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630 WLAP-AM |
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WLAP Photos | WLAP 1960s DJs | WLAP Surveys | WLAP Airchecks | WLAP Jingles |
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WLAP-AM History WLAP is the oldest station in Kentucky.
Their history is perhaps the vaguest of all of them to me, however. WLAP
started out as the first station in Kentucky in June, 1922. It beat out WHAS in
Louisville by a few months. They had studios in the old Nunn Building
downtown for several years (a breaker panel in the basement still listed
some distinctly broadcasting labels as late as 1987), and a suite on Upper
Street in downtown Lexington. They completed the move to their transmitter
site in 1974. Their facility there has a distinctive Cold War look to it.
Of course, they are the Primary EBS, now EAS, station in Lexington. They
were the first in town with a generator to broadcast their signal when
power was out, which was a good thing on April 3, 1974 when tornadoes
swept through Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Their broadcasts that night
were the only link to the outside world for many people. |
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Know
anything more about this station? Have any WLAP-AM airchecks, photos or
promotional material? |
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Two WLAP
programmers from the station's early days in Louisville: |
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WLAP gets some ink in 1929. |
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WLAP singers Betty Leonard and Miller Hass |
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Carl Zoller's Melodists (circa 1929) |
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Crest patch from Billy Love's 1963 WLAP blazer | |
Another blaze patch from Billy Love | |
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Bill Love provides the captions for this photo: "I have attached a photo from 1964. I was News Director under my real name: Bill Herald. Here I am with the WLAP 1964 Chevy Impala station wagon in front of the station at 177 North Upper Street. That's our other newsman, Bill Carroll, behind the wheel. Shortly after this the station was sold to the Illinois group and our VERY popular night jock, Denny Mitchell, was hired by the competition (WVLK) and I had the opportunity to move to the 6:40-Midnight slot and John Duvall became News Director. I had to come up with a DJ sounding name and I had just seen the movie "the Nutty Professor" with Jerry Lewis. I took his name when he was cool: BUDDY LOVE = BILLY LOVE. What great fun to be on a station that had a LOT of listeners. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, Dave Clark Five, etc. were hot and every teenager listened to us. I got a call in 1965 from a British fellow who was the chef at the Campbell House. He asked if I wanted him to sit in with me at night and talk about the British groups. HELL YES! His name was Ian Greaves. Very handsome fellow who drove a Jaguar (rented) and wore a freakin' ASCOT! The young girls loved him when he read their dedications in his British accent. He had the time of his life for NO PAY. I was making $125 a week and had trouble spending it all. What a time!" |
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WLAP
Airstaff in the mid '60s |
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1960s print ad featuring Jim Allison | |
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Ron Chilton (1968) | |
Ron Chilton (1968) | |
1960s print ad featuring Ron Chilton | |
1960s print ad for "Sound Off" with Ron Chilton | |
Jim Allison (1968) | |
Bob Paddock (1968) | |
Herb Oscar Kent (1968) | |
Paul Lindsey (1968) | |
Mike Thompson (1968) | |
Cliff Eaton (1968) | |
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Herb Oscar Kent (1968) |
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Newsman Rich Gimmel (1971) |
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Reynolds Large was not only
a 1960s WLAP DJ, but he also hosted a jazz show at the |
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WLAP AM/FM transmitter site monitoring equipment, processing, etc. (1973) | |
WLAP-AM "One Radio Park" control room under construction (1973) | |
WLAP-AM "One Radio Park" control room under construction (1973) | |
WLAP-FM automation system,
transmitter (1973) Note: This very simple automation system was used to power WLAP-FM's beautiful music format. WLAP-FM was broadcasting in mono with 3000 watts of power at this time. The power upgrade to 50,000 watts, a switch to stereo and a new automation system to fuel TM's "Stereo Rock" format would come in 1973. |
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View from the lobby into the
conference room/talk show studio,
the control room, and the transmitter/FM automation area during construction (1973) |
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WLAP Key Fob and Pin |
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WLAP's "Radio Park" in 1974 | |
View from the lobby into the
conference room/talk show studio, the control room, and the transmitter/FM automation area (1974) |
