Station: 1590 WWUN (WHYT/WZRX) Jackson, MS (defunct)
Format: Top 40
Branded: “W-One!”
Featured Air Personality: Johnny Apollo (Gary Burbank) (WAKY/CKLW/WLW)
Contributor: Rob Grayson (WHBQ/WKTQ/WMQM/WJDX/WMPS/WMC/WMC-FM/WKNO-FM/WKNO-TV)
Aircheck #1,582
I tell ya, they all over the place tonight, we got winners, and winners, and winners and music…
Curator’s Notes:
Here’s a straggler that waited the four years from the time Contributor Rob Grayson sent it in to make it to the Airchexx Archives! Rob scoped this down himself from the source reel and this is as close to exactly how it would have sounded out of your car radio’s center dash speaker! Complete with reverb, sound effects and wonderful PAMS jingles! It’s so good, you’ll think this is 1968 all over again!
To be honest, I didn’t expect this station to sound so good. I mean, it IS the deep south and I figured there would be some jock with a thick southern drawl (and that’s no offense to you who live in the south and speak with a thick southern drawl… I’m right with ya, having lived in Memphis TN for seven years!). However, this reeks of something right out of Detroit or somewhere else during that same time frame. This is professionality at its finest.
I can find nothing on Johnny Apollo, but that’s because he’s much better known as Gary Burbank, of WAKY and WLW fame! I love his use of different voices and sound effects. Listen in at the 17 minute mark for a promo that prompts, “What kind of person listens to W-One?” They call this station “The Pride of Jackson”.
Johnny Apollo eventually became Gary Burbank, and his career took him to WAKY, WNOE, CKLW, WHAS, a long career at WLW, as well as the Radio Hall of Fame. I had never heard any of Gary’s pre-WAKY material and didn’t even know any existed. Some of Gary’s voices were already in place in this aircheck. Jackson (with a majority African-American population) has had great top 40 radio over the years.
As soon as I read that on facebook it dawned on me, having heard that voice so many times on WLW as a trucker going through Ohio after getting out of the Navy. Holy wow! I have since lost (but now gotta go through a few years worth of old emails) the liner notes that Rob Grayson sent along with the airchecks. Gonna have to completely re-present the aircheck post now LOL… Thank you so much for that info!
This station was actually Gary’s third radio station in his career, after leaving his first gig at KLPL in Lake Providence, Louisiana, and KUZN in West Monroe, Louisiana (his second stop). You’ll note in this aircheck, he was already developing his zany character voices which would carry him throughout his career. This was a REAL find. Thanks for posting it.
Gary Burbank also had a song in 1980 called “Who shot J.R.?”, the main villain on “Dallas”. Trivia time: It was Kristin (played by Mary Crosby) who did the deed. The Band McNally backed Burbank on that song.
I replaced Apollo at W-One. Rick Martin.