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WSIZ IS ON THE AIR

F

fwillis

According to informed sources WSIZ Jacksonville Ga is on the air broadcasting a classic rock format at 102.3 FM. Good call letter choice since it will cover much of the same area as the old WSIZ AM Ocilla. It should reach Douglas, Mcrae,Fitzgerald,and Ocilla with a decent signal.
 
A few years back the building was still standing. I believe the tower is gone. At one point a fortune teller was renting the old station building, reading tarrot cards,and such.
 
Bengalsfan said:
What happened to WSIZ? Is the building, tower and pond still sitting on 129?
Click to expand...
WSIZ had a super signal in its hey day. I grew up in Worth County during the 1970s and 1380 WSIZ was the station you listened to for Casey Kasem and American Top 40. How many know that WSIZ actually went on the air in Douglas but WDMG bought it and shut it down? It later came back on the air in Ocilla.

Did anyone else remember their classified ads show? I've never heard one like it since. People would call in and if they didn't want to be off the air...they would simply say.."off air" and you would just hear the WSIZ announcer. I always thought that was sort of odd but it worked. That show got tons of calls from throughout the area. I am remembering that probably a good 40% didn't want to be on the air.

WSIZ had a big 5/8th's wave tower (tallest AM tower in South Georgia) sitting in the middle of the pond. One morning the tower fell but the announcer wasn't paying attention when he got to the station. He signed on (those old transmitters would load into anything) and finally someone called and said they couldn't hear the station well. That is when they noticed the tower was down!

Reminds me of the time I switched WMGA in Moultrie from 250 watts directional to 10,000 watts and somehow left the signal in the dummy load. You could hear the signal off the dummy load on the other side of town. Some listeners called wanting to know why the signal was weak. I was tempted to just run the dummy load signal at night. Probably got out as far as the 250 watt directional..without the deep nulls.
 
artsutton said:
Bengalsfan said:
What happened to WSIZ? Is the building, tower and pond still sitting on 129?
Click to expand...
WSIZ had a super signal in its hey day. I grew up in Worth County during the 1970s and 1380 WSIZ was the station you listened to for Casey Kasem and American Top 40. How many know that WSIZ actually went on the air in Douglas but WDMG bought it and shut it down? It later came back on the air in Ocilla.

Did anyone else remember their classified ads show? I've never heard one like it since. People would call in and if they didn't want to be off the air...they would simply say.."off air" and you would just hear the WSIZ announcer. I always thought that was sort of odd but it worked. That show got tons of calls from throughout the area. I am remembering that probably a good 40% didn't want to be on the air.

WSIZ had a big 5/8th's wave tower (tallest AM tower in South Georgia) sitting in the middle of the pond. One morning the tower fell but the announcer wasn't paying attention when he got to the station. He signed on (those old transmitters would load into anything) and finally someone called and said they couldn't hear the station well. That is when they noticed the tower was down!

Reminds me of the time I switched WMGA in Moultrie from 250 watts directional to 10,000 watts and somehow left the signal in the dummy load. You could hear the signal off the dummy load on the other side of town. Some listeners called wanting to know why the signal was weak. I was tempted to just run the dummy load signal at night. Probably got out as far as the 250 watt directional..without the deep nulls.
Click to expand...

I remember listening to the "Original Sunday Afternoon Music Museum". It was a locally produced oldies show hosted by Keith Adams as best I recall. It was a great show. I used to listen while running the preachers on all religious WOGA -AM in Sylvester. Well at least until the GM caught me.
 
In the mid 80's I worked for WKAA when the studios were in Ocilla and lived in an apartment in Fitzgerald. I thought that tower in the pond was the neatest thing. Now, I can't look at a pond the same way. First thing I think of is "wonder if I could fit a tower in it?"
 
artsutton said:
Bengalsfan said:
What happened to WSIZ? Is the building, tower and pond still sitting on 129?
Click to expand...
WSIZ had a super signal in its hey day. I grew up in Worth County during the 1970s and 1380 WSIZ was the station you listened to for Casey Kasem and American Top 40. How many know that WSIZ actually went on the air in Douglas but WDMG bought it and shut it down? It later came back on the air in Ocilla.

Did anyone else remember their classified ads show? I've never heard one like it since. People would call in and if they didn't want to be off the air...they would simply say.."off air" and you would just hear the WSIZ announcer. I always thought that was sort of odd but it worked. That show got tons of calls from throughout the area. I am remembering that probably a good 40% didn't want to be on the air.

WSIZ had a big 5/8th's wave tower (tallest AM tower in South Georgia) sitting in the middle of the pond. One morning the tower fell but the announcer wasn't paying attention when he got to the station. He signed on (those old transmitters would load into anything) and finally someone called and said they couldn't hear the station well. That is when they noticed the tower was down!

Reminds me of the time I switched WMGA in Moultrie from 250 watts directional to 10,000 watts and somehow left the signal in the dummy load. You could hear the signal off the dummy load on the other side of town. Some listeners called wanting to know why the signal was weak. I was tempted to just run the dummy load signal at night. Probably got out as far as the 250 watt directional..without the deep nulls.
Click to expand...

WSIZ had twice the reach of its main competitor WBHB!!
 
Tell me, when you say the tower was "in" the pond, was it actually built partially submerged; or was it erected on an island surrounded by water (understanding, of course, that it was all man-made)?
 
Witchlover said:
Tell me, when you say the tower was "in" the pond, was it actually built partially submerged; or was it erected on an island surrounded by water (understanding, of course, that it was all man-made)?
Click to expand...

the pier that the tower sat on was in the middle of a pond. The ground radials were under water. There was a small catwalk to the tower to access the tuning box.
 
That's sort of what I pictured in my mind's eye. Someone else has talked about a tower on a small hammock with the radials sunk in the swamp - must put out a great signal when it can be done that way. Are there any pictures around? Towers fascinate me. Had I been able to handle the heights, I think I would have enjoyed that work when I was younger.
 
Witchlover said:
That's sort of what I pictured in my mind's eye. Someone else has talked about a tower on a small hammock with the radials sunk in the swamp - must put out a great signal when it can be done that way. Are there any pictures around? Towers fascinate me. Had I been able to handle the heights, I think I would have enjoyed that work when I was younger.
Click to expand...

It helps tremendously when you have crappy soil conductivity like south Georgia has. Remember the ground on an AM tower is half the antenna. The better your ground system is, the better your signal will be. If you look at contours for AM stations that are near seawater, you'll see how it helps.

http://radio-locator.com/pats/WOCN_AM_LD.gif For example, this contour map for WOCN in Miami. See how seawater effects the signal?
 
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