I worked as a copywriter/production manager at WDLP beginning in 1977. It was back when Radio was still radio! Pete Balcom, Jim “Rock and Roll” King, “Young” Preston Young, Alan Dean and Tonto were in their heyday! The jocks actually had their own authentic shows where they actually picked their own music. Imagine that. Jim King used to spend time in his office gathering his music everyday before he went on the air. He even pulled out old records if you can believe that. The control board in the control room was so old that it would take lightning hits during storms and the DJ would back away from it until he HAD to press a button and then he would run up to it, punch it, and then run away again. LOL I was there when Carl Grey was still on air and did some shows from Joby’s Seafood. We got sold to some janky operation from Kansas City where the operations/station manager and his minion spent their investors money on parties and other unseemly things until the employees called the investors to tell them what was going on. Oof. Our staff was so great back in the day. Good times and good memories.
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Panama City WDLP
- Thread starter Copygurl
- Start date
I'm sure we have met each other.....used to spend a lot of time there since the WKGC-FM transmitter was there. I knew all the people you mentioned in your post. The building is now gone as of several months ago....it was destroyed along with the towers by Hurricane Michael.....the site is now a vacant lot
In the 1990's I worked a lot in Panama City, and it was not uncommon to hear 590 on radios at Tyndall AFB. I often wondered why they simply didn't transfer the whole station to 98FM instead of creating WFSY Sunny FM. The insertion on Genie at 590 didn't seem to make too much sense either, as Beautiful Music on AM in the 1990's was going to be a hard sell. I don't recall much in the way of talk radio other than WLTG at that time, and certainly no sports talk. They would have been better to try.
If I remember correctly, around 1979 my family did a trip to Panama City. We listened to a great AM station with a great signal inside our across from the beach hotel room. I remember the big song for the week we were there was Ring My Bell by Anita Ward. I had never heard it before and the song was in the hot rotation so heard it a couple of times an hour.
When we got back to Atlanta, it was not playing on Z93, 94Q, or WQXI which were all of the top 40 stations of the time. It was three weeks later before Ring My Bell made their rotations.
Some music director at WDLS really had there thumb on the pulse of the charts. A small town station that far ahead of the curve was genius.
When we got back to Atlanta, it was not playing on Z93, 94Q, or WQXI which were all of the top 40 stations of the time. It was three weeks later before Ring My Bell made their rotations.
Some music director at WDLS really had there thumb on the pulse of the charts. A small town station that far ahead of the curve was genius.
Oh, I forgot to mention that this encounter with WDLP was my first introduction to turn tables being sped up and rpm or two to make a top 40 station sound livelier. WDLP was running Ring My Bell an rpm or two faster. When I got back to Atlanta and three weeks later when the song hit the Atlanta Top 40, the song sounded slow.If I remember correctly, around 1979 my family did a trip to Panama City. We listened to a great AM station with a great signal inside our across from the beach hotel room. I remember the big song for the week we were there was Ring My Bell by Anita Ward. I had never heard it before and the song was in the hot rotation so heard it a couple of times an hour.
When we got back to Atlanta, it was not playing on Z93, 94Q, or WQXI which were all of the top 40 stations of the time. It was three weeks later before Ring My Bell made their rotations.
Some music director at WDLS really had there thumb on the pulse of the charts. A small town station that far ahead of the curve was genius.
In the late 60s-early 70s my father was stationed at Tyndall and I remember listening to WDLP, with jocks like "the Johnny Knight Affair," Carl Gray's editorials, episodes of "Chickenman"... Dad preferred country and listened to WJOE "Big Joe the Country Giant," and later WPAP. (In 1982-83 I worked at 3WQ, in the same building as WPFM)
In this thread I posted pictures of the old WDLP building I took five years ago.
In this thread I posted pictures of the old WDLP building I took five years ago.
In late 1970s somewhere on the Gulf Coast wasn't there was a station that had a small booth-studio on the boardwalk? Was the PC?
During my first semester at Gulf Coast Community College in '87, we went on a field trip to WPFM's studios on the beach. Preston and Jeff Davis showed us around that Friday morning and at the end of the tour, Preston asked if anyone would like to be his morning show intern. I jumped at the opportunity and was there first thing Monday morning making coffee, pulling AP wire copy and had a smile plastered on my face. I was at my dream station, in my favorite city in the world. I mentioned to him, "wow, I can't believe I'm working with Young Preston Young." He turned his head, smiled and said, "you remember that?" My one-word reply was, "Absolutely." From that point on, he started using it again on The Great 108.
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