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TOP STREAM 32Kbps (8Khz)
. . . on North Carolina's leading station . . . [Description by Uncle Ricky for contributor Jay Marks] This aircheck of Ed Dean on Henderson Belk's WIST (AM & FM) in Charlotte N.C. captures Charlotte radio at the end of one era and the beginning of another. Out on Radio Road in June of 1965, Stan Kaplan and Jack Gale were preparing to launch BIG WAYS (5KW on 610), a formidable competitor for WIST's Class IV facility (1000 watts day, 250 night on 1240.) WAYS must not have started using PAMS jingles at the time, because WIST was. Gale tells the story of WIST PD George Wilson giving notice at WIST when he learned Jack would be programming WAYS. Still, Dean and the station sound good here, with a very heavy commercial load that includes lots of beer spots and an original Krispy Kreme spot (at 23:13). WIST was obviously trying to pre-empt much of what was to come at WAYS, or maybe WAYS beat them at their own game. WIST had yummy reverb, so did WAYS. The WIST jocks were the "Good Guys", just like the WAYS jocks. Their Ticket To Ride promotion involved "the biggest treasure hunt in the history of modern civilization," and the WAYS opening promotion was ten $1000 Treasure Hunts. On WAYS, Mr. Treasure gave the clues, on WIST, Agent 124 held the secrets to a big cash payoff. In this 5PM hour from June of 1965, Ed Dean counts down the Top Five at Five, and K. Charles Jones is featured with news and sports. There are a few musical surprises, notably beach music classics by Tony & Tyrone, Gene Chandler and Tom and Jerrio. Regrettably, there's a very high noise level in this recording. We couldn't remove any additional noise without losing lots of midrange and most of the high end, not to mention creating ugly artifacts. But it's likely some of the hiss was on the original recording. WIST had a wimpy signal, and it got noisy even a few miles outside the Queen City. |
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