WGIV History by Pete Toomey
Back in 1947 ...Francis Fitzgerald, Sam Lineburger, Tom Brandon, Lloyd Epps, and a few other people businessmen, applied to the FCC for a license to operate an AM radio station on 1600 kc in Charlotte, NC. Later after this license was awarded, it became WGIV....1600 kc at the top of the dial. Contrary to popular belief that WGIV stood for “We are GI Veterans,” only 2 of these were veterans.
The letters were given by the FCC...at random...they had no meaning, except that Fitzgerald said that it meant, “We Grow In Value.” The station went on the air as a “daylight staton” i.e., operating from local sun up tilsun down, with a power of 1000 watts. The building itself was bought from the old
Morris Field base...which is now Douglas Airport, and it was brought to the site of Toomey and Remont Ave. and was pieced together ....the two buildings were puttogether....and made a studio/office complex.
(Lee Shephard....actually, the Morris field building held the transmitter/studio/record library/ AP news ticker (which was in the bathroom)......the SECOND building was purchased a few years later from the Charlotte Catholic school (it was a prefab
building which were used as a classroom for the students) and towed across town to the Toomey Ave site and added on to the Morris Field building.....and used for the WGIV offices...which were basically the office of Francis Fitzgerald, and a general
office area, used mainly by Frances Crowell (I believe) Fitz' secretary and general business executive. (I was working at WGIV when this happened. -Lee)
The tower and transmitter was bought from the state of North Carolina at an auction. The tower was dismantled, and moved, the transmitter was formally an AM transmiter for the NC Highway Patrol. Later, a second transmitter was bought for a
back up.
The station went on the air December, 1947 ....
It was “local radio”....which meant that we had DJs...called “announcers” in those days ...they sat in a studio and talked, and had a control board engineer...who was responsible for turning the microphone on and off....riding the gain of the records
(which were activated by the announcers from a turntable in the studio on either side of the announcer.
Usually, the format consisted of music of specific artists....which at the time were Eddie Fisher...the program was about 15 minutes.....
(Note from Lee. I don't recall playing Eddie Fisher tunes at that time....but Pete could be correct. I remember those shows....15 minutes in length...featuring artists from the “World” (I believe) transcription library library....which were large 33 and a third
“transcriptions”...purchased from something called the “World Transcriptions”....I think...and featured artists such as Wayne King, Guy Lombardo....TommyDorsey...and other artists which were pretty vanilla even at the time....
Following the “standard” radio format at the time....the day was broken up into 15 minute “shows”...such as the Wayne King show....15 minutes of his music....followed by the Tommy Dorsey show.....15 minutes of his music... and soon. Most of the selections were from the “World Library” (I think I am correct
about the name of the transcription service)
I believe that GIV gradually got away from that format....and substituted more standard personality shows...
When I first joined WGIV in the spring of 1951, I believe it was....Genial Gene was the morning DJ....followed my Eric Dehlin....(not sure when his show started but it followed Gene.) There might have been some sort of show “for the housewives”
music of course..although for a short while we did a quiz show called “Stump the Staff”....Fitz would have everyone in the station come into the studio.....and the questions would come from the audience...I remember one directed to Gene.....”Who was my Sunday School Teacher?”
Gene asked a couple of questions....”What church do you go to....how old are you....etc...”and actually, he got the correct answer.
As I recall, that show didn't last very long....Fitz probably got tired of doing it.
At noon....the news....Probably read by an announcer....until perhaps 1953? whenever Julian Barber returned from service in Korea......and was made “News Director,” and he did that 15
minutes of news.
(Julian had previously worked at WAYS before being drafted and serving in Korea...but on his return, WAYS wouldn't hire him back......So he joined WGIV. (From there, he went to WSJS TV in Winston Salem...then on to WTOP in Washington...where he reigned as the number one local TV newscaster in the Nations Capitol...for at least 10 years.)
(Personal note....I had a number of “heros” or local broadcasters I greatly admired and tried to emulate.....Julian was certainly one of them. Bob Raiford was another...later Ty Boyd...with whom I worked at WCHL in Chapel Hill.
