Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Captain D's Seafood is owned by the same people as Shoney's and generally seems to like to locate very near to a Shoney's. That was the case with the Shoney's on Two Notch and the Shoney's on Bush River Road, but this one, on Taylor Street, in an outparcel of old Food Lion / current Allen University Mall, never had a Shoney's nearby.

After Captain D's left, the building was taken over by loan company Title Max (which took over a number of failed fast food operations in town, including the old Charleston Highway Burger King, and Steve's #1 Sub Contractor on Broad River Road). I don't recall that operation lasting very long, and the building is now vacant once more.

You may be familiar with WXRY FM as a new-ish non-commercial radio station in Columbia, a sort of WUSC for grownups. (And I know that at least one of their staff follows Columbia Closings: Thanks!).

What you might not know is that is not at all how WXRY started.

FM radio actually goes quite a ways back in US broadcast history, but the story is not straight-forward. In the beginning, FM was pioneered by Edwin Armstrong. He figured out a way to create radio networks using FM only links (a big deal at the time as other networks had to use expensive AT&T landline links). This brought him into conflict with David Sarnoff and his Radio Corporation of America. Showing the ever-present danger of political influence when government gets too entwined with business, Sarnoff pressured the new FCC to change the rules for FM, destroying Armstrong's network and driving him to suicide while leaving RCA's AM technology in the driver's seat. These shenanigans destroyed FM for several decades.

When FM started to make a comeback in the late 1960s, AM totally owned the pop market and FM stations felt they needed to do something different to create a market presence. Some used the higher fidelity and static-free nature of FM to broadcast classical music, others created the "album rock" concept, playing non-single cuts by popular groups that would never have otherwise been on the radio, but a large number of FM stations went the "beautiful music" route.

"Beautiful Music" (I'm not sure that was an "official" format name, but it seemed to be how these stations often described themselves) was what we would now call "muzak" (though that's actually a trademark) or "elevator music". If the names One Hundred and One Strings or Mantovani mean anything to you, then you understand the "Beautiful Music" format, and WXRY was Columbia's "Beautiful Music" station.

I think I've written before about how I came to rock music fairly late in life. My parents didn't hate rock or think that it was ruining society, they simply didn't care for it that much. We listened almost exclusively to WIS AM, which was mostly middle-of-the-road grownup pop. I was always into tinkering with radios though, and at some point I pulled an old bakelite FM-only radio off a neighboorhood trash heap. After testing the tubes at Liggett's and finding that there was a bad one, I convinced my parents to spring for a new tube. At that point the radio worked, but I found that the "off" switch built into the rheostat was broken. I never did master soldering, so I couldn't swap it out, but I could put a powerline switch in the power cord, which I did. The result was what I'm still convinced to this day was the best sounding radio I've ever heard. Sure it was mono, but somehow those transformers and tubes (and not having to support AM circuits, I suppose) gave it a really rich sound. I couldn't listen to WIS on it of course, so I poked around until I found WXRY and spend many hours listening to music that would have given other 12 year olds hives (and would give me hives now..). Eventually I took the radio to our beach house where I found another "Beautiful Music" station out of either Georgetown or Myrtle Beach and I'm sure gave my cousins hives. In the end the radio's tuning went out, though I've still got it stored away somewhere.

After I took the radio to the beach, I more or less lost track of WXRY. I do recall that in the 1970s, a guy in my scout troop knew someone who worked there and told the story about how the staff decided to get wild one day and slip John Denver's "Annie's Song" ("You fill up my senses like night in the forest..") into the lineup, and how they got phonecalls to stop playing that "hippie music".

Loopnet says the building currently at 2400 Decker was built in 1981. If that's correct, the original WXRY studio must have been torn down at some point. I don't know what happened to the station between its being "Beautiful Music" on Decker Boulevard and its current status as "The Independant Alternative" from high atop "The Historic Barringer Building" on Main Street, and whether it was on the air continuously during that whole period. I must admit I have not heard Mantovani on their current air.

UPDATE 2 March 2012: Just found out that at some point after WXRY, this building was a location of homeschooling store Educational Wonderland.

I mentioned the situation of the Economy Inn on Briargate Circle in passing in my closing for The Delhi Palace Indian restaurnt which moved from the Inn to Saint Andrews Road.

To recap briefly, the place had gotten into a really odd state, and the original Lobby and meeting rooms in the front building by the restaurant had fallen into disuse and genteel disrepair. Oddly instead of combating this, the hotel had decided to lease the area to a church and remodel an area in the guest room building as a new lobby.

I don't know if it was triggered by Delhi Palace moving out and leaving the front building entirely unused or some other consideration, but the place has dropped the Economy Inn affiliation, and is now a Rodeway Inn & Suites (though you can still see the Economy Inn branding on the new lobby area for now.

