WVOT 1420 BEACH (Wilson, NC)

[Sportsword]

Well this is pretty eerie... I used to work for WVOT back in about 1996 with Rick Mendelson and Ron Carter, Mark Miller and other folks. I actually did sports and worked on "Sportsrap" with Mark Miller and Britt. I had just gotten my degree from Western Carolina and needed a station to wet my feet in, even though I worked 3 and a half years at WCU in the campus station.

You're not gonna believe this, but when I went to see the station in 2001, everything was still there, it was like Rick and the staff just walked out and left the station as is. Even stuff from the Carolina Mudcats and some Tarheel stuff was left in there (and ANYONE who knows Rick know he was a huge Carolina fan, like me).

I also hired Alton Britt to work in sports when I was helping WLLY rebuild, and we did a season of football, but some real strange stuff happened between me and Britt, so I can't say anything nice about him.

I think working at the beach and shag WVOT was almost as much fun as my college days. The guys and girls there were cool, nice and a pure pleasure to be around. I never had anything bad to say about anybody there, and was a pure joy to work there. I cannot say that now with the current WVOT, or WLLY or any other station in Wilson.

 

[MAB]

I remember Jones Fuquay. I listened to him on weekends in the mid-70's. He was my first GM in the mid 80's before Voyager bought the station. Trivia who owned WVOT before Voyager? Century Communications.

 

[Marathon Don]

I remember Jones Fuquay. I listened to him on weekends in the mid-70's. He was my first GM in the mid 80's before Voyager bought the station. Trivia who owned WVOT before Voyager? Century Communications.

LMAO... Century Communications. What an outfit. GM was Dick Oakley. They had Randy Steele (AKA Wade Allan Jennings) and Dave Edwards on air back then. If I remember correctly, Wade Hargrove was part owner. They still had the original mono board and RCA transmitter back then, as well as the carousel/reel to reel automation for WXYY.

Steele and Edwards went to WCEC/WFMA. Edward's wife worked at 'VOT for a time. Almost forgot Sheldon Letchworth. Nice guy. Wondered what happened to those folks?

 

[stevations]

I used to travel through Wilson and loved WXYY 106.1, Does anyone have any airchecks? Also WCEC was a great station in the 70s.

 

[jerry7242]

WVOT. Did that not stand for... Wilson's Voice Of Tobacco? Does anyone remember or can tell me what happened to Randy Steele? I worked with him in Rocky Mount in the mid 80's at WFMA/WCEC. He used the air name of Wade Allen Jennings.

Kris

Actually it was "Wilson's Voice Of TocaccoLAND" I was to start there in 1953, but my family moved to Charlotte. I had very little to say about it since I was 11! I remember Joel Lawhorne, Harry Severence, and the morning man Colby Wood....and weather with Joe Overman, Jr.

 

[B Lewis]

I was a student at Barton when WVOT flipped to Beach Music. I don't think, at that time, anyone outside of MYB had tried that as as full-time format. At the time, I worked at WPTM in Roanoke Rapids and commuted to Wilson e v e r y day. I thought WVOT was very fun listening and had a great audio quality for AM.

I am somewhat familiar with Magic 95.9, where one of the former owners has set up shop. It seem like he and his staff have done an awesome job building a great radio station there, as well!

 

[unitron]

As being a former owner of 1420 Beach WVOT, here is what I can tell you. Mark Miller is in Columbia South Carolina woking for the Clear Channel properties. The last I heard of J. T. Austin, she was living in the western part of the state and has gotten married. Former morning man John Drake is more or less a bum and couldn't get hired to sweep studios and is now selling credit card machines. Alton Britt the Sports Director, is now a teacher at Fike High School. Susan Jones is living in Greenville. Brent Grinell left for Virginia after a very messy incident involving killing a pedistrian while working at Domino's Pizza. Michael Buscemi is working for Henry Hinton in Greenville. Not sure of the whereabouts of Maurice Brown, or Dan "The Torch" Mills. Don Flowers our most talented part timer is working in the school system in Wilson County if I understand correctly. Roy Rogers has his own business in Wilson. As for Rick Mendelson, he is retired and living in Wilson. Joe George is in sales in the Rocky Mount group and Juanita Hawkins is retired. Busniness Manager Diane Owens is...who gives a crap about her. Me, I own WPNC-FM in Plymouth NC and have been here for 14 years.

Ricky Mendelson can't be retired already, it was just the other day we were in Cub Scouts together.

Speaking of Plymouth, whatever happened to Smokin' Sam?

 

[jtaustin]

If anyone reads this anymore - it's me, JT!
Not long ago I got to thinking about the great days at WVOT and all I learned in my years in Wilson. I remember when John Drake told me to turn everything off, I did. I literally turned everything off and made his life miserable the next morning! But hey, I was good at following directions.
I moved to Charlotte in 1995 after talking with Rick about moving forward with my career. I had no job lined up - just some air checks and desire to land somewhere. I got a part-time production gig at WBT and after about a year I was working for both WBT and their FM sister station, 107.9 FM doing middays. In 1999 I was hired by Metro Networks as a traffic reporter - WHAT A GIG. Doing split shifts and reporting traffic for 7 Charlotte radio stations was quite fun - mainly because they all wanted their traffic LIVE and always at the same time. So that was interesting. It was while I was at Metro that I heard about a job with the NCDOT. They were hiring a public information officer. So I figured what the heck. I spent 10 years at NCDOT (2004-2014) as spokesperson for the Charlotte region, then left to go work in local government. It wasn't the same. Fortunately, God opened the door for me to return to NCDOT in October 2016 and I'm doing the same thing as before, just with a greater coverage area of 11 counties in the Charlotte area. And I do get to do radio interviews now with old friends at WBT. It's cool how things come full circle.
Feel free to shoot me a note if you wish to catch up - [email protected]. Working at WVOT remains one of my fondest memories, coming right out of college at Barton/ACC and not having a clue what I was doing. I learned so much from some amazing people.
God Bless!
JT Austin/Jen