Where are our old stations?

[chromiumboy]

Wonder what ever happened to some of those cats at the old AOR 'QDR.

Examples:
Tom Guild, Rockin' Ron Phillips, Bob Walton, Gayle Rancer, Joan Siefert, Frank Laseter, Chris Miller, Jim Huste, Greg Wells, Jo Leigh Ferris, Daniel Brunty, Tom Gongaware, Brian McFadden, and many more I'm certainly forgetting.

I was a teenager then, and the folks at "94 FM" were almost gods to me.

Ahhh, good times...

...emphasis on the "almost" part, I hope. But thanks for asking...

OK, Rockin Ron lives in the western part of the state and is an independent music promoter. Bob Walton is Ops Manager for a group of stations in Delaware. Gayle Rancer lives in West Va and makes jewelery. Joan Siefert is General Manager of WUNC Chapel Hill. Frank Laseter lives in the Charlotte area, may still do news on WSOC (?) and definitely does v/o work. The previous post about Jim Huste is accurate. Jo Leigh, whom most of us haven't seen in years, supposedly got a nursing degree and left radio behind a long time ago. Daniel used to sell luxury cars in Chapel Hill, but may have recently moved to Hawaii. Tom Gongaware works for York Simpson Underwood. Brian lives in Raleigh and has his own studio creating music, including song parodies. He also was doing some 96 Rock imaging a few years ago.

I had not heard of Greg's demise until this thread...that's a real shame. Wonder what ever happened to his Wall Of Airchecks? Chris Miller has programmed several Bay Area stations in the last few decades--not sure where he is now.

I work at a recording studio in Raleigh producing radio, TV, narration, etc. I would say I don't miss radio one bit, but if I'm checking these boards on a regular basis, maybe not...however I can assure you that there IS life after radio.

-Tom Guild

 

[Marathon Don]

Thanks for the update! I didn't expect to strike gold like this. I later did a little radio myself, and you guys were a major influence on that. I had green QDR stickers on every car I owned thru high school. The first concert my future wife and I attended was a QDR-sponsored PKM/Sidewinder show. About the only time I changed the dial on the ol' Delco (enhanced with an Audiovox FM converter) was when a Dylan tune came on. Or when Daniel would go into one of his jazz moods. I'd pop over to WRQR (Farmville) and then flip 'er back to QDR.

Thanks for the good times and memories of a truly influential & historic radio station.

OBTW, somewhere around here I have a newspaper clip with a photo of you on the air at the WRDU sign-on. I was working for Voyager at the time in Wilson.

 

[berlin201]

WTRG has been reborn in Gaston, NC as "The Great 98" (actually 97.9). Oldies with some Carolina Beach music on weekends.

Their station ID: "WTRG Gaston Emporia Roanoke Rapids-The Great 98"

Two questions:

(1) Do they have a website?
(2) If so, do they stream online?

 

[cjunkielover]

Quote from: cjunkielover on July 25, 2007, 07:04:00 pm
WTRG has been reborn in Gaston, NC as "The Great 98" (actually 97.9). Oldies with some Carolina Beach music on weekends.

Their station ID: "WTRG Gaston Emporia Roanoke Rapids-The Great 98"


Two questions:

(1) Do they have a website?
(2) If so, do they stream online?

I believe the answer to both questions is no.

 

[berlin201]

The old saying- what goes around, comes around is alive and well. Heritage music will be comin back sooner than later. Lots of groups now realizing that decision to blow up the oldies station to do the trend of the week format was a big mistake. Sure, wolf is showing some numbers- about the same as Oldies 93 had- but look what it's costing them to fight the battle. I'd like to see what the year end cashflow looks like.
I look for one of the Triad group owners to eventually climb on the oldies bandwagon.

Well, I know of one grievous mistake CC-G won't be able to correct even if they'd wanted to: the old WFMX will never come back; even if they change the format back, some station in Maine has already snatched up the WFMX calls...

However, there is one station they (CC) can bring back, since they didn't change the calls: 106.1 in Raleigh is still WRDU; now if they'd just do away with that pesky Rooster and bring back the classic-rock format the way it's supposed to be (and not like the total mess they've made of The River...)

