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After two years or so I finally have had time to get my station back on the air again. My grandmother who I loved dearly and took care of at home for years passed on in December, then my second daughter was born in January, then I moved to a smaller one stop light town along the interstate. My father died unexpectedly in June at a young age, so radio has been on the back burner.
My grandmother and myself used tto frequent a little Italian restaurant in farmington mo, where we lived called tonanzios. An elderly couple owned it. It was in a 1920s era two story large house. The old man cooked, and his wife waited on tables and ran the big 1930s cash till. Each room had a different theme. One was the grape room with grape wallpaper. One was the flamingos room. One was what she called the Florentine room, adorned in old pinstripe wallpaper, checkered Red table clothes and a simple vase with one pink flower, of course don’t forget the fancy brand ketchup, parmesan cheese, and olive oil.
She had old speakers in each room that would emit the smooth sounds of big band and coroners as you ate your food and enjoyed your pepsi and watched traffic bustle by on the then 2 lane karsch boulevard and the rubber tree sway in the wind out front.
Today an oreileys auto parts store sits there and no trace can be found of tonanzios. I spent every Thursday evening there with my grandmother enjoying homemade pizza as a young teen boy, and those memories stuck with me, especially the music that I had never heard before.
I decided I would create a station to cover my apartment subdivision and surrounding homes and gas station, and you can just barely hear it in the shopping plaza parking lot across the road.
I operate on 94.1 FM with KWVX as my unofficial ID at the top of every hour. I bring news reports that I produce every other hour pre recorded and weather forecasts pre recorded. I call my station, Radio Florentine, Leadingtons Finest Music.
I record a segment played periodically throughout the day called today in history where I give an account of important events in history.
I play big band and crooners from the 20s thru the 40s. I don’t have a large playlist yet, about 320 in rotation.
I also am running a new special called the flamingos special everyday at noon to draw interest in the station. The first person to email me he name and artist of the song played at noon gets their name mentioned on the air as the winner. mI oping to offer some type of token gift to the winners in the future.
Listeners can email me at my station website http://www.kwvx.webs.com
I’m also running a segment I introduce 3 times a day called vintage radio news, where I play www news clips for historical purposes.
My goal is to share music that the world forgot. Classic country, oldies, rock, pop, and even classical get much airtime today but good music from the 40s is forgotten today. Maybe a young person will discover it on accident like I did.
I am also bringing dragnet at 4pm and 10pm daily. I plan to rotate it out with Johnny dollar occasionally. I don’t have internet except on my phone right now, so no streaming. Sorry.
I have a good sound with fm, but I plan to switch to AM in the near future. Probably 1590 on the am dial.
I have produced my own unprofessional sounders, ids, ads, and program’s. They sound halfway decent.
The station definitely has a 40s feel. Thanks for letting me share with everyone here. I think I’ll sit back with a Pepsi and wait for a Tommy Dorsey number to roll around in radio dj and make it to my grundig table top radio. Maybe I’ll make pizza for supper.
Total posts : 45366moore5861 you most certainly had many large changes happen in your life all at once, so I’m glad that as things settled down you had radio waiting for you.
I got worried all over again in the 3rd paragraph when you said the old restaurant had big band music and coroners… I thought maybe you were in a funeral parlor that served pizza snacks, but later on you cleared up what you meant… big bands and crooners.
From what everybody says it seems like small towns are the best places for part 15 radio.
Total posts : 45366Sounds good, I like the name, and I like the historical significance, both in memory of your grandmother, and radio of the past!.
Keep us posted, and I hope you can find more music to add to your playlist.
AM radio is definately the way to go for distance, and the right transmitter will sound great with the older music you are playing.
I play a lot of classic country and rock/doowop here. I am surprised at how good it sounds on some of my radios. I am using a SSTRAN AMT 3000. There are other choices that will also do well.
Good luck!!
Total posts : 45366I know that KWVX Radio Florentine will be switching to AM in the future, but I got curious looking at your FM coverage map and wonder what kind of distance you actually cover… I don’t see any measurement markers on the map.
Also, I always wonder what kind of transmitter is being used.
Total posts : 45366Your are not to far from Friend Carl’s KDX location! Nice site and coverage map. How many households would you estimate to be in your coverage area.
Total posts : 45366Cool background story! Glad you got the station going.
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