My girlfriend read on another site tonight something quite interesting about Winchester's WHPL AM 610. It seems WHPL was the first station in America to announce the death of country music legend..Patsy Cline. Thats kinda ironic since WINC was the first station in America to feature the voice of Patsy while WEPM actually had her on their airstaff at one time ( Bill Peer & Patsy Cline with the WEPM Melody Boys ) and it was WHPL who announced her death first. I also seem to recall hearing years back that WHPL was the first station in America to launch a "weatherphone" as in dial a number to hear the local weather. And WHPL I beieve was one of the first stations in the US ( maybe the first ) to play Debbie Boone's 1977 hit "You Light Up My Life", OK that is not exactly something to brag about but still.... Sadly and not really a surprise I didn't see anything on the Winchester Star website about AM 610 going dark. Not really a surprise there since the Star when it comes to radio it was always about WINC. Maybe they still hold a grudge against the Clear Channel stations stemming from those Benchmark Communications days. I still remember those anti-Benchmark letters that appeared in the Star back in the 90s . I have a hunch they wouldn't have been published had they been about WINC. Oddly nothing on TV3 Winchester's site either and they are tied in with Q102. One would think AM 610 going dark would be mentioned on there.But it wasn't. (11/17/08) In reguards to Patsy Cline, a few years back I listened to a tape of Winchester, VA's WHPL-AM 1963 radio coverage of the death of Patsy Cline. According to WHPL there were people one the scene who actually took pics of the bodies including a shot of Patsy's hand in some wet bushes. Her hand had been seperated from the body due to the impact. Actually WHPL was very graphic in their description of the body of Patsy Cline. For one thing WHPL claimed that Patsy not only lost a hand but an ear and her left leg too plus her torso was bare. The radio station also said in another broadcast that only 60% of Patsy Cline was buried. The other 40% percent? Who Knows !!! There still could be a piece of bone of hers in Tennessee. BTW..WHPL didn't give any discripton on the condition of the other bodies like Hawkshaw Hawkins for example. The tape of the WHPL broadcast was available online until about 2 years on Winchester's radio/TV website btvonlinemedia.com but a group of radio stations in the area demanded and got that site shut down over the conduct of its webmaster. So unless someone copied that old WHPL radio broadcast and uploaded elsewhere, the piece of Patsy history is temporary lost. November 17, 2008 Winchester's 610 Goes Dark, Sports To 1550 Clear Channel moves the sports talk format from Winchester VA's WTFX, 610 AM, to Charles Town WV's WMRE, 1550 AM, which had sported a nostalgic music format as "Memories 1550." The new "SportsTalk 1550" will continue to broadcast regional high school sports as well as NASCAR, University Of Virginia sports, and Fox Sports syndicated programming. Also, CC is taking 610 off the air for good, as the 40-acre WTFX transmitter site on Route 50 is slated to become a retirement development. "The AM signal that began as WHPL (right) in 1961 has had an important presence as a carrier of local sports for many years," said Clear Channel Radio Winchester Market Manager Chuck Peterson. "In continuing our strong commitment to our community and in order to further super-serve the local sports needs in the area, we are glad to be able to move our sports talk programs to another one of our AM signals, 1550." Formerly also WUSQ and WVAI, Winchester's 610 was a country station in the 1960s and a contemporary hit station in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the outlet had a variety of formats, including big band, adult contemporary, news, and country again. It became talker WNTW in 1994, and flipped to contemporary Christian music in 1999. In 2002, under Clear Channel ownership, 610 became sports talk WTFX. The shut down of AM 610 in Winchester has been a long time in coming. I worked for AM 610/Q102 back in the 90's, and I remember the PD telling me that the AM 610 towers were on leased land, and that the landowner's long term plan was to wait until Winchester expanded westward out towards the tower site, then to build a shopping center on the land. The PD's assumption back then was that once the landowner chose not to renew the lease, AM 610 would go dark, because it wouldn't make financial sense to rebuild the station at another location. Unfortunately, the future has