WLAC-AM Nashville Boat Shot

What do WLAC-AM night time jocks do during the day? In 1978, it was lounge on a boat in Percy Priest Lake just east of Nashville. That's me, Nick Archer, splitting nights on WKQB-FM and WLAC-AM.

Wolfman Jack at WLAC Nashville

Brian Mason of WLAC sent in this shot of the Wolfman sitting in the WLAC-AM car, "The Honker", in the late 70s.

Radio Station Belt Buckles

Back in the 70s and 80s, belt buckles were a popular giveaway item at radio stations, I guess to hold up those wide belt jeans. Here are a few that survived, click to enlarge.

RTL was 208 Radio Luxembourg, from 1980. WSM Radio 65 is from the same time at the Nashville country station. WLAC was Top 40 in Nashville and featured the famous sun logo. WQXI was from the late 70s in Atlanta.

Did your favorite station give away belt buckles?

WLAC Nashville Christmas Card from Hoss Allen

I worked with Hoss Allen at WLAC in the 1980s, and later worked with him in my studio doing voiceovers for commercials. One Christmas he sent me a card. Click to enlarge.

Donny Osmond at WLAC Nashville May 1978

Here's a group shot for the ages. WLAC, which at the time was Top 40, had their spring party at the Centennial Park Bandshell in Nashville in May 1978. It was a day long promo event, with many local bands on hand, and most of the WLAC jocks. Highlight of the day was an appearance by Donny Osmond. He honored an old booking, which was amazing because he was on his honeymoon at the time. A limo picked he and his wife up at the airport and brought them to the event for a half hour. Click to enlarge pic.

L-R David Page as the KQBee, Stu Evans (now of KMEL Phoenix), Captain Sunshine, Bob Robison, Eva Wood, Donny, PD Mark Damon, Mike Shane, and Smokey Rivers.

Here's one more never before published pic of the KQBee and the WLAC Prize Van from this event.

WLAC Nashville Survey July 31 1967

Here's what WLAC Nashville was doing in the Summer Of Love. Not Top 40, but not entirely easy listening anymore. Thanks to Mae Ambrose for this image. Click to enlarge, audio version is here.

WLAC Nashville Survey July 31 1978

WLAC AM 1510 was the last chapter in Top 40 AM radio for Nashville. I worked at the station then, doing Saturday night midnight to 430am Sunday morning, keeping people awake over most of the country. According to a Rolling Stone article, WLAC AM was the most popular station in Cuba at night. We even got fan mail from Sweden. Here's the survey, click any pic to enlarge. Click here to hear the audio version.

Spider Harrison and Shadoe Bailey were the two nighttime jocks on WLAC. Shadoe went on to Atlanta and Spider is now an actor, radio host, and record label owner. You can hear an aircheck of The Spider here.

The music selection was as Top 40 as it got. It then went Top 30, with the #1 song being played every hour. Tough on the jocks but good for the ratings. The station also had an awesome news department, with legends like David Tower, Eddie Parker, and Paul Randall Dickerson.

Swingin Soul Medallion Commercial from John R WLAC

John Richbourg was one of the legendary AM jocks that brought black music to every part of the eastern U.S. over the mighty 1510 WLAC. Along with Gene Nobles, Herman Grizzard, and Hoss Allen, they broke black artists onto the sales charts. Here's a live commercial done by John R himself. Listen to it here.

John left WLAC in 1973, about four years before I worked there. He battled cancer, and in 1985 a benefit was held for him at the Grand Ole Opry house.

There were over 30 acts, and each gave John credit for their careers. I had a program, but it's gone now. The acts I remember appearing were the Isley Brothers, James Brown, the Neville Brothers, Rufus and Carla Thomas, B.B. King, the Coasters, and Charlie Daniels. There were so many acts they had an intermission at 9pm, and the music continued til 1:30am, ending with a giant jam session that featured B.B. King and Charlie Daniels dueling guitars.

John was on the left of the stage from the audience view in a wheelchair. He was too weak to talk, but waved to everyone. He died the next year.

You can get more of the feel of those WLAC days by reading the story here.

WKQB Nashville Sticker 1978

WKQB was a Lee Abrams formatted album rock station in Nashville from 1978-1982. It had been WJYN, The Joy Of Nashville, an easy listening station under Bill Gerson. WKQB had as its slogan "The Music That's Meant To Bee". The station later reverted to its original call letters, WLAC-FM.

WLAC Nashville Sun Sticker Logo

 WLAC AM Nashville was Top 40 right up until the early 80s. They had one of the best logos ever!

WLAC was one of the stations I worked at, so I got a T-shirt.