WHIN & Kx 104

[Mayberry]

Hello everyone up and down the dial, this is Bob Mayben. Yes, I was the engineer for Ronnie and Mike St.J from 1980 till 1984, when I married and moved to hotLanta. I have been lurking around the halls of radio stations since 1963, and I will tell anyone who asks or cares: the best time I ever had in radio was on Highway 109 North. Bledsoe treated me with kindness and respect. Although I didn't know all the answers, I could call Watt or Jim Gilmore and get the answer.These are things I seldom found as an engineer. Now Saint John and I would scream at each other over the Optimod settings, why KDF does not break up where we did on some corner in Nashville, etc, but we got along because we were in it together, us against KDF. In fact the whole staff - air staff anyway, had that feeling. At a car show at the Fairgrounds, in 1983, I paid a kid $5.00 to put a Kx sticker on the bumper of 103's new van on display. We all took it very seriously, and I was telling Cameron Adkins not long ago, how weird it is for those two stations to be in the same building now.
I like to think about the promotions Mike did. Sounds baseball night, sticker parties, when we gave away the Camaro, the time we gave away and installed a couple of hundred Radio Shack FM antennas to stores in malls, so they would play us on the sound system, stuff like that is/was real radio to me. Coyote, Brian Sergeant, Rocky Knight, Bobby Cook, Amazing Stephen Kelley, Barry Fox, and B.J. Harris. What a bunch! I know I have left out some names, but hell I'm 63 now, whadda ya expect?
I had a brief stint as manager of WHIN, my biggest success was designing a new business card. When Jack came up from WAMG we did not hit it off. I then had two guys who did not care for me, Tex Meyer and Jack. Finally, we smoothed the rough spots many years ago, and I am so glad we did. Jack has turned out to be a great friend, and I know he is a real broadcaster, and a good businessman. He is almost worthy of a great lady like Virginia.
Now a parting thought, if you want to know if you are a true radio geek, get in your car some night, and drive by a radio tower with the red lights a'blinkin'. If that gives you a comforting feeling, you're hooked.
I just wanted to post something.
73

 

[scottwmro]

Hello everyone up and down the dial, this is Bob Mayben. Yes, I was the engineer for Ronnie and Mike St.J from 1980 till 1984, when I married and moved to hotLanta. I have been lurking around the halls of radio stations since 1963, and I will tell anyone who asks or cares: the best time I ever had in radio was on Highway 109 North. Bledsoe treated me with kindness and respect. Although I didn't know all the answers, I could call Watt or Jim Gilmore and get the answer.These are things I seldom found as an engineer. Now Saint John and I would scream at each other over the Optimod settings, why KDF does not break up where we did on some corner in Nashville, etc, but we got along because we were in it together, us against KDF. In fact the whole staff - air staff anyway, had that feeling. At a car show at the Fairgrounds, in 1983, I paid a kid $5.00 to put a Kx sticker on the bumper of 103's new van on display. We all took it very seriously, and I was telling Cameron Adkins not long ago, how weird it is for those two stations to be in the same building now.
I like to think about the promotions Mike did. Sounds baseball night, sticker parties, when we gave away the Camaro, the time we gave away and installed a couple of hundred Radio Shack FM antennas to stores in malls, so they would play us on the sound system, stuff like that is/was real radio to me. Coyote, Brian Sergeant, Rocky Knight, Bobby Cook, Amazing Stephen Kelley, Barry Fox, and B.J. Harris. What a bunch! I know I have left out some names, but hell I'm 63 now, whadda ya expect?
I had a brief stint as manager of WHIN, my biggest success was designing a new business card. When Jack came up from WAMG we did not hit it off. I then had two guys who did not care for me, Tex Meyer and Jack. Finally, we smoothed the rough spots many years ago, and I am so glad we did. Jack has turned out to be a great friend, and I know he is a real broadcaster, and a good businessman. He is almost worthy of a great lady like Virginia.
Now a parting thought, if you want to know if you are a true radio geek, get in your car some night, and drive by a radio tower with the red lights a'blinkin'. If that gives you a comforting feeling, you're hooked.
I just wanted to post something.
73

Don't lie about your age Bob, Your 53!........Leslie said you're still a good looking man! I better watch out, here comes the competition!!!!! (HA!)

Scott

 

[Mayberry]

No, I am definately 63, and it shows. I forgot to add our award seeking newsman to that list of guys, Jay Hasting was and is one of my close friends. he found fame and fourtune in Mobile and is now retired from headphone wearing. Some people have all the luck!