arrived. (11/17/08) Re: 610 in Winchester: Does anybody know if 610 still broadcasts from “Tower Park” or “Studio Park” as its known to some, on Rt. 50, west of Winchester? I know their studios, etc. are not there, but was just wondering. I remember WHPL -"Where Happy People Listen", and as a kid (early-mid 60s) riding from Winchester to Ocean City, MD listening to 610 all the way! Incredible amount of radio came out of those orchards in the 60’s and 70’s. My personal favorite was Craven Edwards. Lots of live spots back in those days, and Craven would supplement his income by selling a local brand of corn meal during his shift. I don’t remember the brand of corn meal, but do remember the way Edwards would shout, “biscuits so good, they’ll make your tongue slap your brains out”!!! A great country and western DJ, and a great local personality. (11/17/08 This is Pam Bell. It’s good to hear there are still folks around who remember WHPL 610 AM. The question was asked what I think of the station going dark. I am very sad. It’s like losing a part of my life, especially when the towers are taken down. I grew up at the station and have many fond memories of small town broadcasting. From news accounts, I figured the retirement center was going on or near the station property. I hope the development has lots of money for excavation because the property is full of limestone outcroppings and 500 miles of cable that connected the four towers. My dad, Johnny Bell, built and managed WHPL and WEFG-FM. My mom was office manager, my brother Mike was morning man and my claim to fame was being Pam the Pixie, reading children’s letters to Santa during the Christmas season. My parents are both deceased and Mike is in Miami Beach. After Shenval Broadcasting was sold in 1982, my parents retired and I went to work for the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper in Strasburg and have been there 25 years. I run into former jocks who worked for us from time to time ... Jim McCoy, Keith Lupton, John Shreiner, Phil Roby,...and there’s been talk of a reunion. Maybe we should do it now. (11/17/08) To Pam Bell: WHPL was my first job in the radio business back in 1980. The pic of the logo on this page brought a big grin to my mug this afternoon! Your father hired me right out of broadcasting school and let me try pretty much anything I cared to attempt while at the station...and that included doing basketball play-by-play at the Christian Academy right around the corner. By the way...I need to confess. I told your father I had done PBP in the past to convince him to let me do it at 'HPL. That may not have actually been the case...but I REALLY thought I was a sports radio star in waiting...and I was dying to take a shot! I remember you...and appreciated how kind you always were to everyone. Winchester is a beautiful spot...and it was good being there. For me...it was the start of career that just marked 29 years. For that...I will always be grateful! R.I.P. WHPL... Eric in Arlington (11/17/08) In Winchester WINC 1400 AM was Top 40.in the 1960's. Joe Pasquali's morning show played the top 20. Also Roy Nester' Platter party mon-fri played top 20 and Wed night dedication night. Saturday AM was Club 1400 Area High School students did Orchids and Onions and the top 10 Hot songs. AM 610 WHPL in the 60's was AC with country drop in's during the day. At 7PM WHPL flipped to Country with Cravin Edwards Show and Joltin Jim McCoy from 10PM- Sign off. WHPL-AM was Hot AC and WEFG-FM 102.5 in the 70's was programmed by Mike Bell and was automated Top 40 with live dj's Mike & Pam Bell & Ozzy Mott played the top 40 chart songs. The late 70's brought WINC AM to AC format and then WQUS ( formerly WRFL) 92.5 country was dropped and simulcast with WINC-AM AC. In the Early-Mid 70's AM740 WRNR signed on in Martinsburg as a Top 40 station. WWOO Berryville 105.5 signed on in the late 70's as a top 40 station. Logged bk77 rimember Offline Posts: 262 Re: Top 40 stations around Virginia in the 1960's & 70's « Reply #15 on: April 16, 2008, 09:27:59 pm » -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from: RF4U on April 16, 2008, 12:53:26 pm In Winchester WINC 1400 AM was Top 40.in the 1960's. Joe Pasquali's morning show played the top 20. Also Roy Nester' Platter party mon-fri played top 20 and Wed night dedication night. Saturday AM was Club 1400 Area High School students did Orchids and Onions and the top 10 Hot songs. AM 610 WHPL in the 60's was AC with country drop in's during the day. At 7PM WHPL flipped to Country with Cravin Edwards Show and Joltin Jim McCoy from 10PM- Sign