Yeah! this may be the BEST AM station in the country
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The BIG GUN? WGUN 1010? Whaaat?
- Thread starter jefflaurence
- Start date
the best...BEST AM station in the country?
I can't tell if this is serious. Based on ratings WGUN gets more comments on this board than they have listeners on the air. It seems odd to have so many rated stations that people hear getting continually blasted here and WGUN being adored with affection and hype.
Everyone has a right to an opinion. If someone is this taken with WGUN they must have never heard Dan Ingram on WABC or Gary McKee on WQXI or WINS NY or KDKA Pittsburgh. I'm gullible. I actually was buying into this "blog."
I can't tell if this is serious. Based on ratings WGUN gets more comments on this board than they have listeners on the air. It seems odd to have so many rated stations that people hear getting continually blasted here and WGUN being adored with affection and hype.
Everyone has a right to an opinion. If someone is this taken with WGUN they must have never heard Dan Ingram on WABC or Gary McKee on WQXI or WINS NY or KDKA Pittsburgh. I'm gullible. I actually was buying into this "blog."
From the beginning, WGUN (then WEAS) was (and maybe still is to some degree) what we used to call a
"3-R's" station...Rural-Religion-Race. Many of these stations that were built in larger markets in the late-40's and 50's. Almost always daytimers, these stations programmed country music (Rural) from sign-on 'till 10 AM, preachin' and gospel music (Religion) in middays, and blues, jazz, soul and R&B music (Race) from 2 or 3 PM 'till sign-off.
For more than one period in its history, WEAS/WGUN primarily programmed country music, although I think there was still a good bit of religious programming.
Quite a bit of the programming on "3-R's" stations was brokered...someone would purchase an hour or more from the station, then go out and sell and collect from their advertisers, with the intent of making a profit from their efforts.
Although not large-market stations, a couple of examples I'm familiar with are George Rose (a/k/a Cousin Josh) at WKAC/Athens, Alabama, and "Slats" Jackson at WMVG/Milledgeville, Georgia. Both these guys purchased two hours of time every day, sold spots to advertisers and did the programs live from the stations. Almost all the spots were live reads...most very humorous, as was the programming...especially with George/Cousin Josh.
"3-R's" station...Rural-Religion-Race. Many of these stations that were built in larger markets in the late-40's and 50's. Almost always daytimers, these stations programmed country music (Rural) from sign-on 'till 10 AM, preachin' and gospel music (Religion) in middays, and blues, jazz, soul and R&B music (Race) from 2 or 3 PM 'till sign-off.
For more than one period in its history, WEAS/WGUN primarily programmed country music, although I think there was still a good bit of religious programming.
Quite a bit of the programming on "3-R's" stations was brokered...someone would purchase an hour or more from the station, then go out and sell and collect from their advertisers, with the intent of making a profit from their efforts.
Although not large-market stations, a couple of examples I'm familiar with are George Rose (a/k/a Cousin Josh) at WKAC/Athens, Alabama, and "Slats" Jackson at WMVG/Milledgeville, Georgia. Both these guys purchased two hours of time every day, sold spots to advertisers and did the programs live from the stations. Almost all the spots were live reads...most very humorous, as was the programming...especially with George/Cousin Josh.
WGUN has a show(at least up until a few months ago)which has been on the air since the 70's. It is/was a 30 minute show and featured a man and wife(senior moment - I can't remember their names ) and it was all live. He played a cheap electronic organ in the background while he talked and did his "commercials" all live.
He claimed to have a phd in accounting, wore the worst toupee imaginable, and was the last Fullerbrush salesman left on the planet earth.
I always wondered if they ever made any money doing this or if it was just an expensive "hobby." He did do a commercial for a southside Cadillac dealership every week and had made a few records with his wife which they peddled on the show -
It always made me think of the recording made by the Statler Brothers back in the 70s called, "The Saturday Morning Radio Show." It featured Lester Morran, "The Ol' RoadHog and his Cadillac Cowboys" and was a satirical takeoff on the oldtime radio shows.
I'm thinking on the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame website there is an ad for WGUN back in the 50s advertising it as a 3R station. I"m surprised the "format" was common. WGUN is still sort of that type station - black gospel in the evening and standards/oldies in the daytime. This makes sense because the signal is only 78 watts at night and coverage is limited to mainly black areas of southern Dekalb County. In the daytime they still have a lot of brokered programming......
He claimed to have a phd in accounting, wore the worst toupee imaginable, and was the last Fullerbrush salesman left on the planet earth.
I always wondered if they ever made any money doing this or if it was just an expensive "hobby." He did do a commercial for a southside Cadillac dealership every week and had made a few records with his wife which they peddled on the show -
It always made me think of the recording made by the Statler Brothers back in the 70s called, "The Saturday Morning Radio Show." It featured Lester Morran, "The Ol' RoadHog and his Cadillac Cowboys" and was a satirical takeoff on the oldtime radio shows.
