WVVV Rock 105

[ALL AUDIO FROM MY 25 YEAR-OLD CASSETTE TAPES] Yes, I was loose on this last shift, to be sure. Kinda outside the normal parameters of concern, complete with interrupting, exceeding break time restrictions, etc. But who cares? When your PD (Lander Rose) is on the same breaks with you, committing all kinds of disregard and passion along the way, it all points to fun radio: without a net. Improvisation from breaks with callers, impromptu friends, fans both calling in and dropping by the studio to say goodbye. Three years of the most romantic period of my radio career, 1993-1996, was coming to an end this night, where Lander had a sold out remote again at one of the many downtown merchants, this time at the locals and students' hangout, Night Court. You get a glimpse of her incredible talent when she breaks into some operatic note as she sings along with my music bed. Lander is a trained, accomplished actor, singer, currently working as a voice talent in Philadelphia every day on morning radio there. It was a great privilege to have experienced her craftsmanship up close. She has the best timing, improv skills, and voice quality of any jock I've ever worked with. Crazy things happened that night while I was on the air, including a caller/winner who was unable to answer with the name of the station that had just made her a winner. These are things that, when/if they happen, never make it to the air because, obviously, no jock or radio station wants to broadcast a fan(?) admitting that they don't even know the name of the station they're calling to get free tickets to the Cure show. But I was in a carefree mood that evening, of course, drunk on the elixir of emotions, running very high that night, so I thought this once-in-a-lifetime train wreck of a call could end up making good radio, and decided to go with it, all on the fly, and see if I could spin it into some kind of halfway funny bit. Or good enough to air, at least. Then, during a conversation with a different caller, a common friend was mentioned from a years-back summer experience, and then that same common friend happens to drop by to say goodbye, having had no knowledge that he was mentioned earlier. Totally cosmic, down to the fact that he was delivering some Dead show tapes that he thought I'd enjoy. This was near the end of my memories of actively trading cassette tapes of Grateful Dead shows (digital transferring and Archive.org would inherit all of my focus for chasing Grateful Dead shows. Since then, I have amassed over 300 live Dead shows, all uncompressed, recorded and mastered from Charlie Miller transfers, all from the years 1965-1980), and I love that my lifelong relationship with my favorite band, the Grateful Dead, is preserved during an on-air performance. My experience of trading Dead shows brought me into friendly contact with folks from coast to coast, and everywhere I've been in between, including my friend Chris Knies, from the 'Humboldt County of Ohio', known as Meigs County, OH. Featuring: Lander Rose Kyle Wilson Chris Knies

WOLZ is an 80KW warm FM signal on the gulf of south Florida, in Ft Myers. This is a mostly-retirement community, combined with the luxury home buyers in Naples, so the climate was different. So was the format: a true Oldies library, presented in a crush-and-roll style, a'la Boss Radio. Keep the music rolling, keep things light and fun. The audience has had a lifetime of serious, so don't beat them up with your opinions about the current administration, or kids today, etc. Soon after being brought on at WOLZ Oldies, it morphed into an Adult Contemporary going progressively softer over the next few years. Less and less of the 60's Motown or British Invasion groups over time, becoming the Billy Joel/Elton John/Michael Bolton station you take to work with you and all that good stuff. WOLZ is one of four stations in the iHeartRadio cluster (it was ClearChannel when I worked for them), and features wonderful equipment and studios.

WOLZ is an 80KW warm FM signal on the gulf of south Florida, in Ft Myers. This is a mostly-retirement community, combined with the luxury home buyers in Naples, so the climate was different. So was the format: a true Oldies library, presented in a crush-and-roll style, a'la Boss Radio. Keep the music rolling, keep things light and fun. The audience has had a lifetime of serious, so don't beat them up with your opinions about the current administration, or kids today, etc. Soon after being brought on at WOLZ Oldies, it morphed into an Adult Contemporary going progressively softer over the next few years. Less and less of the 60's Motown or British Invasion groups over time, becoming the Billy Joel/Elton John/Michael Bolton station you take to work with you and all that good stuff. WOLZ is one of four stations in the iHeartRadio cluster (it was ClearChannel when I worked for them), and features wonderful equipment and studios.

