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The Old Days

Well, there are so many things I miss I don't know where to start. First of all, pardon my spelling.

I miss the sound of a fidellapack kart hitting the floor, hearing WVKO FM separate and join am, the sound of a kartdeck re-cuing while a live spot is being read, the nervousness I'd feel hearing a jock on the air for the firs time mainly on WDAO or WVKO where they used records, not karts. I miss the sound of a record cued too close, or started on the wrong speed, the sound of a kart that didn't recue, the sound of coffee being spilled over the air by Dave Antheny, the sound of the different remote lines when 5 stations had OSU football, and 3 had basketball, the thrill of running the OSU BB games for Joe Hill on WBBY, someone who I grew up listening too. I miss hearing an AM transmitter sign on, and to think I got to do the very same thing I pretended doing as a little kid at WOSU. I miss trying to get WZAK in Cleveland, and getting WKJG 97.5 on my clock radio out of Fort Wayne. You may say "big deal" but in those days FM radios didn't have the separation they do now. I miss hearing the Jets on WSPO, and the Bob Chambers hockey broadcasts, I miss Bob Bouton, so many things. I fell in love with radio, while my friends did things my lack of sight didn't let me do. Radio as I used to know it is gone and consultants say it wouldn't work now anyway. Are they right? Well, ten million or more are paying $14.95 to listen to the radio, so you figure it out.

I remember when a friend ffound a cassette of one of my big band shows on WOSU at a yard sell. I didn't know if I should feel flattered because they recorded it, or hurt because they wanted to get rid of it. I couldn't convince him to give me the tape.

Oh, one more thing, I miss hearing the sound of dirty pots on WVKO's Collins board and WMNI's old gates. What ever happened to Larry Trimmer and is the sherif Dave Falon the same one who used to be on WBBY in 1969?

Thanks for reading,

Chuck
 
I miss the times when WCOL was the station everybody listened to. My old hometown was beyond the range of WCOL-AM (or any other "decent" station for that matter) and I discovered that I could receive it on the FM simulcast by connecting my radio to the cable TV line coming into my parents house. I would feed the output of the FM radio into my Greymark 505 AM transmitter and rebroadcast WCOL to my friends around the neighborhood on it's original 1230 frequency.
 
The Big 8 CKLW. Live personalities on WOWO. WCOL-FM's first AOR format (with religion until 2pm!). Local FMs signing off at 10pm or midnight allowing DX from Detroit, Cleveland and other places to come in. Life before the 80-90 drop-ins for the same reason. In fact, before all the K-Love translators that have every frequency just about tied up. Playing 45s on the radio. "Slip-cueing" LP cuts. Music on carts (and God help the DJ who forgets to recue one! WNCI in the 1970s. WTVN and WBNS being hot A/C with lots of news. American Contemporary Radio. Mutual News (bee-DOOP). Dayton's "Stereo Soul Giant" WDAO. TM's Stereo Rock format. Much more!
 
gr8oldies said:
The Big 8 CKLW. Live personalities on WOWO. WCOL-FM's first AOR format (with religion until 2pm!). Local FMs signing off at 10pm or midnight allowing DX from Detroit, Cleveland and other places to come in. Life before the 80-90 drop-ins for the same reason. In fact, before all the K-Love translators that have every frequency just about tied up. Playing 45s on the radio. "Slip-cueing" LP cuts. Music on carts (and God help the DJ who forgets to recue one! WNCI in the 1970s. WTVN and WBNS being hot A/C with lots of news. American Contemporary Radio. Mutual News (bee-DOOP). Dayton's "Stereo Soul Giant" WDAO. TM's Stereo Rock format. Much more!

Ah, these are some good ones!!

It's interesting that you say WTVN and WBNS-AM were Hot A/C. Guy Zapoleon (still 97.1's consultant, I believe) claims he "invented" Hot AC at KHMX in Houston in the early 90's. Yeah, right! I agree with you -- TVN and BNS were basically full-service Hot AC's for a number of years.
 
Hmm....

Well, as a guy born in the middle 70's...

The first thing I miss is the old WTVN. Hot Wax weekends, Easy Ed Hartley, awesome decades of music all the time, and the stupid contests they would have. I still have two Drew Zoo T-shirts....Riding in the morning on the bus with Bob Connors AND the obscure tunes he liked to play. Riding home on that same International bus with the old Corby show, and the music he liked to play. Desperate and Dateless on Friday nights.


WBBY. What a cool station. Still have thier bumper stickers on my wall.


