Back in 1964, I was a sophomore at the University of Richmond. Since I had worked for a radio station during high school, I became active at the college radio station. One of the guys I worked with was friends with Jess Duboy, a popular disk jockey at the time. Jess and two other popular jocks decided they could take on the powerhouse station at the time, WLEE. By take on I mean start up another station to beat them in the rating.

Jess convinced some investors to purchase a 5000-watt daytimer’s equipment and frequency, allowing him, Bill Meade, and Jim Granger to program head-to-head with the powerhouse. The daytimer was located in the fan district of Richmond, the area around what is now VCU. The FCC allowed them to move the station’s studio west to Henrico County, to a more affluent section called Willow Lawn.

And this is when I entered the picture. I was hired, with two campus radio friends to help move the equipment. Our moving trucks consisted of two Corvairs and a VW Bug. Needless to say, they were packed tightly.

The daytimer signed off at sunset and Bill Meade, who was an engineer as well as a jock, disassembled the studio. We packed up the vehicles as tightly as possible and headed west. After unpacking and moving all the equipment into the new studio, we helped Bill put everything back together. The new WGOE was on the air, running technical checks at 3 am. When everything was done, we went to White Tower for burgers and cokes. And Jess signed on at sunrise.

WGOE went on to beat WLEE in the ratings for a time.