off. WHPL-AM was Hot AC and WEFG-FM 102.5 in the 70's was programmed by Mike Bell and was automated Top 40 with live dj's Mike & Pam Bell & Ozzy Mott played the top 40 chart songs. The late 70's brought WINC AM to AC format and then WQUS ( formerly WRFL) 92.5 country was dropped and simulcast with WINC-AM AC. In the Early-Mid 70's AM740 WRNR signed on in Martinsburg as a Top 40 station. WWOO Berryville 105.5 signed on in the late 70's as a top 40 station. Good information !!! However WINC didn't go the AM/FM route until January 1, 1982. For a time in the early 1980's ( late 1981 until September 1983 ) other than Nearby Martinsburg's WRNR-AM and for a brief time a part time pirate radio station on FM 97 or FM 98 ( forgot the dial number ) that came from a local TV repair shop ( Cornwells TV ? ) Winchester did not have any top 40 stations at all to call its own since WWOO had gone country in 1981. In August 1982 WHPL became WVAI while WEFG became country WUSQ Q102. Of course Q102 remains to this day but WVAI went from a big band/standards format to top 40 by the fall of 1983 and stayed that way until the fall of 1986 when they started simulcasting Q102. FM killed WVAI as by 1986 the Winchester area had TWO FM regional top 40 outlets ( Front Royal's WFQX and Martinsburg's WKMZ ) Oddly both WFQX and WKMZ went to the classic rock around the same time in the early 90s and WRNR got out of music all together around the same time as well when they went talk. And for the next ten years the Winchester region had no top 40 outlets at all though WINC-FM was very close. Come to think of it I take that back, WFQX from 1994 until September 1995 was top 40 when they were that infamous Froggy 99 ( using jingles that WAVA used ). But their program director at the time Charlie Fish ( a woman not a man ) hated top 40 and switched WFQX to a modern rock format known as the 99.3 The Frog. That lasted a few years until classic rock came back to WFQX. Then in 2004 Clear Channel bought Charles Town's WXVA-FM 98.3 moved the tower and studios to Winchester and changed the city of license from Charles Town to Stephens City. The calls were changed to WKSI and top 40 came back to Winchester as 98.3 Kiss-FM and its been that way ever since. Logged jsu5381m rimember Offline Posts: 237 Re: Top 40 stations around Virginia in the 1960's & 70's « Reply #16 on: June 12, 2008, 05:37:19 pm » -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Didn't WJJS Roanoake recently change from TOP 40 to rythmic? If so, did they drop AT 40 on Sundays? Logged mleach rimember Offline Posts: 540 Re: Top 40 stations around Virginia in the 1960's & 70's « Reply #17 on: July 11, 2008, 02:03:27 am » -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from: RF4U on April 16, 2008, 12:53:26 pm In Winchester WINC 1400 AM was Top 40.in the 1960's. Joe Pasquali's morning show played the top 20. Also Roy Nester' Platter party mon-fri played top 20 and Wed night dedication night. Saturday AM was Club 1400 Area High School students did Orchids and Onions and the top 10 Hot songs. AM 610 WHPL in the 60's was AC with country drop in's during the day. At 7PM WHPL flipped to Country with Cravin Edwards Show and Joltin Jim McCoy from 10PM- Sign off. WHPL-AM was Hot AC and WEFG-FM 102.5 in the 70's was programmed by Mike Bell and was automated Top 40 with live dj's Mike & Pam Bell & Ozzy Mott played the top 40 chart songs. The late 70's brought WINC AM to AC format and then WQUS ( formerly WRFL) 92.5 country was dropped and simulcast with WINC-AM AC. In the Early-Mid 70's AM740 WRNR signed on in Martinsburg as a Top 40 station. WWOO Berryville 105.5 signed on in the late 70's as a top 40 station. Actually Winchester's WEFG 102.5 was GOSPEL in the 70's until that station became Q102 in April 1982 when it switched formats to country. WINC-AM may have been top 40 in the 60s but by 1977 WINC AM 1400...I don't know what I would have called them. Maybe AC, maybe Full Service. WHPL on the other hand was indeed top forty then ( 1977 ). The other week thanks to another website I checked out two airchecks from September 1977. One featuring Mike Bell & John Scott Sloanaker ( WHPL ) and the other with Joe Pasquali and John Bloom ( WINC ). Sadly due to the other content on that site I can't post the link to it here but I did take notes on what songs aired on those two stations. when the aircheck was made.. WHPL-AM 610 9/77 *Love is Thicker Than Water-Andy Gibb *Stayin Alive-Bee Gees *Draw The Line-Aerosmith *I Go Crazy-Paul Davis *Strawberry Letter 23-Brothers Johnson *Hot Line-Silvers *Moonlight Feels Right-Starbuck *Keep it Comin Love-KC and The Sunshine Band *Dancing Queen-Abba *Show You The Way To Go-Jacksons *Saturday Night-Bay City Rollers *Best of My Love-The Emotions *Rock and Roll All Night-KISS *Don't Leave Me this Way-Thelma Houston *Fox On the Run-Sweet *I'm In You-Peter Frampton *Jet Airliner-Steve Miller *I Wanna Get Next To You-Rose Royce WINC-AM 1400 9/77 *Undercover Angel-Alan O'Day *The Night Chicago Died-Paper Lace *If You Leave Me Now-Chicago *Morning Side of the Mountain-Donnie and Marie Osmond *Let Em In-Wings *You Light Up My Life-Debbie Boone *Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes-Edison Lighthouse *I Am Woman-Helen Reddy *Rock N Me-Steve Miller *Viva Las Vegas-Elvis Presley ( he had recently died ) *Best Of My Love-Emotions *One of These Nights-Eagles *Country Sunshine-Dottie West *Easy Come Easy Go-Bobby Sherman *I Like Dreaming-Kenny Nolan WINC at the time was still doing a lot of network features like Art Linkletter's Links Little Ones, Howard Cosell's sports , ABC News and some Virginia commentary show plus WINC's John Bloom was reading the baby births too. Very weird hearing that considering that those babies whoses names was read on the air are in their 30's now !!! Joe Pasquali to me sounded a bit too much like Arthur Godfrey. WHPL's Mike Bell was fun to listen too with his jokes and such. Mike also made some claim he had to travel to Hagerstown to see Saturday Night Fever since the film either never played Winchester or hadn't yet at the time of this aircheck. Slonaker was very good too. Too bad the aircheck didn't feature Mike's sister Pam. I heard she was a great newscaster. I do think WHPL did go the Hot AC route once Mike Bell left WHPL in 1978 for Richmond (?) and it stayed that way until WHPL became WVAI in 1982. Interesting tidbit about WHPL. In the 90's I worked beside Gary Kirtley. He the GM at the time when WHPL became WVAI and WEFG became WUSQ Q102. While ( of course ) Kirtley believed that switching the FM from gospel to country was a good idea. He told me that he regretted changing those calls and the format on AM 610 from WHPL to those big band sounds of WVAI. After WHPL, 610 has never really been the same with all those different formats they had over the years. Logged jackandcoke rimember Offline Posts: 161 Re: Top 40 stations around Virginia in the 1960's & 70's « Reply #18 on: July 14, 2008, 02:26:15 pm » -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from: mleach on July 11, 2008, 02:03:27 am Quote from: RF4U on April 16, 2008, 12:53:26 pm In Winchester WINC 1400 AM was Top 40.in the 1960's. Joe Pasquali's morning show played the top 20. Also Roy Nester' Platter party mon-fri played top 20 and Wed night dedication night. Saturday AM was Club 1400 Area High School students did Orchids and Onions and the top 10 Hot songs. AM 610 WHPL in the 60's was AC with country drop in's during the day. At 7PM WHPL flipped to Country with Cravin Edwards Show and Joltin Jim McCoy from 10PM- Sign off. WHPL-AM was Hot AC and WEFG-FM 102.5 in the 70's was programmed by Mike Bell and was automated Top 40 with live dj's Mike & Pam Bell & Ozzy Mott played the top 40 chart songs. The late 70's brought WINC AM to AC format and then WQUS ( formerly WRFL) 92.5 country was dropped and simulcast with WINC-AM AC. In the Early-Mid 70's AM740 WRNR signed on in Martinsburg as a Top 40 station. WWOO Berryville 105.5 signed on in the late 70's as a top 40 station. Actually Winchester's WEFG 102.5 was GOSPEL in the 70's until that station became Q102 in April 1982 when it switched formats to country. WINC-AM may have been top 40 in the 60s but by 1977 WINC AM 1400...I don't know what I would have called them. Maybe AC, maybe Full Service. WHPL on the other hand was indeed top forty then ( 1977 ). The other week thanks to another website I checked out two airchecks from September 1977. One featuring Mike Bell & John Scott Sloanaker ( WHPL ) and the other with Joe Pasquali and John Bloom ( WINC ). Sadly due to the other content on that site I can't post the link to it here but I did take notes on what songs aired on those two stations. when the aircheck was made.. WHPL-AM 610 9/77 *Love is Thicker Than Water-Andy Gibb *Stayin Alive-Bee Gees *Draw The Line-Aerosmith *I Go Crazy-Paul Davis *Strawberry Letter 23-Brothers Johnson *Hot Line-Silvers *Moonlight Feels Right-Starbuck *Keep it Comin Love-KC and The Sunshine Band *Dancing Queen-Abba *Show You The Way To Go-Jacksons *Saturday Night-Bay City Rollers *Best of My Love-The Emotions *Rock and Roll All Night-KISS *Don't Leave Me this Way-Thelma Houston *Fox