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WHat Frequence was WZZX on

Hi Max, Bratcher here...nice WIEL tribute site. I think about Ron almost every day. Does that Saturday shift I'm doing on RZI sound OK?

Anyway, I grew up in Louisville, listening to WLOU...My Mom bowled at Parkmoor Lanes, and I'd stand out in the parking lot, looking up at WLOU's big free-stander. In my head, the condensed version of Urban radio in Tha Ville is: WLOU was basically killed by WJYL, which in turn was killed by WGZB. By the time 104.3 came around, I had given up on current Urban tuneage.

I used to work in Shelbyville when CBC owned that bunch along with the Frankfort and Eminence groups. If memory serves we were 6kw ERP on 101.7...nice tower, easy to get to. Tall tower because it was one of those deals (like most of our properties) where some Mom n Pop AM decided to slap an FM on the tower when FM came into vogue. But, WCND being at 940 made for a nice tall tower, and I think we ran the Harris 2.5 at about 2100 watts on a three-bay antenna. I dunno what CC is doing with it, as I am in the home office in Glasgow for CBC these days. That xmitter gave me fits that summer('99 was it?...yeah), becuase there was no good exhaust in the shack, so the AC would just give up and die! The MW1 for the AM put out a good deal of heat as well. I thnk the

I also was big fan of 101.3 when Radio One put that Urban Oldies on there...reminded me of growing up listening to WLOU.

My sympathy to all the talent in my hometown who work for the big groups. For stress-relief, I suggest the big fish in a small pond scenario. Much less stress, better communities, and plenty of fun and things to do w/o high crime rates, and good people largely get to keep their jobs. That Joe Elliot deal was the nail in the coffin for me ever wanting to work where my Mom can hear me. Not that I'd ever be that important, but man that was a crummy deal.
 
Dang, Chris! I knew I should have used a different user name! :-\ You're exactly right...listening to Magic 101 (101.3) on the way to drill on the weekends made me feel like I was listening to WAKY (the REAL one) and WKLO back in the '70's. Now it's just another...uh, well I guess I better not say anything that would be construed as politically incorrect.

"I wouldn't wish to be accused of participating in a rumble..."
 
It was the link to the WIEL site that tipped me off...nice Ron site too...saw it after I had posted. He and I didn't always get along, but anyone that was fortunate enough to work with him should consider themselves better for it. I do. I have an enormous amount of admiration for him and his career.

I'm guessing, after the Shelbyville swap, that 101.3's power was limited by virtue of its proximity to our WRZI @ 101.5 maybe? It also seems RZI was the beneficiary of that swap...isn't that when 101.5 went from 3 to 6kw? Its been 7 years this month since I started with ol' Ron on the other side of the glass. It was wild to sit there in the morning and play Ozzy and such and try to imagine what it was like when it was "Ritzy" lol. It was '01 right? yeah...'01-'05...then came back down here for my second go-'round in Glasgow.

How are things with you? You know, I've still not stepped foot in that new building. Do you ever catch my Sat 3-7? Does it sound like I bang it out in 15 mins on Friday afternoons lol?

But, getting back to topic, the more I think about it, growing up on WLOU really probably an influence on my decision @ 15 to get into radio. All those big voices....staring up at that tower....I still remember JYL's bumper stickers, too. Random mental cues popping up all over about all teh great RnB of that era lol. I still old old Prince on karaoke!!!! I really dug GZB at first, but I lost interest in the genre alltogether by the time I was 23 or so.

Take care Max...ttyl!
 
Yes, I have...I've been in almost every afternoon or night the last few weeks. I thought that sounded like you and Cat verified it. Actually it really sounds not much different in terms of being 'hammered out' than Todd Franklin's VT on the Bear, ...but that's for maybe another thread.

Back to the REAL topic of this thread 8), as a teenager who grew up to the two coolest AM stations in Big Lou packed with high energy jocks, switching first to Hi95 and their automated talk-ups/backtrack format set me up for listening to the format of WZZX, which if memory serves me was more music than talk. Seems like WLRS did a little more talking than ZZX, although I never for once thought ZZX was automated. Heck, at 14 I didn't even know what automation was (yes I even though Hi95 was live :-[)
 
Yes, I did work there for about a year, late '79-80. The first logo was blue with silver shadowing, when the format changed to album rock, it was an orange logo. I'll see if I can find an example. The studios were on the second floor (in the back) of the 10000 building on Shelbyville Road - at the time they were the nicest studios in Louisville. 101 - ZZX wasn't automated when I worked there.
 
You are the real future bob dude you my friend are a victim of identity radio theft someone else on here says future bob but you are the real one. Have you listened to your airchecks on www.lkyradio.com on wlrs. I really hope the wlrs calls go away it is depressing what the suits have done to them over the years :mad:
 
hotpatrick2004 said:
Did radio one do any thing right here in the viille?
Click to expand...

Radio One had nothing to do with the "upgrade" to 101.7/101.3. That was conceived by former owner of B96 and Magic, Rod Burbridge, who sold it all to Ross Love before it was even built. Ross Love formed Blue Chip Broadcasting, and he is the one that actually consummated the construction permit and made the frequency swap with Shelbyville.

After giving this some thought, I have to say I just don't believe the claim that 101.3 was originally 6 KW. I think that from Kaden Towers it was always 2 KW @ 59 meters HAAT, as it is today.
 
Another factor in the swap (and I might have missed its mention) was 101.7 in Richmond. They were able to move to 101.5 and become a C3.

Back to WLSY, I never understood the concept. It was a beautiful music station with live jocks created at a time when the format was dying with its demo. But they tried to pass themselves off in the trades as an AC station.
 
When they became sunny 101.7 that is the first station i ever heard mannheimsteam roller on and it was dec 1 and i was thinking how early to be hearing christmas music. Little did we know in the years to follow 24/7 christmas music for a month.
 
radiorob2.0 said:
Another factor in the swap (and I might have missed its mention) was 101.7 in Richmond. They were able to move to 101.5 and become a C3.

Back to WLSY, I never understood the concept. It was a beautiful music station with live jocks created at a time when the format was dying with its demo. But they tried to pass themselves off in the trades as an AC station.
Click to expand...

So did Richmond have to pay someone... Burbridge or the Shelbyville people for this chance to upgrade? Or did it all just fall into their laps as a result of the ill-fated frequency swap between 101.7, Jeffersontown and 101.3 Shelbyville?

I think the idea behind Sunny was to make it an east end station for an east end signal. I wouldn't have called it Beautiful Music... more of a very light AC. WVEZ had just dropped Format 41 and gone live in a head to head matchup with then AC WRKA. WRKA responded by switching to oldies. In theory there should have been some former VEZ listeners that Sunny could pick up.
 
greg.hahn said:
radiorob2.0 said:
Another factor in the swap (and I might have missed its mention) was 101.7 in Richmond. They were able to move to 101.5 and become a C3.

Back to WLSY, I never understood the concept. It was a beautiful music station with live jocks created at a time when the format was dying with its demo. But they tried to pass themselves off in the trades as an AC station.
Click to expand...

So did Richmond have to pay someone... Burbridge or the Shelbyville people for this chance to upgrade? Or did it all just fall into their laps as a result of the ill-fated frequency swap between 101.7, Jeffersontown and 101.3 Shelbyville?

I think the idea behind Sunny was to make it an east end station for an east end signal. I wouldn't have called it Beautiful Music... more of a very light AC. WVEZ had just dropped Format 41 and gone live in a head to head matchup with then AC WRKA. WRKA responded by switching to oldies. In theory there should have been some former VEZ listeners that Sunny could pick up.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if the owners of 101.7 Richmond paid for the move or fell into it. I know when I worked there twenty years ago they were trying to figure out a way to move the stick closer to Lexington. However, as a class A they were limited to how far north they could go. At best, they could move eight miles north of Richmond but still wouldn't be able to place a city grade over Lexington; the same dilemma WFMI (100.1) had before their upgrade to C3.

Regarding WVEZ, before the switch to Format 41 the bulk of the automation system was retired. The provider of Beautiful Music (Schulke I believe) distributed music programming via satellite instead of a tape service and used tones to fire off local breaks. For a time WWEZ Cincinnati used the same service. The format was moved to 790 (Remember "The Beautiful 790"?) when VEZ adopted Format 41. When VEZ phased out "41" their local programming made little sense. I seem to remember theme weekends where loud screaming guitars were present; a little odd for a station calling itself "EZ-107".

WLSY could be better classified as a soft AC/new age. But it seems every time I listened it leaned to Beautiful Music.
 
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