Well guys it has been awhile since I have did one of these, but for the old AM buffs who loved AM TOP 40 this should be fun... I don't know much about the history of this station, but it was a part of my life for most of the time I was at the Deaf & Blind School in Spartanburg... The reason I chose WORD is the fact that Steve Mccoy who is at Star 94 was the morning jock there as well back in the seventies... WORD was an awesome Top 40 station in its prime... The Jocks were always willing to give tours of the station that now is something else... I got to take a tour twice... One time JJ Hemingway who is now out in WA State and another tour was given to me by a young kid and a classmate of mine at Spartanburg HS by the name of Jeff Roper... I remember all of the AM radios either blaring WORD or once the sun came up WASC in my dorm... By the time the mid and late eighties came around FM power houses had most of the POP listeners such as WANS WCKN and Kiss FM up in Asheville so there top 40 format was kinda all over the place... Back in 1989 the station went dark, but would come back as a simualcast of WFBC AM in Greenville... Once they went talk as the format Russ Castle was doing mornings with another up and coming talk show host by the name of Mike Gallagher... I had the chance to meet Mike when he did a remote from Spartanburg Methodist College... Back then he was fun to talk to and I really enjoyed his views on politics as well as sports since he was an umpire at the time... Those are just a few of my memories of this great little gem of a station... Your turn and I will chime in with other things as I think of them... Have a good week everybody... CC1
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STATION PICKS WORD 91 (WORD) SPARTANBURG
- Thread starter CrazeeCarroll1
- Start date
Great station at times is correct. I had the good fortune of working at WORD in the 78-80 time frame. This was after Ron Brandon left. Dave Hedrick came in from WZOO in Ashboro. Betsy Kaye, Bob Morgan, Van Man Radford, CJ, and Ted Love were there as well. Tony Brooks was GM, and part owner! Billy Mac was there doing production, but left shortly. As you mentioned, the early days were great. Steve McCoy, The late great Big Al Bolton, Bill Christie, etc. Further back was really the heyday. Bob Canada, The Mojo Man, Chuck Cannon, Ron Riley(Later at WLS), Bob Morgan usng the "Robert W." name! Great memories.
T
thomradio
Guest
I had the pleasure to work up on Hearon Circle at WORD back in the 1968-69 time frame in the newsroom. Being from Spartanburg, this was one of the stations I grew up listening to and probably helped spark what became a 17-year career in broadcast news. Bob Meldrim was the news director at the time, although we like so many others (remember Bob Dean?), came and went quickly under Bob Brown's ownership. We got a little nervous when Bob would come up from Gainesville, FL where he also owned WGGG.
We had Bob Morgan and Ron "Shannon" Baptist, Mel Black and yeah, Mojo Man. What a trip he was; turban and all. I worked pm drive newscasts and was gone after 7:00 pm so I didn't get the full Mojo effect. I missed the opportunity to work with Bob Canada, whom I considered one of the best on-air guys around. Jack Leonard was engineer along with Buddy Morgan helping out.
Thanks for some great memories.
We had Bob Morgan and Ron "Shannon" Baptist, Mel Black and yeah, Mojo Man. What a trip he was; turban and all. I worked pm drive newscasts and was gone after 7:00 pm so I didn't get the full Mojo effect. I missed the opportunity to work with Bob Canada, whom I considered one of the best on-air guys around. Jack Leonard was engineer along with Buddy Morgan helping out.
Thanks for some great memories.
T
thomradio
Guest
Hey Z-100, thanks for the information though I'm sorry to hear about Mal; good guy.
WORD was unique in those days that it had a sound that would have been killer in much larger markets. Morning drive was interesting in those days with the likes of John Cashion and Cliff "Farmer" Gray on the air over at WSPA. I was usually listening to Jack Gale at Big WAYS in Charlotte.
The quality of the WORD on-air staff was consistently good; thanks for reminding me about Bill Thomas, another great broadcaster. I think he left WORD to go to Roanoke and didn't Bob Canada end up in Norfolk?
