WANY recently celebrates 60 years ‘on the air’

Posted November 7, 2018 at 4:16 pm

WANY radio recently celebrated 60 years in broadcasting in the Albany/Clinton County and surrounding areas, and current station owner Pam Allred provided some basic “history” about the station, including those who actually brought the station to reality.

WANY AM and FM first signed on the air on October 25, 1958 and was jointly owned by Cecil Speck and Allred’s father, Wallace Allred.

The primary individual who worked and operated the station was the late Welby Hoover of Jamestown, who had been in radio for a prior seven years, first in Chicago, then to Monticello before become station manager at WANY.

Cecil Speck’s son, the late Darrell Speck, who was also a recording artist, was assistant manager and sign-on person at the station.

The late Sid Scott, who had worked at a station in Monticello for two years prior to working at WANY, was the station’s commercial manager, and in charge of sports, doing play-by-play coverage for the Clinton County High School basketball games. He soon became known as “The Voice of the Bulldogs.”

Scott’s son, Sid (the Kid) Scott has continued his father’s work, now doing the play-by-play of all games, both basketball and football, with his sister Lynn Scott also doing color and statistics for basketball games.

Darrell Speck’s son, Randy, who remains in radio working at a nearby station in Monticello, was also a long-time employee as well as serving a few years as station manager.

Although there have been many full and/or part-time DJs and employees over the years, some of the personalities who worked there the longest included Elmer Goodman, who was also a member of Renfro Valley, and Eddie Paul Coop, who signed on the station for several years prior to his passing.

Ray Mullinix, who opened WKYR in Burkesville, also was employed for a number of years at the local station.

Goodman’s son, Paul, now retired, also worked a couple of stints at WANY throughout his career.

Many other employees over the years are remembered by many listeners and are too numerous to mention without leaving someone out.

The station changed frequencies a little less than a decade ago, and changed from 106.3 to 100.9 FM on the radio dial.

Ironically, all three of the original DJs and leaders of the station held another thread in common, all got involved in the political world, local and state.

(Darrell) Speck served as Clinton County Coroner; Scott served as Albany Mayor, and Hoover was State Representative for the 83rd District, which includes Clinton County.

Also, Mullinix served as a State Representative prior to his passing several years ago.

At one point in the 70s, disc jockies Speck, Scott and Mullinix teamed up to perform as “The Singing DJs.”

Over the past six decades, the station has provided musical entertainment and public service to the community, including sports coverage, community promotions and live event coverage such as the Clinton County Fair, Bulldogs Booster Club Auction, Foothills Festival events and most recently, the Wellness Center live auction, among others.

Current DJs and employees include Hank Thomas, Chrissy Parrish, Gary Guffey, Jim Britt and part-time employee Wanda McKinley, as well as (Pam) Allred herself.

Congratulations to WANY for 60 years of broadcasting to the local and area communities.