I'm thinking on the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame website there is an ad for WGUN back in the 50s advertising it as a 3R station. I"m surprised the "format" was common. WGUN is still sort of that type station - black gospel in the evening and standards/oldies in the daytime. This makes sense because the signal is only 78 watts at night and coverage is limited to mainly black areas of southern Dekalb County. In the daytime they still have a lot of brokered programming......
IFB64 said:
The Add of some of the 70s music is a kinda neat touch.. Although it's train wreck approach needs to end, as well as that DAMN CANNON.. Its really too much on the ears.. Call it genius, but it's actually fatiguing to the ears. Standards and 60s and 70s CAN MIX, but please enough already of the endless " Thats Entertainment" imaging and the Gun Blasts.. This aint 1964
Aw....c'mon Lil'.....the cannon shots are great!
I bet all the lights in the neighborhoods for several miles around the transmitter blink when that cannon shot makes the transmitter "call power."
I bet all the lights in the neighborhoods for several miles around the transmitter blink when that cannon shot makes the transmitter "call power."
amlover said:
Thanks AM! I think his wife's name was Dorothy - I think she died a year or so back. I felt bad for him - they were glued to each other for all those years. Does he still do a 30 minute show on WGUN?
Those kind of shows used to be common as Jay pointed out. The morning guy down in Newnan, Mr. Alvin Johnson, now deceased, used to talk about the old days before tape - all the commercials were live reads and most of the programming of the network(I think he said they were Mutual.)
And people have been buying hours or half hours peobably since the dawn of commercial radio to peddle their goods and services.
I like the eccentric stations with real owners with real personalities - people like Joe Weber and Georgia(Rivers) Salva. I hope one of these owners gets the 102.9 frequency - either station could expand the coverage to something similar to 97.9(which stopped on scan up in Cumming - 30 miles out of town!!)
We don't need more Dicky radio - we don't need another Radio One station - we need a unique service like WGUN, WMLB, or maybe WAOK. Maybe Steve Hegewood will sell it to Georgia or Joe just to get rid of it......
taylorengineer said:
You're talking about the old Viva/R1 translator and not WMJE, right? Frankly, I hope the translator stays dark so it won't interfere with WMJE--although Rock 103 (WVRK, 102.9) out of Columbus has been beating up on WMJE badly lately.
WAOK still counts as corporate radio--it's owned by CBS. Although it is a unique format.
Whatever happened to Warren Roberts who was manager at 1010 for a long time? I think he was the one who flipped it from WEAS to WGUN when they went from 10,000 watts to 50,000.
A lot of people have worked there at one time or another including Bob Gallion when it was mostly country in the late 50s and early 60s. Bill Lowery even did a short stint there as did Hank Morgan with sports and Bob Secrest with news. Roberts did both country and gospel shows. There was "Jack the Bellboy" with "race" music at one time. And some live country shows from time to time. I think Warren Roberts went to WTJH in East Point after he left WGUN, but I wonder what ever became of him after he left TJH. 1010 has had a colorful history.
A lot of people have worked there at one time or another including Bob Gallion when it was mostly country in the late 50s and early 60s. Bill Lowery even did a short stint there as did Hank Morgan with sports and Bob Secrest with news. Roberts did both country and gospel shows. There was "Jack the Bellboy" with "race" music at one time. And some live country shows from time to time. I think Warren Roberts went to WTJH in East Point after he left WGUN, but I wonder what ever became of him after he left TJH. 1010 has had a colorful history.
Does anyone else have a problem with this station using a hand gun as it's symbol? It's supposedly a Christian station but I seem to remember the sixth commandment saying "You shall not kill." What other use does a hand gun have? I'm just saying.
Steve Malone said:
WGUN and WTJH were both Rivers stations. 1010was owned by Dee Rivers, Gov. E.D. "Big Ed"
Sorry.....my computer started coughing up blood on the above post.
WTJH was owned by Jim Rivers, brother of the governor and 1010 was owned by E.D."Dee" Rivers, the governor's youngest son. The two companies were separate but I would imagine there was some sharing of assets and talent.
Warren went to work for Wilhite at WSSA after WTJH was sold to Bishop Willis. I don't know what happened with him - I think he retired.
I wish someone would document the Rivers family history - it's a facinating story - at least the parts I've heard.
I never heard that Bill Lowery worked there but I'm not surprised. There are many many names in the WGUN history book.........
WTJH was owned by Jim Rivers, brother of the governor and 1010 was owned by E.D."Dee" Rivers, the governor's youngest son. The two companies were separate but I would imagine there was some sharing of assets and talent.
Warren went to work for Wilhite at WSSA after WTJH was sold to Bishop Willis. I don't know what happened with him - I think he retired.
I wish someone would document the Rivers family history - it's a facinating story - at least the parts I've heard.
I never heard that Bill Lowery worked there but I'm not surprised. There are many many names in the WGUN history book.........
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