Reconnecting - The Rock of the Delta, Wesso, Lee Hall, WYN96

[davesand]

So, I'm surfing the Net and I find this incredible site. I can't stop reading about my old friends, stories, and my favorite industry, radio!

I touch base with Rob Grayson from time-to-time, but that's my only connection to what still remains the best jobs I ever had in my life. I'm 50 now. I started radio back in 1974. Time flies, doesn't it?

At some point in my life I felt like I needed to have a "stable" career, so, I decided to become a lawyer. What was I thinking? Yet, after all these years I still want to be a disc jockey when I grow up. I'm still addicted to radio, scanning the dial every day, listening to show-after-show, getting a rush when I here the old RKO jingles on the JACK format (somewhere in my attic is a tape of the You (?) demo package with KHJ-Los Angeles . . . and, yes, I still have every single reel-to-reel tape and cassette of my air-checks along with a v e r y wide video cassette of me doing weather at WREG-Memphis), and trying to find new formats here in Jackson.

This website is such a find. It's great to read about what my old colleagues are doing. It's also very sad to read about how many have passed on (especially Jimmy Karr). I hope to hear from my old friends and get up-to-date on the biz.

Signing off,
Dave Sandefur (a.k.a., David Lee, Dave Richards and my favorite . . . Wednesday Afternoon at WMSB in Lee Hall)

P.S. Tim, it gives me great pride to know that I helpped corrupt you along the way.

 

[SkinnyJohnny]

Hi Dave,
I think the last time I saw you was probably 1974? I have some sound of you when you and Rob were talking about Elvis on Sirius. If you haven't checked out the website, it's www.johnweeksaudio.com
If you have anything airchecks you'd like me to post, just send them on.
As far as becoming a lawyer goes, it could be worse. You could be an old DJ!
When I got into radio my grandfather told me "There's only one thing worse than a cab driver and that's a disc jockey!". Several years ago I finally asked my mom what he meant by that and she said that he had loaned a disc jockey some money and never was paid back. Imagine that!
Take care,
John aka Skinny Johnny

 

[tzbarber]

Never ask an old disc jockey,"hey,got any airchecks of yourself?". Time to convert those reels over to digital,Dave.Ya know,for prosperity sake! Amazing how we've survived from the Wesso days. Didn't have to worry about how much money we had in the bank,cause we knew there was none anyway. Just living for the day. Checking to see what markets Robert Gray and John "Boogie Bailey were headed to.My mom would be glad you got a "good job",as she calls lawyering,banking,insurance or doctoring,or,well,something besides "radio-ing",I guess). Glad you're still around,DS. Stay in touch.

 

[davesand]

John & Tim,
Great to hear from y'all. I have listened to my conversation with Rob about Elvis when he was on Sirius. I'd love to send in some air-checks. Converting the old tapes to digital would be awesome. Tim, how would I go about getting this done? Oh, and I can hear Janice now, "You're not going to make me listen to those?" It's amazing what you can find on the Internet. A few weeks ago I discovered the into to Newswatch 3 when I was doing weather back in '79-'80!

Thanks for the kudos about becoming a lawyer. I can tell you, however, that the term "good job" is relative. I often toy with the idea of getting back into radio (or tv news production) as I retire from my "stable" job (and I use the term "retire" loosely).

Dave

 

[SkinnyJohnny]

Hi Dave,
You just record the audio into your computer. If you don't have any recording software, you can download Audacity. It's a free program that works really well.
Record them and save them as WAVs. Then you can burn CDs and force Janice to listen to them in the car!
If you have reel to reel tapes and no reel to reel, then you'll need to get one. They're really cheap on Ebay these days.
If you'd like, you can send them to me and I'll do it for you.
John

 

[robgrayson]

Welcome aboard, Dave! Could it really be all that long ago we rode down to Jackson for you to take your 3rd phone test? I was just thinking today about the first Sunday I worked at WDDT, the station we spent so many Sundays of our youth... you from sign on to 1:30, and me from 1:30 to sign off. That first day, the teletype machine ribbon broke, and I had no experience with journalism, so I had to figure it out the hard way. I didn't get printer's ink in my blood, but I got it everywhere else. I also was reminded the other day of the Sunday morning I got a call from you... The jock who did the Saturday afternoon remote left the current records in the sun all day, and they came back warped! I had to grab everything I had at home, and hit up all my neighborhood friends to put together enough to fake a playlist that day.

