promotions.
The only other major player is Forever Broadcasting's Froggy 103.7 in Murray. You know what the station sounds like...
"Froggy this, Froggy that, I'm (insert your own frog related name here), it's a Frog-tastic day in Froggy Land!
Are we feelin' Froggy? Here's George Strait on Froggy...Ribbit!"
BLECH!!!
They seem to spend a lot of their time in Western Tennesse more than they do in their own hometown. At least that's according to their website and what I hear when I pass thru.
Now, radiogeek, to answer your other question..
There's nothing wrong with an occassional Paducah radio thread. Besides, IMHO, the Bristol stations sound 100 times better than anything in Bowling Green and it's a rated market! Now when I drive thru BG, I put in a CD.
WKYQ has also had three CMA Small Market Personality winners: Jay Diamond in the '70s, Kent Crider in the '80s, and Bobby Cook(still doing mornings) in the '90s.
Paducah's not a bad market. At least this thread breaks up the same old Louisville-Lexington posts that seem to dominate these boards.
Just my opinion. Of course, I could be wrong...
"Does anyone have a page about radio in the Paducah area? Formats, who owns what, etcetera.
Thanks! "
radiogeek40208 wrote...
"Bristol does own the most stations.... country, CHR, classic rock, talk, urban a/c
Withers owns a active rock, CHR, classic country and oldies station.
And Stratmeyer owns a poorly programmed A/C station in the market.
Other than that, is a thread on Paducah radio really needed?!?"
radiogeek, you're right: Bristol dominates Western Kentucky with 93.3 WKYQ(still country and still #1 after more than 30 years), Mainstream CHR Electric 96-9(WDDJ), Newstalk WKYX(now similcasted on 94.3 FM, 570 AM, and 1320 WNGO-Mayfield), Classic Rock 94-7 WQQR, Classic Country Willie 102.1, ESPN 1560 WPAD, Urban AC 1450 WDXR(The Touch). Bristol about owns everything in Paducah!
Amoung the Withers properties, you have 106.7 WZZL. It's 40% Active, 50% Classic Rock. Then there's CHR 105-5 The Cat(WREZ), Oldies WGKY (satellite) and Real Country Format WMOK-AM in Metropolis, IL, right across the Ohio from Paducah.
K98, the Stratemeyer station, is nothing but a satellite AC. Hits and Favorites, with John Tesh at night. Compared to Bristol and Withers, Stratemeyer doesn't do any promotion or marketing. NONE! I haven't even seen a bumper sticker! K98 is listed as a 100,000 watter. Imagine what would happen if Stratemeyer went live and local and did some promotions.
The only other major player is Forever Broadcasting's Froggy 103.7 in Murray. You know what the station sounds like...
"Froggy this, Froggy that, I'm (insert your own frog related name here), it's a Frog-tastic day in Froggy Land!
Are we feelin' Froggy? Here's George Strait on Froggy...Ribbit!"
BLECH!!!
They seem to spend a lot of their time in Western Tennesse more than they do in their own hometown. At least that's according to their website and what I hear when I pass thru.
Now, radiogeek, to answer your other question..
There's nothing wrong with an occassional Paducah radio thread. Besides, IMHO, the Bristol stations sound 100 times better than anything in Bowling Green and it's a rated market! Now when I drive thru BG, I put in a CD.
WKYQ has also had three CMA Small Market Personality winners: Jay Diamond in the '70s, Kent Crider in the '80s, and Bobby Cook(still doing mornings) in the '90s.
Paducah's not a bad market. At least this thread breaks up the same old Louisville-Lexington posts that seem to dominate these boards.
Just my opinion. Of course, I could be wrong...
As long as we're talking Paducah radio......
There was a legendary story about a jock, either at KYX or DXR, who talked up the intro of "Rock and Roll Heaven" with, "If there's a Rock and Roll Heaven, then God must be a junkie!" As you might have guessed, the comment received a few complaints.
I never had the pleasure to hear Paducah radio first hand but many names went through there. Some that haven't been mentioned include Dave Steele, Gary Green, don't remember his airname but now he's Matt Austin with Way-FM, and so many more.
There was a legendary story about a jock, either at KYX or DXR, who talked up the intro of "Rock and Roll Heaven" with, "If there's a Rock and Roll Heaven, then God must be a junkie!" As you might have guessed, the comment received a few complaints.
I never had the pleasure to hear Paducah radio first hand but many names went through there. Some that haven't been mentioned include Dave Steele, Gary Green, don't remember his airname but now he's Matt Austin with Way-FM, and so many more.
J
John-Summers
Guest
radiorob2.0 said:
I don't know about that story but the winter after I left WKYX the station made the news when one of their jocks wrote down a snow cancellation from a school district without verifying it first. The bogus cancellation was aired over and over again and apparently a very high percentage of kids didn't show up for school. The district was upset, naturally, and I think sued the station over it. I have a newspaper article about it somewhere in my archives. I recall when I worked there and Paducah got a dusting of snow people went nuts and schools were cancelled, but KYX had no verification process so we easily could have been hoodwinked.
Being from Pennsylvania, where we get real snow, I thought the reaction was a bit silly.
