WAKY or WKLO?

[John Quincy]

Visitors to this board might be prejudiced, but I'd like to see a dialog on which of the two Top 40 stations was better in the 60s and 70s. Since I lived in Lexington -- and WAKY's signal was stronger there -- I spent more time with the Super 79.

What did WAKY do better than WKLO -- and vice-versa? Who had the better jocks, the better music presentation, the better promotions?

Also, I've had requests to start up a WKLO Website. While I don't have nearly as many WKLO airchecks and as much information as I do with WAKY, I'd seriously consider it if the contributions (airchecks, promotional material, photos, etc.) were made available.

[bruiser]

I do not think either station would have been what they were if the other station did not exist. WKLO was first to switch to rock and roll, and Paul Cowley was their top jock. Cowley also had the first record shop in Louisville to specialize in rock and roll recordings, as far as I know. WKLO also had the Coca-Cola Hi-Fi Club. Coke would hire bands and a dj from WKLO would appear at a local school for a weekend dance. Pepsi and WAKY later did the same thing. Of course WKLO is where the Duke made his first appearance. And there was the genuine British dj, Ken Douglas, who WKLO hired during the British Invasion. It was a war between the two. I'd like to know why the Bingham family didn't turn WHAS into a rock station. It may have been due to loyalty to it's staff, as fas as I know.

[Travis]

I seldom listened to WKLO, but I did check them out from time to time. I preferred WAKY's unique personalities and the energy level that, with the exception of Bill Bailey's show, was always present. I did think that the music sounded better on WKLO. I'm not sure why. WKLO seem to have a much broader sound with a better low end. I was reminded of this after hearing Johnny Randolph describe WAKY's audio processing (WAKY Remembered - 2003). From what little I understand of frequency loss over long phone lines, the processing, as Randolph described it, sounded like the way to go, but was it right? Jason O'Brian was especially critical of WAKY's signal & sound at night. Even the on-air monitor in the main studio (control room) sounded terrible at night. In spite of WKLO's sound, there was a time when I could not stand to listen to music on that station at all. For a time, the songs sounded as if the turntables were spinning a bit too fast. I learned some years later that WKLO, in an attempt to create a more up or energetic sound, had wrapped a little masking tape around the motorized shafts which were part of the linkage that rotated the turntables. The masking tape increased the diameter of the shafts which resulted in the turntables turning a bit faster than 45 RPM. While it did give the music more energy, it also made the vocals sound a bit like chipmunks. It drove me crazy. In spite of WAKY's sound, the unique personalities operating under Randolph's unique formatics won hands down with me. 'nuff said.

[purplepeopleeater]

WAKY was always number 1 with me, but 'KLO's "underground" show on Friday nights (late 60's, early 70's?)was definitely a kind of eye-opener for me. It introduced me to completely different music, and I was hooked...but only to that show. The jocks on WAKY always seemed to have more fun with their shows.

[TRAVELINDAVE2]

MY WIFE AND I ARE IN OUR MID 50'S. WE BOTH LISTENED TO WKLO MOST OF THE TIME. I REMEMBER PAUL COWLEY WITH HIS SIGN OFF SAYING " ICE UP THE COCA COLA JENETTE HONEY I'M COMING HOME". I"VE BEEN FOLLOWING LOUISVILLE RADIO SINCE 1960. WKLO DID HAVE A DIFFERENT SOUND TO IT. IT WAS BETTER THEN WAKY'S. WE LIVED IN NEW ALBANY AND THAT 10,000 WATTS OF WKLO WAS AIMED RIGHT AT US. TOWERS RIGHT OFF DAISY LANE. I THINK A WKLO WEB SITE WOULD BE GREAT!

[Mike Griffin]

Interestingly (or not) I grew up in New Albany Indiana in the '60s also. I later had the privilege of working at WAKY in the '70s. Here is my take. In New Albany from the time that I seriously started listening to radio in about '64 until '68 there is no question in my mind that WKLO had the edge. As Travelindave2 points out WKLO's transmitter was on Daisy lane in New Albany and most people in Southern Indiana were only a few miles from it. WAKY on the other hand had a much weaker signal in New Albany their transmitter being 20 or so miles out on the other side of Louisville. My friends and I had relatively cheap transistor radios and there was absolutely no competition between the two stations signal. With WKLO's 5000 watts at the time, they owned New Albany. Bill Bailey was also a big factor for me when he began work there. In 1968 WKLO boosted their daytime power to 10,000 watts. We lived possibly a mile or so in front of their main lobe. Every radio in our house (car radios were OK) distorted from signal overload. I know we weren't alone.

