"I left my home in Carolina and you to chase a dream; chasing the sunshine of California and all it held for me. Charleston seemed so tame, and I wanted to make a name for myself. Quickly I learned that sunshine ladies don't mean what they say. Things that had meant so much to you were just games they like to play. Charleston, I'm comin' home. My Carolina lady won't be alone..."

So the first verse goes of a song with a good melody and a rather common theme - home and loves left behind. What makes the song a little different is that twice before the last note is struck a radio station is mentioned. Subtly, the call letters WCSC find their way into the lyrics.

You see, the song "Carolina Lady" is not the latest effort of some glitter pop star, but a radio station promotion - "A part of our overall promotional image." says C.J. Jones, general manager of WCSC.

Jones and program director Bob Casey wrote the words to "Carolina Lady," and it was recorded in Texas by Jim Kirk, described by Jones as "the Barry Manilow of jingles."

Listen to "Carolina Lady"

But "Carolina Lady" is not your run-of-the-mill, 30 or 60-second radio jingle. It's a three minute and 30 second record. Just as any good country song says something about mamas, trains, pickups, cheatin' women and booze, "Carolina Lady," which promotes Charleston as much as the station, includes Folly Beach and Isle of Palms, the Battery by moonlight and Spoleto jazz.

The record began receiving air play on WCSC four weeks ago, and surprise of surprises, it became a hit.

"We expected it to be well received," says Jones, "because everything we've done has been. But I'll have to admit we've been pleased with the extent to which it has been received." That extent is that "Carolina Lady" is the station's most requested song. An estimated 150 to 200 listeners a day ask for it.

"It is definitely our most requested song," says Casey. "And we are not a request-oriented station."

In addition to requests, the record has sold more than 1,000 copies through various record stores around town, plus the station has given away another 1,000 on the air.

If you were working at WCSC/WXTC around the the time the new 478 East Bay Street offices and studios were opened, you probably received a booklet like this. We've transcribed it for your reading pleasure:

WELCOME TO "NUMBER ONE RADIO CENTER"

Our new radio facility is, without a doubt, the finest and largest radio broadcasting plant in South Carolina, and ranks along with any major radio broadcast facility in the nation.

This building has been a long time in the planning and construction stages, and represents an absolute commitment by WCSC, Inc. to continue its drive toward excellence in broadcasting in the Metropolitan Charleston community.

Because I'm sure you will join me in being proud of our new facility, it's important that certain ground rules be established that we can all work within, understand, and abide by. Therefore, I would appreciate your taking a few minutes to review the following new building regulations.

1. ENTRANCES

There are three (3) entrances to The Radio Center, one through the lobby off East Bay Street, a second entrance off the rear parking lot, and a third entrance, which is an overhead drive-in door, located in the warehouse section of the building. Naturally, employees may use the rear parking lot entrance or the front lobby entrance. However, no visitors should ever be brought into the building through any entrance except the lobby entrance. Therefore, if you are, for example, a sales person bringing a client to the station, you should park in the front of the building and escort your visitor in through the lobby.

2. PARKING

We are establishing parking in the front and the rear of the building. At the time that we move into our new facility, none of this will be "secured" parking, therefore, it is important that you leave vehicles locked with windows up. All employees, other than Department Heads, are re-quested to park in the rear parking area (except when bringing a client or non-employee visitor into the building - see #1. Entrances).

Department Heads may park in the front or rear parking areas. Employees may continue to park in the Television secured parking area, if they wish, keeping in mind that you can not just walk into the secured parking area from outside after 6:00 at night.

All visitors will park in the front of the building in specially designated visitors parking spaces. All employees are asked to please stay out of the visitors parking, so that clients and other visitors to our company will have a convenient spot to park.

3. VISITORS

Visitors are permitted in the building only on a Monday through Friday, 8:30AM through 5:30PM basis. All visitors will be asked to "log in" at the reception desk, so that we have a permanent record of who has been in the building. The receptionist will notify you if you have a visitor in the lobby. No visitors are to be permitted to wander throughout the building unescorted. Therefore, it will be necessary for you to go to the lobby, greet your visitor, and take them back to your office or work area. At the end of your visitor's stay, it will again be necessary for you to escort them back to the lobby.

