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wvry 105.1 waverly

A

ArnoldInacan

Hey gang, first time/long time yada yada yada...love reading this board and decided to pipe in with a question for the experts......

I'm curious to know if any of you have information on WVRY 105.1 that was a Solid Gospel station out of Waverly/Dickson. I think it was owned by Grace Broadcasting but is now owned by a Clarksville group. This station carries Austin Peay athletics and the longtime WJZM sports show with Greg Walker moved over there back in January. "Rumor" here in Clarksville is that local funeral home owner Mike Parchman bought WVRY along with Walker and David Loos (son of APSU A.D. and basketball coach Dave Loos). I can't find any info online about this. I think they still transmit out of White Bluff but they do have an office in Clarksville that they do shows from.

Brings up another point about the sports talk market in Clarksville; WJZM now has a weekday show 3-6pm with a former sports reporter from the Leaf Chronicle newspaper and 540 AM (the old WDXN) of the 5 Star Group has a show from 4-6 every week day too in addition to WVRY's Sports Talk with Greg Walker on Monday & Thursday. That's a lot of local sports radio for a market that is dominated by the Nashville stations.
 
ArnoldInacan, I don't live in the Nashville market. I do live in Acworth, GA which is 25 miles north of Atlanta. No, I don't work in radio, but I am a listener. I do recall listening online to Solid Gospel (which is Salem Communications owned) back when they were simulcasting at WVRY 105.1. Then they kept Solid Gospel confined to WBOZ 104.9. As for WVRY 105.1, they did for a time put 24/7 praise & worship on there. It was known as Life 105.1. Then WVRY went silent from what I had heard, and the remains of Life became known as FISHPraise.com (Internet Only) as well as the syndicated network The Word In Praise on various stations across the nation.
 
WVRY is on right now. I don't know if it's the Solid Gospel network, but it's the same type of music. Can't get 104.9 up here so I don't know if they're parallel -- last I checked, they weren't. Transmitter is just south of McEwen.
 
ArnoldInacan said:
Brings up another point about the sports talk market in Clarksville; WJZM now has a weekday show 3-6pm with a former sports reporter from the Leaf Chronicle newspaper and 540 AM (the old WDXN) of the 5 Star Group has a show from 4-6 every week day too in addition to WVRY's Sports Talk with Greg Walker on Monday & Thursday. That's a lot of local sports radio for a market that is dominated by the Nashville stations.
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At one time (1993), WDXN was owned by Tenn-Aire Communications out of Russellville, KY. Their intent at the time was to also buy WJZM and its then-sister station WTWL-FM. WVRY (then an oldies station) was also to be a part of that deal. The deal fell through, and I never found out why. WTWL-FM was later sold to Terry Hailey and became WTPR-FM, moving to its present dial position of 101.7.

Meanwhile, the old WDXN was itself added to the Q-108 family of stations.
 
There is currently no application on file that I can find to transfer the license, still owned by Grace Broadcasting. John Bailey and Charles Malone sold WJZM to Clarksville banker Dotson Guinn in the early 90's and they ( Dotson's son and son-in-law) made a deal to purchase 105.1 from Joe Copley. That deal was FCC approved but never closed and Guinn then purchased the 101.7 with the understanding it could move closer to Clarksville. When that could not be accomplished, they decided to cut their losses and exit broadcasting selling the WJZM to long time employees Hank Bonecutter and Charles Boyd. The 101.7 over west of Dover was sold to the Paris Tn interest. IIRC, the WVRY reverted to the original owner Robert Mckay of Columbia and then was sold to Salem, they later traded it to Grace. WVRY is one of those signals that's kind of trapped in no-man's land, not covering Nashville any and Clarksville only marginally. Every few years, some tire-kicker will ask if it can be moved. WDXN-AM was sold by Jack Meyer to a group headed by Lon Sosh and they had big plans for WVRY (which they never owned) but no money and lapsed into receivership rather quickly.