By 1967 WAKY was improving on air again, adding more excitement and personality, and WKLO was going the other direction. Jim Brand spoke in his interview on the Tribute page about the high competition between the stations when Mitch Michael was program director at WKLO. (Does anyone else remember Jim Brand hosting the $50 Movie late Saturday nights on WLKY?) When Mitch left WKLO, WKLO headed down. The talk at New Albany High School began to deal with listening to WAKY. I think WAKY's WBOG contest, that Bob Todd talks about on the features page, generated so much excitement at the school that it threw WAKY in front at the school. I believe the switch at New Albany High was happening before but every one I knew was listening to and talking about that promotion. First we were wondering if WBOG had do do with WAKY becoming a religious or country station. All sorts of bad possibilities were suggested. Then when it started it was interesting hearing all the songs dug up for it. WAKY's Battle Of Giants (WBOG) consisted of two records being played and the audience would vote for the winner. Then the winner was put against a new challenger. Usually a song would hang on until people were sick of hearing it played over and over. It seemed kind of strange that Mason Williams "Classical Gas" was the winner, but there it was. As I recall, the winner was the song that got the most repetition before being knocked out.

To get back on topic, WBOG seemed to be the thing that sealed the switch from WKLO at New Albany High. Of course Bill Bailey was still at WKLO for a while longer, but when he left in '69 WKLO was not for me at all any longer.

I had the opportunity to work at WAKY from '71 to '77. By that time WKLO was in it's 'growlin boogie' phase. All the DJs there had to talk in deep voices and use the word boogie a lot. They had a tight sound but as Travis points out they had modified their turntables to speed up all the records to try to make WAKY sound like it was dragging. This didn't sound too bad on the Jackson Five but it made Neil Diamond sound like Mickey Mouse. In spite of my feelings about the 'growlin boogie' phase the station came to challenge WAKY a bit. The serious challenge didn't last long but WAKY did. WAKY maintained the personality style radio and excitement that began in the late sixties well into the seventies.

The whole time I worked at WAKY Johnny Randolph was talking about wanting to get an FM station. He could see that AM wasn't going to last forever. With the inclusion of FM on all newly made radios the switch to FM began and eventually led to WAKY's demise. The switch picked up speed in Louisville with WLRS doing serious album rock and limited commercials around '75.

Randolph was correct, FM was something WAKY desperately needed. If WAKY had gotten FM it would still be cookin' today. Most of the FMs these days are back to the shorter playlists and plenty of commercials. They all lack the personality that WAKY had.

[bruiser]

WKLO had an FM "sister" station. They broadcast the same shows simultaneously. That is until the FCC changed the rules about that sometime in the mid sixties. It didn't matter much, as most people didn't have an FM radio at that time. WKLO also once had a tv station. It was Ch. 21, and carried the late Dumont network. Bad news back then because UHF sets and coverters were few and far between.

[TRAVELINDAVE2]

Bruiser is right,wklo had a sister station,99.7 which later became wcsn,easy listing. Now of course it's djx. Hey Mike Griffin it's Dave Carroll,N.A.H.S class 1968, we were in electronics class together. Didn't you get your first class license and work for WREY in newalbany? I remember coming down to the station and you filled in after Denny Lin. WREY played top 40 then. I said something to John about having a D.J. / listener reunion and talk about the good old days of louisville radio. Anybody else interested?

[Mike Griffin]

Hello Dave Carroll...I remember you and the electronics class very well. Mr Cooper encouraged me to get the First Class License and that was my ticket into radio. WREY was my first job and Denny Lynn was the star of the station. He was still in high school too, a senior at Clarksville High. I believe his father was Clarksville's Chief of Police.

I remember WKLO's simulcasts very well. Until the rules changed the FM ran simulcast from 6AM to 11PM. I can remember Bob Shannon signing it off when he had the 10-2AM shift at WKLO. He always said "Goodnight FM" when it went off.

