That Drug Story About WLOZ

When you think weird, many folks think of Austin. Rod Wassenich of Austin, TX invented the whole "keep Austin weird" thing. But Austin is far from the weirdest city in America. In that category, I think Wilmington, NC is under rated in net weirdness... and it used to be much weirder. Their local college radio station, WLOZ being possibly the weirdest of all. Sadly WLOZ, was the former student radio station of the University of North Carolina Wilmington. More here. 

The rumor was that in 1981 the radio station was shut down after student DJs were caught selling marijuana over the airwaves. It sounds like an out take from the movie "Animal House." In 2001 the Student Media Board (SMB) voted unanimously to suspend operations of WLOZ indefinitely." The student paper The Seahawk opted not to say why specificity but this was not their Cheech and Chong moment. This was just the epilogue. [LINK]  The issue here was the the station had been without supervision for 3 weeks following the resignation of General Manager John Bundy. The station was dying of neglect not drug sales. They became Hawkstream radio in podcast form and petered out during COVID. [SOURCE] But that Seahawk article did refer to the infamous incident...

"Prior to 1982, WLOZ broadcast on the frequency now occupied by WHQR, Wilmington’s Public Radio station. WLOZ was forced off the frequency in the wake of an on-air drug sales investigation."

Somehow I doubt this was like Scarface.  I have not found any FCC actions related to this. It appears the University voluntarily sold or transferred the station to those nice quiet opera fans and made their problem go away. The erasure was so complete that even finding a WLOZ logo is difficult. Their FM era is documented in the usual radio year books. The 1982 Broadcasting & Cable yearbook lists the station on 91.3 at 10 watts: Karen Durda, GM; Angela Allen, PD; Jeff Newton, bus mgr; Carol Bella, MD; Linda Curtis news. The 1978 edition lists they as not on air (yet) but does list  Dr. I.G. Ciator as advisor and Rusty Waker as GM.

Broadcasting & Cable list the 1982 info again in 1984 but it was surely wrong by then because the frequency was being transitioned to WHQR by then. To my surprise the incident is referred to even in their Wikipedia article. It reads: "With some financial and fundraising help from Friends of Public Radio, WLOZ hosted the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts during the school year from December 12, 1979, until it was forced off the air in February 1981 due to a possible drug scandal."  A 1984 article confirms the supposed "drug bust" and the cable relaunch but gives the calls WSEA. Those may or may not have ever been used.

It's hard to find real hard evidence the station even existed. They appear in a handful of CMJ magazines from 1989, 1999, and 2000. The PM was TJ Blackburn in 1999. Angie Cooper in 2000. CMJ lists them on 89.3 CaFM at that time, but that may not have always been the case. The earliest citation I could find, a 1974 UNC student handbook described the station in terms that would require at least a part 15 operation, possibly more...

"WLOZ is a student operated educational radio station. With its offices in the trailer adjacent to the Physical Plant, it presently broadcasts at 91.3 FM to a listening audience within seven to ten miles of the campus. It provides valuable broadcasting and managerial experience for the staff, while also offering another means of campus communication. Interested students are always welcome to come by the studio."

It was Jen Waits at Radio Survivor who found a first-person source. [LINK] That interviewee, Michael Plumides, confirmed the story was real in all it's bong burbling glory. Different sources give different dates. One as early as 1980 Plumides put it in 1983. [SOURCE] I still have questions of course. A 1977 issue of the Seahawk reports the station has finally got it's FCC license. That means it was only an FM station from 1977 through 1983, and Cable FM from 1984 - 2000 or 1982 to 1997 depending on the source.  But what was going on before 1977? We already know WLOZ goes back at least another 4 years. 

A 1973 Seahawk article (above) which describes the FM debut of WLOZ and also cites a prior station: WCNU. I did find two sources which corroborate the WCNU calls. Even that same 1974 student handbook [SOURCE] describes a second station on campus. This one was in the student services building, not a trailer like WLOZ: 

"WCNU is the student operated campus radio station. With its office in the Student Services building (Pub), it presently broadcasts to three buildings. It provides valuable broadcasting and managerial experience for the staff, while also offering another means of campus communication. Interested students are always welcome to join the "soft explosion in Wilmington."

The 1973 Campus Communique confirms that WCNU predates WLOZ, but notably multiple staff members have programs on WFMD. [SOURCE] The language intimates the station is new, and another 1973 issue of the Seahawk confirms this and lists Mark Silver as Station Manager. A 1975 issue still includes Rusty but also lists David Davis, Craig Sexton and Greg Larrimore as staff.  Is that 1973 start date definitive? No!  It appears to have broadcast as carrier current station a decade earlier. A 2008 interview with Linda Moore reveals a different studio location and operations: 

"Campus radio was alive and well in the '60s and, as I remember hearing, from Doug Swank, who was an early advisor, the call letters were WCNU, UNCW backwards, that was the call letters and it was located over in Hidden James, in my office, at the time, and they broadcast with a little 10 watt station so that it just took in a very small area on campus. When I came, they were kind of on the move and we were able to get more wattage. Student government gave them more money for equipment. They had their own little place behind Hoggard. It was a little small wooden building that had been the campus police office that was very small but they took it over for the campus radio station. They flourished, on and off, until probably the early '80s when there were some very severe problems there with drugs..."

Though it's highly plausible. I found no records at all for those carrier current years. It was the 60s, so I'm sure that 1982 wasn't the first bong hit at the station if it existed.