I was updating Alabama radio station articles on Wikipedia with CMA awards and nominations but when I got to the 1980 nomination for Cindy Welch at WATM in Atmore, I was stymied. I know that WATM-FM is now WYOK but of the AM station at 1590 I can find no trace. Did it change frequencies? Did it go dark and hand in its license? And does anybody know if Cindy Welch worked for the AM, the FM, or both? Thanks.
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What became of WATM (1590 AM) in Atmore?
- Thread starter caindog
- Start date
caindog said:
Don't know about Cindy Welch, but I can help you with the former WGYJ 1590 of Atmore: It's now WNRP 1620 in Pensacola, FL.
http://bellsouthpwp2.net/c/r/crackedlcd/almediapage/profiles/wnrp.html
Nate brought up a good point. Zack's Alabama/Columbus/Gulf Coast media page is a wonderful resource. I hope he got college credit for creating it... if he did it solely as a hobby, he's crazy! He keeps bouncing it around to different free/cheap servers which makes me worried that it may disappear one day. If someone on here can donate a permanent home to his site, please contact him. Anyway, most of the information is up to date and he makes corrections soon after someone informs him of the change. I've butted heads with him a couple of times over getting stations listed that are located in adjacent states that target audiences in Alabama, but hey, it's his baby. He appreciates any extra anecdotes people can provide on certain stations and continues to maintain the site even though he's left the state. At one point someone tried to create a similar site for Georgia, but I think they gave up. There was also a guy that made one for Louisiana, but it hasn't been updated in years. The site for Florida only covers the Orlando and Tampa areas. Zack may be the only fanatic that has been keeping track of this type of information in the south and I think he's been doing it for about 10 years. I consider myself lucky to be in the fringe coverage of many Alabama stations, most of which are listed on his site. Zack doesn't seem like the type of person to toot his own horn, so I just honked it for you. Thank you Zack.
I just looked at Zack's profile of WNRP 1620. Is it really co-located with 1230? Someone, I assume ADX, built a brand new AM tower about 100 feet off Palafox street (US 29) when 1620 came on the air. Everything on the property is still shiny today! I think I even saw some advertisements for available tower space on this new facility. 1230 is a few blocks away from this site, on lower ground... possibly a rainwater runoff "dry pond".
The original application to move 1620 into Pensacola said that they were going to co-locate with 1450 in Brownsville on Pace Blvd. I wonder why that fell apart causing them to buy property and build a new facility?
The original application to move 1620 into Pensacola said that they were going to co-locate with 1450 in Brownsville on Pace Blvd. I wonder why that fell apart causing them to buy property and build a new facility?
Hey everyone, thanks for the kind words on the site. I am crazy and just did the thing on a whim back in the 90's.
The only work I've actually done myself was the design and getting data from the FCC. Most all of the history is from site visitors. Most of the AM stereo and FM RDS stuff is from me as well. Since I don't live in AL anymore, nowadays it's all dependent on e-mailed corrections of postings here at R-I or over at R-T.
I do try to fix errors quickly, but things don't always work out. Right now I've got a lot of free time so fixing things isn't a problem.
poledo's right about 1620, it isn't actually co-located with 1230. I'm not sure how that got in there, but it'll be fixed in a minute or two. 1620's site is about a tenth of a mile from 1230. And I'm gonna try to incorporate some of Broadcast Technical Service's story if that's ok with him.
Almost all of the Gulf Coast history, including the New Orleans and Panama City stations listed have come from one person. I dunno if he's on this board or not so I won't say exactly who he is but he has been a treasure trove of interesting info with regards to the coastal radio and TV scene. Like a lot of long time veterans, his info is sometimes fuzzy, so corrections and additions are always welcome.
That particular user is also the reason the Mobile page looks so much different from the rest of the site. He was a long time Web TV user and had trouble viewing the other pages rendered on a TV. I really need to do something with that.
Oh and I have had several kind offers to have the site hosted for free at various places but I just like to keep everything under my control, for lack of a better description. I don't want to go all professional for fear everyone will expect things like accurate stories and good spelling.
Anywho, corrections, comments and whatnot are always welcome - you can PM here or e-mail crackedlcd [at] bellsouth dot net.