 

[XTalker]

Seldom can you ever go back. What CBS has done in NY is very rare in this business. Frankly, it's not really going back. New voices, lots of different music, capitalizing on a band name and a heritage with a modernized product.

If oldies stations took that approach in the first place, they would be going the way of all those other formats that aged out of their demos over the last 40 years of radio.

 

[rrsounds]

Greg Wells suffered a fatal heart attack while swimming in the ocean at Jacksonville, Florida. I think it was about 3 or so years ago. We worked together at WOE in Eden. In the early 70's. Two weeks ago I pulled out my old Sony reel to reel and put on a few jingle composite tapes that Greg put together. He had recorded a brief intro which brought back some great memories for me. Frank Laseter was teaching broadcasting at UNCG in the late 70's. Frank would invite me to speak to his class about how to get that first job in radio. He did news for WMAG when they first came on the air. And Jim Huste,...worked with him at WHPE-FM before he went to WQDR. Max Parrish would get all over him for playing Jethro Tull. Jim was on the AOR edge early, and was always telling me to slow down a little, and finally I did listen to his advice. He even stopped by the WRQK studios off I-85 to tell me how much better I sounded. Still have to remind myself to slow down though.

Marathon Don. Thanks for putting up all these names and bring back all these as you say....
Ahhh Good Times! And Great memories!

Hello there, Wes!

(Wes gave me my first fulltime job in radio). Not sure if that was a blessing or a curse? ;-)

Very sorry to hear about Greg Wells' passing. I worked with Greg twice; once along with Wes doing CHR in Eden, and later doing AOR in Jacksonville at Rock 105, where Greg did mornings and I was Production Director.

Greg was great guy. A big believer in the art of Radio. When he left WLOE to work nights at WCOG, I'd go visit to watch the expert at work. Later when I lost my job, he gave me a place to stay for a couple of months. This Florida boy saw his first snowstorm from the comfort of Greg Wells' living room.

He had the most extensive jingle collection I ever saw. And knowledge to back it up. Lots of fun times.

RIP Greg.

These days, I'm the other half of TransLanTech Sound, with Jim Huste (the Ariane is my design).

Kind Regards,
David


David P. Reaves, III
TransLanTech Sound, LLC
Home of the Award-winning "Ariane Sequel" Digital Audio Leveler

 

[disgruntled]

I know music on AM is unpalatable in the 21st century, but if you really want to listen to old dead songs by old dead singers, you can turn on 920 in Burlington. I don't listen to it, but i know it exists because I went to their office on the pre-text of filling out a job application once. Its in the same building with WZTK....AND, OH WHAT A BUILDING!!! I've seen housing projects in philly that looked better than that eyesore. Im guessing the original structure was built in 1890 as a morse code relay station. Good Lord, it was scary. I suppose, in a sense, it doesnt matter since radio is not a visual business, but I think Mr. Curtis is the type who prefers not to invest reeeeeeeeal heavily in infrastructure. How do the employees there feel about it, i wonder. Surely the flip side is that he pays his people well (ok, I know that's not true, but I like to be incredulous now and then)

 

[RadioDze]

I used to do a show in that building and was always afraid an opossum or some other sort of wildlife was going to crash through the ceiling. There were some interesting things in there, though, such as the huge Gates transmitter responsible for WPCM's daytime sigal. It was so old that someone had glued the "on" button to the cabinet to make it function. The most interesting thing in that shop was an old FM radio tuner (don't believe it was operational) in the rack which could tune in the original 42-50 MHz FM band as well as the present day 88-108 MHz. The FM stations that existed back then in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Raleigh-Durham, Roanoke and other surrounding cities and towns was penciled in above the dial (e.g. WSLC-FM, WBTM-FM, WDNC-FM, WRAL-FM, WFMY-FM, WSJS-FM, etc).

 

[FIDELIPACK]

I met one of their fulltimers on Thursday. He didn't refer to the "opossums" but he acted like he was pretty damn happy. To my ear they sound big time but I have never been to the place.

 

[MaskMan]

I've heard lots of equipment horror stories about WZTK. Curtis just won't spend the money. It's too bad because it's a good station. Maybe now that he owns a few more stations there will be more revenue for them to spend on equipment. Although I doubt that will ever happen.