I also remember the CocaCola HiFi Club of the air. I often listened to it on FM; because I hacked electronics for fun I had several FM radios. That was unusual in the mid-60's.

WKLO did indeed have a TV station. I don't know about it first hand like Bruser possibly does but I worked with one of the ex-WKLO engineers, Pete Boyce, in 1971 and heard all about it. Channel 41 was just comming on the air and we both worked there during the start-up. In 1963 the FCC had mandated that UHF be added to all new TVs. That let the later U's be successful. WKLO apparantly still owned the channel 21 frequency and the stick was still up on the knobs and WKLO FM shared the tower and transmitter building.

That was a common story with UHF TV. WREY had a sister station, WRAY, in Princeton Indiana. WRAY also had a UHF TV license and after it wasn't successful they started just putting it on the air just once a year to keep the license. The story for FM was a similar one. No inexpensive receivers so no one listened. The difference is TV is probably at least 100 times more expensive to operate than FM Radio. So owners could keep the FMs running with no one listening but a TV station just burned money.

A little off the WAKY-WKLO track. WKLO was owened by Great Trails Broadcasting back in the '60's. WAKY was McClendon then Lin. Lin meant Louisville, Indianapolis, and Nashville but I'm not sure that Lin had stations in those cities all at the same time. In the '70s WAKY sold to Multimedia or Metromedia...can't remember which...but it sucked or seemed to compared to Lin. Instead of WAKY being a pretty big fish, but not the biggest, in a small pond, we became a small fish in a big pond. But maybe that was OK too.

Enough rambling.

[Travis]

I was just thinking of the $50 Movie as I listened to Jim Brand earlier today. I was quite young, but it seems to me it ran on either a Friday or Saturday night and showed old James Cagney movies & such. It also seems to me that Bill Crisp was on there as well. I can see them doing the show together, but Bill may have been a guest now & then. I can't recall Bill ever hosting the show alone; it's always Jim that comes to mind. Also, didn't the $50 Movie offer an old car for just $50 at the end of the movie? I may be crossing this with something else.

[Mike Griffin]

Travis has it right about the $50 movie. Jim Brand was the host for an old time movie that started 1AM or some such time. The sponsor was Louisville Motors Ford. At the end of the Movie they showed a car that you could buy for $50. There were so many people showing up to buy the car that they had to turn it into a drawing rather than picking the first person to be able to buy it.

[bruiser]

The first memories I have of WKLO is that the station played country music. One of it's top jocks was a guy named Jimmy Osborne. Jimmy had had some national success as a recording artist. He would pick and sing on his show, and hawk his appearances, as well as playing the country hits. He had a top 10 country hit entitled "The Death Of Little Kathy Fiscus", a song about a little girl who fell into a well and died. It was based on a true event. Unfortunately, Jimmy committed suicide.

When rock and roll began to be programmed across the country, WKLO played country music in the morning and switched to rock in the afternoons. They kept this up for a year or so before switching to rock altogether. I'm sure everyone will agree this turned out to be a good decision for them. ;D

Edit: If anyone wants to hear the Osborne song, go to page 5 of this site: recordlady.webgcs.com/main2.htm and it'll be there. I warn you, Rose has one of the largest private sites of country music I've seen. Lots of hillbilly, bluegrass, cowboy, and western swing.

[Travis]

Wow! The name of Jimmy Osborne rings a bell, but only because the late Jim Miller (aka Mark "the spark" Anderson of WTMT) once told me of him. From what Jim told me, the circumstances surrounding Jimmy Osborne's death were very suspicious. Apparently, Jimmy was closely associated with a used car dealer in Louisville. He generally did live spots for the dealer (whose name escapes me) and always ended with the line, "Tell them, Jimmy Osborne sent you." At the time of Jimmy's apparent suicide, he was supposedly living in a small trailer, which was actually on the lot of the used car dealership. The story goes that Jimmy was having an affair with the dealer's wife and that his death was anything but a suicide, but it could never be proven. I did get the impression that Jimmy Osborne was popular on WTMT, but you say he was actually on WKLO?

[bruiser]

I'm pretty sure Jimmy was on WKLO. Of course he may have been on WTMT as well. I've the rumors regarding Jimmy's death. Since you mentioned the rumors, I'll add to it. I heard there was also some illegal drugs involved, as well as the affair, and the whole thing was getting ready to blow up, and everything was going to be exposed. But, everything came to a halt when he died.

