K
KeithThompson
Guest
Some additional history
I was actually born in Rocky Mount, VA and as a kid, my first home was virtually in the shadow of WYTI's old tower (on Business 220 North at the intersection where the Middle School is now...I lived on Allman Road, the dead end street just off of State Street). I listened to WYTI (which was top-40 at the time, I think...I remember winning the Eagles "Tequila Sunrise" 45 from them) but I never recalled listening to WKWS. I moved to Christiansburg just before third grade when my father's job at Virginia Tech got transferred from their facility on the Blackwater River to the campus in Blacksburg.
My first radio job (besides the student station at Virginia Tech) was at WFNR-AM in Christiansburg, but after college (and a WFNR format change) I wound up at WODY in Bassett. It was a country/bluegrass/gospel station at the time. I lasted about nine months there until landing at WNLB in Rocky Mount. I eventually wound up in Roanoke at the old WSLC-AM before moving to the northeastern Maryland/Northern Delaware area where I work and live now.
As for WNLB, it wasn't a horrible station when I worked there (I have no memory of WKWS except for some of the complaint letters in the files the WNLB management showed me after they bought the station in the mid-70s and updated the station's sound). I wanted to work there because they sounded so much better than where I was at the time. WODY in Bassett (where I was working) had a following, although most of the listeners were very old and a young guy out of college like me clashed with the format and to a certain degree with the management. I don't want to say that WODY was a bad station, but I was a real fish out of water there. It's was my first real lesson in radio (and the first blow to my ego) where I thought my influence could update the image and sound of the station but the management wasn't interested in doing such a thing. WNLB had the more modern contemporary country format I was used to doing in the New River Valley and I thought they were programmed very well so I really wanted to work there and pestered them enough to hire me. They were a good station although they certainly weren't aimed at the Ferrum College students. I wasn't necessarily a country music guy when I got started in radio, it's just that the first job offer I received was at a country station so that's where my radio career wound up heading to.
> > The history may be a bit sketchy here, since I moved away
> > from Southwestern Virginia in '92, but it was around '92
> > when WZBB moved the country from the AM to the FM and they
>
> > put a satellite oldies format on 1290 and changed the
> calls
> > to WFYN. I don't remember the year they moved the studios
>
> > from Rocky Mount to Bassett Forks, but I believe it was at
>
> > that point they let the AM station go dark. I think I was
>
> > told they actually offered the 1290 frequency to WYTI when
>
> > WYTI moved into the old WZBB/WNLB studios, but WYTI
> > preferred to remain at 1570.
> Sorry--I can't let this discussion pass without talking
> about my experience in the "Rocky Mount-Roanoke-Martinsburg"
> radio market. I attended Ferrum (Junior) College from
> 1966-68. For those of us from Richmond, Tidewater, or
> Northern Virginia, the radio scene there was quite a shock.
> After a few weeks of snooping around, we found there were
> certain "hot spots" in the dorms where WROV-AM could be
> recieved quite well during the daytime. Those rooms were
> highly sought after and hard to get. At night there was
> nothing except FM which at the time was a new concept except
> for those students from NOVA who were already familiar with
> WPGC-FM. From Roanoke we recieved two FMs, both coming in
> like gangbusters, even in the basement rooms---WDBJ-FM (now
> WSLC) which simucasted WDBJ-AM (now WFIR), and WSLS-FM (now
> WSLQ) which played automated "Beautiful Music." 92.3
> (WJLQ?)was also on the air from Roanoke with beautiful music
> but was never recievable in Ferrum. We listened to WMVA-FM
> (now WROV-FM), which was a 100% simucast of WMVA/1450, a lot
> at night. WMVA at the time was dayparted and played top 40
> at night. WMVA was a very small-town operation, but the
> fidelity of the music was spectacular. You have to
> remember, the only other way to get music, was to play
> records--the eight track had not even come in big yet. We
> had to have our Beatles, Motown, protest songs, etc., so
> WMVA-FM was very important. Also, they aired NBC news at
> the top of every hour--I can remember hearing all of the
> troubling news of the day on those newscasts. I can
> remember WKWS, later known as WNLB (THe country Giant), and
> WYTI (The Mighty Whitey). Both were horrible, horrible
> stations that nobody at the college would never listen to.
> I remember returning to the campus in the early 80s and
> doing an automatic scan on my FM car radio. Dozens of
> strong stations came up, including the wonderful K-92 and
> many stations from the Triad. I remember wondering what it
> would be like to attend Ferrum and recieve all those great
> stations---how times change. Sorry for the long post...