On the Run-Sweet *I'm In You-Peter Frampton *Jet Airliner-Steve Miller *I Wanna Get Next To You-Rose Royce WINC-AM 1400 9/77 *Undercover Angel-Alan O'Day *The Night Chicago Died-Paper Lace *If You Leave Me Now-Chicago *Morning Side of the Mountain-Donnie and Marie Osmond *Let Em In-Wings *You Light Up My Life-Debbie Boone *Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes-Edison Lighthouse *I Am Woman-Helen Reddy *Rock N Me-Steve Miller *Viva Las Vegas-Elvis Presley ( he had recently died ) *Best Of My Love-Emotions *One of These Nights-Eagles *Country Sunshine-Dottie West *Easy Come Easy Go-Bobby Sherman *I Like Dreaming-Kenny Nolan WINC at the time was still doing a lot of network features like Art Linkletter's Links Little Ones, Howard Cosell's sports , ABC News and some Virginia commentary show plus WINC's John Bloom was reading the baby births too. Very weird hearing that considering that those babies whoses names was read on the air are in their 30's now !!! Joe Pasquali to me sounded a bit too much like Arthur Godfrey. WHPL's Mike Bell was fun to listen too with his jokes and such. Mike also made some claim he had to travel to Hagerstown to see Saturday Night Fever since the film either never played Winchester or hadn't yet at the time of this aircheck. Slonaker was very good too. Too bad the aircheck didn't feature Mike's sister Pam. I heard she was a great newscaster. I do think WHPL did go the Hot AC route once Mike Bell left WHPL in 1978 for Richmond (?) and it stayed that way until WHPL became WVAI in 1982. Interesting tidbit about WHPL. In the 90's I worked beside Gary Kirtley. He the GM at the time when WHPL became WVAI and WEFG became WUSQ Q102. While ( of course ) Kirtley believed that switching the FM from gospel to country was a good idea. He told me that he regretted changing those calls and the format on AM 610 from WHPL to those big band sounds of WVAI. After WHPL, 610 has never really been the same with all those different formats they had over the years. No harm intended, but let me gently disagree with your portrayal of either WHPL(AM) or WINC(AM) as "Top 40" in the sense that anyone else would recognize. During the sixties 1400/WINC ran a block-programming format typical of small-town stations of the day and within that "magazine" structure there were indeed segments for pop music. Their "Platter Party" (interestingly the same name used by Hagerstown's WARK with Traverse Ruppert & Dave Shepherd) was standard fare. "Something for the kids!" By the seventies WINC had, indeed, morphed into a decent-sounding AC with touches of what today we would call Hot AC in late afternoon (after school) and evenings (when they weren't running a ballgame). But for those of us working at that time for the Top 40 stations surrounding Winchester--WRNR, WEEO, WZYQ, WELK, WHBG--I'll attest that no one ever mistook WINC for a "Top 40." And though the Bells would no doubt argue the point, I never recall WHPL sounding like anything more than just a jumble of stuff. I'll take your word that Mike Bell may have been able to drag it toward some sort of AC for awhile before bolting, but WHPL was always that station that other broadcasters wanted to buy because it had a potentially great signal (FULLTIME on 610!!!) but an awful audio chain... and was completely undeveloped. Completely. So clueless were the Bells that--just as FM was taking off--they sold the FM that has dominated the Winchester market for the past 20+ years. A decision that probably cost them $30 million? $40 million? $50 million? WHPL as a Top 40? Not really. Logged mleach rimember Offline Posts: 540 Re: Top 40 stations around Virginia in the 1960's & 70's « Reply #19 on: July 15, 2008, 08:09:05 am » -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from: jackandcoke on July 14, 2008, 02:26:15 pm No harm intended, but let me gently disagree with your portrayal of either WHPL(AM) or WINC(AM) as "Top 40" in the sense that anyone else would recognize. During the sixties 1400/WINC ran a block-programming format typical of small-town stations of the day and within that "magazine" structure there were indeed segments for pop music. Their "Platter Party" (interestingly the same name used by Hagerstown's WARK with Traverse Ruppert & Dave Shepherd) was standard fare. "Something for the kids!" By the seventies WINC had, indeed, morphed into a decent-sounding AC with touches of what today we would call Hot AC in late afternoon (after school) and evenings (when they weren't running a ballgame). But for those of us working at that time for the Top 40 stations surrounding