WZZW (AM 1600 in Milton)

Bar Rat · Post by **Bar Rat** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:19 pm

They took down the tower on Monday.

CoolBreeze · Post by **CoolBreeze** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 9:52 pm

Is this the old WPNS? If so...

Back in the early 70s the secretary used to answer the private line like this:
"WPNS... Penis radio, big dick in the valley, hard to beat!"

We laughed EVERY SINGLE TIME.... *sigh

lastone · Post by **lastone** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:42 pm

Is this the old WPNS? If so...

You are thinking of the Hurricane station that was two towers and 5 KW directional. This tower was on rt 60 beside the interstate at Milton. The city police station uses the building.

Did they move or just go dark?

Hoosier Daddy · Post by **Hoosier Daddy** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:51 pm

lastone wrote:You are thinking of the Hurricane station that was two towers and 5 KW directional.

Originally WPNS on 1080 kc. back in the mid 70's. An odd propeller shaped daytime directional pattern, going north and south into the hayfields and hilltops of Putnam County and totally missing Charleston and Huntington. No nighttime service with that investment either. 1080 was a rundown at sundown operation.

Did they move or just go dark?

Their only listener died.

lastone · Post by **lastone** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:11 pm

I visited PNS the week it went on. 130% negative and the #2 phase off by 8 points....but it was a typical "in trailer" setup. Never understood the coverage. There just wasn't anything in Putnam back then to support a county coverage only station. And they were stuck with the "tight" directional shape. What a waste

On the other hand; can't understand why the Milton AM/FM failed. There should have been enough business in the area to keep it up. A local FM is now needed in this end of Cabell/Putnam county. CC ended any chance of that.

David Paleg · Post by **David Paleg** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:35 am

lastone wrote:The city police station uses the building.

If a prisoner becomes troublesome, did they tie him to the tower in a thunderstorm?

CoolBreeze · Post by **CoolBreeze** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:23 am

lastone wrote:I visited PNS the week it went on.

Do you recall the young engineer that was killed there while bypassing the interlock on their transmitter? He was moonlighting there (as I recall) while working at our station ( WXIT) as chief engineer also...

lastone · Post by **lastone** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:06 am

Do you recall the young engineer that was killed there while bypassing the interlock on their transmitter?

I was still in Williamson when that happened. Didn't know the man. But I did know the consultant that was "covertly" blamed for the bypassed interlocks. We have all done the deed for there were times you had too. All it takes is to touch the wrong spot. I won't bore you with the story here, but I have touched 3,500 volts DC by accident and obviously lived to tell. I was lucky. No engineer ever leaves a bypass in for fear someone else will get hurt. Never.

Big Media · Post by **Big Media** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 9:23 am

As I understand it, the tower is being replaced or some type of maintenance. It is not going dark.

genlock · Post by **genlock** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:23 pm

Old tower dropped on purpose.
Holes had rusted the legs thru, unsafe to climb or be around.
New tower going up. Eben has LED lighting.
New tower is pre-painted PIROD type.
Columbus crew doing the work/

lastone · Post by **lastone** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:59 pm

I liked pirod. The Williamson tower is Pirod. In 1978 I bought the tower and had it put up (by their suggested crew) for just over $18K. Not including the 27 yards of concrete in the anchors and base.

genlock · Post by **genlock** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 1:03 pm

I got there too late to score a few sections of undamaged tower.
The guy was loading it up when I left.
Going to sell it for scrap, I think.

lastone · Post by **lastone** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:07 pm

I take it genlock, that you have use for twenty foot sections of broadcast tower? I can see where a ham may want it if the neighbors (and local code) would let it go up.

oldtvman2 · Post by **oldtvman2** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:11 pm

If i remember the top section was from the old WVQM FM tower that was on 8th street road. this 8th street site was the original site for WHTN- TV before they moved to Barkers Ridge. I believe that Rosco Peters owned it at that time WVQM was on 103.3 and when it went on the air was owned by Connie B. Gay who also owned WTCR. the call letters stood for West Virginia Quality Music radio.

genlock · Post by **genlock** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:23 pm

I suppose the tower in Milton did not pass inspection from the prospective buyer of the station. It will take a lot of spots on a daytimer/flea at nite to pay for a new tower. Yeah, I could use some tower like that. 80'-120' or so.