 

[Dr. Bob]

Hey Dave!

Looong time. I remember meeting you the first time in the old WSSO control room in the fall of 1978. You had the shift I coveted (afternoons) but I got hired to do mornings instead. Glad to hear you made something of yourself I think Skinny Johnny told me you were doing the lawyer thing in Jackson. I'm 50 now too.

I stayed in this crazy business from, what I thought, was the more stable technical side and have been in Houston, TX (gotta give the state or on this board they might think you were in Houston, MS) for 18 years and before that I worked with Skinny Johnny in Pensacola for 8 years.

BTW, your competition on WKOR at the time, The Italian Stallion - Bill Evans, has made something of himself in the broadcast biz. Bill has been doing the morning weather at WABC-TV in New York for something like 20 years.

Stay in touch and get those airchecks dubbed!

Dr. Bob
Recovering from hurricane (I'm gonna slap you bitch) Ike.

 

[SkinnyJohnny]

Anyone remember "BS in the morning" on WSSO. Who was that guy? ;D

 

[davesand]

Hey, I think I remember that guy doing the mornings! Bob, great to hear from you. And, Rob, how I remember taking (and failing) my test for my 3rd class license. I ended-up having to go to Little Rock to take the test again before my provisional expired. I totally forgot about the warped records. You know, arriving every Sunday morning was like shooting craps. The logs might be missing, no headphones (I learned to bring my own from home), the APEX eating Sunday morning shows, etc. I learned a lot! Remember Bob, the DDT engineer? Seems like I had to call him often. Remember how he sounded like Gene Wilder playing Willie Wonka when he said "Bye" over the telephone?

Radio in Pensacola. That was one of my dream places to work after college. I think the station was WBSR (AM of course). "Dangerous Dan" always seemed to be on-the-air when I went to Pensacola. I also wanted to work at WRKG-TV in Mobile instead of WEAR-TV in Pensacola. Back then, WEAR was really bad. It was like WABG-TV bad, but just a tad bit better.

Do any of you remember David Covington? He did mornings at WSSO before Bob. After Joyce left WSSO (she was the one and only person who did everythingat the station), David took her job and that's when Bob came on as I remember. About 20 years ago David had a brain tumor removed. He recovered, but the operation affected his ability to think, for lack of a better word. If you were to see him and talk to him (at least the last time I saw him) you would never know. He lives in Byram. He's been unable to work since the operation (he was not in radio).

I've caught the Italian Stallion doing the weather in the Big Apple. Is he a meteorologist or just a weather person?

 

[tzbarber]

Joyce was amazing,hand -typing the log every freaking day,and keeping us college kids in line. She was like a surrogate mom to us. And her daughters.They were like sisters to us.( Funny,cute sisters. Well, maybe like hot cousins,let's say that.) Imagine dealing with Joe Phillips each morning. Hey, anybody know how much it costs to run this radio station? FM? You want to put a different announcer on both stations at the same time? That's $2.50 each hour EVERY hour? Where's my peanut butter and crackers,my blood sugar's getting low. Man, I miss the guy......

 

[Dr. Bob]

I remember David Covington. I remember he was married already and when I worked in Tupelo for a friend during the summer of 1980 and didn't have a place to live for a week or so, I lived at the WSSO studio. David let me go take a shower at his house. Sorry to hear of his health problems but glad to hear he is in the world of the living. And you are correct, I replaced David doing mornings. I was living in Evans Hall on the MSU campus and it was a rush to come back from my shift and hear WSSO blaring thru the dorm.

