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AUDIO CLIPS

WJAX AM-FM RECORDING FROM THE SUMMER OF 1971

This is a mostly-intact recording of the final 20 minutes of my Saturday night show and includes a sign-off of WJAX AM & FM stations.

WJAX AM 930 and FM 95.1 were owned by the city then. As Jacksonville's NBC affiliate with a heavy emphasis on local news, WJAX normally transmitted around the clock.

But sparks apparently flew at the transmitter site on Hyde Park Golf Course and I received a call downtown at WJAX studios to sign off at midnight.

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RHYTHM & BLUES ON JACKSONVILLE AM BROADCAST RADIO

Among AM stations focusing on Jacksonville's Black radio listeners during the 1960s and early 1970s were WERD 1400 (nee WRHC), WOBS 1360 and WPDQ 600 (post 1972).

FCC limited WOBS 1360 (and many other stations) to daytime operation to minimize skywave interference at night.

To extend their reach during the 1960s, WRHC 1400 programmed Country & Western music until sundown before abruptly switching to Rhythm & Blues after WOBS, their only R&B competition, signed off.

Despite only having a meager 250-watt FCC night power authorization, WRHC attracted many listeners transmitting from a site near McCoys Creek and the old Technical High School.

WRHC became WERD in the early 1970s. FCC granted the station a nighttime power increase to 1,000 watts and owners switched to full-time R&B.

None of the half dozen or so FM stations programmed R&B. It would be the late 70s before R&B came to FM in Jacksonville.

From the mid-1970s, here are clips from WPDQ and WERD playing R&B.

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TOP FORTY MUSIC ON FM IN JACKSONVILLE

By 1976, most Jacksonville listeners and cars had FM reception capability. Music popularity on AM radio was declining and not even the Greaseman was able to turn the tide for the legendary WAPE 690AM.

The Ape's main competition during the early to mid 1970s was WIVY 1280AM which also transmitted on 102.9 FM. Starting in 1974, WIVY topped WAPE in some audience measurement surveys.

After buying WIVY's licenses at a low price following a foreclosure, local owners decided to cash in their profits. They sold to an emerging national broadcasting chain in late 1976.

(An administrator at FJC--now FSCJ--told me the college had been offered the stations as a tax write-off in 1969 when North Campus was under construction)

Under its new ownership WIVY-FM (rebranded as Y103) continued to dominate ratings throughout the 1980s. WIVY AM 1280 became talk station WEXI.

WIVY-FM FROM SUMMER OF 1976.

MORE WIVY-FM FROM 1976 WITH NEWSCAST.

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VIETNAM WAR RADIO SOUNDTRACK

The Vietnam Radio Sound Montage is a compilation of clips--mostly from Billy Williams daily radio broadcasts over the American Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN).

AFVN provided a soundtrack for the war using a network of powerful transmitters that saturated South Vietnam with news and entertainment.

At night, skywave propagation carried AFVN's sound throughout southeastern Asia and into India, Australia and Indonesia.

It's retro time travel. Hear American radio as it sounded in South Vietnam during the war. Included are top 40 hits, obscure tunes and favorite "anthems" that produced many requests.

VIETNAM IN RETROSPECT

Fifty years ago, the Vietnam War raged.

The Eastern World, it is explodin', Violence flarin', Bullets loadin' as one song's lyrics stated.

American and Allied combat troops fought in the Vietnam War from early 1965 until the Paris Peace Accords ended U.S. involvement in early 1973.

Americans in the combat zone included Amateur Radio operators. They served in the Signal Corps and other military branches as radio operators, linemen, electronic technicians, broadcast engineers, MARS operators and in numerous other military occupational specialties.

Vietnam brings back bad memories to some veterans while others welcome revisiting their time in the combat zone. Today, American tourism is big business in Vietnam.



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