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WOHF 92.1 "The Wolf" - Format Change

The locals called WNRR...Weiner Radio...the studios were a mess but I thought the funniest part was the transmitter...on the top floor of the building...windows open...home to many pigeons...and full of what pigeons do best.....it's a wonder the transmitter worked at all!!!!!!!
 
WWES- So you guys were the ones who hooked up the old cart carousels?

Not really Carlos...That was well AFTER my time.
I was there as the station first went on the air...I believe in early 1973.
But I do recall visiting years later and seeing that BL home-brew automation you speak of.
Bob was amazing at creating things without any money
(a skill I learned in part from him that later came in handy for me at other stations strapped for cash).
I don't recall the 19 kHz generator...but sounds like something cheap & creative he'd do to get those "stereo" lights lit until a "real" stereo generator could be found.
Perhaps finding one broken...so he could fix it and make things happen when surplus money was no where to be found. It was amazing he kept the place on the air all those years...almost single-handedly...
BL was a one-man radio station...who could do it all...on-air talent...engineering...sales...sports...traffic...promotion...you name it.
Kinda hard to find that sort anymore...
especially now that most (commercial) stations (esp in the larger markets)
are owned by two companies.

Bill Weisinger
www.SundayOldiesJukebox.com
www.WeisingerEngineering.com
www.WKHR.org
 
The locals called WNRR...Weiner Radio...the studios were a mess but I thought the funniest part was the transmitter...on the top floor of the building...windows open...home to many pigeons...and full of what pigeons do best.....it's a wonder the transmitter worked at all!!!!!!!

Sunset...you got that right!
It was a wonder the place worked at all.
It's a tribute to Bob Ladd...a one-man radio station.
Somehow he got the thing on the air...sold almost all the spots...paid 4 full time salaries (at least while I was there)...
worked 7 day weeks without a vacation (for years) and made it all go....for decades!

Again...the pigeon/transmitter loft experience was well beyond my time.
I believe that location was also the result of a fire which forced the station to move across the street.
When I was there (in '73) the place was on the south side of Main St...above "Loudys" (I think it was a sports store).
The transmitter then was an old (and I do mean old) General Electric 250 watt beast Bob found in an old barn somewhere and somehow made it work. It may have even been ~ 1949 vintage! The tower...a home brew experience...was on top of the building which held a Gates 5 bay horizontal antenna that squeaked out about 1,100 horiz-only watts.

I recall the FCC field inspector visiting the place. I was on the log then...and about plotzed (along with the receptionist).
He inspected the whole place...including climbing up three shaky old ladders to get to the roof to check out the antenna.
I couldn't believe it.
He seemed almost frustrated to NOT find much to cite (they can usually find lots w/ very little effort).
The best he could do was to catch a missed meter reading...out of over a year of daily logs
(and he poured over all of them)!
Actually he was a very nice guy...but still a nervous experience.

BTW...during a tornado weekend...
that guyed home brew tower deal and 5-bay antenna took a hit...fell over....crushed most of the bays and knocked 92.1 off the air.
Bob had it back on the next day...
running on the two bays and tower section that didn't get smashed
(they were hanging over the top of the roof after the fall)!

Bill Weisinger
www.SundayOldiesJukebox.com
www.WeisingerEngineering.com
www.WKHR.org
 
That "tower" and it's bays along with a marti receive antenna are still on the roof of that building. I was there about 2 months ago when an emergency sent me looking for fuses. The guy I called that owned an electric supply place and he told me to meet him on Main street in Bellevue. As he is taking me inside his warehouse I noticed an old WNRR sticker on the door. I asked him about this and he told me that this was the old studio location and now his warehouse. We never did find the exact fuse I required but he showed me around the place and told me a story about cleaning the place out. He found all kinds of surplus gear belonging to the station which he and his nephew pitched. He said it took him about 2 weeks to get everything out. The main suite where the station was located did not have any electrical supplies stored in it and the old wires and such were still visible. It was sort of like walking into an episode of the twilight zone. "The station was just here, I swear!" Bob certainly was a creative guy to keep this place on the air with nothing for so long.

Last I heard he relocated to Florida somewhere.
 
That "tower" and it's bays along with a marti receive antenna are still on the roof of that building.