The only work I've actually done myself was the design and getting data from the FCC. Most all of the history is from site visitors. Most of the AM stereo and FM RDS stuff is from me as well. Since I don't live in AL anymore, nowadays it's all dependent on e-mailed corrections of postings here at R-I or over at R-T.
I do try to fix errors quickly, but things don't always work out. Right now I've got a lot of free time so fixing things isn't a problem.
poledo's right about 1620, it isn't actually co-located with 1230. I'm not sure how that got in there, but it'll be fixed in a minute or two. 1620's site is about a tenth of a mile from 1230. And I'm gonna try to incorporate some of Broadcast Technical Service's story if that's ok with him.
Almost all of the Gulf Coast history, including the New Orleans and Panama City stations listed have come from one person. I dunno if he's on this board or not so I won't say exactly who he is but he has been a treasure trove of interesting info with regards to the coastal radio and TV scene. Like a lot of long time veterans, his info is sometimes fuzzy, so corrections and additions are always welcome.
That particular user is also the reason the Mobile page looks so much different from the rest of the site. He was a long time Web TV user and had trouble viewing the other pages rendered on a TV. I really need to do something with that.
Oh and I have had several kind offers to have the site hosted for free at various places but I just like to keep everything under my control, for lack of a better description. I don't want to go all professional for fear everyone will expect things like accurate stories and good spelling.
Anywho, corrections, comments and whatnot are always welcome - you can PM here or e-mail crackedlcd [at] bellsouth dot net.
1620 in Atmore was one of the first stations I ever heard when they opened up the expanded band. I remember an anouncer on the station saying they had been getting letters literally world wide. the only other stations I remember in the upper band back then was 1630 in Iowa, and a station around 1660 in New Jersey. It was amazing how far you could go with 1000 watts when you didn't have dozens of stations walking on you. 1620 eventually went off the air for several years before resurfacing in Pensacola.
R.D.P. said:
I have heard KCJJ many times too, although not as well and I used to.
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It appears that the best x-band frequency to scan today would be 1670 with only 4 stations and 2 of them in California.
I also just found out that there are no stations on 1610 in the USA, why?
And I thought there was one station in north Texas on 1710, but I can't find anything about it.
Too bad I can't listen to the X-band all the time. My car radio stops at 1600 and doesn't have any of those fancy FM channels on it.
I also just found out that there are no stations on 1610 in the USA, why?
And I thought there was one station in north Texas on 1710, but I can't find anything about it.
Too bad I can't listen to the X-band all the time. My car radio stops at 1600 and doesn't have any of those fancy FM channels on it.
poledo said:
You must have an older vehicle. I started seeing x-band capable radios back in the mid-90's if I remember correctly.
1620 was also one of the first x-band stations I heard, along with 1630 KCJJ. That may have been the first time I heard "modern" music on AM as well. They also carried the Don & Mike show out of DC for a while, too, and I tried desperately to listen to snippets of that show, but it was never steady enough of a signal for me to get any enjoyment of it.
I've never lived anywhere with a local x-bander but 1680 KRJO from Monroe, Louisiana is pretty reliable (along with 540 KMLB) in the Mississippi Delta part of the state.
I'm new at this forum; was going back over some of the older topics, and happened across this one. As I'm originally from Atmore and o-l-d (66) I can take this one back to its origin. WATM was owned by Mr & Mrs Thomas C Miniard, started 1949 on 1580 with 250 watts. Moved to 1590 with 1 kw, then 5 kw, while I was young.
Typical of small town stations in the 50s and 60s, WATM was all things to all people, instead of having a consistent format: was country in the early AM, MoR in the midday, country in early afternoon, top 40 after school let out, a half-hour of r&b, then southern gospel to signoff.
A Class C FM was allocated to Atmore, and WATM put it on the air (104.1 WATM-FM) around 1966. The FM was mono, automated easy listening, with home-made tapes dubbed from vinyl discs. Facility was minimal - maybe 25 kw at less than 200 ft.
It was maybe in the early 80s that Talton Bcstg bought the AM/FM. They realized the untapped potential for moving the Class C to a tall tower closer to Mobile/Pensacola, without changing the city of license. An idea was shared with me by a high-school friend who worked for Talton: while you can do whatever you want nowdays, back then there was the possibility that some problem could come up before the FCC if you gave the appearance that the town's only fulltime facility was shying away from its city of license. So they built a 3-tower 5 kw day 1 kw DA-N facility for the defense that Atmore would now have its own fulltime facility, albeit AM. Calls changed to WSKR on AM and FM (Kicker).