WORD was unique in those days that it had a sound that would have been killer in much larger markets. Morning drive was interesting in those days with the likes of John Cashion and Cliff "Farmer" Gray on the air over at WSPA. I was usually listening to Jack Gale at Big WAYS in Charlotte.
The quality of the WORD on-air staff was consistently good; thanks for reminding me about Bill Thomas, another great broadcaster. I think he left WORD to go to Roanoke and didn't Bob Canada end up in Norfolk?
Yeah..someone told me where was Mal was, and I can't remember. I think it is down to only weeks now. I hate hearing that stuff. I'll ask and try to find out.
Yeah..Bill Thomas lives in Hendersonville. He did end up at WROV, as well as Canada and Ross(Morgan) for a while too. I think that was around the Bart Praytor period up there in Roanoke. That was another great station. Spooner was up there too.
This all opens up many great memories. Thom..what other names do you remember on 910 in that 68--70 time frame? Thanks. You know Tom Herdon, I'm sure?? He's over there with Drake, selling for their 103.3 morning gig!
Yeah..Bill Thomas lives in Hendersonville. He did end up at WROV, as well as Canada and Ross(Morgan) for a while too. I think that was around the Bart Praytor period up there in Roanoke. That was another great station. Spooner was up there too.
This all opens up many great memories. Thom..what other names do you remember on 910 in that 68--70 time frame? Thanks. You know Tom Herdon, I'm sure?? He's over there with Drake, selling for their 103.3 morning gig!
T
thomradio
Guest
I had heard that Tom Herndon was still around. He was in sales while I was at WORD. Rich Pahalek was copywriter, traffic and did other business-related duties. That was a sad day when Big Al Bolton was killed in that crash at E. Main and Pine Streets. My uncle worked for his dad at the funeral home in Union.
After Meldrim and I were jettisoned from the station, Bob went back to Jacksonville and I went over to WYCL to work for Brother Dave for a few months before going on to WTMA, Charleston and to WIS, Columbia where I met and worked with Bill Drake.
WORD brought in Tom Martin from Asheville to work the newsroom; a nicer guy you couldn't meet...and what a set of pipes. He went on to better things at the network level and subbed for Paul Harvey for a while.
After Meldrim and I were jettisoned from the station, Bob went back to Jacksonville and I went over to WYCL to work for Brother Dave for a few months before going on to WTMA, Charleston and to WIS, Columbia where I met and worked with Bill Drake.
WORD brought in Tom Martin from Asheville to work the newsroom; a nicer guy you couldn't meet...and what a set of pipes. He went on to better things at the network level and subbed for Paul Harvey for a while.
Yeah, I remember when Al was killed in the car wreck, although I had forgotten where it happened.
Oh yeah....WYCL. What a great little AM over there in York. A lot of talent came through there.
More memories from the area radio scene! Do you remember what 1400 was doing in that 68-69 timeframe?
WZOO, WCHQ, etc??? I know the WKDY call hadn't arrived yet. A lot of people don't know that WORD was originally on that 1400 dial position! Way back in the 40s. Ace Rickenbacker was there, before his WSPA days!
Oh yeah....WYCL. What a great little AM over there in York. A lot of talent came through there.
More memories from the area radio scene! Do you remember what 1400 was doing in that 68-69 timeframe?
WZOO, WCHQ, etc??? I know the WKDY call hadn't arrived yet. A lot of people don't know that WORD was originally on that 1400 dial position! Way back in the 40s. Ace Rickenbacker was there, before his WSPA days!
Guys I have been really enjoying the post reguarding WORD... I had been told by some people that at its peak they were pulling very good numbers... It was sad to see that the station had to go dark back in 89... I wish that I had some old air checks, but I don't... I am glad that I had the chance to listen to this station... Although it was no Big Ways, for the Sparkle City it was our Big Ways, WABC, and WLS, but with local jocks... Keep it coming gang I am really enjoying this... CC1
T
thomradio
Guest
WORD's numbers and sales were good although the owner kept pushing for more (wow, big surprise). We always wished for a better pattern. When we cut back at night you could hardly pick up the station north of Inman.