WOLZ is an 80KW warm FM signal on the gulf of south Florida, in Ft Myers. This is a mostly-retirement community, combined with the luxury home buyers in Naples, so the climate was different. So was the format: a true Oldies library, presented in a crush-and-roll style, a'la Boss Radio. Keep the music rolling, keep things light and fun. The audience has had a lifetime of serious, so don't beat them up with your opinions about the current administration, or kids today, etc. Soon after being brought on at WOLZ Oldies, it morphed into an Adult Contemporary going progressively softer over the next few years. Less and less of the 60's Motown or British Invasion groups over time, becoming the Billy Joel/Elton John/Michael Bolton station you take to work with you and all that good stuff. WOLZ is one of four stations in the iHeartRadio cluster (it was ClearChannel when I worked for them), and features wonderful equipment and studios.

New ownership came into town on the Outer Banks. I first heard one of his stations on my way off the Banks, bound for Ohio, up the highway of coastal North Carolina: some Elizabeth City flamethrower that was experimenting with shock radio. Reel forward 3 years, and Rick Loesch asked me to come back to program one of his newest acquisitions, my beloved WOBR (see my airchecks from earlier when I originally worked at WOBR). He wanted to make it the most progressive rock radio that would grab the surfer crowd that dominated the Outer Banks. So that's how it started, of course on a shoestring budget, but I was blessed with a staff of creative professionals who are still working artists to this day: Doug Dino, who is a very talented musician and full time FM jock on the Banks, and EJ Troudt, who manages an art magazine, currently, and continues his love of music with his various side bands. This kind of radio expression was special to me, not just because I was the PD, but because of its rarity. Radio personalities are a mix, of course, like any other profession: some are into being a DJ for different reasons. The ones I gravitated to at the stations I chose were people with a lot of artistic sensibilities. They were either musicians themselves, or were very in touch with learning about their favorite artists. With EJ, Doug, and Kenzie, they were all of those.

New ownership came into town on the Outer Banks. I first heard one of his stations on my way off the Banks, bound for Ohio, up the highway of coastal North Carolina: some Elizabeth City flamethrower that was experimenting with shock radio. Reel forward 3 years, and Rick Loesch asked me to come back to program one of his newest acquisitions, my beloved WOBR (see my airchecks from earlier when I originally worked at WOBR). He wanted to make it the most progressive rock radio that would grab the surfer crowd that dominated the Outer Banks. So that's how it started, of course on a shoestring budget, but I was blessed with a staff of creative professionals who are still working artists to this day: Doug Dino, who is a very talented musician and full time FM jock on the Banks, and EJ Troudt, who manages an art magazine, currently, and continues his love of music with his various side bands. This kind of radio expression was special to me, not just because I was the PD, but because of its rarity. Radio personalities are a mix, of course, like any other profession: some are into being a DJ for different reasons. The ones I gravitated to at the stations I chose were people with a lot of artistic sensibilities. They were either musicians themselves, or were very in touch with learning about their favorite artists. With EJ, Doug, and Kenzie, they were all of those.

New ownership came into town on the Outer Banks. I first heard one of his stations on my way off the Banks, bound for Ohio, up the highway of coastal North Carolina: some Elizabeth City flamethrower that was experimenting with shock radio. Reel forward 3 years, and Rick Loesch asked me to come back to program one of his newest acquisitions, my beloved WOBR (see my airchecks from earlier when I originally worked at WOBR). He wanted to make it the most progressive rock radio that would grab the surfer crowd that dominated the Outer Banks. So that's how it started, of course on a shoestring budget, but I was blessed with a staff of creative professionals who are still working artists to this day: Doug Dino, who is a very talented musician and full time FM jock on the Banks, and EJ Troudt, who manages an art magazine, currently, and continues his love of music with his various side bands. This kind of radio expression was special to me, not just because I was the PD, but because of its rarity. Radio personalities are a mix, of course, like any other profession: some are into being a DJ for different reasons. The ones I gravitated to at the stations I chose were people with a lot of artistic sensibilities. They were either musicians themselves, or were very in touch with learning about their favorite artists. With EJ, Doug, and Kenzie, they were all of those.