I noticed this empty storefront in Cedar Terrace a while back while taking pictures for a closing on the adjacent Fred's. These sort of addresses are a bit of a problem to google because there isn't a standard representation. Is it "6420P Garners Ferry Road", "6420 Garners Ferry Road Suite P", "6420 Garners Ferry Road #P", or something else? Given that I have no personal memory at all as to what may have been here, I tried googling all of those.

It appears that the place was World Gym at one time, and then on 11 December 2007 there was a zoning hearing to zone the place for a bingo parlor. From the structure of the zoning minutes, that was expected to be approved, so I'll guess it did happen.

I also expect that the bingo operation followed the gym, because if you look at the back wall in these pictures, the last place in there had a smoking section and a concession stand, which would be pretty odd for a gym.

This Sprint cellular store is, or was, in the same little strip on Forest Drive more or less across from the movies that also recently lost Ela's European Market & Deli. I have a bit of a soft spot for Sprint, though I've never used them for anything other than a phonecard, because back in the day they used to do some interesting programming projects. My employer worked R&D contracts with them a number of times, and that led to me spending a good many weeks in Overland Park Kansas, which aside from maybe Seoul, is the coldest place I have ever been. I remember one project there where when I drove past a bank on the way to Sprint in the morning, it was -5F and when I drove back to the hotel after work it was +5F. I was also in the room once when the then president of Sprint took a call from Donald Trump who was checking to see if Sprint could handle the call-in volume for his Miss Universe pageant. At some point after that, Sprint cut out most of their R&D and became an off-the-rack operation though I doubt that had much to do with why this store closed..

UPDATE 1 Oct 2010 -- This Sprint store (and Ela's Deli next door) are now part of a 24-hour fitness center.

Here's another recession casualty, one of several recent ones on Fernandina Road. I don't know much about boats or RVs, but I know it takes a lot of money to run either, even though gas prices have come down a little.

It appears the site and contents were auctioned on 21 November 2009:

BUSINESS LIQUIDATION AUCTION

SATURDAY - NOVEMBER 21, 2009 - 9:00 AM

COMPLETE LIQUIDATION OF TRUCKS, TRACTORS, SHOP EQUIPMENT, BOATING & RV PARTS & SUPPLIES, OFFICE FURNITURE, & RELATED ITEMS

(I would not expect that link to work more than a few months).

The site appears to be fairly large and it will be interesting to see what goes in there next.

I always enjoyed pottery as a kid. There was just something about the feel and even smell of wet clay, and making something real rather than just a representation like a drawing or painting. In fact, the only time I was on Mr. Knozit, I was making a pot in the background while one of the Richland County Threnholm Park pottery teachers explained the county classes for kids in the foreground. Of course I never got actually good at it or even progressed up to the potters wheel, but it was fun.

Apparently Two Peas In A Pot on Saint Andrews Road was one of those "you paint / we fire" places a number of which, like build your own teddy-bear places, sprung up several years ago. I never went to one, but I can easily see how it would be a fun evening.

Their web site says they closed Thanksgiving, and it looks like the space is currently available. For some reason getting my oil changed took an hour longer than it should have and I got to the place after sunset. The parking lot was quite a bit busier than I expected -- apparently everybody suddenly had the desire to order take-out pizza..

(Hat tip to commenter Jonathan)

I don't know when this Burger King went under, but it may have never come back from that time in the 90s when the local franchisee (who owned all the Columbia BKs) got in a dispute with corporate and all Columbia Burger Kings closed. Eventually new ownership was found and a number of them came back (with special commercials featuring "Blues Doctor" Drink Small..), but several never did.

I'm not sure when the follow-on business: TitleMax/CheckMax closed, but I believe it was this year.

I find it rather interesting that the street number displayed on the building is clearly 1402, but google is adamant that the real number is 1400.

I had never really noticed this office building on Devine street until I was walking around there one day and saw the "For Lease" signs. I normally think of this area of Devine as "eclectic" upscale retail, but I guess there are a number service type businesses as well. The moving firm, Mc Donnell & Associates, appears to be a law firm, and google suggests the building holds title search and investment firms. I think it would be a nice area to work in, at least lunch-wise, though working at home is nicer still..

I guess I've seen this little building, in a triangular shaped lot more or less at the intersection of 12th Street and Augusta Road, lots of times over the years, but it never really made an impression on me. Recently when I was doing closings for Luigi's and then West Columbia Pawn & Loan I had the occasion to drive down that little spur (which seems to be Augusta Street rather than Augusta Road) and notice that this building was now empty.

I havent' seen the new location on Sunset Boulevard, but I would imagine it would have to have more parking and be easier to get to than this lot. It's kind of a shame to see something with "Triangle" in its name leave Triangle City though.

UPDATE 5 Nov 2010 -- Their new location at 1400 Sunset Boulevard: