Recording Date: 09.16.1971
Station: 690 WAPE (WPDQ/WOKV) Jacksonville FL
Format: Top 40
Branded: “The Big Ape”
Featured Air Personalities: Jack McCoy, Larry Dixon, Teddy Bear (Ted Richards) (CKLW), Jay Thomas (WXLO 99X/SiriusXM)
Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks (Website)
Total Time: 11:31
“That’s Squeaky the Mouse our night time disk jockey“…
Curator’s Notes:
WAPE lives on today in Jacksonville, on the FM dial as a mainstream CHR, continuing the tradition started over four decades ago on 690 AM. North Florida isn’t exactly the place you’d expect a major Top 40 station, but then again, WAPE, “The Big Ape” wasn’t your average radio station. Home to many who would go on to eventual stardom elsewhere, this onetime larger-than-life Drake station had a killer signal heard from Florida to the Carolinas, the Bahamas and elsewhere!
Here’s a slice of WAPE from 1971. See if you remember any of the names here.
Bill Bailey, 99.9 WNFY “Y100” Middleburg FL | 1982
“Catfish” Tom Kelly, 99.1 WQIK Jacksonville | September 18, 1996
P.K. on Classic Soul 101.5 WSOL Jacksonville | September 18, 1996
Allan Sands, 690 WAPE Jacksonville
Traine on the Radio, 95.1 WAPE-FM Jacksonville (FL) | Undated
Nice to hear Ted “The Bear” Richards prior his time at CKLW and then Jay Thomas prior to Z-100 and then Los Angeles.
These are the final two jocks on this excellent aircheck.
thanks.
Anybody know how to get in touch with Jack McCoy?
I was a dj at WAPE 690 from 1963 to 1965…We were Jacksonville radio.
Wild Bill Miller
Hi, Bill, I’m doing some historical research on the Beatles’ Gator Bowl concert. How would I go about getting in touch with you? Michael Ray FitzGerald, PhD. fitzrite@att.net
Jay Thomas never worked at z100. He did mornings at 99X WXLO New York (now WEPN-FM.
I had the supreme good fortune of spending an hour or two with Jack McCoy, when I dropped in unannounced to leave a 5 inch aircheck. He listened to it with me, critiqued it, and toured me. This was when Jay Thomas was there. That interview and the one with John Gehron were my two best ever. I loved the Big Ape (arrrrrrrrrrrr eye oooooooooh) The Mighty 690.
I was a dj at WAPE 690 in the sixties when we brought the Beatles to Jax…
we rocked!
When I was in Charleston S.C., at WQSN 1970-72, I used to listen to The Ape everyday. Years later at my final gig as PD and PM drive at WJAS in Pittsburgh, I walking down the main hall and I run into…..Jack McCoy ! Even at 60 years old I was happy to meet him. We chatted a bit and went our ways. A week later, in the mail, I got a CD with all of “The Last Contest” promos on it. Thanks Jack …a class guy