Remember WORD's mobile unit? That beat-up VW Microbus was a handful and, of course, was used to haul everything so it looked pretty shoddy inside but the lettering and graphic outside were good.
1400 did a lot of different formats. For a while in the late 60's they were doing R&B and what I'd consider beach music. I met Sam Holman, who did afternoons. He air checked every shift he pulled; I never had that kind of discipline.
WYCL was a fun little station with an absolutely awesome production studio. I worked with Brother Dave, Richard Irwin (now Uncle Ricky; check out his ReelRadio web site), Bill Towery (JJScott, who followed me to WTMA, then to Knoxville and WFYR, Chicago) and Bill Turner.
Sometimes I miss the business. I liked the quote from the late Jerry Nachman who went back into a newsroom after so many years away. He said, "I didn't miss the rat race but I kinda missed the rats."
Remember WORD's mobile unit? That beat-up VW Microbus was a handful and, of course, was used to haul everything so it looked pretty shoddy inside but the lettering and graphic outside were good.
1400 did a lot of different formats. For a while in the late 60's they were doing R&B and what I'd consider beach music. I met Sam Holman, who did afternoons. He air checked every shift he pulled; I never had that kind of discipline.
WYCL was a fun little station with an absolutely awesome production studio. I worked with Brother Dave, Richard Irwin (now Uncle Ricky; check out his ReelRadio web site), Bill Towery (JJScott, who followed me to WTMA, then to Knoxville and WFYR, Chicago) and Bill Turner.
Sometimes I miss the business. I liked the quote from the late Jerry Nachman who went back into a newsroom after so many years away. He said, "I didn't miss the rat race but I kinda missed the rats."
Have a question for those in the know. Didn't WORD tried Oldies in the late 80's before the station went dark? When I've worked for Tony Brooks's son, Mike at their station in Newberry, he mentioned it to me as they were trying to go back to WORD's glory days (even going so far as to hire some of the personalities that were on the air back then).
Robyn
Robyn
Robyn 
Hope you are doing all right... I remember WORD as being AC'ish with a more up tempo feel... They were doing artist such as Boy Meets girl, Breathe, Phil Collins, etc,etc,etc... I was in my first year at SMC and when I came back from Christmas Vacation they were gone poof... Most of the good jocks had already left... I remember JJ Hemingway coming out to the Deaf & Blind school just to hang out with us... He was fun to be around and was a blast to talk to... My brain is kinda in flux right now, but remember when WORD hired Russ Spooner back in the early eighties... I remember WSPA TV talking about how he would be paid 100K to work there... That was big money for that station... I don't remember how long he stayed there... There was also a Jock who was on the station that was a nut case telling listeners about seeing monkeys and that he was under attack... Kinda weird if you ask me... CC1
Hope you are doing all right... I remember WORD as being AC'ish with a more up tempo feel... They were doing artist such as Boy Meets girl, Breathe, Phil Collins, etc,etc,etc... I was in my first year at SMC and when I came back from Christmas Vacation they were gone poof... Most of the good jocks had already left... I remember JJ Hemingway coming out to the Deaf & Blind school just to hang out with us... He was fun to be around and was a blast to talk to... My brain is kinda in flux right now, but remember when WORD hired Russ Spooner back in the early eighties... I remember WSPA TV talking about how he would be paid 100K to work there... That was big money for that station... I don't remember how long he stayed there... There was also a Jock who was on the station that was a nut case telling listeners about seeing monkeys and that he was under attack... Kinda weird if you ask me... CC1WORD went on the air in September of 1940. It was 250 watts day & night at 1400, and was affiliated with the Blue Network (which became ABC).
The station was built & operated by Spartan Radiocasting, which was owned by Walter Brown. Brown had worked at WSPA in the 30's, but left to build WORD. He worked with the department of War Information in Washington during World War II, and after the war, built WTNT (1230 AM) in Augusta in 1946, and WTWA (1240 AM) in Thomson in 1948. He sold WTNT to J.B. Fuqua (it became WJBF Radio) in 1949, and sold WTWA to Frank Hash (Publisher of the McDuffie Progress) in 1951.
