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WQYZ/Q92.5 Ocean Springs

Q

qid937

Hello all,

In a nostalgic state I recently recalled the short lived, yet exceptional WQYZ-FM/Q92.5 on the Gulf Coast (its MSA was Ocean Springs/Gulfport/Biloxi).

In its genesis, the station was very hard to pick up, though I toughly recall it stunting with MmmmBop by Hansen at the start.

The format was a fantastic presentation of 70s/80s music of the rock/pop genres. It went deep in the music bringing out what might as well be considered 'lost' cuts from some of that era's biggest music names, many who are still remembered today on radio for only a handful of their hits. I specifically remember being turned on to 2 songs played by this station, and not anywhere else then or since. They where: "Wishing (If I had a photograph of you) by A Flock of Seagulls and "The Captain of Her Heart" by Double.

The format truly exposed me to such great material that has all but been forgotten by modern radio. It helped inspire me to dig 'beyond the surface' for more great music of this era, and so much I found!

The one thing I remember most was the sound of the station. Not the music, but the overall sound coming out of the radio. It may have been some form of digital processing, but the sound was truly unique. Not then or now have I heard it, but it was awesome.

Q had in-house liners and sweepers that were very much well crafted/produced; they melted right in with the presentation. Same goes for there in house produced spots.

The Q92.5 logo was very much reminiscent of the legendary WQID logo. I recall an add on TV for the station featuring "Upside Down" by Diana Ross.

Ken Allen was half of the muscle behind the station, and he did a most impressive job with the presentation. Everything was very well crafted and tailored. Initially Allen voice tracked the station from 6A to 6P Mon-Fri. A Charles Ferris did the same on weekends and a female by the name of Pam laid generic V/T for the 6P-6A daily. The jocks presentation was stellar for voice tracking! Again, I believe due to the audio processing or an excellent Voice Track system or both.

As some time passed Q went live in the morning with Dan. Allen held afternoons and Pam's generic tracks remained on nights. Another woman, I foregut her name laid generic tracks for mid-days.

Then something tragic happened. I'm not sure what occurred "behind the scenes" but Allen was out and a new morning guy appeared. Gary Michele's showed up and really turned things off with his "community events" oriented morning talk show...no more great music of the 70s/80s in the mornings, sad. Michele's, if he or whoever was programming, did not give a flip about the format after the morning sleepy talk. Sadly things went south and Q passed into the Coast radio history books, only to be gobbled up by the giant Crap Channel and a truly visonary format lost in the sands.

I met Ken Allen once after his departure from Q. At that time he was working for the Dowdy's on Z95.3, I'm sorry I never asked why he left Q as he did a fantastic job with it!

From this tale I have 2 questions:

What is Ken Allen up to these days?

What was the reason for that 'outstanding' sound the Q put out? Was it processing? Automation software? What? It was the BES
 
Ken Allen was doing mornings on Triad/Mississippi Media's WTNI/1640 (News/Talk) when I was down there in 2005. He also did a Wednesday night sports call-in show from The Sports Zone at The Palace Casino. This was pre-Katrina, so things have probably changed. I haven't been back since Katrina, but I know the casino barge which contained The Sports Zone sunk and was completely destroyed.

Wayne Watkins (a/k/a "Weerd Wayne") is now PD for the cluster and a regular to this board. He should be able to tell you more.

Did you work for the late, great 'QID? Awesome station, back in the day. Always used to listen whenever I was within range.
 
You know, now that you mention it, I recall there being 2 Ken's. One was Ken Allen, the other a Ken Clark. I may have gotten the names confused, if so it not the first time...My apologizes for the confusion and identity crisis.

One of the Ken's also had an on air name of Ken Ashley. It was the one who went by Ashley that was the drive guy on WTNI (formally WVMI). He has also been heard on some other Triad stations, particularly doing afternoons and mornings at WUJM in its days as Molly @ 967.

