STATION PICKS WZNS?WEGX DILLON FLORENCE

[CrazeeCarroll1]

This week I decided to pick the Pee Dee Region for then station pick... We pick up around the year 1985-86 when Z 93 was born... Before that the calls were WDSC with a semi top 40 format before going in a more standards format... After moving to a new 2000 stick in Dillon Lite Rock Z 93 was born... It had one heck of a signal and could be picked up as far west as Columbia... They were using the same music service as WSCQ was using at the time because Z would always be a song or two behind SCQ, but it was the same music etc... right around 89 the format was flipped to country... it was a satellite fed service I believe from ABC?SMN... In 1990 Z went silent until around Labor Day Weekend 1991 when Z was brought back as a hard hitting classic rocker... When they relaunched Z it had some of the best "Balls To The Wall" audio I had ever heard... Their CE was a Ham operator and after he left I ask him what his secret was and needless to say at first it was kick butt... As we move on in time the luster of Z started to loose its focus as a lot of the jocks were leaving... Around 92 or 93 I woke up to hear a very interesting morning show with none other than Scott Summers... He was also on Fayetteville's Rock 103.5... He told the story on how that worked so I will let him tell that... After it was all said and done Z 93 went dark again until Beasley landed the eagle in Apr of 94... While testing was being done it was an all eagle theme ie Eagles music, Eagle cover songs or eagle making their noises... We were then treated to the countdown clock and thus WEGX which was in Philly changed calls and formats those calls landed in Dillon and the Eagle was born... Eagle is now with the Quantum cluster and looking at the fall book seems to be doing very well... I had always thought what it would be like to slap an urban on that big 2000 foot monster, but the eagle seems to be holding it own quite nice... OK now your turn guys... CC

 

[vchimpanzee]

You said it was standards, but all the times I heard it before it went classic rock, it was adult contemporary, and not even "lite".

Don't forget their billboards when they became The Eagle. "Do Not Listen to 92.9 FM".

 

[Ssummers]

...Around 92 or 93 I woke up to hear a very interesting morning show with none other than Scott Summers... He was also on Fayetteville's Rock 103.5... He told the story on how that worked so I will let him tell that...

Still have PTSD from doing the "poor man's simulcast" at 103.5 and 92.9. It was Metropolitan Broadcasting out of Washington, DC. The GM was Ron Walton. I tried to fight the way the simulcast was set up, but to no avail. I would've been happy doing the show from WRCQ in Fayetteville, but NOOOOOOOOOOOooooo,
"we can't spend that kind of money to set up the simulcast feed from Fayetteville...since 92.9 has a monster signal, you'll do the show from Dillon and we'll use a stereo receiver at WRCQ to pick up the signal and retransmit it through the RCQ board". Pure unadulterated misery. My first morning (and this is no shit), I pushed the "play" button on the CD player(one of the two $99 dollar Circuit City specials in the studio) for the first song and my index finger went into the machine up to the second knuckle. I worked with a lot of cool people at WRCQ and WZNS (including when I was the OM at Root and WZNS had morphed into the Eagle), but the GM at 'RCQ was not one of them.

Oh, btw, almost forgot, the song played.
...and I didn't get electrocuted.

 

[Wabbit_Season]

Eagle's been doing fairly well over the last 3 or 4 years - consistently topping Wheelz when it used to be the other way around. These days WEGX is usually in the Top 3 Florence stations, swapping around with WYNN and occasionally WMXT. Of course, 4-5 years ago WHLZ had the frequency change and power decrease; at the same time or closely thereafter Root sold to Qantum and a new staff was brought in - within a year it was a totally new airstaff - local morning show (not piped in from Gator in Myrtle)...more upbeat programming whereas WHLZ continues to go by the Cumulus playbook.

Thoughts?

 

[CrazeeCarroll1]

The last time I heard WHLZ was about two summers ago and man was it booorrriiinnnggg... No life in it at all, but then again we have a country station here in Rockford WXXQ and you could bring all the HLZ airstaff up here and it would be a yankee version of WHLZ... BTW it is also a cloud company station as well . CC1

 

[hballard_HB]

