WHat Frequence was WZZX on

[MikeFromIndiana]

What Frequencey was WZZX louisville on i was lOoking through the Tribute Pages to WAKY-790 and WKLO-1080 and saw a Mention of a WZZX Louisville for a Personality that worked at either WAKY or WKLO

 

[The RadioFan]

> What Frequencey was WZZX louisville on i was lOoking through
> the Tribute Pages to WAKY-790 and WKLO-1080 and saw a
> Mention of a WZZX Louisville for a Personality that worked
> at either WAKY or WKLO
>
WZZX was on the frequency 101.7 FM, licensed to Jeffersontown, an eastern suburb of Louisville. It signed on in late 1978 with a Top-40 format, then it segued into a rock format in 1980. In 1981, the format changed to easy-listening and call letters were changed to WJYL.

 

[the_scoop]

If I remember correctly they made a splash( or tried to) when they changed to rock in 1980. They were attempting to take on WLRS, which was the powerhouse rock station at the time. But if memory serves correctly, WQMF came along about that same time and I believe WZZX tried to do it with satellite programming. The morning they got ready to go rock the satellite didn't work....ooops. Seems as though that's the story I was told. It also didn't help that the frequency couldn't make it downtown(and half the other metro areas) as 101.7 is only liscensed for, at most, 3,000 watts and I believe at one time maybe less than that.


> > What Frequencey was WZZX louisville on i was lOoking
> through
> > the Tribute Pages to WAKY-790 and WKLO-1080 and saw a
> > Mention of a WZZX Louisville for a Personality that worked
>
> > at either WAKY or WKLO
> >
> WZZX was on the frequency 101.7 FM, licensed to
> Jeffersontown, an eastern suburb of Louisville. It signed
> on in late 1978 with a Top-40 format, then it segued into a
> rock format in 1980. In 1981, the format changed to
> easy-listening and call letters were changed to WJYL.
>

 

[futurebob]

> What Frequencey was WZZX louisville on i was lOoking through
> the Tribute Pages to WAKY-790 and WKLO-1080 and saw a
> Mention of a WZZX Louisville for a Personality that worked
> at either WAKY or WKLO
>
At first, WZZX 101.7 was an early incarnation of the Hot AC format, a little more adult delivery than a CHR. They called themselves "The Music FM" George Lindsey (now of WMHX) worked there for a time. If memory serves, I think it was the spring of '79 they flipped to "rock without the hype" and called themselves "101 ZZX" - with longer rotations for the currents and deeper album cuts than WLRS. New years week 1980 ZZX "tracked" the top 100 albums of the 1970's. They published a monthly newspaper "the X" and had a Jazz Show on Sunday nights, The ratings were never all that hot, but the listeners were very loyal, the signal was licensed to Jeffersontown and wasn't a very tall tower so, yes, downtown penetration wasn't all that hot...I think the jocks even told people to buy antenna's to get the station better. Rusty Rogers is probably they guy that the WAKY sight was referring to, other alumni from ZZX (rock) Michael Bright (now with Public Radio) Brian Christopher (the big voice guy on many clear channel rock stations accross the country among others. Right before they flipped to a Beautiful Music format sometime in 1981 the owners of 95.7 bought airtime to promote WQMF.

 

[basixdj]

Thanks for filling in the gaps of my memory, guys. I remember listening alot as a teenager and since have been hard pressed to find anyone who remembers it :-\

 

[hotpatrick2004]

Hey future i was just a little kid at the time but weren't you on zzx? My uncle whom has since passed away had some ownership in that station.

 

[radioville]

> What Frequencey was WZZX louisville on i was lOoking through
> the Tribute Pages to WAKY-790 and WKLO-1080 and saw a
> Mention of a WZZX Louisville for a Personality that worked
> at either WAKY or WKLO
>
At first, WZZX 101.7 was an early incarnation of the Hot AC format, a little more adult delivery than a CHR. They called themselves "The Music FM" George Lindsey (now of WMHX) worked there for a time. If memory serves, I think it was the spring of '79 they flipped to "rock without the hype" and called themselves "101 ZZX" - with longer rotations for the currents and deeper album cuts than WLRS. New years week 1980 ZZX "tracked" the top 100 albums of the 1970's. They published a monthly newspaper "the X" and had a Jazz Show on Sunday nights, The ratings were never all that hot, but the listeners were very loyal, the signal was licensed to Jeffersontown and wasn't a very tall tower so, yes, downtown penetration wasn't all that hot...I think the jocks even told people to buy antenna's to get the station better. Rusty Rogers is probably they guy that the WAKY sight was referring to, other alumni from ZZX (rock) Michael Bright (now with Public Radio) Brian Christopher (the big voice guy on many clear channel rock stations accross the country among others. Right before they flipped to a Beautiful Music format sometime in 1981 the owners of 95.7 bought airtime to promote WQMF.

You are the 2nd Future Bob on this board! Will the real Future Bob please stand up, please stand up!!!

 

[greg.hahn]

Ok, so you may be wondering why 101.7 ended up in Shelbyville rather than Louisville. Here's the rest of the story.