My junior year at Central High in Charlotte, I won a trip to Washington....it's was a “Citizenship Award” or something....anyway, we were given a “free day” during the
tour, and I chose to take a cab and try to see if I could visit that great station I had heard so much about..and dreamed of one day (in my pipe dreams) of perhaps
working there.....
I lucked out....the announcer on duty happened to be a former WBT announcer, John Trimble, I had heard so much about....he showed me around the station....I even sat in the announce booth as he introduced the news.....
What a “high!”
I'm sure I saw all the “sights” of the Nation's Capitol on that trip, but for me, the unforgettable highlight was my visit to the “station of my dreams!”
I would never have imagined that not quite 10 years later I would be working there...with two of my “heros,” Julian Barber and Bob Raiford!
I hosted one of the first local morning TV interview shows in Washington, “Cadence” from 1967 – 1969.
(Back to Pete Toomey....history of WGIV)
....as the years went by...WGIV began to hire people...and it comes to my mind....some guys in those days were....(of course all gone now)....Fred Vinroot, Johnny Surratt, Charlie Friar, ....we had a female, Ann Parish, who later became Ann Parish Woods, and Conrad Phillips....I'll never forget....Conrad was a veteran
.....of the Korean War...who lost both of his feet from frostbite...He was quite a character...''
While he was on WGIV, a fellow who was in the business of marketing ...who later became real popular ...Colonel Tom Parker....he was a former side show barker, who
came up with a health “fluid”....called Hadacol.....He said he named it Hadacol..because he “Had a call” it something.
Anyhow, Conrad Phillips became one of the spokesmen for Hadacol...and Conrad really go a kick out of –? Hadacol.... Commercials?....which were done mosty adlib. Conrad later became known as “Captain Hadacol”....and was quite a
friend of Col Tom Parker....(who later became the manager of Elvis).
We also had a fellow named Johnny Surratt....he was quite a salesperson. And an announcer....a lot of personality....
And along through the years, the hired other prominent people who came to town, such as Julian Barber....who's uncle was Red Barber,.,..Julian was basically a “news announcer” Julian was with the armed forces radio at the time the serender took place with General McArthur on the warship (....I think Pete is a bit
confused here....-Lee)
We also had a fellow named Owen Span...who was quite popular....who left and went to Winston Salem.
One of the most amazing people we ever had at the station was a totally blind man named Alonzo Squires .....Alonzo had an engineer...Henry Poole....Henry was very gifted and talented.....Henry came up with a gizmo ...where one headphone allowed Alonzo to hear what was on the air...and the other was a direct link to Henry...the control board operator..Alonzo would call the weather bureau in the morning...and remember everything the weatherman said about the weather. He memorized the
weather forecast and many other things....Alonzo would give the time ,,,,,Alonzo would say, “the time is.....Seven........and Henry would say in Alonzo's ear.....15.
This amazed a lot of people......they couldn't figure out how Alonzo could tell the time.
Alonzo was quite an amazing fellow. He got involved in a little political scandal...and he had to be terminated by the station.
After that, he went on the road as a salesman ...selling chemicals...which he actually demonstrated.
Charlie Friar was a gifted piano player ...and he played live sometimes live at Parker's piano company, which was on Trade Street and gave live shows and interviewed people and what have you... and I mentioned Ann Parish, she was a very attractive blonde and she was, I think a former Beauty Queen...by anyhow, she did a woman's show...and was very well liked.
A few “Game shows” took place....some of them written by the staff...later on, TAPE came in....and they bought their first recorder....which was a Busch...recorder
that was very unreliable...later on they bought a battery operated recorder....that Julian would take on location...but it only had about 5 minutes of battery time...
But as time went on.....Mr. Fitzgerald...who was very knowledgeable about the business...went to a party..put on by one of the brewers.....and there was a black gentleman there by the name of Samuel Eugene Potts....a retired school
teacher...who explained that as a youngster he had a hard time talking....he stuttered.....and “rhyming” helped him overcome that handicap.
Gene was a great talker....especially injecting rhymes into the
conversation....Fitzgerald put him “on the air”....and Gene was an almost instant success.