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John-Summers
Guest
radiorob2.0 said:
The more I think about the joke mentioned above, the more it sounds like something Dave Christian would have said. I worked at KYX when that song was of current or recent-hit status, and I'm sure no one else would have said that. However Dave Christian, who I've been told is no longer with us, was completely irreverent. He was particularly disliked by Paducah mayor Dolly McNutt (I'm not making up that name), a regular butt of his comments. Dave was edgy - for the time and for Paducah - but he was a skilled comedy writer (he wrote a daily sheet called "Cheapshots") and his material was more clever than blatent. A typical Christian quip, which still makes me laugh today...
Newsman Keith Todd, reading a "letter": I've heard that Disney is making sex education films for children featuring the Disney animated characters. Is this true?
Dave Christian: Yes, it is true that Walt Disney studios is planning a series of sex education films featuring Mickey and Minnie and other Disney animated characters. You should see what happens when Pinocchio tells a lie.
Ka-boom! KYX management loved him for a while because he got people talking, but after I left he was fired, I was told by someone close to the action, for causing them to lose some advertisers. Ultimately, Dave was just too hip for the room.
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slick81
Guest
I just found these forums today and it's nice to see some Paducah chatter even though it's a bit dusty.
I had the distinction of being at Kicks twice. I started part-time there in 1977 while at Murray State and by the time I left in the early 80s I had been production director, PD and oh yeah, a sales rep. I went fulltime right after the worlds most stable daytime airstaff--Brian Sargent/Kurt Englehardt/Larry Sherwood/Bill Cheney/Dave Christian--suddenly turned into Bryan/me/Mike Mohr/Nick Bazoo/Robert Lindsey in the span of just a few months in 1978. That little building on 6th Street with the "stars and stripes" wallpaper and the "request window" was a cool place to work, and that might have been the most day in/day out fun I've ever had in radio. While I was there the station moved into the Soloman building at 4th & Kentucky where WDXR Radio/TV had been and the control room was in a tiny room with a full length glass wall right behind the receptionists desk. I came back in the 80s just as the station was moving to its current location at the xmtr site and was again Production Director for a couple of years before moving to WDDJ/WPAD as OM as the new owner was taking the station live.
Rick Harrington
I had the distinction of being at Kicks twice. I started part-time there in 1977 while at Murray State and by the time I left in the early 80s I had been production director, PD and oh yeah, a sales rep. I went fulltime right after the worlds most stable daytime airstaff--Brian Sargent/Kurt Englehardt/Larry Sherwood/Bill Cheney/Dave Christian--suddenly turned into Bryan/me/Mike Mohr/Nick Bazoo/Robert Lindsey in the span of just a few months in 1978. That little building on 6th Street with the "stars and stripes" wallpaper and the "request window" was a cool place to work, and that might have been the most day in/day out fun I've ever had in radio. While I was there the station moved into the Soloman building at 4th & Kentucky where WDXR Radio/TV had been and the control room was in a tiny room with a full length glass wall right behind the receptionists desk. I came back in the 80s just as the station was moving to its current location at the xmtr site and was again Production Director for a couple of years before moving to WDDJ/WPAD as OM as the new owner was taking the station live.
Rick Harrington
Rick.. I remember visiting the drive thru on a trip to see Bryan (the next day) and Tony in Carbondale.. Went to 'CIL-FM, but loved "Kicks" from my high school days thru the FM take over of CHR.... It and 'CIL-FM were sure much better than that "Momma Ruth" stuff you and I had to go thru in Cape! Ha! Rush paid my last two paychecks from Mt. Vernon, cause Mom couldn't meet payroll.... I would LOVE to have some folks put it together and get that 100kw blowtorch from 'Strat'.. He runs em at cost and waits for big money to buy, just like he did in Taylorville/Springfield, IL and is doing in Mt. Vernon, Illinois with 'Cardinal County 102.1'... I wish Engelbrecht's (South Central) would buy it and let me and a strong sales person put it together.. A local Hot AC like a WIKY, with strong street and news would do well... Tie in with Paxton on cross promotions.. Play up on the KY/MO/IL connection... Paducah is a nice town... Way-Fm's Matt Austin was at the beginning of 98.3 in the Metroplis Theater.. He went to 96/STO as Indiana Jones in the Evansville/Owensboro area.. On to Lexington and then to Way, when I went to a GM/CO job at a new station in Columbus, Ohio...
"Skipper T." at WIKY/Evansville (Weekends) and everywhere else...
"Skipper T." at WIKY/Evansville (Weekends) and everywhere else...
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slick81
Guest
Hi, Skip--I think the last time I saw you was at a SEMO/Oakland City basketball game in Cape Girardeau probably 10 years ago. I was working for the Zimmers at the time. I think I know the Matt you refer to--if it's the guy I'm thinking of, he was at WKYX before going to Metropolis. I remember his name was Matt, but he used Tony Something-or-other as an airname and had a great voice.
skippertthomas said:
Hey, I worked at K-98 when it first signed on in '84 until '87 just after the disasterous flip from CHR to AOR. The market just wasn't ready for it. I don't recall a Matt Austin. But your discription sounds like Jamie Richards. He's the only one from K-98 who fits this description. He went to STO after a year working for Sam. I don't recall him using that name or him working in Lexington, but he's never told me that he worked in that town. If it' not Jamie, I don't know who it would be.
V
voicenky
Guest
So "Slick" we, and several others lived above a Shackelton's store in downtown Paducah in a pretty cool apartment for $25 each a month back in the day...care to guess which one I am?
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