If you remember, WSSO/WSMU-FM signed on at 5 AM. Man getting up that early was a !@#&. I had to get there early enough to warm the transmitter up, hit the sign on, and hit the NBC news at the top of the hour. I usually made it up early enough to hit the 24 hour store just off campus and get something for breakfast. One morning I came back thru campus and stopped at the light at dysfunction junction near Scott Field. There was nobody out so I stopped but then ran the light. Well one of Starkville's finest was watching and stopped me. I told him who I was and, after some conversation, he let me go without giving me a ticket. I missed part of the NBC news but nobody said anything about it. Small town radio had its advantages!

Maybe you also remember we ran the old radio show, Lum & Abner, every morning about 7:10 (just after the news and Templeton Trading Time). When I was really hungry, I would call the Shoney's just before Lum & Abner and give them my order to go. After the intro and spot break, there was about 10 minutes of the show on tape so I locked the front door and went to pick up my breakfast. As far as I know, no one was ever the wiser ;D

I'm really sorry I only got to work with Joe about six months before he died. The older I get, the more I admire him for putting WSSO and WSMU-FM on the air. Dave, you were talking about struggling to get your third but I had my first class license but wished I didn't when I came to WSSO. I had worked at WABG-TV from 76 to 78 but wanted to get back on the air as I did afternoons in Senatobia throughout high school. I thought that once Joe saw the license, I would be "persuaded" to do engineering work for minimum wage. Joe eventually asked me to help him but not to do too much so it worked out. Joe always kept the old transmitter tubes, even though they were worn out. You might keep a couple for emergency spares but he kept them all.

I used a toilet flush as the opening to my show when we began playing rock at 6 AM. Joe asked me, "Do you think people like hearing a toilet flush on the radio at 6 AM?" I came back with "But Joe, they hear a toilet flush when they go to the bathroom just after they get up!". He never mentioned it again. Another time Joe told me about going to the bank downtown and the teller asking him who was that nut you have working in the morning? Joe emphasized the word "nut". Fun times!

Another person that worked at WSSO while I was there (but maybe after you Dave) was Jim Ellis. Jim works as an assistant sports information director at MSU and does baseball play-by-play for MSU radio. I hooked up with him last year. Sure hope I can get back to Starkville and visit him. The old WSSO studios on Yellow Jacket Drive are still being used by Urban Radio (as far as I know) and looked amazingly the same when I visited a few years back.

In the early 80's Pensacola was a dream market to work in but it went downhill in the 90's and is really a shell of its former self. One of my friends is a sergeant with the Escambia Sheriff's Department. I visited him in May and he says good jobs are harder to find than ever. A guy that Skinny Johnny & I worked with there, J. Christopher aka, Jared Willets does the morning news on WEAR-TV. FYI, WBSR is automated easy listening now. It was a happening station back in the day.

Dave, Bill Evans has his degree in meteorology from Jackson State. He worked in TV in Jackson, Mobile WALA-TV (where he was also part of the Goofy White Boys on WABB), Dallas, & New York.

Dr. Bob

 

[Dr. Bob]

I almost forgot.....

Remember being prompted by Joe to "clean up" the WSSO studios on Friday afternoon for the gospel groups on Sunday?

Who was the night guy in late 1978/1979 at WSSO? I seem to remember he was a Kappa Alpha at MSU.

Dr. Bob

 

[davesand]

Bob, I think you are referring to Chuck Courtney. One of the funniest guys I've ever known. He did this bit where he carted-up a shot-gun blast. He slapped an obscure Yoko Ono record on the turntable and announced the "3 in a row from SSO" we did every hour at 20 'til. She started wailing, moaning, and screaming. About 30 seconds into the song he said "I think we've had enough of this, someone get her out of the studio." He hit the cart and then took the turntable out of gear, letting the song s l o w l y come to a halt. We used to do some incredibly ridiculous stuff, which in hind sight was really very clever.

Joe Phillips, always shrugging his shoulder when he talked. I have the article/obit of his life/death from the Starkville Daily News amongst my radio/tv memorabilia. What a character. I remember our "local" news at one time consisted of reading the Starkville Daily News over the air.