RF - I'm guessing that you're talking of the "new" tower on the north side of Main St...and the "new" studio location.
That 3rd tower was put up a lot better than the original one that came down in the storm. lol
The one that insurance paid for after the storm was pretty decent too.
Don't know why the Marti ant...unless used for RPU rx.
With the tx right there...no need for a Marti STL. We did have a 150ish mHz RPU freq even back then (161 was filled).
Someday I'll have to do a nostalgic drive by Bellevue/Fremont for a visit and take a look...
may even visit WFRO too (I was there in '69/'70).

Bob certainly was a creative guy to keep this place on the air with nothing for so long.
Last I heard he relocated to Florida somewhere.

Yes he was...and yes he did...
still in radio in the Naples market.
As they say...."they threw away the mold."
Bill
www.SundayOldiesJukebox.com
www.WeisingerEngineering.com
www.WKHR.org
www.Rock889.com
 
I remember "Uncle Mikey", Mike Lawrence who did the liner package for them after the voice of WBVI, another one of Bob's Connections. He was the liner guy, plus Bob had it semi-sounding like Uncle Mikey had an afternoon airshift. "Sandy Beach" & "Sal Sal the Traffic Gal" were the weather/traffic voices for a while who I believe was receptionists. Then it was "NOAA Staff Meteorologist blah blah".
WNRR to some stood for "We're Not Real Radio".
After Bob left for Florida Creg Michaels moved his family into the studios & got popped by the FCC for running free advertising & announcing liquor prices on the air for a bar he worked at. :D
 
Carlos, I worked with a woman who had the on-air name of Sandy Beach at WNCG. "Sandy" was the wife of WNCG co-owner Kent Smith. Did Sandy work at WNRR as well?
 
Biz- I think you're right, maybe Sandy Beach was on 100.9 only. The corny small townish names stood out. I believe 100.9 had "Lucy in the Sky" with traffic for a while too, which would've been impossible for them to have "anyone in the sky" on their budget. I was interviewed by KS once & 16k a year was too much for a Prod/Board Op person full time. When it turned WMJK there was even a "Spark Simon" (Sales/Announcer from Lima) on there.
Back to WNRR, a couple things that stood out, when BL did the news he'd read off the person's entire home address. "Walter Blabarfski of 2913 County Road North in Clyde was hospitalized after the head on collision".
And when there was a remote he had it rigged up so he would call the station & you would hear the dial tone and him dialing on the air.
Sometimes the entire song wouldn't fit the carts he was using but he didn't seem to mind & just faded the songs down early & that's what sounded really bad there for a while.
 
Biz, Only met him a couple times. The first was at the tradeout luncheon interview where he wouldn't budge on going any higher than 13k a year(!) and another was at one of the islands & he was pretty hammered , both were years ago. I do remember he had stolen and used on Gold the phrase "From The Islands To The Inlands" from the then "Fun Point" WCPZ, which their GM at the time, John Cavinee thought up. :D
 
Carlos, thank you for the reply. Thirteen-grand?! When did you stop laughing? What position was being offered for $13,000? I hope it wasn't anything with a title. When I worked there, there was a tavern around the corner from the radio station called the "Spread Eagle." I am not making that up. Anyway, let's just say that many times, the station ownership had a few "business meetings" there and then drove the green Gold 101 station vans home!

I always thought it was bizarre that a station called "Gold 101" had green vans. That's another story.
 
Never met Dave. The position was for Production Director/Board Op & didn't even allow sales accounts. I thanked him for the traded out salad buffet & went on my way to intern for W.O.S.E (now WXKR!) :D
 
Anyone know if there's any kind of actual current 92.1 presence in Bellevue?
Also...I heard WFRO is no longer at the old State Rd Fremont address...
is this true?
Bill
 
wwes said:
Anyone know if there's any kind of actual current 92.1 presence in Bellevue?
Also...I heard WFRO is no longer at the old State Rd Fremont address...
is this true?
Bill
Click to expand...

The transmitter for 92.1 is still in Bellevue. WFRO did indeed move out of their old diggs on State Street and into new ones on South River Road. WFRO and WOHF are co-located in the same building.
 