A lot of the jocks on the country stations in the area did shows for used car lots. One of the most famous car lots that did this was Bob Ryan's, and he's still in business. The Smiling Irishman.

[Travis]

It was indeed, Bob Ryan - The smiling Irishman, whose lot is where Jimmy Osborne supposedly was found dead in a trailer. Since Bob was never found guilty of any foul play regarding Jimmy Osborne's death, I will assume that he is truly innocent and offer any apology for these posts. The rumors of Osborne's death have obviously persisted for years and are merely being repeated here as part of a discussion pertaining to WAKY and WKLO.

[bruiser]

When a major country act would come to town in the fifties, and sometimes in the sixties, Bob would have them come out to his lot and do a show. He sponsored a lot of shows on country radio at that time, and was a major player in country radio at that time. I went to his lot once upon a time, years ago, and he had hundreds of autographed pics of country artist papering the walls of his establishment. I think they're still up. Some of the autographed pics might be worth more than the cars he sell.

BTW, I heard there was more than one woman involved, but everything is just speculation.

[worldcyclist]

TRAVELINDAVE2 said:

Bruiser is right,wklo had a sister station,99.7 which later became wcsn,easy listing. Now of course it's djx. Hey Mike Griffin it's Dave Carroll,N.A.H.S class 1968, we were in electronics class together. Didn't you get your first class license and work for WREY in newalbany? I remember coming down to the station and you filled in after Denny Lin. WREY played top 40 then. I said something to John about having a D.J. / listener reunion and talk about the good old days of louisville radio. Anybody else interested?

At one point didn't this later become KJ100? I seem to remember an experiement where they ran the AM simulcast staggered with the FM. If you heard a song you liked on the AM you could switch to the FM and hear it again.

Man oh man the work it must have taken with analog technology back then!

Julian
Worldcyclist

[TRAVELINDAVE2]

YES JULIAN, WCSN BECAME WKJJ(KJ100) IN THE LATE 70'S. THEY PLAYED TOP 40. THE SIMULCAST OF WKLO1080/99.7 WAS EARLIER, MAYBE LATE 60'S.
REGARDS, TRAVELINDAVE.

[bruiser]

The simulcast of WKLO AM and FM stopped long about 1967 or 1968. They had a simulcast for many years.

Didn't WKLO also becom WCNN for awhile? Playing country classics?

[David Stockhoff]

bruiser said:

Didn't WKLO also becom WCNN for awhile? Playing country classics?

Close Bruiser, it was 1080 WCII! Bill Bailey would make a stop there in the early 80s between gigs at WAKY!

David :0)

[gmam680]

WKLO-FM became WCSN for the owner Charles Sawyer Network (nice job Ernie) which then became WKJJ--"the new KJ-100" which became eventually WDJX

[gmam680]

the reference to the offset music..hear it on FM ..then over to AM to hear it again...was called Lateral Replays...and happened with the beginning of KJ-100 which will be covered in the latter days of WKLO which i am working now.

[Max]

Okay, I must say I'm through EVER listening to 107.7 WSFR again. In my memory (swiss cheese as it can be), in WAKY/WKLO's rivalry I cannot recall either one slamming the other one ON THE AIR and mentioning them by name! WSFR would do well not to always be keeping tabs on how many commericials WQMF has played the last hour. Not only do the stations of today lack quality of programming of days gone by, they also lack the CLASS!

Hail to WAKY/WKLO...the kings of Amplitude Modulation! ;D

[skippert]