Night time and weekend visitors will require a signed authorization from either the V. P. of Sales, AM Program Director, FM Program Director, or Executive V. P., authorizing non-business hours entry to the building.

The FM Announcer/Operator has total and absolute authority and responsibility to maintain the integrity of the building at all times during non-business hours. The FM Operator/ Announcer has the authority to restrict entry to anyone who is a non-radio division employee, except WCSC-TV Executives, and it is the sold responsibility of the FM Operator/ Announcer to keep visitors out of the building in non-business hours.

In the event there is not an FM Operator (midnight to 6:00 AM), the AM on air announcer has the responsibility to make certain that there are no visitors in the building.

4. EMPLOYEES LOUNGE

We have made provisions for a very comfortable employee lounge area in the rear of the building, which is designed for you to use as a beverage break area, or a light lunch area, if you bring your own lunch. Please feel free to use this area at any time that you are on a break, and I hope that you will join us in keeping it neat and clean at all times.

Because we have provided this area, no one will be permitted to eat lunch at their desk or work
area.

A beverage machine, snack machine and coffee pot are located in the employee lounge area. This is the only area in the building where beverages may be dispensed.

Please take a great deal of care when returning to your office or work area with a beverage, to insure that the carpets are not stained, or the walls damaged. In other words, please take your time and be extremely careful.

Coffee is available only to those who participate voluntarily in the coffee fund, which is handled by the Administrative Assistant to the Executive V. P.

5. INTERIOR DECOR

It is evident that a great deal of thought went into the color coordination and interior design of our facility. Therefore, we must ask that no personal pictures, photographs, posters, memos, or any other type materials be applied to the walls.

Certain offices have bulletin boards, which are to be used for official company business only -- not for personal momentos.

No scotch tape or thumb tacks of any sort should be used at any time on a regular wall surface of the building. If you have a specific need for a bulletin board, please contact the Chief Engineer and he will see if we can arrange one for your work area.

If you have a specific painting or picture which you would like to have up on the wall of your office or work area, please clear that also with the Chief Engineer. We are not trying to make it so that the building has an antiseptic look, but we are trying to maintain the coordination of the building throughout.

6. CLEANLINESS

We have a full time housekeeper at the Number One Radio Center, but we must ask your continuing help in making certain that your office or work area is kept neat and clean at all times. It is absolutely mandatory that all desks in every office and work area of the building be completely cleaned on the top, of any paper-work at the end of the workday. You are expected to leave your desk in a neat, clean manner at all times. Also, please keep coffee cups clean and stored in your desk at all times, when not in use.

7. BUILDING TOURS

From time to time WCSC Museum will conduct tours through our facility, of school-groups and other individuals interested in broadcasting. It is extremely important that all of our employees appreciate the promotional and public relations value these tours have. If the tour guide asks you to explain your job function, or describe something in your work area, please be as professional as you possibly can, remembering that you are representing WCSC and WXTC.

Tours may also be arranged through the Administrative Assistant's office, when calls are received directly into the radio station requesting tours.

8. STUDIOS

Studios are absolutely off limits to all non-on air personnel, with the exception of the copy and traffic departments. Absolutely no non-station visitors are to be allowed in the studios, except when they are going on the air or recording a special program or commercial.

The News Center is off limits, except when an employee or visitor has business with the news staff.

9. TELEPHONES

We have a very sophisticated computerized telephone system, which requires some training before a new employee should use the system.

Incoming business telephone lines are to be answered by the Receptionist only. The News lines will be answered by the News Center. Hit lines will be answered by the on-air announcer or the receptionist, depending on the programming needs at that moment.

Watts lines are provided for all long distance calls. On telephones which have toll restrictions against dialing out on the Watts lines, you should call the Receptionist and tell her who you're calling. She will place the call and connect you when it's completed.

