WGOE

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WGOE (now WFTH) is a 5000 watt daytime AM radio station in Richmond, Virginia.

[edit] History

The station had first been on the air briefly in the late 1950s as a popular Top 40 station with the call letters WEZL, called "Weazel". But, by the end of the fifties, the station had gone dark due to money problems (and probably due to new Top 40 competition from 24 hour WLEE-AM).The station at 1590 kHz went back on the air in 1964 and was owned by brothers Major and J. Sargeant Reynolds. The transmitter was located in South Richmond and the studios were located at Willow Lawn in Henrico County, later moving to Southside Richmond on Belt Boulevard, and later to Carytown in Central Richmond.

Early on air talent included Jess Duboy and "Gentleman" Jim Granger, Bill James, Doug Riddell, Mike Dawson, and Bob Mann. Local legend Norman "Bob-A-Lou" Freedlander also worked there during the station's Top 40 1960's heyday.(In the mid sixties WGOE briefly had an FM sister station when the Reynolds brothers took on management duties on local classical FM station 103.7 WFMV,which was sold off in the late sixties). During this time, 1590 would bill themselves "WGOE,..All The Way Right", to refer to the 1590 position to the far right of the AM dial, and also as "GO Radio" to refer to the WGOE calls. From about 1964 to 1970, the station enjoyed local success and decent ratings during the “golden era of Top 40 " and for awhile, was an aggressive competitor to then-market leading Top 40 station , WLEE.

By 1970, listener habits were changing, and WGOE's listenership was falling off mostly due increased competition from then-Top 40 competitors WLEE-AM and WTVR-AM, which both boasted 24 hour signals as opposed to WGOE's daytime only signal, along with a rumored change to Top 40 coming on then crosstown automated country station WRVA-FM ( which became fact in 1972 when that station became Top 40 as WRVQ ) . Seeing the success of a late night album rock weekend show on crosstown WEZS-FM called "Veronica Lake" which presented rock LP cuts in the then up & coming " Progressive " style made popular by several west coast FM stations , The station decided to start its own daytime weekend Progressive Rock show in 1970 called "Saturday Subway". Seeing good results from the "Subway" show, the old Top 40 format was dropped and the Progressive Album Rock format was put on full time in late 1970. During WGOE's Progressive days, they were the only local commercial station that would play "new rock music" right "out of the box" and exposed many up & coming artists throughout the 70s, many who became rock legends. Among the regular visitors to the station were Alice Cooper, Todd Rundgren, and Bruce Springsteen, who was a local resident at the time. During the 70s, the station was commonly known simply by its last three call letters " G-O-E "

Despite the switch to album rock, mainly to needle & frustrate their "mainstream establishment" Top 40 competitors, WGOE held on to the then-new and up & coming syndicated "American Top 40" show, which had been added in their last days as a Top 40 station in early 1970, which they ran on Sunday mornings. The show stayed on WGOE well into their Progressive period, up until the summer of 1976, when show owner Watermark was finally convinced by the then much higher-rated and dominating Top 40 station, WRVQ (FM), which had been after the show's broadcast rights for a few years, that it would have a much bigger and wider audience on the FM band at 200,000 watts than on a 5000 watt AM day-timer that wasn't even doing a Top 40 format, and WGOE's contract to run the show wasn't renewed. The show moved to WRVQ, where it remains to this day.

