The WAKY calls left 790 in 1988, about two years after the oldies format ended. They first put the WVEZ beautiful music format on AM calling it "The Beautiful 790" and a year later tried automated country and called it "WACKY Country", cleaver. JQ has samples of the later on his
www.79waky.com. Greensburg picked up the calls. When Greensburg and 102.7 Springfield became co-owned (CBC i believe), the stand alone stayed in Greensburg and the "FM" suffix of the calls went on 102.7.
The WKLO calls wound up in Danville about a year and change after 1080 dropped them. Junior Shane wanted to build a radio station and convinced Johnny Randolph to run it. Johnny was willing but the deal was the station had to be in, or around, Danville. The "new" WKLO was now a 1000 watt directional daytimer. Johnny was the manager and morning man, his wife was middays and a local guy who won a "you can be a DJ contest" was afternoons. The format was live and local country and used old WKLO jingles, of course 1080 was not included. Gary Burbank voiced the top of the hour ID, "This is ten, in the middle of the dial, WKLO Danville". It was a decent facility all the music was on carts and the board was build by Junior. Funny story about the carts, since WKLO was a daytimer Johnny was concerned about theft of music; you know those music carts look like 8-tracks. He placed a sign over the cart area and in big letters annonced:
THESE TAPES WILL NOT PLAY IN AN 8-TRACK PLAYER
Around 1990, Johnny and Junior had a falling out over their "gentleman's agreement". Also, there was a chance to acquire an FM, what became 105.1 Lancaster, and apparently Junior pass on the chance. So Johnny took everyone over to WHIR/WMGE and teamed up with then owner Wayne Perky.
WKLO quickly spun out of control. The format briefly changed to oldies. Then Junior hired Rich Hunter as manager. The format became a form of Adult Contemporary. They even hired talk show host Dale Wright for lots of money. He did a few days until the first paycheck bounced and Dale quick coming to work as his loyalty stopped with his paycheck. WKLO bounced its last check in 1991 and went dark. The towers located on Highway 34 just off US 27 came down a couple of years later.
If you're looking for the gold records and memorabilia of this version of WKLO it can be found at Junior's amphitheater at Pine Knob.
E.Alvin Davis is right... Mo! Hey? Why did all (not overdone uncontrolled) energy go?? We all are sounding like Dick Clark remembering the great days (Dick is great with his trademark and discussion, but we're talking jocking...)... 