I am trying to recall the specifics dates but that's been a LONG time ago for most. The dates are close but may overlap a little. Thank you for your understanding.

Broadcasting Fun

I can remember when I was around 10 or 11 years old, my family had moved to the rural Madison County area near Owens Cross Roads, Alabama. We had a Sears console stereo, remember those? They were made to be a piece of furniture for the living room. We had one, had being the key word there <LOL>. I decided to take it and make it my personal one turntable dj booth. I connected external speakers to the back yard and would broadcast my little dj heart out. I remember WVOV had not been on the air very long and was the only station that was very clear living so far from town. We could barely get WAAY but I just liked the way WVOV sounded. (hear a 2 minute clip of Johnny Mann on WVOV around the early 70s - mpg file apx 1 meg)

I think the jingles they used on the air also played a part in my love for radio station id jingles. I am still trying to find some of the old jingles that were aired on WVOV. I remember the variety they had, from the jock sings (full jingle sings not just shouts), the weather jingle, a jingle that matched "Macarthur Park" (the Richard Harris version), and the sign off jingle that was a very slow a cappella melody. The only jingle package I've been able to locate that WVOV used was on the air in the early 70s and were from TM Productions (who merged with Century 21 to become TM Century Productions). The jingle package was called "Phase II". I have found 2 versions of this package used on 2 different stations, these were probably not the entire package but just what were used on those stations. Click on the station to hear their versions 1)WPOP (rm) 2)WTMA (mp3).

WVOV was affiliated with ABC Contemporary news and I remember timing my music to end just in time to switch the knob on the console stereo from the turntable to the radio to go into WVOV's ABC news. I was pretty good at it too... of course, the neighbors didn't care much for it, nor did my parents for taking over the stereo.

I later went on to become a broadcast disk jockey, my first real job was with WGSV, Guntersville, AL., although I did work the board for some high school games when I lived in Milan, TN around 1972. I think the station was WKBJ, Top Gun In Milan was the slogan. At WGSV, I worked the summer prior to and all through my Senior year. My dream from when I was a backyard DJ was to make it to an on air position at WVOV. I did this in the mid/late 70s but because there was already a Bill on air, the PD asked me to use a different name. I chose the first name of a friend and the last name of his girlfriend and became Jeff Lewis.

I remember most of the stations I worked at, but may not have the exact dates here. I also don't have airchecks from some of the stations I worked at, but will include a few from those I do have. I am also including the information on the stations as they were at the time, etc....

• WGSV - AM 1270 1,000 Watts / WTWX FM 95.9 3,000 Watts (erp) - Guntersville, AL 1973 - 1977

(There was a break for about 6 months or so and I later did more part time work). Kerry Jackson, who was the program director and hired me in 1973 is now the station manager. He has put a nice little station tribute page up if you are interested.  He also sent me a copy of all of the radio station jingles we used. Here are a few that I liked (these are in .wma format): From TM, From Tanner (accent package), and another from Tanner (shotgun heaven package) (I was at the recording of this package and remember a cute blonde singer.. 25+ years later, we are friends. ..but that's another story)
RELATED PHOTOS: A WGSV Billboard Ad and a sketch for a WGSV Logo. Radford C was on WTWX and had the assistance of Ruby D & The Professor (notice the autmation system in the background)

• WHOS - AM 800 5,000 Watts / WDRM - FM 102.1 100,000 Watts - Decatur, AL 1975-1976

I worked more on the am station WHOS which was country but also worked on the FM station which was "All American" (an early version of lite rock/contemporary programming).

• WVOV - AM 1000 10,000 Watts - Huntsville, AL 1976 - 1978, 1980 - 1982

On April 3 & 4 of 1974, one of the worst tornado outbreaks occurred, Huntsville was hit pretty hard. I was working at WGSV at the time but was friends with some of the air staff. This was only a daytime station at the time but was able to get an emergency permit to broadcast at full power 24 hours for quite a few days.  Several of us from other stations volunteered our time and worked on air and off air broadcasting and assisting the emergency authorities. WVOV was, as I recall at the time, the only local station that had a generator and none of the other stations had electricity as a result of the storms.

