Your favorite era, and station that influenced you...

[thatwasradio]

This topic has made for some great reading!
When I was a kid, we lived in Illinois, and WLS and Super CFL were the stations I grew up on, they were fast paced, energetic, reverb on the mic, and those jingles they had really peaked my interest in radio.
When we moved to NC, I listened to WLAC at night, and the closest thing I could find to WLS was Big WAYS, so that was a major influence on me as well. I listened to WBT every now and then, but in the '70's WAYS and WBT were like comparing Z-100 to WBCY in the '80's, there was a big difference in excitement.
Then when FM took over I was a bit bored with it, until the CHR formats on WROQ, Z-100, and WBCY came along in the 1980's. The jingles on Z-100 got me hooked on that station from the beginning (probably because they were sung by the same vocalists who did the WLS jingles), and I was determined to get a job there!
I listened to WXRC every now and then, and Kiss-FM in Asheville when I could pick it up. They were all good stations.
Oh, and Andy Foster on WOHS-AM in Shelby, I used to think "How deep can a guy's voice get?"!!!

[Kent Dorsey]

Thatwasradio:
Andy worked at WOHS-WXIK for I believe 39 years... he is operations manager and afternoons at WGMA, Spindale... still clicking that mike on after all of these years. Also does an internet high school ballgame feed for Crest High School football, and teaches a couple of nights a week in the community college system.

[Surfside]

What a great topic!  I grew up in Jacksonville, NC and was raised on top 40 1240 WJNC (first station I ever worked at- Craig Thomas of WGNI & others was the PD- Gary Whitehurst APD & Mike Shadeed mornings) - great station!  Also, the battle pf the day was with 1290 WBBS (or WIIZ- The Wiz) - both great stations.  Other important influences for me was also WSFL (with "Fast Eddie" in the morning- yes, the very famous radio man Ed Seeger) and WITN "Rock 93" with Charlie Byrd in the airchair each afternoon.  Later influences were the entire gang (FBI, Mike Urben, Tack) at WRAL in Raleigh.... and G105 in Raleigh, Q98 in Fayetteville and B100 in Wilmington (when it was AC- I worked there when it was CHR)

Hometown rocker WXQR (first AOR in NC) also gets big mentions....  Mark Lapidus (writer for Radio World & promo man), Bob McLean & Kris Kelly were all awesome.  Heck, Don Pardo of SNL was the station imaging voice!  Always sounded like a party.

It's no wonder that a huge amount of the industry's best talent came out of the Carolinas....  Tom Kent, Rick Dees, Jack Armstrong... etc.  We all grew up on GREAT radio!

Thanks- this was fun.

[Mike Sheridan]

Thatwasradio:
Andy worked at WOHS-WXIK for I believe 39 years... he is operations manager and afternoons at WGMA, Spindale... still clicking that mike on after all of these years. Also does an internet high school ballgame feed for Crest High School football, and teaches a couple of nights a week in the community college system.

That's funny, those WGMA call letters caught my eye.  The WGMA I knew was in Hollywood, Florida between Miami and Fort Lauderdale.  It was a Country station with 5KW on 1320.  A friend of mine beat me out of a gofer job at that WGMA. I did work there as production director many years later.

[Kent Dorsey]

Mike, when Moon Martin started the station (AM 1520) in 1984, they said he picked the call letters to stand for World's Greatest Music Always...
(Totally off topic, but I read on Medialine one time that at station WDBL, the staff used to say it stood for We'll Do Better Later... can't remember if it was radio or tv...)

[RobynWattsV2.0]

Crazee Carroll and Kahuna: I have to agree with you choices.

Robyn

[thatwasradio]

Carroll and Robyn, I think all three of us have been in agreement on the same stations for several years now, just think, if no internet had come along, we would never have known each other and our common interests. Just call us the "Three Amigos Of Radio"!
And about Andy Foster, gosh, I can't believe he's still on the air! And Spindale, of all places, I did some work at Three Guys Grocery Store there back in the early 1980's, quaint little town.
I do the mid-day weather on WOHS (as Rick Nesbitt), although it is on 1390 AM now.

[charlestondxman]

For me in Charleston, as a DXer, there are many stations that have influenced my listening habits. WTCB 106.7 in Orangeburg was one of those. They had the best personalities (Brent Johnson, Tony Clyburn, the dozens of weekend people), and they have a great music mix and wonderful signal.

Every time there's a opening, I try to pick it up. The late 1990s-early 2000s were my favorite era, as there were so many good stations to listen to. Sunny 96.9 was one of those. They were an excellent station with good personality, heavy in the community, and had some very good jingles.

I was sad when they flipped. WCOS was another good station that I worked to pick up from Charleston. They still are very easy to hear, but I used to wake up and listen to their morning show (Charlie and Pam) most mornings. They were entertaining, and a good listen.

[brotherbill]

WOW!!! I love it when these kinds of topics come up. For me in the 80's the stations I always love to listen to that really got the "radio bug" in me was WKSF (Kiss FM) and WROQ, Z100, and WBCY. Hearing the likes of Brother Bill on Kiss with the balls to the wall attitude and hearing John Boy & Billy on WBCY or Hearing Kahuna, Animal and the rest really showed me how magical radio could be... Radio back then was fun and really put that "I can do it" attitude in me... I am not sure how the teens of today will look at radio 20 years from now, but I am willing to bet that the generation will not have the same passion in the biz the way we did or currently do... CC1


Hey Carroll.....great memories of the long ago 'real radio days'! LOL Hope you are well.

Bro

[vchimpanzee]

In the late 70's and 80's
107.5 (can't recall the call letters before WKZL) from Winston Salem.  FM Album was great at that time.

That would have been WKZL. Unless it was WSGH. 

from Raleigh WQDR 96.1 Rock was good until it changed. 

96.1 IS rock now. WQDR was on 94.7.