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WLOS Radio Asheville
- Thread starter pccrw
- Start date
First of all, I'm not sure, but I know that Wometco Broadcasting of Miami, Florida owned these stations for many years.
WLOS (AM) was on 1380 Khz. before it was sold and became WKKE, then WRAQ (both of which aired A/C and Top 40 formats) before it became WKJV which now airs a southern gospel/religious format. WKJV has upgraded the daytime power on the frequency to 50,000 watts, and they have a kilowatt at night. I don't know a lot about the people who own it now.
WLOS (FM) was an easy listening station at 99.9 Mhz. It had (and still has) a monster signal on the frequency because the antenna for the station is atop Mount Pisgah (5500+ feet above sea level). It was sold in 1984 to N. Eric Jorgenson (who owned WISE) who re-named it WRLX and continued the easy listening music for a time, then he switched to Top 40 and re-named the station "Kiss FM" (WKSF). It aired a "classic hits" style of Top 40 into the 1990s, when the station was sold to the owners of WWNC (Clear Channel I believe by this time). The format was changed to modern country, which it continues to this day under CC ownership. A couple of years ago, in a bid to improve the signal of WMXF (104.3), another station that Clear Channel owns in the Asheville market, they applied to move WMXF to Fletcher, NC and increase its power. In order to accommodate the change in city of license from Old Fort to Fletcher, CC licensed WKSF to Old Fort, even though the station has NEVER had a presence in that town.
WLOS-TV was sold by Wometco to a group headed by the investment firm of Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts (I think) in the late 1980s, who in turn spun it off to Sinclair Broadcasting. It has been an ABC affiliate since its sign-on, and its antenna is also atop Mount Pisgah.
The Tower Site of the Week site has a wonderful review of Asheville stations, including a photo of the WKJV towers which feature the old batwing TV antenna of WLOS-TV atop one of them. You can see this article http://www.fybush.com/site-030612.html.
Maybe some others can add to my information for you!
wncmacs
WLOS (AM) was on 1380 Khz. before it was sold and became WKKE, then WRAQ (both of which aired A/C and Top 40 formats) before it became WKJV which now airs a southern gospel/religious format. WKJV has upgraded the daytime power on the frequency to 50,000 watts, and they have a kilowatt at night. I don't know a lot about the people who own it now.
WLOS (FM) was an easy listening station at 99.9 Mhz. It had (and still has) a monster signal on the frequency because the antenna for the station is atop Mount Pisgah (5500+ feet above sea level). It was sold in 1984 to N. Eric Jorgenson (who owned WISE) who re-named it WRLX and continued the easy listening music for a time, then he switched to Top 40 and re-named the station "Kiss FM" (WKSF). It aired a "classic hits" style of Top 40 into the 1990s, when the station was sold to the owners of WWNC (Clear Channel I believe by this time). The format was changed to modern country, which it continues to this day under CC ownership. A couple of years ago, in a bid to improve the signal of WMXF (104.3), another station that Clear Channel owns in the Asheville market, they applied to move WMXF to Fletcher, NC and increase its power. In order to accommodate the change in city of license from Old Fort to Fletcher, CC licensed WKSF to Old Fort, even though the station has NEVER had a presence in that town.
WLOS-TV was sold by Wometco to a group headed by the investment firm of Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts (I think) in the late 1980s, who in turn spun it off to Sinclair Broadcasting. It has been an ABC affiliate since its sign-on, and its antenna is also atop Mount Pisgah.
The Tower Site of the Week site has a wonderful review of Asheville stations, including a photo of the WKJV towers which feature the old batwing TV antenna of WLOS-TV atop one of them. You can see this article http://www.fybush.com/site-030612.html.
Maybe some others can add to my information for you!
wncmacs
wncmacs said:
It seems I remember WRAQ trying country for a time (maybe a year or two) around 1980 or so--they just couldn't compete with WWNC. Then, they flipped to Southern Gospel and still kept the WRAQ calls for some time before changing to WKJV. I found some interesting history tidbits on the WKJV website --
http://www.wkjv.com/history_page.html
Ah...according to the website, they were WTOO before become WKJV.
I tried to find some callsign history on the FCC website, but I could not find WKJV anywhere. I even did an AM query of stations licensed to Asheville, NC. It listed WWNC, WSKY and WISE, but not WKJV. I did find an entry on Radio-Locator. However, I do hope they have not forgotten to renew their license?!?!?!
