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waso
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Over 25 years ago, I drove through Covington and west on US 190 to visit the station on a whim. It was late afternoon and I had gotten off work, and I wanted to see the station, then WARB, founded and owned by A. R. Blossman, hence the callsign. WARB 730 AM, on the Mexican clear channel of XEX Mexico City, was a down-at-sundown station. It came into New Orleans quite well on the AM radios of the 1940s and 1950s, and when I wanted to hear something different from WTIX and Poppa Stoppa, I'd tune in to the station for small town news and events. Its local flavor, its lack of slickness (but not lack of professionalism), its agricultural and swap-shop programs were pleasant adventures in sound, quite different from big city stations. It brought the fantasies of country life to this kid growing up in a big city shotgun in a working class neighborhood.
WARB had come on the air about 1950--if someone needs exact info, I'll try to find it in my notes, when WIHL in Hammond vacated 730 AM for its present 1400 AM in Hammond (it later became WFPR, for Florida Parishes Radio--the parishes (counties) north of Lake Pontchartrain and west to the Mississippi were once part of the Spanish province of Florida), which frequency was vacated by a Baton Rouge early post-World War II station. Blossman applied for the frequency in Covington and won it. WARB was, and is, the only radio station ever licensed to this nice-size little parish seat.
About 25-28 years ago, the Blossman family decided to get out of the radio business (they had never applied for an FM frequency, sad to say) and sold the station. The station then went through a series of owners, and others can tell the colorful but sad story of how it has come to be silent after being seized for nonpayment of back taxes.
As I started out saying, I visited the station that late afternoon, driving west out of north Covington on US 190, seeing the tall tower rising out of the pines, silhouetted against a setting sun. I was invited inside. It was a neat little white building, built in the traditional 1940's radio station style. Off to the side, in what may have been a studio at one time, appeared to be the original transmitter, the round porthole in front. I think it was an RCA, but I am not sure. Perhaps other readers can give more details about the early WARB--was the station layout one of the standard designs offered by RCA to clients who wanted to start stations back in those heady post-war days, when AM radio stations doubled and tripled in number? I had wanted to spend more time there, but only the announcer on duty was there and he did not want me wandering the building. Interestingly WARB/WASO never upgraded its original 250 watts of power.
A lifetime, elderly resident who is a good friend told me there was much local unhappiness when WARB was sold and the new owner changed it to a talk format dealing with big city and state issues. The local service was gone for good. St Tammany Parish has never since had a good local station since, the new FM's themselves going through a series of owners and trying to make it in what is essentially now a bedroom community across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. The local farms have pretty much disappeared, along with the lumber industry, and one has to continue north to the parishes (counties) along the Mississippi State line to find them.
Time has not been good to the little town stations surrounding New Orleans. KAGY 1510 Port Sulphur, another daytimer, is gone, its last years a fundamentalist station until Katrina destroyed the transmitter and most of Plaquemines Parish; KLEB 1600 Golden Meadow originally, still serves the community with a fine signal that goes all the way into New Orleans. WFPR in Hammond is pretty much oriented to the bedroom community that serves Baton Rouge. WFCG Franklinton, near the Mississippi line, along with its FM, targets the trans-lake bedroom community, too. WSDL Slidell, on the eastern end of the lake, targets New Orleans now. Only the two Bogalusa AM's seem to have so far retained their small-town flavor and service, for Bogalusa is off the Interstate system, much to its unhappiness, and continues to be a small Southern paper-mill and market town, perched on the Pearl River almost in the corner of the Florida Parishes. When I was young, the owner of one the stations was financially run out of town when he editorialized against racism. His advertisers were warned to cancel their advertising and those who did not were intimidated into doing so. The story got national coverage.
The news of the destruction of the WARB/WASO tower is sad. I hope it does not mean that the station is gone for good.
WARB had come on the air about 1950--if someone needs exact info, I'll try to find it in my notes, when WIHL in Hammond vacated 730 AM for its present 1400 AM in Hammond (it later became WFPR, for Florida Parishes Radio--the parishes (counties) north of Lake Pontchartrain and west to the Mississippi were once part of the Spanish province of Florida), which frequency was vacated by a Baton Rouge early post-World War II station. Blossman applied for the frequency in Covington and won it. WARB was, and is, the only radio station ever licensed to this nice-size little parish seat.
About 25-28 years ago, the Blossman family decided to get out of the radio business (they had never applied for an FM frequency, sad to say) and sold the station. The station then went through a series of owners, and others can tell the colorful but sad story of how it has come to be silent after being seized for nonpayment of back taxes.