Then they felt comfortable about moving the FM. A sale to Keymarket, a major station chain, resulted in a move to the WPMI TV tower, at 1500 ft halfway between Mobile and Pensacola... and you had The Wizard, WIZD 104, which lasted a few years. Numerous other calls and formats have been there since then... too many to mention. For a while FCC rules required studio to be inside city of license; later modification was that the non-entertainment programming (the required quotas of public affairs, religion, etc) had to originate from there. A Daphne studio was the actual WIZD home.
Meantime back at 1590 AM, there was now a second AM in town, WASG 1140 (later 550). A local religious group, believe it was Maranatha Ministries, took over 1590 and it became We Give You Jesus WGYJ. They made the questionable decision to move to 1620. Day power went from 5 kw to 10 kw, which didn't mean much ... actually Lost a lot of daytime audience locally because very few people could tune the expanded band. But at the time, there were only 3 stations in the US on 1620 at night. The 1 kw non-DA nite skywave signal went all over the place, and the local group was beside itself with what showed up in the mailbag. Somewhere along the way, WGYJ became WPHG for We Proclaim His Glory.
One by one, other facilities moved to 1620, and little by little, the far-reaching night skywave coverage dwindled down to just a few miles' radius, and the station shut down. I remember the 1620 station in Bryan/College Station TX coming on and it killed WPHG. 1620 went silent.
A move to Gulf Breeze (Pensacola) was its reincarnation, initially as a country oldies companion to FM Cat Country 98.7. Now it's all-talk.
One of the three 1590 DA-N towers remains, and it supports 105.9 FM these days. Talton built a plush studio at the site, and it's now used for other things.
Typical of small town stations in the 50s and 60s, WATM was all things to all people, instead of having a consistent format: was country in the early AM, MoR in the midday, country in early afternoon, top 40 after school let out, a half-hour of r&b, then southern gospel to signoff.
A Class C FM was allocated to Atmore, and WATM put it on the air (104.1 WATM-FM) around 1966. The FM was mono, automated easy listening, with home-made tapes dubbed from vinyl discs. Facility was minimal - maybe 25 kw at less than 200 ft.
It was maybe in the early 80s that Talton Bcstg bought the AM/FM. They realized the untapped potential for moving the Class C to a tall tower closer to Mobile/Pensacola, without changing the city of license. An idea was shared with me by a high-school friend who worked for Talton: while you can do whatever you want nowdays, back then there was the possibility that some problem could come up before the FCC if you gave the appearance that the town's only fulltime facility was shying away from its city of license. So they built a 3-tower 5 kw day 1 kw DA-N facility for the defense that Atmore would now have its own fulltime facility, albeit AM. Calls changed to WSKR on AM and FM (Kicker).
Then they felt comfortable about moving the FM. A sale to Keymarket, a major station chain, resulted in a move to the WPMI TV tower, at 1500 ft halfway between Mobile and Pensacola... and you had The Wizard, WIZD 104, which lasted a few years. Numerous other calls and formats have been there since then... too many to mention. For a while FCC rules required studio to be inside city of license; later modification was that the non-entertainment programming (the required quotas of public affairs, religion, etc) had to originate from there. A Daphne studio was the actual WIZD home.
Meantime back at 1590 AM, there was now a second AM in town, WASG 1140 (later 550). A local religious group, believe it was Maranatha Ministries, took over 1590 and it became We Give You Jesus WGYJ. They made the questionable decision to move to 1620. Day power went from 5 kw to 10 kw, which didn't mean much ... actually Lost a lot of daytime audience locally because very few people could tune the expanded band. But at the time, there were only 3 stations in the US on 1620 at night. The 1 kw non-DA nite skywave signal went all over the place, and the local group was beside itself with what showed up in the mailbag. Somewhere along the way, WGYJ became WPHG for We Proclaim His Glory.
One by one, other facilities moved to 1620, and little by little, the far-reaching night skywave coverage dwindled down to just a few miles' radius, and the station shut down. I remember the 1620 station in Bryan/College Station TX coming on and it killed WPHG. 1620 went silent.
