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

I remember Jesse James..but not well. I was at WWUN for about six months until I had to report to Fort Benning for Basic and AIT.(1965or6) I think he worked nights and one night after a few beers, two or three of us came back to the station about ten o'clock. When Jessie got into the 10PMN news, we send one of the guys running through the control room wearing only a bat man cape. Pissed off Jesse.
I was working mornings and Gene Nelson..the PD from Baton Rouge drove up oneday and poked head his into our fine Jim Walter Control Room and said, "Sorry about your mother."
"What,? Moms fine", I said. Gene said, "Oh, I thought your monther died."
"No. She didn't die" Gene bellowed, "We'll your show sure as hell sounds like she did". And slammed the door.
The Jim Walter House at WWUN wasn't so bad...but the equpment was the cheapest crap Gates made.
We didn't have an off air monitor, so I took a piece of speaker wire with a diode in the middle of it and put one end to a monitor input on the board and the other end to a metal window screen. There was enough RF around to give us plenty of signal for the off air monitor. Sounded Great. Don't close the window all the way. The house became the home for z106, of course. Which lead to the Gurrella Radio concept we did for a year."The Broadcast Bunker" "War on Dull Boring Radio" The "Strike Force" - In uniforms -- did the remotes.
Bumper stickers...coffee cups...eveything in camoflage.
Oh well...enough about that! We did pull #2 Men 25-54...#3 or 4 persons 25-54 for several years.
Increaed billing 5x what it was in 1988 by 1990.
 
Z106 about that time:
Jon Rockett (Gary Phillips), Dru Laborde, China Davis, Pam Rivers, David Adcock "Tunes til Two"
Brother Sam, Peter Christian, Perez, Mike Bridges, Terry Stenzil - Audio production engineer, Emmet Rushing -RF engineer. I know I'm forgetting some folks...
Sales we had Dolphus Blackmon, Phil Harrison, Debbie Westbrook, Doug Jones, Terri Packer...and
I suppose others.
 
As Skinny Johnny knows, I was the contract chief engineer for a number of years at WHKW. I even managed to pull an overnight air shift or two. Got the job in a semi-strange way. I was working at WSSO but always looking for a way to make a few more $$$. One Thursday in 1979 I was downing a few cold ones at "The Club" in Columbus when the house sound system went out. When it didn't come back after about 60 seconds, I offered my services and was able to get the sound going again quickly. I figured I'd get a six pack for my efforts but ended up getting introduced to the owner of WHKW, Ken Watts (the HKW in WHKW). They were looking for someone so I ended up being in the right place at the right time.

The station location was smart as it was on one of the highest points in the surrounding area. The bad part of the Jim Walter home was that there was no shielding and RF got into everything, especially the phono pre-amps in the production room. Carpet on the walls of the studios for acoustic purposes and the PD's office was the master bedroom because it also had a bathroom with shower. The transmitter was in the garage which had been bricked in. The lobby couch slept terribly and the phone system also in the lobby would make a clicking sound when anyone was calling or on hold.

One of the first things I did was convert the cart machines to have sec & ter tones so a warning light could be flashed and spots could be automatically fired. I remember latter when the GM brought in another engineer, Grady Motes, to change the processing. One of the first things we did was cut every IC off the circuit board of the Optimod. We had to be back on the air by 6 AM and just made it. Man, that thing smoked(!) but it had to be driven carefully as Grady had installed a straight diode composite clipper. A little too much clipping and the stereo went away.

The 50 mile trip each way from Starkville was a !#@% especially in the middle of the night. I remember one time 'HKW had transmitter problems but I got it fixed just after 6 AM. I drove back to Starkville and still had time to make my chemistry class. I kept almost falling asleep in class and one time the prof gave me a dirty look like "less partying and more sleep!".

Dr. Bob
 
:00 - (sing): Double-U Aych Kay Double-Uuuuuuu... (shout) Fayette!

:30 - "The Best Music Station in the South! (sfx) W-H-K-W!"

Long live the days. javascript:void(0); (Hard to believe that frequency was forced into bankruptcy & went dark only a few years later. javascript:void(0); )
 
Does anyone recall a preacher on the radio in the Delta named Deacon McCall? he was in his late 50s and early 60s in 2003-2004 with a wife about 1/3rd his age, and he claimed to have been around in Delta radio awhile... he mentioned WWUN, but I dont know which WWUN it was at.. and for the life of me, I can't remember his first name..

Larry Fuss might know the guy, but Im not sure...... I suspect he was tellin a bit of a fib when he told hed worked in the area for 25 years at various radio stations
 
SkinnyJohnny said:
I didn't realize it went dark. I assumed someone else bought it and moved it to Tuscaloosa.
Now it's WTXT (Country).
http://www.98txt.com/main.html
I was trying to talk management into moving the studios from the boondocks to Tuscaloosa, but never succeeded.
Click to expand...