It's important that everyone understand that Watts lines are not free lines -- these are for business purposes only, not personal use, and we do pay for them, just like any other long distance call.

10. SECRETARIES

In order to simplify and expedite the needs of various employees who don't have personal secretaries, the following secretaries will perform typing and filing duties as needed:

The AM Program Director, FM Operations Director, Promotion Director, News Director and Chief Engineer will use the Receptionist for secretarial work.

The Sales Department and V. P. of Sales will use the Sales Assistant for secretarial work.

I believe that we're all going to enjoy our new Number One Radio Center a great deal. We've certainly come a long way in the past several years at both WCSC and WXTC, and I hope that we will show the pride that we all have in our company by maintaining our new facility in the same manner that we would a new home.

C. J. Jones,
Executive V. P.,
General Manager

Trained in banking and financial investment, John M. Rivers, in August 1937 was offered a job as manager of Radio Station WCSC, Charleston's first broadcasting medium. The offer came from the late W. Frank Hipp of Greenville, head of the Liberty Life Insurance Co. and owner of radio stations in Charleston and Columbia.

"I don't know anything about radio broadcasting," Rivers told Hipp.

"It's just like any other business," Hipp replied. "You have to take in more than you spend."

Rivers had majored in business administration at Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1924. He figured he already knew that much about business, so he accepted the job. When television came along, WCSC-TV in 1953 became the first VHF-TV in the field in South Carolina. By then, Rivers had enough on-the-job training in radio to approach this development with skill and confidence.

Years later, another businessman of long acquaintance told Rivers, "Your friends thought you were insane to leave the securities business for radio broadcasting." Now the largest stockholder of WCSC-TV, including several allied properties, Rivers seems to have been crazy like a fox when he decided to enter the electronic field.

"Of course, broadcasting involves entertainment and a certain amount of show business," Rivers says, "but it's still a business."

Immediately on assuming charge of WCSC Jan. 1, 1938, Rivers was confronted with a staff problem. The program director walked into his office, pointed out that the new manager knew nothing about the radio business and demanded a raise or he would quit.

"You have already quit," Rivers told him. "I will not be blackmailed."

The main problem then, as now. Rivers says, was selling time on radio. "Production is not as difficult as finding support," he says. "A satisfactory product is essential to attain public attention, so the first thing we did was to beef up programming. We outlawed use of 78 rpm records and permitted only electronic reproduction to ensure good sound."

He also bought out a former proprietor's interest in "The Jordan Hour." which was underselling the rest of the station's advertising time.

"Sales doubled and the station became profitable," Rivers recalls. "We attracted talented performers. As they passed by, they left an impact and we learned something."
In 1944, Hipp told Rivers that if he made the station successful, someday he could own it. Hipp wrote an unsigned memorandum to this effect and subsequently died. His heirs honored the commitment and eventually Rivers bought the property from the Hipp interest for $144,000, payable in 12 years.

"The arrangement demonstrated the integrity of the Hipp family and my feeling is one of gratitude," Rivers says.

During World War II, when male help was scarce, Rivers ran the station with mostly female announcers. "They did a fine job," Rivers says. When the time came to acquire a TV license, Rivers exercised what he now calls "pure, simple bravado."

"We had little money," he says. "We heard about the Quaker Bank in Cleveland. We obtained a commitment from Jefferson Standard for $250,000, started to build the station in 1952 and on June 19, 1953, went on the air. We have established a museum and some of that old equipment is there. For 15 months we were the only TV station in the market."

Asked whether he would do it again, Rivers replies in the affirmative. "But it's not nearly as much fun as it used to be, even five or six years ago. The consumer movement is a threat to broadcasting."

What kind of Boss is John M. Rivers? I asked a representative employee whether he was tough, demanding, sympathetic or what. "All of those things," came the reply. "It takes toughness - or let's say a firm hand - to run a business like this."

