Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday
through Thursday; Bee-otch of the Week is awarded
Sunday morning on Chuck69.com's socials.
A SPECIAL HERO OF THE
DAY!
Name: Jack
Miller
Age: was 84
Occupation: beloved radio personality
Last Seen: in the heavens
Awarded For: being the best Swap Shop host
ever
--
The small
town of Tabor City, NC is by no means a
metropolis.
With just
4,000 or so souls, the town, which is about 40
miles north of Mytle Beach, SC, was named
after a Biblical mountain. It's also the home
of the yearly Yam Festival and just a stone's
throw away from neighboring Loris, SC, pop.
2,700.
Tabor City
and Loris mostly get their local TV and radio
from Myrtle Beach and Wilmington. But, they
have a few radio stations to call their own.
There's 94.9 The Surf, which plays surf music,
which is kind of akin to Motown. WLSC 1240
"Tiger Radio" plays classic country. And,
there's WTAB.
Since 1954,
the 5,000-watt station has been the Tabor City
area's home for various formats over the
years, including country, southern gospel and
beach music. At one point in the 1970s, they
were even an affiliate of Casey Kasem'sAmerican
Top 40.
Throughout
much of WTAB's history stood one man: Jack
Miller. The Tennessee native started his radio
career in the late 50s in Louisiana. He also
worked in his home state of Tennessee and at
another station in North Carolina. In 1975,
Miller came to WTAB, where for over 40 years,
he was the host of the program that made him a
local legend:Swap Shop.
Like theSwap
Shops andTradios
in other localities, Jack's version of the
show was where one could buy, sell or trade
items. It was like Craigslist or as Jack
called it, "The Classified of the
Airwaves".
In 1995, Jack
purchased WTAB. The station's staff included
his son, Richard, aka "Uncle Red", gospel show
hosts Bobby Pait and Rodney Inman and engineer
Lloyd Gore, who also hosted the station's
morning show.
However, time
has not been nice to WTAB. Richard had a
stroke several years ago. Pait died in a
housefire and Gore died earlier this year. In
2013, Miller decided to sell WTAB to his
stepson, Eric Sellers, who took over theSwap
Shopfrom him.
Since then,
Jack had been semi-retired. Sadly on Friday,
Jack Miller passed away at the age of 84.
According to his obituary, he was buried on
Sunday.
Granted,
Tradio hosts are small fries in the radio biz.
If you asked me about a host in some other
small town in the south, I wouldn't come out
with a concrete answer. But, Jack was
different. Why was that? Three words: Richard
and Sal.
Over a decade
ago, the Howard Stern sidekicks were making
the rounds, calling many Tradio and Swap Shop
shows around the country. Bear in mind that
most of them have websites that stream, making
things a little easier for the two and of
course, usStern Showlisteners.
Many of
Richard and Sal's calls to Jack were a thing
of legend. There was the call where Richard
called to God Bless... everything:
There was the
time when one of the two's daughter called the
show:
And the time
Richard called out of breath and Sal asked
Jack if he liked his salad tossed and liked
being teabagged:
And yes, the
exploding barbecue grill:
The final
straw came when 'ol Jack finally got caller
ID. But, even that didn't help:
Well, an
eagle-eared listener finally spilled the beans
that Richard and Sal from the Stern Show were
calling in. Oddly enough, Jack couldn't have
been more surprised. I tried to find the
audio, but no dice. Apparently, Jack mentioned
that the WTAB website got over 10 million hits
thanks to Sal and Richard's calls to the
show.
However,
Richard and Sal's calls to WTAB prompted more
prank calls to the station. It might be why
they no longer stream online, making them
strictly a 'locals only' station. Oh, well, it
was nice while it lasted.
True, Richard
and Sal called other Swap Shops and Tradios
across the country. But, Jackie Wayne Miller
was the original article. WTAB is by no means
a big city station, using slap echo in their
commercials and using jingles that sound like
they date from the 1960s. But, in the world of
iHeartMedias, Entercoms, Cumuluses and more,
it's nice when a small town station - albeit
on the AM band with no FM translator - still
has character and personality. I'll bet that
Mr. Sellers is keeping Jack's spirit alive
each day hosting WTAB'sSwap
Shopwhile Jack
himself is looking down, all happy that his
beloved station is still entertaining the
thousands of listeners it has daily. Plus, the
amount of items sold each day onSwap
Shop.
Thank you,
Mr. Miller. Hopefully, the good lord will have
caller ID.
----
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