New Orleans WNOE Radio 1959-1960

Welcome to 1959-1960! WNOE was a top-rated high-energy Top-40 radio station in New Orleans during a time when AM was King. Most car radios wouldn't even receive FM!

WNOE threw out a monster 50,000-watt signal on 1060 AM that blanketed much of the South.

This is an actual 10-minute recording of WNOE during those years, accompanied by vintage postcard views of New Orleans. The sound quality is poor in a few places because the recording was made several hundred miles away from New Orleans.

It's 1959 & 1960 again, and welcome to New Orleans, the Crescent City, and the great wild sound of WNOE! What are your memories of New Orleans?

Category:

Music

Tags:

• wnoe
• new orleans
• 1060
• am
• radio
• top-40
• bud connell
• shad o'shea
• 50000
• watts
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• postcards
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• 690
• 1950s
• 1950's
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• 1960's
• 1957
• 1958
• 1959
• 1960
• 1961
• 1962
• 1963
• 1964
• 1965
• aircheck
• tulane
• loyola
• sophie newcomb
• St. Mary's Dominican
• college
• university
• mardi gras
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[MrRfmax]

Credit where due: I also have a copy of that aircheck, given to me by former WNOE personality Bill Taylor. Bill recorded it off of his car radio when he was growing up in South Carolina! That explains the fades and interference. WNOE ran 50-kw in daylight hours, and had a huge skywave over many states right after sunrise and just before sunset. Bill told me that working at WNOE was his goal when he was a teenager, and he eventually got there.

[dwtpa97]

Great information, MrRfmax - thanks for providing it. There are very few aircheck recordings from this period, and we are all fortunate to be able to listen to one of the truly great New Orleans Top-40 stations. Many thanks again to you for the information and to Bill Taylor for the exceptional aircheck.

[frankieagogo]

Having worked at the station in the early 1970s, I must share with you that it was near impossible to resist the lure of the "ECHO" button that sat well-worn in the upper left corner of the old Gates board. The main studio where so much Top 40 greatness was created is now someone's bedroom at 529 Bienville St. in New Orleans French Quarter, but every once and a while I'm tempted to dial 529-1212 just to see if someone might answer... WNOE.

[dwtpa97]

Good comment, frankieagogo, I'll bet those residents of today have no idea of the great sounds that emanated at one time from that very spot. Thanks for the great memories and post.

[wb12337]

Thanks for this. I well may have heard it live as a Tulane student then.

[dwtpa97]

I was a Loyola student then, but we frequently ate at the Tulane cafeteria - We thought the food was better. You & I may have eaten in the same room! Thanks for your post, wb12337 !

[MrRfmax]

I grew up in Slidell. New Orleans was the only market where the founders of Top 40 radio competed directly; Gordon McLendon (married to Gov Noe's daughter and a consultant to WNOE) and Todd Storz with WTIX. And it was the period when Cosimo Matassa's studio down in the Quarters was turning out national hit records. We also had Pinky Vidocovitch and the Dawnbusters on WWL - arguably radio's first "morning zoo,' and with a live jazz combo to boot. What a great radio/music town it was then!

[dwtpa97]

Thanks for your post, PhylisStein. Those were great times in a great city!

[dwtpa97]

Thanks for your post, k1177k. Shad was indeed very zany, and had one of the great natural voices of radio. His passing was a great loss.

[k1177k]

Shad just passed away this year and he was the same lunatic the last time we spoke in April. A great guy and a talented man.