As I started out saying, I visited the station that late afternoon, driving west out of north Covington on US 190, seeing the tall tower rising out of the pines, silhouetted against a setting sun. I was invited inside. It was a neat little white building, built in the traditional 1940's radio station style. Off to the side, in what may have been a studio at one time, appeared to be the original transmitter, the round porthole in front. I think it was an RCA, but I am not sure. Perhaps other readers can give more details about the early WARB--was the station layout one of the standard designs offered by RCA to clients who wanted to start stations back in those heady post-war days, when AM radio stations doubled and tripled in number? I had wanted to spend more time there, but only the announcer on duty was there and he did not want me wandering the building. Interestingly WARB/WASO never upgraded its original 250 watts of power.
A lifetime, elderly resident who is a good friend told me there was much local unhappiness when WARB was sold and the new owner changed it to a talk format dealing with big city and state issues. The local service was gone for good. St Tammany Parish has never since had a good local station since, the new FM's themselves going through a series of owners and trying to make it in what is essentially now a bedroom community across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. The local farms have pretty much disappeared, along with the lumber industry, and one has to continue north to the parishes (counties) along the Mississippi State line to find them.
Time has not been good to the little town stations surrounding New Orleans. KAGY 1510 Port Sulphur, another daytimer, is gone, its last years a fundamentalist station until Katrina destroyed the transmitter and most of Plaquemines Parish; KLEB 1600 Golden Meadow originally, still serves the community with a fine signal that goes all the way into New Orleans. WFPR in Hammond is pretty much oriented to the bedroom community that serves Baton Rouge. WFCG Franklinton, near the Mississippi line, along with its FM, targets the trans-lake bedroom community, too. WSDL Slidell, on the eastern end of the lake, targets New Orleans now. Only the two Bogalusa AM's seem to have so far retained their small-town flavor and service, for Bogalusa is off the Interstate system, much to its unhappiness, and continues to be a small Southern paper-mill and market town, perched on the Pearl River almost in the corner of the Florida Parishes. When I was young, the owner of one the stations was financially run out of town when he editorialized against racism. His advertisers were warned to cancel their advertising and those who did not were intimidated into doing so. The story got national coverage.
The news of the destruction of the WARB/WASO tower is sad. I hope it does not mean that the station is gone for good.
I remain fascinated by the story of the station being "turned back on" for St. Tammany-specific post-Katrina messages.
I moved from NOLA in 2004, but it is my understanding that the station was barely operating by the time it was turned off. It had been years earlier when I last made a tour of the place, but to describe what I saw as a 'rathole' would be unfair to the rat community. From my memory audio was being fed to the site from south of the lake via what sounded like a bad dial-up phone line.
So, here comes Katrina, and just three days later "authorities" turned the station back on.
Exactly *who* turned it on, and more importantly, how? According to Wikipedia, the previous operator had been run off and the station turned off by Federal mandate, so in the middle of storm recovery where did St. Tammany find someone who knew how to turn a sight-unseen AM station back on? How did they find power? Did the transmitter work, or it need attention to come back to life? Did the studio equipment work, or was there even any studio there to bring back to life? How did they feed audio into it (and who spoke)?
No criticism is implied or meant. Frankly, I think it was a great idea, and with so many dark AMs -- and with us coastal folks having gone through so many recent hurricanes -- I would propose that every US county should be given an allocation to where they can broadcast all the arcane local information that they want (and I might listen; it's seven weeks after Gustav and I still want to know when all of the limbs are going to be picked up on my street).
But that's not my point -- instead I think this Katrina broadcast may provide yet one more great WASO story, and I would hate to see it get lost to all of the attention paid to broadcasts from the nearby larger markets.
Anybody know?
I moved from NOLA in 2004, but it is my understanding that the station was barely operating by the time it was turned off. It had been years earlier when I last made a tour of the place, but to describe what I saw as a 'rathole' would be unfair to the rat community. From my memory audio was being fed to the site from south of the lake via what sounded like a bad dial-up phone line.
So, here comes Katrina, and just three days later "authorities" turned the station back on.
Exactly *who* turned it on, and more importantly, how? According to Wikipedia, the previous operator had been run off and the station turned off by Federal mandate, so in the middle of storm recovery where did St. Tammany find someone who knew how to turn a sight-unseen AM station back on? How did they find power? Did the transmitter work, or it need attention to come back to life? Did the studio equipment work, or was there even any studio there to bring back to life? How did they feed audio into it (and who spoke)?
No criticism is implied or meant. Frankly, I think it was a great idea, and with so many dark AMs -- and with us coastal folks having gone through so many recent hurricanes -- I would propose that every US county should be given an allocation to where they can broadcast all the arcane local information that they want (and I might listen; it's seven weeks after Gustav and I still want to know when all of the limbs are going to be picked up on my street).
But that's not my point -- instead I think this Katrina broadcast may provide yet one more great WASO story, and I would hate to see it get lost to all of the attention paid to broadcasts from the nearby larger markets.