A move to Gulf Breeze (Pensacola) was its reincarnation, initially as a country oldies companion to FM Cat Country 98.7. Now it's all-talk.
One of the three 1590 DA-N towers remains, and it supports 105.9 FM these days. Talton built a plush studio at the site, and it's now used for other things.
Thanks for your response Alan, you're quite welcome. I've been in SW Alabama (or in Mississippi) most of my 66 years, and have had a lifelong interest in radio. I may be able to fill in historical data on any other station you may be interested in. Would welcome inquiry about some other facility. (I live in the Mobile area now, and once owned WDLT 98.3.)
I see you have a site named after WJJD. I listened to that station a lot 1957-1962 at sunup and sundown down here; was stationed in Chicago in the Navy 1968-69 and was a big fan of the station at that time, as I had become a country fan. I have a 1959 QSL card from them.
I see you have a site named after WJJD. I listened to that station a lot 1957-1962 at sunup and sundown down here; was stationed in Chicago in the Navy 1968-69 and was a big fan of the station at that time, as I had become a country fan. I have a 1959 QSL card from them.
C
cd637299
Guest
@Poledo---
There was a real non-TIS station on 1610 in Atlanta, TX (not GA). KALT were the calls, I believe. I'm not sure they even lasted 1 year, but I think I did hear them at night. This may have been around the year 2000.
All 1610's I know now are TIS's (Travelers Info Stations) in the US, but there is or was a pirate/part 15 (I can't tell the difference much anymore) in Homestad/Florida City FL, 1 hour drive from my home, with Haitian programming.
Natch, there is the widely heard Caribbean Beacon on 1610 from Anguilla in the West Indies.
cd
There was a real non-TIS station on 1610 in Atlanta, TX (not GA). KALT were the calls, I believe. I'm not sure they even lasted 1 year, but I think I did hear them at night. This may have been around the year 2000.
All 1610's I know now are TIS's (Travelers Info Stations) in the US, but there is or was a pirate/part 15 (I can't tell the difference much anymore) in Homestad/Florida City FL, 1 hour drive from my home, with Haitian programming.
Natch, there is the widely heard Caribbean Beacon on 1610 from Anguilla in the West Indies.
cd
J Alex Bowab said:
I'd like to ask if you wouldn't mind indulging us with a story or two about your ownership of that station. Did you own 98.3 as an urban station, or during its run as a country outlet? What were some of the more interesting or successful promotions you ran? Your competition at the time? Celebrities or interesting listeners met at a remote event? What lead you to sell the station? Likes and dislikes of your ownership experience?
I can understand if you'd rather not go into details, but I'm sure most of the board would enjoy whatever you could share.
Glad to reply; thrilled that someone cares or remembers. 98.3 was allocated to Chickasaw, and was put on the air by Bill Phillips around 1980 as WJQY, Joy, a beautiful music station. WLPR 96.1 (I worked there in 1965-67) was still beautiful music also, but the format was dying and there wasn't enough there for the two stations to split it.
After two years, they became Q-Country but made no inroads against WKSJ after a year of trying. Ed Muniz, a well known New Orleans broadcaster, bought it around 1983, and changed it to lite-rock WDLT, a carbon copy of his WLTS 105.3 New Orleans. They used a tape-syndicated format called RadioOne (not to be confused with a company that now owns numerous Urban stations).
I had spent the 1970s decade as part owner/operator of a black FM in Jackson, Mississippi... had been away from radio building cable TV systems for 6 years, and approached Muniz about buying WDLT, which I did in 1986. About that time, a satellite-fed format called Format 41 was becoming very successful (so called because it is supposed to be aimed directly at a 41 year old female listener), and I took it on. It was a bit softer than the RadioOne syndication, which I believe Churchill Productions put out. In summary, it played Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, The Carpenters, and Kenny Rogers until it made you want to heave all over your shoes. A lot of listeners were intensely loyal to it, but maybe it was too upscale in a less-than-upscale market.
Studio/xmtr were on Wolf Ridge Road, a fairly good location for a 3 kw station that wants to concentrate its signal over the population.
Our soft AC format on a 3 kw signal at times got higher metro ratings than 100 kw hotter AC signals WKRG FM and WIZD-104. WMEZ soft AC from Pensacola didn't have much impact. I had previously learned that sometimes the worst thing you can do is to pull good numbers on a less-than-optimum facility, because it invites someone with a bigger signal to jump into your stuff.