Rivers has relinquished the title of president and control of day-to-day business to his son, John M. Jr. He continues to be chairman and treasurer. Mrs. Rivers Sr. is first vice president and secretary. The company employs 116 full-time employees and 10 part time.

John Minott Rivers was born July 22, 1903, in Charleston (at 12 George St.), a son of Moultrie Rutledge Rivers and Eliza Ingraham Buist Rivers. His father was named for Fort Moultrie and Battery Rutledge which his grandfather, Constance H. Rivers, a captain of artillery in the Confederate Army, had served during the war. Constance Rivers, a cotton planter on James Island, solid his land for Confederate money and after the war was broke. He served as Charleston County coroner.

Rivers' mother was related to Duncan Nathaniel Ingraham, of the U.S. Navy, who subdued the Barnaby pirates.

The Minott in Rivers' name by way of his uncle John Rivers, from his maternal mother, who was Elizabeth Minott of Summerville. He attended Briggs' School on Society Street, Crafts, the High School of Charleston and for two years the College of Charleston. At the college, which then had a student body of about 100 male students, Rivers went our for football, basketball and track.

"In 1921," he says, "only 16 students went out for football - not enough to supply a scrimmage for the varsity. Our practice field was the college campus and those trees were a hazard in practice. In my two years at the college, we never won a single event."

Rivers' father, a prominent lawyer, took an active role in civic affairs, notably education. He was chairman of the Charleston School Board and later chairman of the board of trustees of the College of Charleston.

John River at age 33 was the youngest president of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, oldest in the country. He is a former chairman of the Charleston Development Board, and believes he is the oldest survivor of the group that employed Arthur M. Field to be its first director. He has served on the boards of the Red Cross and Roper Hospital, as president of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and as an officer of the Eastern Star. He also is senior past president of the St. Andrew's Society of Charleston. Rivers is a member of the South Carolina Television Commission, which operates ETV, and the board of trustees of the South Carolina Foundation of Independent Colleges and Ashley Hall School. He was the second person selected for the South Carolina Broadcasters Hall of Fame, located at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

"I have tremendous affection for Charleston and South Carolina," Rivers says. "Business opportunities are here for people willing to work. The future is as bright as the past has been, except for constant picking and objection to constructive efforts which come from a relatively small and vocal group, who seem to be against everything. Obstruction and bureaucracy are two dangers to Charleston's future."

Rivers is the oldest director of the South Carolina National Corp. He was assistant vice president of the S.C. National Bank when he left the bank in 1936 to manage the Charleston office of McAlister, Smith & Pate, a Greenville securities firm.

Rivers married Martha Robinson of Gastonia, N.C. In addition to their son, they have two daughters, Mrs. Bronson Ingram of Nashville and Mrs. Richard Lewine of New York City and Charleston.

Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Martin and Lewis.

How about C.J. and Buzz? They're Charleston's version of the comedy team.

C.J. Jones, 36, and Ronald "Buzz" Bowman, 30, are on the air from 5:30 to 9 a.m. Monday through Saturday on WCSC-AM radio with a constant patter of jokes and stories. According to Jones, the two-man team provides a more diverse program. "We feel a two-man morning team can provide more entertainment, more news and information," he says. "There are more entities in the show," Bowman adds.

"We're funnier in the morning," says Jones during an afternoon interview at the station's new quarters at 475 East Bay St. "We're crazy. We throw things at each other. We tell jokes and generally laugh more at the ones that aren't so funny 'cause they need all the help they can get. The show is a fun, upbeat way to start the morning.

"People tell us that anyway. A good-looking woman came up to me at a party not long ago and said, 'Oh, C.J. I wake up next to you each morning' My wife didn't like that too much."

No one dominates on the show the two agree. "We both do everything. Buzz has a tendency to laugh more. I tend to want to give more information. But it balances out. Sometimes we both talk at the same time," says Jones. They laugh and Bowman says, "That's when we throw things around the studio."

The two have been together for about a year. "I was on the air by myself and felt that the market needed a new approach - something different, something that the other stations weren't able to do," Jones says. "It must be working as the show is the No 1-rated morning show according to Arbitron and the Birch Report, two national ratings services in the market.