When trying to get them in N. Mississippi once in '89 I couldn't do so. Knowing they were having problems financially for a while, maybe I assumed too much. Perhaps being off-air was due to 'silent authority' during the time they were moving the stick from Millport to their present location in preparation for the launch of WTXT. I realize I've speculated a bit here. I don't mind being set straight on the facts from someone in the know. Dr. Bob, perhaps?
 
WHKW never went silent except to move to T-town. Jim Mauldin, who owned the station post-Ken Watts, was also in the furniture biz. He thought it would be a great way to promote his furniture biz and other ventures, al the while making a fortune in radio. That didnt happen. He was contacted by Bill Dunavant(sp?) who owned WZYP in Huntsville about buying HKW and hence the move from the lovely corn field of Green Acres (Kennedy, Al) to Tuscaloosa......where it became WTXT. Enjoyed working with those guys, Ken Watts, Wynn Prescott, DD Hamric, Bill Donavan, Happy (did I say happy) Butchywah Butch Luke, and others. I remember us fighting over remotes, as the talent fee in those days was 125.00 per remote. Ahhhh those were the days!!!!
 
Something I never thought of before. was Mike Bridges any kin to Russ Allen on Z1006 ? Anyone who actually knows Russ will get the connection.
 
Deacon Curtis McCall...He was at WWUN, Clarksdale for several years...he served stints at other delta
stations, and played "salt and pepper" gospel. Quite a character...JBI
 

If you guys were at WDDT in Greenville do any of you remember the old days at WGVM .. Ken Dowe .. Rose Phillips .. Tom Collins .. and a lot of others started there in the 50's. Joel Netherland was in there at some point. Great old days of radio in the early years in Greenville. Jimmy Karr and Dave Satchfiled (not sure of his first name) were also at WDDT
 
jboyd said:
Deacon Curtis McCall...He was at WWUN, Clarksdale for several years...he served stints at other delta
stations, and played "salt and pepper" gospel. Quite a character...JBI
Click to expand...

AH.. JBOYD! Yes, that was his first name, Curtis... I was having a BRAIN FART... lol

To say Deacon McCall was a character was a kind understatement!!
 
My hometown of Shaw was about 20 miles from Greenville, and WGVM with it's 5KW signal was a champion in the mid 50's...then WDDT arrived, and their slick production, Jingles, and top notch music and announcers dominated the airwaves
in the Mid Delta until the advent of FM, starting in the early 70's dimmed the lights on all the AM's, leading to the demise of several previously prominent stations. The lesson: pay attention to the changing technologies, and don't fall for the current flashes in the pan...(IE: AM Stereo) End of Lecture! Thanks JBI
 
It probably won't make any top 100 lists, but in the 60's and early 70's, Greenville was a great place to grow up for a kid with the desire to do radio. The last time I went there, I put my AM on scan, and it landed on all sorts of stations that, back in the day, provided a textbook course in how to do radio right. 540-KNOE, 560-WHBQ, 620-WJDX, 680-WMPS; and at night, you wouldn't even have to move the dial far from it's setting on WDDT to hear WLS coming on strong, plus as a bonus: KAAY, WLAC, WOAI, X-ROCK-80 out of Juarez.

As kids, we were indoctrinated into Greenville's role as a breeding-ground for published writers. To this day, I am intimidated anytime I take on a blank piece of paper, afraid that I am not keeping up my end. But to think, besides the Carters, the Keatings, the Percys with their awards and literary laurels... at one time WJPR's spots were being written by Shelby Foote; now that would be a tough act to follow!

Thanks to "Moonshine" for bringing up great names from Greenville's past. So many talented people made it a stop on their way to places in broadcast destiny. If you make it to town sometime, take a look at Benjy Nelkin's museum downtown. Upstairs are artifacts from an era long gone... the old GE console and 16" transcrition turntables from WJPR, and the Gates President console from WDDT.
 
Seems people are interested in Delta radio, No? Try these names and dates:
Tom Rohne WDDT 1958
Dan Stewart WDDT 1958
Ray Roberts WGVM 1959
Willard Stallings WNLA 1958
Paul Artman WNLA 1954
Lane Tucker WNLA 1960
Carnell Tucker WNLA 1955
Pete Webb WCLD 1957
Paul Galtelli WROX 1970
Early Wright (?) to Circa 1982 WROX
Rockin Eddie WESY 1958 to (?) The first full time soul man on radio in the delta.
(on daytime radio)
The Deacon Circa 1955-1960, WNLA
Lyle Mitchell 1957 to 1960 WCLD
Cliff Prewitt, many venues 1956-1965......Thanks JBI
 
Wowsers! I'll toss in a couple of WDDT jocks that made it to Musicradio WABC... Ron Lundy in the 60's and Marc Sommers in the 70's.
 
SkinnyJohnny said:
And let's not forget Rob Grayson (who made it on the BIG BIRD!)
Click to expand...

Rob's way too humble to mention his big-time status. Of course, I bet he just HAPPENS to have a composite aircheck he could whip out,right,RG? ;D
 
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