Best Tenn. stations of all time

[firepoint525]

You may not know the answer to this, but what was WSIX-AM doing during that time?  ('80s-'90s)  I am obviously referring to the time before the station was sold to the Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN).  Who were their jocks at that time?  What was their format?  A former co-worker of mine claimed to be an alumnus of that station, and I just wanted to see if his name comes up.  (Of course, he may have been on the air under a pseudonym.)

[w9wi]

You may not know the answer to this, but what was WSIX-AM doing during that time?  ('80s-'90s)  I am obviously referring to the time before the station was sold to the Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN).  Who were their jocks at that time?  What was their format?  A former co-worker of mine claimed to be an alumnus of that station, and I just wanted to see if his name comes up.  (Of course, he may have been on the air under a pseudonym.)

When I came to Nashville in late 1990, WSIX-AM was simulcasting the FM.  I think I may have heard a bit of NASCAR that wasn't on the FM signal.  That didn't last long, didn't the BBN sale happen sometime in 1991?

[firepoint525]

You may not know the answer to this, but what was WSIX-AM doing during that time?  ('80s-'90s)  I am obviously referring to the time before the station was sold to the Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN).  Who were their jocks at that time?  What was their format?  A former co-worker of mine claimed to be an alumnus of that station, and I just wanted to see if his name comes up.  (Of course, he may have been on the air under a pseudonym.)

When I came to Nashville in late 1990, WSIX-AM was simulcasting the FM.  I think I may have heard a bit of NASCAR that wasn't on the FM signal.  That didn't last long, didn't the BBN sale happen sometime in 1991?

I moved here in '92, so I really don't have any memory of WSIX-AM ever being a music-playing station.  Of the three entities once bearing the WSIX call letters (AM, FM, and TV), only the FM station still bears the WSIX calls.

[Bat Fastard]

You may not know the answer to this, but what was WSIX-AM doing during that time?  ('80s-'90s)  I am obviously referring to the time before the station was sold to the Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN).  Who were their jocks at that time?  What was their format?  A former co-worker of mine claimed to be an alumnus of that station, and I just wanted to see if his name comes up.  (Of course, he may have been on the air under a pseudonym.)

Late '80s, WSIX-AM at one point was a "Music of Your Life" station...automated.  It wasn't much to hear EXCEPT for the Sports programming.  Before Capstar/Clear Channel dropped trou and gave up the ship, AM-980 was the place that George Plaster, Willy Daunic, et al got their start in Nashville.  It was called "Sports Night" and Duncan Stewart was the host.  There were many themes and guests.  WSIX-AM also had the U.T. Sports contract in Nashville.  Much of what Nashville has today in the way of local Sports programming originated on this station at that time.

I've often wondered about the "wisdom" of selling the AM.  The FM was being billed as "98 WSIX-FM" long before Gerry House started calling it "the big, fat 98 of love".  The AM was at 980.  When simulcast, it was rare to find an FM AND and AM at the same "dial positions". 

Of course, Steve Hicks couldn't have cared less about such things.  It was among the first of many, many things he didn't care about.

[romer979fm]

when I started at WSIX-FM in 1990...the AM was almost a total simulcast:
however, there were some talk/public affairs shows on the AM...I'd break the simulcast
at 9am on Saturday morning...one fun part about the simulcast was when the FM would go off the air:
the airstaff was monitoring the FM only...so whatever happened in the FM control room continued ON AIR on
the AM.  use your imagination.  once the AM was sold, WWTN operated out of the former AM studio as an LMA.
we were not allowed in the WWTN studio...(which was often un-attended for long stretches including overnights), and it was not uncommon for the WWTN board op to pot up the wrong Mutual feed before leaving  at midnight, so instead of Mutual talk programming...the only thing on-air between Mutual newscasts was a beeping tone identifying the channel...for a full six hours until a live body returned at 6am.  

[amfmxm]

In the early seventies WSIX-AM was a very good full-service personality AC--what we would call a Hot AC today. Unfortunately the Big Dog at the time was WSM-AM, also doing a full-service personality AC during daytime hours (yeah, and Country at night)... and doing it better and with a bigger stick. Spring '75 Arbitron: WSM-AM 11.8... WLAC 11.1... WMAK-FM & WSIX-FM 10.3... WKDF 6.0... WSIX-AM 4.9. That was the end. Spring '76 was a 0.0 and there have been few highlights in the intervening 35 years.

