The George Dennos Collection
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George is a lifelong radio fan and enthusiast. He was fascinated with what he heard coming from the radio speaker which led to his focus on programming. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with twenty-five years in the broadcast industry. George was associated with some familiar North Carolina stations, including WSSB Durham, WTOB Winston-Salem, WVOT/WXYY Wilson, WDNC/WDCG Durham, 94Z Raleigh, KIX 96.1 Raleigh and WPTF Raleigh, where, as Program Director, he achieved market leading ratings during the early 1980s. He created the “Sounds Like North Carolina” theme for the station and hosted a weekly oldies show. Other programming positions include WDNC, 108 WYYD Lynchburg-Roanoke and 94Z Raleigh. George was also a consultant with David Klemm Media and worked with stations nationwide. He was also a contributor to “WABC Rewound”, an annual celebration of the station’s Top 40 legacy. George has been an avid collector of broadcast memorabilia with over sixty years of airchecks, station music surveys and printed materials. He is a certified “jingle freak”, with many station jingle packages from across the country. George is happy to share his extensive collection with the North Carolina Broadcast History Museum. |
WTOB was a part of The Southern Broadcasting Company based in Winston-Salem. They were an early convert to Top 40 radio with a notable national reputation. Here is a station sales presentation tape featuring the early days of its recently adopted “Drake Format”.
“Big ‘ol Nighttime WAYS” rocked Charlotte from 7 until midnight with the one of a kind Chuckie “Boo” Baron. He is cookin’ on this night in March 1976.
Paul Allen was a fixture at WBAG for many years, serving as Program Director and DJ. He was also a serious jingle collector! Here is a listen to his midday show in 1974.
“James In The Morning” was the AM drive show on WSSB in 1973. Gary featured characters and comedy bits along with the hits that brought laughs to Durham every morning. Gary was a finalist in the Billboard 1974 Radio Awards, Contemporary Stations.
Steve Roddy (Ken Lowe) was the afternoon drive personality on WKIX in the early 1970s. He later became program director of KIX before moving to Scripps-Howard Broadcasting and into the world of cable TV. Ken was the creative force that brought us HGTV.
Bill Jackson was the extremely popular morning voice of WPTF serving eastern North Carolina for many years. Here is his 5am sign-on from 1967.
WYNA had a short life as a Top 40 station from May 1966 until November 1967. It was known as “All American 1550” with DJs Bobby Dark, Phil Geiger, Tom Scott and a young Dale Vann (Horn). “WINNER” has all the bells and whistles of 1960s Top 40 radio: energetic DJs, chime time, reverb and a hot jingle package: Pepper’s “It’s What’s Happening”. WYNA had a weekly printed “Action Sound Survey” available at local record stores. The station also featured airborne traffic reports.
Grover Clinton was Chief Engineer and evening DJ at WSSB before moving to mid-days. A popular nightly feature was “Topper Time”, a request hour sponsored by Tops Drive-In. WSSB was using a Mac Kenzie Repeater, a five deck playback device utilizing small metal cartridges. The tape was recorded on reel, then wound into the cartridge for playback. This allowed for multiple intros, jingles, IDs and spots to be played in quick succession.
Bob Baker was the morning man at WKIX in 1966, coming from Atlanta where he worked at WAKE and WPLO. He was known there as Bob “Boo Boo” Baker. This tape was sent to a local Navy seaman stationed in Vietnam.
A mid-60s montage of KIX’s most memorable voices of the mid-60s: Mike Reineri, Gary Edens, Bob Jones, Bob Kelly, Tommy Walker, Charlie Brown, Tommy Woods.