The time had come. WXTQ had successfully driven the CHR/Urban format into the ground by late 1995. Since Athens' population is largely supplanted by the 20,000 + undergraduate student body there attending OU, the groundswell was deafening to start dipping more and more into the latest wave, now known as the Punk Revival of the 90's. Luckily, a savvy, well-trained musician herself, Lander Rose, was at the helm as PD of WXTQ. So, with the help of a music director from Cleveland radio who was working for us then, we started soliciting the punk labels for product, and dipped our toe into the waters of the Punk: we [gulp] dayparted. Despite the historic hatred of all things dayparting-related amongst us commercial radio professionals, I can definitely say that we ran it as tight as it could be done for a night-and-day difference in music programming, starting at 7pm. Yet we sold the crap out of it; local business were clamoring for remotes from The X, to bring in the college students, obviously, more artist concerts were open for promotion tie-ins, and hourly weather was regularly sold out for my shift. So, thanks to Lander, it was a success, at least while I was driving it for the last 6 months I was living there in Athens. In Aug 1996 I accepted a PD position on the Outer Banks, and had to move on once again.

The time had come. WXTQ had successfully driven the CHR/Urban format into the ground by late 1995. Since Athens' population is largely supplanted by the 20,000 + undergraduate student body there attending OU, the groundswell was deafening to start dipping more and more into the latest wave, now known as the Punk Revival of the 90's. Luckily, a savvy, well-trained musician herself, Lander Rose, was at the helm as PD of WXTQ. So, with the help of a music director from Cleveland radio who was working for us then, we started soliciting the punk labels for product, and dipped our toe into the waters of the Punk: we [gulp] dayparted. Despite the historic hatred of all things dayparting-related amongst us commercial radio professionals, I can definitely say that we ran it as tight as it could be done for a night-and-day difference in music programming, starting at 7pm. Yet we sold the crap out of it; local business were clamoring for remotes from The X, to bring in the college students, obviously, more artist concerts were open for promotion tie-ins, and hourly weather was regularly sold out for my shift. So, thanks to Lander, it was a success, at least while I was driving it for the last 6 months I was living there in Athens. In Aug 1996 I accepted a PD position on the Outer Banks, and had to move on once again.

The time had come. WXTQ had successfully driven the CHR/Urban format into the ground by late 1995. Since Athens' population is largely supplanted by the 20,000 + undergraduate student body there attending OU, the groundswell was deafening to start dipping more and more into the latest wave, now known as the Punk Revival of the 90's. Luckily, a savvy, well-trained musician herself, Lander Rose, was at the helm as PD of WXTQ. So, with the help of a music director from Cleveland radio who was working for us then, we started soliciting the punk labels for product, and dipped our toe into the waters of the Punk: we [gulp] dayparted. Despite the historic hatred of all things dayparting-related amongst us commercial radio professionals, I can definitely say that we ran it as tight as it could be done for a night-and-day difference in music programming, starting at 7pm. Yet we sold the crap out of it; local business were clamoring for remotes from The X, to bring in the college students, obviously, more artist concerts were open for promotion tie-ins, and hourly weather was regularly sold out for my shift. So, thanks to Lander, it was a success, at least while I was driving it for the last 6 months I was living there in Athens. In Aug 1996 I accepted a PD position on the Outer Banks, and had to move on once again.

WXTQ was first granted its FM broadcast license by the FCC on Jan 29, 1965. Early American radio pioneer, Fred Palmer, a 1985 NAB Broadcasting Hall Of Fame inductee (along with Casey Kasem that same year), was the owner.

WXTQ was first granted its FM broadcast license by the FCC on Jan 29, 1965. Early American radio pioneer, Fred Palmer, a 1985 NAB Broadcasting Hall Of Fame inductee (along with Casey Kasem that same year), was the owner.

