What are your favorite broadcasting memories?

[Neil]

What were you favorite memories in tv/radio that can never compare to anything else today?

For me, when I was a kid, WIS-TV was the landmark station. They had Joe Pinner doing his weekly Mr. Knozit show, and the best newscasters around. (Ed Carter, Joe Pinner, Susan Aude, Jim Gandy) As for WLTX, I also grew up watching Gene Upright and Camille Bradford do the 6:00 news way before WIS-TV did a 6:00 newscast. Even today, WIS is a great station, but never as good as they once were. I remember back in 2003 or 2004, they did a 50th anniversary special and hightlighted the best of WIS, and watching that was such a thrill. Especially the footage from way before my time really grabbed my attention.

For radio, The Big DM was also a great landmark station. They served all the flavors of urban/rhythmic music back in the day. So sad that today, The Big DM is nothing but dull, mostly sydnicated fare. Check out www.thebigdm.com and you will see on their message board that there are a lot of unhappy people because they got rid of their local morning show and are pushing the local/heritage jocks out of the way for trash like Micheal Baisden.

 

[moedog1]

100% agreed!!!! I think anyone would be very hard pressed to name two stations that have meant as much to any state as WIS-TV and WWDM. Both stations more or less ushered South Carolina into the twentith century and both stations were unique voices for South Carolina. Back in the late 70s and throughout the 80s, it was exciting listening to the Big DM, and hearing people calling in from throughout the state----Charleston, Greenville, even from Augusta and Charlotte. And these were people who had been given voice for the first time---it was quite liberating. Unfortunately, DM is now taking the low road, broadcasting syndicated programs that have little connection with SC. As a result, many voices are no longer heard. And for people that don't remember, or weren't around, WIS-TV was very much a big deal throughout SC and beyond. "The Seven O'Clock Report" was watched by almost everyone---a polished. professional, big market broadcast originating in what was then a rural, poverty stricken state. And I remember the hundreds of USC basketball games broadcast by WIS-TV, almost magically binding together a population that had been divided for generations. All very different from what was going on in other deep south states. WIS still produces excellent news, though its other local programing is long gone. THe question is, how will the station hold up now that Raycom has taken over (as of yesterday, I think).

 

[89]

> What were you favorite memories in tv/radio that can never
> compare to anything else today?
>
> For me, when I was a kid, WIS-TV was the landmark station.
> They had Joe Pinner doing his weekly Mr. Knozit show, and
> the best newscasters around. (Ed Carter, Joe Pinner, Susan
> Aude, Jim Gandy) As for WLTX, I also grew up watching Gene
> Upright and Camille Bradford do the 6:00 news way before
> WIS-TV did a 6:00 newscast. Even today, WIS is a great
> station, but never as good as they once were. I remember
> back in 2003 or 2004, they did a 50th anniversary special
> and hightlighted the best of WIS, and watching that was such
> a thrill. Especially the footage from way before my time
> really grabbed my attention.
>
> For radio, The Big DM was also a great landmark station.
> They served all the flavors of urban/rhythmic music back in
> the day. So sad that today, The Big DM is nothing but dull,
> mostly sydnicated fare. Check out www.thebigdm.com and you
> will see on their message board that there are a lot of
> unhappy people because they got rid of their local morning
> show and are pushing the local/heritage jocks out of the way
> for trash like Micheal Baisden.
>

Waiting for the sun to go down, driving around and listening to John Records Landecker on the Blowtorch out of Chicago--WLS. Such a shame a local Columbia Radio station has the same jingle package but not the talent to come close to 'LS......

 

[thatwasradio]

What station are you talking about that has WLS jingles? Are they streaming audio on line? Can someone aircheck it for me? I used the JAM "Class Action" package (created for WLS in 1978) on all seventies K-Fox 105 a couple of years ago in Louisiana and it sounded awesome, although it is tough to duplicate the WLS jock's presentations on voice tracks (no phones, no reverb, etc.).
Ric Patterson
www.thatwasradio.com

> > What were you favorite memories in tv/radio that can never
>
> > compare to anything else today?
> >
> > For me, when I was a kid, WIS-TV was the landmark station.
>
> > They had Joe Pinner doing his weekly Mr. Knozit show, and
> > the best newscasters around. (Ed Carter, Joe Pinner, Susan
>
> > Aude, Jim Gandy) As for WLTX, I also grew up watching Gene
>
> > Upright and Camille Bradford do the 6:00 news way before
> > WIS-TV did a 6:00 newscast. Even today, WIS is a great
> > station, but never as good as they once were. I remember
> > back in 2003 or 2004, they did a 50th anniversary special
> > and hightlighted the best of WIS, and watching that was
> such
> > a thrill. Especially the footage from way before my time
> > really grabbed my attention.
> >
> > For radio, The Big DM was also a great landmark station.
> > They served all the flavors of urban/rhythmic music back
> in
> > the day. So sad that today, The Big DM is nothing but
> dull,
> > mostly sydnicated fare. Check out www.thebigdm.com and you
>
> > will see on their message board that there are a lot of
> > unhappy people because they got rid of their local morning
>
> > show and are pushing the local/heritage jocks out of the
> way
> > for trash like Micheal Baisden.
> >
>
> Waiting for the sun to go down, driving around and listening
> to John Records Landecker on the Blowtorch out of
> Chicago--WLS. Such a shame a local Columbia Radio station
> has the same jingle package but not the talent to come close
> to 'LS......
>

 

[RobynWatts]

Hi Ric,

What 89 was referring to was Oldies 103/WOMG in Columbia. They've been using the "Class Action" package for the last year and a half. And yes, they are now streaming at www.womg.com (although as of this writing, I'm having some problems launching the player).