Sure enough, WLPR was sold to a hot-shot broadcaster from Texas, Pat Shaugnessey, once president of TM, the jingle company. He dumped the beautiful music, upgraded the 40 kw horiz-only signal on the FNB Bldg to 100 kw on a taller tower in Baldwin County, and adopted the soft-AC format of Drake Chenault, called "Evergreen." This was 1987. The calls were WAVH, The Wave, with "soft hits that gently roll" (though when they said that, we were sure people heard it as "soft tits"). There wasn't a 2% difference between our music library and theirs.
We were supposed to cave in and change format. Having spent 9 years running a black FM in Mississippi, I thought about changing WDLT to urban AC but chickened out.
WAVH beat us in one book, we led them in the next one. One year after going soft AC, WAVH ditched the format and went to Oldies. Damn, were we happy!
We continued along with soft AC, but the recession made things tough. I had managed to raise the power from 3 kw to 6 kw with a change in FCC rules, tho it didn't make much difference (moved the 3.16 mv/m contour out from 8 miles to 9.5 miles). Also managed to get the station reallocated as a C2 (50 kw at 500 ft) tho it didn't get built until after I sold it.
The C2 was site-restricted by 98.1 Andalusia and 98.5 New Orleans. The open space was around Wilmer, but to me that wasted a lot of signal over areas populated with jackrabbits and pine trees. New FCC rules allowed us to short-space up to 8 km (5 miles) by going DA. I chose a shortspaced site SW of Mobile, so that it would be the strongest Mobile signal into Jackson County MS and would put more signal into the south half of Baldwin County than I could get from a Wilmer site (the bulk of the Baldwin population is south of I-10 as you know).
Indeed, today, WDLT consistently has the highest numbers of any Mobile station showing up in the Biloxi-Gulfport Arbitron.
By 1991 I needed to sell the station. New FCC rules, fortunately, allowed two separately owned stations to enter into what they called an LMA. That stands for Losing My Ass to some, and to others it is a Local Marketing Agreement. The owner of WZEW was also struggling, so we entered into an ideal marriage that lasted about 2 years. We kept the ownership separate (FCC rules had not yet allowed two commonly owned FMs in the same market), but operated from the WZEW studio atop the AmSouth bldg. WZEW had a virtually all-male 25-54 audience; we had a virtually all female 25-54 audience, both upscale (or so we believed). We at times were #4 or #5 in our target demo. You put the two audiences together as a single buy and you had something saleable ... and the expense cut we realized by combining staff and studio was nice.
In mid-92 I finally sold the station to Tom Wilson, a guy who had been a DJ on my black FM in Mississippi 20 years earlier. He had relocated to Mobile and did some part time work on WDLT. As a minority, he qualified for backing from a minority small-business investment company, and they took WDLT off my hands. He did mostly jazz for a few months, but finally did what I didn't have sense enough to do ... went urban AC, and built the C2 facility on Ben Hamilton Road.
WBLX was pulling huge numbers, and except for a little that went to WGOK, they dominated in teens and older demos as well. The general market stations target a specific demo ... the notion that a single black station could appeal to everyone from 8 to 80 is ridiculous. WDLT went for the adult demos, and let BLX have the younger ones. As you know WDLT is consistently #1 or #2 in 12+ MSA. Once the rules changed to allow WBLX and WDLT to be commonly owned, Tom sold out for a lot more than he paid for it. Tom died last year.
In the 6 years I owned the station, I can easily think of a lot of stupid mistakes, but I can with equal ease point to my proudest moment. Sam Cochran (not to be confused with the law enforcement officer of the same name) worked for us the better part of the 6 years ... he had done some work at other stations in town as well. He made us very proud.
Around 1989, a lot of well meaning people were crusading for a local lady named Ethelyn Hays ... remember her? Mother of 4, dying and need of a bone-marrow transplant. For those not familiar with it, the operation is the only chance of saving someone's life, but you have to "match up" with someone who has registered a sample with the national clearinghouse.
