Talk:WKAC

Thanks

Thanks for the additions Dravecky. I grew up listening to Sick Call, Swap 'n' Shop and Cousin Josh and his "Sun Drip bellywasher", although not by choice. It was what my parents listened to. Although I don't listen to WKAC much, it is probably the most interesting radio station I know. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wayne Goode (talk • contribs) 15:04, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

I appreciate the note and welcome any expansion you can make to this article. - Dravecky (talk) 10:53, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

History

WKAC Radio 1080 - Athens, Alabama A BRIEF HISTORY

WKAC was granted a construction permit issued to Kenneth A. Casey and signed on the air in 1965. WKAC was a 1,000 watt AM station, assigned to 1080 kc (kHz) and authorized to broadcast from sunrise to sunset. The FCC later approved an application to increase power to 5,000 watts with the restriction that power be increased two hours after sign-on and reduced back to 1,000 watts two hours before sign-off each day (what the FCC calls "critical hours").

The station was located in a two story building on Alabama Highway 127 about three miles north of Athens (also called the Elkmont Highway). The upper story was a residence and the lower level was the station's offices and studios. WKAC had a new RCA 1,000-watt transmitter and a tower with an overal height of 208 feet. When the new 5,000 watt RCA transmitter was installed, the original transmitter was kept as a backup and was sometimes put back into service when the new transmitter failed or needed to be off the air for maintenance.

The early dj lineup on WKAC included the following

Jerry "Daytime" Day - morning drive show

Leon Tilley worked a number of time slots on WKAC. He left to join the US Marines and returned in 1969 when his tour of duty ended. Upon his return from the Marines, Tilley ran the early morning program taking requests on what he called "the Tilley phone."

Jerry Sharp - mostly afternoon drive show

When Jerry Sharp moved on, a young man from Huntsville, Alabama, Tommy Aldridge, became the afternoon on-air personality. Tommy ran a show called "Swingin' Safari" from 2 PM to sign-off (sundown) featuring a mix of Top 40 rock and oldies. Tommy liked to run the studio monitor at very high volume. You could hear the music all the way to the parking lot. When he opened his microphone, he could hear his voice echoing down the hallway and into the front lobby. Thus, he avoided the need for a headset. Tommy used his foot to keep rythym with the music. His voice had a natural cadence that also kept time.

The station manager for WKAC in the early sixties was Mr. R.O. Petty. Mr. Petty was a distinquished looking elderly man, small and thin, with silver hair and steel gray eyes. He wore black suits that made him look like an old country parson. He was a circuit riding man, for sure, but not on a horse. Mr. Petty drove a blue 1964 Cadillac - big fins and all. He was a good salesman and ran a no non-sense radio station. The "boys" who worked for him loved him and respected him. He brought a lot of raw, untrained talent into broadcasting and patiently trained them to be professionals.

Fondest memory of Mr. Petty? When the station was being remodeled in the late sixties, the disc jockeys were moved while the control room was being remodeled. They were broadcasting from the "recording studio" adjacent to the control room. As Tommy Aldridge was reading the news live, listeners could no doubt hear hammering and sawing going on in the adjacent room. Mr. Petty was standing nearby in an adjustable swivel chair straining to hang a curtain rod for the new drapes. In the middle of the newscast the chair on which he was standing suddenly "self adjusted" downward about a foot, taking Mr. Petty quite by surprise. No one remembers exactly what Mr. Petty said when the chair slipped, but it probably was not intended for broadcast. Tommy and another young announcer who was in the room made super-human efforts not to laugh. Aldridge even tried to finish the newscast. But it was all to no avail. The two young men succombed to hearty, unrestrained laughter. When composure was restored, the newscast was completed, and Mr. Petty gently admonished, "You boys need to learn to keep a straight face when the mike is turned on."

Doug Hembree's job was primarily advertising sales; however, he ran a one hour noon program that included news, weather and farm market reports. His voice was also on a lot of the commercials in the early days.

In 1967, the station sold a one hour remote broadcast to a local restaurant located near Athens College (Now Athens State University). Tommy Aldridge was assigned to perform at the remote location. This necessitated someone to relieve Tommy at the station while he traveled to the remote location and set up, and also to run the control board back at the station while Aldridge was on the air downtown. Wayne Forsythe was hired for this part-time position. When Aldridge switched to another time slot later, Forsythe was hired for the 2 PM to sign-off time slot. He worked for years as dj and eventually as general manager.

The WKAC format was mostly Top 40 rock with some oldies mixed in. However, from 11 AM to noon, WKAC presented one hour of southern gospel music, a program titled "Gospel Melodies." And from 8 to 9 AM, the Bonus Merchant Show gave listeners a chance to win cash by listening. This particular program would play a different featured LP album each day, often something more soothing than the regular Top 40 fair - such as an album by Dean Martin, Jim Reeves or Glen Campbell.

Local competition was largely WJMW at AM-730, a country music station that had been on the air since the late 1940s. It included popular local programming such as the "Sick Call," which listed obituaries and a list of people in local hospitals. It also had a popular call in program for listeners to buy, sell or swap things - called "Swap and Shop" run by "Aunt" Marge Brown.

