WZLD ("Z-96"), 1303 State Street / 2334 Airport Boulevard: 1988 35 comments
When I was in high school, a new radio station came to town, with a new concept: "Album Rock".
The station was WZLD (or "Z-96") and operated out of Cayce, first from a little storefront (apparently now vacant) to the left of a barber shop on State Street, and later from an odd looking building out on Airport Boulevard (at least I think that's where I remember seeing the sign).
I'll admit that the concept of "album rock" confused me a bit. I had only discovered rock music in 1976, and I was still a little iffy about all the definitions. For instance, I thought "acid rock" was the same thing as "heavy metal" since the only acid I had heard about was sulphuric, and I could imagine heavy metal dissolving stuff in the same way.
So, to make a full confession, I kind of took the promos about how "we play album cuts, not just singles" to heart and was deeply disappointed that they were not playing tracks from my then current favorite album, Billy Joel's "The Stranger". In fact, I went so far as to write them a deeply embarassing post card (in retrospect..) complaining that they were playing Van Morrison's "Wavelength" which was a Top-40 hit, and not "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant". I'm sure the DJs had a good laugh at it, and I've come to the point where I'm a huge Van Morrison fan nowdays (he can be very inconsistent in shows, but tore up the place in Atlanta last May..)
From what I've been able to gather from looking at old phonebooks down at the library, WZLD first showed up in the December 1974 Southern Bell phonebook. I don't think they were "album rock" at that time, or at least I didn't hear of them as such until later, but they were already at 1303 State Street, and already had their long-running phone numbers of 796-8896 business and 796-9996 for the contest line.
In the Janurary 1983 phonebook, their address changed to 2334 Airport Boulevard, and in the Jan 1984 phonebook, they took out their first yellow pages ad which rebranded them as "Number 1 Hit -- Kicker". Now, that phrase, "hit-kicker" is very similar to a non-radio-friendly phrase sometimes used to describe Country music, so I'm wondering if they underwent a change to a Country format at that time. I was still living in town at the time, but I don't think I was listening to them very much, and have no memory of it one way or another.
At any rate that catch phrase didn't last very long, and the yellow pages ad in the Feb 1985 phonebook described them as "Red Hot Radio 1". That also didn't last too long, and while the Feb 1988 phone book did not have a full ad, the tagline in their listing for that year was "All Hit".
They were not listed in the Jan 1989 phonebook and seem to have left the airwaves at that time.
Along the way, they did some memorable promos, with the most famous probably being the annual "Ramblin' Raft Race" on the Congaree. At this remove, sponsoring something like that seems as though it would be an insurance nightmare, but in those olden days, apparently encouraging tipsy people to navigate was OK..
Here's a few WZLD comments we've had here from time to time:
The one on Two Notch was indeed “The Zoom Flume”. I remember it well because they were a major sponsor at WZLD-FM where I worked. It’s heyday was the summer of 1979. We gave away free passes all the time. I think we tied it in with “The Ramblin’ Raft Race” on the Congaree River.
--Captain Dave
WZLD…. The ROCK… of the city.
The Ramblin’ Raft Race! I was going to BC when they had the first one of those (did they have more than one?).
I happened to be in study hall when a DJ and a guy from some raft rental company out of Atlanta came over looking for some kids to work for them. I signed up, and that was the hardest I think I’ve ever worked. We had to be there at 5:00am to blow up the rafts, rent them out, and then pack up and head down Old State to the pickup spot. Needless to say, the people getting out of the water didn’t resemble the folks we rented to at the put-in. I think we worked about 12 hours straight. Didn’t even get a lunch break!
Great times! (:
E.J.
UPDATE 2 July 2012 -- As mentioned in the comments, the A-frame looking building I have pictured above is not the Airport Boulevard location for WZLD. The correct building is next door, and I have finally gotten a picture of it:
UPDATE 27 September 2017 -- The Airport Boulevard building has now been razed and is a vacant lot:
UPDATE 17 November 2017 -- Commenter Rick sends in this picture of a picture showing a WZLD remote (circa 1981) at Roger's Car Stereo:
Rick identifies the fellow on the left, enthusiastic about being in a picture, as radio personality "Mountain Man", the young lady as another WZLD DJ, name unknown, the guy in the checked shirt a WZLD program manager or salesman and the third man unknown. Be warned, the click-through picture is not blurred.