SHADOW · Post by **SHADOW** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:53 pm

Rosco Peters never owned or operated WVQM. WVQM went on the air in 1966, as the sister station of WTCR AM. It was owned by Connie B. Gay, the Business Manager of Jimmy Dean, todays sausage porducer. Naseeb S. Tweel, was the first manager of WVQM. He left in 1968, to be replaced by Ken Stephens. Tweel started a new AM station in Milton, WNST in 1972. Years later Tweel put the 3 KW FM WNST, 106.9 on the air with studios in the same location, on Rt. 60, Near I-64.

I changed the callsign of WVQM to WHEZ in 1971, with an "easy listening format". Rosco Peters brought WNST AM-FM when Tweel died in 1982. The tower of WHEZ, on Skyview Drive, was taken down in the late 1980s, after it became WTCR FM, and moved to Ashland. It could not have been used at the Milton location, since they were on the air at the same time. Maybe after WTCR FM moved to Kentucky, they purchased the tower.

"The needle hase been changed to protect the record." to Quote: Stan Freberg.

oldtvman2 · Post by **oldtvman2** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 1:29 pm

Hay Shadow you are right. Rosco never owned WVQM. When I started at WTCR-AM in 1959 Seeb was the manager and the station was owned by Connie. Eddie Walters was Chief Engineer and i was hired as Assistant Chief and morning dj along with cousin Johnny. when WTCR -FM moved to Ky, Rosco purchased the tower and extended the AM tower. WNST-FM was on the tower of WOWK-TV. The antenna was up about 800 Feet. don't know how high it might be now, I just don't remember. in the past i even knew who put the extension on the am but memory fades. it was one of the two tower people from KY.Connie also owned WFTC-AM in KInston NC along with stations in Washington DC, Texas, and a station WYFE-AM i believe it was down south I was transfered to WFTC as Chief Engineer and evening announcer. lot of good times down there.Connie was said at one time to have owned ELvis and said he sold the contracr to Co. Tom Parker because he didn't have time to work with Elvis. If you have been in radio for a long time you might remember the recorded radio shows for the armed forces. Countyr Stile USA and Country Music Time. well connie was the one whe put these shows together. His Chief Engineer was down in NC with me one week and said he had to get back to DC and edit several shows at that time..

fmksey · Post by **fmksey** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:23 pm

Very interesting Oldtvman --- I remember Cousin Johnny use to do a 15 minute show he would sell to a sponsor in other markets and then the sponsor would find a station to put it on. The show content was always the same, except the commericals, which he sort of did off-the-cuff. It was
a 15 minute daily In Parkersburg, it was Ralph's Supermaket and it was on WCEF (rock n' roll) at about 7am every morning. The show was a big hit -- Parkersburg had no country stations. I think was doing this for Portsmith, Bluefield, Lexington and for a short time in Charleston.

Connie B Gay stuff -- He owned WGAY AM and WGMS FM in DC which were the preimer beautiful music station in DC (and as a format) in the
late 50s thru the 60s. WGAY AM was a daytimer at 1050 and at first no one really paid attention to the FM -- it was just on the air. Beautiful music, back then, was nothing like we later called muzak ---- pisses off all the B/M programmers from that era if you call it muzak. WGAY/WGMS were sort of like Drake - with that format -- WGAY/WGMS sound alike stations started to pop up all over the country. It might just be one of those silly "urban legends" - the Kennedy Whitehouse had an equalized telephone connection the studios so they could always listen 24/7. There is a pretty cool WGAY/WGMS tribute site - just do a web search.

Dave Loudin · Post by **Dave Loudin** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 7:54 am

Link

Bob Loblaw's frequency.

fmksey · Post by **fmksey** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 9:47 am

Link to WGAY site -

http://www.wqmrwgaymemories.org/