SARASOTA RADIO 1980'S

[donclarkcoe]

Hello to my friends from a time past in Sarasota radio. The AM stations were still kicking ass with FM's mostly automated computers running reel to reel tapes of various formats.
The radio engineers said that FM will never take off especially in Sarasota. The owners believed them and basically shut the stations down at midnight to save money.
We had a great time on AM radio unfortunately no one could hear us LOL.
I worked at top rated stations WSPB and WZ-1280. Does anyone remember that era?

Don

 

[WNCRadioFan]

Hmm, well I grew up listening to WKXY(930),WYND(1280), and even to the old WSAF(1220) then went through the various incarnations...WWZZ,WQSA, . Even FM was fun back then. WAMR-FM (92.1) WSPB-FM, WQSR/WAVE/WHVE/ WHPT...
Oddly enough the other day I saw an old pick up truck here in Western NC with a 102.5 the point license tag on the front.

 

[RMarino]

I definately remember WZ-1280 as it was my grandparents favorite station back then. I still have a WZ-1280 bumper sticker too. Of course WKXY was huge and surprisingly held on with a locally produced music format until 1993. Another local AM playing music back in the '80s was 1420 WBRD (with an AC format.) I think Sarasota FM really took off around '86-'87 when Z106 kicked off with a CHR format. Man that station was great.

 

[MusicMan11]

i must admit i have only lived in this part of the state for seven years, but in that time radio out of sarasota was and is - not so much. automated crap. Any live or local content shows they had - cc - they killed and made no attempt to sell. High school football for example. i could go on but why.

the fms are just as described except for a few live jocks - a few.

no stations will take the chance to do it like z-106 or any of the stations from the 60s, 70s, or 80s. i grew up in orlando - the station was WLOF, Am - 95. Former bay area jock - john lander - was the morning man when i was in middle school. listened non-stop. Top 40 station....ah, the memories.

 

[donclarkcoe]

You have a WZ-1280 bumper sticker? Great! It was a very successful campaign for us. I had two versions, the first with the old time radio logo and "Music of Your Life", the 2nd. had win 1,280 prizes. I did license plate spotters on air and called out club card numbers. If you called within 12 min, 80 seconds you won the prize. Often we did barters with local restaurants for prizes, like The Camels Den and Shenkels on LBK, now just gone.
The backing of the sticker had a mail in contest entry and advertising.
Our on air staff included Arch Howle, Jim Barber, Dave Allison, Patty Pratt, and others including me.

 

[donclarkcoe]

I think the Fernandez family had a difficult time of letting go of WKXY-AM. It was a mom and pop owned station with family members on air and selling advertising. I bumped into Charlie F. on sales calls back then. There was very little corporate ownership since you could only own one AM/FM per market.
When I was at 1280AM it was owned by Sun Broadcasting (Ron Berger) in Chicago and then sold with owner financing to Central Florida Broadcasting (Barry Gerber) Cleveland. Sun took it back when CFB couldn't honor the note. A typical scenario with this station. Over and over.

 

[RMarino]

You have a WZ-1280 bumper sticker? Great! It was a very successful campaign for us. I had two versions, the first with the old time radio logo and "Music of Your Life", the 2nd. had win 1,280 prizes.

This must be the first one then. It's got a dark blue background and the "Music Of Your Life" logo is in the middle. I remember a contest they had back then. They sent out a card where you were to list your 3 favorite songs and when WZ-1280 played them and you called in, you won something. I filled one out myself even though I was only like 6 years old at the time (circa 1981) and I picked songs I knew and figured would fit the format. I remember picking Mike Post "Theme From Hill Street Blues" and Frank Mills "Music Box Dancer" and I forget the third. One day I actually heard 1280 play one of those songs and I was one happy little boy!

 

[jefflaurence]

Lessee..I remember first hearing WYND when Carl Strandell was PD (former WBBF Rochester) That station had an Audimax that had the "resistor clipped" on it and it was FAAAAAST..1280 flamed out those watts and was louder than WLCY WKXY or any other AM station listenable in Sarasota. They also sped the records up to 47.5rpm (faster than Y95) It was screaming hot! But that would have been 1977 or thereabouts...I remember seeing the Honey Cone (Want Ads) at the armory in Bradenton presented by WYND..Wow!

Lenny Dee at the Old Heidleburg Castle..oh yeah that was great brought to us by 1450 WSPB..he was a master.

The QUAD 102 anna half billboards with the artichoke wearing headphones..and Steve Huntington playing really hard to find oldies (don't remember what night that was on..but Steve was the BEST programmer that station ever had)

WZ-1280 was a great station! Did Ed Winton have something to do with that?

 

[donclarkcoe]

Ed Winton owned WWLF (6-8-0) in St Pete, I worked there part-time. He had prerecorded music on reel to reel with us breaking in after 3 or 4 songs. He had nothing to do with 1280AM.

 

[smedge2006]

Don't forget WQSA, the all live-and-local news-talker on 1220 from 1975 to 1987. Morning and afternoon drive news, and two midday talk shows, all originating from a little building on Beneva Road.

 

[sbe1]

Re: SARASOTA RADIO 1980'S THE HEIDLEBERG CASTLE

I wonder if the nite Lenny Dee was there, they let the guy off work that played the tuba and people were throwing quarters across the room to hit the hole in the tuba. I used to be a pretty good shot. I was so good, they came by and put the tuba over my head....