WJCV 1290/Jacksonville

[DaveArnold]

I was the first PD when WVBS signed on in April 1973.
Scott Robbins on the air.Jim Kelso hired me.

[allenv]

Would love to hear some of those old airchecks..

[DaveArnold]

Don't have much airchecks from VBS.We did have PAMS jingles"The Music's on us".
For a while had a toll free request line that pulled in callers from quite a wide area.
Had live jocks 24 hours a day.Studio in Burgaw.

[RadioFan2J3]

Don't have much airchecks from VBS.We did have PAMS jingles"The Music's on us".
For a while had a toll free request line that pulled in callers from quite a wide area.
Had live jocks 24 hours a day.Studio in Burgaw.

The reference to WVBS and Burgaw and being hired by Jim Kelso had me scratching my head for a moment until I did a little BROADCASTING YEARBOOK research, and I now see the light.

WVBS/WVBS-FM operation was originally WPGF (1963) and WPGF-FM (1964) owned by Pender Broadcasting.  Brown Broadcasting bought the pair in 1973 and changed the calls to WVBS and WVBS-FM.  That would tie in with your 1973 hiring by Jim. 

Brown Broadcasting apparently put WBBS on the air in 1968. 

I met Jim sometime in the mid-1970s, when he was working at WBBS, but I knew him only casually.  The same for Manko, the owner at the time, and I knew their engineer Hal Weant, as a ham and pilot.  Hal had a C-172 at the time.

I knew Jim much more closely, after he left Jacksonville, had started working with Lenoir Community College and moved to Kinston.  He was a bit of train buff and clued me in on the East Carolina Railroad, which went from Tarboro to Hookerton.  Jim and I donw some aerial research on the RR, flying the RR route and doing some ground research as well.

[ToddJenkins]

Did you find anything in Hookertoon? Was a wye there? Farmville was an EC Rwy goldmine for years. Easy to spot the relics. Same in Tarboro, Pinetops, etc.  But Hookerton was a tough hunt.

[RadioFan2J3]

Did you find anything in Hookertoon? Was a wye there? Farmville was an EC Rwy goldmine for years. Easy to spot the relics. Same in Tarboro, Pinetops, etc.  But Hookerton was a tough hunt.

Actually, we never found anything over at Hookerton.

Remember, this has been almost 30 years ago and I haven't thought about this much since then, as I left Greenville in 1989.

As best as I remember, we found evidence of some right of way along NC 123, just  south of Maury.  And then we lost it.

Too bad we didn't have Google Earth in those days.  Jim and I weren't read adventurous to tramp across country.  Wish we had.

Bridgers wrote a book "East Carolina Railway, Route of the Yellow Hammer" that I'd like to get, but I am not interested in paying over $180 for it.  There was a copy in the downtown library, or at least there was  in the mid 1980s. 

Apparently some good research material on his book at the ECU library, as well.

[RadioFan2J3]

Did you find anything in Hookertoon? Was a wye there? Farmville was an EC Rwy goldmine for years. Easy to spot the relics. Same in Tarboro, Pinetops, etc.  But Hookerton was a tough hunt.

Horrible thread drift, here, but after I wrote the note about the price of Bridger's book, I found a copy at a book store in Raleigh.  Web searches and Abe's books helps and it was about half the price of the other copies.

You were asking about a wye.  I haven't reread Bridger's book but in thumbing through the book, I did find a reference that the Hookerton Terminal Company's real purpose was "to build a track or line of railroad across Contentnea Creek and Hookerton with a wye and sidetracks...."

A "Bown" connection, as well.  The trestle and bridge across Contentnea Creek was built by H. A. Brown.  Tis trestle was said to be 3300 feet long and a height over the water of 60 feet.  A rather impressive structure for the early 1900s in eastern North Carolina.

[firecop947]

Jim Kelso, a true radio guy.  In regard to another post here, Jim and I would travel around looking for old racetracks and military bases.  I remember one time we ended up in Spring Lake (outside of Fayetteville) and we found his old station. I saw his eyes tear up when we looked in the windows and saw nothing but a skeleton of a by gone radio station. We saw old reel tapes and carts on the weathered floor. It was sad! I would see those same eyes tear up again on Christmas Eve 1997 (I think) when I stood with Jim as we watched his home burn along with many of his beloved radio memories. R.I.P. Kelso.

[allenv]

I miss Jim alot. He cared so much about the business. Radio needs about 50,000 Jim Kelso's. Can you imagine all of our radio buddies swapping stories in heaven??? So many of them had such a huge influence on me and my opinions of radio.

Allen

[RadioFan2J3]

Firecop, never heard about the house fire, or if I did, I don't remember. 

I left Greenville in 1989 and didn't have a lot of contract with Jim after that. 

No doubt, he had a collection of personal materials, both documents and recordings. 

Yea, I guess there is and will be a continuous gathering with Jim.