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WJPR, Greenville founder died

R

robgrayson

You can find more on this on the Memphis page (since he also founded WDIA), but John R. Pepper II, who put WJPR, Greenville, on the air (1939?), passed away last week in Memphis. WJPR changed calls to WNIX. Many careers got their start there over the years.
After Greenville, John Pepper and early 'JPR manager Bert Ferguson teamed together in Memphis to start WDIA; Pepper would be instumental in the jingle and production music business with Pepper-Tanner and it's subsequent manifestations.
According to the "Mississippi Blues Trail", WJPR is where BB King first played on the radio as part of the St. Johns Singers...
 
Is this station or its’ successor, still operating? I was told by someone that it was silent but it is not reported on the FCC silent list. I was driving through Tupelo last week and was surprised to find WELO at 580 kc back on the air and playing MOYL. It was the first time I had heard them in a long time and I feared they had thrown in the towel like so many of these old AM’s have.

w/
 
They are still on the air as WNIX, on 1330, co-owned with WIQQ-FM and WBAQ-FM. Currently they are airing oldies. Their studios are now in the back of what used to be the Mainstream Mall.
My brother Walt started there while in high school. He has a few good "ghost stories" about their Broadway studios, including the time the piano started playing itself (one note over and over).
That location was next to my old elementary school, and, somehow, I wound up getting to hang around there. I would load up my 45's on my bicycle handlebars and head up to WJPR, and they would let me use their on-air studio (while they were automated) to "play dj" in audition. God bless whoever had the patience to put up with me when I was a kid.
As a child in the 60's, I regarded whatever they were playing as "old fogey" music, so I couldn't accurately say what they aired... MOR, I would imagine. They were a Mutual Broadcasting Network station (can you say "bee-doop"?). In the 70's they programmed Drake-Chenault Hit Parade.
The station was run by the Gresham's; Bruce, John, and Benny. I went to school with their kids. My sisters sang there back in the 40's. They remember Sid Leak as an announcer there (I worked with him at WHBQ). At night, they had to have a first class operator on duty. Allen Reynolds did the early evening shift in the 70's, and he was followed by a guy who called himself "the Midnight Cowboy", who also worked at WABG-TV as a switcher. Allen had the latitude to go more "pop" at night.
Percy Kuhn was the chief engineer, and the last time I heard, still was. I worked with his brother David at WBAQ.
 
God bless whoever had the patience to put up with me when I was a kid.
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That is a great story and I would love to hear the piano explanation. I am amazed Percy Kuhn is still there. He has to be well into his eighties by now I think he told me he went there before WWII then came back after duty. I went by there in the 1960’s and remember the studio was in an old house south of the downtown area. I also remember he came by to visit one day during the construction of the ETV facility at Inverness around 1972. Thanks for saying his name as I was trying to recall it.

For me, I feel the reason why these people put up with youngsters is they saw an inquisitive, wide-eyed kid as a source of cheap labor. Uncalculated risk, I thought they were out of their minds.
w/
 
Percy's longevity surprised me, also. Last time I stopped by, Jimmy Karr showed me some goodies he salvaged from the old 1330 transmitter site, including the board I goofed around on as a kid.
WBAQ-FM is still easy listening. And, once again, Paul Artman is still there daily, just as he was when he gave me my first on air job 34 years ago. Maybe there's something in that brown Greenville water that just keeps ya going...
When I worked for Paul, I would bring in current singles which I thought would go well with the format. He would patiently listen to them, and then tell me "You can play that song any time you want to, Robert... AT YOUR HOME, but not here!" I got tickled last time I was in town, because I heard him playing one of those songs I tried to get him to add all those years ago.
 
I Don't remember all the names but WJPR was J-13 in 1977 and Jim Spears was doing mid-days, Marc Coppola was Afternoons and I was 7 to Midnight as Frank Ellsworth. At first, John Lord was GM and Benny Gresham was always there doing something. I got fired for being too wild on the air and was told by Benny "Take your California humor out of here" I thought that was so funny. He wouldn't let us play "Take this job and shove it" because he thought we were talking about JPR. I was let go on a Friday and called my friend Allen Reynolds at WDMS who offered me Mornings. I started there the following Monday. It's always been one of my favorite stories. There was another jock in town who was great. He was blind and worked at WDDT. I think he name was Slick Eddie. Anyone know what happened to him? It was a small but fun town back then and some good radio was going on. I wasn't even old enough to drink, but that didn't stop a place called One Block East from serving us underage jocks. Good times!
 
I remember Jim, and Allen as mentioned above. Marc is now in NYC, and on Sirius Satellite Radio (and is related to Nicholas Cage (Coppola).
 
Watt Hairston said:
God bless whoever had the patience to put up with me when I was a kid.
Click to expand...



That is a great story and I would love to hear the piano explanation. I am amazed Percy Kuhn is still there. He has to be well into his eighties by now I think he told me he went there before WWII then came back after duty. I went by there in the 1960’s and remember the studio was in an old house south of the downtown area. I also remember he came by to visit one day during the construction of the ETV facility at Inverness around 1972. Thanks for saying his name as I was trying to recall it.

For me, I feel the reason why these people put up with youngsters is they saw an inquisitive, wide-eyed kid as a source of cheap labor. Uncalculated risk, I thought they were out of their minds.
w/
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That is indeed amazing. Percy was the engineer who built WQMV, the first FM in Vicksburg back in 1966. As a member of the original air staff hired before the station went on the air I worked nights there as a teenager and spent a number of hrs watching him work when he would come in to do maintenance.
 
I maintained QMV in the later years...Johnny...Do you know if Tillie and Gene Underwood are still kicking? Haven't heard from them in years....we used to go to the Lebanese celebration at their church each year...talk about a PARTY! JBI
 
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