Jim Ellis started working in sales right before I left and went to work for University Relations. It seems like shortly thereafter he began doing some sports broadcasts when WSSO had the contract to do the State stuff. Perhaps he came along after Mark Albin left? Speaking of Mark, has anyone kept up with him?

 

[tzbarber]

I almost forgot.....

Remember being prompted by Joe to "clean up" the WSSO studios on Friday afternoon for the gospel groups on Sunday?

Dr. Bob

Ah, Sunday mornings.....that money-making use of the old RCA mike and huge production room with a six-hour rotating shift attached to it. "This is non-other than the manager of the Morning Doves,speaking out to comfort the sick and shet-ins.....". Live musical groups in 15-30 minute segments paying cash up front. Joe Phillips was a money-making genius. The groups brought their instruments,their families and friends all decked out on the way to church. Gives me an idea for one of the production rooms at our place.hmmm.........

 

[robgrayson]

Allen Tynes has one of the greatest Sunday sign on stories I have ever (stolen). It was related here on the WRBC entries, and recently on the Memphis board:

"...My first day on the job...sign-on Sunday morning. No one gave me a key to the building and no one was there when I pulled up about 5:15 with a 6am sign-on staring me in the face. I tried all the windows in the building and found one open in the sales room. It had been raining overnight, so I trailed mud through the window and across a desk to the transmitter room. I found the log and got things going and was about to sign on when I noticed a group of men outside the front glass doors. (The two stations had side-by-side control rooms facing the reception area and front doors.) I went to the door and discovered the Spiritual Morning Hummingbirds were trying to get into the buildingt to do their 15 minute live music show! The doors were locked on the inside as well as out, so I sent them around to the sales office window. They came in through the window with their amplifiers, guitars, and dressed to the nines. Then they asked me where the mike was.
That's when I found out about Moose Currie's propensity for keeping station audio gear in his car trunk after a ballgame. I told the Spiritual Morning Hummingbirds to start vamping while I went to the control room and unscrewed my annoouce mike and found a cable and stand we could use. I plugged it in, found the correct pot on the board, signed on, and faded up on their playing. Then I grabbed the page out of the copy book and ran to the sales room/studio and read the open from the backside of the mike while they all gathered in close on the front side. It was sponsored by King the Tailor at this station as well, I discovered. They began their program and I noticed another group of fellows at the front door! Yep, the next live program needed directions on which window to crawl through while the first group did their quarter hour show.
Three groups crawled through that window before Scarlett Booth arrived about 6:40am to sign on WJMI-FM. She had a key to the front door! On top of that, while I was reading the intros a member of each group would hand me $15.70 in cash to pay for their airtime. I learned I was to put the money in an envelope, seal it, note the group's name on the front and slip the envelope under the business manager's door. I survived that first day on the air and realized if I could do that, I could probably survive anything in this wacky business...except children of sponsors coming in to be produced in daddy's commercial. Deliver me! "

Thanks, Allen!

 

[Dr. Bob]

"Bob, I think you are referring to Chuck Courtney. One of the funniest guys I've ever known. He did this bit where he carted-up a shot-gun blast. He slapped an obscure Yoko Ono record on the turntable and announced the "3 in a row from SSO" we did every hour at 20 'til. She started wailing, moaning, and screaming. About 30 seconds into the song he said "I think we've had enough of this, someone get her out of the studio." He hit the cart and then took the turntable out of gear, letting the song s l o w l y come to a halt. We used to do some incredibly ridiculous stuff, which in hind sight was really very clever.

Joe Phillips, always shrugging his shoulder when he talked. I have the article/obit of his life/death from the Starkville Daily News amongst my radio/tv memorabilia. What a character. I remember our "local" news at one time consisted of reading the Starkville Daily News over the air."