 

[scottwmro]

No, I am definately 63, and it shows. I forgot to add our award seeking newsman to that list of guys, Jay Hasting was and is one of my close friends. he found fame and fourtune in Mobile and is now retired from headphone wearing. Some people have all the luck!

You tell Jay I said hi. He never thought I would never, ever, make something of myself. Tell him I'm 44 now and bought the old WAMG, but I don't wear headphone when I key the mic. It's now a chore to key the mic than fun!

 

[KevinCrashDavis]

Bob Mayben, you are always "Chief" to me!

Yeah, those blinking KX104 tower lights illuminated by room as I grew up next to the tower site.

Great working with you, Jay AND MSJ in '89 at WKQD in Huntsville!

-Kevin "Crash" Davis

(oh, and that 21 yr old mullet sporting nite jock at Power 93 is now 40 and bald!)

 

[scottwmro]

Bob Mayben, you are always "Chief" to me!

Yeah, those blinking KX104 tower lights illuminated by room as I grew up next to the tower site.

Great working with you, Jay AND MSJ in '89 at WKQD in Huntsville!

-Kevin "Crash" Davis

(oh, and that 21 yr old mullet sporting nite jock at Power 93 is now 40 and bald!)

Kevin,

MSJ was tuff on us at 92Q. His vision was to take 92Q from a straight up black station to a CHR/Dance station. This was cira 1990. Yea, we heard all those speaches he gave to the jocks at Kicks. One of his famous quotes....."White Girls in the South love to shake thier ass"! Last time I saw him at my station (and I'm the boss), I told him it seemed those girls have gotten FAT, and could careless!

Oh by the way.....You do know that WMRO has changed format from Oldies to Hot AC?

Scott

 

[nashbear]

When did Kx-104 go from 50kw to 100kw?
As a youngster growing up in Lebanon, WHIN-FM (and eventually KX-104) was always the strongest and LOUDEST FM signal on the dial (until the early 80's and the 96.3/107.5 stick went up in Gladeville).
I've always been fascinated by transmitters & towers, and remember looking up in awe at the 104 tower on Highway 109 as a child, thinking (back then, anyway) it was probably the tallest & strongest radio tower/signal in the world. Now it seems like a tiny stick.. but back in the day that signal from Music Mountain sure did blast my world!
I still remember hearing DJ Andy Pearson signing off WHIN-FM for the last time, saying "something new & exciting" would greet listeners the next morning. Sure enough, DJ Darryl Douglas and the WWKX call-letters ushered in a new era for CHR radio on FM in Middle Tennessee.
Memories.. like the corners of my mind.....

 

[KevinCrashDavis]

Hi Nashbear.

I cannot remember when WWKX got the upgrade to 100K. It must have been in the very early years as KX104 though. I do remember how they promoted it: they gave out "watts" (or assigned) to listeners. I remember gettting a post card with Coyote on it.

Yeah, that big ole tower. And the studios at the bottom of the ridge (5 minutes from home): I FINALLY worked there part-time JUST after the moved to 31st and West End. Was there during the flip to Classic Hits as The Fox in August '87.

A year later though, got to work for former Kicks staffers Michael St. John and Jay Hasting at a move-in/sign-on in Hunstville. Bob Mayben (Kicks engineer) joined in for the fun. Some of the old Kicks magic was created...just a taste. Loved hearing the stories.

 

[romer979fm]

Crash...
remember 'Randy Rhodes'? seems like every Saturday morning when I came in at 5a,
I'd find him between the console and the windows with some drunk female (always in
various stages of undress).
and the wall of 1000 carts for KX...each with the intro/outro key for the 'blender' drops?

and the view from Suite 1200 was phenomenal!

 

[KevinCrashDavis]

Chris,

LOL. Wonder what every happened to Randy?

Oh yes. The blenders. Awesome imaging tool.

-Kevin

 

[cubnut]

Someone in Paducah told me they saw my name pop up in here... now I'm going to be up all night thinking about those golden Gallatin days at Kx104! Like the control room Ronnie Bledsoe built just like a Music Row recording studio, with the floating floor and Voice of the Theatre speakers, and the newsroom window ten feet above your head! Like my first day on the air, Billy Squier walks in for an interview, and acts like a total d*ck (I later found out that was no act)...

... me and BJ Harris and a vanload of ringers playing 38 radio station basketball games in one season, from Clarksville to Cookeville (ah, to be 22 again!)... the worst remote in my 30-year career, trying to sell waterbeds on Christmas Eve -- just me and the irate Iranian store owner alone for three hours...