35 Responses to 'WZLD ("Z-96"), 1303 State Street / 2334 Airport Boulevard: 1988'
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tonkatoy
22 Feb 11 at 7:41 am
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I'm not 100% sure, but that location also might have served the WTGH station after WZLD moved out. One of WZLD's slogans was "Almost Perfect" radio, which had a tv spot showing a swimsuit-clad young lady in slo-mo sauntering along the beach a la Bo Derek. . . then tripping at the end.
One of WZLD's promotions back in the day was "Find the missing 'Z' in WZLD. Supposedly, there was an actual 'Z' somewhere. Someone did apparently find it, under a seat or bleachers somewhere, and the address was 300 [some street name]. I remember that one because one of the clues was "tricentennial."badger
22 Feb 11 at 4:42 pm
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Yes, you are right. The Feb 1985 phone book page of stations that I xeroxed for the second ad above does list WTGH "The Gospel Highway" at 1303 State Street.
ted
22 Feb 11 at 5:12 pm
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It was WTGH on State Street until fairly recently. That store on the left side of that building has been numerous things since 1995: thrift store, cafe, diner... When it was a cafe, there was always a crowd of BC students, which prompted a police car to be there as well.
tonkatoy
23 Feb 11 at 7:37 am
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Astoundingly enough, there is a wikipedia entry for WZLD:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WLTY
"96.7 FM signed on as WZLD on July 11, 1974 with a mixture of Top 40 and Oldies music. It became the number one rated station in its first book. However, in 1975, rival AM Top 40 WNOK countered the success of WZLD by flipping its sister FM to Top 40 as "Stereo 105". That move would stunt WZLD's growth in the marketplace and the format was changed to Album Rock as "Z-96" by 1977. The format was run live-assisted using Drake-Chenault's AOR format.
In 1980, the station change back to Top 40 and both Z-96 and WNOK-FM went head to head for the next six years for the Columbia Top 40 radio audience. In February 1986, Z-96 made a dramatic format change from Top 40 to Adult Contemporary, but keeping the name. This move proved disastrous and by early 1987, the station changed back to Top 40. This time, however, the station found itself competing with not only WNOK, but with upstart WMMC (now WOMG) as well.
In February 1988, WZLD became WYYS with the "Yes 97" moniker. The format remained Top 40, this time with a lean toward Dance music. The station makeover would eventually pay off as WMMC would become WPRH later in 1988 and would leave the Top 40 format altogether one year later. WNOK, however remained dominate in the Top 40 ratings and despite several attempts, could not be unseated.
In August 1991, after a brief stunt as "Elvis Radio", the format was changed to Country as "Kicks 96" with the new call letters of WHKZ. This time, the station targeted longtime Country outlet WCOS-FM. Although it had some modest success at first, Kicks 96 was never able to beat WCOS in the ratings. The station was sold in 1994 to Benchmark Communications, which kept the Country format as a flanker to protect WCOS, but over time, the station's ratings had started to eroded.
By 1998, Benchmark was sold to Capstar Broadcasting. Since there was no need for two country stations under the same ownership as well as declining ratings, the decision was made to change WHKZ to something else. Over Labor Day Weekend, 1998. WHKZ dropped the Country format for brief simulcasts of Capstar sister stations WCOS and WVOC. After the stunting, the format was changed to Adult Contemporary with the name "Lite 96.7" and the new call letters of WLTY.
Despite the changes, Lite 96.7 never really took off in the Columbia market. After seven years of mediocre ratings against the dominant Adult Contemporary station, WTCB, the station flipped on August 16, 2005 to Variety Hits as "Steve FM" (rumored to be named for then-new University Of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier, even though he is affiliated with WISW.). After a year, the station was able to finish in the Top 5 in the Arbitron ratings, something that has never been achieved in over a decade.
The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications, which also owns Country WCOS-FM, CHR WNOK, Urban WXBT, News/Talk WVOC, and Sports/Talk WCOS in the Columbia radio market.
IrmoJeff
23 Feb 11 at 12:51 pm
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Huh. I never even suspected there was any connection with "Steve".
ted
23 Feb 11 at 12:57 pm
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I didn't either.
tonkatoy
24 Feb 11 at 7:29 am
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I remember the studio when it was on state st. It was an AM station earlier. Late 60's & 70's. My dad would take me with him EARLY on sunday mornings. He would preach for 30 mins. Can't remember the call sign.
I do remember that at the end of the building in 1974 was Boones Ice Cream Parlor. First place I ever played Foosball! Ans some drink they had called bearcat juice!* dont think STEVE FM is spurrier. there are several steve fm's across the country. could be wrong ....
