Horace,
When you were a DJ at the radio station, who were some of the Artists that you would play and what were some of the songs?
I remember waking up to a station on the Waterworks Road and this DJ would say, "I'm gonna have a cup of coffee and come alive..." I can't remember who it was. Can you?
The song that was big at the time was Johnny Cash and TENNESSEE FLAT-TOP BOX. Also, he would play some DONOVAN (Universal Soldier - Colors). There wasn't a designation of Country or Pop or Rock and Roll. They just played good music. Those days are over and done...

I was either in the AF or at J'ville most of time you churren were teens, so about the only thing I can remember about radio in Sylacauga is singing lead with The Joyettes on EITHER WMLS or WFEB (whichever one had its offices and studio downtown near Reynolds Business College (I think).

Oh, yes, I also remember hearing Rosie Ross saying "OWER TOWER IS FALLING! OWER TOWER IS FALLING!" something like forty or fifty times one day. (I may have been home on leave when that happened.)

Dang tower never DID fall!

In both cases you are talking about WMLS. The DJ you are remembering Lathan was probably Johnny Haynes. Johnny was the engineer for WMLS and worked out at the transmitter which was located between the Talladega Highway and Sico Rd. I think that was the way it was spelled. Johnny was pretty bad, and he knew it better than anyone else. He called himself "the world's worst radio panouncer(phonetic spelling for his pronounciation)" and he called himself Johnny one turntable Haynes. He was a lot of fun. He used to run a mystery tune and give away virtually nothing to the winner. One time he ran one and it went on for weeks and weeks and nobody could identify it. One of the other guys at WFEB, Lamar Aman and I started going through all of our records one by one and finally found it, I don't remember what it was but it caused Johnny to change the rules of eligibility. He included employees of other radio stations in the list of ineliligible contestants. We had a blast with him over that. When Johnny left Sylacauga he went to Pell City where he joined up with the husband of a lady named Betty Frink. She was the Secretary of The State of Alabama several times as I recall. Anyway her husband, Johnny Haynes and my old friend Fred Kelly a blind DJ and fantastic board operator founded and put on the air WFHK for Frink, Haynes and Kelly in Pell City where I worked for a while when I got out of the army.

Horace

I forgot the other question...we played pop, country gospel, R&B. We were still playing some big bands, Miller, Goodman, Harry James, Ray Anthony. Doris Day, Sinatra, Kitty Kallen, The Ames Brothers, Johnny Ray, Tony Bennett, Como etc. Elvis, Bill Haley, The Four Tunes, The Hilltoppers, The Four Knights and all of the early Doo *** and Rock and Roll artist. Coutry, Hank, Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, Martha Carson, Johnny and Jack, Jimmy Davis (Gov. suh)T. Texas Tyler, Tex Ritter (Cash had not come on the scene)Marty Robbins and of Course Eddie Arnold. R&B geez I can't rember any of those folks now we only did a half hour show every day and I didn't get to do it that often. We also ran an awful lot of network programming unlike WMLS which was not affiliated with a network except for Baseball(Mojor league with the Liberty Network run by Gordon McLendon) and Auburn.
Football. We carried the Barons, and Mutual's Game of the Day(Major league Baseball and Alabama Football.

Horac

Horace,
I think you got edited on the word w o p for Doowop. Is that pathetic or what?
I'm almost sure you're right about Johnny Turntable Haynes. He had this real Droll voice but I was a big fan because he'd invariably say "I'm gonna have a cup of coffee and come alive." I couldn't wait to hear him say those words. Great days...

Trying it this way Doo Wop...I could be wrong. Lathan

Of course you can't say racial stuff like wap or *** or ****** or ***** or jig or ***** or penis or ANY of those terrible things on here!

Don'tchoo know NOTHIN'?

HAR! HAR! HAR! (Copied right by Jimmy Holmes, December, 2005)

Oh...add **** --- y'can't say that, either!

I worked at WMLS when LR was doing his show and said, "Folks, if I go off the air, it means that our tower just fell!"

Curtis Lyles (the owner) ran out of his office (white as a sheet)!

The fire dept heard the broadcast and came running. They saved the day by saving the tower.

A guy was cutting the grass with a push mower (before riding mowers) and hit the guy wire. It snapped - at times the tower was leaning 45 degrees!!

I'll never forget that day. Don't remember the year.

Becky

My first job at WMLS was in 1956. I worked there for job day (or whatever it was called). Then got a part-time job cataloging 45 records and getting rid of 78's. A few months later I became the secretary. Worked after school & Saturday (my junior and senior year).

Becky

One of my best friends, Chris Weber, was a DJ at WMLS (if that's the one out near the Talladega Hi-Way). He passed away a couple of years ago. He was one of the most gentle spirits I've ever been around. In the summertime when I was in college we used to go to Wind Creek almost every weekend and dance with the girls at the Pavilion to the song MOCKINGBIRD by Inez Fox. Earl Culver, my best friend ever, and Chuck Roberts would go with us. We had a gang that met there faithfully every weekend.
I last saw Chris at WMLS in 1987 or 1988. I was producing a record on a girl from San Destin, Florida and took her songs by the station. L.R. Ross played some of my records along with her record. Before he played one of my records, L.R. asked me if the songs had any curse words like 'hell' or '****' in the lyrics. I thought that was funny. Chris did a short interview with me and we drank some coffee. Funny how little things like that can seem so trivial then but mean so much now...

I think working in radio in Sylacauga was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Great people to work with and for, graeat people to teach us, I learned more working at WFEB than at any of the schools I attended or from any other broadcasters for whom I worked for more than 50 years. Mr. George Carr was a giant in my book and I will always be grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to begin the most wonderful career I could have ever expected.

Horace