Your right, Wayne would know. If I did confuse the Ken's identities it would not be the first time Wayne corrected me. Still it does not take away from the exceptional job done on Q92.5, an exceptional station that may have been a little before its time. It still died an untimely and unneeded radio death :'(

As for my history with QID, I can only wish I had been able to have experienced it on the inside. I was young when it went away but, it did not stop my yearning for this legend of Coast radio. QID had it all and was in the right place at the right time. It is due to the generosity of many on these boards that have shared their 'inside' experiences with QID that has further built my interest in upholding and sharing the heritage of this mighty legend in Coast radio history.
 
Now *this* is funny! My first time being censored on this board...and for merely identifying Wayne by his on-air moniker! Hey, Mr. Moderator: I didn't call him a bad name. "W.W." is what he goes by on-the-air. Just ask him! :)


>You know, now that you mention it, I recall there being 2 Ken's. One was Ken Allen, the other a Ken Clark. I may have gotten the names confused, if so it not the first time...My apologizes for the confusion and identity crisis.
One of the Ken's also had an on air name of Ken Ashley. It was the one who went by Ashley that was the drive guy on WTNI (formally WVMI). He has also been heard on some other Triad stations, particularly doing afternoons and mornings at WUJM in its days as Molly @ 967.

I was in Ocean Springs when Molly was blown up and became HANK-FM. Really liked the format (which is strange because I'm more of a Classic Hits/Rock guy.) HANK is supposively the "country version" of JACK-FM (no jocks), but they were live in mornings when I was there.


>Your right, Wayne would know. If I did confuse the Ken's identities it would not be the first time Wayne corrected me. Still it does not take away from the exceptional job done on Q92.5, an exceptional station that may have been a little before its time. It still died an untimely and unneeded radio death :'(

I missed that one. The "deep 70s/80s" sounds somewhat like WTIX-FM on 94.3. I could "sort of" hear them, but the local on 94.5 splashed over quite a bit. Their jocks weren't great, but they had several songs I hadn't heard in years.


>As for my history with QID, I can only wish I had been able to have experienced it on the inside. I was young when it went away but, it did not stop my yearning for this legend of Coast radio. QID had it all and was in the right place at the right time. It is due to the generosity of many on these boards that have shared their 'inside' experiences with QID that has further built my interest in upholding and sharing the heritage of this mighty legend in Coast radio history.

My impression of QID, based on the few times I was in the area back then, is that they were one of those great little CHRs that sounded MUCH bigger than they actually were. The jocks, the imaging, the processing...all sounded more like New Orleans or Atlanta than Biloxi. But yet, they were very much a local Biloxi station. They didn't try to target Mobile (which would have been foolish with WABB as dominant as they were...WJLQ in Pensacola found that out the hard way when they tried to take WABB on directly in the early 1990s.)
 
LOL! ;D That is too funny! Mr. Moderator, I've been "Weerd" Wayne on the radio since 1977, thanks for looking out for us, but I've been 'da Weerdo for 30 years! :D It doesn't need "Editing!"

Yes, Ken Allen is also Program Director of WXBD/ESPN and Sports Director/A.P.D. of WTNI. Ken Allen and Ken Clark worked at Gulf Coast Radio Group in the pre-Triad days, Allen stayed with the Triad Group (Gulf Coast Radio Partners at first), Ken Clark didn't. He did do some Coast Radio Group work pre-Katrina (damn all the names are almost the same for the 3 different groups), including the mornings/board op'ing thing. Don't think he's in radio at all anymore.
 
"My impression of QID, based on the few times I was in the area back then, is that they were one of those great little CHRs that sounded MUCH bigger than they actually were."

I worked at 94 QID and their sister station, WVMI. They had the largest per capita listening audience in the U.S. at the time.
 
waynewatkins said:
LOL! ;D That is too funny! Mr. Moderator, I've been "Weerd" Wayne on the radio since 1977, thanks for looking out for us, but I've been 'da Weerdo for 30 years! :D It doesn't need "Editing!"

