WJJL, The Talbots

[Kohoutek]

Just curious if anyone knows what became of the Talbot family which ran WJJL from almost after its sign on in 1947 right up until they sold to Sue Nicholas and her Dad in the late 1980's?

Tom Talbot ran if for years till he dropped dead...Then his widow Norma owned the "plantation" for several years after that with her daughter Mary as GM and her granddaughter answering the phones!
Norma was, well, along in years in the 80's and I would imagine that with human mortality being what it is she may not be among us anymore,..but if anyone knows anything I'd like to hear.
And favor me, please, with your WJJL memories.

 

[radioboy]

> Just curious if anyone knows what became of the Talbot
> family which ran WJJL from almost after its sign on in 1947
> right up until they sold to Sue Nicholas and her Dad in the
> late 1980's?
>
> Tom Talbot ran if for years till he dropped dead...Then his
> widow Norma owned the "plantation" for several years after
> that with her daughter Mary as GM and her granddaughter
> answering the phones!
> Norma was, well, along in years in the 80's and I would
> imagine that with human mortality being what it is she may
> not be among us anymore,..but if anyone knows anything I'd
> like to hear.
> And favor me, please, with your WJJL memories.
>


It seems to me that there was a fire at WJJL in the late 90s(?).
I donated an old McMartin console to them to help them get back on the air
but kind of lost touch with them after that.

They were running a weekend show called "Dynamite Christian Country" that a
friend of mine has syndicated. He told me about the WJJL fire and I had just
taken the McMartin out of service. That was a heavy old board...<P ID="signature">______________
Proudly remembering the days of the hometown "country giant" radio stations now at
http://www.live365.com/stations/alanmccall</P>

 

[Element9]

Re: The Talbot Plantation

> Tom Talbot ran if for years till he dropped dead...Then his
> widow Norma owned the "plantation" for several years after
> that with her daughter Mary as GM and her granddaughter
> answering the phones!

> Norma was, well, along in years in the 80's and I would
> imagine that with human mortality being what it is she may
> not be among us anymore,..but if anyone knows anything I'd
> like to hear.
> And favor me, please, with your WJJL memories.
>
Funny that you mention Norma Talbot and the word "plantation." Well, maybe not funny, but curious. Here's a story from the wayback machine, related directly to me by Buffalo high school English teacher, Ken Ruof, whose mellow tones were heard at night on WBNY FM 96.1.

Seems Norma Talbot wasn't fond of African America female crooners such as Carmen McCrae and Nancy Wilson. She would tell her husband to tell "those people on the radio" not to play African American female singers. Well, heh, heh... you know what happens when management tells the children not to do something... Ruof and guys like Jim Sotet would go out of their way to play those songs.

I realize these are names unknown to at least half the posters here, but the stories are true, nonetheless. Says a lot about how radio was, "back in the day." Thank God for guys like The Hound and others who were color blind.

Can you imagine... Talbot sold the FM for about $450 large to some company like Sunbeam that made appliances and had a radio division... and he KEPT the 1kW AM daytimer in Niagara Falls... tell me THAT'S not something straight out of bizarro world!

<p align="center">-9-</p>