Is WTAL-AM Tallahassee still on the air? I notice thier daytime singal is not as storng back in the day. Its on the air but noting is playing during the weekends. The stornger singal stays in Tallahassee area but in Crawfordville,Havana,Qunicy,Thomasville area WTAL singal gets weaker.
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WTAL-AM 1450
- Thread starter Louis_009
- Start date
It's running with a dead carrier (transmitter on with no audio). About two weeks ago it ran with a dead carrier for at least three days. Maybe it's an STL issue.
As for the signal, it's never been great..1 kw on 1450 is pretty much relegated to local to
Tallahassee, not much to the outlying areas. It's also on a different tower than it used to be after the Park Avenue house and transmitter site was lost to development.
One of the momentos that I have is the original WTAL jingle package that was used on the air from 1976 to 1980 during the softer AC (but pre Music of Your Life) era. Too bad WTAL doesn't sound like it did then - it was a great first job for me, working with great people at a station that a lot of folks liked and listened to.
As for the signal, it's never been great..1 kw on 1450 is pretty much relegated to local to
Tallahassee, not much to the outlying areas. It's also on a different tower than it used to be after the Park Avenue house and transmitter site was lost to development.
One of the momentos that I have is the original WTAL jingle package that was used on the air from 1976 to 1980 during the softer AC (but pre Music of Your Life) era. Too bad WTAL doesn't sound like it did then - it was a great first job for me, working with great people at a station that a lot of folks liked and listened to.
My brother won a Datsun 1200 in the early 70's that WTAL gave away at Tallahassee Mall. The game was to guess the number of stickers on the car (it was completely plastered over). My brother filled out the form and forgot about it until they called him up and told him he won. That little 1200 was a genuine tin can, rice burner, whatever you want to call it...no radio, no A/c, but it meant he didn't have to into debt to buy his first car until he had been working for several years, then he handed it down to me and I drove it until (almost literally) the wheels fell off. ah memories....
Mark,
It was THE Top 40 station in the early 1970s until around 1976 or so. It was owned by the Hoy family during its top 40 days. They often bought ads in high school yearbooks, and some of the high school kids would have their picture taken with one of the DJs in the control room.
Around the end of the Top 40 era, the Phillips Road studio was burned by a former DJ that had been fired from the station. It eventually moved to a house out on North Monroe Street, which is where it was located during my tenure there.
I'm not sure when the Hoys sold it, but Frank Veihmeyer was one of the owners when I went to work there in 1979. At that time, it was maybe three years or so into the "modern MOR" format.
Mr. V, as we called him, was quite a "hands-on" owner, sometimes doing the play by play for local high school sports.
I started as a board op, running the Larry King show overnights, but moved up to an assistant music director role (no extra pay, no title, they just asked me to and I did it) and a music shift very shortly after starting there.
I have fond memories of WTAL. I loved it there.
It was THE Top 40 station in the early 1970s until around 1976 or so. It was owned by the Hoy family during its top 40 days. They often bought ads in high school yearbooks, and some of the high school kids would have their picture taken with one of the DJs in the control room.
Around the end of the Top 40 era, the Phillips Road studio was burned by a former DJ that had been fired from the station. It eventually moved to a house out on North Monroe Street, which is where it was located during my tenure there.
I'm not sure when the Hoys sold it, but Frank Veihmeyer was one of the owners when I went to work there in 1979. At that time, it was maybe three years or so into the "modern MOR" format.
Mr. V, as we called him, was quite a "hands-on" owner, sometimes doing the play by play for local high school sports.
I started as a board op, running the Larry King show overnights, but moved up to an assistant music director role (no extra pay, no title, they just asked me to and I did it) and a music shift very shortly after starting there.
I have fond memories of WTAL. I loved it there.
I recall its studio was downstairs in the Northwood Mall (the Leon County Public Library was in the same area) in the late '70s and through the '80s.
I used to have an aircheck of Scott Owens' last day at WTAL in 1974. What I recall of it:
"I got a letter from a girl who wrote 'Dear Scott, I am 16 years old and would like to eat your shorts.'..." Later, Scott yells "eat my shorts!" before giving the time and going into a spot.
Introing Cher's "Train of Thought": "Here come the flat chested Bono brothers..."
And he would play the voice drop with Joe Bullard saying his name at random moments.
Scotty then went to Gulf, then to WJAD where he was PD from 1980 to '82 (he was my mentor there) then to 3WQ 1430 in Panama City for a bit. He would do these amazing agency-quality spots wherein he did about half a dozen voices; Scotty was a regular Mel Blanc...
I used to have an aircheck of Scott Owens' last day at WTAL in 1974. What I recall of it:
"I got a letter from a girl who wrote 'Dear Scott, I am 16 years old and would like to eat your shorts.'..." Later, Scott yells "eat my shorts!" before giving the time and going into a spot.
Introing Cher's "Train of Thought": "Here come the flat chested Bono brothers..."
And he would play the voice drop with Joe Bullard saying his name at random moments.
Scotty then went to Gulf, then to WJAD where he was PD from 1980 to '82 (he was my mentor there) then to 3WQ 1430 in Panama City for a bit. He would do these amazing agency-quality spots wherein he did about half a dozen voices; Scotty was a regular Mel Blanc...
Mark, yes, I know Vic. He still lives in Tallahassee and is mostly retired now. We occasionally chat
about the radio biz.
rnigma: When the Veihmeyer/Cook company of Radio Florida Inc. sold WTAL in October of 1980,
Don Keyes bought it. He changed the format to Music of Your Life (most of us lost our jobs on or about October 12 of that year!) and moved the studios to the Northwood Mall ("the beautiful red carpet studios..") not long after.
about the radio biz.
rnigma: When the Veihmeyer/Cook company of Radio Florida Inc. sold WTAL in October of 1980,
Don Keyes bought it. He changed the format to Music of Your Life (most of us lost our jobs on or about October 12 of that year!) and moved the studios to the Northwood Mall ("the beautiful red carpet studios..") not long after.
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