WHYE
(910 Khz 1kw daytimer)
Tarlow
and Associates of Boston purchased the assets of WRKE
from Elmore D. Heins. Before
WHYE hit the air they played "The Old Mummer's Strut" by the Nu
Tornadoes all day. That, obviously, was to get attention. It was also rumored
that the original "Y" announcers set up shop in a hotel room to
practice the format so everything would be right before going on the air the
first time.Then
the call letters were changed to WHYE and they instantly became top-40. It
was the first "formatted" station in the market and
took off like lightning. Jan Wilkins was 16 and in high school at the time
of the switch. He said "Every teen in town was listening to the rock
and roll"! Ray Mills was engineer and explained that the electronic sound that was used as a bump between news stories was actually a "mechanical
thing". The line-up had Glen C. Lewis (right) as the morning man. The
Roanoke times had Glen listed as "The Turtle Voice".
When he moved to WROV, he became the "Voice of the Turtle". Other
announcers included George Pelletier, Jay Lucas, and stand-out jock Dave Van
Horn. In 1958 and 1959 he was on the air doing the morning shift and then moved to
the 3 to 6 p.m 
shift. Duane Eddy's "The Lonely One" was Dave's theme song. After leaving WHYE he moved across town to WDBJ. For the past 37
years Dave has been a sportscaster and was twice selected the Virginia Sportscaster
of the Year by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. During
his Major League broadcasting career, Van Horne has called eight no-hitters,
including two perfect games. He has also broadcast three World Series and
National League Championship Series for a Canadian network and the Marlins
2003 World Championship season. This is Dave Van Horne's fifth season as the
Marlins' lead radio voice.
According
to realty transfer records in the city clerk of courts office, Tarlow and
Associates sold WHYE radio and transmitter property, which included 5.5 acres
of land located north of the Virginia Railway in the Southeast section of
Roanoke, to Jefferson Broadcasting Corp (Jon Holiday of Charlotte and Joseph
Mullin of Richmond) for $75,000 on June 30, 1959.
Jefferson
Broadcasting Corp
- Joseph Mullen was President, Jon A. Holiday, Vice President & General
Manager, Richard Brown was Program Director. Ray Mills was chief Engineer and Fred Anderson was News Director (Fred later worked at KABC TV in Los Angeles).
The staff included Jon Holiday, Dick Brown, Dave Eldridge (pictured on the right), Bill Spahr, and Jan Wilkins.
During
the Holiday years WHYE (using Formatic's Exciters jingle package known as DO YOU REMEMBER?) began
to soften the music, doing more big
band, and added a lot of talk from ABC Radio.
On March
23, 1962 the station announced several personnel changes and the inauguration
of a plan to stabilize the organization and program image. Mac
Ahern, advertising agency executive joined WHYE as General Manager, Vice President
and part owner of Roanoke Broadcasters Inc. To impress the staff upon his
first day, he gave each one a $50.00 bill! Jon Holiday, remained President,
and Nancy Holiday, became Secretary-Treasurer. Thorton Marshall was made Commercial
Manager, coming from WSLS radio where he was Sales Manager for 9
years. James (Petie) Powell was appointed Sales Manager, moving from
WSLS TV and radio where he was a sales representative. Ray Bridges was hired
as Program 
Manager,
coming to WHYE from KUDI in Great Falls, Montana. The station returned to
playing top-40 music with studios located on the second floor of the Chamber
of Commerce building, 117 Church Avenue. The air staff included Bill Stevens - 5 a.m.
"Operation Daybreak", Ray Bridges - 6 a.m. "Morning Express" (Ray actually used
a two-tone whistle that he would blow to create the sound of a train whistle
when giving time-checks) Ray was back at 12:15 for "Flair South", Jan Wilkins
- news and sports on "Morning Express" and 9 a.m. "Downbeat" (Jan was also the
station Production Manager and later went to WROV where he will always be
remembered for the Automobile Exchange commercials he wrote and produced),
Bill Spahr - 2 p.m. "Route 91", Warren Buford - covered afternoon news and sports,
Bill
Stevens - 6 p.m. "Sunset Strip". Bill Purcell was chief engineer, announcer and talented musician. He was more recognized by his stage name "Tongue Tide" of the "Tide Family". Other former
staff members included, "Jack Shields" Jackson, Eddie Hale, and "Bob
Lewis" Leftwich. On the left is an advertisement, which ran in the Roanoke
Times & World News, Saturday March 31, 1962. (Click in the ad to enlarge).