Anybody know?
The buyers of WASO could care less about radio. They are in the business of buying a business and selling off it's parts. (The sum of it's parts are worth more than it's whole.) Destroy and sell. Don't blame them. They know no better. 'Course, it would have been nice if they had cared about radio, but, then.....what owner does these days?
Uhhhh.....Mikesfn.....do you turn on your radio or just listen to people chatting? Only reason i'm asking is because KAGY 1510 AM is NOT gone. They were down for a while after Katrina (20 feet of water didn't help em') but KAGY returned to the air well over a year ago. I listened to Irma Thomas "It's Raining" yesterday (10/23/08) on 1510am. As far as the other stations, well....these are interesting times. KAGY sounds good, too. :
I moved from the New Orleans area over a year ago; when I left, it was not on. That was about two years after Katrina.
Do you always answer rudely? Do you suspect that people are always talking off the tops of their heads and not from personal experience? I lived on the North Shore for years and checked the dial often.
Do you always answer rudely? Do you suspect that people are always talking off the tops of their heads and not from personal experience? I lived on the North Shore for years and checked the dial often.
MikeSFNM said:
And maybe just maybe it was off the air for a short period of time because of technical problems... so just like you're telling him not to assume, you shouldn't either.
radioguy, thank you. It seems we live in a world where you have to be nice and polite and not step on any toes insomuchas you may offend someone. I was just sharing info, not trying to be "rude". However, we live in a world of political correctness, time-outs not toughlove, all kids are A+ students, and any kidding aroud is an offenseable offense. PigVomit is sorry to all who have been offended by my attempt at humor. I will now go to my room and concentrate on world unity.
Pigvomit said:
I wasnt trying to be rude or nasty.. i was just pointing something out and reminding you not to do what you accused someone else of doing.
Pigvomit said:
OOPS, Sorry!
I noted your comments about the post-Katrina WASO-AM broadcasts. That effort was the brainchild of Marc Pittman, M.D., owner of Pittman Broadcasting Services.
Dr. Pittman’s stations in Franklinton, LA had been severely damaged by a tornado during Katrina, but were put back on the air by using a 100 watt exciter and bypassing the FM transmitter. That allowed a 500 watt generator to run both WUUU-FM and WOMN-AM.
Unfortunately, the resultant signal covered Washington Parish, but not St. Tammany Parish. Every radio station licensed to St. Tammany Parish, or that had towers in St. Tammany Parish remained off the air after Katrina.
Dr. Pittman was also a Disaster Medical Director for the American Red Cross. He and his brother, Michael Pittman, M.D. opened many of their properties to distribute food, water, ice, medical care, and to serve as staging areas for debris removal.
Frustrated by the lack of communication and the misinformation that was being disseminated by WWL-AM, Dr. Pittman convinced St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis to seize the dormant station, WASO 730 AM.
There was only a six (6) hour window to put the station on the air before a federal marshal arrived in the parish (the station had been seized months earlier by the Federal Trade Commission). When the transmitter site was entered, the federal authorities had gutted the transmitter and studios to stop Robert Namer from ever broadcasting again.
Dr. Pittman took parts from his tornado damaged transmitter in Franklinton to “Frankenstein” the WASO transmitter. WASO was broadcasting within four (4) hours of President Davis’ seizure, well before the arrival of the federal marshal.
The generator that powered the station came from Dr. Pittman’s own home. The emergency broadcasts ran at 1 kilowatt day and night, rather than the FCC designated 250 watt daytime and 25 watt nighttime. Dr. Pittman trained St. Tammany Parish employees in using broadcast recording equipment to record twenty to thirty minutes of emergency information. Tim Harris, with Access St. Tammany, was the main contact person.
The emergency broadcast audio was burned onto a re-writable CDR, and played in a continuous loop over a boom box that survived the tornado in Franklinton. The audio was eventually added to the St. Tammany Parish website so that those who had evacuated and family members of those who remained could keep informed.
After a few days of broadcasting, Dr. Pittman thought that Louisiana needed a ‘fight song’ to help lift the spirits of those involved in the disaster. He added the LSU fight song to the broadcasts, which was an instant hit with the public.
The entire WASO episode was reported by the TIMES-PICAYUNE on 09-03-2005:
TIMES-PICAYUNE Saturday, September 03, 2005
Tammany radio station providing information
By Charlie Chapple- St. Tammany bureau
St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis, wielding emergency powers, has seized a closed radio station near Covington and is using it to relay information about local recovery efforts to parish residents.
Radio station WASO, 730-AM, got on the air late Friday with the help of Covington doctor Marcus L. "Marc" Pittman III, who heads Pittman Broadcasting Services LLC, which owns radio stations in Franklinton and Lafayette.