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Eric Stevens on the air on WLAP (1974); the newsroom is directly across from the control board | |
WLAP's primary transmitter (1974) | |
WLAP PM Drive DJ John Egan (Circa 1974) | |
WLAP Morning Drive DJ Dave Murray (1975) | |
Newsman Ken Gullette | |
WLAP 1978 print ad featuring the station's air personalities | |
WLAP 1978 print ad featuring the station's newsmen | |
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Here's an
invitation to the 60th anniversary celebration for WLAP (AM) in 1982. |
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The cover to the late Lewis Owens' history of WLAP |
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WLAP Chief Engineer Lewis Owens |
Jack Pattie in the WLAP-AM control room |
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Dan Reynolds programs the WLAP-FM automation system |
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Morning man Eric Stevens (November 1987) |
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WLAP's
"Radio Park" on Russell Cave Road in later days, |
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Another view of WLAP's "Radio Park" |
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WLAP
1960s Survey Collection (ZIP File) This file includes surveys from 1964, 1965 and 1966 33,996 KB |
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WLAP
1968 Survey Collection (ZIP File) 21,137 KB |
WLAP
1970 Survey Collection (ZIP File) 25,029 KB |
WLAP
1971 Survey Collection (ZIP File) 133,547 KB |
WLAP
1972 Survey Collection (ZIP File) 152,644 KB |
WLAP
1973 Survey Collection (ZIP File) 273,917 KB |
WLAP
1974 Survey Collection (ZIP File) 149,813 KB |
1962
Aircheck Snippets (Unknown Announcers) 2:10 - 765 KB |
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Billy Love (1964 #1) 4:25 - 1555 KB |
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Billy Love (1964 #2) 4:09 - 1463 KB |
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WLAP
1964 Newscasts 7:33 - 2658 KB |
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Billy
Love (1966) 12:24 - 4360 KB |
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Herb Oscar Kent (1966) 18:48 - 6613 KB |
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Herb Oscar Kent (1968) 7:05 - 2495 KB |
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Herb Oscar Kent's
Last Night Show (1969) 29:10 - 10,256 KB |
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News, Traffic and Commercials Montage (Date Unknown) |
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Reynolds Large (1970) |
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Bill Crisp's Undoing (1970) The quality on this brief
aircheck is a little "iffy" but you can clearly |
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Al
Risen (July 3,1971) |
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Jason Williams (August 6,
1971) |
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Herb Oscar Kent Top 1000
Finale (1972) 4:16 - 1501 KB |
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Herb Oscar
Kent Phone Interview with Lily Tomlin (1972) 4:52 - 1715 KB |
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WLAP 1972 Sign-On
Announcement :23 - 142 KB |
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Dave White Commentline
Promo (Date Unknown) :30 - 179 KB |
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Ron
Lake (1972 #1) 4:15 - 1498 KB |
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Ron Lake
(1972 #2) 7:17 - 2562 KB |
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Ron Lake
(1972 #3) 7:29 - 2634 KB |
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Herb Oscar Kent (1973) 5:26 - 1914 KB |
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Jason Williams (1973) 7:53 - 2774 KB |
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Ron Lake
(1973) 6:28 - 2277 KB |
Ike Smith News
(1973) 2:16 - 1070 KB |
Rob Kennington (1974) 3:09 - 1109 KB |
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John
Egan (1975) 3:51 - 1356 KB |
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Herb Oscar Kent (July 1983) 9:09 - 3220 KB |
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Stephanie Markoo (1984) |
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Kim Jackson (October 18, 1987) Rob Calhoun says: "This
was from the last days of the Adult Contemporary format. |
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WLAP Mid-1960s Station Imaging Bill Love writes on December 27, 2009: "I found an old reel tape recently with a batch of WLAP promos by Nick Clooney, Wayne Bell (remember him, the sports guy on Channel 18?) and Herb Kent, and singing 'Billy Love' promos by Avo & Ray. They were UK students that had a minor hit called 'College Life' on Fraternity records in 1965. There are news intros, jingles, etc." |
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WLAP CRC
Jingles |
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WLAP Ullman Powerhouse
Jingles |
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WLAP Gwinsound Jingles |
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All audio is in downloadable MP3 format. |
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