I went to work for WDSC as chief engineer and doing 7-midnight on air, beginning in April of 1985. Those were some of my favorite times out of all those I spent in radio. When I started there we were 100,000 watts on the short 500 foot antenna behind the studio building on Highway 501 between Dillon and Latta. The move to the WPDE-TV tower was still in the planning stages. The air staff was Tim Early (Walker) doing mornings and serving as program director, then Rowland Corbett (J.C.Gunner) in midday, Dan E. Lockemy on afternoon drive, and Angie McGinnis doing overnights. The station changed ownership on January 16, 1986, one of the darkest days in South Carolina broadcasting history. We were purchased by Resort Broadcasting of Richmond, Virginia, which quickly became known to the staff as "Last Resort Broadcasting." This company was owned by Ellieck Seymour. Ed Segar was general manager and the one who brought about the transition to Z-93, WZNS, light rock, less talk. At that time, Ron Walton was sales manager. I don't know how much I should mention about Seymour, but with all the fond memories of paychecks that had a tendancy to bounce all over Dillon County when we could get them and the problems that arose from 92.9 interfering with WPDE-TV's microwave reception, working there went from being fun to a major nightmare. At the end of 1990, all of Seymour's stations went into receivership and eventually returned to the air under the control of the First National Bank of Maryland. I don't know what became of Ellieck Seymour, but I think he eventually did some prison time because of his financial misdeeds. I know that 92.9 was one blowtorch FM signal and I still have fond memories of those Saturday night beach music shows Dan E. Lockemy and I used to do.

Harold Ballard (I was actually "Dave Ballard" in another era)
Master control, Discovery Television and Technology Center, Sterling, Virginia

 

[CrazeeCarroll1]

Hello Harold and I remember you doing evening on what was then WDSC... I had the chance to go up on the Z 93 tower one time where Dan Mobley had his NN4N repeater located on ... Due to insurance reasons I could not take the ride up the elevator, but I know not only did the FM have one hell of a signal that 2 meter repeater did as well... Doug Carter who was doing CE as well told me a lot of stories that went on with that station even before he arrived on the scene... I met Him through a 2 meter ham net and he was doing some CE work for WHSC in Hartsville before the Cloud Company took them over... BTW What music service did you guys use when you flipped formats... It almost sounded like you guys were using the AC service that Bonneville was putting out... We wound up with about 25 of those Bonnie reel2reels at our station (WPUB) and those came in handy if I felt like crap or just had too many irons in the fire... Jump in anytime and post... CC1

 

[hballard_HB]

I know that we had Bonneville reels during the WDSC-FM days. I can't remember what music service was used after the changeover to WZNS. Those of us who were there in early 1986 were not all that enthused about the personality being stripped from the station in favor of the infamous "lite rock, less talk" format. I have also been on an elevator ride with Doug Carter about 1500 feet up the WPDE-TV tower. We had to go up there and repair a cable involving ENG receiver switching. That was when we were both in the engineering department at channel 15. I worked in master control except for one day a week when I would either work with Doug at the transmitter or on anything needing to be done at the former facility on Cashua Drive. I remember that 2 meter repeater. I used to monitor it and the one on the WWAY-TV tower. On the subject of WHSC, Hartsville, I had the pleasure of visiting an old friend and mentor a couple of weeks ago whose father had much to do with putting that station on the air many years ago. Jan Caddell has owned WKSK, West Jefferson, for many years and gave me my first chief engineering position at WRGC, Sylva, back in 1978. I would enjoy talking to Doug Carter again. I have wondered if he is still working for SCETV.

 

[Wabbit_Season]

Doug Carter (it's my understanding) still works at SCETV as well as free-lancing for radio stations in the Florence area

 

[CrazeeCarroll1]

Hey Wabbit It has been about six years now since I talked to Doug on 2 meters... I dunno if he does any HFing or not... All I have to try to get back down to sandlapper land is a 20 meter isotron antenna and it seems to do very well towards the sunshine state but for 20 meters I think I am still a little too close to SC... We would sit on two meters a lot at night and heck for that matter a lot of it was done while I would be board oping Braves games at WPUB... There was always a good group that loved old time radio and Doug was no exception... I think he is still with SCETV, but that has been some time ago... CC1

 

[Ssummers]

On the subject of WHSC, Hartsville, I had the pleasure of visiting an old friend and mentor a couple of weeks ago whose father had much to do with putting that station on the air many years ago. Jan Caddell has owned WKSK, West Jefferson, for many years and gave me my first chief engineering position at WRGC, Sylva, back in 1978. I would enjoy talking to Doug Carter again. I have wondered if he is still working for SCETV.

Ahhh, WHSC, where it all started for me in the Summers, um, I mean, the Summer of 1975. Obie Lyles, Louis Cook, Roy Gregg, Mike Oates, Jacob Will and Bruce Copeland. Rom Funderburk was the CE when I started I think.