OK, My turn,

One of my idols growing up was Robin King on WNOK. She was the first female jock that I've heard had more on-air energy than many of the other jocks that were in the market at the time, both male & female! It was stupid that NOK let her go, but the then-management did jerk her around (putting her back on nights, despite having good ratings doing afternoon for about 2 years). Of course Columbia's loss was Hartford's gain and she went on to bigger and better things at Kiss 95.7/WKSS. Last I've heard she was at Fox-Charlotte as a host of the morning show.

Another jock that I've liked was Jay Michaels on C-103 in 1986-87. I remember calling him quite a bit and asking him questions about radio and he was very patient with me in answering them.

Now on the TV side:

I remember WIS as Neil had described. When I've watched Mr. Knozit in 1981-82, they were running the Pink Panther cartoons from the 1960's at the time ("Let's go Panther and Friends"!!!) and it was a full hour at 7 a.m. on Saturdays, as opposed to the 30 min. show that was on in later years. I think Mr. Knozit was one of the last, locally-produced kid shows in the state when it went off (There was a rival kids show on WLTX for a few years, but I can't remember any of the details on it). Sometime in the mid-80s, WIS ran a retrospective of Mr. Knozit with various clips of the show over the years and a celebration on the State House steps where either the mayor of Columbia or then-Governor Campbell proclaiming it "Mr. Knozit Day". I also remember Jim Gandy visiting my 4th grade class at Congaree Elementary School (and pestering him with question after question about tornadoes), Also, Joe Dagger doing the sports on "The 7 O'clock Report", years before Rick Henry took over in the early 90's and Joe coming back occasionally to do part-time editorials. Heck, I even remember Rick doing the weekend sports on WIS as well as Shanai Harris doing reporting and weekend anchoring.

Over to WLTX: I remember when Gene Upright (Does anyone remember when Gene replaced John Wrisley as news anchor?), Camille Bradford, and Bob Shields were the anchors on the 6 o'clock news. After Gannet acquired the station, things changed almost overnight and WIS finally had some competition. It going to be interesting how Raycom's purchase of WIS will affect the Columbia, TV market. BTW: With Raycom's acquisition of WIS, does anyone have the feeling that the news department will be gutted before too long?

As for WOLO, the only 2 people that I remember from their past are Terry Chick, and Bob Moore (the news anchor on the 6 p.m. news in 1981-82). Hey, it's not my fault! It seams that the news department for many years was just one big revolving door with news anchors coming and going all the time. Before WACH signed on, WOLO used to run syndicated cartoons at 4 p.m. ("The Flintstones" was the first one that I remember from waaaaay back in the late 70's, then was replaced by "Scooby-Doo" & "Superfriends" in 1983-84).

Speaking of WACH, remember when Channel 57 was WCCT? I didn't watch too much of it because it was a Christian-oriented TV station, and it was too far up the UHF dial to be worth the trouble of tuning in (this was back when my family had a manual tuner-type TV). The few memories that I do have was the cartoon "Inspector Gadget", re-runs of "The Flying Nun" and a station ID that was videotaped near Asheville. I've recognized some of the scenes where it was shot and it DID have a train in it, which explains why I remember it :>) . Then in 1988, the station was sold and became WACH, our FOX affiliate. The first programs that I've saw after the station signed on was the movie "In The Heat Of The Night", followed by the syndicated comedy "Out Of This World", then "21 Jumpstreet" and "Married With Children" (back when FOX was running weekend-only network programming). I do remember their first newscast in January, 1996 with Mike Woolfolk. Question: Didn't WACH start out producing their own newscast, or had they always been produced by WIS?

OK, enough rambling on my part. This is a good trend.

Robyn
<P ID="signature">______________
"They say you better listen to the voice of reason. But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think it's treason." Elvis Costello "Radio Radio"</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by RobynWatts on 02/05/06 07:38 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[moedog1]