Phil
Beckman who has been a longtime fan of "Y Radio" passed on a copy
of the transmitter log the day top-40 died at WHYE! It was July 17th, 1964.
Eddie Hale had the honor of playing the last song - Dusty Springfield's "
Wishin' and Hopin' ". That was the end of an era!
Also from
Phil's collection is a News Intro , weather intro , news
closing , and the "Bright New Day" jingle produced by Futuresonic Jingles, WHYE used two packages; "Pacemaker" produced in 1958 and the "Swinging Sound" produced in 1960. Next is Futuresonic jingle montage of the jingle packages used by WHYE radio. These jingles are located below. Just push the play button under each item to play.
WHYE News Intro
WHYE Weather Intro
WHYE News Closing
Bright New Day Jingle
Futuresonic Jingle Montage
ABC News Sounder
Homer
Quann (left) was the general manager. The call letters remained WHYE
but the format was changed to Country and Western. The announcers were "Jim
McNeil" Hungate, Clif Davis, Jim
Eanes (a regional country singer) and Uncle Joe Johnson.
Joe was also a country music performer and had an unusual closing to his daily
show.... "If ya need me, I'll call ya". The noon hour
was handled
by George
"Jolly Don" McGraw (right) who did his program from McGraw
Record Mart in Salem. The weekend guys were "Dick Shelton" Brooks
and "Steve O. Reno" Nelson, a name given by Joe Johnson. "Cousin
Zeke" Leonard started his Roanoke Radio Career after working at a Marion
station. Today "Cousin Zeke" still is in radio at WKBA doing a gospel
music show each afternoon. Gary E. Cooper also worked for a while at WHYE.
The station
quickly became the dominate country outlet in the market. In 1965 WHYE and
promoter
Carlton Haney produced the first genuine bluegrass
festival at John Cantrel's horse farm in Fincastle, Virginia. It wasn't
long that the popularity of such festivals would catch on. The early shows
used a stage made out of an old flatbed trailer. Everyone brought lawn chairs
and blankets and sat on a hillside to watch the show. One of the first acts
to perform was Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper and Jim & Jesse. Later, acts
such as Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Doc Watson, and the Nitty Gritty
Dirt Band appeared at "Cantrell's Country Music Park". Carlton also
booked country shows in the American Theater and the WHYE announcers would
broadcast backstage and handle the introductions. At one show, crosstown announcer
Mike Hanes, of rival station WKBA, appeared at the theater and asked to address
the audience. The spotlight moved to Mike and he thanked all present who had
listened to him over the years on WKBA. Then he surprised everyone by complimenting
WHYE for becoming the number one and best country station in the valley! Then
the spotlight moved the the "910 Music Men" and the audience gave
them a standing ovation. Mike left WKBA and moved to Nashville to be with
his wife Barbara Fairchild. Barbara later would have several top country hits.
As the
old saying goes....all good things must come to an end. WHYE and country music
did soon part. WHYE was a daytime station and crosstown WSLS and King Edward
IV started playing and promoting country music 24 hours a day!
The next
owner was Buford Epperson*, a cousin of Stuart Epperson, owner of WKBA. The
call letters were changed to WPXI. (*Buford
Epperson passed away in 1998 at the age of 63)
After
the failure of WPXI the station became WTOY and focused on the urban market.
It too went dark and several years later the call letters reappeared in the
Roanoke Valley on 1480 khz. The reason for each failure was simple, daytime
stations just couldn't be competitive with 24 hour full-service stations.
Years later the FCC relaxed it's "Daytimer" rules and has allowed
A.M. stations to remain on the air after local sunset with reduced power.
The 910
khz. frequency became WBNI, which stood for "Business, News, and Information",
Unfortunately this didn't work out either. The station was acquired by Ben
Peyton and the call letters were changed to WWWR.
3WR has become a successful religious broadcasting outlet operating 24 hours
a day.They plan on becoming the first AM station in the valley to broadcast
with a digital signal.
Contributors
to this article were Jan Wilkins, Phil Beckman, Pat Garrett, Ben Peyton, "Robert
Lewis" Leftwich, Tracy Carman of Media Archives, and Steve Nelson