 

[rkramden]

Don't hold you breath on that one. Curtis is well known to let his stations decay without upgrading. The perfect examples are his Goldsboro stations and, of course, the Burlington stations too. I can remember a Goldsboro transmitter that needed some "severe" attention and when it failed, he filed an insurance claim and said the cause was lightning. The Raleigh studios are the best kept, and I say that loosely, simply because it's Raleigh and there are a lot of outsiders visitors in and out of the Highwoods property.

 

[Christopher Chenn]

There was another thread where we talked about the deplorable condition of Curtis stations but it somehow has been deleted. (I find that very strange indeed) I brought up the fact that in Raleigh they kept every old keyboad that broke and had a pile of at least 50 stacked up. They did this so that they could replace keys off other keyboards to keep them going. I've been told that Burlington is a sick building in that it has lots of mold and mildew. If you are sensitive to this stuff you won't be able to work there.

 

[XTalker]

Some of America's greatest radio stations were dumps! It was about the on-air talent and music product not the building. Anyone remember the old WKIX studios off NC 54 near I-40? Was torn down and is now a very classy office park but was a real dump - even in it's better days!

 

[MaskMan]

It's true about many of the great radio stations. The Radio Building in downtown High Point was (is) ancient with peeling paint and stained carpet. We even had window unit air conditioners that vibrated and shook the walls when you turned them on. In the spring and fall we would open the windows on the 8th floor. There were these wide ledges and every year the Starlings would migrate in and crap all over the ledges. They would look in at us along with the pigeons. But, it was also the birthplace of WMAG 99.5. Most everyone who worked there thought it was the greatest place they ever worked. Somehow it felt like home. That's not what I've heard about the Curtis Burlington facility, however. It actually sounds toxic.

 

[RadioDze]

I remember the walls and even the paneling seemed to have a yellowish-orange hue, and the sound proofing consisted of dusty carpeting. The AM studio had well-worn vinyl linoleum covering the floor. Definitely a building with character but not one for those with allergies.

 

[Christopher Chenn]

Some of America's greatest radio stations were dumps! It was about the on-air talent and music product not the building.

Ya, but, when you run the majority of the WZTK air programing off of 2 channels with 10 slelector switches, that is going a little too far,no?

 

[XTalker]

You have to be honest, Christopher, if you are just a listener to 101.1, you would never know it was coming from a dump! I can think of a lot of great stations that made it with old, limited equipment. What they all had in common was great people!

At one time, ZTK was going to move to Greensboro, but the revenue came really hard in the first couple of years. Sound like they are doing OK these days.

 

[RoundMound]

Years ago I worked for curtis in Raleigh and was sent to fill in on PCM (101.1) in PMD for a few days because the entire airstaff minus one either quit or got fired. This was in the mid 90's and that studio was beyond belief. 5 channel spin pot board in such need of cleaning they actually crackled on-air when you turned them. CD players were home CD players, not the industry standard Denon's. Of the 5 cart decks only three worked and did not trip one another. Also the remote start button on the board to fire the cart machines didn't work so every spot and liner had to fired manually. Not to mention all of the CD's were so scratched you were afraid to leave the studio during the song in fear it would start to skip. That was an exhausting couple of days. I'm not so young as to forget what it was like punching buttons but you really take things like the carts firing one another for granted when you don't have it. I told the folks back in Raleigh that if you fell thru a crack in that studio's floor you fall straight in hell....

 

[Christopher Chenn]

What they all had in common was great people!

That is exactly my pont Mike. It's not the lsiterners but the GREAT people who have to work in a bad environment that just isn't nessessary. Why do this to people when some used equipment and a little spit and polish will solve this. No one can justify a $15,000. console but a perfectly adequate one can be had for $3,000. Less if you want and can clean up a used one. People do it all the time.

What also goes on is telling people that the new stuff is coming and then nothing. This is done over and over and over. Is that proper and does that instill GREATNESS? Isn't it funny they don't have money to provide a decent work environment but certainly has money to buy up more and more stations? Cumon Mike, you can do better than defending this kinda crap. The truth is, the money is there. It really is.