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this is for brother ctip

http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/citywi.../jazz-ark/

Lost City: The Jazz Ark
February 2017Jim Milner1 Comment

ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERT FREESON
For our February 2017 “Lost City” issue, we remember what time, disasters, and the wrecking ball have taken away.
Once anchored along the Newport side of the Ohio were the floating studios of iconic jazz station WNOP-AM 740. The Jazz Ark, as it was known, was custom built by Tucker Marine from three large steel tanks, painted orange. The low-power station began broadcasting an eclectic lineup in 1948 but evolved into a jazz station in 1962 (Leo Underhill and Oscar Treadwell were among the on-air captains) and remained so until 2000, when the station was sold. At one time, the Ark was sighted—partially submerged—in a marine salvage yard along the Licking River, though it’s now beached at Bellevue Sand and Gravel, south of Aurora, Indiana, in the hands of a collector of all things unusual, Bill Rudicill.


i love the town of aurora. great crescent brewery was a pioneer and warms my soul

I heard Taj Mahal for the first time on that station. When I was 16 my car only had an AM radio so if I was not listening to a tape, I had to get creative.

taj mahal played at ribberfest in madison, indiana a few years back. didn't get a chance to see him as i wasn't mobile and the folks i was with were heading back to our campsite at clifty falls. but i never missed the opportunity to tell folks that his backing band should be called the taj mahalics. i'm sure it was a good show

I remember WNOP's tagline: Radio Free Newport.

That was back before the complete homogenization of American radio stations due to corporate ownership.

A long time ago there were pirates
Beaming waves from the sea
But now all the stations are silent
'Cos they ain't got a government license

ain't that a pity

Never heard of this one before. I wonder if there are recordings of it somewhere.

Id like to listen to old radio station recordings just for the historical interest of it.

(04-06-2017 05:46 PM)BearcatDave Wrote:  Never heard of this one before. I wonder if there are recordings of it somewhere.

Id like to listen to old radio station recordings just for the historical interest of it.

I listened to 'NOP a bit but since it was AM, sound quality was not stellar. Oscar did a late night jazz show on WGUC that I also listened to occasionally.

I primarily listened to WEBN during my 70's college years and did record a fair bit of stuff from them. I have a reel to reel tape of Waylon Jennings from 5th Floor studios that kicks arse. I need to get that equipment out of mothballs and digitize that stuff.

Oh I'd love to hear some of the commercials and Brute Force Cybernetics stuff for nostalgia. I always wanted a portable hole.

The Real Mary Peale was on WNKU until NKU recently pulled the plug. She played a bunch of the BFC commercials. Not sure how she had the rights, could be they were actually her intellectual property.

As I musician, I played a LOT of jazz and used to listen to WNOP when I could get the signal.

OKIcat is right. Their tag line was "Radio Free Newport". They also used to say that WNOP stood for "Where Nonsense Occasionally Prevails".

Anyone else remember when they used to broadcast an elementary school's orchestra and claim that it was the Newport Symphony Orchestra?