101.7 is a third adjacent channel to 102.3, and there are minimum mileage seperation requirements between stations out to the 3rd adjacent channel. The rule back then was something like 15 miles that 101.7 had to be away from 102.3.

They built the tower on New Hopewell Road, off Taylorsville Road and what is now the Snyder Freeway. (The tower is still there, but with now broadcast stations on it.)

It was WAY back in the field, you had to go through a gate, careful that you not let the cows out, and drive down a hill, cross a dry creek bed, and back up a hill to the back of this farmer's property. The reason it was so far back: it was FEET away from the minimum distance required between 102.3, and could not get ANY closer to downtown.

They added several feet to the tower to try to make it better. (They had to lower their power when they increased height.) that helped, but it was just so far out for a class A.

So the brilliant plan was to swap frequencies with WCND in Shelbyville, which at that time was on 101.3. By moving to 101.3, they would then be 5 channels away from 102.3, and they could move as close as they wanted, as long as they continued to put a city grade signal over Jeffersontown, their city of license.

Unfortunately, the best they could come up with was Kaden Towers. At 59 meters height above average terrain, their signal was actually worse after the move, which was supposed to be an upgrade.

Back in the day, ZZX covered Elizabethtown. They hit Shelbyville easily. They had a great signal for all the high growth east end. And they let it slip away.

By the way, I think ZZX went on the air in 78 or earlier. I definitely remember being snowed in in Scottsburg and listening to ZZX, and laughing at the jocks who were obviously VERY stoned. We had really bad winters in 77 and 78...did we in 79?

 

[basixdj]

That's about right, as far as the timeline. I remember hearing Toto's Hold the Line alot on there, which was released in '77.

 

[radiohawkins]

Can one of you radio buffs give me the history of WJYL? I know Tony Fields programmed it, but do any of you know who the jocks were on there?

Does anyone know when 1350 WLOU went gospel? I remember listening on Friday nights as a kid to DJ B-Real and his hip hop show.

 

[Kent]

I seem to remember hearing an AT-40 from 1982 welcoming WJYL to the AT-40 family. I'm not sure if that was 680 or 101.7, though, as there were at least a decent number of top-40's on AM in '82.

 

[The RadioFan]

Can one of you radio buffs give me the history of WJYL? I know Tony Fields programmed it, but do any of you know who the jocks were on there?

Does anyone know when 1350 WLOU went gospel? I remember listening on Friday nights as a kid to DJ B-Real and his hip hop show.

If I remember correctly, WZZX switched to WJYL as an Easy Listening format in 1981. Then it segued into a Lite AC format and switched to Top-40 briefly in late 1983 to the Summer 1984. Then, in 1984 it flipped into a Rhymthic/Urban AC format, programmed by Vernon Wells, and eventually segued into mainstream urban by 1986.

Tony Fields came on board in the Fall 1987 and programmed WJYL until it signed off in January 1989. Some of the WJYL's jocks under Tony Field included midday host Phillip March, who is now afternoon jock at Urban AC MOJO-100.3 in Cincinnati. Mark Gunn was the afternoon jock at WJYL. He is now the afternoon jock at Urban WGZB in Louisville. Keith Landecker did evenings at WJYL. He is now programming Urban WJTT-FM in Chattanooga, TN. Dawne Gee, now WAVE-TV new anchor, was a part-time jock at WJYL during it's last few months in existence. David Michaels was Tony Field's co-partner on WJYL's morning show. Since then, they have also served as a morning team in several other places including Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Milwaukee. Other WJYL jocks included overnight host, Don Thaxton, and several weekend hosts including "The Rhythm Wizard" Tony Rankin who hosted the Saturday night Mix show. Rankin was in Las Vegas as an afternoon jock on V-108 until it flipped formats a year or two ago. I am not sure of his whereabouts as of now.

As far as WLOU, the urban format died in the Fall of 1995. WLOU went to a Conservative Christian Talk format for a brief period in November 1995 before switching to Urban Gospel in July 1996.

 

[The RadioFan]

I seem to remember hearing an AT-40 from 1982 welcoming WJYL to the AT-40 family. I'm not sure if that was 680 or 101.7, though, as there were at least a decent number of top-40's on AM in '82.

AT-40 was on WJYL at 101.7 FM from 1982-84. WJYL was an Adult Contemporary in 1982 and eventually segued into a Top-40 outlet in Fall 1983. AM 680 signed on the air in 1992 with CNN News.

 

[radiohawkins]

Thanks a lot RadioLover!

 

[greg.hahn]

I seem to remember hearing an AT-40 from 1982 welcoming WJYL to the AT-40 family. I'm not sure if that was 680 or 101.7, though, as there were at least a decent number of top-40's on AM in '82.

AT-40 was on WJYL at 101.7 FM from 1982-84. WJYL was an Adult Contemporary in 1982 and eventually segued into a Top-40 outlet in Fall 1983. AM 680 signed on the air in 1992 with CNN News.

So what year did WJYL become WLSY, "Sunny 101.7" with George Lindsey as PD, and... gosh, who else? That must have been 1990.

