WIQT-WQIX Kel returns to early morning

Sometimes when you write a bolg such as this, it is very easy to get off an a tangent and forget what you were going to do next. In my haste, or whatever, I completely missed the almost three years I spent at WIQT-WQIX Horseheads, N.Y. As I mentioned in a previous entry Dave Campbell stopped into Radio Shack, where I was working part time and told me that they were looking to make a change on WIQT AM, an Oldies Format, and I should contact Dave "Rocky" Rockwell the Program Director.

Since some of this was hush hush, I called Rocky at home and yes he was very interested and we talked and came to terms. It was kind of unique as I was a straight hourly person and was on the air 6:00 to 10:00 am only Monday through Friday and paid for a half hour of show prep time and that was it. no remotes, meetings, or production. If there was a required meeting then I was on the clock, a fact I found to shorten meetings considerably.

WIQT AM was at 820 Khz on the dial with 5,000 watts non directional days, and 500 watts on a four tower directional antenna array at night, it shared studios with WQIX FM a "Modern Country format." The studios had been located just of Hanover Square in Horseheads but moved to 111 N. Main St. In Elmira, the Mid Town Building, after part of the back wall of the Horseheads location fell down. Both stations were owned by Panosian Enterprises, a retail company that operated clothing, shoe, and furniture stores in the "Twin Tiers" area of N.Y. and Pa. I had known most of the Panosians for many years and they liked me and I liked them. But, for every piece of good equipment in the station, there was a piece of equipment or other stuff that was crap. The AM control room had a fairly new Broadcast Electronics console, two Gates turn tables, 4 Revox reel to reels and an old Spotmaster 3 deck cart machine. In addition it had a digital transmitter control unit that would automatically change power and directional patterns by timer. The audio and transmitter controls were on a shared STL with WQIX with the audio and controls "double hopping" to get to the transmitter site on county Route 64 just west of Horseheads.

For the most part everything worked pretty well with the exception of the cart machine which constantly blew through cues, if you forgot to pot down the audio then you had crap on the air. One thing that really caught my attention early on was the control room chair. Talk about cheap, it only had three wheels, the fourth caster long gone and replaced by a brick! The irony struck me that here the station was owned by a company that sold furniture and yet we could not get a decent control room chair, a fact that got stated on the air MANY times, till finally they replaced it! WIQT had always been in "format identity crises" and the oldies format was the latest effort to get some numbers in the market. On air we used a combination of pre-recorded reels from TM Productions and vinyl. The format really did sound good and I was in heaven playing the oldies! When I was at WENY I had very good ratings, I, to this day feel that the Pansoians never really promoted the station or me properly as it had a great signal, it could be heard in Williamsport, PA, always felt that if they had the station would have done very well. The line up included Dave Pal, who I worked with at WENY, Jackie Dee, Bill Russell the News Director, George Kay (WQIX Mornings), Rocky Rockwell, Jim Appleton Engineer, Ron Ferro Station Manager, Jim Barrett part time, and several other whose names escape me now. Pretty decent talent on the air, but no support from the parent company.

Elmira was an Arbitron rated market, and had a full diary survey in the fall and a short survey in the spring, after a year or so that I was there the powers that be decided that they were going to change format yet again, from oldies to something they called "Great American Country!" I was loudly opposed to the change as my morning show was gaining ground in the market and I truly felt that with some time and promotion it could be either # 1 or #2. I had experimented with some specials like "The Friday Class Reunion," sounds familiar doesn't it, and other special programming like featured artist, etc. I also did some phone stuff on the air with listeners, including Elliott Blauvelt, a local realtor, who I called "The Mad Haranger," adoptable pet reports from the Chemung County Humane Society and a lot of other stuff. I was somewhat outspoken on the air and usually had poor Bill Russell stammering as I would add my own spin to one of his news stories and talk with him about it after his news cast. Well, the dye was cast, it was decided that I would kick of the Country Oldies Format on a Monday Morning completely unannounced. How the phone did ring, people were "mad as hell." and I can't say I blamed them, I didn't enjoy the format and I guess it showed on the air. As I mentioned earlier my father passed away July 5, 1991, I was informed while I was on the air when Rocky came in and told me I had to go. I stayed with WIQT for a about year after that and left in June of 1992 when we moved back to Canton. WIQT continued to flounder with several format changes eventually becoming WWLZ (Wheels) a sports, news, talk station.

WQIX was the first place I did a totally oldies format and served as a testing point for what would many years later become "The Class Reunion." at KRIM FM in Payson.