Someone suggested we do a series of PSAs and live broadcasts to get people to come in and register for the bone marrow donor clearinghouse. Sam took a notion to get involved (he says I inspired him, but he deserves the credit) and he went to a lot of extra effort to publicize the Ethelyn Hays fund-raiser and bone-marrow registry.
Sam had them take his blood sample, and when it went to the Kansas City HQ, they matched him up with a Midwest teenager who was dying and needed the bone marrow transplant! With great fanfare and local publicity, he went to KC and underwent the painful operation that was vital to saving the recipient's life.
Most people put their sample in the marrow registry, but are never matched up with someone who can benefit. That is why a few years later, it was absolutely unbelievable that Sam was matched for a SECOND TIME with someone dying and needing marrow transplant.
To know that you were able to do something to save someone's life ONCE ... that will change your life .... to have the privilege of doing it a SECOND TIME .... you are truly a different person after that. Forever and ever.
I am still in touch with Sam; he lives in the Dothan/Enterprise area, and will still tell me what a wonderful feeling one can get from having done such a wonderful act. If only I could convince him that he is the hero; I only consented to let him use or airwaves to take on the crusade.
Oh - one other memorable moment. Remember when the local transit company, rather than just selling bus-advertising space on the vehicle, would sell you the entire shell of the bus ... and you paint your promotional stuff all over it? I believe we were the first to do it locally ... painted the bus the color of PeptoBismol pink, emblazoned the call letters bigger than life (WDLT 98 Lite), drew a radio on the side of the bus (the wheels were the volume and tuning knobs). Wish I had a picture of it now. Can't think of anything that ever got so much attention!
After two years, they became Q-Country but made no inroads against WKSJ after a year of trying. Ed Muniz, a well known New Orleans broadcaster, bought it around 1983, and changed it to lite-rock WDLT, a carbon copy of his WLTS 105.3 New Orleans. They used a tape-syndicated format called RadioOne (not to be confused with a company that now owns numerous Urban stations).
I had spent the 1970s decade as part owner/operator of a black FM in Jackson, Mississippi... had been away from radio building cable TV systems for 6 years, and approached Muniz about buying WDLT, which I did in 1986. About that time, a satellite-fed format called Format 41 was becoming very successful (so called because it is supposed to be aimed directly at a 41 year old female listener), and I took it on. It was a bit softer than the RadioOne syndication, which I believe Churchill Productions put out. In summary, it played Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, The Carpenters, and Kenny Rogers until it made you want to heave all over your shoes. A lot of listeners were intensely loyal to it, but maybe it was too upscale in a less-than-upscale market.
Studio/xmtr were on Wolf Ridge Road, a fairly good location for a 3 kw station that wants to concentrate its signal over the population.
Our soft AC format on a 3 kw signal at times got higher metro ratings than 100 kw hotter AC signals WKRG FM and WIZD-104. WMEZ soft AC from Pensacola didn't have much impact. I had previously learned that sometimes the worst thing you can do is to pull good numbers on a less-than-optimum facility, because it invites someone with a bigger signal to jump into your stuff.
Sure enough, WLPR was sold to a hot-shot broadcaster from Texas, Pat Shaugnessey, once president of TM, the jingle company. He dumped the beautiful music, upgraded the 40 kw horiz-only signal on the FNB Bldg to 100 kw on a taller tower in Baldwin County, and adopted the soft-AC format of Drake Chenault, called "Evergreen." This was 1987. The calls were WAVH, The Wave, with "soft hits that gently roll" (though when they said that, we were sure people heard it as "soft tits"). There wasn't a 2% difference between our music library and theirs.
We were supposed to cave in and change format. Having spent 9 years running a black FM in Mississippi, I thought about changing WDLT to urban AC but chickened out.
WAVH beat us in one book, we led them in the next one. One year after going soft AC, WAVH ditched the format and went to Oldies. Damn, were we happy!
We continued along with soft AC, but the recession made things tough. I had managed to raise the power from 3 kw to 6 kw with a change in FCC rules, tho it didn't make much difference (moved the 3.16 mv/m contour out from 8 miles to 9.5 miles). Also managed to get the station reallocated as a C2 (50 kw at 500 ft) tho it didn't get built until after I sold it.