[EDIT]
The station's studios were in Metairie and its broadcast tower was just west of Covington High School. Pittman, using computer equipment from his radio stations, revived the station in a small building next to the tower. The station's broadcast signal carries throughout the parish.
*EDIT-truncated because citation exceeds fair use standards. In the future please provide a URL (if possible) to the source and paraphrase the content that exceeds fair use.
The content of the post is copyrighted and unauthorized use is a violation of our terms of our terms of service]
Dr. Pittman’s stations in Franklinton, LA had been severely damaged by a tornado during Katrina, but were put back on the air by using a 100 watt exciter and bypassing the FM transmitter. That allowed a 500 watt generator to run both WUUU-FM and WOMN-AM.
Unfortunately, the resultant signal covered Washington Parish, but not St. Tammany Parish. Every radio station licensed to St. Tammany Parish, or that had towers in St. Tammany Parish remained off the air after Katrina.
Dr. Pittman was also a Disaster Medical Director for the American Red Cross. He and his brother, Michael Pittman, M.D. opened many of their properties to distribute food, water, ice, medical care, and to serve as staging areas for debris removal.
Frustrated by the lack of communication and the misinformation that was being disseminated by WWL-AM, Dr. Pittman convinced St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis to seize the dormant station, WASO 730 AM.
There was only a six (6) hour window to put the station on the air before a federal marshal arrived in the parish (the station had been seized months earlier by the Federal Trade Commission). When the transmitter site was entered, the federal authorities had gutted the transmitter and studios to stop Robert Namer from ever broadcasting again.
Dr. Pittman took parts from his tornado damaged transmitter in Franklinton to “Frankenstein” the WASO transmitter. WASO was broadcasting within four (4) hours of President Davis’ seizure, well before the arrival of the federal marshal.
The generator that powered the station came from Dr. Pittman’s own home. The emergency broadcasts ran at 1 kilowatt day and night, rather than the FCC designated 250 watt daytime and 25 watt nighttime. Dr. Pittman trained St. Tammany Parish employees in using broadcast recording equipment to record twenty to thirty minutes of emergency information. Tim Harris, with Access St. Tammany, was the main contact person.
The emergency broadcast audio was burned onto a re-writable CDR, and played in a continuous loop over a boom box that survived the tornado in Franklinton. The audio was eventually added to the St. Tammany Parish website so that those who had evacuated and family members of those who remained could keep informed.
After a few days of broadcasting, Dr. Pittman thought that Louisiana needed a ‘fight song’ to help lift the spirits of those involved in the disaster. He added the LSU fight song to the broadcasts, which was an instant hit with the public.
The entire WASO episode was reported by the TIMES-PICAYUNE on 09-03-2005:
TIMES-PICAYUNE Saturday, September 03, 2005
Tammany radio station providing information
By Charlie Chapple- St. Tammany bureau
St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis, wielding emergency powers, has seized a closed radio station near Covington and is using it to relay information about local recovery efforts to parish residents.
Radio station WASO, 730-AM, got on the air late Friday with the help of Covington doctor Marcus L. "Marc" Pittman III, who heads Pittman Broadcasting Services LLC, which owns radio stations in Franklinton and Lafayette.
[EDIT]
The station's studios were in Metairie and its broadcast tower was just west of Covington High School. Pittman, using computer equipment from his radio stations, revived the station in a small building next to the tower. The station's broadcast signal carries throughout the parish.
*EDIT-truncated because citation exceeds fair use standards. In the future please provide a URL (if possible) to the source and paraphrase the content that exceeds fair use.
The content of the post is copyrighted and unauthorized use is a violation of our terms of our terms of service]
cough said:
They were sold on 8/30/2007
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws...74527&Service=AM&Form_id=314&Facility_id=1312
Filed for a Silent STA on 8/09/2007 and got it granted, effective until 02/05/2008
A silent STA filed on 02/11/2008 was dismissed on 8/06/2008
A Silent STA was filed 08/04/2008 but not yet granted.
WASO is owned by:
MCDJ, LLC
Attn: W. Christopher Beary
1010 Common Street, Suite 3100
New Orleans, LA 70112
Phone: 504-299-8724
E-Mail: [email protected]
I had my first real radio job at WARB, and learned the biz using old Gates equipment and gray carts. in It's really tragic to see what Namer did to the place.
Pigvomit said:
Interesting......
L
LateNiteSkip
Guest
If Namer went on WWL that would prove what we've thought all along - that these local managers are out of their minds. Diseased minds.
Wanna see Mr. Santa Claus out of the market, and the business, in a heartbeat? Let him hire this raving lunatic.
Wanna see Mr. Santa Claus out of the market, and the business, in a heartbeat? Let him hire this raving lunatic.
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