Yes, Ken Allen is also Program Director of WXBD/ESPN and Sports Director/A.P.D. of WTNI. Ken Allen and Ken Clark worked at Gulf Coast Radio Group in the pre-Triad days, Allen stayed with the Triad Group (Gulf Coast Radio Partners at first), Ken Clark didn't. He did do some Coast Radio Group work pre-Katrina (damn all the names are almost the same for the 3 different groups), including the mornings/board op'ing thing. Don't think he's in radio at all anymore.
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weerdo hows it going? i still cant pick up gofm...but i could always pick up the gulf coasts classic rocker 1059 wxrg ..???
but yep wayne was weerdo bro all the way back to his days at wfmf which ended on a sunday night in 1983 with a song from styx..the best of times ;D where did i put that aircheck?? anyway back in the day..1983..it was weerdo bro, brother dave, randy rice and jim nasium...cant remember anyone else. unless johnny A was already there?


oh and never got to hear 92.5..
 
waynewatkins said:
LOL! ;D That is too funny! Mr. Moderator, I've been "Weerd" Wayne on the radio since 1977, thanks for looking out for us, but I've been 'da Weerdo for 30 years! :D It doesn't need "Editing!"

Yes, Ken Allen is also Program Director of WXBD/ESPN and Sports Director/A.P.D. of WTNI. Ken Allen and Ken Clark worked at Gulf Coast Radio Group in the pre-Triad days, Allen stayed with the Triad Group (Gulf Coast Radio Partners at first), Ken Clark didn't. He did do some Coast Radio Group work pre-Katrina (damn all the names are almost the same for the 3 different groups), including the mornings/board op'ing thing. Don't think he's in radio at all anymore.
Click to expand...

Yes, I got the names confused :eek: My apologizes to both Ken's.

I do remember both of them having been with Gulf Coast Radio Service, later Radio Partners, as mentioned.
 
MN Maniac said:
Now *this* is funny! My first time being censored on this board...and for merely identifying Wayne by his on-air moniker! Hey, Mr. Moderator: I didn't call him a bad name. "W.W." is what he goes by on-the-air. Just ask him! :)


>You know, now that you mention it, I recall there being 2 Ken's. One was Ken Allen, the other a Ken Clark. I may have gotten the names confused, if so it not the first time...My apologizes for the confusion and identity crisis.
One of the Ken's also had an on air name of Ken Ashley. It was the one who went by Ashley that was the drive guy on WTNI (formally WVMI). He has also been heard on some other Triad stations, particularly doing afternoons and mornings at WUJM in its days as Molly @ 967.

I was in Ocean Springs when Molly was blown up and became HANK-FM. Really liked the format (which is strange because I'm more of a Classic Hits/Rock guy.) HANK is supposively the "country version" of JACK-FM (no jocks), but they were live in mornings when I was there.


>Your right, Wayne would know. If I did confuse the Ken's identities it would not be the first time Wayne corrected me. Still it does not take away from the exceptional job done on Q92.5, an exceptional station that may have been a little before its time. It still died an untimely and unneeded radio death :'(

I missed that one. The "deep 70s/80s" sounds somewhat like WTIX-FM on 94.3. I could "sort of" hear them, but the local on 94.5 splashed over quite a bit. Their jocks weren't great, but they had several songs I hadn't heard in years.

Q92.5 was short lived and not well advertised. It was entriely music driven in presentation. The highest efforts where made to uphold the multitude of fantastic music from a great era in time. The spots where very well crafted, the best made; this kept the listner tuned and the spot sets were short. The jocks were all on voice tracks, but very good and tailor made ones; agian, tops in production quality. In essence everything about the station was to uplift and highlight the music, which was the very essence of the presentation. The overall sound was very haunting, not different from the bass line of a 80s rock ballad.

>As for my history with QID, I can only wish I had been able to have experienced it on the inside. I was young when it went away but, it did not stop my yearning for this legend of Coast radio. QID had it all and was in the right place at the right time. It is due to the generosity of many on these boards that have shared their 'inside' experiences with QID that has further built my interest in upholding and sharing the heritage of this mighty legend in Coast radio history.

My impression of QID, based on the few times I was in the area back then, is that they were one of those great little CHRs that sounded MUCH bigger than they actually were. The jocks, the imaging, the processing...all sounded more like New Orleans or Atlanta than Biloxi. But yet, they were very much a local Biloxi station. They didn't try to target Mobile (which would have been foolish with WABB as dominant as they were...WJLQ in Pensacola found that out the hard way when they tried to take WABB on directly in the early 1990s.)
Click to expand...

