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William Orten Carlton = ORT.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT & BEER EDITOR FOR THE FLAGPOLE
HOW GOOD ROCK RADIO WORKS, PART 3:
THE LIFE, DEATH A1VD CHRISTIAN CONVERSION OF WGOE
As we last left our story about Progressive
Radio Richmond, WGOE, I was illustrating how
well advertising on the station worked.
Although WGOE barely dented the ratings books,
the response we got at Peaches Records & Tapes,
the store where I worked, had to have been horn
a far larger audience than the rating service had
sampled; it could not be chalked up to any mere
small group of listeners' sponsor loyalty.
Remember, I was there in Richmond, Va.,
horn February through June, 1979. Nevertheless,
I thought I ought to share with you just a few of
the things I heard on WGOE; it will give you an
idea of what we are missing in commercial radio
today.
By the way. I originally wrote a section on
the specific music WGOE played. I will add to
this; it will eventually be placed in our online
section under my name. That's
www.flagpole.com. folks!
There was a ''classical" show on Sunday
mornings before the Quaker meeting. The host, a
railroad accountant in his 50s with a pronounced
Virginia accent, played works by the likes of
Webern, Varese, Schonberg. and Alban Berg;
industrial stuff; grinding noises; spoken word in
languages like Urdu; snatches of movie dialogue
in such tongues as Polish. (Not even Amy
Walter's legendary WUOG Show 'The Urban
Runoff* was as utterly imaginative.) He intro
duced Richmond to the piano roll compositions
of Conlon Nancarrow and to the impossible
tempos of Liszt and others as played by
Hungarian-American pianist Ervin Nyiregyhazi.
He is reportedly still on the air at the University
Of Richmond station, doing a similar show. I
think he called it 'Horizons.'*
Oh — the commercials. We used a mouse
sneeze in one of ours. Literally. Mice do sneeze,
but getting it on tape was the booger. WGOE did
it: but then again, WGOE could do practically
anything. Some exceptionally tame and com
pliant laboratory mice, a
very tiny amount of black
pepper, and a ready micro
phone were all it took. I
guess that's low-grade
animal abuse, but the mice
didn't seem to mind and
recovered in minutes.
In one commercial
spot, a girl strummed a
guitar and sang "Someday
my pnnce will come." The
announcer butted in with
"You don't have to wait for
Godot for your prints when
you take them to Color-
Quik of Richmond!" This
and many of the station's
other commercials were
written by a marvelous,
gifted young woman who
was driving through Richmond on her way from
New York to Miami to take a job writing ad copy.
She tuned into WGOE, became entranced, pulled
off of 1-95, found the station, and badgered
them for a job. They put her to work; she won
awards every year she was there. She only went
to Miami after WGOE changed format.
Then there was Jim The Engineer. He kept
Hortense The Transmitter alive. I think Hcrtense
was an old, old GE 5kw, from about 1947. Jim
had waist-length hair, was about 45, and he
knew his stuff. He customarily signed the sta
tion back on at 1 o'clock Monday morning for
four hours, conducting "program tests." (This
was called "dead time” by the F. C. C.. and as
long as no commercials were run. a daytimer
could do this.) I heard WGOE here one night
after I left; Jim came on with "Well, that does it
for this week. This is WGOE in Richmond, Va..
sianinq off."
Prophetic words. For not long after that,
WGOE did indeed sign off. and alas. WGOE is no
more.
As ! was leaving Richmond, heading back to
Athens to finish my last quarter of college, I lis
tened as fat as the signal
would pull. Crossing the
Mehernn River 60 miles
south of town, I heard
'Tell the rating service
that you’re listening to
Progressive Radio
Richmond, WGOE. They 11
be amazed! Music now by
Pere Ubu."
As I drove on, the
strains of "(Pa) Ubu Dance
Party" from the Dub
Housing LP filtered
through my AM radio
speaker. 'That's the
greatest radio station I've
ever heard," I mumbled
aloud. "I hope they're still
there whenever I can get
back."
By the time I was able to travel back, WGOE
had changed.
The tower was located in a former drive-in
theater that had been converted into a junkyard
out Jefferson Davis Highway on Richmond's
largely industrial south side. One day in early
1980 a truck backed over one of the guy wires
that held the tower, and — CRASH! — down it
came. The station remained silent for several
days until the tower could be righted. Bills piled
up. A benefactor stepped in and offered to bail
out the station, provided he could program it. It
was the only hope to keep it on the air. When
Hortense The Transmitter was again able to give
voice to WGOE, its format had changed to all
oldies and Beach Music What had been
Progressive Radio Richmond was now GOldiEs
159!
Ultimately the Beach Music format quit being
as profitable as it once had been. The station
was sold to a religious group, who put in for a
call letter change. The "new" station was set to
debut one Monday morning at 6 o’clock as WFTH
— FaiTH 159. But the new owners were open-
minded enough to allow the old WGOE to have
one last get-go.
All the old staffers who could be located were
assembled. It turned into a block party that
engulfed most of Carytown, where the soon-to-
be-vacated studios were located. The station
stayed on the air all night, all weekend, on full
power. And as Progressive Radio Richmond. From
sundown Friday, when GOldiEs 159 left the air,
album rock again sang out over Hortense.
It was Jim The Engineer who had the last
word. At 5:56 on Monday morning, WGOE played
"The Star Spangled Banner" by Jimi Hendrix.
The former general manager came on and said
"God Bless you all. What a long, strange trip it's
been." Then Jim The Engineer, in tears, whis
pered "Goodbye, kids" into the mike. (Those had
been the words of Claiabelle Gown as the last
"Howdy Doody" show left the air in 1962.)
Strings then filled the speaker. "Welcome to a
new day in radio. You're listening to FaiTH 159,"
spoke a tape horn another location. That was all
she wrote.
Folks, someday I wanna be in on doing a sta
tion like that. Here in Athens. The Bridge came
close enough. But I want something even more
amazing. Anyone else up for the challenge? (30.)
© 1999 William Orten Carlton.
AVAILABLE HERE
1979
fade-resistant
edition of the
WGOE
adhesion circle
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m FLAGPOLE FEBRUARY 24, 1999