WAPE (defunct) - Brennan Broadcasting Overview

Brennan Broadcasting Overview

WAPE was owned by Brennan Broadcasting, a group behind three other high-powered stations in Alabama and Tennessee. These included WVOK, Birmingham (50,000 watts, daytime only and also on 690), WBAM, Montgomery (50,000 watts, daytime only on 740, known as Big Bam, now 10,000 watt WMSP) and Chattanooga’s WFLI, located at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, (originally 10,000 watts, later 50,000 watts on 1070, known as "JET-FLI" - pronounced as "Jet-Fly"). The Brennan brothers included Bill Brennan, who, to a great extent oversaw the stations from a business end while providing major contributions from a technical perspective, Program Director Dan Brennan (also a strong air talent in his own right) and engineer Cyril Brennan. Partner Billy Benns, Jr., a man with strong engineering skills, was an important part of this team, as well. While the Brennans were mostly responsible for WAPE, WVOK and WBAM, Benns was more responsible for the overall operation of WFLI (the only station among the group that operated both day and night, from the outset). The Brennans actually built the tower sections for both WVOK and WAPE’s 500-foot (150 m) towers and for WBAM’s 750-foot (230 m) tower. They also designed and built the transmitters and created the very contemporary building designs of the WAPE, WBAM and WFLI studio buildings.

The Brennan transmitters (two of which were water-cooled from fountains near their outside swimming pools) were capable of transmitting a rich, full sound that almost jumped out of the radio and was much louder in weak signal areas than other stations with similar power. Billy Benns, Jr. did the complicated engineering work required to design the WFLI “nighttime pattern” (allowing the station to operate after sunset on a congested dial position). This approach, in which members of a tight-knit team handled design, technical and programming details, required extensive and wide-ranging knowledge plus a major hands-on commitment. This was very unusual in radio, even at that more entrepreneurial time.