WXTQ was first granted its FM broadcast license by the FCC on Jan 29, 1965. Early American radio pioneer, Fred Palmer, a 1985 NAB Broadcasting Hall Of Fame inductee (along with Casey Kasem that same year), was the owner.

WOBR FM first applied for a construction permit, the first for an FM radio station on the Outer Banks, on 9/24/1979. It was granted its FCC license on 2/17/1981. Early years of programming WOBR FM are somewhat hazy. Not much is written about what it sounded like until a Richmond, VA, radio voice decided that the Outer Banks had the right vibe, moved to Roanoke Island, NC, and took over the music management of Beach 95. From then on, John Harper's vision of what a relaxing, yet hip FM station would sound like began to take shape. I got there in the summer of 1992, seven years after John stood up this historic 1st on the OBX. He had taken what could be termed "soft AC" into a different direction. Before the industry term "Americana", or "AAA", John was already forging new grounds with his adds each week. If it had been a rotation by any other programmer, I wouldn't have left Rock 105 for my next adventure. The 2 stations shared a lot of music overlap, and that was good enough for me. Plus the fact that I loved the crew, I lived on a white sand resort, and I was playing Ocean Blue, Annie Lennox, The Doobies, and World Party. It was a great experience.

WOBR FM first applied for a construction permit, the first for an FM radio station on the Outer Banks, on 9/24/1979. It was granted its FCC license on 2/17/1981. Early years of programming WOBR FM are somewhat hazy. Not much is written about what it sounded like until a Richmond, VA, radio voice decided that the Outer Banks had the right vibe, moved to Roanoke Island, NC, and took over the music management of Beach 95. From then on, John Harper's vision of what a relaxing, yet hip FM station would sound like began to take shape. I got there in the summer of 1992, seven years after John stood up this historic 1st on the OBX. He had taken what could be termed "soft AC" into a different direction. Before the industry term "Americana", or "AAA", John was already forging new grounds with his adds each week. If it had been a rotation by any other programmer, I wouldn't have left Rock 105 for my next adventure. The 2 stations shared a lot of music overlap, and that was good enough for me. Plus the fact that I loved the crew, I lived on a white sand resort, and I was playing Ocean Blue, Annie Lennox, The Doobies, and World Party. It was a great experience.

WOBR FM first applied for a construction permit, the first for an FM radio station on the Outer Banks, on 9/24/1979. It was granted its FCC license on 2/17/1981. Early years of programming WOBR FM are somewhat hazy. Not much is written about what it sounded like until a Richmond, VA, radio voice decided that the Outer Banks had the right vibe, moved to Roanoke Island, NC, and took over the music management of Beach 95. From then on, John Harper's vision of what a relaxing, yet hip FM station would sound like began to take shape. I got there in the summer of 1992, seven years after John stood up this historic 1st on the OBX. He had taken what could be termed "soft AC" into a different direction. Before the industry term "Americana", or "AAA", John was already forging new grounds with his adds each week. If it had been a rotation by any other programmer, I wouldn't have left Rock 105 for my next adventure. The 2 stations shared a lot of music overlap, and that was good enough for me. Plus the fact that I loved the crew, I lived on a white sand resort, and I was playing Ocean Blue, Annie Lennox, The Doobies, and World Party. It was a great experience.

