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WILZ 1590: Some more details 1969-1973

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DaveMill

I'm Art Millman's son. Art passed away in 2009 at age 76.

Art had a lifetime love of radio and TV broadcasting. During the 1950's he wrote and produced a radio show in Boston called Memories of the Big Time, playing music of the 1920's and 1930's. For most of the 1960's, he produced and hosted that show himself on a station in Poughkeepsie, New York, billing himself as "Poughkeepsie's Youngest Old Timer."

Art and Bob Beckwith bought WILZ in 1969. By that time, the studio was at the Port o' Call on Tierra Verde and the transmitter near 38th Street and 38th Avenue South. The format they broadcast was Nostalgia-music of the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's. The business plan was to attract listeners from the many retired folks in the Tampa Bay area. Unfortunately, although the station had reasonably good ratings with that audience, many advertisers weren't very interested. Retirees don't spend money like teens and young adults do.

I find it remarkable that, given his love of Nostalgia-era music, my dad somehow ended up owning a station that already had an association with Guy Lombardo and big band music. For more information, see these links:

http://www.radioyears.com/other/details.cfm?id=1144
http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=119950.0

In 1973, Art converted WILZ to Golden Oldies, music from the 1950's and afterward. Here's a cute newspaper ad announcing the change:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...iVhQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wlcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5532,241625

One year at Halloween, WILZ broadcast the original Orson Welles' 1938 radio play, "The War of the Worlds." A bunch of people called the station to find out if the Martian invasion was really happening, and a couple even called the police. Remember, WILZ listeners were retirees in their 60's and older!

If anyone has memories of my dad they would like to share, please post here or send me a private message! Thanks.
 
Dave..thank you for sharing this great story. Having run an upper demo station here in New Port Richey your account of advertiser's mind set that "retirees don't spend money" is always a challenge. Before stations were corporate owned there were many pioneers, like your father, who loved the business and wore "many hats" daily.
 
Isn't it amazing that advertisers were not interested in retirees back then?
Now, the retired 'boomers' hold lots of cash. Stations are trying to attract them.
How times change.

Retired ol' Frank
 
Hello, Dave: Wow..... can't believe there would be "new news" about WILZ after so many years. I believe we may have met once, back in late '72 or '73. My name is John, and I worked with Pat Chupko when he was a DJ at WILZ..... I did the copy and music behind the commercials for the show. When we were there, the format was, indeed, the golden oldies. But we began playing most of the new and upcoming bands; we played everything from Frank Zappa to Jazz to Blues, and a lot of the current (for that time) British Invasion stuff. We actually had a lot of good ratings, considering the people that normally tuned in to the station.

We played in a very popular band in the Miami area in 1970 and '71. We wound up in St. Pete because that was where Pat was originally from. When "The Chupko Show" got started, a local paper even began a cartoon series about him and the show. I've long since lost all of the mementos from the band and working at WILZ due to fire, but I just happen to somehow have saved a 7inch reel to reel tape of some of the commercials I did for the show. I'd like to get it converted to CD, but locating anyone around here that has a reel to reel machine isn't going to happen. I'd be happy to send you the tape if you can find someone to convert/record it, and you can keep the tape, too, if you'd like.

Get back to me when you find the time. I have a few funny stories about the show that would be too long to write here. PM me, and perhaps we can set up a time I can call you. Art was a good guy to work for and with, and he was open to trying most anything to fuel his passion for the radio business. I hope his health was good up 'till the end. I would love to have talked to him.

John
 
Hi Dave,

Interesting story. I posted some of my WILZ experiences on here a while back. I was in 9th grade at Bay Point Jr. High in 1973 when Solid Gold 16 arrived OTA. Since I lived in Maximo Moorings (just south of the tower a bit) the signal was always blasting into my six transistor :)

I remember the color ads in the St. Pete Times advertising the change, IIRC a mascot named "Wilzy the dog" (I think) that ran for several weeks. It was on the front page of the comics section, I'm pretty sure. I won several of the contests, mostly by being one of the few listeners back in those early days.

I considered it "my" station, called in almost every day asking for requests, so often that all the DJ's knew my voice and name without asking. I rode my bike onto the transmitter site on 38th Ave. one day (it was quite wooded back then, now all the trees are gone) and found a pink Caddy parked next to the shack - knocked on the door and Howard Hewes (Joel Busch) answered. I think this might have been later when WILZ changed to Top 40 as "Z16". He was quite glib and bemused by a couple of teenagers wanting to meet the big-time radio DJ. :)

I still have some cassettes that I recorded while it was Solid Gold 16, if I can ever find them, I want to post them somewhere like RadioYears. One of the DJ's that knew me (possibly Jack Regan or Jack Armstrong, don't remember which) played a request that I recorded for "Bridge Over Troubled Water". His comment before playing was "I promised Rob I'd play this next record for him, everyone at Bay Point Junior High School, and especially for Terri". She was my crush, a beautiful blue-eyed slim blonde - so perfect at 14 years old (I was 15 at the time) and I never got to get as close as I wanted to her. Many years later, I'm living here in Southern California, and found out that she died in January of this year of lung cancer at age 53. She's gone...but I still have my memory of her and WILZ and my short dedication to her.

Thanks to your dad for such a great station. It'll always be a part of my life. I didn't have the pleasure of knowing your father but he had an impact on my life just the same. R.I.P. Art, and Terri...
 
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