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WKOR-Starkville

markoni said:
Hey Watt, great stuff. I asked first PD Bill Tanner and we both remember that first engineer as "Larry" it may have been Larry Hill. He had never worked at a radio station, but he knew his stuff. He WAS some sort of Electrical Engineering guy from Mississippi State. The studios were beautiful and new. I remember that the big technical breakthru on that Collins board was the photo cell faders on the pot switches. When you turned them off they would gently FADE the levels down, rather than an abrupt "off".

The signal was pretty good too... we would get calls from Memphis whenever some station up there would go off the air for whatever reason.

Mark Shands
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Hey J. Mark, you're correct. The design engineer was Larry Hill, now retired from the Electrical Engineering Department at MSU. In fact Larry was a 10 per cent owner of the station. I'm guessing Ken Irby, the original owner traded Larry a per centage of the station for his engineering work. This 10 per cent business came up later when Don DePriest and Chuck Cooper bought the station from Ken Irby. I think Larry never got anything for his 10 per cent.
 
It also didn't hurt to have competition that still ,for example,used the same old RCA mikes from the 1950's. "New microphones? You know how much it costs to run a radio station? Norvell? Where's my peanut butter?" God bless ol Joe.
 
"This complementary transmitter load condition is taken seriously now with the advent of AM IBOC (FWIW). Bob is 100% correct about the AM signal situation today."


Good info there Watt.

Also don't forget that on the original tower there was a bare copper cable that ran the entire length of the tower which was used as the antenna. Acutally the tower was there to hold up that length of copper. That tower site also had more ground system copper than usual. I can't remember exactly, from so long ago, but I think it had a buried piece of copper equal to the height of the tower, every two degrees and then a half length of copper between each two degree spacing.

Grady Moates (Chris King) the engineer/program director who was there when I got there, explained it to me that way.
 
I would kill for a cool piece of KOR memorabilia. I've still got the always stunning, WKOR satan jacket...with the stitched logo...it's hanging next to my old "Member's Only". That'a bout it though.

Who's got what from KOR? And who has the "Holy Grail"...the King Of Rock poster that hung at the end of the hall?
 
I used to have a satin-ish stick on WKOR patch. Somewhere exists an aircheck of Buster Wilson and me doing a two-man show on Thanksgiving 1975, begging for food. Someone actually brought us a plate!
In addition to the photo cell faders (which I discovered by sneezing on the air when I dumped the mike pot too quickly), the console also featured a "super-reverb" button for SpeSpeSpeCialCialCial EmphEmphEmphAsisAsisAsis. I was instructed that it was reserved exclusively for Butch Luke.
 
I remember that when one of those photo cell pots would burn out, instead of not working, it would let audio pass at FULL blast. That Collins board kept popping up in my career. It was the board used by the 1st and 2nd stations I worked at. When I got the job at KOR I thought "great! I'll finally get to work another board!". I'm sure my jaw dropped when I first walked into the control room. It did work well though. Also, I think the super reverb button at one time was used for time checks on the bottom of the hour. As far as the processing went, Grady Moates did a modification on the CBS units. He changed out a resister to speed up the attack time. He gave me instructions on what he did and when I was over at WSSO, I modified our unit and it made a huge difference.
 
Who's got what from KOR? And who has the "Holy Grail"...the King Of Rock poster that hung at the end of the hall?

I've often wondered what happened to that poster. We got an MSU student to draw it based on an old WLS "Rock of Chicago" drawing. He spent 8 hours on it and used 8 felt tip pins. We paid him a grand total of $25. Talk about cheap channel.....

Ole' Don Vaughn may know where that poster is.
 
robgrayson said:
I used to have a satin-ish stick on WKOR patch. Somewhere exists an aircheck of Buster Wilson and me doing a two-man show on Thanksgiving 1975, begging for food. Someone actually brought us a plate!
In addition to the photo cell faders (which I discovered by sneezing on the air when I dumped the mike pot too quickly), the console also featured a "super-reverb" button for SpeSpeSpeCialCialCial EmphEmphEmphAsisAsisAsis. I was instructed that it was reserved exclusively for Butch Luke.
Click to expand...

Butch would always end his show with this line...

... and to you and yours... Much.... LATERRRRRRRRRRRR (with the reverb button pressed during the word Laterrrr)

That's right, it was another, Great Moment in Broadcasting!

Mark
 
Bob Yarbrough wrote: "Who's got what from KOR? "

I still have one of those blue satin jackets from the 80's, too, although the stitching is starting to unravel a little. I remember some boxes back in the kitchen/coke room/junk room with several generations of old jingle packages. The whole deal was in there, jock shouts and more. That's something else someone could track down if there was a 'reunion" day or something. Maybe an on-line station if nothing else.

Back in '88, Hudson made up some little stickers honoring the 20th anniversary and talked about doing a big KOR reunion party, but never got it together. But I still have some of those stickers somewhere if anyone wants. They're really small but nice to have. I'll have to look after my ex-wife lets me have my stuff :)

Oh yeah, Bob, I remember the nights (and pitchers) at Cheers. And the night I screwed up a joke du jour on stage because we got there early and got a headstart on the drinkin'. 300 people and the place went stone cold silent --- except you laughing so hard you about fell off your stool. I'll never forget that night.
 