The first station I worked at was 1380 WRAQ in 1983. It was southern gospel programmed by Sid Hughes, one of the greats in SG radio. "Making a difference in your life with the music we play, we are WRAQ!" Sid did afternoon drive, and actually beat Randy Houston at WWNC in Fall 83! Huge win at the time. Mike Williams worked midday, and SG fans would know him as the man who wrote "Wish You Were Here" by the Kingsmen.
I left in 84 for WFGW/WMIT. WRAQ was sold by the Jenkins Family and became WTOO for a little while, then was bought by Anchor Broadcasting (I think) and became WKJV.
I left in 84 for WFGW/WMIT. WRAQ was sold by the Jenkins Family and became WTOO for a little while, then was bought by Anchor Broadcasting (I think) and became WKJV.
In the late 70's, one of the owners and the manager was named Alderfer. I cannot remember his first name now, but he was a lawyer by profession I believe.
He offered me a position there as Chief Engineer and to also do a Jock shift. I debated long and hard over the offer and finally turned it down. I later heard that someone from Greenville SC had taken a similar offer from him, resigned thier job in SC, moved to Asheville and reported for work, only to find that Alderfer denied ever hiring the guy in the first place.
Also a good friend of mine worked there for a while after that, but he found it to be a very unpleasant experience and was fired for something real petty. I don't remember the details, and so far as I know he does not particiapate in this forum.
He offered me a position there as Chief Engineer and to also do a Jock shift. I debated long and hard over the offer and finally turned it down. I later heard that someone from Greenville SC had taken a similar offer from him, resigned thier job in SC, moved to Asheville and reported for work, only to find that Alderfer denied ever hiring the guy in the first place.
Also a good friend of mine worked there for a while after that, but he found it to be a very unpleasant experience and was fired for something real petty. I don't remember the details, and so far as I know he does not particiapate in this forum.
pccrw said:
There are webpages I run across from time to time that show the history of broadcasting and when I Googled this just now I came up with -- http://jeff560.tripod.com/broadcasting.html -- I believe the information on this page is pretty accurate, based upon some photocopied pages of an old Broadcasting Yearbook I acquired 20-some years ago--thanks, Dub
if you're out there somewhere. On the link above, if you scroll down to the FM history and look at the line listing US FMs from different years there are some very interesting findings. Many, but not all longtime FM stations we've grown up with either have been on different frequencies and/or licensed to different cities. According to this site, WLOS did exist in 1948 on 104.3; 99.9 was home to WBT-FM in Charlotte. The same "makes you go hmmm" entries are repeated over and over. Interesting stuff, if you've never seen it before. It makes you wish you could back in time to the 1940s to around 50 and be sitting in the parking lot atop Mt Mitchell (assuming no interfering RF from WMIT's predecessor) with nothing but you, a good FM receiver, and a picnic cooler full of food and drinks (non-adult beverages for me, thank you). Now, THAT's a vacation. I would love to have heard local FM radio in its infancy. Back to WKKE...I visited WKJV (or it may have been WTOO) 15-20 years ago and there was a tiled entryway with the WKKE calls still there. I should be shot for not having taken a picture of it. It's similar to the WHKY-AM-FM-TV logo on the tile entryway several years ago when I visited there, if any of you have seen that.
Eric
One additional detail about ther FM station: at some point they decided to air both new and "old" country. I don't remembere the details. WWNC was doing the more classic-leaning country until they went all talk and put classic country on WPEK. Sadly, that didn't work (so maybe that's when Kiss decided to add more classics, not that it made a real difference), and while they tried my kind of pop music for a while, now Asheville is pretty much a wasteland where pop music is concerned. If you can pick up WTZQ, things are slightly better but by no means good.
this was the one topic that really urged me to rejoin the board after a four yr absense. of the msg's so far, none has touched upon WLOS-FM back into the sixties. the am/fm/tv were in a very large hse. three stories if i recall. the "attic" was the fm'er. the likes of snuffy smith, cid kid & dick ladonna (to name a few) kept alive the top 40 format. light-hearted, smooth and soft. i can hear snuffy's theme now......the roar of a motorcyle and a deep gravely voice saying..."hung me babyyyy, suffer!!! my airchecks of the station are being dusted -off. sadly the station had its final day of brdcst on Sunday, august 31,1969. a moment of remembrance this coming labor day wked!!! as i lived in gastonia their signal was still pretty hot 90+ miles due east of asheville. if i can answer questions, great. i hope to once again add info to charlotte market and beyond. and then one Sunday i visited a station....radio park bldg...south blvd, clt. late fifties. "new WAYS '61.