 

[The RadioFan]

I seem to remember hearing an AT-40 from 1982 welcoming WJYL to the AT-40 family. I'm not sure if that was 680 or 101.7, though, as there were at least a decent number of top-40's on AM in '82.

AT-40 was on WJYL at 101.7 FM from 1982-84. WJYL was an Adult Contemporary in 1982 and eventually segued into a Top-40 outlet in Fall 1983. AM 680 signed on the air in 1992 with CNN News.

So what year did WJYL become WLSY, "Sunny 101.7" with George Lindsey as PD, and... gosh, who else? That must have been 1990.

WJYL became WLSY "Sunny 101.7" on January 15, 1989. I remember WJYL signed off at midnight on January 8, 1989 and began stunting a different song each day containing the word "sun." The song on January 8th was "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" by Gerry and the Pacemakers. WLSY "Sunny 101.7" was around until January 1991 and 101.7 went dark until March 1993. At that time, WLSY signed on as "Majic 101.7" airing ABC's Urban AC satellite service "The Touch." Then, in 1996, Blue Chip purchased 101.7 and began a local Urban AC version with the new call letters of WMJM. In May 1996, the 101.3-Jeffersontown/101.7-Shelbyville swap occurred. I remember at the beginning of the swap when WMJM 101.3 in Jeffersontown had an ERP of 6kw. Now, it only has an ERP of 2KW. Why the decrease in power?

 

[greg.hahn]

I seem to remember hearing an AT-40 from 1982 welcoming WJYL to the AT-40 family. I'm not sure if that was 680 or 101.7, though, as there were at least a decent number of top-40's on AM in '82.

AT-40 was on WJYL at 101.7 FM from 1982-84. WJYL was an Adult Contemporary in 1982 and eventually segued into a Top-40 outlet in Fall 1983. AM 680 signed on the air in 1992 with CNN News.

So what year did WJYL become WLSY, "Sunny 101.7" with George Lindsey as PD, and... gosh, who else? That must have been 1990.

WJYL became WLSY "Sunny 101.7" on January 15, 1989. I remember WJYL signed off at midnight on January 8, 1989 and began stunting a different song each day containing the word "sun." The song on January 8th was "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" by Gerry and the Pacemakers. WLSY "Sunny 101.7" was around until January 1991 and 101.7 went dark until March 1993. At that time, WLSY signed on as "Majic 101.7" airing ABC's Urban AC satellite service "The Touch." Then, in 1996, Blue Chip purchased 101.7 and began a local Urban AC version with the new call letters of WMJM. In May 1996, the 101.3-Jeffersontown/101.7-Shelbyville swap occurred. I remember at the beginning of the swap when WMJM 101.3 in Jeffersontown had an ERP of 6kw. Now, it only has an ERP of 2KW. Why the decrease in power?

If such a decrease occurred it can only be because of interference to another station or hazardous non-ionizing radiation into the restaurant below, currently Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. But it's news to me that it was originally 6KW. I know it sucked from the first day they turned it on. The PD was livid, that after all that work and money,, they had actually made it worse.

 

[kyscott]

If such a decrease occurred it can only be because of interference to another station or hazardous non-ionizing radiation into the restaurant below, currently Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. But it's news to me that it was originally 6KW. I know it sucked from the first day they turned it on. The PD was livid, that after all that work and money,, they had actually made it worse.

What do you expect? You go from 300' on a bit of a ridge to 100' on top of a building. The ridge at Indian Hills shadows the station to the west end. The west end of town is where the target demographic is....can you say DUH! Just because it's closer did not make it better. I had a contract to put the transmitter on the tall tower out in the Brandise Industrial Park. All they needed to do was sign on the dotted line and Radio One let the tower space get away. It would have cleared the Indian Hills ridge and pushed the 60 bd contour all the way out to Shelbyville.

That site on top of the Kaden building is horrible. I was having to shut it down once a month to clean out the carbon from the elevator motors. I lost a BE FX-50 exciter because the fan filter clogged before I could get back for my cleaning. In the summertime, the heat up there was unbearable. Not good for tubes...or exciters or Optimods! Kaden could not have been a worse place to put WMJM's transmitter.

There was some concern about radiation so we took measurements on the patio at Ruth Chris and there wasn't a radiation issue. It was overload on all the other crap up on top of the building. I'm so disappointed that the station is still there.

 

[hotpatrick2004]

Did radio one do any thing right here in the viille?

 

[basixdj]

I thoroughly enjoyed Magic 101 when they first went to the Urban format of the 70's, playing Philly Soul and R&B. I couldn't always pick it up in E'town, but whenever I was in Louisville, I was sure to listen. That is, until they moved to a more contemporary Urban, sometimes Hip-Hop format...which didn't surprise me at all. I've heard some 'silent stations' that would start out with a cool format playing nothing but music and TOH's and liners until they officially 'signed on' and then they switched to whatever pre-determined format was decided.

But back to ZZX, I remember they had a rather simplistic, unattractive logo-basically just the call letters/frequency in a jagged, lightning bolt type of font.