[firepoint525]

In the early seventies WSIX-AM was a very good full-service personality AC--what we would call a Hot AC today. Unfortunately the Big Dog at the time was WSM-AM, also doing a full-service personality AC during daytime hours (yeah, and Country at night)... and doing it better and with a bigger stick. Spring '75 Arbitron: WSM-AM 11.8... WLAC 11.1... WMAK-FM & WSIX-FM 10.3... WKDF 6.0... WSIX-AM 4.9. That was the end. Spring '76 was a 0.0 and there have been few highlights in the intervening 35 years.

This is interesting!  WSIX-AM was in ratings trouble as far back as '75, yet they lumbered on until about 1990?  I would think that a "niche" format like the previously mentioned "metropolitan country" (still not sure what that was, but it seems like an oxymoron to me) might have worked well for them, but I suppose that they got that format by default when they simulcast with WSIX-FM.

Too bad that WSIX didn't come up with a competing "barn dance" to go up against the Opry back in the 1920s, or they, too, might be considered a "heritage" station now.

And I'm guessing that "WMAK-FM" might be a mistake, given that WMAK was only an AM station in 1975 (wasn't it?), and that WMAK-FM didn't exist until Oldies 96.3 adopted those call letters back around 2000.

[w9wi]

Too bad that WSIX didn't come up with a competing "barn dance" to go up against the Opry back in the 1920s, or they, too, might be considered a "heritage" station now.

I don't think WSIX had the signal to make that work.  Until the beginning of World War II, WSIX was a "graveyard" station on 1240 -- they would have had little or no signal outside the immediate Nashville area. 

When simulcast, it was rare to find an FM AND and AM at the same "dial positions".

On the (analog tuned) car radio I had at the time, it was quite literally at the same dial positions.  If I tuned in WSIX-FM 97.9 & then slid the selector from FM to AM, I heard the same programming -- AM 980 came in without moving the dial. 

[romer979fm]

I'm guessing that "WMAK-FM" might be a mistake, given that WMAK was only an AM station in 1975 (wasn't it?), and that WMAK-FM didn't exist until Oldies 96.3 adopted those call letters back around 2000.

actually...92.1 was WMAK-FM from July 1981 until picking up the current WQQK calls ('84?).
In '81...WMAK and 92Q were simulcasting mornings (Steve McCoy and Mary Glen) and afternoons (Doc Damon).
The brain-trust running things couln't comprehend that the perception of WMAK was not positive, and decided
to bank on the WMAK "image" for 92Q.  Epic fail.  McCoy bolted for Atlanta.  92.1 was sold to Sam Howard
(and was a MOYL knock-off for a while...another epic fail).  WMAK became WLUY "Lucky 13"...probably
the most horrible station ever conceived.  By it's timely end, it as manned primarily by broadcast school
students...went dark...and sold to Babb to become WNQM.  Sorry...tangent mode activated.

[amfmxm]

And I'm guessing that "WMAK-FM" might be a mistake, given that WMAK was only an AM station in 1975 (wasn't it?), and that WMAK-FM didn't exist until Oldies 96.3 adopted those call letters back around 2000.

My mistake. The WMAK numbers from '75 were indeed WMAK-AM.

Memory from the seventies is starting to fade with the rest of me, but I seem to recall that when I first hit town around 1972-ish the only stations formatted Country sign-on to sign-off were WKDA-AM and WENO-AM. I was not among the chosen few with an actual FM receiver in my '65 Fairlane, so I don't recall what The Big 98 was doing. Were they Country at that time?

IIRC, WENO was kinda gut-bucket, ridge-runner Country with signal limitations (directional? upper dial-position?)... and KDA was at Graveyard 1240 in a city already too big for it to matter. FWIW, with that 5kw fulltimer at 980, if WSIX-AM had had its bleep together in the late sixties/early seventies they could have owned the town for a decade or so before FM took over for good...