"We've got the broadest-based audience in the market, judging from the calls we get. Our audience runs the gamut because of the diversity of the show. Calls come in all the time. We put people on the air and they tell dumb jokes and stories. We also run audience polls. One that was just done Monday asked who people wanted for president. In about 30 minutes we took more than 200 calls, all that one operator could handle, and in Charleston people are definitely for Ronald Reagan."

Occasions have demanded that one or the other of the team go on the air solo. "It's basically the same show, because of the other people on the show, but it's just not the same," Bowman says. The others consist of Patrick Joyce, sports director; Don Morgan, news director; Randy Scott, skywatch; Joe Bastardi, meteorologist; and Harve Jacobs, a street re-porter who covers news, special events and community interest items.

Bowman grew up in Cleona, a small town in central Pennsylvania. His first broadcast experience was with the American Forces Radio and Television Services while in the Navy. "That's a story in itself," he says. "I was working as a lifeguard in Morocco and when the rainy season came, I was transferred to the base radio station as a typist. After the third day there, I was on the air and spent the rest of my service time in broadcasting."

With his military tour behind him, Bowman went to broadcasting school in Washington, D.C. He worked with several stations before answering a WCSC ad in a trade magazine and moving to Charleston almost four years ago. Unmarried, he lives on Folly Beach and says he's the "most eligible bachelor in Charleston."

Jones grew up in Fort Myers, Fla., and got into radio part time while still in school. He owned a couple of radio stations in Florida and has been involved in radio management since then. Jones says he was "one of the youngest program directors in radio during the early 70s in Detroit." He came to Charleston at the request of friends who owned WQSN. "The station was in trouble," Jones says, "and I worked to turn it around. He's been with WCSC about two years and is executive vice president and general manager of WCSC and WXTC.

Jones lives in Snee Farm with his wife Carolyn and 9-year-old son Timothy.

The show will go on if C.J. and Buzz have anything to say about it. "It'll get crazier," Bowman says. "The show is definitely going to continue," adds Jones, "because of its success. It's surpassed our original expectations."

Time sure flies when you're havin' fun. That time-worn cliche applies to Harvey I. Jacobs, midday and afternoon news anchor at WCSC-AM Radio. He finds it hard to believe that two years have flown by since he moved to Charleston to begin work at the East Bay Street station.

Jacobs, who will be 26 in July, grew up in Brooklyn, graduating from Brooklyn College where he majored in mass communications and minored in journalism. "I thought about going into newspaper work," he says, "but I've always wanted to be behind a microphone. Sports reporting has always fascinated me."

At his first radio job in Fort Valley, Ga., Jacobs did a little bit of everything at the small-town station. "I wanted to specialize, though," he says, "and turned to news. And that's what brought me here.

"I saw an advertisement in a trade magazine and Charleston looked very inviting," he adds. "I really like the South, although it's a big change. It's a little slower life. It's different from the hustle-bustle of the North. Here you go at your own pace."

Jacobs tries to put as much personality in the news as possible. "I'd like to think I'm friendly, but authoritative," he says. "We use the wire services for national and international news, but we gather local news. People are most interested in what's going on right around them, so we're heavy on the local news.

"I enjoy anchoring," he adds. "It's the fun part of my job. You get a lot of personal satisfaction in being able to tell people when something good is going on -like when the hostages were released, for instance."

Single, Jacobs lives west of the Ashley and enjoys all forms of sports, particularly participating as a member of the station's bowling team.

Happy with Charleston and radio, Jacobs plans to be around for a while. "I have a good life here," he says. "I have a lot of friends and I'm very happy. All I ever wanted to do was be in radio. It's a challenge to me. I find that I learn something new every day.

"Two years have flown by very quickly," he adds. "I guess that's what happens when you're having a good time."

After 12 years in banking and two successful years as vice president of a securities firm, John M. Rivers surprised the Charleston business community. He accepted a job as manager of WCSC, the city's first radio station.

