Wizzzbeee Merry-Go-Round

[BarryATL]

Okay... I came across Ray Steven's singing Turn Your Radio On while trolling YouTube.

Suddenly, I could see my great-grandmother's white tube radio sitting on top of the 6' tall china cabinet. To turn it on, there was a white cord/plug hanging from the side of the cabinet and it was just plugged in the wall. The station never changed from WSB and the volume was not to be touched. In the morning she would plug in the radio and wait for it to "warm up". It usually took about a minute for the tubes to get warm.

For two hours every morning she listened to the WSB Merry-Go-Round. The Ray Steven's song hit the charts in 1972, so my memory must be from me at about 10 years old.

That song was the beginning of me becoming a radio nerd. I remember thinking in my 10 year old mind that the radio station must be really good to have a song made just to promote the station. LOL What it was like to be so young and naive.

In my mind tonight I took a trip down memory lane and all the times that the radio was an important part of my life and my family's.

• The 1973 Atlanta ice storm that shut the metro down for 7-10 days. A little battery powered radio and WSB was all we had to connect us to the world.
• Hearing my birthday announced on AM 1600 WACX Austell.
• At 12 years old making PSAs as a youth ambassador for the Georgia Lung Association to be played on AM 1600 WACX Austell and AM 1520 WDGL Douglasville.
• The comfort of listening to Ludlo Porch all those years.
• Ring Radio AM 680 WRNG where Neil Boortz got his start and when he was fun to listen to.
• The Dr. Demento Show Sunday nights on AM 790 WQXI. Playing with my radio to try to pick up the signal after they went to the night pattern and lowered to 1000 watts.
• Listening to skip on AM at night. WHO before they were demoted to directional, WSM, WWL, WHAS and so many more.
• Listening to skip to find a station playing CBS Radio Mystery Theater. We never had a station in Atlanta that carried the show except for WRNG for a very few months in the summer when they stayed on the air until sundown at 8:30 PM and needed something to cover the last hour on the air so they did not have to pay a host.
• Calling an FM station in Nashville to tell them I was picking them up in Dallas, GA during solar flares and them not believing me. It was before caller ID.
• Sitting at the transmitter site for WRFG which was located on the AM 1340 WIGO tower. That tower was on the Clarke Atlanta campus. WRFG often lost remote control of the transmitter due to telephone line issues. In order for the station to stay on the air, we would have to go sit at the transmitter. In my teen years doing that, I remember thinking I was going to get in trouble with the FCC because sometimes I would leave the transmitter unattended so I could get a Whopper from BK on Northside Dr.
• The Ross and Wilson morning show on Z93 with guest star Mother Nature.
• In college during my freshman year Z93 was giving away $1000 every time a particular song was played. When the song was played, doors all up and down the hall of the dorm slammed as everybody ran for the payphones. Also, that contest crashed several telephone central offices in Atlanta. Because of that contest in 1980 or 81, the 404-741-xxxx telephone numbers were created for all of the radio station contest lines. The 404-741 exchange was the first "virtual" phone numbers. Only three calls could originate for each central office in the metro. If you were the fourth to try from your central office, you would get a fast busy.
• Being able to call request to 94Q and they actually played in the in the next couple of songs.
• My introduction to country on (jingle) W P L O Radio 5 9 0.
• The jingles! Oh how I loved jingles growing up. Z93 had the best ones.
• In college, Southern Tech in Marietta, I was the GM of the carrier current station 1280 AM WSTB when we signed on the class D FM at 16.5 watts ERP with the 30 foot tower on top of the admin building. WGHR Wigger Radio 102.5 FM.
• At 16 years old being one of the original employees who signed on WKRP AM 1500 Dallas, GA. My mother was so proud to hear me on Sunday mornings announcing the church intros.
• Broadcasting Bluegrass festivals live on WKRP via telephone lines back to the station.
• Traveling with then national campions NAIA basketball team at Southern Tech to being the away games live back to Marietta for the first time in the college history.
• At 12 or 13 years old turning my radio to WACX before they signed off at night. Then waking up the next morning at 5:55 AM so I could hear the transmitter carrier being turned on.
• My mother telling me about her history of listening to radio stations in Atlanta. She was of the generation when the teens were rebelling and were turning in to the, then called, negro stations because the music was so much better. The parents hated that. My mother used to be able to list off every black music station that was in Atlanta in the early 1950s. I believe she said there were three. If I remember correctly AM 1340 and AM 1380 were the most popular. AM 1380 won by default because they had the best signal.
• Looking at the radio station list in the AJC each week to see their mistakes.

I could keep going. It is kinda funny that one old song could bring up so many memories.

 

[tragic1027]

I remember all the Hit Radio Z93 mid 80's jingles and often play them back in my head!

 

[RadioDoogie]

I remember Leslie Fram from 99X announcing the call letters for WMC-FM100 Memphis at the top of every hour back in the 90s and 2000s. She told me back in April 2002 that she did this for several radio stations across the country.