Former Programming and Personalities
In the mid-1950s, the station was home to the "WBAM Deep South Jamboree" featuring live country and bluegrass acts such as Shorty Sullivan and his Green Valley Boys, Rebe Gosdin and his Sunny Valley Gang, Judy Jenkins, Jack Turner, and other rotating regulars.
Radio personality Johnny Gilbert began his broadcasting career at WBAM. Gilbert was killed in a helicopter accident while working as an airborne traffic reporter at KULF in Houston, Texas, on March 15, 1974. He was posthumously awarded the Steve Pieringer Award by the Texas Association of Broadcasters in 1974.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the station sponsored a series of pop/rock concerts known as "Big BAM Shows" featuring acts ranging from Paul Revere and the Raiders, Lou Christie, and The Beach Boys to comedian Pat Paulsen.
Other notable former personalities included Bill J. Moody, Paul Simpkins, Mark Robbins, Gene Hocutt and Joe Cook.
Famous quotes containing the word programming:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)