Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire anybody old enough to remember the 50,000 watt clear channel stations?

back during the height of the cold war, back in the 50's and early 60's the clear channel AM radio stations ruled the roost.

i can remember:

WSB (welcome south brother).

WSM & Ralph Emery

WLS Chicago w/Art Roberts

KAAY in little rock, ark was a clear channel station i believe.

WCKY in cincinnati

WABC in new york city.

WAPE, the big ape in jacksonville, fl.

one atop the roosevelt hotel in NOLA.

many others, can't remember them, but they were there. it was before the invasion of the FM way of listening.

who is old enough to remember the big clear-channel rockers?

KOMA from Oklahoma City. We started getting it just a little before sundown in western Colorado, sometimes could even pick it up during the day.

KOMA Oklahoma City.

Still listen to one, KENI 650 in Anchorage.

trying to remember, the only K station we ever picked up in ne georgia was KAAY in Little Rock. when the weather was right, it would blast.

In high school in Lander WY in the 50's we cruised around at night with a case of Coors listening to KOMA. There was another one in Del Rio TX , cant remember the call letters, I think their transmitter was in Mexico and really boomed out there.

seems like Ft. Wayne, Indiana had a powerhouse too. might have been drift from cloud re-direction.

What was the one out of St Louis?

stories told of off-shore pirates popping up all the time, and the FCC working overtime to identify their location and then shut them down.

our local ATL stations used the playlists developed and maintained by WLS chicago, especially Art Robert's stuff.

and then there was cousin Brucey.

and never to forget the Wolfman.

WLAC - Nashville, Tennessee

Big John R and the Hossman - greatest R&B station of all time during the 50's, 60's and 70's.

Listened to lots of KOMA also

Can't remembet the call letters of the one out of Del Rio, TX but spent lots of time listening to The Wolfman on it

Gus, I recognize those - surely listened to all at one time or another.
Am thinking you might ad KSL in Salt Lake City - heard it all over the place out here after dark and think it was CC.

remember WLAC.

& WWL, new orleans?

always thought that the Art Roberts show on WLS chicago was better than either cousin brucey or wolfman jack.

just my opinion.

never did pick up KOMA i don't think. the cloud cover was wrong i guess.

and there was something up there in ft wayne, indiana but can't recall.

seems we received very little stuff that crossed the big muddy coming east. the little rock CC was one.

that was a time that the 55 & 57 chevies ruled the roost. i think they were 265 & 283 engines depending.

the 348's showed up for a spell.

and surely some remember the "reverberators" attached to the am radio.

Used to listen to Spike O'Dell on 720 AM WGN radio in Chicago. He coined it “The 50,000 Watt Love Pump.”

WGY Schenectady, NY.

WLW 700 in Cincinnati is in that list too.

I grew up in Cincinnati and was a real radiohead.

Dad listened to WCKY for a good part of his adult life. Easy listening music, news, weather, and stock reports. What's wasn't there to like? After dark, he often switched to WLS, just so he could he could hear something coming from that far away. He built and managed apartments and got a reputation among the local radio and TV crowd. As a result, I grew up with all sorts of characters in Dad's apartments: Gene Sheppard, Rod Serling, and good part of the cast of Midwestern Hayride.

WLW was and is the voice of the Reds. You could be anywhere in the country and pick up a Red's game. There was a time when you could hear WLW in your fillings if you were around the transmitter in Mason. Powell Crosley had thing boosted to 500 KW and the transmitter needed a cooling pond. The removable printed circuit card was invented for that operation. I've been in it, Lou Crosley was my best friend when I was a wee one. I was also friends with Bill Eggerding, the chief engineer at Voice of America.

Used to listen to Wolfman Jack, I think out of ChulaVista Ca? And we were up in northern Ca, Tahoe.He had some super duper powerful transmitting!

most of us "cruisers" would listen to WLS in chicago, the art roberts show, rather that quixie in dixie, WQXI. at least at night. during the day, quixie was the go-to.

for the pure country folks who walked amongst us, it was WPLO, radio 59, and the John Gray show. those were the days.

and then there was Honest John Fox, also a really big supporter of pure country music.

Oh, yeah, KILT 610 in Houston. We used to home in on that one with the ADF in the airplane and fly home from Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico...

Now I am in rh DFW area and we still have a 50,000 watt station in our backyard here, WBAP 820.

Yes Gus, WWL in New Orleans. Leon Kelner (sic) and his orchestra!!