Jimmy Dean (promoting his new sausage) Grease and me.

United Artists Records invited my wife and me to come to Las Vegas. I was to "speak" to their promotion man’s meeting. That’s how they got around questions about paying for our airfare and accommodations. I cleared it with Stan and Sis. We flew there, by way of El Paso. Jim Taber, an old friend from Birmingham, owned KINT and asked me to come in and listen to his station and give him suggestions. It was nice to go back. XEROK was pathetic. Once in Vegas, we met Gerry Petersen and his wife at the Rivera. Gerry and I gambled while our wives soaked up the sun. While there, United Artist Pictures had a screening of a new movie. All the UA people insisted the radio invitees attend at least one function. Most of us went. "ROCKY" blew everyone away. We also had access to any of the shows at the hotel. My wife and I went to see Paul Anka. I’d seen him before and enjoyed it. Paul had signed a deal to allow Kodak to use "Times Of Our Lives" for their ad campaign. When he sang the song, a screen dropped down and slides and home movies of Paul’s family were shown. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. A year or so later when I was on a committee planning a convention, I invited Paul to perform.

Postcard of WAPE Studio with pool. Source: unknown.

As fall 1976 approached, I began to make plans for the upcoming ratings period. I had almost a completely different staff than the one we’d had in the Spring. McKeever had left for somewhere and Alan Moore returned as News Director. Alan had some unusual mannerisms. When he ended the newscast, he’ say "This.....(wait about five seconds) is Alan Moore". He was live on the Greaseman show, but recorded the next newscasts. That pregnant pause in his sign off made me crazy. I had no control over the news department, so I couldn’t say anything to him. I started messing with him. The production guy would take his recorded newscasts and re-record them making Alan sound like he was stuttering: "This this this this this.....is is is is....Alan MMMMMMMoore." Sometimes he would edit out the pause. Sometimes I’d stop the cartridge after "This" and when the first song out of the newscast was over, I’d play "is Alan Moore" before I spoke. It got so bad that Moore finally went to Sis Kaplan and complained. Our fun was over. I loved my staff and I tried to show them my appreciation for their hard work. Jock meetings were always on Sunday nights. I’d get Pizza and beer and occasionally, entertainment. One of the jocks was going with a stripper. She would arrange for a couple of her friends to come to the meetings. The meetings were held in the GM’s office since we had no conference room. Also, it was the only place I could lock the door and be sure that we weren’t interrupted (or caught). I won’t go into a lot of detail, but one time I left the office for a few minutes and returned to see a pile of disc jockeys and strippers. "WHO GAVE THAT ORDER (I am paraphrasing)" I yelled. No one paid any attention to me. To this day, I think I’m remembered more for those meetings than my PD style. Those guys loved me (I hope)!

Stan and Sis loved to have meetings in Charlotte. Jay Thomas had left WAYS for New York and they hadn’t hired or named a new PD. I went to Charlotte to plan the fall promotion. While there, Stan and Sis asked me to come to Charlotte and program WAYS. It really wasn’t a request, they practically told me I had to do it. I loved working for them, but, no closer than Jacksonville. WAPE was about to go into the Fall rating period and I wanted another successful rating book under my belt. More than once, I’d heard "one book wonder"; I didn’t like it. From a personal standpoint, the best thing for my marriage would have been to leave Jacksonville. My indiscretions were beginning to catch up with me. I had gone to Gainesville to see Bob Dylan and his Rolling Thunder Show at the stadium. I took a female along thinking I’d be unnoticed. It was like a surprise birthday party. Everywhere I turned, I ran into someone I knew. I was stupid. Jay’s leaving hurt WAYS. Not because he was such a great pd, Jay’s morning show was the franchise. I had asked them if I would be "group" pd. The answer was wishy washy. "Maybe, we’ll see" was all I could get out of them. The money wasn’t going to be that much better either. At the risk of losing my job at WAPE, I finally told the Kaplans I didn’t want to move. They didn’t like it all. They were used to getting whatever they wanted. I explained to the Kaplans that I just didn’t want to leave Jacksonville. I was really afraid I was going to have to drive an Imperial! After my refusal to move, Stan and Sis put me on "ignore".

In September of ‘76, I got a call from Michael Spears (then PD at KFRC). He was in town and wanted to have dinner. I agreed to meet him. Over dinner, he started asking me a lot of questions. "Would you like for me to come and consult KFRC" I said, jokingly. He said "no", he was consulting WHBQ in Memphis. Interesting...Paul Drew was National Vice President of Programming for RKO, George Klein had just resigned, and Spears was consulting WHBQ. I knew this had to be screwy. Spears explained that the new GM at WHBQ had accepted the job on the condition that someone besides Drew work with the station on programming. "What happened to George", I asked. Spears couldn’t really comment but intimated it was mandated by the new GM. The whole thing sounded odd to me. After dinner, Spears shook my hand, paid the tab and left. A day or so later I got a call from Dick French, General Manager at WHBQ. He asked me to come to Memphis for a visit. A story about the Memphis ratings results being recalled had been in the trades. I didn’t think much about it; WHBQ had enjoyed a substantial increase in the previous Spring. It looked fishy; I told French I wasn’t interested. I talked to Davenport about it and he said "You probably did the right thing, besides I like coming to see you in Jacksonville."

