WVOK-AM

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This article is about the former Birmingham radio station. For the current station in Oxford, see WVOK-AM (Oxford).

WVOK-AM was a radio station that broadcast on AM 690 in Birmingham from 1947 to 1992. It was owned by brothers Dan, Bill and Cyril Brennan, who also owned WBAM-AM in Montgomery and WAPE-AM in Jacksonville, Florida. Dan Brennan managed the Birmingham station and also hosted programs. WVOK's studios and transmission tower were located on Bessemer Super Highway.

WVOK was the city's first 50,000-watt radio station. Its house-built 50,000-watt transmitter, designed by Cyril Brennan, was the most powerful in the market, and utilized a fountain outside the studio building as a reservoir to keep it cool.

The station made another splash by hiring Joe Rumore away from WAPI-AM in 1948. His popular "family style" morning show anchored the daily program. Other personalities included Jim Allen, Dan Brennan, Alan Burns, Johnny Davis, Johnny Mack Driskell, Johnnie Hayes, Hal Hodgens, Don Keith, and Johnny Poer.

Initially, WVOK's format was mainly country, and it heralded itself as "The Voice of Dixie," boasting in 1950 that it, "carries more 'live' hill billy music than any other Birmingham station." WVOK and WYDE-AM both began airing top-40 music in the late 1950s in imitation of the explosively popular WSGN-AM. They were soon joined by the newly-launched WAQY-AM. WVOK's broadcast power gave it an advantage in outlying areas.

The station sponsored the "Shower of Stars" concert series that filled Municipal Auditorium with teeny-boppers and later brought the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys to the same show at Legion Field on May 7, 1965.

In 1976 the new 100,000-watt WVOK-FM "K-99" album rock station hit the air. WVOK switched to a country format similar to the successful WYDE-AM. In 1979 the Brennans sold the station to a Nashville conglomerate. Rumore retired from the station in 1984, after which it turned to an oldies format. In 1985 the station switched to a lower-power directional transmitter. Over the next few years the station's line-up of live disc jockeys transitioned into a broadcast of the "Pure Gold" stream from the Satellite Music Network.

WVOK was also known as the home of Alabama Crimson Tide football broadcasts, and it also carried broadcasts of NASCAR events at the Talladega Superspeedway. In 1992 WVOK sportscaster Herb Winches made the suggestion that the station adopt an all-sports format. The suggestion was well-received and the new station adopted the call letters WJOX-AM.

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References

  • Colurso, Mary (April 21, 2017) "The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Elvis: For Alabama radio pioneer Dan Brennan, life was a Shower of Stars." The Birmingham News

External links

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