[ALL AUDIO FROM MY 30-YR OLD CASSETTE TAPES.] It was a small commercial FM station, one of the first granted its FCC license in 1964 in the New River Valley in southwest Virginia. It was either dormant or simulcasted its more established sister station, WJJJ, which played "beautiful music" for years until new life was breathed into it in the late 1970's. At that time, the only rocker in Montgomery county was AM flamethrower WQBX, where area engineer JJ worked, as well as the legendary Animal, doing afternoon drives there in the 70's. The first real programming on FM 104.9, WVVV (it went by "V105" from circa '79-83) in Christiansburg, Va, was provided by infamous radio consultants Bill Drake and Lester Chenault, Drake-Chenault Enterprises (who later became the equally infamous Jones Radio Networks). They provided individual stations lots of huge reels of quality tape filled with pre-recorded favorites of the day, all sanitized, tested, and played in the biggest markets across the USA, so of course who wouldn't like that? If interested, you can read up on the history of Drake-Chenault here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake-Chenault By 1986, Rock 105 had emerged, playing some choice mostly-unheard picks, sandwiched in with many chart favorites. The blend was modest, since "alternative" rock wasn't a genre yet. There were synth-rock groups, Euro-style sub genres of reggae, punk, metal, and similar budding pools of rock forming in those early days, and we played them. These videos contain audio from my time there. I worked on the air at Rock 105 from Sept 1991 - July 1992, and I still cherish my memories there. All audio here was culled from my morning drive shifts. The sound was coming from a cheap boombox the station used as a "skimmer", to tape us jocks when we opened up the mic at the control board. I still have memories of working in the basement there, the studio was busy, with albums, cd's stacked on the walls. Our library was voluminous, even for an FM station dedicated to album cuts. Great work to accumulate the library was done before I arrived in 1991. There was Lee, Howard, Butch, and a few others like Ellen, Dave, Paula, and Mark who really had a vision of the direction of Rock 105 back then. When I arrived, I just tried to keep the spirit alive and make sure I didn't stink the place up while I was there. I respected that little oasis in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I saw it as a freshwater pearl in the New River Valley. Like a monk who takes great care in sweeping the walkways of the temple many times a day with utter devotion, I was honored to take my place in the long line of other devoted attendants to the Temple Of Rock 105.

[ALL AUDIO FROM MY 30-YR OLD CASSETTE TAPES.] It was a small commercial FM station, one of the first granted its FCC license in 1964 in the New River Valley in southwest Virginia. It was either dormant or simulcasted its more established sister station, WJJJ, which played "beautiful music" for years until new life was breathed into it in the late 1970's. At that time, the only rocker in Montgomery county was AM flamethrower WQBX, where area engineer JJ worked, as well as the legendary Animal, doing afternoon drives there in the 70's. The first real programming on FM 104.9, WVVV (it went by "V105" from circa '79-83) in Christiansburg, Va, was provided by infamous radio consultants Bill Drake and Lester Chenault, Drake-Chenault Enterprises (who later became the equally infamous Jones Radio Networks). They provided individual stations lots of huge reels of quality tape filled with pre-recorded favorites of the day, all sanitized, tested, and played in the biggest markets across the USA, so of course who wouldn't like that? If interested, you can read up on the history of Drake-Chenault here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake-Chenault By 1986, Rock 105 had emerged, playing some choice mostly-unheard picks, sandwiched in with many chart favorites. The blend was modest, since "alternative" rock wasn't a genre yet. There were synth-rock groups, Euro-style sub genres of reggae, punk, metal, and similar budding pools of rock forming in those early days, and we played them. These videos contain audio from my time there. I worked on the air at Rock 105 from Sept 1991 - July 1992, and I still cherish my memories there. All audio here was culled from my morning drive shifts. The sound was coming from a cheap boombox the station used as a "skimmer", to tape us jocks when we opened up the mic at the control board. I still have memories of working in the basement there, the studio was busy, with albums, cd's stacked on the walls. Our library was voluminous, even for an FM station dedicated to album cuts. Great work to accumulate the library was done before I arrived in 1991. There was Lee, Howard, Butch, and a few others like Ellen, Dave, Paula, and Mark who really had a vision of the direction of Rock 105 back then. When I arrived, I just tried to keep the spirit alive and make sure I didn't stink the place up while I was there. I respected that little oasis in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I saw it as a freshwater pearl in the New River Valley. Like a monk who takes great care in sweeping the walkways of the temple many times a day with utter devotion, I was honored to take my place in the long line of other devoted attendants to the Temple Of Rock 105.