In no way is the sound and imaging of QID to be downplayed for sounding MUCH bigger then they actually where. The sound, the image and the presentation of QID being BIGGER is the hallmark, the heritage of its legendary legacy! A legacy to this day that has never been rivaled by another Gulf Coast station. QID bore the large market sound, not to sound like that market, but to champion its listners by being ALL that radio was designed to be. It was the imaging, it was the music, it was the cooking jocks, but crucially, QID remembered its listners, and there collective home. They proved radio could fly high in a small market by staying true to there market and its needs and still give top tier service.

My rant if finished, apologizes if I mis-interpeted your statement.
 
Powerpig56 said:
"My impression of QID, based on the few times I was in the area back then, is that they were one of those great little CHRs that sounded MUCH bigger than they actually were."

I worked at 94 QID and their sister station, WVMI. They had the largest per capita listening audience in the U.S. at the time.
Click to expand...

This stands as a true testament the strength QID bore. It was gained through honesty and giving listners everything a true radio station should offer. Live and large, it brought to the Coast what radio was all about. PowerPig, you were fortunate than most to have spent time at this legend!

That said, I would like to ask if you wouldn't mind sharing your memories of your time at WQID. It is always a privelage for me to learn about this shining example of radio from those that lived it. As someone who desires to remember the history and heritage of this legendary station, your response would be greatly apprciated!
 
waynewatkins said:
I was in New Orleans in QID's heyday, wasn't our Reverend Red part of it? Hafta walk to the other hallway to ask him over on Hank...

BTW, check out our latest side ventures:
http://www.rocknoldies.com (mine) and Rev's:
http://www.gcin.tv
Click to expand...

Tell The Right Reverend Red that his ole Understudy "The Doctor" from Panama's Lounge In Pascagoula said howdy! I use to watch and learn from Reverend Red when he was a club DJ at Papa's HonkyTonk in Biloxi! I remember the night he got on the mic with a packed house and said something to the effect that his contract ran out at midnight, the managers didn't sign the new one so he's outta here! He shut the sound system DOWN, grabbed his records and walked out the door! The entire club was stunned! It took a few minutes before everyone realized he wasn't kidding! Ha! I wasnt THERE at Papa's when he did that! I wasn at Panama's doing my thing. but when I got back to Papa's that's all everyone talked about! Infact I had to DJ the next night in his sted! Yep! Ole Reverend Red left a lasting impression on me! ;D Ask him to get in contact with me! Me and Rush Remero were the two "young guys" he put up with.
 
qid937 said:
This stands as a true testament the strength QID bore. It was gained through honesty and giving listners everything a true radio station should offer. Live and large, it brought to the Coast what radio was all about. PowerPig, you were fortunate than most to have spent time at this legend!

That said, I would like to ask if you wouldn't mind sharing your memories of your time at WQID. It is always a privelage for me to learn about this shining example of radio from those that lived it. As someone who desires to remember the history and heritage of this legendary station, your response would be greatly apprciated!
Click to expand...

I was one of the few (only) jocks that pulled a shift on both QID and VMI. Bob Lima was the OM/PD and expected nothing less than perfection. He never got mad or yelled, but you knew when you screwed up! You had to "earn" a position there. Mickey Coulter did mornings, as well as Mike Lana and Bobby Case pulling mid days and afternoons. I did the evening shift and Don Silver did the overnights. Reverend Red moved to the evening shift and I was on VMI and did the news. Rip Daniels replaced Don Silver when Don decided to leave to get rich with Amway. The thing that sticks in my mind the most is the loyalty of the listeners on both stations. If you missed a shift, they would call and ask if you were ok. Tons of beer in the station around the holidays as listeners brought coolers full as well as other nice gifts.

No mistakes were tolerated such as starting a record on the wrong speed or screwing up copy. Red was canned the first time for no turning in production on time. He's a great guy and I happened to bump into him at a store in D'iberville the last time I was on the Coast. I'll post more memories as they come to my aging brain. God, I miss those days!
 
