JaxRadio.net

JACKSONVILLE'S 1960s AM RADIO BROADCAST GIANTS

WAPE & WPDQ

In the 1960s and early 70s, AM radio broadcast stations WPDQ and WAPE battled each other here to attract teen and young adult audiences.

They rotated three or four dozen contemporary hit records and repeated the hottest songs every two hours or so. Both stations pulled in large numbers of young listeners. Pushing car radio buttons often, many listeners switched back and forth.

A 1969 Jacksonville radio audience survey conducted by a leading national service estimated that at night, over 70% of Jacksonville area teenagers with radios on were tuned to WAPE or WPDQ! Only two other local stations had measurable teen audiences, neither used FM.

With fewer entertainment alternatives available then, listeners developed high tolerances for inferior narrow band monaural audio, line noise, fading, radio static and interference from distant stations at night. Not until 1973 did Jacksonville get a full-time FM Stereo contemporary pop (top 40) music outlet with significant listenership.

Most hit songs played on radio stations then only ran 2 or 3 minutes in length. Motormouthed DJs chattered between every record. Ubiquitous station contests, promotions, sports scores, requests, dedications, high school tidbits, long rambling station jingles, ape calls, repetitive slogans, 20/20 News, News Live At 55 and maybe some slight reverb.....plus a generous mixture of national and local spot ads.

During the day, signals from WAPE and WPDQ propagated well even into South Carolina. Lower-end broadcast band frequency assignments enhanced reception of both stations. WAPE's 50 kW daytime signal on 690 kHz. favored coastal areas and WPDQ's 5 kW on 600 kHz. carried inland.

At night, WAPE's reduced power limit plus unfavorable, but mandatory, directional antenna radiation pattern resulted in spotty signal coverage in rapidly-growing southern suburban areas and other parts of Duval county. WPDQ's local coverage was also affected by its nighttime antenna configuration, but not as much.

THE BIG APE

WAPE's studio site was south of Orange Park on US 17. It included an unusual building and a custom-built transmitter designed and put together by the owners themselves. They also operated AM stations in several other southeastern cities. When I worked for another local radio broadcaster, I went to WAPE once to pick up advertising copy and tapes.

The lobby area included a swimming pool that doubled as part of the cooling system for the daytime 50,000 watt transmitter. Less efficient Amplitude Modulation technology in use then produced considerable transmitter heat as a byproduct.

WAPE also operated a multi-tower transmitter site near I-10 in Baldwin to produce the appropriate directional signal at night. Around sunset, WAPE engineers shut down the 50 kW daytime transmitter. In quick succession, the 10kW highly-directional Baldwin system fired up and transmitted until sunrise.

To be near clients and agencies, some WAPE advertising salespeople (a.k.a. account executives) worked out of an office in the Prudential Building near Baptist Hospital on the St. Johns River.

Author Michael Fitzgerald states in his article Boss Jocks: How Corrupt Radio Practices Helped Make Jacksonville, Florida, One of the Great Music Cities (Winter 2011 Southern Cultures) that Jacksonville was a musical hotbed fueled in part by WPDQ and WAPE. Fitzgerald interviewed several persons active then in local music promotion for his article.

DINO THE DJ

Dino Summerlin was a popular DJ/announcer during the 1960s. First at WAPE and then WPDQ. Dino had a large following. According to Fitzgerald, Dino pulled in $85 a week working at the Ape and made ten times that amount organizing and promoting dances and rock music shows.

But it wasn't all above board and eventually the FCC caught on--alleging incomplete program logs, questionable music policies and shadowy payments.

Dino left town and FCC fined WAPE's owners, the Brennan family. The Brennans agreed to sell the station to regional broadcasters Stan and Sis Kaplan in 1970.

DINO'S TARGET PRACTICE

Dino was also a gunslinger. According to Fitzgerald's interview with a co-promoter ..."Summerlin carried a .25 automatic and had few qualms about brandishing it. He liked to shoot out traffic lights.

"He’d had a few minor disputes with WAPE management, mostly over receiving his paychecks late. Every time we went over the Acosta Bridge, he’d unload his pistol into the Prudential building, where WAPE kept a sales office. No telling how many windows they had to replace.

"Luckily, it was nighttime and the offices were closed. Station owner Brennan turned a blind eye to Summerlin’s shenanigans for several reasons, not least because he enjoyed having all those girls around: Dino was a ‘chick magnet.' And he made sure Brennan was fixed up."

Fitzgerald also wrote that Dino "would do anything for a rush. Once, when Summerlin got a call to host a record hop in Brunswick, he told the promoter that Paul Anka was in town and that for an extra $100 he would bring Anka along.

“So Dino gets there and then tells everyone he is Paul Anka. Actually, he did look a little like Anka. Then he plays a couple of Paul Anka records and lip-syncs to them. And somehow he pulled it off."

JANUARY 1969 AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT RATINGS

6AM-Midnight, Mon-Fri

Percentage share of total audience

WAPE------18%

WVOJ------18% (Country & Western)

WPDQ-----14%

WJAX------10% (Full service/Easy Listening/NBC)

WOBS------10% (Rhythm & Blues) Daytime Only

--------------

7PM-Midnight

Percentage share of teen audience

WAPE-------40%

WPDQ-------31%

WVOJ-------14% (C&W)

WRHC-------14% (R&B)

AM POP MUSIC RADIO FADES AWAY

Jacksonville was somewhat on the leading edge of a watershed nationwide shift. More music programmers were recognizing FM as a viable broadcasting medium.

During the 1960s, FM stations mostly lost money. Growth prospects appeared limited and uncertain. With small audiences, few advertisers were interested in ads except for maybe as a bonus for purchasing spots on a co-owned AM station.

Not many cars had FM reception capability. Most '50s and '60s models came equipped with AM-only receivers. As the '70s progressed, the number of vehicles with FM increased steadily.

Technological advances in receiver design and falling prices for new, smaller models added to FM's momentum.

In late 1972, WPDQ moved its pop music from AM to FM and also added a live FM nightly progressive music program. For 18 hours a day, WPDQ-FM mostly used automation, a broadcasting innovation then that employed large reel tape decks and tape cartridge players with rotating carousels. Shortly later, WPDQ shifted to playing R & B music and live DJs on AM.

WIVY-FM, which debuted nightly progressive and album-oriented rock music on Jacksonville broadcast radio during Summer 1970, eventually positioned itself as "Stereo Rock for Jacksonville" and "Rockin' Stereo 103." WIVY-FM and WPDQ-FM delivered full range audio, not possible on AM.

The listening landscape changed quickly here. 1974 Jacksonville audience measurements reflected rapidly increasing numbers of FM pop music listeners.

WIVY FM & AM-----15.6% (AM was daytime only)

WAPE (AM)----------9.8%

WPDQ-FM-----------9.4%

Audiences for music on AM broadcast radio decreased locally and nationally during the middle and late '70s. AM outlets embraced news, sports, religious, talk and other non-music programs more commensurate with AM's technical limitations.

By 1980, the Ape's management shifted to playing country music. But the country version of WAPE didn't last long and the station tried other unsuccessful formats.

Ape's present incarnation began a few years later in the mid-1980s when a different outfit acquired the callsign and bought the 95.1 MHz. license formerly held by city-owned WJAX-FM.

JaxRadio.net