> Hi Ric,
>
> What 89 was referring to was Oldies 103/WOMG in Columbia.
> They've been using the "Class Action" package for the last
> year and a half. And yes, they are now streaming at
> www.womg.com (although as of this writing, I'm having some
> problems launching the player).
>
> OK, My turn,
>
> One of my idols growing up was Robin King on WNOK. She was
> the first female jock that I've heard had more on-air energy
> than many of the other jocks that were in the market at the
> time, both male & female! It was stupid that NOK let her go,
> but the then-management did jerk her around (putting her
> back on nights, despite having good ratings doing afternoon
> for about 2 years). Of course Columbia's loss was Hartford's
> gain and she went on to bigger and better things at Kiss
> 95.7/WKSS. Last I've heard she was at Fox-Charlotte as a
> host of the morning show.
>
> Another jock that I've liked was Jay Michaels on C-103 in
> 1986-87. I remember calling him quite a bit and asking him
> questions about radio and he was very patient with me in
> answering them.
>
> Now on the TV side:
>
> I remember WIS as Neil had described. When I've watched Mr.
> Knozit in 1981-82, they were running the Pink Panther
> cartoons from the 1960's at the time ("Let's go Panther and
> Friends"!!!) and it was a full hour at 7 a.m. on Saturdays,
> as opposed to the 30 min. show that was on in later years. I
> think Mr. Knozit was one of the last, locally-produced kid
> shows in the state when it went off (There was a rival kids
> show on WLTX for a few years, but I can't remember any of
> the details on it). Sometime in the mid-80s, WIS ran a
> retrospective of Mr. Knozit with various clips of the show
> over the years and a celebration on the State House steps
> where either the mayor of Columbia or then-Governor Campbell
> proclaiming it "Mr. Knozit Day". I also remember Jim Gandy
> visiting my 4th grade class at Congaree Elementary School
> (and pestering him with question after question about
> tornadoes), Also, Joe Dagger doing the sports on "The 7
> O'clock Report", years before Rick Henry took over in the
> early 90's and Joe coming back occasionally to do part-time
> editorials. Heck, I even remember Rick doing the weekend
> sports on WIS as well as Shanai Harris doing reporting and
> weekend anchoring.
>
> Over to WLTX: I remember when Gene Upright (Does anyone
> remember when Gene replaced John Wrisley as news anchor?),
> Camille Bradford, and Bob Shields were the anchors on the 6
> o'clock news. After Gannet acquired the station, things
> changed almost overnight and WIS finally had some
> competition. It going to be interesting how Raycom's
> acquisition of WIS will affect the Columbia, TV market. BTW:
> With Raycom's acquisition of WIS, does anyone have the
> feeling that the news department will be gutted before too
> long?
>
> As for WOLO, the only 2 people that I remember from their
> past are Terry Chick, and Bob Moore (the news anchor on the
> 6 p.m. news in 1981-82). Hey, it's not my fault! It seams
> that the news department for many years was just one big
> revolving door with news anchors coming and going all the
> time. Before WACH signed on, WOLO used to run syndicated
> cartoons at 4 p.m. ("The Flintstones" was the first one that
> I remember from waaaaay back in the late 70's, then was
> replaced by "Scooby-Doo" & "Superfriends" in 1983-84).
>
> Speaking of WACH, remember when Channel 57 was WCCT? I
> didn't watch too much of it because it was a
> Christian-oriented TV station, and it was too far up the UHF
> dial to be worth the trouble of tuning in (this was back
> when my family had a manual tuner-type TV). The few memories
> that I do have was the cartoon "Inspector Gadget", re-runs
> of "The Flying Nun" and a station ID that was videotaped
> near Asheville. I've recognized some of the scenes where it
> was shot and it DID have a train in it, which explains why I
> remember it :>) . Then in 1988, the station was sold and
> became WACH, our FOX affiliate. The first programs that I've
> saw after the station signed on was the movie "In The Heat
> Of The Night", followed by the syndicated comedy "Out Of
> This World", then "21 Jumpstreet" and "Married With
> Children" (back when FOX was running weekend-only network
> programming). I do remember their first newscast in January,
> 1996 with Mike Woolfolk. Question: Didn't WACH start out
> producing their own newscast, or had they always been
> produced by WIS?
>
> OK, enough rambling on my part. This is a good trend.
>
> Robyn
>
Mackie Quave used to be "Mr. WOLO-TV." He was the main anchor on their evening news, and could be seen all over town reporting the news as well. I used to think WOLO's news set looked a lot like a Kool-Aid stand, and there was Mackie sitting in the middle, reading the news. At one time, WOLO only had an eleven o'clock news, while WNOK (WLTX) only had a six o'clock news, WIS was on at 7 and 11. Mr. Quave disappeared from WOLO in the early 80s, I think. But he started his broadcast career in Cola at WIS in the 50s, hosting a kids show called "Cactus something. I was watching the digital SC Channel Last night and they were showing classic ETV programs. On the first (a show about SC ghost towns) Mackie Quave was the host/narrator. Gene Upright was host of the second show which reviewed tht the desegregation of the the Greenville Co. Schools in 1970. Regarding radio, WCOS-AM had to be worst top 40 station I ever heard when I came to COla in 1970. THey had all these small-town features going like "tradeo" a swap meet program. WNOK-AM another top 40 was a little better. WOIC 1320 AM was a hip, smooth sounding R&B and the only country station was 620 from Cayce. THere were only two FMs on the air in the early 70s, WCOS and WNOK.

 

[CrazeeCarroll]

Robyn you are awesome I remember my first radio station visit was to The Real WORD 91 in Spartanburg... JJ Hemingway yup the same radiojj who post on RI was the jock who was on duty... It was an awesome trip and at the age of 13 or 14 really got my blood pumping for radio... At the time they were doing some sort of radio contest and seeing all those lights light up with people calling in to win 25 bucks was awesome... Yup 25 dollors... I also to remember calling Robyn King on the radio and remember her doing a remote from McDonalds in Camden giving out those mid eighties wnok bumper stickers... AHHHHHH the joys of being a young teenager LOL... As for TV I remember the good ole days of WIS and remember when The Dude Jim Gandy first came to channel 10... I was hooked on 10 with Jerry Peterson a close second on Channel 9 out of Charlotte... Funny you mention Terry Chick... He lived in Camden and his daughter Erin worked PT at our station board oping nascar races on WCAM... The biggest memory I remember about radio or TV though happen in NC so I hope you guys don't mind this... 99.9 Kiss FM back in 85 was having a big rafting or tubing event in the western NC mountains... The only problem was there was no rain and there was a drought that was taking place... Although I did not attend I remember WLOS channel 13 showing this nice long traffic jam of people still coming up I26 just to be there at the event... That is where I realized just how powerful and fun radio could be... There are other things I could ramble about, but work duties do call... Take care CC