On the air at WAPE

Having been with RKO before, I knew WHBQ was the red headed step child of the chain. The RKO television station in Memphis ruled. the radio station made money primarily because the old GM wouldn’t spend a penny that wasn’t absolutely necessary. George Klein had been there for years, passed over again and again for the PD job. The old GM was retiring, and I’ve often wondered about his motivation for naming George PD as he went out the door. Now Klein was gone. WHBQ was considered by some as the "farm club". I know a lot of jocks took low paying jock jobs there, hoping they would get moved to WRKO, KHJ, or KFRC. I hadn’t heard from Drew since bailing on the 99X job. While the other higher profile bigger market station got all the press, WHBQ’s biggest claim to fame was George Klein and Wink Martindale. George’s friendship with Elvis was well known. RKO even allowed George to accept presents (including a Cadillac) from Elvis. WHBQ regularly was beaten in the ratings by WMPS. Every station in Memphis kowtowed to WDIA. WMPS had a morning man who was getting a lot of attention with a novelty record called "Disco Duck". His name was Rick Dees. I’d never heard anything about him until the record came out. Rick’s morning show on WMPS were unbeatable, even by WDIA. I kept thinking about all these things for a couple of days. Davenport called me one night. I just happened to be home. Paul Drew had called Jimmy to get my home phone number. "Why", I asked? Jimmy said he didn’t ask him. I told him to give Drew my number.

Paul asked me why I wouldn’t make a trip to Memphis and at least listen to what French had to say. I asked him why Spears was consulting the station. He said his workload didn’t permit him to give WHBQ the attention French wanted. I told him my concerns with WHBQ’s past non-aggressive attitude. All that was changing with French as GM. I told Paul that I had just turned down the PD job at WAYS; I couldn’t think about leaving. Paul was very kind and complimentary and I knew he was sincere. New York was never mentioned. Before I hung up, I had agreed to call French. Our first conversation had been very short. French told me about his plans to make WHBQ a winner. I asked him what he was going to do to combat Rick Dees. His answer was "whatever it takes". I agreed to fly up the following Sunday. I told no one except Davenport and my wife. I was really confused now. I had a lot of questions.

I flew to Memphis and French picked me up at the airport. We drove around the city and went by the station. The equipment was old but well maintained. French told me he had hired a new Chief Engineer from sister station WGMS in Washington. That would be interesting, an engineer from a classical station coming to be Chief at a Top Forty. The engineers at WHBQ Radio & TV were union. "Oh brother", I thought. He added that they didn’t work on air or in production. We went to lunch and he paid me some compliments. I asked about the Spears deal. He said that Paul was busy converting some of the FM’s to new formats and that he wanted "fresh horses". I still didn’t get it. In Spears mind, he was Drew. He dressed like Paul, had his mannerisms down and some speech patterns. Drew intimidated the crap out of me. I wanted to laugh at Spears. French assured me that he was there in an "advisory" capacity; his PD would have final say. It still sounded strange to me. We talked about Dees. French knew him pretty well. He asked me what I would do to defeat him. I honestly didn’t have a clue although in the back of my mind I was thinking Grease. French came right out and asked me about Grease. I told him I wasn’t sure Memphis could handle that type of humor. French laughed and said "you haven’t heard Dees have you?" As we left Friday’s in Overton Square, French made his offer. I didn't comment on the offer. Before I got out of the car at he airport, he upped the offer. I wanted to sleep on it.

When I changed planes in Atlanta, I called Jimmy. He quizzed me about the visit. I told him about the offer and then the stepped up offer. "You done good kid" was all he said. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t enjoying "being wanted". WAPE had been a tremendous success despite some obstacles. We made it work with what we had to work with. French had told me that recently appointed RKO Radio President, Dwight Case, had given him a blank check. I liked the sound of that. I knew what I could do with and without budget. RKO was still the largest independent radio company in America. Being an RKO PD was special. The Top 40 PDs at the ABC stations all had to wear suits and wrote a lot of memos. The days of Bartell and Heftel were almost over. The RKO PDs were a brand of their own; no two alike. The offer was starting to grow on me. I called French a couple of days later and upped his offer. He agreed to my figure. Then I went for the kill (thank you Sexy Rexy) moving expenses , accommodations, car, gas, and expense account. French said yes to all of it. The next day I gave two weeks notice at WAPE. Now Sis and Stan were really pissed. I think they suspected that I might try to take Grease with me. Little did they know that I’d already hired Dick Edwards. My last Friday at WAPE, I got a call from French. Rick Dees had been fired at WMPS. My first question was "can we hire him?" French said he’d set a meeting for Monday. My departure from Jacksonville meant leaving a lot of "stuff" behind. Things and people I didn’t need in my life. I made a promise to myself to change some bad habits as we drove to Memphis that weekend.

Ode To The BIG APE

South of Jacksonville near Doctor's Lake,

east of seventeen, stood the mighty BIG APE.

Built in the fifties by a man named Brennan,

for decades and decades the hits were spinnin'.

and a fountain with copper coils to keep the transmitter cool.

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