Everything about 92X. Alot of WHKC's music is off the old 92X playlist, and I can still hear all the WXGT 92X lightning bolts and different intros they would stick into the beginning of a set of songs. And of course, Suzy Waud. All of the stuff that made her show great. The novelty songs, her weather reports, (she never called a thunderstorm the same thing). The fact that 92X played a ton of the Top 100 chart, not just the top 20 or 40 over and over. And of course, Sunday morning countdowns with Casey or Shadow Stevens.

And High School with Hot 105. the WWHT version. That and WNCI were killer when they went head to head. The original Friday night 80's on WNCI. The one that started off of the Zoo playing an 80's song at 0830 in the morning.

WMNI. The country stations do not hold a candle to this place. What a great station. The day I flipped it on and heard Frank Sinatra, I figured out that everything that made radio great in this town was now officially gone.

TV stations that signed off at night. I used to stay up as late as I could to see WOSU go off, and one night I remember WCMH signing off, and before they went black, had a guy walk up to a 3 phase safety switch, looked into the camera and smiled, and threw the switch. The screen went black, and 30 seconds later the snow filled the screen. Way too cool.


WHKC is our only hope!
 
Josh.B said:
Hmm....

Well, as a guy born in the middle 70's...

The first thing I miss is the old WTVN. Hot Wax weekends, Easy Ed Hartley, awesome decades of music all the time, and the stupid contests they would have. I still have two Drew Zoo T-shirts....Riding in the morning on the bus with Bob Connors AND the obscure tunes he liked to play. Riding home on that same International bus with the old Corby show, and the music he liked to play. Desperate and Dateless on Friday nights.


WBBY. What a cool station. Still have thier bumper stickers on my wall.


Everything about 92X. Alot of WHKC's music is off the old 92X playlist, and I can still hear all the WXGT 92X lightning bolts and different intros they would stick into the beginning of a set of songs. And of course, Suzy Waud. All of the stuff that made her show great. The novelty songs, her weather reports, (she never called a thunderstorm the same thing). The fact that 92X played a ton of the Top 100 chart, not just the top 20 or 40 over and over. And of course, Sunday morning countdowns with Casey or Shadow Stevens.

And High School with Hot 105. the WWHT version. That and WNCI were killer when they went head to head. The original Friday night 80's on WNCI. The one that started off of the Zoo playing an 80's song at 0830 in the morning.

WMNI. The country stations do not hold a candle to this place. What a great station. The day I flipped it on and heard Frank Sinatra, I figured out that everything that made radio great in this town was now officially gone.

TV stations that signed off at night. I used to stay up as late as I could to see WOSU go off, and one night I remember WCMH signing off, and before they went black, had a guy walk up to a 3 phase safety switch, looked into the camera and smiled, and threw the switch. The screen went black, and 30 seconds later the snow filled the screen. Way too cool.


WHKC is our only hope!
Well, I must be honest here. If WHKC is our only hope, there is no hope. I mean really!!!! The guy will have to make some money somehow. Eventually WHKC will have to LMA to somebody like 101.9 did. Those spots on 91.5 are nothing but spots, make no mistake about it and eventually someone will get caught. To my way of thinking, there is no way you can afford to keep running an automated jukebox and in my oppinion that's what's wrong with radio now, it has no personality. Your better off downloading songs and playing them on an ipod if 91.5 is the kind of radio you want because it in no way resembles what radio used to be. At least with XM or Sirius you'll have a 5000 song playlist instead of a 500 song playlist and you can find about any type of music, it's radio cable!!!!!

If I were them, I wouldn't even run spots for XM or Sirius!!

Please don't be offended but radio is in no way what it used to be and that's whey many folks are willing to pay $14.95 to hear something else. In reading all these posts, it's clear what we all miss and regret is the day they took the people out of radio. Over the air radio could save itself so easy by just having local people do local radio. But now, I think it may be a little too late. Now I think all IBOC is doing is helping the radio industry re-arrange deck chairs on the Titanic.

No, WHKC is and cannot be and will never be our radio savior, even though they supposedly have the name Christian somewhere burried in their name, license, or whatever. And Oscar Meyer sales Blogna for $2.00 a pound and that's the real thing. WHKC bing Christian is just that, pure Blogna.
 
Many people have expressed their feelings on Columbus radio and the lack of local flavor. I for one cannot complain about these things as I have never taken any steps to try and change this myself. One person sometimes can make a difference.