Wow..Memories reading all these postings....I just know going to Louisville-New Albany with the folks on little trips from Evansville area, I would gobble up Derby Radio and would tape straight into a cassette mic, many hours of WKLO and WAKY... I was only about 10 when I started that habit, as I was already in the radio bug phase of life.. If you got within 15 or 20 miles of New Albany from the downriver side, 'KLO was worth sampling...Very directional and WIBC really caused me DX'ing problems living 90 miles west on State Road 64 (not I-64, which wasn't around, yet)... My high school brother was an early convert to WAKY and it really did sound big time in the daytime in our small subdivision in coal mining burg, Oakland City, Indiana...You could get a good signal on WAKY (daytime) with those well built AM car radios, in those days (Delco was really good)...
I think WAKY's regional signal made it 'bigger than life' to the rural kids who'd come into L'ville on family and fun matters...'KLO just seemed to start sounding staged and with the hyped 45's, so teenie-bop... By the time I was driving to Memphis, Indiana (Silver Springs HS area) to see a hot gal I knew from summer camp, I had a Pioneer Power Play in my hyped-up 67' Cougar... I would go between the AM and FM listening strickly to WAKY or WLRS...(if you had to listen to 102.3/WLRS, you'd better be within 20 miles of L'ville..)..Those early class "A" stations didn't get out far...Espesically into hils and such...)...With a more youthful and higher registar voice, I was totally a Coyote Calhoun fanatic... When I got to a regional AM in rural Missouri, I gave my best on-the-hour talk-up with the 'Seven OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'Clock!!!!!!" up to the vocal..Never as good as "CC's"...... Buddy Kinser (Buddy Kay at WAKY and Buddy Scott at WGBF/WBBM) was a great teacher in my mirroring/board operator days...
;D

[Skip again]

WAKY & WKLO...Great to have sites for them... I don't think you'll ever see a web tribute to "HI-95" Automation-Sensation! The "Reels just keep on turnin'", until it became that station that kicks buttocks! 'QMF....

[Max]

I can relate to that description of automation. At the time I started at 'Quicksie' they had just left Top 40 to become automated beautiful music. While it was a great place to learn while the reels were turning, at times it felt like 'robot radio'.

I agree wholeheartedly that WAKY/WKLO are the ONLY stations worthy of a tribute site. The only other one worthy would be WHAS, and I got a feelin' were in for a LONG wait for THAT one to go off the air.

[michele12]

Feb 24, 2005 14:11:49 GMT -5 bruiser said:

The first memories I have of WKLO is that the station played country music. One of it's top jocks was a guy named Jimmy Osborne. Jimmy had had some national success as a recording artist. He would pick and sing on his show, and hawk his appearances, as well as playing the country hits. He had a top 10 country hit entitled "The Death Of Little Kathy Fiscus", a song about a little girl who fell into a well and died. It was based on a true event. Unfortunately, Jimmy committed suicide.

When rock and roll began to be programmed across the country, WKLO played country music in the morning and switched to rock in the afternoons. They kept this up for a year or so before switching to rock altogether. I'm sure everyone will agree this turned out to be a good decision for them. ;D

Edit: If anyone wants to hear the Osborne song, go to page 5 of this site: recordlady.webgcs.com/main2.htm and it'll be there. I warn you, Rose has one of the largest private sites of country music I've seen. Lots of hillbilly, bluegrass, cowboy, and western swing.

[michele12]

Jul 31, 2019 10:41:11 GMT -5 michele12 said:

Feb 24, 2005 14:11:49 GMT -5 bruiser said:

The first memories I have of WKLO is that the station played country music. One of it's top jocks was a guy named Jimmy Osborne. Jimmy had had some national success as a recording artist. He would pick and sing on his show, and hawk his appearances, as well as playing the country hits. He had a top 10 country hit entitled "The Death Of Little Kathy Fiscus", a song about a little girl who fell into a well and died. It was based on a true event. Unfortunately, Jimmy committed suicide.

When rock and roll began to be programmed across the country, WKLO played country music in the morning and switched to rock in the afternoons. They kept this up for a year or so before switching to rock altogether. I'm sure everyone will agree this turned out to be a good decision for them. ;D

Edit: If anyone wants to hear the Osborne song, go to page 5 of this site: recordlady.webgcs.com/main2.htm and it'll be there. I warn you, Rose has one of the largest private sites of country music I've seen. Lots of hillbilly, bluegrass, cowboy, and western swing.

[michele12]

50.00 movie
I actually bought a $50.00 car. Somewhere in the movie they would cut to a picture of the car. Mine was a corvair station wagon. I jumped in the car and got their at 1:10 in the morning. About 20 minutes after I got there a family from new Albany showed up and waited all night to see if I left. The only thing they guarented was that it would get off the lot on its own power. I did get it home. A few days later I took it down to sheens trade school and in a matter of a month and a half they had completely rebuilt the engine for $100.00 in parts. Drove it for a year and then traded it in