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WPPI 1330 AM and WUWG 90.7 FM

J

jhead

I was doing some research..well actually I was bored and decided to ty in some local West Georgia Stations to see if any information came up on them. I started with WUWG (formaly WWGC) 90.7 FM which was West Georgia's college station turned Georgia Public Radio Affilate. In a wikipedia article here are some of the DJs listed:

Some notable former DJs at the station include Randy Owen, Rhubarb Jones, Rob Parker, Randall Davidson, Lisa Lang, Drew Fountain, Bubba Petty, Mike Bland, Sean Gilbert, Lacey Smith, Brooks Robinson, Errol Crane, John Crosby, Tommy Butler, Sam Mills, Tom Cooper and Teri Lamprey

Was uncle Rich a jock there?


I heard Randy Owns is doing a talk show in Chattanooga.

Lisa Lang was PD for Kiss 102.7 and B-92.1 FM from Kiss's first broadcast in '94. She left three months after in April of 2004 to go to Chattnooga. is she still there? I did heard she left.

We all know where Rhubarb is.

Last time I saw Tom Cooper he was selling cars at the Chevy Dealership in Carrollton

Whatever happened to some of these guys?

I know Kevin Sanders is the GM of the station. He got the job after WPPI got shut down again for tax problems. Which leads me to my next questions

What was WPPI's history and who were some of the jocks there.

I know of Jim Beck, Tom Cooper and Kevin Sanders.
 
Did you know that Mark McCain, mostly know for his 96 Rock days, did a gig at WPPI back in the late 70's?
Ryan Cameron worked at WWGC when he was a student at West Georgia. I'm guessing that would be late 70's-early 80's.
WPPI was a really great station!It was put on the air in the mid 70's by a local attorney, Bill Johnson. Bill wanted a radio station in the worst sort of way....it was a real fight to get it on the air. But Bill wanted it....and he wanted it to be done right!
I had the opportunity to engineer the station for 5 or 6 years....it was a great facility, for a small market station. Technically, it was modern and well engineered, and it sounded great on the air. It was the first station I engineered that actually had an emergency generator! The jocks were all major market quality and they had a great looking receptionist(Charlene Cook)who kinda' reminded me of "Jennifer" on WKRP.The manager who hired me, Mike Manion, actually wore well tailored suits and was the first radio manager I ever knew who didn't remind me of a used car salesman.
WPPI is now WLBB. WLBB used to be at 1100 KHZ and was the heritage Carrollton station.....they say WLBB stood for "We love butter beans." 1100 moved to Atlanta a few years back and the new owner of 1330(WPPI)changed the calls to WLBB. The 1330 facility was gutted and totally rebuilt.....I understand it is very nice. It is still 500 watts and runs mostly syndicated programming like Boortz, Clark Howard etc.
I don't believe Uncle Rich ever worked at WPPI. I think he started in Newnan.
 
I don't think Uncle Rich was ever at WWCG - but I was. :) I was even the News Director under Kevin Sanders for a while, in (holy carp, digging out the time machine) uh... 1995, 1996 maybe (I could be totally off)? I was actually attending West Georgia College at the time, one of many attempts to go "back to school" and "finish my degree" - in reality all I did was deepen my student loan debt!!!
 
> Did you know that Mark McCain, mostly know for his 96 Rock days, did a gig at WPPI back in the late 70's?

Yep. And while Mark was doing afternoons, I was doing mornings.

Station went on-air in November 19, 1975. Lamar Canup was the first GM, Jack Scroggs (ex-WSB) was the original sales manager. Lamar was an engineer and built a great little facility. Mark and I left about the same time (1977) - I went to WZYQ in Frederick, MD and he was hired by Scott Slade to work at "Big WAYS" in Charlotte.