It wasn't until around 1976 that I actually went to work at the station. It was Top 40 at the time and later switched to the country format to compete with the then number 1 WBHP where I worked doing mid days. There were FM stations on the air but this was an AM market at the time. There were not country or Top 40 FM stations until the early 1980s when WZYP was born with a reformat from their easy listening format. Not long after, WDRM switched to country took over the market.
RELATED PHOTOS: Dave Novack (air talent), Dana Harmon, Pam Bell (she was a blast and left to work for Capital Records in LA), Disco Splash event w/Dave Novack & blonde staff member, Ed Powell (station owner) & blonde staff member.

• WBHP - AM 1230 1,000 Watts - Huntsville, AL 1978 -1980

I left TOP 40 WVOV to work mid days at the number 1 WBHP which was only a 1,000 watt AM Country Station. We had a great air staff including Bill Murray, Dana Harmon, John Scott, Sandy Myers and myself. Dana Harmon and I worked together at WVOV as well. John Scott and I worked together at WFIX & 93.3 WHVK in the early 90s. I left WBHP to return to Program the new Country Format WVOV.

• WAFF - TV Channel 48 - Huntsville, AL 1980 -1982

I went to work as an engineer at channel 48 and really enjoyed working there.  The only reason I left was because of a divorce and a desire to get away from the familiar.

• WGCM - FM 102.3 100,000 Watts / WTAM - AM 1240 5000 Watts I believe - Gulfport, MS 1984 -1985

I was playing in a band and we opened a club in Gulfport and I started working at these stations. I did some on air on the country FM as well as news on both the FM and the then jammin' r/b am WTAM. This station is now WGCM-AM

• WABT - AM 1360 1,000 Watts - Madison, AL 1984

One of the guys that I worked with at WAFF opened up a radio station in Madison.  I worked mornings there for a while. I almost bought the station when he got the ok to switch to another frequency (770) but he had already accepted an offer from someone else, they ended up selling it to the owners of WZYP.

• WTAK - AM 1000 10,000 Watts - Huntsville, AL 1985 -1988

When I came back to Huntsville, I worked some full time and some part time at WTAK, The Oldies Station. This was the former WVOV station. What was interesting about the format and air talent on this station was that it consisted of most of the best DJs from Huntsville radio over the years. Local greats like Dave Driscol, Mike Sweeney, Gary Drake, etc... I sure feel honored knowing I was a part of the WTAK team back then.

• WAHR - FM 99.9 100,000 Watts - Huntsville, AL 1988

I worked part time, mostly on call for a year or so around the late 80's.

• WAJF - AM 1490 1,000 Watts - Decatur, AL / WFIX - AM 1450 1,000 Watts - Huntsville, AL 1985-1988

I worked at this station for a while, I was program director for a while, station manager for a while and did mornings on the air, then drove to Huntsville and did afternoons on WFIX (owned by the same company). I later left WAJF and continued working at WFIX after WAJF was sold. WFIX was a rock oriented format when I first started there, working with Erica Lane (later at WHVK), Steve Payne (we worked at WBHP together at one time) and George Carden who also worked both stations. The station later went to a satellite big band format where I hired my good friend Gary Bridge to work the board. This was also where I became good friends with a beautiful Karen Ann George (Daniel).
RELATED PHOTOS: Erica Lane at WFIX (air talent/news),Brandi at WAFJ (air talent), Unknown Air Talent at WAFJ, The Console at WFIX, Steve Payne at WFIX (air talent)

• WHVK / WPZM - FM 93.3 100,000 Watts - Athens, AL (transmitter in Tullahoma, TN) 1990-1996

John Scott, who I worked with at WBHP, suggested I come to work for the new "Huntsville Country". The format was a country oriented version of the new Jack/Bob formats on the contemporary side.  Playing country mixed in with contemporary rock. The format eventually evolved to "93 Country" and went head to head with Country 102 WDRM. We had a morning team of Stormin' Norman and Erica Lane (whom I worked with at WFIX in a rock format and who was one of the hottest looking ladies around!). I worked mid days and Michael Morgan worked the afternoon drive shift (Prior to Michael, Jon Allen did the honors). & John Scott worked the night shift. I also filled in a few times on the sister station WZYP. While working there, our AM news talk station had a young energetic go getter named Sean Hanity. He married his wife there and they moved on to bigger and better things... Congratulations Sean!

Well, from what is left of my memory, that covers most all of it. I did do a few short jobs at WRSA on a part time basis for a few months while working at WGSV in the mid 70's.