That's my recollection which is subject to the wear and tear of time....

wh
 
Watt Hairston said:
There is currently no application on file that I can find to transfer the license, still owned by Grace Broadcasting.
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Mr. Hairston is correct, in part. The application was hidden under WQSE:

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/w...ext=25&appn=101493874&formid=314&fac_num=4912

As Mr. Hairston said, the station's ownership arrangements have a colorful past. Evidently, nothing has changed. From the new transfer application:

2.1 Purchase Price. In consideration of Seller's performance of this Agreement, the total purchase price (the "Purchase Price") to be paid by Buyer for WVRY (FM) shall be ONE MILLION Dollars ($1,000,000.00), as adjusted pursuant to Section 3, and also Section 16.1(e) hereto. The Purchase Price for WVRY (FM) shall be paid by assuming a certain indebtedness at the F & M Bank, with the Bank's approval, at Closing. The Purchase Price for WQSE shall be the forgiving of a Promissory Note from the Buyer in the approximate amount of $184,000.00 for the original purchase of WQSE (AM) and property. The two purchase prices are separate from one another.
 
Watt Hairston said:
There is currently no application on file that I can find to transfer the license, still owned by Grace Broadcasting. John Bailey and Charles Malone sold WJZM to Clarksville banker Dotson Guinn in the early 90's and they ( Dotson's son and son-in-law) made a deal to purchase 105.1 from Joe Copley. That deal was FCC approved but never closed and Guinn then purchased the 101.7 with the understanding it could move closer to Clarksville. When that could not be accomplished, they decided to cut their losses and exit broadcasting selling the WJZM to long time employees Hank Bonecutter and Charles Boyd. The 101.7 over west of Dover was sold to the Paris Tn interest.
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That was Terry Hailey of the WENK stations. At least under his ownership, that station would have some stability, and hopefully won't be changing hands as often. (It was on 101.5 at the time he received it. He moved it to 101.7, and WCMT-FM of the Thunderbolt stations moved from 101.7 to 101.3 in an "almost-swap" of frequencies.)
IIRC, the WVRY reverted to the original owner Robert Mckay of Columbia and then was sold to Salem, they later traded it to Grace. WVRY is one of those signals that's kind of trapped in no-man's land, not covering Nashville any and Clarksville only marginally. Every few years, some tire-kicker will ask if it can be moved. WDXN-AM was sold by Jack Meyer to a group headed by Lon Sosh and they had big plans for WVRY (which they never owned) but no money and lapsed into receivership rather quickly.
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That was the Tenn-Aire group. By the way, WVRY came in great in Clarksville back when I lived there.
 
I can't tell you about the owner, but I listen to WVRY all the time because that's the only southern gospel station we have. They play the Solid Gospel feed most of the time with the exception of the local sports shows and the preaching they play on Sundays.
 
oldiesgirl said:
I can't tell you about the owner, but I listen to WVRY all the time because that's the only southern gospel station we have. They play the Solid Gospel feed most of the time with the exception of the local sports shows and the preaching they play on Sundays.
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You are correct. It runs Salem's "Solid Gospel" network feed unless there is some sports show on.
 
Somewhat off topic but maybe relevant since some seem to be familiar with WDXN's past. Wasn't WDXN associated with WDXL and WDXI and maybe a station in Paris once upon a time? If so, how long ago was Aaron Robinson's Dixie Network broken up?
 
@DJ, I really wish we had a good southern gospel station that I could pick up. I really don't like Salem. I guess I could try that AM station out of White Bluff, but I think it was pretty staticky the last time I listened to it. They have a lot better playlist than Solid Gospel, though. That may not be saying much, because I think my MP3 player has a better playlist than SG. I think the only time it's really awesome is when Gregg Hutchins is on the air. Now that guy is a DJ.
 
Jon J said:
Somewhat off topic but maybe relevant since some seem to be familiar with WDXN's past. Wasn't WDXN associated with WDXL and WDXI and maybe a station in Paris once upon a time? If so, how long ago was Aaron Robinson's Dixie Network broken up?
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And you can add WDXE in Lawrenceburg to the list of Dixie Network stations. Most of them had that WDX_ call letter combination with only the last letter being different, but I believe WENK of Union City was also part of that Dixie Network of stations.
 
Forgot about WDXE. I worked at WDXI in Jackson. Sonny Robinson was the absentee owner and the station went through GMs relatively quickly.
 
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