The C2 was site-restricted by 98.1 Andalusia and 98.5 New Orleans. The open space was around Wilmer, but to me that wasted a lot of signal over areas populated with jackrabbits and pine trees. New FCC rules allowed us to short-space up to 8 km (5 miles) by going DA. I chose a shortspaced site SW of Mobile, so that it would be the strongest Mobile signal into Jackson County MS and would put more signal into the south half of Baldwin County than I could get from a Wilmer site (the bulk of the Baldwin population is south of I-10 as you know).
Indeed, today, WDLT consistently has the highest numbers of any Mobile station showing up in the Biloxi-Gulfport Arbitron.
By 1991 I needed to sell the station. New FCC rules, fortunately, allowed two separately owned stations to enter into what they called an LMA. That stands for Losing My Ass to some, and to others it is a Local Marketing Agreement. The owner of WZEW was also struggling, so we entered into an ideal marriage that lasted about 2 years. We kept the ownership separate (FCC rules had not yet allowed two commonly owned FMs in the same market), but operated from the WZEW studio atop the AmSouth bldg. WZEW had a virtually all-male 25-54 audience; we had a virtually all female 25-54 audience, both upscale (or so we believed). We at times were #4 or #5 in our target demo. You put the two audiences together as a single buy and you had something saleable ... and the expense cut we realized by combining staff and studio was nice.
In mid-92 I finally sold the station to Tom Wilson, a guy who had been a DJ on my black FM in Mississippi 20 years earlier. He had relocated to Mobile and did some part time work on WDLT. As a minority, he qualified for backing from a minority small-business investment company, and they took WDLT off my hands. He did mostly jazz for a few months, but finally did what I didn't have sense enough to do ... went urban AC, and built the C2 facility on Ben Hamilton Road.
WBLX was pulling huge numbers, and except for a little that went to WGOK, they dominated in teens and older demos as well. The general market stations target a specific demo ... the notion that a single black station could appeal to everyone from 8 to 80 is ridiculous. WDLT went for the adult demos, and let BLX have the younger ones. As you know WDLT is consistently #1 or #2 in 12+ MSA. Once the rules changed to allow WBLX and WDLT to be commonly owned, Tom sold out for a lot more than he paid for it. Tom died last year.
In the 6 years I owned the station, I can easily think of a lot of stupid mistakes, but I can with equal ease point to my proudest moment. Sam Cochran (not to be confused with the law enforcement officer of the same name) worked for us the better part of the 6 years ... he had done some work at other stations in town as well. He made us very proud.
Around 1989, a lot of well meaning people were crusading for a local lady named Ethelyn Hays ... remember her? Mother of 4, dying and need of a bone-marrow transplant. For those not familiar with it, the operation is the only chance of saving someone's life, but you have to "match up" with someone who has registered a sample with the national clearinghouse.
Someone suggested we do a series of PSAs and live broadcasts to get people to come in and register for the bone marrow donor clearinghouse. Sam took a notion to get involved (he says I inspired him, but he deserves the credit) and he went to a lot of extra effort to publicize the Ethelyn Hays fund-raiser and bone-marrow registry.
Sam had them take his blood sample, and when it went to the Kansas City HQ, they matched him up with a Midwest teenager who was dying and needed the bone marrow transplant! With great fanfare and local publicity, he went to KC and underwent the painful operation that was vital to saving the recipient's life.
Most people put their sample in the marrow registry, but are never matched up with someone who can benefit. That is why a few years later, it was absolutely unbelievable that Sam was matched for a SECOND TIME with someone dying and needing marrow transplant.
To know that you were able to do something to save someone's life ONCE ... that will change your life .... to have the privilege of doing it a SECOND TIME .... you are truly a different person after that. Forever and ever.
I am still in touch with Sam; he lives in the Dothan/Enterprise area, and will still tell me what a wonderful feeling one can get from having done such a wonderful act. If only I could convince him that he is the hero; I only consented to let him use or airwaves to take on the crusade.
Oh - one other memorable moment. Remember when the local transit company, rather than just selling bus-advertising space on the vehicle, would sell you the entire shell of the bus ... and you paint your promotional stuff all over it? I believe we were the first to do it locally ... painted the bus the color of PeptoBismol pink, emblazoned the call letters bigger than life (WDLT 98 Lite), drew a radio on the side of the bus (the wheels were the volume and tuning knobs). Wish I had a picture of it now. Can't think of anything that ever got so much attention!
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