WOW!!! Neil has been quiet again this week on his station pick so I wanted to do another pick this week... This station was a popular fave of mine back in the eighties, but in Feb of 1991 the CHR format was dropped in favor of Light Rock to compete with ratings king My 102.5... I really did not listen to ANS until around 86 when 99.9 Kiss FM was sold and watered down from its "In Your Face" top 40 format... The music was straight top 40 and the jocks always had a good time doing their shifts... How can anybody forget Jolt out of bed every morning... WANS always had good contest which for small market radio at the time blew away a lot of other larger market stations and their contesting... There are a lot of other things I remember about WANS, but I am going to put this subject on auto pilot like I did with the Yes 97 post and lets see what you guys have to say... CC1
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
STATION PICKS WANS Greenville Spartanburg Anderson
- Thread starter CrazeeCarroll1
- Start date
Carroll,
In my radio travels (which have made it easier to count the stations I haven't worked at as opposed to those I have worked at), I never worked at WANS, but I did work across town at WCKN when it was a true Mike Josephs' Hot Hits format(1986-87). You're right, tho, WANS was a great station. WANS was to the Greenville-Spartanburg area what WNOK was to Columbia at the time. In fact, Jonathon Rush was the PM drive guy (as Rod Metts) while I was PM drive at CKN. I was friends with a lot of the jocks at WANS and Kiss FM. Tommy Smith, Bill Walker, Nate Norris, John (Oliver) Rocke, Spanky and John Stevens to name a few(and those are just the names I can remember). All great guys. It was a very creative time radio-wise in the Upstate back then. Also, I think Super Hooper was at the country station back then and, as I remember it, NOBODY could touch him.
In my radio travels (which have made it easier to count the stations I haven't worked at as opposed to those I have worked at), I never worked at WANS, but I did work across town at WCKN when it was a true Mike Josephs' Hot Hits format(1986-87). You're right, tho, WANS was a great station. WANS was to the Greenville-Spartanburg area what WNOK was to Columbia at the time. In fact, Jonathon Rush was the PM drive guy (as Rod Metts) while I was PM drive at CKN. I was friends with a lot of the jocks at WANS and Kiss FM. Tommy Smith, Bill Walker, Nate Norris, John (Oliver) Rocke, Spanky and John Stevens to name a few(and those are just the names I can remember). All great guys. It was a very creative time radio-wise in the Upstate back then. Also, I think Super Hooper was at the country station back then and, as I remember it, NOBODY could touch him.
WANS was a station that I'd thought would be around to this day (and it probably would have if that format flip in Feburary, 1991 had never happened). I remember jocks like Hollywood Joe, Brett Johnson, Randy Fox, Bill Catcher, and many others too numerous to mention.
The station signed on with the Top 40 format on FM sometime in 1973. They were automated (like many FMs back then), until they went live in 1980. The ratings went through the roof, killing off the AM Top 40s like WQOK and WORD in the process.
A former WANS alumni has put together a nice online radio station that captures the sound of the station as it was in the 80s. It's worth a listen.
http://107wans.homestead.com/index.html
Robyn
The station signed on with the Top 40 format on FM sometime in 1973. They were automated (like many FMs back then), until they went live in 1980. The ratings went through the roof, killing off the AM Top 40s like WQOK and WORD in the process.
A former WANS alumni has put together a nice online radio station that captures the sound of the station as it was in the 80s. It's worth a listen.
http://107wans.homestead.com/index.html
Robyn
RE:WANS...I liked them best when they were an AOR-CHR hybird inthe late 70's and 1980-ish. They had a wide diverse playlist. You could hear the Top 40 hits along with classic album tracks. Of course, that would never work today. The jocks and/or pd seemed to know how to make it flow. Does anybody remember a female jock at night named Gina? She was very popular, liked rock and voiced her displeasure often about some of the top 40 music she had to play. She was a pleasure to listen to. Of course, they fired her. I heard she ended up in Denver after that.
What killed them off was Kent Burkhart. He was a big-time consultant and decided to get in to ownership and he took them to bankrupcy...somewhere around the Summer of 1989. The last lineup I remember was Mike Benson in the morning (now in Baton Rouge with Citadel), Kevin King middays (now a country PD in Lexington, Kentucky after stops in Charlotte and somewhere in Florida), Randy Foxx in afternoons (no idea where he is now), Brent Johnson MD/nights (now in Columbia, SC), and Ron Reaves overnights (last I heard he was somewhere in Georgia). It was a great radio station that the owner destroyed.
My first full time position in radio was at WANS am/fm in Anderson. I had just finished school in Atlanta and stopped at WANS on my way home to Winston-Salem and did an interview for an on the air opening. The manager at the time, Carolyn Turner, hired me and I went to work just a couple of days later. This was in the summer of 1971. WANS simulcast with 5kw at 1280 AM and 100 kw at 107.3 FM. Both the AM and FM had incredible signals. I started mid-days from 9 to 2, but in just a couple of weeks I was changed to mornings from 5 am to 9. We played the hit songs and some recent oldies and the station had a pretty good audience. After my morning show, we had a fellow named Dale Keeney who did mid-days, our engineer, Ed Lively, was on the afternoon shift. A fellow called the Night Governor (I don't remember his real name) was on at night.
We had some pretty good PAMS jingles, which were series 42 and 43.
I think Dale still lives in Anderson. Ed was killed by another motorist on I-85 sometime in the 80s.
I was there less than a year because one night the phone rang and it was news of a new station being built in North Myrtle Beach to be called WNMB. Two weeks later, I was at the beach helping build the station from the ground up. There's been lots in between, but I am still at the beach and often remember those early days in Anderson.
We had some pretty good PAMS jingles, which were series 42 and 43.