I've still got my satin KOR jacket too.... I don't think I could get my arm in it though....

I have a few other knick knacks from along the way.... would love to find that King of Rock Poster.... I also have a great Eagles poster I ripped off from the MD office in '84.

What a great thread this is...
 
I've often wondered what happened to that poster. We got an MSU student to draw it based on an old WLS "Rock of Chicago" drawing. He spent 8 hours on it and used 8 felt tip pins. We paid him a grand total of $25. Talk about cheap channel.....

I seem to remember that that poster made the move with us to Court Square Towers and was hung somewhere around Bill Thurlow's cubicle. That was always one of my fondest memories of the old building (I also wondered where it came from...interesting back-story!). I think the only memorabelia (other than old airchecks) that I still have is a sort of baseball jersey w/ 92KOR splashed very colorfully on the right side and back. I had to 'earn' it by babysitting the Coca-Cola Giant Boom Box all night one night - very cold, rainy and miserable. I earned it alright! It's ratty now...I think one of my daughters used it as a 'burp rag' (yuck!), but I keep it anyway.

You know, talking about getting the old KOR crew back together....Internet Radio is a possiblity! Think about it ;)
 
Does anyone know who the local people involved with WKOR are these days? Just curious. Is it anyone from Starkville's old radio history? I know they're automated. Does anyone broadcast live on WKOR FM?
 
The original WKOR-FM is now 92.1 Hip-Hop WMSU. Owned by Urban Radio. They operate 92.1 out of the old WSSO building on Yellowjacket Drive across from the high school. Urban Radio also owns a couple of other stations in the market. The old WKOR-AM is owned by Cumulus and is operated out of the their Columbus building with ESPN sports. Cumulus also owns WKOR-FM 94.9, country format.
 
Oh yeah, Bob, I remember the nights (and pitchers) at Cheers. And the night I screwed up a joke du jour on stage because we got there early and got a headstart on the drinkin'. 300 people and the place went stone cold silent --- except you laughing so hard you about fell off your stool. I'll never forget that night.
Click to expand...

I vividly remember that night Russ. Unfortunately, I don't remember the joke. You delivered the screwed up punch line and.......crickets. Nothing. Except a bunch of eyballs staring at you.

Remember Gerald? Always went to sleep while sitting at the bar? Didn't matter if it was crowded or empty, Gerald would be at Cheers...sound asleep by midnight.

Good times indeed.
 
Back a few years ago, I worked for Cumulus as PD of 99.9 The Fox (classic rock at the time); but the 'KOR call letters were across the floor playing Country with Bill Thurlowe as PD. I never got used to hearing the KOR doing Country. Just didn't feel right. Nothing against Country, but it just never seemed to fit.
 
'Scuse me for stepping on this thread, but I just happened to read it and was stunned to hear about Dennis Hudson, apparently gone over a year now. I hadn't heard. I worked with Dennis at WRBC in Jackson back in '68. He was PD and, of course, a blast. He left for Starkville by the end of that year and I remember getting him a little trophy made and inscribed to "The Best Damn Pd Between Jackson and Bumphuc, Egypt." Dennis had always used the last part of that phrase, spelled in a more straight-forward way, about as often as he took a breath.

He was a true original. I've not heard from or of him in all these years, but I thought of him often and blame him for my staying in this crazy business for 40 years until I retired in March of this year from WREC et al here in Memphis. I'll raise a brew to Dennis Hudson in any bar in the land and wish him godspeed.

Allan Tynes
 
Terry, remember comedy night at Bonnie and Clydes in Columbus.....and Hudson went along to see James Gregory? It was unusual because he never went anywhere. But, he was in a rotten mood after a particularly bad day from the Depriests (of which there were many). He swore "nobody could make me laugh" and took us up on the challenge.

We were the ones drinking, but as soon as James hit the stage, Hudson hit the floor laughing and stayed there the whole night. "James-isms" became part of the Hudson lexicon after that. "It might be a law, I don't know," or "You know what that means? Sometime in the past...."
 
Yes, I remember that night very well... around 1985 I think. There was no talent fees- just $100 bar tab (I think).... plus some type of chicken wing buffet. We all had a great time. Didn't Libba and Andy Bob tag along? Gregory has been telling those jokes for over 20 years... and I laugh at them every time. Hudson was a great guy to work with. Remember how he would just drop his pants while he was talking to you in the hallway and tuck in his short sleeve dress shirt? Went with him to Shoneys once for the breakfast buffet... I swear he ate 5lbs of bacon. He used to call me "Barbirino"... I truly miss those days. I have my blue KOR satin jacket hanging in my closet.

btw... tivia? do you know who the house DJ was at Bonnie and Clydes that night?



Larry Bond. Another nice guy.
 
And don't forget another Hudson-ism....

...."A lot of people don't know this, but....." followed by some outlandish semi-fact of Hudon's design.
 
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