>
I was actually born in Rocky Mount, VA and as a kid, my first home was virtually in the shadow of WYTI's old tower (on Business 220 North at the intersection where the Middle School is now...I lived on Allman Road, the dead end street just off of State Street). I listened to WYTI (which was top-40 at the time, I think...I remember winning the Eagles "Tequila Sunrise" 45 from them) but I never recalled listening to WKWS. I moved to Christiansburg just before third grade when my father's job at Virginia Tech got transferred from their facility on the Blackwater River to the campus in Blacksburg.
My first radio job (besides the student station at Virginia Tech) was at WFNR-AM in Christiansburg, but after college (and a WFNR format change) I wound up at WODY in Bassett. It was a country/bluegrass/gospel station at the time. I lasted about nine months there until landing at WNLB in Rocky Mount. I eventually wound up in Roanoke at the old WSLC-AM before moving to the northeastern Maryland/Northern Delaware area where I work and live now.
As for WNLB, it wasn't a horrible station when I worked there (I have no memory of WKWS except for some of the complaint letters in the files the WNLB management showed me after they bought the station in the mid-70s and updated the station's sound). I wanted to work there because they sounded so much better than where I was at the time. WODY in Bassett (where I was working) had a following, although most of the listeners were very old and a young guy out of college like me clashed with the format and to a certain degree with the management. I don't want to say that WODY was a bad station, but I was a real fish out of water there. It's was my first real lesson in radio (and the first blow to my ego) where I thought my influence could update the image and sound of the station but the management wasn't interested in doing such a thing. WNLB had the more modern contemporary country format I was used to doing in the New River Valley and I thought they were programmed very well so I really wanted to work there and pestered them enough to hire me. They were a good station although they certainly weren't aimed at the Ferrum College students. I wasn't necessarily a country music guy when I got started in radio, it's just that the first job offer I received was at a country station so that's where my radio career wound up heading to.
> > The history may be a bit sketchy here, since I moved away
> > from Southwestern Virginia in '92, but it was around '92
> > when WZBB moved the country from the AM to the FM and they
>
> > put a satellite oldies format on 1290 and changed the
> calls
> > to WFYN. I don't remember the year they moved the studios
>
> > from Rocky Mount to Bassett Forks, but I believe it was at
>
> > that point they let the AM station go dark. I think I was
>
> > told they actually offered the 1290 frequency to WYTI when
>
> > WYTI moved into the old WZBB/WNLB studios, but WYTI
> > preferred to remain at 1570.
> Sorry--I can't let this discussion pass without talking
> about my experience in the "Rocky Mount-Roanoke-Martinsburg"
> radio market. I attended Ferrum (Junior) College from
> 1966-68. For those of us from Richmond, Tidewater, or
> Northern Virginia, the radio scene there was quite a shock.
> After a few weeks of snooping around, we found there were
> certain "hot spots" in the dorms where WROV-AM could be
> recieved quite well during the daytime. Those rooms were
> highly sought after and hard to get. At night there was
> nothing except FM which at the time was a new concept except
> for those students from NOVA who were already familiar with
> WPGC-FM. From Roanoke we recieved two FMs, both coming in
> like gangbusters, even in the basement rooms---WDBJ-FM (now
> WSLC) which simucasted WDBJ-AM (now WFIR), and WSLS-FM (now
> WSLQ) which played automated "Beautiful Music." 92.3
> (WJLQ?)was also on the air from Roanoke with beautiful music
> but was never recievable in Ferrum. We listened to WMVA-FM
> (now WROV-FM), which was a 100% simucast of WMVA/1450, a lot
> at night. WMVA at the time was dayparted and played top 40
> at night. WMVA was a very small-town operation, but the
> fidelity of the music was spectacular. You have to
> remember, the only other way to get music, was to play
> records--the eight track had not even come in big yet. We
> had to have our Beatles, Motown, protest songs, etc., so
> WMVA-FM was very important. Also, they aired NBC news at
> the top of every hour--I can remember hearing all of the
> troubling news of the day on those newscasts. I can
> remember WKWS, later known as WNLB (THe country Giant), and
> WYTI (The Mighty Whitey). Both were horrible, horrible
> stations that nobody at the college would never listen to.
> I remember returning to the campus in the early 80s and
> doing an automatic scan on my FM car radio. Dozens of
> strong stations came up, including the wonderful K-92 and
> many stations from the Triad. I remember wondering what it
> would be like to attend Ferrum and recieve all those great
> stations---how times change. Sorry for the long post...
>