Dear Mr. Callebs,
Thank you for publishing our recollections of WKAZ. We hope that you and
those who visit this website enjoy them.
It was only when our letter appeared online that we realized how much we had
either forgotten at the time we were writing or that we left out for reasons of
space. (After all, we didn't want to write a book!) Therefore, we decided to
write a follow-up letter with more information in hopes this would be helpful.
For instance, we forgot to mention the regular remotes that were an integral
part of WKAZ's broadcasting schedule. In 1967 and early 1968, Bill Blake did a
live remote from the showroom of an automobile dealership at Virginia and
Truslow Streets. The following year, Jim Little and sometimes Mike Hammer did a
Saturday morning remote from 10 AM until noon at Court's Record Shop in St.
Albans. Every spring from 1967 through 1970, WKAZ did live remotes at both the
West Virginia Home Show and the West Virginia Sports Show at the Charleston
Civic Center. Since these remotes were in the evening, Jay Jarrell usually
handled them, with Lovell Webb running the studio board. With those two on the
air, the repartee back and forth was fun -- but not nearly as free-form as when
Lovell would crash Bill Blake's show.
Speaking of Jay Jarrell, we wanted to sum up his post-WKAZ career for those
who might not be aware. Jay Jarrell
died in 1995, and
the following year Doug Martin (Jane's husband) also died suddenly. Doug and
Jane Martin owned a sporting goods store in Kanawha City for many years after
they left WCHS Radio in 1976 on the heels of Jim Little's firing. Unlike the
Martins, Jay Jarrell stayed in radio. Jarrell went to WXIT in the fall of 1970
and worked evenings there until 1974. Jay was reported to be very ill at the
time, but resurfaced on Beckley's 620 WWNR (owned by future WV Congressman Nick
Joe Rahall) and stayed there a year before returning to Charleston as the
midnight jock on WKLC-FM 105.1 (a country station then) in late 1975.
Jay Jarrell did some of his best work at WKLC, having a very spontaneous and
unpredictable all night radio program. He ate pizza on the air, played tapes of
local musicians, chatted with evening DJ Brad Jones and mock-snapping "well, BE
that way..." at the studio equipment when something didn't work properly. Jay
featured three songs on his program: "Pick me up on your way down", "Little Red
Wagon" and his favorite Elvis tune "Are You Lonesome Tonight". He was a staunch
supporter of West Virginia Public Radio in the 80's, calling up during pledge
drives to request a song by Big Joe Turner or "September Song". Jarrell left
WKLC to help open a new radio station in his hometown of Madison, West Virginia
before finally returning to Charleston. The
Gazette obituary
listed Jay Jarrell's age as 59, which is startling because on the air he assumed
the persona of a much older man. I hope someone can find an air check of Jay so
others can hear his style -- a cross between Redd Foxx and Jerry Lee Lewis. No
one who ever heard him will ever forget "Papa Jay and his Swingin' Soiree'."
Bill Blake deserves more mention too, because his post-WKAZ career was quite
distinguished. From WKAZ, Bill went on to become Vice-President and General
Manager of WJLS in Beckley (Al Woody worked for him). Mr. Blake is now the
morning man at Bristol Broadcasting's WXBQ in Bristol, Tennessee and there's a
biography of him
online.
Another WKAZ alumni, Bruce Clark, is also at
WXBQ
as Program Director and there's an online interview with Bruce that is very
intelligent and perceptive, as those who remember his tenure at WKAZ would
expect.
We feel we didn't do justice to some of the other announcers, such as Rich
Hunt and Larry Stevens. Rich Hunt was only there for three years, but during
that time he was a force. Before his first broadcast, Jim Little took the
microphone to introduce Rich to the Kanawha Valley, explaining they were
longtime friends and asking the listeners to make Hunt welcome. Rich Hunt then
uttered what would be his standard sign-on: "Hellooooo, anybodyyy..." An example
of his dry wit occurred in 1972, when he played the Michael Jackson hit "Ben"
from the movie. Then he said "at first I was a little puzzled by this song.
Why would anyone want to do a song about a rat?' "But then I figured it out",
Hunt continued. "All my friends are rats too".
He panned records if he didn't like them and reserved particular bile for
"Hot Rod Lincoln" -- "I wish they'd drive that thing right on out of here...".
Like some of the other announcers, Rich featured certain records on his show --
Gene Chandler's "Duke of Earl", the Beach Boys "Don't Worry Baby" and "Have You
Seen Her" by the Chi-Lites. He was active in the Kanawha Players, a little
theater group, and Bob Turley (who took over the daily "features" show from Jane
Martin) used to tease him about it.