He sold WORD in late '53 (less than 2 years after moving it to 910 with 1kw-DA/N), and closed on the purchase of WSPA-AM/FM from Surety Life Insurance (to later become Cosmos Broadcasting...yes, the same folks that owned WIS) in March, 1954.
The station was built & operated by Spartan Radiocasting, which was owned by Walter Brown. Brown had worked at WSPA in the 30's, but left to build WORD. He worked with the department of War Information in Washington during World War II, and after the war, built WTNT (1230 AM) in Augusta in 1946, and WTWA (1240 AM) in Thomson in 1948. He sold WTNT to J.B. Fuqua (it became WJBF Radio) in 1949, and sold WTWA to Frank Hash (Publisher of the McDuffie Progress) in 1951.
He sold WORD in late '53 (less than 2 years after moving it to 910 with 1kw-DA/N), and closed on the purchase of WSPA-AM/FM from Surety Life Insurance (to later become Cosmos Broadcasting...yes, the same folks that owned WIS) in March, 1954.
Interesting stuff there Jay... Glad to see ya on the board here... Hope to see you at the Eat & Greet at Wild Wings on the 25th... CC1
Jay, you probably know the answer to this, but whatever happened to WORD's FM sister, WDXY 100.5? AFAIK, it wasn't the same 100.5 that is on the air today. That signed on as WLBG-FM from Laurens.
Robyn
Robyn
Also some of the old WORD Employees purchased the old WKDY in the Late 80's after it went dark for couple years when it came back on the air it was known as WYYR 1400 some of the old word employee Bobby Dean the Mobile Traffic reporter on old WORD AM 910 before they sold out to TC Lewis who changed WMMZ 1400 then back to WKDY AM 1400 witch is now WSBG AM 1400 (ESPN 1400) new ownership.
C
CJ_Jackson
Guest
I miss WORD. That was -the most fun- I ever had in my career. I might still have some jingle packages somewheres on reel. I've moved so many times since then... need to dig around. Somewhere I think I have some airchecks of myself, Humble Carl, Tony Brooks, Bob Morgan, JJ, Bill Thomas (what a voice!) Brother Bill, and some others from the early 70's through oh the mid 80's on cassette and reels if one ex wife or another didn't toss them. You know, speaking of radio trivia, that at one time Ted Love (Maybin) had the longest 1-station tenure in upstate radio. One day Ronnie Brandon came to me and told me we had a new overnight guy coming in, I needed to get him up to speed, that was Ted. Sorry to hear about Mal. He was one of the few people shorter than me lol. I last saw Tony Brooks a year ago at his restaurant over on the east side of Spartanburg. I did a little bit of engineering for Tony when he put WNMX-Newberry up to 25kw. I still talk to Bobby Dean occasionally, he's still in Spartanburg. Wish I knew of some streaming bandwidth, I found some Sunny 106.5 airchecks and put them on CD, excellent quality, me, The Freakin' Deacon, Kemosabi Joe, and some others. Would be fun to let folks hear the reverb and oldies Sorry to ramble on, this thread was real close to home, nice to see folks who remember WORD 91. I found a couple of late 70's vintage WORD T-shirts last week, too, should take pics and put them up on a web page.
Sorry to ramble on, this thread was real close to home, nice to see folks who remember WORD 91. I found a couple of late 70's vintage WORD T-shirts last week, too, should take pics and put them up on a web page.
C
CJ_Jackson
Guest
Oh, forgot to tell ya, the guy seeing the monkeys and generally flipping out sometimes, that was Humble Carl heheh. That was one steeeeeerange fella, you never knew what you were going to get when he walked in every day. I was sitting in the sport talk studio one day talking to one future ex or the other on the phone before Gary Sparber and Gary Cohen got in, Carl was in the on air studio, and came in saying weird things and wanted to fight, right out of the blue..... and for nooooo reason, said everyone was talking about him that day. But that was Carl being Carl. The only person who could keep him reigned in was the owner at the time, Bob Brown (and yes Bob's mom did have blue hair and got him in the business and yes he looked like the big guy on WKRP) Carl passed away quite a few years back. Thought you guys might like that ancedote, I just remembered it.
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