BC Bobby
2 Mar 11 at 12:47 am
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I remember this station coming on the air. For years Columbia was the only decent-sized city around this area that did not have a rock 'n roll station on FM, only 2 weak AM outlets. WZLD was the first. This station's initial format was programmed (pre-recorded song announcements from some outside service), with something of a Top 40 format, but leaning towards soft rock (similar to the current AC format). WNOK-FM adopted the exact same programmed format right after this. Eventually WNOK switched to live announcers and more straight-up Top 40. This station's format changes are documented in some of the previous posts.
I went to BC High across the street and remember the building as well. Does seem like there had been an AM station previously, but I can't recall for sure. Maybe the then-country station WCAY at 620? This building is in Cayce, and those call letters are obviously based on that.
Bobby G
3 Mar 11 at 3:32 pm
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Further update to above comment: I found another web site that seems to confirm that country AM station WCAY was the original radio station in this building. It also indicated that WNOK-FM actually adopted a (somewhat soft) rock format before WZLD came on the air. WZLD was "less soft" and outrated it, then both stations gravitated to more mainstream Top 40 over time.
Bobby G
3 Mar 11 at 3:41 pm
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WCAY featured Friendly Ben which was a staple in our house back in the 60s & early 70s. Friendly Ben played country music & comedy. He also did some political commentary & helped found the Chitlin Strut.
John R
4 Mar 11 at 8:51 am
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I helped put WCAY on the air in July 1958 after moving back to the area after working for the station owner...Olin Tice...a longtime successful announcer for CBS in New York.
We worked trogether in Dover, Delaware. I joined him after havng worked at stations in Richmond and Norfolk, VA.
We had a very ecliectic WCAY formet as a daytime only station at 620 AM.
My other jobs had been at WACA in Camden and WIS Columbia.
Eventually working iat stations in San Anonio and Dallas, we came back to Columbia.
I was working as an audio producer when Ben Dekle took an un-announced leave of absence and they were in need of someone to take over in his absence...but it became a fulll-time job as Progam Director
and we created a "Top 40 Country NMusic" format that took us to No.2 in the market. Will Sullivan, the station manager, was insttrumental in bringing in the top country acts to the Township Auditorium and Carolina Coliseum to sell out crowds.
Dekle did return and I decided to leave and return to WIS and later to WSCCQ in 1977.
WCAY occupied the same building on Sate Street until Tice moved it to Airport Boulevard.
Several other stations later occupied those locations. A Gospel Music station broadcast from State Street and WZLD took the site on Airport Blvd.Jim Seay
now owner Jim Seay Productions
and free lance sports play-by-play
on Lexington's WLXMl
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I helped put WCAY on the air in July 1958 after moving back to the area after working for the station owner...Olin Tice...a longtime successful announcer for CBS in New York.
We worked together in Dover, Delaware. I joined him after havng worked at stations in Richmond and Norfolk, VA.
We had a very ecliectic WCAY formet as a daytime only station at 620 AM.
My other jobs had been at WACA in Camden and WIS Columbia.
Eventually working iat stations in San Anonio and Dallas, we came back to Columbia.
I was working as an audio producer when Ben Dekle took an un-announced leave of absence and they were in need of someone to take over in his absence...but it became a fulll-time job as Progam Director
and we created a "Top 40 Country NMusic" format that took us to No.2 in the market. Will Sullivan, the station manager, was insttrumental in bringing in the top country acts to the Township Auditorium and Carolina Coliseum to sell out crowds.
Dekle did return and I decided to leave and return to WIS and later to WSCCQ in 1977.
WCAY occupied the same building on Sate Street until Tice moved it to Airport Boulevard.
Several other stations later occupied those locations. A Gospel Music station broadcast from State Street and WZLD took the site on Airport Blvd.Jim Seay
owner Jim Seay Productions
and free lance sports play-by-play
on Lexington's WLXM -
One minor correction to point out: WZLD's Airport Blvd. location was in the building located behind the Sunbelt Properties (it's now offices for "The Steel Group").
WZLD, as well as successors Top 40 WYYS and Country WHKZ, remained in that building on Airport Blvd until 1995 when WHKZ was acquired by rival Country outlet WCOS AM-FM and eventually moved into the WCOS complex at 2440 Millwood Ave (now occupied by Glory Communications group of stations).
PS: Hi to Jim Seay!!! Greetings from a another former WSCQ alumni!!!
Robyn
28 Nov 11 at 8:27 pm
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Thanks! -- I'll get a picture of the right building.
ted
29 Nov 11 at 1:35 am
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Yes it was the low brown brick/brown roof building with the fireplace chimney on Airport Blvd. The call letters for WCAY stood for We Care About You.