M
mobley
Guest
From what the "old timers" in the Asheville market told me years ago, the old 1380/99.9 WLOS was an NBC affiliate until WKKE came on the scene in 1969. Interesting in that WLOS 13 was an ABC-Tv affilliate. WLOS AM was sold as an AM stand alone to a group of broadcasters from West Virginia, I think. They also owned a station in Ocala Fla. They changed the AM calls to WKKE after the sale.
WLOS had a night jock called the "Royal Flying Doctor" who had quite a following through out the 6 state region. If I'm not mistaken, WLOS AM-FM was kind of an AC/MOR during the day and Top 40 at night. At one time they called themselves "Radio South" and used Jan Kahn, future Sales Mgr of WKSF, as the "Radio South Gal on the Go". Jan had an English accent and did the pre-recorded PSA's for the station. Seems like, at one time, maybe early-mid 60's, WLOS had an African American jock doing an R&B show as well.
WKKE came on the air with a "psuedo Drake" approach that did pretty well for a couple of years. I've never seen the Arbitrons myself, but I've heard that KKE ws number one in 1969, with a 23 share. This was before WWNC started pulling thieir monster 40+ shares as a Country station. I don't think WWNC flipped to Country until after KKE's #1 book. WKKE stayed Top 40 until around '73, when they morphed into an MOR/AC.
WLOS had a night jock called the "Royal Flying Doctor" who had quite a following through out the 6 state region. If I'm not mistaken, WLOS AM-FM was kind of an AC/MOR during the day and Top 40 at night. At one time they called themselves "Radio South" and used Jan Kahn, future Sales Mgr of WKSF, as the "Radio South Gal on the Go". Jan had an English accent and did the pre-recorded PSA's for the station. Seems like, at one time, maybe early-mid 60's, WLOS had an African American jock doing an R&B show as well.
WKKE came on the air with a "psuedo Drake" approach that did pretty well for a couple of years. I've never seen the Arbitrons myself, but I've heard that KKE ws number one in 1969, with a 23 share. This was before WWNC started pulling thieir monster 40+ shares as a Country station. I don't think WWNC flipped to Country until after KKE's #1 book. WKKE stayed Top 40 until around '73, when they morphed into an MOR/AC.
lvaircks said:
lvaircks, When you say Snuffy Smith, are you talking about the same guy who worked at WNOX, and later became
"Jay Worthington 'much more music' Smith?
If it's the same guy he was from the Shelby area, and last I heard of him he was still on the air at WOHS-AM (former sister station to what later became Magic 96), and his real name is Stanley Smith.
I worked with him for a while at WMNC, and what stories I could tell of nights while I was doing nights on the FM and he was on the AM. Some of them woudl be X-Rated and probably moderated from the board.
I ran into Stanley Smith at a car show in Forest City last year...he hasn't changed much since the early 80's...
Stan was afternoon drive guy at WXIK (96.1 Shelby...) in the early 80's and left radio many years ago. WOHS was the country format at that time, and interesting in that except production, most AM staffers didn't work FM, and most FM folks didn't work AM. Stan was never at the AM station during this time. I worked AM only on mornings that J*** C******* overslept and didn't make it in sign on the AM, which happened about once every three weeks. I would be finishing up on FM so I would go sign on the AM. D*** toggle switches to the left for everything on the air drove me crazy (WWIT Canton also had this arrangement the few times I was on the air there...), I could never understand why you would want the switches to go the LEFT for everything on the air. It apparently dated back to when they would run both stations off of the same board, and AM went to the left and FM went to the right...but the two had been seperated for many years by the time I reached there. Two of those BRIGHT BLUE Russco turntables on each side of you, a nice muted beige pair in XIK.
Stan did an odd shift at WXIK from 1pm-6:30pm, and changed shifts at that half hour with the nightime guy... (now WFGN owner) Eddie Bridges held that nightime shift for a long time.