No, it wasn't Chuck Courtney but thanks for refreshing my memory of that bit! When I started, Chuck was working mid-days. Chuck let me use his house, during Christmas 1978 when the dorms were closed and I had to work. I think the night guy's first name was Rodney but I don't remember his last name. There was also the resident "hippy", Rich something or other. I remember he was working the AM one Saturday with MSU football when they were playing at Scott Field when I agreed to work (intoxicated) the FM as they split the simulcast to carry Ole Miss and some other team. It was obvious that people had FM radios at the MSU game and were listening to the FM as whenever the other team would score on Ole Miss, a small cheer could be heard on the MSU broadcast.

Joe was too tight with the $$$ to have UPI or AP but we did have the weather wire! Of course, since I worked mornings, I had to read Templeton Trading Time. Another standard program of small town radio.

Also an infrequent vistor to the station was the widow of Joe's origional partner. I don't remember her name but I do remember her comming in to review the books and collect a check. I seem to remember Hellen & Norvell bought her (or her family) out at some point.

Terry, the Sunday morning gospel show was standard at many stations around the south. The station where I worked in high school, WSAO in Senatobia (owned then by the Mathis family of WCPC fame) had exactly the same set up. It was a double win as the station owner got credit for "community service" at license renewal and made money at the same time.

Another that may have come after you Dave, was Ed Cooper. He was and EE student at MSU, and his dad owns a station in Ocean Springs, MS. I reconnected with Ed a few months ago thru his brother who is a consulting broadcast engineer.

Dr. Bob

 

[tzbarber]

Had to make sure that weather wire had paper in it first thing each morning! And who could forget getting the clock in sync with the NBC network for news at the top of the hour. Bark. Nothing like letting bleary-eyed college kids flipping switches of radiated power first thing in the morning and having responsiblity of playing music for the dairy farmers before sunup. Small town radio,what a blast. BTW, Dr. Bob,I'm Tim,the one that did some mornings and sales at SSO. Terry was the one over at the big KOR years later.

 

[davesand]

Bob, you've refreshed my memory. Rodney replaced Chuck for the night shift. He was a very atypical person for radio at the time. Very frat with the "Male" khackis and Polos/Izods. Rich was actually Richard, but I cannot remember his last name. He was a member of the SA Social Committee. Janice and I were on the Committee and we knew him prior to his working at "your radio station" which was, in fact, two radio stations. The i.d. into NBC news was the only mention of WSMU except when the two were split for sports broadcasts. I remember coming into work one day and Joe and Norvell were freakin' out. "The FCC is somewhere near Starkville listening to us. You have to say WSSO and WSMU until they leave." I don't know where they got their information, but it was awkward to run a shift and it sounded odd too. Tim, I remember when you left "your radio station" for the King of Rock. WSSO was never the same - no wit, no charm. You took it all to the cross-town rival as if Dennis and Glen needed any help. They were really a great team. Speaking of college kids flipping switches, etc. I used to go and tweak the EQ ever so slightly trying to obtain that "punchy" JDX sound. Never quite got the sound.

 

[davesand]

Dr. Bob, I remember Ed. He was a super nice guy. I think he took over the Sunday morning shift permanently and did some fill-in too. Prior to Ed, everyone had to rotate Sunday mornings. What a drag when Ed came. We all used to fight over that Sunday morning shift (and who wouldn't?). Actually, Ed was hired to keep peace among us all. You know Joe, always going the extra mile to appease his crew.

 

[tzbarber]

Tim, I remember when you left "your radio station" for the King of Rock. WSSO was never the same - no wit, no charm. You took it all to the cross-town rival as if Dennis and Glen needed any help.

Sorry,counselor! That's not true!(I have trouble smarting off to lawyers,Dave. Comes from some FCC Comparative Hearings experiences. Trying to get over it,really!) I actually went to SSO after a brief interlude at KOR. John Weeks brought me over to do the Lum and Abner show,I mean,Mornings,at the mighty Wesso. We had Barry Brooks, Jack the Whack Talley,little Pete Turpel,to name a few. I left for JDX in late '77. Wanted to get the facts straight,or at least the way I remembered them.....