Gentlemen, I just found this site and am very happy to read about my old station WNRR. But first let me say I'm surprised that LEC made the change they did. Sure, sports was a big deal for the listeners but all the time? the number one thing was local news and localized programing, weather, community events and such. looks like LEC has gone the way of all the consolidated stations both in Ohio and here in Naples, Florida where I live. On to NRR. You guys are right we were synthed stereo. I ran it through an Orban stereo encoder but then we used the exact same Harris processing that CPZ used at the time followed by an Optomod 8,000 and a clipper. I always thought that FRO FM had the worst processing at the time but WWeW and the guys at KSU thought otherwise. The reverb was a converted Radio Shack unit, I never could stand the Fisher echos.
Somebody said something about using the address of the subject in our local news. I did that when I found that if I did it by proper journalistic practice and gave the name of the person after what had occured the phone would light up with people saying ' I just heard you mention Joe Blow's name what happend to him?' or " Is that Joe junior or Senior?" When I led with the name and address the calls stopped,, small towns for you.

The station was many formats before the fire in 1995. AC, Beautiful music, Country ( got to meet Box Car Willie that year ) and finally soft rock. All we heard up and down the street was " If you just played etc etc I'd buy spots from you " Ofcourse they never did after the changes and you won't hear much if any Bellevue/Clyde business on there today. It came back on as an 80's music format briefly after the fire but that didn't fly and I decided since you can't please everybody I would just do what wasn't available ( our signal wiped out top forty 92.5 in Toledo in the Bellevue/Clyde area )we switched to top forty the next year. The top forty format from 1996 until the sale was the most successfull we ever did and actually moved us up to two in the Arbatrons at the time I sold the station. There never was anyone interested in backing radio there only potential buyers hoping to get a deal so I turned it over to Greg Micheals and moved to Naples where I ran a News/talk and an oldies station for two years, left and came back two years later where I now run a pod of 2-AM talkers, 1-AM Oldies and own an FM Country. Thanks for keeping the momory of NRR balive back in the good ole days when radio actually served it's communities
 
But first let me say I'm surprised that LEC made the change they did. Sure, sports was a big deal for the listeners but all the time? the number one thing was local news and localized programing, weather, community events and such. looks like LEC has gone the way of all the consolidated stations both in Ohio and here in Naples, Florida where I live. On to NRR.

Only thing left is Sunday church shows, Fireland's Challenge & a high school fantasy leaguer's dream come true. Very pathetic. Good to hear from ya!
 
Hey, Carlos...I got a good laugh recently when I wikipedia'd WNCG and ended up going to Kent Smith's current station entry on wikipedia. Here's what it says on the page, "Smith's aggressive marketing and promotional efforts for WNCG had made him and partner Dave Searfoss (the other 'S' in licensee S&S Broadcasting) legends in Northwest Ohio, and his station an unusual success, as many high-powered FM stations dominated the market with their signals, compared to his smaller 3,000 watt signal."

"Legends"? ???
 
BizDecision said:
Hey, Carlos...I got a good laugh recently when I wikipedia'd WNCG and ended up going to Kent Smith's current station entry on wikipedia. Here's what it says on the page, "Smith's aggressive marketing and promotional efforts for WNCG had made him and partner Dave Searfoss (the other 'S' in licensee S&S Broadcasting) legends in Northwest Ohio, and his station an unusual success, as many high-powered FM stations dominated the market with their signals, compared to his smaller 3,000 watt signal."

"Legends"? ???
Click to expand...


To their credit they did beat up on the competition sales wise. They were so aggressive that many stations in the area felt their influence when going after the same business.

But legends? Wow!!
 
BizDecision said:
Define "regional." That area is a little different. It's just outside the Toledo market. What would you cover?
Click to expand...

WOHF and WFRO serve what they have dubbed the "Quint County area" (Sandusky, Seneca, Erie, Ottawa and Huron counties). I'm on temporary assignment this week as acting news director for both stations while the current news director is on vacation. I was told to focus on these five counties, and that's what I've been doing when doing my gathering and composition.

I've had a healthy stack of news the past two days from all over the region. I'm sure there are plenty of slow days, but overall I've had good luck. But then again, I'm a news reporter by nature and believe that when there's no current breaking news, that's the best time to hit the streets with a Marantz and microphone or pick up the phone and start interviewing.
 
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