I think Dale still lives in Anderson. Ed was killed by another motorist on I-85 sometime in the 80s.
I was there less than a year because one night the phone rang and it was news of a new station being built in North Myrtle Beach to be called WNMB. Two weeks later, I was at the beach helping build the station from the ground up. There's been lots in between, but I am still at the beach and often remember those early days in Anderson.
Scott's remark about WANS being similar to WNOK wasn't far off the mark! I remember In early 1986, WNOK's "Morning Zoo" (hosted at the time by Leo Windham, Mark Plemens, & Pandora Reynolds) did a one-time broadcast with WANS's "Upstate Morning Crew" (which I think was hosted by Mike Benson during this time) to find out which team was the most popular in South Carolina: The Gamecocks or The Tigers? Both stations took calls from their audiences and voted. The Gamecocks won in the voting and they ended up playing their fight song simultaneously.
Robyn
Robyn
I definitely remember WANS and could almost hit their studios from the apartment that I lived in at the time. Mike Benson was probably one of the highest rated morning drive personalities at the time and they were hot and the thing that defintely did them in was when they swtiched to Lite Rock and moved the stuio from Anderson to Greenville.
RobynWattsV2.0 said:
WANS-FM sure brings back a lot of great radio memories. As someone who grew up in the 60's & 70's listening to WQOK-AM 1440 on my old AM car radio, I thought I had really moved uptown when I got my first FM converter. To actually listen to WANS-FM in the car!! WOW!! It was nothing short of wonderful!! When I was finally able to buy my first car that had a real AM-FM stereo radio, I thought I had really hit the big time.
WANS-FM had pretty good coverage from the old studio and transmitter site in the house that was there on Clemson Boulevard in Anderson. That land is now occupied by a "Toys 'R Us" store I believe. When they moved the FM transmitter to the tall stick out on highway 88 around 1979, they had a kicker signal sho 'nuff. If you were going to the beach, you could hear WANS all the way to Columbia and then tune in WKZQ for the rest of the trip.
The current occupant of 107.3 - WJMZ - do they still transmit from the highway 88 site? I noticed in 2005 they had applied for a CP to diplex with WROQ from its stick near Fountain Inn. Also, WHZT 98.1 in Seneca has applied for a CP to move their transmitter to the highway 88 stick.
WANS-FM had pretty good coverage from the old studio and transmitter site in the house that was there on Clemson Boulevard in Anderson. That land is now occupied by a "Toys 'R Us" store I believe. When they moved the FM transmitter to the tall stick out on highway 88 around 1979, they had a kicker signal sho 'nuff. If you were going to the beach, you could hear WANS all the way to Columbia and then tune in WKZQ for the rest of the trip.
The current occupant of 107.3 - WJMZ - do they still transmit from the highway 88 site? I noticed in 2005 they had applied for a CP to diplex with WROQ from its stick near Fountain Inn. Also, WHZT 98.1 in Seneca has applied for a CP to move their transmitter to the highway 88 stick.
Wow...Thanks for the kind words! A mutual radio friend tipped me off to this thread, so I logged on, registered and am replying to your comments. Working at WANS was truly some of the best times of my life and I hope someday to return to Greenville to do morning radio again. For the record, I am no longer working for Citadel but am still in Baton Rouge with Guaranty Broadcasting. I'ld be glad to chat with anyone about old WANS memories. Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]
Hey Mike and welcome to RI... Since another poster started his radio picks I decided to do one for you guys at ANS... Back in the day you guys had one kick ass CHR station... Jump in here any time and if you know of any other ANS alum have them jump in as well... CC1
Scott I forgot you worked at CKN... That was the days when you guys played the hits and nothing but the hits... I remember when CKN started doing top 40 in 85 it was the same top ten songs over and over with a countdown atleast every hour it seemed... There were no recurrents from what I remember till towards the end when you guys sprinkled in some during the day... Who knows Next week we may do a station pick for CKN... I remember Kiss always giving you guys hell about the CKN calls or Chicken as Chuck and John called you guys... AHHHHHH I miss fun radio 
Scott said:
F
Frasier
Guest
CrazeeCarroll1 said:
Now I know how Hot 97/NY listeners must feel...
CrazeeCarroll1 said:Scott I forgot you worked at CKN... That was the days when you guys played the hits and nothing but the hits... I remember when CKN started doing top 40 in 85 it was the same top ten songs over and over with a countdown atleast every hour it seemed... There were no recurrents from what I remember till towards the end when you guys sprinkled in some during the day... Who knows Next week we may do a station pick for CKN... I remember Kiss always giving you guys hell about the CKN calls or Chicken as Chuck and John called you guys... AHHHHHH I miss fun radio
Not exactly my shining moment at WCKN, but I learned a lot. I remember Jim Wilson splicing together Mellencamp's R.O.C.K in the USA several times so it sounded like he was singing "RO-CKN, CKN, CKN, CKN...". Used it for the legal ID. Sure does beat paying for jingles, huh? Those were the days when Bob Nations was the GM. Strange days, indeed.
As for Bill McCown, when he wasn't having a crush on Rod Metts (Jonathan Rush), he left WANS for a job in Florida...I think it was Orlando.
And speaking of jingles.....;D
For your listening pleasure, here is some cuts from JAM's Skywave package as done for WANS. One of my favorites.
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=6F4285765BC9406B
Unfortunately it was used for about a year before being replaced by another good JAM package (Turbo Z).
Robyn
For your listening pleasure, here is some cuts from JAM's Skywave package as done for WANS. One of my favorites.
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=6F4285765BC9406B
Unfortunately it was used for about a year before being replaced by another good JAM package (Turbo Z).
Robyn
- Status