... riding in a certain engineer's car, listening to his pirate station play his oldies show, to see how far down Highway 109 we could hear it... doing a Rolling Stones "treasure hunt" ticket giveaway that ended with a hundred people (and their boomboxes) crowded around the Rivergate Mall payphones, and two mall rent-a-cops desperately shouting at each other on their walkie talkies...

... taking that little remote-control robot to Pepsi programs at high schools, until it fell over in the station van, and leaked battery acid all over the electronics (and the 8-track player that contained all the R2D2 sound effects)... doing morning traffic reports from a hot air balloon over downtown Nashville... Michael St. John's "Love Hour"... the bizarre "Rock Hits 104" debacle... six months with Chuck Britton, fresh from WLS to metropolitan Sumner County...

I just stayed about six months after we moved on up to the west side, in a deeluxe control room in the sky... my main memory there is being the only one in the building on a Saturday, when the fire alarm went off, the elevators rushed to the ground level, and I watched from 12 floors up as the fire trucks surrounded our new golden building...

Okay, gotta go to bed... another remote in the morning (NOT waterbeds)... I'll have to save my Romer/92Q stories for another post.

Bobby Cook

 

[courier37027]

Bobby, thanks for reviving one of my disappointing memories. When Kx-104 ran a treasure hunt contest (1985 or so), the fourth or fifth search prize was a new car. Contest hints sent "hunters" south of town toward Maryland Farms, then west on Old Hickory.

One night driving Brentwood to Bellevue I thought the car keys might be hidden in Steeplechase bell. It was nighttime, I did not have a flashlight, but ran my hand inside the bell. Nothing was there (or so I thought). Three days later another hunter found the car keys where I had looked--Steeplechase bell.

One year the "Dirty Dribblers" and played a charity game at my college. You got game.

 

[deltas69]

taking that little remote-control robot to Pepsi programs at high schools, until it fell over in the station van, and leaked battery acid all over the electronics (and the 8-track player that contained all the R2D2 sound fifteen years or so ago, bill buntin and i went out to the then abandoned WHIN/KX 104 building just looking around in our old haunts..the ROBOT was still standing on guard duty...didn't bledsoe just build the new facility over the existing white stucco whin building ? now it's a mexican church..sad end for a once powerful entity :'(

 

[oldies5161]

The first person on WWKX to utter the words "Kix 104" was Devita St. John who worked the overnight shift.

 

[scottwmro]

taking that little remote-control robot to Pepsi programs at high schools, until it fell over in the station van, and leaked battery acid all over the electronics (and the 8-track player that contained all the R2D2 sound fifteen years or so ago, bill buntin and i went out to the then abandoned WHIN/KX 104 building just looking around in our old haunts..the ROBOT was still standing on guard duty...didn't bledsoe just build the new facility over the existing white stucco whin building ? now it's a mexican church..sad end for a once powerful entity :'(

I recall going by WHIN back in the 70’s when it was in its little white building. I loved the old WHIN “Blue Diamond” logo on the building and the big sign out front. Those were the “good ole days” of WHIN. WAMG was in my building and my office wasn’t even built yet. I recall listing to the old WHIN jingles. My favorite was the short one where there was a fast drum roll and quick TM singers, singing…W-H-I-N! Then the jock would hit the song quickly so no dead air was present.

But back to WHIN, I loved that old, blue diamond logo. This is when WHIN played an AC/Top 40 format. Radio was real in Gallatin, and Bill Buntin ran everything. Pat (Deltas 69) Julian was there, John Deering, Chris Collins, etc. I walked in the building on day with my dad and we got a tour of WHIN. This was when I was in about the third or fourth grade. I “think” it was John Deering that gave us the tour of the building and that is when I met Bill Buntin. Bill has known me since I was a kid. Those were the good ole days of WHIN. Bill has always keep tabs on me since I started my radio career about 1980.

The old building is not the same any more, looks so modernized, and Jack has built that (to me) ugly building next door to the original WHIN building that houses the Mexican Church. The building sat vacant for years until Kenny Glover had Perfect Fit in there, then he left and now the church is in there. To this day, when 104.5 abandon that building and moved to Nashville, why in the world didn’t Jack buy the original WHIN building. I would have have, it’s a piece of Gallatin Rock-n-Roll and Country History! Hey Deltas Pat Julian, I saw a picture of you on WHIN in the 70’s with playing midday rock-n-roll and you had a RCA DX-77 mic in front of you. I wonder what ever happen to that mic? Email me that picture so I can blow it up and hang it on the way in my office at WMRO. You sitting in that Retro Studio looks real cool.