[ALL AUDIO FROM MY 30-YR OLD CASSETTE TAPES.] It was a small commercial FM station, one of the first granted its FCC license in 1964 in the New River Valley in southwest Virginia. It was either dormant or simulcasted its more established sister station, WJJJ, which played "beautiful music" for years until new life was breathed into it in the late 1970's. At that time, the only rocker in Montgomery county was AM flamethrower WQBX, where area engineer JJ worked, as well as the legendary Animal, doing afternoon drives there in the 70's. The first real programming on FM 104.9, WVVV (it went by "V105" from circa '79-83) in Christiansburg, Va, was provided by infamous radio consultants Bill Drake and Lester Chenault, Drake-Chenault Enterprises (who later became the equally infamous Jones Radio Networks). They provided individual stations lots of huge reels of quality tape filled with pre-recorded favorites of the day, all sanitized, tested, and played in the biggest markets across the USA, so of course who wouldn't like that? If interested, you can read up on the history of Drake-Chenault here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake-Chenault By 1986, Rock 105 had emerged, playing some choice mostly-unheard picks, sandwiched in with many chart favorites. The blend was modest, since "alternative" rock wasn't a genre yet. There were synth-rock groups, Euro-style sub genres of reggae, punk, metal, and similar budding pools of rock forming in those early days, and we played them. These videos contain audio from my time there. I worked on the air at Rock 105 from Sept 1991 - July 1992, and I still cherish my memories there. All audio here was culled from my morning drive shifts. The sound was coming from a cheap boombox the station used as a "skimmer", to tape us jocks when we opened up the mic at the control board. I still have memories of working in the basement there, the studio was busy, with albums, cd's stacked on the walls. Our library was voluminous, even for an FM station dedicated to album cuts. Great work to accumulate the library was done before I arrived in 1991. There was Lee, Howard, Butch, and a few others like Ellen, Dave, Paula, and Mark who really had a vision of the direction of Rock 105 back then. When I arrived, I just tried to keep the spirit alive and make sure I didn't stink the place up while I was there. I respected that little oasis in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I saw it as a freshwater pearl in the New River Valley. Like a monk who takes great care in sweeping the walkways of the temple many times a day with utter devotion, I was honored to take my place in the long line of other devoted attendants to the Temple Of Rock 105.

[ALL AUDIO FROM MY 30-YR OLD CASSETTE TAPE] This recording started after John luckily dropped a cassette tape in our skimmer tape machine us jocks used for airchecking our shifts. I had been surprised by the interview, having learned about it only after coming in to the radio station that afternoon for my relaxed[not], weekend shift. I was accustomed to a very busy morning shift through the week, so I remember being shocked because I was thinking it would be me and the music for 6 hours (no hourly news, sports, history trivia, contests, etc) when I walked in to see a note on the console above the board that said, "David Wilcox performance at 6pm", which was the start of my shift. Had like, 5 minutes to prepare before going live. I remember being very focused on helping David get acquainted/set up with his gear over setting up my stuff, like dropping a tape in to record this rare, rare, thing. Luckily, our evening guy, John Peterson, and his girlfriend, a psychology prof at a nearby college where I was a student of hers in her intro psych course there, was quick-thinking enough to put in a cassette tape. It's his gf's clapping in the background that you can hear, plus John's question about previous albums from the background. I remember them standing at the entrance of the studio while David played at the guest mic, and I was at the board, with the control mic. I had to leave the mic open to catch the performance you hear here, but of course I was potted down while he was playing, to reduce ambient noise from coming in to the performance, besides what his 2 mics were picking up in his quieter moments. There's some low-level rf that bled in, plus room ambient drift from the next door sister AM station, WJJJ. Great times. I needed it after coming home from the war to meet a divorce. Rock 105 was my first job after both of those things happened to me in 1991. SONG/INTERVIEW NOTES: 00:00 - 2:32 Strong Chemistry (2:32) [Partial of an unrecorded song, "Strong Chemistry". It will first get recorded 2 years later in 1994, appearing on Wilcox's Big Horizon LP, then later on his 2001 The Very Best Of David Wilcox album. Strong Chemistry also appears on a compilation cd, called "The Acoustic Edge: Great Acoustic Music '90's.] 2:32 - 7:52 interview chat (5:20) 7:52 - 11:32 Break In The Cup (3:40) [also an unrecorded song, debuting 2 yrs year later on his Big Horizon LP]