I was one of the few (only) jocks that pulled a shift on both QID and VMI. Bob Lima was the OM/PD and expected nothing less than perfection. He never got mad or yelled, but you knew when you screwed up! You had to "earn" a position there. Mickey Coulter did mornings, as well as Mike Lana and Bobby Case pulling mid days and afternoons. I did the evening shift and Don Silver did the overnights. Reverend Red moved to the evening shift and I was on VMI and did the news. Rip Daniels replaced Don Silver when Don decided to leave to get rich with Amway. The thing that sticks in my mind the most is the loyalty of the listeners on both stations. If you missed a shift, they would call and ask if you were ok. Tons of beer in the station around the holidays as listeners brought coolers full as well as other nice gifts.

No mistakes were tolerated such as starting a record on the wrong speed or screwing up copy. Red was canned the first time for no turning in production on time. He's a great guy and I happened to bump into him at a store in D'iberville the last time I was on the Coast. I'll post more memories as they come to my aging brain. God, I miss those days!

[/quote]

Bob Lima was a wizard at running that station. I have never met him, but have heard nothing but exceptional things about how he ran QID.

The loyalty of the listners was amazing, but undoubtly earned by you jocks for your own eceptional preformances and tight quality control.

Thank you so much for your memories! I look foward (an hopefully others) to hearing more of your thought's!
 
Not to change the subject off of 'QID, but since WVMI was mentioned, I am curious about it's signal contour. Did it have an unfavorable directional pattern?

I'm assuming that WTNI is the expanded band offspring of WVMI (?) Normally, it wouldn't make sense for a station to voluntarily migrate from 570 up to 1640. Even 1kW on 570 covers more ground vs 10kW on 1640. But that's assuming everything else is equal. My guess is that 570 was severely compromised in one direction or another which facilitated the move (?)

Or was Cuban interference the problem? When I was in Ocean Springs, I lived literally right on the water. From this location, the Cuban "tick-tock" station on 570 could be heard day and night on both my GM Delco car radio and my C. Crane Radio.
 
Yes, WTNi 1640 is the X Band sister to WVMi 570.

As I recall being told by an engineer, the 570 Array became to expensive to maintain and repair. The towers were quite tall, probably 250+ plus compared to a single stick of about 150 feet or so for 1640.

Sure, 570 covers better, but it just got too expensive to take care of in more ways then one.
 
Somewhere, I have an aircheck or two of WQYZ 92.5 Ocean Springs, MS. It's from the last month or two of 2002. I lived at Keesler AFB for a couple of months and noted the station for much the same reasons mentioned earlier. They probably didn't use much compression, lending to that "sound" you talk about. At least, that's my impression. So many stations compress like crazy as competition across the dials to sound loud and stand out can be fierce. I first noticed this with FM broadcasters in Europe and the Middle East. And the bandwith used there seems to be wider than what's used here.

Rocky W. Shore
Palm Coast, FL
 
By the way, in terms of coverage/power on 570 vs 1640...

350 Watts on 540 would be equal to ABOUT 20KW on 1600... so I figure 1KW on 570 would be about 40KW on 1640!!
 
Hey, Weerd Wayne, please tell Reverend Red that Kevin "Machine Gun" Kelly says hello from Ohio! Good to hear you guys are still around. I worked for WVMI and WQID twice, first time was when Rev was doing afternoons. AJ did mornings, Pat McGowan did middays, Wildman (Beau) Walker did nights, and Don Silver did late nights for a while. Second time, Gary Michiels and David Elliot (from WLOX) did mornings, Pat did middays, Bob Fonda did afternoons, and Bruce Edwards did overnights.

WVMI did have signal problems, at night... the night time pattern had several nulls, one of them passed over Orange Grove if I remember correctly. We had to protect several stations, and that meant a lot of people lost us at sunset. I would hope the nighttime signal of WTNI is an improvement. I might still have some copies of coverage maps for VMI and QID somewhere...

The only bad thing about working for both stations is you would get scheduled for back to back shifts sometimes, 12 hours on with no break was a lot more fun when I was about 20 years younger :)
 
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