Marty
22 Feb 12 at 2:24 pm
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I had the pleasure of working at Z-96 #1 Hit Kicker at the Cayce and Airport Studios with The Mountain Man, Benji Norton, Chuck Finley,... and again with Doug Enlow, Charlie Jay, Ken Martin, Ronny Lane,... when it became Kicks 96 (WHKZ) Country. Great Times and Memories!
Dan McCarthy
7 Jul 13 at 10:26 am
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loved wzld. i was in middle school and really starting to get into music. id listen all afternoon shooting basketballs in the back yard. "roxanne roxanne"! first time i heard "we are the world" on the radio. they did a simulcast of this duran duran show. i rememebr andy taylor did a radio bumper calling the sation "w. zed. l. d." there was a british d.j. that did a british top 10 show one night a week. he played blue monday. changed my life. it was a big deal for me to meet these d.j.'s at the fair. id didnt last but a few years the way i remember. but those few years, at that time in my life, seem like forever. i wish i had a wzld bumper sticker!
brett
24 Feb 14 at 1:55 pm
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WELL HELL'S BELLS I HAVE NO IDEA HOW I RAN ACROSS THIS PAGE BUT HERE I AM. NOT EVEN SURE WHAT TO SAY (HOW UNUSUAL) LOL. SOME OF THE BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE WERE IN COLUMBIA DOING MORNINGS ON Z96. IT WAS WIDE OPEN BALLS TO THE WALL AND MORE FUN THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE...WELL SOME OF YOU CAN. I NOTICED MY OLD FRIEND DAN McCARTHY CHECKED IN..HI BUD! LIFE HAS BEEN A LONG STRANGE TRIP AS JERRY GARCIA WOULD SAY. SO MANY PEOPLE TO SAY HELLO TO,, A FEW TO APOLOGIZE TO AND A FEW I'D LIKE TO INTERROGATE LOL. WE NOW HAVE AN ONLINE STATION,102MOUNTAINMANRADIO.COM,ON 24/7 PLAYING ALL KINDS OF STUFF. THINKING OF CRANKING THE OLD MOUNTAIN IN THE MORNING SHOW LIVE WORLD WIDE. HOW ABOUT EMAILING ME AT MOUNTAINMANCHOPPERS@HOTMAIL.COM IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HEAR THE OLD BULLSHOES AGAIN. MEANTIME LOG ON AND ENJOY THE TUNES. LOVE YA AND HOPE LIFE HAS BEEN GOOD FOR YOU........MM
21 Oct 17 at 4:39 am
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How cool is that!
The legend himself checks in....
The one,the only, mountain man.John
21 Oct 17 at 5:13 pm
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OOOPS...GAVE THE WRONG INFO...IT'S 102MOUNTAINMAN.COM....LEAVE OUT RADIO WHEN LOGGING ON..THANK YOU
21 Oct 17 at 6:41 pm
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@Ted- HaHaa, thanks for posting my picture of the WZLD live remote. I also sent it to Mountain Man. He e-mailed me back and said he still remembers that remote. I remembered the guys name in the middle of the picture, that is Richard Peterson. We all had some great times together back in the 80s.
Rick
18 Nov 17 at 9:49 am
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A little more history about WZLD and the picture. Ted mentioned the photo was a picture of a picture. That's because I did not have a scanner at the time and took a digital photo of the original photo I had. It was developed at "Jack Rabbit" film developers. Jack Rabbit was a small stand alone building, about the size of a storage shed, in the parking lot of Treholm Plaza back in the 80's. Customers could drive up and drop off their film for developing. I was the Manager of Rogers Car Stereo at the time and I am also the one who took the photo. The photo was taken on a camera that used 110 film and I believe it was a Kodak Electralite.
I see where Captain Dave left a comment and I'm wondering if I have him mixed up with Officer Ted. It seems like Officer Ted was the one who gave the fake traffic reports on the Mountain Man show. He was supposed to be reporting from a helicopter that was flying over the city and you could hear the helicopter sounds in the background, of course I don't think WZLD owned a helicopter. Maybe it was Captain Dave, can't remember. But there was a time on Valentines day that Mountain Man had a live remote some where, Officer Ted showed up with a red valentine heart sticker on his shirt. Mountain man asked Officer Ted why he was wearing the heart. Officer Ted replied "I always have a heart on" (say it fast). Whoa! That was pretty risque for radio back in the early 80's, but we thought it was hilarious.
