[IRCA] WGTO Big 54

[JKi5384486@xxxxxxx]

WGTO  started life as a two tower DA daytimer licensed to Haines City in 
1955.   Studios in the arcade of the Haines City hotel.
The owner was KWK  Inc out of St. Louis.  
After less than a couple years Dick Pope who owned Cypress Gardens came up  
with the idea of moving the station to Cypress Gardens.  About that time  
Stanley Hubbard (of KSTP fame) bought the  station.  The FCC had a problem with the 
city of license issue  as Cypress Gardens wasn't a  city.  
In steps Pope's old buddy US Senator from Florida Spencard Holland, and 
magically  Cypress Gardens gets it's own post  office.  No problem now says the 
FCC. 
 Take a look at a map of Florida some time and  look for state route 540,  
ironically
it passes the entrance of Cypress  Gardens.  It took some series influence to 
pull that off.
The late Dick Pope could pull a rabbit out of his  hat.
The custom built GTO studios weren't a trade, we paid a  dollar a year, but 
on the other hand Cypress Gardens dropped 10 grand a year on  spots, 40 years 
ago.
The transmitter was north of Lake Alfred on WGTO  road, a four tower 
parallelgram.   The day pattern looked like a Gemini spacecraft with the heat shield 
facing  east, nulls NW and SW.   In the 60's GTO got 50kw  midday with four 
towers but retained the 2 tower array with 10kw  for critical hours.  
All this time the station was a daytimer with  no pre sunrise.  That came 
about 1974 with a 6am sign on and 230  watts.  I remember hearing WDAK out of 
Columbus, Ga on the air  monitor in the winter while it still dark and we were on 
pre sunrise  power.  About the same time we got 50kw  across the board and 
dropped critical hours.  A few years later came 1kw  until the sale and move to 
Pine Hills.
Did it talk?  You could hear it during the day  from Valdosta, Georgia to Key 
West.
GTO...Gulf to Ocean
 
Jerry Kiefer
Roswell, NM
 
 

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