Winchester--WRNR, WEEO, WZYQ, WELK, WHBG--I'll attest that no one ever mistook WINC for a "Top 40." And though the Bells would no doubt argue the point, I never recall WHPL sounding like anything more than just a jumble of stuff. I'll take your word that Mike Bell may have been able to drag it toward some sort of AC for awhile before bolting, but WHPL was always that station that other broadcasters wanted to buy because it had a potentially great signal (FULLTIME on 610!!!) but an awful audio chain... and was completely undeveloped. Completely. So clueless were the Bells that--just as FM was taking off--they sold the FM that has dominated the Winchester market for the past 20+ years. A decision that probably cost them $30 million? $40 million? $50 million? WHPL as a Top 40? Not really. WHPL/WEFG was owned by a company called Shenval. I am pretty sure Shenval besides WHPL/WEFG also owned the long defunct Shenval Record Store in downtown Winchester and a small piece of Winchester's Cornwells TV Sales & Service. However I think it was someone else who ran that overall company and not the Bells even though that family did pretty much control those two radio stations. But then again I have heard that Shenval WAS Johnny Bell. I tend to believe the latter. Your are right about WHPL being undeveloped. The aircheck I heard..good music but NO JINGLES or even sweepers. Very generic !! But then again I have heard over the years that the Bells were very much on the cheap side BUT nice people..well Pam Bell..I get to that in a bit. Meanwhile the Lewis Family ( WINC-WRFL/WQUS ) they were the reverse of the Bells, they paid quite well BUT were tough to work for though I believe that has changed within the last 10 years. For every John Bloom and Roy Nestor who have been with WINC for years and had nothing but good things to say about the Lewises, even today in Winchester its not hard to find many others like Norma Jean Shaw, Jay Young, Frank Innings, Larry Holmes, Amy Hammond and even Joe Pasquali who would beg to differ. Other than being well cheap, over the years I have never really heard anything bad about the Bells...well Pam.. Pam Bell..I met her about 15 years ago. Lets just say she is a very interesting woman !!! When I met her and was telling me how WHPL wouldn't play KISS and disco ( well the aircheck I heard proved her wrong right off the bat. ) then there was Martinsburg, WV's WKMZ-FM. Back in the late 90's when WKMZ was still on 97.5 FM every Sunday morning they aired oldies with Max Oates. One day Max Oates and WKMZ decided to do a "tribute" on Max's show of those great music stations out of the past like 1130 WEEO, WZYQ, and WPGC ( WKMZ owner Bill Prettyman was a big shot there during PGC's top 40 years ). Airing that stations old jingles, interview the jocks and play old airchecks. Martinsburg's 74 WRNR being direct competiton to WKMZ's sister WEPM was not featured. Not to leave Virginia out WKMZ wanted to do a show featuring a Virginia station. WINC was out mainly because the Lewises at the time wanted to buy WKMZ/WEPM only to have Bill Prettyman up the price to the point where even the Lewises said no. Lewises wanted to buy for 5 mil..Prettyman asked for 10 I believe. Anyway The Lewises went on to buy WAPP/WBPP instead. Then it was suggested WKMZ should do a show about...WHPL !!!! After a few weeks of tracking down jocks and finding airchecks and such. It was almost a go that is until WKMZ contacted Pam Bell. Was she excited that someone will be paying tribute to her father and WHPL? Hardly !! I was told Pam BEGGED WKMZ not to do such a show. She was quite emotional about so in the end WKMZ decided not to do a "tribute" on any Virginia station. Maybe you have something. Maybe Pam Bell is bitter at things that "could have been". The Lewises today even BEFORE Centennial, were among the richest families in Winchester. The Bells on the other hand....... « Last Edit: July 15, 2008, 08:21:35 am by mleach » Logged Pages: 1 [2] 3 Go Up Print WTFX in a Sports radio|sports news/talk formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Winchester, Virginia. History WTFX-AM began was launched by ShenVal Broadcasting as WHPL-AM in 1961. The WHPL calls stood for "Where Happy People Listen". The studios then were located at "Studio Park" off US 50, west of Winchester, where the WTFX towers still remain, though not the studios. WHPL carried NBC News and a lot of high school sports. During the late 60's, WHPL increased its sports coverage so much that not only did they carry local high school sports, but baseball, VA State Softball, NASCAR and even swimming.