> Hi Ric,
>
> What 89 was referring to was Oldies 103/WOMG in Columbia.
> They've been using the "Class Action" package for the last
> year and a half. And yes, they are now streaming at
> www.womg.com (although as of this writing, I'm having some
> problems launching the player).
>
> OK, My turn,
>
> One of my idols growing up was Robin King on WNOK. She was
> the first female jock that I've heard had more on-air energy
> than many of the other jocks that were in the market at the
> time, both male & female! It was stupid that NOK let her go,
> but the then-management did jerk her around (putting her
> back on nights, despite having good ratings doing afternoon
> for about 2 years). Of course Columbia's loss was Hartford's
> gain and she went on to bigger and better things at Kiss
> 95.7/WKSS. Last I've heard she was at Fox-Charlotte as a
> host of the morning show.
>
> Another jock that I've liked was Jay Michaels on C-103 in
> 1986-87. I remember calling him quite a bit and asking him
> questions about radio and he was very patient with me in
> answering them.
>
> Now on the TV side:
>
> I remember WIS as Neil had described. When I've watched Mr.
> Knozit in 1981-82, they were running the Pink Panther
> cartoons from the 1960's at the time ("Let's go Panther and
> Friends"!!!) and it was a full hour at 7 a.m. on Saturdays,
> as opposed to the 30 min. show that was on in later years. I
> think Mr. Knozit was one of the last, locally-produced kid
> shows in the state when it went off (There was a rival kids
> show on WLTX for a few years, but I can't remember any of
> the details on it). Sometime in the mid-80s, WIS ran a
> retrospective of Mr. Knozit with various clips of the show
> over the years and a celebration on the State House steps
> where either the mayor of Columbia or then-Governor Campbell
> proclaiming it "Mr. Knozit Day". I also remember Jim Gandy
> visiting my 4th grade class at Congaree Elementary School
> (and pestering him with question after question about
> tornadoes), Also, Joe Dagger doing the sports on "The 7
> O'clock Report", years before Rick Henry took over in the
> early 90's and Joe coming back occasionally to do part-time
> editorials. Heck, I even remember Rick doing the weekend
> sports on WIS as well as Shanai Harris doing reporting and
> weekend anchoring.
>
> Over to WLTX: I remember when Gene Upright (Does anyone
> remember when Gene replaced John Wrisley as news anchor?),
> Camille Bradford, and Bob Shields were the anchors on the 6
> o'clock news. After Gannet acquired the station, things
> changed almost overnight and WIS finally had some
> competition. It going to be interesting how Raycom's
> purchase of WIS will affect the Columbia, TV market. BTW:
> With Raycom's acquisition of WIS, does anyone have the
> feeling that the news department will be gutted before too
> long?
>
> As for WOLO, the only 2 people that I remember from their
> past are Terry Chick, and Bob Moore (the news anchor on the
> 6 p.m. news in 1981-82). Hey, it's not my fault! It seams
> that the news department for many years was just one big
> revolving door with news anchors coming and going all the
> time. Before WACH signed on, WOLO used to run syndicated
> cartoons at 4 p.m. ("The Flintstones" was the first one that
> I remember from waaaaay back in the late 70's, then was
> replaced by "Scooby-Doo" & "Superfriends" in 1983-84).
>
> Speaking of WACH, remember when Channel 57 was WCCT? I
> didn't watch too much of it because it was a
> Christian-oriented TV station, and it was too far up the UHF
> dial to be worth the trouble of tuning in (this was back
> when my family had a manual tuner-type TV). The few memories
> that I do have was the cartoon "Inspector Gadget", re-runs
> of "The Flying Nun" and a station ID that was videotaped
> near Asheville. I've recognized some of the scenes where it
> was shot and it DID have a train in it, which explains why I
> remember it :>) . Then in 1988, the station was sold and
> became WACH, our FOX affiliate. The first programs that I've
> saw after the station signed on was the movie "In The Heat
> Of The Night", followed by the syndicated comedy "Out Of
> This World", then "21 Jumpstreet" and "Married With
> Children" (back when FOX was running weekend-only network
> programming). I do remember their first newscast in January,
> 1996 with Mike Woolfolk. Question: Didn't WACH start out
> producing their own newscast, or had they always been
> produced by WIS?
>
> OK, enough rambling on my part. This is a good trend.
>
> Robyn
>

 

[roger4404]

> What station are you talking about that has WLS jingles? Are
> they streaming audio on line? Can someone aircheck it for
> me? I used the JAM "Class Action" package (created for WLS
> in 1978) on all seventies K-Fox 105 a couple of years ago in
> Louisiana and it sounded awesome, although it is tough to
> duplicate the WLS jock's presentations on voice tracks (no
> phones, no reverb, etc.).
> Ric Patterson
> www.thatwasradio.com
>
> > > What were you favorite memories in tv/radio that can
> never
> >
> > > compare to anything else today?
> > >
> > > For me, when I was a kid, WIS-TV was the landmark
> station.
> >
> > > They had Joe Pinner doing his weekly Mr. Knozit show,
> and
> > > the best newscasters around. (Ed Carter, Joe Pinner,
> Susan
> >
> > > Aude, Jim Gandy) As for WLTX, I also grew up watching
> Gene
> >
> > > Upright and Camille Bradford do the 6:00 news way before
>
> > > WIS-TV did a 6:00 newscast. Even today, WIS is a great
> > > station, but never as good as they once were. I remember
>
> > > back in 2003 or 2004, they did a 50th anniversary
> special
> > > and hightlighted the best of WIS, and watching that was
> > such
> > > a thrill. Especially the footage from way before my time
>
> > > really grabbed my attention.
> > >
> > > For radio, The Big DM was also a great landmark station.
>
> > > They served all the flavors of urban/rhythmic music back
>
> > in
> > > the day. So sad that today, The Big DM is nothing but
> > dull,
> > > mostly sydnicated fare. Check out www.thebigdm.com and
> you
> >
> > > will see on their message board that there are a lot of
> > > unhappy people because they got rid of their local
> morning
> >
> > > show and are pushing the local/heritage jocks out of the
>
> > way
> > > for trash like Micheal Baisden.
> > >
> >
> > Waiting for the sun to go down, driving around and
> listening
> > to John Records Landecker on the Blowtorch out of
> > Chicago--WLS. Such a shame a local Columbia Radio station
>
> > has the same jingle package but not the talent to come
> close
> > to 'LS......
> >
>