Talking about branding the station as "The #1 Hit-Kicker", WZLD had bumper stickers with that phrase on them. The back ground of the bumper sticker was black and the text in white, we would take white-out and write a "S" in front of the word "HIT" and proudly display the bumper stickers on our cars.
Rick
18 Nov 17 at 10:43 am
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Just a curious question. When someone give you the finger why is is always blurred out? We all know its there
discjo
1 Dec 17 at 8:20 am
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My guess is that it has to do with FCC rules/guidelines about censorship where certain words are bleeped and other (what is considered unsightly) things are blurred out as well...
Andrew
1 Dec 17 at 9:03 pm
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Hey all alumni! Dudes! I was there too, from 1981-1988. Did everything from writing copy to cleaning toilets. Seems like all we did was laugh and blame each other for breaking the chair in Master Control. Loved all my bosses, especially Frank Baker. Was on the air in the mornings, stammering my way through the news and trying to keep up with Hunter! I loved every dang minute of it! Even though Jimmy called me "Miss Management!" Ended up in TV- WSPA TV, in Spartanburg, SC , as a writer/producer of industrial, long length videos. Very cool. I don't know how Mountain is still doing it...heck, I'm 74 dang years old!
Cassandra Livingston
Cassandra Livingston
28 Sep 19 at 10:01 pm
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Mountain Man is sitting with me now at my computer. He's having a great time reading the comments. He said to tell everyone that he is sending greetings from Pleasure Island, NC.
Diane Radcliffe
4 Jul 21 at 10:44 am
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Z96 was a very hot station, particularly around 1982-83. They did beat WNOK in both ratings periods in 1983, finishing #3. behind WWDM and WCOS. Not bad for a 6kw station. Unfortunately, WZLD was sold in 1984 and the new owners (Universal Communications) failed in making it more competitive when WNOK rebounded. The worst thing that they did was dropping Top 40 for Adult Contemporary in 1986. The ratings bombed afterwards, which lead them to relaunch as WYYS (Yes 97) in 1988.
Some of the jocks I remembered from that time was Pandora Reynolds (later went to WNOK, then to Charlotte at WRFX), Scott Summers (also went to WNOK), Mad Cat Daddy, Woody Windham (former WNOK jock and one half of the Windham Brothers. His brother, Leo, did later worked there when Yes 97 started up).
1 Mar 22 at 6:54 pm
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Love this thread. I was born in 77, so I spent many formative years listening to Z96 with my older brother and sister. I remember just before it became Kicks96 Yes97 had become somewhat of a alternative station. A few years back I bought a Foreigner record at Manifest, and it had a Z96 sticker on it.
Mr. Bill
3 Mar 22 at 4:49 pm
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I'm pretty sure Steve FM was a nod to Spurrier. There's a similar station in Charleston called Chuck FM.
Mr. Bill
3 Mar 22 at 4:55 pm
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My memory is that when Spurrier unexpectedly quit, the station held a mock contest to pick a new nickname since "Steve" was gone.
ted
3 Mar 22 at 11:10 pm
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Yes I remember that.
Mr. Bill
4 Mar 22 at 10:13 am
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The previous picture Is Mountain Man morning show Shock Jock, The female is the Mid-day DJ that followed Mountain Man(MM)...PANDORA...MM really pissed her off when he was giving her intro at the end of his shift.. "Pandora's up next and she is reading her favorite book ROOTS" referring to her bleached hair that had her roots showing.. She screamed ran out of the studio and refused to go on the air. Pandora did very well with her numbers and got an offer from WNOK hired her and she immediately started dating the NOK GM Bill Mc. The guy in the Red Shirt is me Richard Burton Peterson the only General Sales Manager/Promotions Director during Glory Years
Richard Peterson
7 Mar 22 at 7:42 am
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I was friends with Mountain when he was at WZLD. He and I drank a many a Kamakaze together in 82-83 I think! Went with them on several remotes to pool parties, and one was at South Carolina campus at a practice field, have no idea what that was all about! He actually gave me some good advice. Two days before my wedding, he told me I was making a big mistake. Did it anyway and was split in less than a year. Hey Mountain! Should have listened!
Steve Taylor
16 Jul 23 at 9:28 pm
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why do I keep remembering the names of Gary Lee Robbins and Kevin Bittner from Z96. The only reason I even looked up Z96 is because I found an old t shirt I won from there.
Debra Kirkley
10 May 24 at 12:04 pm
yeah, it was top 40 rocki in 1983. And the reason Hit-Kicker didn't last long was that 99% of the kids (me included( added an s to the front. Course, we had it blaring on our Jensen Tri-axels in our jacked up wide tired musclecars.