I point to the situation with WVKO AM as an example. I believe that any person or group of people could have LMA'd that station and made it what Columbus radio used to be. People still need to be entertained and something different always stands out from the crowd. A number of Columbus civic organizations could have also stepped up to the plate and saved WVKO's heritage but they did not. I believe that any of this would have been possible especially in Columbus more than any other place because of our people and our willing to help attitude when others are in trouble. We now need to help ourselves. We are not only radio pros, we are also consumers.
That means we choose what succeeds and what does not. Next time the opportunity occurs to make a change we need to stand up and quote a famous movie line and say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore".

Now back to our regularly scheduled program......
 
cadkins6739 said:
Please don't be offended but radio is in no way what it used to be and that's whey many folks are willing to pay $14.95 to hear something else. In reading all these posts, it's clear what we all miss and regret is the day they took the people out of radio. Over the air radio could save itself so easy by just having local people do local radio. But now, I think it may be a little too late. Now I think all IBOC is doing is helping the radio industry re-arrange deck chairs on the Titanic.

No, WHKC is and cannot be and will never be our radio savior, even though they supposedly have the name Christian somewhere burried in their name, license, or whatever. And Oscar Meyer sales Blogna for $2.00 a pound and that's the real thing. WHKC bing Christian is just that, pure Blogna.

Offended? Not at all.

I should have clarified my thoughts.

WHKC COULD be what we want, if they want to be. As somebody pointed out, they are one of the few in town not under big corporate control, and have a big signal. I guess I do not understand WHY nobody will do it. The only thing that makes sense is that either we are a small, insignificant group of people that want that radio back, or they are too afraid to see if more people will accept it back. WHKC has that opportunity right now. The question is will he take the chance?

Somebody else pointed out several threads back that non-comm radio has sucessfully done that before. Why won't anybody try it here? Why won't a mix of old and newer Columbus radio, work? Take any station, put in some of 92X, Hot 105, The old Arrow, Some of WTVN, and run with it? Alot of those personalities are still around. Alot of the people who grew up listening to it are still here. I know scads of people who would listen to Suzy Waud order a pizza. I would love to get her back on the air. People still want to hear the music, we have proven that!!

I dunno.
 
Sorry to bring everybody down in my previous post. ::)

I miss the pride everybody used to exhibit in the old days. If you were in radio or television you knew that you worked someplace special. Alot of people would come to work dressed in nice clothes even if you were running a camera or worked behind the mic where the public did not see you. What's more is that you continued to improve yourself with continuing education of your craft. I also miss live local television for more than just the news. Variety shows would often showcase musical talent or local comedians and many local hosts became household names. I miss the local ownership of radio and TV stations. If you had an idea you could talk directly to the owner about it and you were not the last one to know when something big happened. I also miss the many great people who made radio fun because they were unaffected by the competition or the politics.
Finally, I miss the way people used to care so much about the staff at the station that they sent you Christmas cards and would bring you food and baked goods in appreciation.
 
Well, interesting. I remember one saturday morning wile on the air at WOSU doing my big band thing, I was complaining about my lot in life stuck there without coffee and sure enough, someone showed up a hald hour latter with a can of coffee.

Then there was a time when I first started at WBBY, the guy who owned and maybe still does, a record shop on campus was on the air and after breaking one of the consol VU meeters complained about his lot in life, bemoaning the fact the we as a station we so inconsiderate not to have beer there for him, and he wondered if someone would be so kind and bring him some beer--apologizing for the long drive that was ahead of whoever decided to do a good deed. I don't know if he was a successful in his atempt, but I do remember that shortly thereafter his alotment of airtime was cut way back, as in he bacame a part of Columbus radio history. What record shop did he own? Let's see if anybody knows.
RF Man said:
Sorry to bring everybody down in my previous post. ::)

I miss the pride everybody used to exhibit in the old days. If you were in radio or television you knew that you worked someplace special. Alot of people would come to work dressed in nice clothes even if you were running a camera or worked behind the mic where the public did not see you. What's more is that you continued to improve yourself with continuing education of your craft. I also miss live local television for more than just the news. Variety shows would often showcase musical talent or local comedians and many local hosts became household names. I miss the local ownership of radio and TV stations. If you had an idea you could talk directly to the owner about it and you were not the last one to know when something big happened. I also miss the many great people who made radio fun because they were unaffected by the competition or the politics.
Finally, I miss the way people used to care so much about the staff at the station that they sent you Christmas cards and would bring you food and baked goods in appreciation.
 
Gotta share these...

Working nights at WXMX and doing a request show, I had a little leeway with my on-air presentation. I was "your buddy" as opposed to being the DJ.