 

[thatwasradio]

Robyn,
Thanks for the WOMG link, I signed up on their listen-link, got my user name and password, and waited 20 minutes but it never connected, oh well. Is good to "talk" with you again on here, I've been reading all the posts, I've just been caught up in a whirlwind of work the past few years. I found some real old WBT jingles that I added to my site, also I updated the promotions page for Z-100 with a pic of the mugs we gave away and a tax sheet that accounting mailed out to all the money winners at the end of the year.
Ric "Kahuna" Patterson
www.thatwasradio.com

> Hi Ric,
>
> What 89 was referring to was Oldies 103/WOMG in Columbia.
> They've been using the "Class Action" package for the last
> year and a half. And yes, they are now streaming at
> www.womg.com (although as of this writing, I'm having some
> problems launching the player).
>
> OK, My turn,
>
> One of my idols growing up was Robin King on WNOK. She was
> the first female jock that I've heard had more on-air energy
> than many of the other jocks that were in the market at the
> time, both male & female! It was stupid that NOK let her go,
> but the then-management did jerk her around (putting her
> back on nights, despite having good ratings doing afternoon
> for about 2 years). Of course Columbia's loss was Hartford's
> gain and she went on to bigger and better things at Kiss
> 95.7/WKSS. Last I've heard she was at Fox-Charlotte as a
> host of the morning show.
>
> Another jock that I've liked was Jay Michaels on C-103 in
> 1986-87. I remember calling him quite a bit and asking him
> questions about radio and he was very patient with me in
> answering them.
>
> Now on the TV side:
>
> I remember WIS as Neil had described. When I've watched Mr.
> Knozit in 1981-82, they were running the Pink Panther
> cartoons from the 1960's at the time ("Let's go Panther and
> Friends"!!!) and it was a full hour at 7 a.m. on Saturdays,
> as opposed to the 30 min. show that was on in later years. I
> think Mr. Knozit was one of the last, locally-produced kid
> shows in the state when it went off (There was a rival kids
> show on WLTX for a few years, but I can't remember any of
> the details on it). Sometime in the mid-80s, WIS ran a
> retrospective of Mr. Knozit with various clips of the show
> over the years and a celebration on the State House steps
> where either the mayor of Columbia or then-Governor Campbell
> proclaiming it "Mr. Knozit Day". I also remember Jim Gandy
> visiting my 4th grade class at Congaree Elementary School
> (and pestering him with question after question about
> tornadoes), Also, Joe Dagger doing the sports on "The 7
> O'clock Report", years before Rick Henry took over in the
> early 90's and Joe coming back occasionally to do part-time
> editorials. Heck, I even remember Rick doing the weekend
> sports on WIS as well as Shanai Harris doing reporting and
> weekend anchoring.
>
> Over to WLTX: I remember when Gene Upright (Does anyone
> remember when Gene replaced John Wrisley as news anchor?),
> Camille Bradford, and Bob Shields were the anchors on the 6
> o'clock news. After Gannet acquired the station, things
> changed almost overnight and WIS finally had some
> competition. It going to be interesting how Raycom's
> purchase of WIS will affect the Columbia, TV market. BTW:
> With Raycom's acquisition of WIS, does anyone have the
> feeling that the news department will be gutted before too
> long?
>
> As for WOLO, the only 2 people that I remember from their
> past are Terry Chick, and Bob Moore (the news anchor on the
> 6 p.m. news in 1981-82). Hey, it's not my fault! It seams
> that the news department for many years was just one big
> revolving door with news anchors coming and going all the
> time. Before WACH signed on, WOLO used to run syndicated
> cartoons at 4 p.m. ("The Flintstones" was the first one that
> I remember from waaaaay back in the late 70's, then was
> replaced by "Scooby-Doo" & "Superfriends" in 1983-84).
>
> Speaking of WACH, remember when Channel 57 was WCCT? I
> didn't watch too much of it because it was a
> Christian-oriented TV station, and it was too far up the UHF
> dial to be worth the trouble of tuning in (this was back
> when my family had a manual tuner-type TV). The few memories
> that I do have was the cartoon "Inspector Gadget", re-runs
> of "The Flying Nun" and a station ID that was videotaped
> near Asheville. I've recognized some of the scenes where it
> was shot and it DID have a train in it, which explains why I
> remember it :>) . Then in 1988, the station was sold and
> became WACH, our FOX affiliate. The first programs that I've
> saw after the station signed on was the movie "In The Heat
> Of The Night", followed by the syndicated comedy "Out Of
> This World", then "21 Jumpstreet" and "Married With
> Children" (back when FOX was running weekend-only network
> programming). I do remember their first newscast in January,
> 1996 with Mike Woolfolk. Question: Didn't WACH start out
> producing their own newscast, or had they always been
> produced by WIS?
>
> OK, enough rambling on my part. This is a good trend.
>
> Robyn
>

