WEST PALM BEACH HISTORY PT2

Slim Somerville said:

was also on stations WZZZ

Click to expand...

This is a station that is somewhat intriguing.....WZZZ was a daytimer on 1510 in Boynton Beach and I believe it lost its' license in the 60s....A short lived station.....I don't know much about it other than another station (WKAO) took its' place on 1510 in the 70s. WKAO later upped its' power to 10kw, went fulltime on 1040 and became Soul WYFX "Foxy 1040", and, of course, WJNA/WJNO/WBZT/WLVJ, etc.

This has turned into an interesting thread...If anyone has any info on WZZZ, or WKAO for that matter, that would add to it. I know I used to listen to Foxy 1040 in the 80s "The TTTTTTen (later 25) Thousand Watt Giant" because my dad had an AM only car radio and that was the closest thing to Top 40 I could get on it in Miami. I even called them once in '93 and they played my request almost literally after I got of the phone with the jock...Not too much later the jocks were all fired and they switched to ABC/SMN's "The Touch" feed.

The only thing I know about WKAO was from the brief time I worked there after being dismissed from WRMF in 1979. So here goes!

WKAO was a daytimer with 1,000 watts. The owner was Mark Prichard who I believe had been on the air many years before at WINZ. The station was located at 400 Gulfstream Blvd in Boynton Beach, right next to the railroad tracks! I believe the transmitter was located somewhere else. Mark kept telling us he had permission to raise power and go full time but I don't think it happened under his ownership. I came in as program director but left after a week due to 4 things. First: The station had suffered damage from a suspicious fire before I got there. I don't how extensive the damage was. Two: the "production room" was a little remote travel trailer in the parking lot, right next to the tracks, it was awful. Three: one of the other guys working there used to drive the station van around town telling everyone he was the program director, and Four: Employees rushed to the bank on pay day with their checks. All of those things and especially the last one made me look elsewhere for employment!

Hi, Radio Fans!!!

First of all... WPTV is now on the corner of Australian and Banyan in WPB... very close to Okeechobee Blvd.

Next... I worked at 1510 WKAO from 1981 til 1984. Mark Pritchard had just left, and the station was owned by Gary Lewis of "Beach Broadcasting." It was always a daytime station... I can recall having to boost power shortly after going on the air and having to greatly reduce power after the sun went down. When we went off the air every day I could hear 1510 WLAC out of Nashville, TN on our receiver. Now THAT was (is) a station. WKAO finally got rid of the trailer next to the RXR tracks and built a decent production studio within the building. We did some memorable spots. Shortly after I moved on to bigger and better things "The Music of Your Memories" format was changed to Urban (black) and the frequency changed to 1040 AM.

It was great fun to work at WKAO and I have nothing but fond memories of the owners, staff and on-air personalities, (including Doug Penovi and the legendery Jimmy Harper). I was treated very well and I learned a great deal.

Any more questions? Please write.

I was born and raised in west palm beach.I remember WIRK was the Rock Of the Palm Beaches and it was 1290AM.WPOM 1600 was also rock.WJNO was 1230AM and it was oldies.I had bumper stickers on my car in the 70's for WPOM 1600.And WIRK 1290 Rock of the Palm beaches.WSHE was hard rock in the 70's.

WRMF aircheck

@WDAE-FM101: Do you still have the 1/80 aircheck of WJNO-FM becoming WRMF?

Yes I do!