The sixties and seventies were the Golden Age of AM radio. FM was around but most cars didn't have FM receivers yet. FM stations played mostly "elevator music," very soft, sweet instrumental tunes. There was little advertising on FM because there were few listeners in the sixties. Unbelieveably, to today's radio listeners, FM stations in the sixties and early seventies could barely sell enough advertising to pay their utility bills. AM ruled the era. But the era was not to last forever.

Big stations such as WVOK in Birmingham were widely listened to and gave local stations much competition, as did stations like WSM in Nashville. At night, when the local AM stations went off the air, listeners could turn to WLS in Chicago (AM 890, "the Big 89") for rock, or to stations like WWL in New Orleans or WSM for country.

By the late 1970s FM was gaining ground. FM stations had several advantages: they could remain on the air all night if they chose, though many signed off at midnight in those days. FM had a very clear signal, very accommodating for music. And FM stations with high power (often 50,000 or 100,000 watts) covered large areas. And by the late 1970s automobile manufacturers began installing FM radios as standard equipment in nearly all their models. In the late 1960s, WDRM-FM in Decatur began broadcasting their Nite Country show.

In the mid-seventies, WJMW made a profound format switch. They gave up country music, changed their frequency to AM 770 (and their call sign to WVNN) and became the first full-time talk and news station in the area. It also became the only AM station in Athens to broadcast twenty-four hours a day, although was required to make a reduction in power after sundown. But the market was changing. Soon there would be no more Top 40 AM. No more Swingin' Safari. No more "Little Red Ridin' Hood." The Golden Age of AM Radio could not be sustained forever. It probably had passed by 1982 when Joe Rumore of WVOK in Birmingham signed off for the last time.

During the mid-1970s WKAC had begun to modify its programming, toning back the Top 40 rock for a more middle of the road, even mixing some country music into the playlist--going after a more mature demographic.

A popular country personality named George Rose had run a country music and comedy routine on WJMW for years. Now without a comfortable radio home, "Cousin Josh," as he was known, switched to WKAC. By 1978, WKAC had also changed formats, giving up the rock oriented pop format for all country music, with the "Cousin Josh Jamboree" as its centerpiece (11 AM to 2 PM). Rose continued at WKAC until his death in 2006.

http://athens.al.onepaper.com/user/cfor/1210300779/

(I've relocated this unsourced text of uncertain origin here until it can be sourced, proven not to be a copyright infringment, and rewritten to be more encyclopedic.) - Dravecky (talk) 10:52, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Edit request from Surphn, 8 April 2010

{{editsemiprotected}} There is no more "Radio Bama" on WKAC. Some Spanish programming remains, but it is not called "Radio Bama".

Surphn (talk) 02:45, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

We need a reliable source to verify this.  fetchcomms☛ 03:08, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Edit request from Surphn, 8 April 2010

{{editsemiprotected}} Please remove the Radio Bama logo and heading. There is no more "Radio Bama" on WKAC.

Change:

The station broadcasts in Spanish under the name "Radio Bama" in the afternoons and evening. The Spanish language broadcasts begin at 4:00 pm on weekdays (as of November 2009), 10:00am on Saturdays, and noon on Sundays. They end each day at station sign-off.

to

The station broadcasts in Spanish in the afternoons and evening. The Spanish language broadcasts begin at 4:00 pm on weekdays (as of November 2009), 10:00am on Saturdays, and noon on Sundays. They end each day at station sign-off.

Surphn (talk) 18:11, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

As above, we need a reliable source to verify this information. A series of anonymous editors have been removing the "Radio Bama" logo from this article without explanation or comment for several months now, potentially crossing the line into vandalism, so this particular edit request is taken with an extra grain of caution. - Dravecky (talk) 18:23, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

References

Edit request from Surphn, 17 April 2010

{{editsemiprotected}} Please remove the references to "Radio Bama" and the Radio Bama logo. There is no more "Radio Bama" on WKAC. Here is a link to a local newspaper with our ad. It is on page 22. As you can see--no "Radio Bama". [1]

Surphn (talk) 20:58, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the link and that's somewhat illuminating but why doesn't the add mention the Spanish-language programming at all? Does that last talk show run 2pm-sundown? My apologies for the hoop-jumping but this article has been the victim of several months of apparent deletion vandalism to remove the mentions of Radio Bama altogether and without any explanation in any of those edits so it's not unreasonable to be extra cautious in proceeding. In good faith, I'll refactor the description now. Do you know when the "Radio Bama" branding was ended? - Dravecky (talk) 21:33, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Not done: Sorry, but the radio station's own website still lists Radio Bama from 4 to sign-off: [2]. (Yes, I know, that's a primary source, but that's OK when you're looking for basic info like this.) In addition, the ad you linked only covers part of the day and doesn't specify at all what happens after the Kirk Harvey show. This indicates to me that Radio Bama is still played afternoons and evenings on WKAC. --Darkwind (talk) 21:35, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, I think that was my allotment of good faith for the day. Changing it back now... - Dravecky (talk) 22:02, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Wow, have you got an old link. Go to www.wkac1080.com and you will see no "Radio Bama" there. We are only a daytime station. Surphn (talk) 16:12, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

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