 

[beardedrainbow]

> 100% agreed!!!! I think anyone would be very hard pressed
> to name two stations that have meant as much to any state as
> WIS-TV and WWDM. Both stations more or less ushered South
> Carolina into the twentith century and both stations were
> unique voices for South Carolina. Back in the late 70s and
> throughout the 80s, it was exciting listening to the Big DM,
> and hearing people calling in from throughout the
> state----Charleston, Greenville, even from Augusta and
> Charlotte. And these were people who had been given voice
> for the first time---it was quite liberating.
> Unfortunately, DM is now taking the low road, broadcasting
> syndicated programs that have little connection with SC. As
> a result, many voices are no longer heard. And for people
> that don't remember, or weren't around, WIS-TV was very much
> a big deal throughout SC and beyond. "The Seven O'Clock
> Report" was watched by almost everyone---a polished.
> professional, big market broadcast originating in what was
> then a rural, poverty stricken state. And I remember the
> hundreds of USC basketball games broadcast by WIS-TV, almost
> magically binding together a population that had been
> divided for generations. All very different from what was
> going on in other deep south states. WIS still produces
> excellent news, though its other local programing is long
> gone. THe question is, how will the station hold up now
> that Raycom has taken over (as of yesterday, I think).
>
Gees, you people are young! I remember when Columbia's had two TV stations: WIS 10 and WNOK 67. WNOK was located on Main Street where the Jefferson Square
Theatre is now. Actually, most people in Columbia believe that channel 10 was Columbia's first TV station, but it is not. That was WCOS TV 25 which was on the air briefly in 1952 or 1953 before channel 10 came along. WCOS was on UHF and not many people had those TVs in 1952 and 1953. WIS had Mackie Quave, and so did WQXL radio which was our third top 40 station in the late 60s before going Christian sometime in the 70s. I was on Cactus Quave in 1959. WNOK's first children's show was Stanley and his Stooges and was on the air at the same time that Cactus Quave was. I was on Stanley in 1961 and my scout troop was on both shows in 1961 and 1962. Stanley obviously carried the Stooges and Quave carried the WB cartoons like Bugs and Daffy and those sorts of things and also Popeye. I grew up listening to WCOS, WNOK and WQXL. They played the music my parents hated, so that was the main reason I listened. I remember when WACA 25 signed on the air (now WOLO). Their first broadcast was the AFL Championship game in 1962 (between Houston and San Diego I think but I'm not sure). The ETV station came on the air around that time as well, as I remember watching programs on it in school in the mid 60s. I hated Columbia radio. I listened to good stations at night when I was in school because all the good stations were on AM--WLS and WCFL in Chicago, WOWO in Ft. Wayne, WABC in New York, WNOX in Knoxville, WFUN in Miami, WAPE in Jacksonville, and others kept me up with music at night and WORD in Spartanburg often could be heard on my car radio during the day. WNOK switched to adult contemporary in about 1969 or so and didn't really make a name for itself in the market again until WNOK switched back to top 40 on FM in the mid 80s. It seems Columbia radio was scared to play rock'n'roll for years, and didn't get a real rocker until 1986(except for WCOS FM for about a year in 1970 before the switched to country and WZLD briefly in 1980-81 before they switched to a top 40 format). WKWQ first went on the air August 1st, 1987 but was sold to a gospel group in early 1988.
Columbia radio people that often had me tuned in were Woody with the Goodies, Scotty Quick, Hunter Herring (still in Cola), Jimmy Jo-Jo, Hugh Munn (now with SLED) and Ted Bell (the latter two taught me radio in 1966-67) and Mackie Quave.
By the way, Mackie's first gig in Columbia was in 1947 or 1948 when he started the campus radio station at USC--WUSC. That's the carrier current station that broadcasted from the physical plant. WUSC-FM was originally run by the College of General Studies. I moved away from Columbia in 1975 and was gone for almost 15 years so my knowledge of radio and television in Columbia from 1975-1990 is not very good. I guess my favorite memories of radio from 1962-1970 would have been learning that all sorts of foreign stations were out there waiting to be heard at night on the AM dial...and hearing music on them one to two weeks before the stations in Columbia started playing them. They introduced me to the Fab Four from Liverpool in 1964 in early January. WC0S didn't start playing the Beatles until around the time they were on Ed Sullivan. Other than that, I remember going to Atlanta in the late 60s and hearing progressive FM on WPLJ-FM. That was the greatest influence on me in terms of what I wanted to do in radio when I got in...and it was only a couple of years before I modeled WUSC-FM after WPLJ-FM and my broadcasting career began. Now, my hair is grey and my eyesight is not very good. I must be getting old! Damn...you would remind me!