LF
 
WLBB is owned by Gradick Communications along with Kiss 102.7, B92.1 Country, WKNG King Country, and Rejoice 89.1. WLBB provides news for the other stations and does play heavily syndicated programs, but is dedicated to local community radio. WKNG is a classic country station that is gearing up to go to 50kw. ;)
 
You guys are right on the money. I did not work at WPPI. However, I did start my radio career near there in Bremen at WSLE 1440 AM back in 1985. It was owned at the time by Mike Brothers, who was a pretty good news guy but not very successful as an owner. He later worked at a station in Rome doing news.

As far as WWGC, I did attend West Ga. College briefly 1983-84. I did not work at the station but did hang out with a buddy of mine who worked there. His name was Steve Kaufman. Does anybody remember him or what became of him?

Back to WSLE. I worked with Kyle Caldwell there. He later worked for WBTR owned at the time by Dallas Tarkenton. It was Kyle who got me the interview at WCOH in Newnan with Dallas' son Chuck in September 1986. I've been there since. Kyle Caldwell went to work in sales in Atlanta at WSB I think. Anybody know what happened to him?

UR
 
Now that i think about it, Uncle rich you did tell me you were at WEST GA ut didn't work at the station. Uncle Rich you are one of the few guys who nows how to relate to an audience. That is one thing I learned from you and chris and that is how o relate to the listener. who were some of the staff members at WPPI?
 
caldwell sells ads for wsb am....been there for ions.
 
Thanks for the kind words Josh. We all had a good time doing the local talk shows on 720. Hard to believe things have changed so much in less than 2 years. :(

I'm happy to hear Kyle Caldwell is still working for SB. When we started Magic 96.7 in Newnan-Peachtree City back in '87, Kyle came over from WBTR in Carrollton to start up the sales staff. He had an uphill battle in an area so close to Atlanta and with a staff of only 1 salesperson. He was constantly telling potential clients "let's do lunch", which I think was the beginning of that phrase. Any who, he earned the nickname Herb(as in Herb Tarlek-WKRP fame) from our boss. It was pretty funny at the time. He'd storm out of the building every time the boss asked "Who'd you have lunch with today Herb"? Hope he doesn't mind me telling that story, which has nothing to do with anything on this topic.

Further proof that you must have thick skin to work in this business. Nobody gives you more grief than the people you work with.
 
WLBB is owned by Gradick Communications along with Kiss 102.7, B92.1 Country, WKNG King Country, and Rejoice 89.1. WLBB provides news for the other stations and does play heavily syndicated programs, but is dedicated to local community radio. WKNG is a classic country station that is gearing up to go to 50kw.
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yea and actually I've heard the Goo Goo Dolls were going to west georgia, and one of those stations is in on it. Wonder if any Atlanta stations will go out there...
 
I heard from Tom Cooper that a guy named Bob Thorton started WBTR. BTR stood for Bob Thorton Radio. Is that true?
 
Hey Guys and Gals
I used to work at WPPI and now im in Oxford Alabama at K98 Wvok doing a morning show. I was at WPPI when Zachary Ray, Mike Manion, Alan Duke . Im Steve Stephens and it was soooooooo great to work there. I miss those days !
God Bless you all
Steve
 
After leaving Georgia News Network, Alan Duke worked for a time at CNN. He last surfaced on TV news two years ago when his daughter got in hot water for serving a "tainted" cake to some classmates.
 
littlejohn said:
WVOK????
Geez, who owns that now? And, they still have Rumore's Record Rack??
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Different station now. Home-owned FM out of Oxford....they got the call letters back in the early '90s. No, the Record Rack isn't around anymore....but we get plenty of comments about Joe Rumore anytime we go out anywhere. ;)
 
Oh man ! I had no idea that Mike Manion had passed away. He was a great guy and a great afternoon drive time guy. Alan Duke is doing alot to things ....he is still working with CNN some and he is also working promotions for a Nascar team. WPPI was such a fun station. I had heard that it turned into WLBB. That is the 1st station i worked at. Speaking of WLBB ....do any of you remember John Johnson that worked there?
 
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