Larry Stevens -- "Lawrence of Charleston" -- was the midday man when he was
there. He introduced the Kanawha Valley to the "air sandwich" (take a piece of
bread, cover it with air, and put another piece of bread on top of it) and
"Christmas Eve Eve" (December 23rd). Larry Stevens left WKAZ in December 1969
and went to Montgomery, Alabama, where he became general manager of a radio
station and owned his own advertising and marketing firm.
Jim Little (Jill's radio hero!) was another WKAZ alumnus who went into
management. Jim became program director and operations manager of WCHS Radio in
1971, doing the afternoon drive shift and occasionally reading the sports on
WCHS TV's 11 pm newscast. Former WKAZ staffer Jane Martin did the Channel 8
weather at that time.
At WCHS, Jim Little continued his commitment to good taste, educating the
Kanawha Valley about his favorite songwriters and doing excellent radio and TV
ads for sponsors like Woodrum's and Bing's Furniture. Due to a shake-up in
management, Little was fired in 1976 and became the morning man at 1230 WLOG in
Logan, West Virginia. A year later, he joined Jay Jarrell at WKLC in St. Albans
as afternoon drive DJ before leaving the air and going in to management at FM
105. Later, Jim Little formed and successfully operated his own advertising
business.
Meanwhile, back at WKAZ in 1971 and 1972, there were two new good
announcers: Bruce Cavendar did weekends in 1971, and Kurt King (whose real name
was Kurt Ziegler) became the morning man, leaving Mike Hammer working mid-days.
Ziegler later went into radio news, becoming the news director at a station in
Wheeling, West Virginia, his (and Mike Hammer's) hometown.
We wanted to mention the theme songs used by several of the announcers. Mike
Hammer used an instrumental that my memory says was "Slaughter on 10th Avenue".
Bill Blake's theme was Jackie DeShannon's "What the world needs now" and Randy
Tolliver's theme was "Everlasting Love". Jim Byard had no theme song, but he
did have a signature record, Johnny Mathis' "Twelfth of Never", which he played
on every program. (Byard left WKAZ to become a fulltime sports commentator and
later work in the front office of the Charleston Charlies, (then) the city's
semi-pro baseball team based at Kanawha City's Watt Powell Park.) Jim Little's
theme song was the 1962 classic "Just tell her Jim said hello".
Some of the air staff members had distinctive sign offs. Mike Hammer would
say "...thanks a lot for diggin' the doins'...", followed by a taped Bob Turley
announcement "The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Mike Hammer.
Sometimes he just doesn't know what he's saying." Jim Byard signed off with
"Bye-bye, be good, take care, won't ya? - Love ya." Lovell Webb whooped "I'll
see you to-night at mid-night, son!", and Terry Love said "Take it easy, but DO
take it..." Bill Blake had a taped "...well, that puts the cork in the jug for
another one on the Bill Blake show. Remember, if I could have just one wish
come true for you, I would wish for you ... Love". And Jim Little would say
"Bye-bye love and keep smiling. It keeps everybody guessing what you've been up
to...".
We could go on remembering so many more things from our years of listening
(such as the daily drawings for a birthday cake from Old Duchess Bakery on the
Mike Hammer show) but in the interest of brevity, we will stop. We leave with
one more story and two comments.
First, it is astonishing how many of the announcers at WKAZ went on to become
program directors or general managers at other stations. Ric Robinson, Larry
Stevens, Jim Little and Bill Blake to name a few ...
Second, although much of the on-air commentary could be suggestive, and
outspoken on the issues of the day, everything was presented to the radio
audience without resorting to foul language and sadistic humor which
characterize many of the 'shock jocks' today. WKAZ never talked down to its
audience. The announcers and newsmen assumed a literate listenership and
conducted their presentations accordingly. For example, on Christmas Eve in
1968, Mike Hammer played the Frank Sinatra song "Whatever happened to
Christmas". After the title was sung, Hammer broke in and declared "they sold
it for half price at a discount store". That combination on realism and class
is what made WKAZ so great.
The Charleston Gazette did a feature story two years ago about Al Sahley and
the article is available online. Jill has some Gazette articles about WKAZ and
its staff from further back - a November 1969 interview with with the announcers
and a photo of all, including Tom Ragen; a 1972 interview with Ric Robinson when
he was program director at 1490 WXIT; a 1973 article about Amy Johns (Loveable
Sam) and the J.P. Rool columns about her; and a 1973 ad for Classic Shoe Store
featuring the staff of WXIT, including former WKAZ staffers Ric Robinson, Jay
Jarrell, Terry Love, Cameron Keyser and future power DJ Barry Chase. Jill will
mail these as soon as she can locate them.
Thank you for a wonderful website and for allowing us the privilege of
contributing to it. We hope our follow-up has been equally helpful.
Sincerely,