 

[cj1]

> Robyn you are awesome I remember my first radio station
> visit was to The Real WORD 91 in Spartanburg... JJ Hemingway
> yup the same radiojj who post on RI was the jock who was on
> duty... It was an awesome trip and at the age of 13 or 14
> really got my blood pumping for radio... At the time they
> were doing some sort of radio contest and seeing all those
> lights light up with people calling in to win 25 bucks was
> awesome... Yup 25 dollors... I also to remember calling
> Robyn King on the radio and remember her doing a remote from
> McDonalds in Camden giving out those mid eighties wnok
> bumper stickers... AHHHHHH the joys of being a young
> teenager LOL... As for TV I remember the good ole days of
> WIS and remember when The Dude Jim Gandy first came to
> channel 10... I was hooked on 10 with Jerry Peterson a close
> second on Channel 9 out of Charlotte... Funny you mention
> Terry Chick... He lived in Camden and his daughter Erin
> worked PT at our station board oping nascar races on WCAM...
> The biggest memory I remember about radio or TV though
> happen in NC so I hope you guys don't mind this... 99.9 Kiss
> FM back in 85 was having a big rafting or tubing event in
> the western NC mountains... The only problem was there was
> no rain and there was a drought that was taking place...
> Although I did not attend I remember WLOS channel 13 showing
> this nice long traffic jam of people still coming up I26
> just to be there at the event... That is where I realized
> just how powerful and fun radio could be... There are other
> things I could ramble about, but work duties do call... Take
> care CC
>

As an occasional lurker of this board, this has gotten some old and very fond memories stirred up, big time, I'd like to share them. When I went in 1400 in Spartanburg with my mom as a kid (it was either WZOO or WTHE then) ( I have a reel somewhere of the original WZOO jingles "on the banks of the chinkapin!" ) Fast forward to the early 70's, I ended up working at WORD 91 for a long stretch, and was it ever a blast. You're right about listeners going nuts for 25 bucks ... it was .. amazing. Heck, we could give away a t-shirt and get the same reaction. Hi-Lo would get the phone company mad at us at times when listeners got within a few pennies of the jackpot. All request lines would stay lit continuously. I had the pleasure of sharing the mikes with the likes of Bob Canada, Mel Black, Jack Shaw, Steve McCoy, Bill Christie, Ronnie Brandon, J J Hemingway (twice) Tony Brooks, Billy Mack, Big Al Bolton, Humble Carl, Gary Cohen, Gary Sparber, Phil Kornblut, Mark Kruea, Bob and Bobby Dean, Brother Bill, others I've left out. I got a call one afternoon from an inmate in prison in Columbia listening to us, called collect, I thought "why not, this sounds intriguing" and accepted the call. Did a very short stint just for giggles at 99.9 Kiss FM in 85 as Carl The Janitor on Sat nights, THAT was a blast covering something like parts of 7 states. My favorite of all time was working at Sunny 106.5 in Myrtle Beach when Barry Brown owned the place and Kemosabi Joe was the P.D. I still pull out airchecks of the pre-corporate radio days of Sunny (before the cloud blew in) and the on air presentation is amazing... ( blame the orban 111-b reverb that showed up on the air at the time on me ;-) ) Thanks for letting me share. When I lived in the upstate, I put up a big outside tv antenna so I could pull in other markets. I used to watch WIS-TV and thought their 6pm newcast was excellent. Sorry to hear Susan retired. She absolutely was a class act, one of my favorite tv news personalities.

 

[Trooper1047]

CJ:

We did have fun, didn't we.

Send me an email at [email protected]

Got some catching up to do.

 

[radiostuwright]

Growing up in Beaufort (and where I started in radio and worked through high school at the then 1490, WSIB)...Being on the coast, we could get a lot of stations during the day. Of course the Big APE, WAPE
on 690, with their 50kw daytime signal*, also WPDQ with 5kw on 600, came in good too, good enough
to hear the battle between them and the APE. We also got WSGA, Savannah on 1400 (another place where I worked), and WTMA, From Charleston. Look back great memories, and a good choice of Top 40 during its'
heyday. For all that good signal on WAPE during the day, at night, to protect Cuba, they were so directional
with 10KW, they did not cover their own studio, in Orange Park. As far as TV, we were closer to Savannah
so we usually watched those stations, (even though with a good outside antenna we could get Charleston
as well)...Doug Weathers with news on WTOC, CBS, channel 11, and Cap'n Sandy on channel 3, WSAV.
Anyone remember when stations would sign off, (or on) with the National Anthem? I even heard a few
in the south do so with Dixie, how politically incorrect that would be now. And one more thing, you've
been in this business a long time if you know what a cue burn is. Thanks for reading.

 

[KennyRaySC]

Hi,

My turn to ramble some about yesteryear..... it's 2:30 AM and as usual, I can't sleep but this site has the electrical synapse's or whatever they are called snapping around in my brain.

I started in radio myself at WSIB in 1964 or 65 after I got out of the navy at 21. I spent twenty years in radio and another 25 years with a CDL. I live near Statesboro, Ga. now not too far from Savannah.

Yes, when I worked there it was owned by Charlie Bell and for a while he also owned WDOG in Allendale I believe. I can remember Charlie would sell out the Nascar race and drive fifty miles so he could pick up another station carrying the race, and phone patch it to us with wires from his car radio to a pay phone. He would do anything to survive. My brother and I helped put in a new ground system for the transmitter which was basically on a small island you had to wade over to. We couldn't get a tractor over there so he got a mule and geed and hawd furrows while my brother and I strung out the big copper wire to the waters edge, then tied a cement block on about the last twenty feet or so and tossed the end out into the water. We had to do that from the base of the transmitter out into the water in every direction. I think it was 100 Watts in those days and you could pick it up in Walterboro, thanks to that ground system and less competition at 1490. I could tell you all kinds of stories about that place. We use to do remotes from the bowling alley and there would be about four of us and whoever had just finished bowling would pick up the mike and go on when it came back to us which was 100% of the time between songs.