Stan was afternoon drive guy at WXIK (96.1 Shelby...) in the early 80's and left radio many years ago. WOHS was the country format at that time, and interesting in that except production, most AM staffers didn't work FM, and most FM folks didn't work AM. Stan was never at the AM station during this time. I worked AM only on mornings that J*** C******* overslept and didn't make it in sign on the AM, which happened about once every three weeks. I would be finishing up on FM so I would go sign on the AM. D*** toggle switches to the left for everything on the air drove me crazy (WWIT Canton also had this arrangement the few times I was on the air there...), I could never understand why you would want the switches to go the LEFT for everything on the air. It apparently dated back to when they would run both stations off of the same board, and AM went to the left and FM went to the right...but the two had been seperated for many years by the time I reached there. Two of those BRIGHT BLUE Russco turntables on each side of you, a nice muted beige pair in XIK.
Stan did an odd shift at WXIK from 1pm-6:30pm, and changed shifts at that half hour with the nightime guy... (now WFGN owner) Eddie Bridges held that nightime shift for a long time.
I could have sworn that I heard Stan on the air on WOHS within the past year or two sometime while I was driving through Shelby, but it may have been many more years or might have even been someone else.
It was amazing how good a Dj he could be, but as I remember it he could not read a commercial if his life depended on it.
He was a real trip to watch in action, stomping his foot in rhythm with his dialogue to get more punch in to it, working with the lights off and just one dim red bulb in the corner for mood lighting (kinda like Venus Flytrap??) and spending most of the whole 6 hour shift on the phone with chicks who called in, trying to line up a date for after work .
I wont get into some other stories that might get moderated or get me a slap on the wrist, but anyone who worked with him can imagine.
It was amazing how good a Dj he could be, but as I remember it he could not read a commercial if his life depended on it.
He was a real trip to watch in action, stomping his foot in rhythm with his dialogue to get more punch in to it, working with the lights off and just one dim red bulb in the corner for mood lighting (kinda like Venus Flytrap??) and spending most of the whole 6 hour shift on the phone with chicks who called in, trying to line up a date for after work
.I wont get into some other stories that might get moderated or get me a slap on the wrist, but anyone who worked with him can imagine.
When I talked with him at the car show last year he indicated he had been out for a long time, and had been doing some dj work at a dance at Lake Lure. I am thinking his last run with radio was a brief return in the 90's at WSPA, Spartanburg, where, being forced to read liners he didn't hang around long.
At XIK, when he turned the mike on he would close his eyes do this herky jerky, spasm motion...I had seen Jim Davis (former Lincolnton resident) do this at WBBO so I wasn't as horrified as most onlookers were.
He use to come in and do his production at 3:30am when I was on the air, saying his voice was fresh. He would bop in, go to the production room and emerge and hour or so later and head home...
I do remember a staff meeting when we were told not to say, "Oh baby it hurts so good" on the air anymore...we all knew who that was intended for. This was still back in the day when saying "booger" could get you in a little hot water.
At XIK, when he turned the mike on he would close his eyes do this herky jerky, spasm motion...I had seen Jim Davis (former Lincolnton resident) do this at WBBO so I wasn't as horrified as most onlookers were.
He use to come in and do his production at 3:30am when I was on the air, saying his voice was fresh. He would bop in, go to the production room and emerge and hour or so later and head home...
I do remember a staff meeting when we were told not to say, "Oh baby it hurts so good" on the air anymore...we all knew who that was intended for. This was still back in the day when saying "booger" could get you in a little hot water.
wncmacs said:
Garrett Alderfer wasn't actually the owner of the station, although I do believe he owned a part of the parent company. He lived in Asheville, as far as I know, for all his life after he came to run the stations. At one time, he was President of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce, and later became a prominent broadcast broker. He is the reason I ended up a radio station owner, and later a broadcast broker myself. He passed away about a year and a half or so ago.
wncmacs,
WKSF-FM was sold to Heritage Broadcast Group in 1986, which then purchased WWNC-AM from Multimedia in 1987, at which time WISE-AM was sold..first to Glen Wilcox, then to the Sink family in Burnsville. Heritage sold WWNC and WKSF to Osborn Communications, which switched the format to Country in 1995. Osborn sold both to CAPSTAR, which became AMFM, which eventually became Clear Channel.
newsmanbill
WKSF-FM was sold to Heritage Broadcast Group in 1986, which then purchased WWNC-AM from Multimedia in 1987, at which time WISE-AM was sold..first to Glen Wilcox, then to the Sink family in Burnsville. Heritage sold WWNC and WKSF to Osborn Communications, which switched the format to Country in 1995. Osborn sold both to CAPSTAR, which became AMFM, which eventually became Clear Channel.
newsmanbill
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