WARMLand Remembered

Clip: 11/25/2024 | 3m 5sVideo has Closed Captions

Recollections of the vibrant atmosphere at WARM radio.

Recollections of the vibrant atmosphere at WARM radio, where the station's "smile" connected with listeners. Despite early doubts about its success, WARM became a beloved local force. DJs worked with passion, often mixing music with personal flair. Highlights from the WVIA documentary WARMland Remembered were featured as the Legends of WARMland were inducted in 2024.

Aired 11/25/2024

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♪ Dream, dream, dream, dream ♪ Dream, dream, dream, dream ♪ Dream ♪ Up and at 'em, Adam ♪ Up and at 'em (lively music) ♪ W-A-R-M, mm, mm ♪ That's good morning - Good morning - Good morning - Good morning.

- Good morning.

♪ Roses are red, my love ♪ Violets are blue ♪ Sugar is sweet, my love ♪ But not as sweet as you - Hey, Bobby Vinton's come in to join us.

Here he is in "Roses Are Red."

Boom, that was the smile in your voice.

And WARM had a smile.

When we were on the air, WARM had the smile.

We may have projected it, but it was WARM Radio smiling right back at everybody who was listening.

- You were young enough and nutty enough to think that, you know, this was it.

It was the bar at 590 or around 600, and we knew.

I would say that 99% of the cars in a parking lot we're tuned at WARM.

- They told me at the time that WARM could not possibly succeed.

This station had so much piece of the pie, this station had another piece of the pie, and there was only so many pieces to carve up, and WARM had proven to be a white elephant and would never make it.

- You knew what you could say, you just had it, and then of course, you paced it to the music.

If it was slow music going in and you were talking over, most of the intros were nine seconds of instrumental.

But if you had a slow song, you'd say, "Hey, it's a nice day, you know, what are you doing tonight?"

If you got the top down, you know, and you'd smooth your way into a slow song, where with a fast song, you say, "It's 10:22, and now I'm here for you and this to music."

Bam, you know, and you hit it every time.

- It was fun.

It was really fun.

Like it wasn't work.

If they knew the fun we were having, they wouldn't have paid us and we still would have done it.

You couldn't keep us out of there.

I would show up at midnight and then go to the A&T to work the next day if necessary, but we didn't have to do that.

- The main suggestion that we had was you better go to the bathroom before you go on the air because you didn't have a chance to do anything like that.

You couldn't get on the phone, you couldn't do anything.

You were just busy, busy, busy all the time doing your show.

- And it's top down around town.

We're in the midst of a heat wave.

Martha Reeves and The Vandella.

(upbeat music) ♪ Whenever I'm with him