We played hard rock in those days and we didn't throttle back much for different times of the day. Lots of times I signed on at 5 AM and hit Day Tripper by the Beatles and woke people up the hard way. Not really a hard rock song but it had a kind of hard guitar opening. But yes, we used the box for rotation in a speed format with cardboard dividers in the box. A true top 40 speed format with one oldie slot and one slower song a half hour or so. It was based on the clock but you skipped the filler and got back on schedule every half hour. My brother Lee (Bobby Lee in Beaufort) had worked in Atlanta and Savannah and had learned the rock'n ways in those markets so he knew how to rock program.

I know someone escorted Charlie out into a field one day or night and shot him in the head and killed him. I never did hear if they found out who did it. Maybe it was a hitchhiker or someone or group he dealt with. Don't know. I know I enjoyed Beaufort. I raced in a celebrity stock car race and came in second by a fender. The guy had a V8 and I had a 6 cylinder.
I owned a BMW motorcycle and later a red 1961 MGA sports car with a bar in it. I used to do a remote show on top of the old Rebel Drive In on weekends and my friends would line up at my car and drain the booze. I had a plunger on the dash just below a map light with a switch. You pushed the plunger about two or three times for a shot in your soda fountain drink. The container was mounted under the hood with insulation around it to keep it from getting too hot. The plunger was suppose to be there for the windshield washer unit but I bought a new plastic tank and hose and re-purposed the thing... Lol

@ RadioStuWright..... It was nice running across your note on here because I never hear anyone mention WSIB any more. It really is gone to history. Another place I worked WLAT in Conway is gone too.

BTW, When I worked at WSIB we had just gotten a cart machine. The main way of playing commercials was with a Spotmaster 101. I don't know if you remember them because they were before your time. They had a single sheet of recording tape about a foot and a half wide that wound up and down on spools like roll up blinds or scrolls would. When you hit start they wound from one spool onto the other. So the entire tape was moving and what commercial you played depended on where you put the pointer that was connected to the arm. You could lower it slightly and push it right or left into your choice of 101 slots. The record/playback heads would line up at a different point on the scroll of tape and play that commercial or promo. Then you had to BS while it rewound (sometimes with a lot of racket) and then place the pointer on the next slot and hit play again. Of course, in those days you still had a lot of live promos and even commercials so you could do one of those while it was setting up for the next slot. Sometimes it would rewind and bang! The end would come off the reel and start flapping around loudly. You'd have to play a song and take it apart and repair it.... Lol

Someone else mentioned the Spartanburg/Greenville area of SC..... I was fired at WSPA when I interviewed a ventriloquist dummy and he said plenty management didn't like. That place at the time anyway catered to blue-bloods and I rocked the boat big time.... Helluva lot of fun. I know my egging him on and laughing uncontrollably didn't help my situation. Still, a lot of fun. I think I cut him off two or three times and every time I came back on the air with him he would make another joke about the morning man or management or whatever......

I did a talk show every weekday for five years in Conway from the local Pizza Inn and really have some good memories with that. Sword swallower from The Guinness Hall of Records, Elvis impersonators, the Alabama Band while they were still playing at the Bowery. All good times. All the DJ's in the area were a lot of fun and a good bunch of people.

 

[KennyRaySC]

I just ran across this old legal document on the net. It looks like WSIB was caught double billing more than once.

United States Court of Appeals,
District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued June 2, 1978.
Decided Jan. 14, 1980.
Rehearing Denied March 5, 1980.
Certiorari Denied Oct. 6, 1980.
See 101 S.Ct. 105.

Appeal from an Order of the Federal Communications Commission.

John H. Midlen, Jr., Washington, D. C., with whom John H. Midlen, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellant.

Thomas R. King, Jr., Counsel, F. C. C., Washington, D. C., with whom Robert R. Bruce, Gen. Counsel and Daniel M. Armstrong, Associate Gen. Counsel, Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for appellee.

Before, LEVENTHAL* and ROBINSON, Circuit Judges, and RICHEY**, United States District Judge for the District of Columbia.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge LEVENTHAL.

LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge:
1

This case is before the court on appeal by Sea Island Broadcasting Corporation (Sea Island) from a decision of the Federal Communications Commission which revoked its license to operate WSIB, an AM radio station in Beaufort, South Carolina.1 The Commission's revocation was based primarily on grounds that the owner and officers of Sea Island made deliberate misrepresentations and other misleading and deceptive statements to the Commission in order to conceal improper billing practices. The Commission concluded that Sea Island has shown "a classic pattern" of such misrepresentations and misleading statements "when it believed it could effectively conceal suspected wrongdoing."2 It further ruled that the kinds of fraudulent billing used by Sea Island "were serious and reinforced our conclusion to revoke Sea Island's license." The Commission concluded:

 

[coolone]

You can take this thread two ways: My memories as a broadcaster or my memories of a listening moment. i will comment on the latter and there are so many examples we could mention.

December, 1980, heading down I-26 to I-95 for the Gator Bowl in a sleet and snow storm in my two seater. And I pull in the signal from Summerville AT 93.5. The top of the hour I.D. comes on at midnight. A demostrative voice says... W W W Z ,SUMMERVILLE. And they kick in with Loves Lies Bleeding, Funeral For a Friend.

The weather, the music, the station, the car. I will always remember it.