WJHO was a Top-40 station licensed to Opelika, Alabama. I'll take a wild guess and say this sticker is from 1974. Not sure when they dropped the format but they're now a News/Talk station with WANI as their calls. Anyone know what the "Sail Thru" thing is all about?
UPDATE: See comments
11 comments:
Greg, I wish I could help but I left there in 1971. I worked as a newsman, morning DJ and continuity director 'til I graduated from Auburn. Jack Smollon was the general manager at that time. He was unpredictable and sorta marched to a different drummer.
At that time, the station was owned by C.C. "Bo" Torbert. He was an Alabama Supreme Court Justice. The "JHO" of the call letters are from John Herbert Orr. During WWII, Orr found that Hitler was giving the same speech on several radio stations at the same time in Germany and found they were using magnetic paper tape. Using captured German scientists, he perfected the use of synthetic tape. He formed Orradio in 1949. I believe the radio station was a part of the business. Ampex Corp. bought Orradio (but not the radio station) later and Orr made millions from it. The radio station was sold later. As part of the Ampex deal, he was required to stay out of the tape business for 10 years. In that time, he developed other magnetic coatings (chromium dioxide, etc.) that were released after the 10 year period.
Orr died in 1984. Much of his money was contributed to various Methodist causes during his lifetime.
You can reach me at hopk741@bellsouth.net
I worked the weekend graveyard shift in the Fall of '73 and am not familiar with this. Nice station. A little spooky the night the fisherman in Pascagoula claimed they had been visited by space men. There was a picture window behind my back and someone started calling the station with alien sightings. Suffice it to say I didn't open the curtains! The police department regularly called in requests for "Behind closed doors" and dedicated it to the Fire Department.
kf4irc@bellsouth.net
I lived in Opelika during the early 60's and remember listening to the top 40 then. Calling in request and asking for dedications...ahhh, the memories. As for the Sail thru, the only thing I can think of is that Opelika is close to Lake Martin..the largest man-made lake in Alabama. Lake Martin is a big water sports area that attracts people from all over the south. I can only assume it has to do something with the lake.
WJHO was the local AM radio station for opelika, alabama. There was rock and roll, local news and even country music. There where local favorite DJ's like Speck by Heck and even I hear the country star Freddy Hart "Easy Loving" worked there. WJHO was located on the opelika Highway across from the Lee County Hospitol. The building and tower are now gone. The site is now a Sonic and Dairy Queen resturant. WJHO was owned as a previous poster said by John Herbert Orr. It was one of his first businesses. AM radio was a real fun music medium to listen too.
As a longtime employee I can solve the mystery. The station once gave away a small sailboat. Thus the bumper sticker.
Well, I can't figure how a guy from Ohio came across the WJHO sticker. Dickson Norman, still in the area, worked with the station back in the late '60's and early '70's. He's on Facebook and you can find him. He's a veritable walking encyclopedia of old Opelika and WJHO information. Try there if you want the truth.
I lived there as a child and left at the end of '69. WJHO was our info. hub. We had "call in's" to the station in the evening. "Jean wants to play 'It's My Party' to Cecil." Our favorite DJ was "Freckles and His Friends". I remember calling in as a 7th grader. I thought I was telling a secret, and learned that he had me on the radio live. Hard to endure as a 7th grader....I was talking about a boy I wanted to dedicate a song to, but didn't want him to know. Punked before "Punked" was a show!!!
Good luck with your quest. Great memories for me!!!
I was born @ Lee County Hospital,across the street from WJHO,in 1971. I grew up listening to the Smiling Jack show,hosted by Jack Smollon,& the news with Robert Cox.My parents alarm clock would go off @ 5:00 every morning,startin off with Amazing Grace with Judy Collins.What great memories.
ANONYMOUS 2 Jan 16 0200:
I grew up listing to WJHO 1400 AM. I can remember the early
morning hour waking up to my mom in the kitchen cooking breakfast and listing to the early morning gospel music, and then you also had Cuz Roy he was a very funny man and don't leave out The Crime report with Robert Cox. Then around 7:30 in the morning you had Jack Smollon doing his virgin of the victory songs for The Auburn Tigers doing football season, bye that time I would be on my way to Drake High School... Man where those the days that I will never forget listing to WJHO Radio station and on the way to Opelika past by the radio station, looking at the WJHO sign seeing the tower and most of all Jack Smollon station wagon park out front...
My father, Marion Hyatt, was the first general manager of WJHO. My father was from Ottumwa, Iowa, and was trained in radio by the RCA which established a school to train radio station managers who were mostly hired to open the very first radio station in their respective community. Mr. Orr hired my father in 1939 and we moved south to Opelika in 1940.
The new radio station was opened in 1940 on the Opelika-Auburn highway in a small state-of-the-art building in 1940. It was across the street from what is now the East Alabama Medical. It was the first station to serve Lee County. It was on the edge of a large swamp and the 300-foot antenna was erected in the middle of the swamp with an elevated walkway out to it. I could tell many stories about the station and its great impact on Opelika, Auburn and API (now Auburn U.). Dad gave Auburn the first every radio broadcast of an Auburn football game--broadcast from the top of a Merita Bread truck parked on the sideline. There are many, many such experiments and "firsts" during the early years which included the war years. Phil Hyatt 8650 Belle Mina Way, Knoxville, TN 37923.
I remember WJHO well. I remember the Smilin' Jack Show because we'd listen to it as my Mom drove my sister, brother, and I to school in the mornings. I was born in Lee County Hospital in 1959, nineteen years after WJHO did its first broadcast. It remained a staple for a large part of my life. So many changes have happened in Opelika since then. WJHO is no more. Building and tower is torn down. An Armory stands in its place now. Lee County Hospital has undergone several renovations and is now known as East Alabama Medical Center. Glad you got an answer about the sticker. :)
While I was at Auburn, I worked as a DJ at WJHO from 1978-1979. They had a strange format. Morning drive had 1950-60 big band, top 40 from 9 until 1, then hillbilly country from 1-3, back to top 40 from 3 until midnight, then whatever the overnight DJ wanted to play, country, soul R&B, we played it all. I worked a few weeks on the overnight weekend and I guess I was good enough to move me to Weekday afternoons. Smilin' Jack Smollon was the GM at the time and did those quirky Auburn fight songs each week during football season.
I also worked the 6am to noon Sunday shifts for awhile. That was tough being there after a Saturday night of partying. A local preacher would come in and do a live 30 minute sermon, then a gospel band would setup and do a live show. Then a taped preacher show for 30 minutes, then I had to do the live news and sports. Followed by a 1/2 hour of Tennessee Ernie Ford Gospel songs sponsored by a local furniture store. I accidentally played a non-Gospel song by TEF one morning, the store owner called me and chewed my butt within 30 seconds. Then there was a taped religious show followed by a live broadcast from a local church to finish the morning.
During football seasons, I produced the Opelika football broadcast and did a post-game recap. I recorded the announcer on reel to reel tape and marked the good plays with a little slip of paper as the tape rolled. Then I would go back and transfer the good plays to a cart to play them back.
I had a lot of fun and enjoyed my part-time career at 1440, WJHO, Auburn-Opelika.
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