Some of the DJs who worked as at WGOE in this period were John Stevens, who later became a popular Philadelphia Rock Personality, Jay August (who had been on the station a few years before during their Top 40 days as " Bob Mann " ), Chuck Ducoty, Pat O'Neil, Ellen Burchell, Steve Forrest, Lauren Foate , Doug Stell, Paul Shugrue, Jim Letizia and Ken Booton, who was also known as "Melvin The Big Green Frog". During this period WGOE occasionally went on late at night for what was supposed to be a transmitter test, which means commercial announcements are not allowed but you could broadcast non-commercial material, including music. Done by Chief Engineer Jim Grainger (no relation to "Gentleman Jim" of the earlier Top 40 era), a lot of little-heard music was played, sometimes rock, sometimes something else out of the ordinary, even for a station with WGOE's normal wide-ranging Progressive format. Although not publicized by the station, this "show" became known by market insiders and a cult of local and out of town listeners as "Jim Grainger and The Transmitter Check", and ran throughout WGOE's Album Rock period. The station also distributed small yellow round bumper stickers, which were unlike the large rectangular bumper stickers being distributed by the other radio stations at the time and instead of calling them bumper stickers, they called them "Adhesion Circles." You can still occasionally spot some old WGOE Adhesion Circles stuck to telephone poles, street signs and the sides of old buildings and even a few cars to this day in Richmond, mostly in the "Fan" area of Richmond, also known as the VCU College area, where most of WGOE's fan base was centered in the seventies. What WGOE was doing in the 70s would today known as the " AAA " (Adult Album Alternative), although WGOE was much more free-form and adventurous.

The progressive format ran from 1970 to 1980 before succumbing to the competition with the emergence of rock music on FM radio frequencies in Richmond with WRXL (102.1) and WRVQ (94.5) in 1980.In 1980,under new manager Jack Alix, the station went to an Oldies format calling itself "GO-16, Rock & Roll Roots" radio, named after a syndicated show Alix had once produced. The Oldies format lasted until 1982. Alix left in 1981 and air staffer Steve "Mr. Beach" Leonard took over as Program Director.

During this time, Leonard assumed the Morning Drive position and started including in the oldies format the regionally popular beach and shag music which had been a popular dance craze starting at the Southeastern Beaches in the 50s and 60s, and by 1980 was just starting to get a foothold in Virginia. This led to Leonard becoming widely identified with the music and gave him the nickname " Mr. Beach ",which would eventually made Leonard a local radio legend in Beach Music and the ultimate Beach Music " authority " in Richmond years after WGOE's demise. In late 1982, a few months after WGOE's demise, Leonard was recruited by local FM outlet WEZS ( now WMXB ) to host their newly created " Sunday Night Beach Party " which ran on the station from 1982 to 1996, then moved over briefly to now defunct sister Oldies stations 104.7 WVGO, and later 106.5 WRCL, then to AM station 1320 WNVZ, and finally on to WZEZ-FM at 100.3 where it currently runs, still on Sunday nights. During his long run at WEZS / WMXB , having the advantage of a large powerful signal on 103.7, based on local listener & club input, Leonard actually created the " Virginia Beach Music Sound " which, unlike the 1950s Doo-Wop based Beach Sound of the Carolina's, the Virginia beach music is laced with more 1960s R&B, such labels as Stax, Atlantic/Atco, and Motown, 70s Soul from such artists as The O'Jays, Spinners, Al Green, The Stylistics, Barry White ,as well as a few Vintage disco tunes from The Village People & KC & The Sunshine Band , along with Virginia based talent such as Bill Deal & The Rhondells, Robbin Thompson, Steve Bassett, and Ron Moody. Leonard still MCs many local and regional beach music concerts. In Richmond, you can't mention "Beach Music" without including the name Steve "Mr. Beach" Leonard.

In mid 1982 WGOE was sold to an owner who indicated he did not intend to keep the oldies format. WGOE's last day on the air as an Oldies station got local newspaper and television coverage. The on-air lineup for WGOE's final day on the air was: Full-Timers Steve Leonard, Lee Edwards, Bob Campbell, and Robyn Bentley and part-timer Matt Nicholls. The last song played on the station as WGOE was "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen. The next day, the station was taken over by the new owner, Norfolk-based Bishop L.E. Willis, who flipped the station to a Black Gospel format under new calls WFTH, which it remains to this day. WGOE had three separate "fan bases" of listeners, the 60s fans who remember WGOE as a Top 40 station, the 70s fans, mostly VCU alumni, who remember the pioneering album rock format, the early 80s fans who remember the Beach Music laden Oldies format. Many local radio insiders agree that if WGOE had been able to move to the FM band in the seventies, instead of being stuck on the AM band, it would have probably still have been around today as an album rock station in some form or another, like its larger market FM counterparts like WBCN in Boston, WMMR In Philadelphia, WDVE in Pittsburg, and WMMS in Cleveland.