Anyway, one nite, I came in and there was NO COFFEE!! One of the listeners, Marie who lived on Yearling Road called to request a song and noted that I was very calm that night. I explained my caffine issue, used the call on the air to bring in the song and Mari as well as 2 other listeners brought coffee to the station between 1-2am! That was soooooooo unbelievably cool!

On another night at the same station, the a/c was out in the studio. One of our part time guys "Babyface Bob" was in the studio with me that night, suffering through the heat. I induced a little theater of the mind and procalimed this night to be SHIRTLESS THURSDAY. Within half an hour we were joined in our celebration, college girls, in a covertible, God bless America! And God bless live and local radio!!!
 
My memory isn't the best either, but this is one thing I'm in no danger of forgetting since Kenny "Mole" Stone was my cousin. I sure hope he's not the answer to cadkins' quiz, but if he is no one should take that as an indication of what Kenny was really like. He could be, well, "different" at times, but that was part of his unique charm. Overall he was about as sweet a guy as you could meet. I know he dabbled in radio -- I believe he was the first PD at WCOL-FM, before Bob Gooding, as it first transitioned to rock -- but he openly admitted that structured radio was neither a passion nor an area of strength for him. Kenny was a music-lover and record seller.
 
Oh no, it was not Kenny. He was one of the nicest guys I ever met. We talked once about how we both had a dream about the same Otis Redding concert the week after he died. Otis sang a song we have never heard since. I told me that every Dec. 10 I spend about an hour or two playing Otis Redding stuff in his memory. Kenny had far too much class to do anything like that, and his oldies show on the then WBUK (now qfm for the younger crowd formly WTVN FM for the rest of us) was a Saturday afternoon habbit I still miss. Kenny was a class class person, and didn't mind going through his records reading them to me whenever I called or stopped by. One of the most beautiful things about Kenny was when you heard him on the radio, you heard Kenny and not a radio guy. I mean you heard him, he didn't know how to be any one else--I wish I could have known him better and spent more time with him. He was a pioneer in Album Oriented Rock, and he was the perfect person to pioneer anything. No, it was not Kenny. I'll tell, I'm pretty sure I'm right about this. It was the owner of Magnolia Thunder *****, I can't remember his name. I hope memory has served me correctly. If not, I'll just have to have a beer!!!!!
Nu_Roo_2 said:
My memory isn't the best either, but this is one thing I'm in no danger of forgetting since Kenny "Mole" Stone was my cousin. I sure hope he's not the answer to cadkins' quiz, but if he is no one should take that as an indication of what Kenny was really like. He could be, well, "different" at times, but that was part of his unique charm. Overall he was about as sweet a guy as you could meet. I know he dabbled in radio -- I believe he was the first PD at WCOL-FM, before Bob Gooding, as it first transitioned to rock -- but he openly admitted that structured radio was neither a passion nor an area of strength for him. Kenny was a music-lover and record seller.
 
I miss(ever so dearly)

The Big 8 "CKLW...the motor city" and Byron McGregor doing 20/20 News.

WLS,Chicago

WCFL,Chicago

Cousin Bruce Morrow and Chuck Leonard on WABC, New York

The Hossman on WLAC in Nashville with his graveyard shift black gospel program and those commercials for Red Top Baby Chicks and some sort of psoriasis treatment where he went:
"Then YOU have a DISEASED SCALP! And now's the time to cure-up that diseased scalp..you don't want no itchy head!" Great down home on-air delivery.

"The New" WCOL....PAMS and TM jingles included.. (Automated/voice tracked "Real Oldies 1230" was a slap in the face to those who made WCOL great!)

O Malley and Chad(mornings) and "stereo-quad" Suzie Waud(evenings) on WXGT "92-X"

Gene "By Golly" Barry and Steve Kirk on WING in Dayton

Kim Faris on WGTZ "Z-93 "Eaton,Dayton and Springfield ALIVE!..(fortunately she's back on the air at CC's WLQT "Lite 99.9")

Stanley Coning on "Radio Ranch 1130 WCTM" in Eaton..good natured and easy going guy though he lacked professionalism..he's a sweet old man..God love him! Used to do liners and commercials for him in the 80s.

Gordy Price on WMVR in Sidney later at WIMT "T-102" in Lima "how's your boogaloo situation???" Also did mid days years beforehand at WCIT in Lima and graveyard shift at WING.

"JACK-SON ARMSTRONGWKBWRADIOMUOOOOOOOOOOOOO-ZIK!!!!!!!"

The electronic sweep beeper sound logo on NBC Radio's "Monitor" weekend program.

Wolfman Jack
 
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