Oh by the way, can someone tell me did Fred Buc work at WHIN for a short period of time in the 70’s? Fred is now GM of WRLT (Lighting 100)

Everyone knows my personal feelings of today’s WHIN, it stinks & sounds like dead crap & yes Jack Williams, don’t call me on my cell phone and tell me not to say AM radio is dead, because it really just about is. If it wasn’t, WHIN and WMRO would have busting numbers in the metro book. It’s all gone to places like 92.9, 107.5, 97.9, 105.9 etc. I can turn off my transmitter during the middle of the day and not get 1 phone call asking me why are I’m off the air? FACE REALITY!

But as a kid, WHIN ROCKED, played all the latest Top 40 hits, and I would go to Randy’s here in town and buy them with some of my allowance and money I saved cutting grass. Funny, if you have been by the old Randy’s Record Shop Building, it now a dirty, nasty, Mexican Restaurant now, and all the local Mexicans hang out there. Before the Mexicans, they took down the Randy’s sign, and here goes up a big “TATTOO” sign up. I protested to the Gallatin Zoning board and the sign got taken down and the tattoo slobs moved to where they are now on South Water Street.

 

[romer979fm]

Funny, if you have been by the old Randy’s Record Shop Building, it now a dirty, nasty, Mexican Restaurant now, and all the local Mexicans hang out there. Before the Mexicans, they took down the Randy’s sign, and here goes up a big “TATTOO” sign up. I protested to the Gallatin Zoning board and the sign got taken down and the tattoo slobs moved to where they are now on South Water Street.

nice. scott...do you ever put your brain in 'edit' mode before typing?

 

[scottwmro]

Funny, if you have been by the old Randy’s Record Shop Building, it now a dirty, nasty, Mexican Restaurant now, and all the local Mexicans hang out there. Before the Mexicans, they took down the Randy’s sign, and here goes up a big “TATTOO” sign up. I protested to the Gallatin Zoning board and the sign got taken down and the tattoo slobs moved to where they are now on South Water Street.

nice. scott...do you ever put your brain in 'edit' mode before typing?

It's too early in the morning to put my brain in "edit mode. Besides I forgot to run this in Word to check spelling and such before I posted this. :-\

 

[Don78]

Funny, if you have been by the old Randy’s Record Shop Building, it now a dirty, nasty, Mexican Restaurant now, and all the local Mexicans hang out there. Before the Mexicans, they took down the Randy’s sign, and here goes up a big “TATTOO” sign up. I protested to the Gallatin Zoning board and the sign got taken down and the tattoo slobs moved to where they are now on South Water Street.[/quote]

nice. scott...do you ever put your brain in 'edit' mode before typing?
[/quote]

It's too early in the morning to put my brain in "edit mode. Besides I forgot to run this in Word to check spelling and such before I posted this. :-\
[/quote]

Well CR The good news for scott is none of the "Local Mexicans" or the "tatoo slobs" check out this site.

Scott brought up a name I had not thought of in years Chris Collins. I worked with him at WCOR and WCOR-FM don't remember if ole Buffalo Butt was still around once we became US 107. What becme of him?

 

[romer979fm]

Scott brought up a name I had not thought of in years Chris Collins. I worked with him at WCOR and WCOR-FM don't remember if ole Buffalo Butt was still around once we became US 107. What becme of him?

ahh... "Music Country 107...that was Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass: before that, Boots Randolph.
now here's Floyd Cramer...on WCOR-FM...Music Country 107"
I still have nightmares about running UT football there back in 1975: the feed came off-air from WHAL-FM 102.9
Shelbyville...and they had serious problems NOT running LOCAL spots during NETWORK breaks.
Oh yeah, the quality sucked, too...WHAL-FM took their feed from an AM receiver...tuned to WHAL-AM. Ouch.

 

[Don78]

I still have nightmares about running UT football there back in 1975: the feed came off-air from WHAL-FM 102.9
Shelbyville...and they had serious problems NOT running LOCAL spots during NETWORK breaks.
Oh yeah, the quality sucked, too...WHAL-FM took their feed from an AM receiver...tuned to WHAL-AM. Ouch.
[/quote]

Ahh the good ole days mid 70's till sometime in the 80's on any given saturday most all AM's and several FM's in Mid TN carried UT Football The only thing the listeners had to choose was whose local commercials to listen to. I remember when I worked for WAMG in around 79 both WAMG and WHIN ran Tennessee Football.