He worked out an arrangement that he, Gene, would buy his time from the station...and then sell it himself. Myers Furniture Store, Lebos, and a few other downtown stores. ..became his “sponsors” and he would ad lib their commercials.....and no matter what he was advertising....people bought. Gene was a
great salesman. He got so good that Mr. Fitzgerald had to increase his time...(Gene was the first Black disc jockey announcer
in Charlotte.)
He got so popular he had to hire someone to go through his mail. A
lady named Josephine was the one I remember best. One lady he hired was a Johnson C. Smith student named Hattie Leper. She could read a lot faster than Gene...so he let her read a number of the letters on the air.....people started asking about Hattie....so Mr.
Fitzgerald named her “Chatty Hattie” and put her on the air at times.
Later, as years went by, Hattie did more and more, so Mr. Fitzgerald finally gave her...her own show.
Then, Joy Boy came along...Roy Sanders was his name...he was a great guy...he became so popular Mr. Fitz gave him his own show playing Gospel Music........he called himself...”Joy Boy the Joy Boy of Soul,” quite a character.
There were other DJ's there who began to play Rock and Roll....while the blacks were playing rhythm and Blues...and I was an engineer at the time and we needed somebody to open up the station in the morning at 5am....so Mr. Fitzgerald assigned
that to me. I played country western music...until 6....and I believe Owen Spann came on after that until 8 or 9 o'clock when Gene came on.
Later on...my time increased...I came on at 5..went off at 6...and came back on at 7
and stated on til 9 and started playing Rock and Roll. As the years went by, we had famous people like Bill Haley and the Comets...and of course Elvis...who increased our listenership quite a bit. (he was talking of course about playing their music)
We had what Mr. Fitzgerald called a “personality station.”
He told me to go in there and “just be yourself.” By the way, he nicknamed me, “Hound Dog,” that's spelled DAWG. I went to work there in 1953.
Later on, others were hired .....there were Scott Hubs, Hotch Scot (?) Rusty Page, and later on there was Ray Gooding....whose real name was Euriah (?) L. Gooding .....who he named “Rocking Ray.” ,,,which he still uses today....he later left WGIV
and went to WBT.
The studio facility was remodeled many times...we had a lot of competition...but they didn't touch us. We had the top rating for 5 years in a row....and put a couple of local radio stations into
bankruptcy. They often tried to imitate...but they could not duplicate. During this renovation, Mr. Fitzgerald said that since there were so many people stand around down here....I'm going to enlarge the studio so that we can have people come in...so he increased the size of studio A....and put a long bench in there where
people could come in and watch Gene or me do our broadcasts...and the audience was instructed to keep quiet when the lights indicating that the mic was on....and ifsomebody DID keep talking...it upset Gene tremendously.
Later on, in the 60's..a completely new building was built. Which had 3 nice studios in it...all brand new equipment...and being an engineer...I had to wire most of it...which I really enjoyed. At the same time, they applied for...and got..what they called “Full Time License”...which meant they could operate in the evenings, instead
of signing off at “sundown.” However, our signal, was only North/South at the time.
Our transmtter site was moved out to Belle Haven Area and it was there until closing time in year 2003. The studios were second to none. We were actually the first radio station in North Carolina to have a direct teletype to the weather bureau. We got our weather forecasts directly from the teletype...other stations eventually got the same thing..but ours was a test.
I stayed there until 1957...and I left to go to Mount Dora (?) Florida where Mr. Fitzgerald put up another daytime station. I became manager of the station and went on the air as Hound Dawg...but I only had a couple of hours a day...because I was involved mostly with management and technical operations...I stayed there for
almost two years ...but I was eager to get back to Charlotte...finally I came back to Charlotte...went back on the air....and they had quite a “welcome back” for me. I got my ratings back up...this was the Elvis Pressley era when I returned to Charlotte...and because we had a good relationship with Col Tom Parker...there was
a DJ working for us..named Bobby Gilbert..who found this old Sun Record....and he played it...and told us this guy is good.
Bobby started playing it....etc....
so we were big Elvis promoters at the time....
Later on, we began to get into night time....radio....I was losing in it...the hours were long...pay wasn't too good....so I joined the Charlotte Police Reserves....I fell in love with police work. In 1965 I went to work for the Police Dept in the Radio Room.
I retired from the police dept in April of 1990...I enjoyed it very much.....
Pete Toomey
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