Cumulus Columbus

[GJames]

Hey Terry.... Forget about buying 3 stations in Tupelo. What about Columbus?

About a month ago Cumulus let long-time air personality Larry Bond go from WKOR.

Yesterday it was  Bill Thurlow's day to get the boot.

Budget cuts. The extremely popular Thurlow-on-the-radio morning show is gone.

Looks like they are getting the P/L balance sheet to a point where it would be an attractive sale.

The one-time Goliath Columbus cluster is no more. Sounds like most of the people from the other stations in the cluster are gone also.

So Terry... Make 'em an offer.

[oldiesstation]

yep.it is a sad state of radio.no more local, just syndicated morning shows and how cheap can we get voice tracks done.that's what consolidation is all about and when you pay too much for stations to begin with, that debt load gets tough to handle so you have to operate on the cheap....

[tbarber]

Thanks Glen... got the news about Bill Thurlow yesterday. He is a good freind of mine- we go way back. Ran in to him at the Bully Bash a few weeks ago (not to be confused with the Bully Bash held the next day at Scott Field against Auburn). He seemed like things were going really well for him. I hated to hear the news yesterday. Bill is one of those guys that is just as good (if not better) off the air than on. Always giving 100% and carrying the station flag everywhere he goes. He brightens peoples day.

I remember when Larry Bond was the DJ at Bonnie and Clydes.

Both of these guys are class acts.

As to me buying stations in Columbus/GTR.....the only places with more signals is Meridian. Both are very crowded with limited $$$.

If I could do it though, I'd move it back to Lumpkin St in Starkville and put the CR back in the basement. You never know who's gonna come thru that sliding door.

[zell]

Met with the Cumulus folks couple of years back about the cluster. Caught myself rambling about those old days of the King Of Rock and Jon Boogie Bailey and what SSO's call letters stood for, and Chuck and Joe... Guy looked at me like I was nuts(although,come to think of it I get that look alot). Sad when the companies lose track of communities they once served. Damn, that dungeon on Lampkin sounded good at one time!

[GJames]

Well here are some more ramblings.....

Best I remember WSSO was ment to say We Serve Starkville Only....
I'm guessing that was a Joe Phillips-ism.

John Boogie Bailey passed away several years ago..
Don't know much about it other than that....

I'm still wondering where Chuck Cooper is these days. Last I heard he was in the Carolinas somewhere... Anyone know?

Originally the wKOR was suppose to say the radio station was the CORE (KOR) of the Golden Triangle. I got that from Ken Irby, who put the station on the air in 1968(?).

Anyone remember that King of Rock poster that was on the wall at the end of the long hallway?
An art student did that for us. It was based on a drawing from a WLS musicradio survey sheet. WKOR use to get those every week or so from WLS.
That poster took 8 hours for the student to draw. He used us 8 black flet pens. We paid him $25 for his efforts. Talk about cheap channel.... I often wondered what happened to that poster.

Johnny Franklin named the basement "the dungeon". I heard from Johnny Franklin (Weeks) last year. He is still on the air in VA or SC or NC... can't remember.

The guy with the real history of the station is Don Vaughn, an instructor in communications at MSU. He worked with us several years... Seems like he wrote a long article about the history.

Lots of good info....

[MEDICENE MAN]

Hey I opened those sliding glass doors on the bottom
floor a few times, about the time Butch Wah-Bah-Ba-Lukey
was rockin the big box; and I said apprapoe, and copasettic
one day on yellow jacket road so many times that Cardwell,
while he was doing logs, almost fell out of his chair
laughing so hard.....Hey Cardwell, Thanks Dude! for the
Plane Ride out of Starkpatch International, I think I saw
the Southernaire and the Crossroads while I had the
stick and rudders........Big Fun..........

[zell]

Old Don Vaughn's a professor? Scary. WSSO was for :"We Serve State and Oktibbeha County", I think. Or was it "Starkville, State, and Oktibbeha County"? Hard to follow Joe, sometimes. Did you know how much it cost to run that radio station? Well. He'd tell ya,daily! John Weeks is in Ashville, NC. by the way. Remember John Bailey's last day at KOR. He had me to come by and visit during the last few minutes. Came in that sliding door and went upstairs with him when he got off. The look on Chuck's face was priceless! I was working at WSSO at the time. It was like the enemy had stolen some company secrets or something.

[robgrayson]

I remember the poster at the end of the hallway!  I was the "titular" news director during my stay doing the midday shift at 98, and in that capacity attended a "Gil Carmichael for Governor" conference and an attorney general debate at the Tupelo tv station.  Linda Ronstadt gave a concert, and the Humphrey Coliseum opened.  Glen was there, along with Larry K Blakeney, John Boogie Bailey, and Fred (Buster) Wilson.  The Collins board had optical electronics, which meant if you quickly ducked the mike pot to sneeze, you sneezed on the air.  There was a button for "super-reverb", reserved for Butch.  At the time, we had a Spotmaster 5-spot cart deck, and the transmitter meters and controls were mounted on a console attached to the ceiling.  Lumpkin was the bomb.  What is there now?
Rob

[GJames]

The building was empty for several years. A company that builds decks and fences was in there up until recently.

Now there is a company that does video's. I assume TV commercials etc.

http://www.videomagic1.com/

The building has been cleaned up... thankfully.

You can still park in the back by the sliding glass door where the control room was.

The back yard is still full of pecan trees.

It doesn't look like I can post pictures on this forum, or I'd put some in.


Rob, I heard you on the Elvis Channel recently. Thank ya... varrrry musch.

[robgrayson]

Rob, I heard you on the Elvis Channel recently. Thank ya... varrrry musch.



[/quote]
You're varrrry welcome!  I gave it my best for a little over a year.