WCOL

1230 WCOL-AM was simply a legendary phenomenon, both locally and nationally. Locally, WCOL was the undisputed king of Columbus rock radio in the 60’s and 70’s. Nationally, WCOL was known as the ‘breakout station’ that other stations followed closely to find out what was ‘hot’. Time and time again, WCOL would be the first to play a record and, if listener response was strong, other stations around the country would then add it to their rotation.

As was characteristic of the time, rock-oriented WCOL also played a wide variety of non-rock music, so it was common to find on the WCOL charts music of almost any genre - everything from The Beatles to Frank Sinatra to The Singing Nun to The Baja Marimba Band to Sgt. Barry Sadler.

Most importantly, WCOL supported and routinely played recordings by local artists, which could be found listed on just about any weekly WCOL survey. Some of the local talent included The Dantes, Pat Zill, Fifth Order, Rebounds, Chandlers, Bill Moss, Chuck Howard, Billy Maxted, Billy Graham & The Escalators, Gene Cotton, J.D. Blackfoot, Owen B., Phil Gary, Ronnie Taylor, The Capital City Rockets, Jeff Fenholt and many others.

WCOL listeners considered the DJ’s their close friends, even though most had never met them, often calling the station on countdown night or showing up at the studios on South Young Street. Among the many revered WCOL DJ’s were Dr. Bop (Hoyte Locke), Wes Hopkins, Bob (“Beatle Bob”) Harrington, Mike Adams, Sonny Palmer, Johnny Hill, Steve Bayless, Dan Morris, Bryan McIntyre, Jerry Gordon, Dave Reinhart, Neal Martin, Mike Perkins, Johnny Buck, Lou Henry and many others.

Pams leads the way with the radio a go-go jingle package. (10:55)

It was a golden era for AM radio in Columbus and WCOL rocked the city.