Re: WWEL, Top o' the hour

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 06:46 PM 6/5/97 +0000, you wrote:
>Didn't WWEL actually use the liner "It's xx o'clock, and all's well at
>W-Well"?
>
>One final word on top-of-hour IDs: When I was living in Arkansas, in the
>late '70s, country KLRA (1010) Little Rock used to ID as "The
>10,000-watt Voice of Arkansas." Somehow, 50,000-watt top 40 KAAY (1090)
>never took the bait. Anybody else know of any stations to boast of
>less-than-maximum power in an ID?
>
Well, when I was in college in Troy NY in the 50s, there was an Albany
station, WXKW, whose call letters stood for its power, 10 kW. It _was_ the
most powerful station licensed to Albany for a few months, until WPTR went
on the air. Originally, WPTR was also 10 kW, but in fairly short order it
went to 50 kW. And, of course, the Capital District had been home to 50 kW
WGY Schenectady for decades before WXKW appeared. WXKW remained WXKW and
remained a 10-kW station for about six years until it finally went off the
air because of problems with its directional array. Years later, the WXKW
calls resurfaced in the Capital District on a 500W daytimer licensed to
Cohoes--if memory serves, on 1600. You gotta admit WXKW is a great set of
calls, regardless of the power. After the Cohoes station died, the calls
spent a number of years at an AM/FM combo in Allentown PA. Those stations
gave up the calls a couple of years ago and I have lost track of where they
have gone since then.

Right after the original WXKW died, a friend of mine "liberated" the big
brass or bronze WXKW sign from the bank building in downtown Albany where
the station had had its studios. He has kept the sign in his rec room all of
the intervening years (over 40 years). And he became quite wealthy--so
wealthy in fact that he was finally able to build his own radio station. He
tried to get the WXKW calls, but they were tied up in Allentown at the time.
So he got as close as he could--he substituted the first letter of his last
name for the X. And so WTKW Bridgeport NY got its calls. WTKW are also great
calls, but not quite as great as WXKW.

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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