Welcome to the 79WAKY.com Message Board!

[John Quincy]

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you're enjoying the WAKY tribute site, and will take advantage of this message board system. Feel free to use it to discuss anything related to WAKY.

[Cherry]

I just discovered the WAKY Website. Jim Brand, one of the WAKY ALUM turned me on to it today. I grew up in Louisville and listened to the Super 79 most of my childhood. I loved that station and because of it I got the bug. I am now the morning man and PD of a Rock AC Station and OM for the cluster of 5 stations in the Gainesville/Ocala, Fl. market. To all who put their hearts and souls into making 79 WAKY what it was, a great station, I say thank you for a wonderful gift.

I couldn't help but notice that you don't have much on the site about Harry Lyles and even less about Chuck Jackson. Harry replaced Coyote Calhoun 6-10 pm in 1979 and Chuck Jackson hosted 10-2 am for quite a while. I don't know where Chuck is but Harry Lyles is in Atlanta and can be found in the industry yellow pages.

I spoke to Harry a little while ago and he was not aware of the site so don't be surprised if he contacts
you soon. Harry has some airchecks and photos that I'm sure he would love to share.

[John Quincy]

Thanks Cherry for the nice words!

I'd love to know about and hear from Harry and Chuck...and any WAKY alumni! All you ex-WAKY folks, please drop a line to [e-mail]. Thanks!

[circlek454SS]

I was a young pup when WAKY came into being from the scaffolding set up in the Ranch House parking lot on Preston. We lived off Phillips Lane and it was a treat for the family to go to the ranch house for a meal. I can distinctly remember gazing upward at the DJs on the scaffolds playing the Purple People Eater, again and again and again!

As I became a teenager, living in Shivley, I would ride my bike to Shivley Park to watch the DJs play softball -- well try, the beer keg was always present!

When i became driving age, I did not need a pushbutton radio because the only station I needed was 790, i was hooked on WAKY!

I suffered through when WAKY went country and then rejoiced when it again became rock & roll.

I was listening that fateful night when the "Purple People Eater" was played for the last time at midnight when WAKY went off the air. I called my old high school buddy in California and let him listen over the phone to the last few minutes of a legend!

I was not in the business as a lot of the people e-mailing in, just a faithful follower.

Thanks for the memories WAKY!

[mikebn2]

This is a terrific idea.
I grew up listening to WAKY. Received my first transistor radio for my 11th birthday in June 1958. Found WAKY immediately. I remember Jumpin Jack Sanders on the billboard at the Ranch House at Preston and Phillips Lane. I think he was to stay there until 1/3 of Louisville listened to WAKY. Also remember him locking himself in the control room and playing Purple People Eater until he got a raise. Lots of terrific memories from that era. I am looking forward to future posts from other people mentioning things I have forgotten.
Mike Schneider

[uroyk1]

John, thanks for the site....lots of info and lots of memories....I grew up in Stanford, Ky in the 60's and remember Mason Lee Dixon on WRSL in Stanford for a short time.....He used his real name on the air.......

[Dean]

I grew up in Simpsonville, KY, about 20 - 25 miles southeast of Louisville. I didn't listen to much radio until a friend came to a touch football game at a neighbor's house, and turned on his transistor radio to a new station called WAKY. From then forward, my radio stayed on 790 every day, until early evening when the signal was reduced. From "...rolling down that groovy old boulevard of broken tail lights" with Jumping Jack Sanders to getting my WAKY Kookie Hat (you could roll up the sides and keep rolling until you had an inside-out WAKY Kookie Hat) to sitting at Bob Colblazier's Ranch House in St. Matthews in the evening eating great burgers and listening to the British music invasion on WAKY, my early years were always WAKY.

Just as a side note, I live in Dallas now. One day in 1995, at the local supermarket, I was in the checkout line, standing behind a distinguished looking gentleman. He turned slightly and we nodded "hello" to each other and he then noticed my Kentucky Wildcats T-shirt. He said, "Hi, I'm Don Keyes. I started a radio station in Louisville in 1958. You ever heard of WAKY?" I've been a friend of Don and his family since, and he gave me the link to your website last night. Lots of memories here! Thanks for that.

[jslone]

Hello to everyone i just discovered this site today. It was listed in a letter to the Kentucky Monthly Magazine. I was a big fan of WAKY. I started listening to WAKY in 1970 when i was in Jr. High School & that was the same year i started to listening to R&R. I started collecting recorded music then. Back in 70 for us here in Southern Indiana AM was the only rock source & the choices were either WAKY,WKLO,WHAS & when WAKY & WKLO cut there power at night the choice was cut down to either WHAS,WLS in Chicago or WLW in Cincy ( I live in Mitchell which is 60 miles from Louisville) I really enjoyed WAKY thru the 70's but i liked it even better in the 80's when in 1982 they switched over to R&R Oldies. I started becoming an oldies fan & lets just say my Recorded Music Collection started expanding big time. However it was heartbreaking when in 1986 they switched over to what was called Beautiful Music 79. To me that the end of WAKY as we knew it. I guess my favorite DJ's in the 70's were Bill Bailey,Coyote,Bob Moody & Mason Dixon when i could hear him in the afternoons. In the 80's my favorites were Moody,Steve Cook & Liz Curtis. Some of the promtions on WAKY were cute. Does anyone remember the fight againist "Pay Potties: in the 70's or the "Hiney Wine" promotions in the 80's. I remember of the DJ's coming to Mitchell to do some dances. I remember one night in 77 Coyote came up here to do a dance & asked me & my friend on how to get back to Hwy.60 to get back to Louisville he followed us back to the highway. And oh how i remembered the Haunted Houses that WAKY used to sponser. Some of the my friends would hold on to my arm so tight that it almost cut off cirulation. Oh how good those days were. It is pityful to listen to AM Radio now. The Liberal/Right Wing Talk Shows have taken over & ruin it. The only time i iisten to AM is when there a sporting event or if i run onto a talk show that isnt biased one way or the other. Say speaking of Coyote i wonder if he can still do the "It's 6 oooooooooclock" like he used to do at the beginning of his shows in the 70's. I know stations like WQMF & WRKA plays classic rock & oldies but it just isnt the same as it was in the days of 790. I like Louisville & in fact attend church at Southeast Christian every other weekend. Would like to hear from other WAKY fans because collecting music & talking about music trivia is my hobby. Oh how nice it would be if talk radio was booted out & music & fun would return once again. (I know it probably won't happen but we can always dream lol) Have A Nice Day hope to chat at ya later

[buster]

I can not believe it when I opened the paper this morning and I saw the Waky site----I grew up with WAKY waking me up every morning to go to school---I remember a contest between Elvis Presley and the Beatles( I think) the one who received the most signatures was deemed the most popular group ---I think it was in the late 60's ---did I dream this?? Nonny peterson