In fact, years later, a longtime business acquaintance told him, "Your friends thought you were insane to leave the securities business for radio broadcasting."

While he was learning the business, Rivers might have agreed. In 1987, though, when WCSC-TV and related holdings were sold for millions of dollars to Crump Communications, Inc., of Houston, Rivers could look back with satisfaction on a remarkable career in broadcasting and public service.

John Minott Rivers was born July 22, 1903, in Charleston, the son of Moultrie Rutledge and Eliza Ingraham Buist Rivers. He attended the public and private schools of Charleston and the College of Charleston for two years, and in 1924, he received a degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

After graduation, he returned to Charleston and joined the Bank of Charleston (which became South Carolina National Bank), first as a runner and later as manager of SCN's Greenville branch. He was an assistant vice president of SCN when, in 1936, he left banking to become vice president of the Charleston office of McAlister, Smith & Pate, a Greenville-based securities firm. Two years later, he entered the broadcasting business.

When he lived in Greenville, he became acquainted with W. Frank Hipp, president of Liberty Life Insurance Company, which also operated radio stations in Columbia and Charleston. Hipp approached Rivers about managing WCSC in Charleston.

Rivers recalled in an interview that when he told Hipp he knew nothing about radio broadcasting, Hipp insisted, "It's just like any other business. You have to take in more than you spend."
On January 1, 1938, Rivers became president of South Carolina Broadcasting Company, operating WCSC radio. A year later, he became president and manager. With improved programming and sound, WCSC became more and more attractive to advertisers, and sales soon doubled.

Hipp told Rivers that if he made the station successful, someday he would own it. Hipp wrote an unsigned memorandum to that effect. Upon his death, Hipp's sons Francis and Herman and their uncle, Grady Hipp, honored Frank Hipp's commitment, even though there was no contract. Rivers once told a writer, "I think that's an example of high moral and business responsibility. The arrangement demonstrated the integrity of the Hipp family, and my feeling is one of gratitude." Subsequently, Rivers bought the station for $144,000, payable in 12 years.

In 1948, Rivers began operation of the FM radio station and brought WCSC-TV, Channel 5, South Carolina's first VHF station, on the air in June 1953. With those developments, he became president and manager of WCSC AM/FM and WCSC-TV. In 1972, he became chairman of the board of WCSC, Inc., relinquishing the titles and responsibilities of operating the radio and television stations to his son, John M. Rivers, Jr.

In 1952, Rivers and other broadcasters founded the South Carolina Broadcasters Association. A past president of the association, Rivers was inducted into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1974, the second person to be accorded that honor. G. Richard Shafto of WIS was the first, inducted in 1973. Rivers also served as chairman of the CBS Radio Affiliates Board.

During his business career, Rivers was a major force in the public affairs of his community, state, and nation. In 1936, at the age of 33, he was the youngest person ever to be elected president of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, and he also served as chairman of the Charleston Development Board. He served as president of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce in 1969 and was named its Businessman of the Year for 1986. He was director emeritus of the South Carolina National Bank and a director of the South Carolina National Corporation.

Rivers was a member of the South Carolina Educational Television Commission from 1966 to 1982 and served as vice chairman in 1980. He was awarded the Silver Medal of the Advertising Federation of Charleston in 1977.

He served on the Coker College Board of Trustees and the Winthrop College Board of Visitors and was a member of the board of the South Carolina Foundation of Independent Colleges and chairman of Ashley Hall School, where the library is named for him.

John M. Rivers, Sr.

In 1989, the College of Charleston's John M. Rivers Communications Museum was established through an endowment from the Rivers family. It contains early radio and television equipment, audiotapes and videotapes, and photographs of entertainers and others who were part of WCSC's early years.

He was a member and past president of the St. Andrews Society and a member of the St. Cecilia Society and the Huguenot Society.

While living and working in Greenville, he met his future wife, Martha Robinson of Gastonia, North Carolina, who was a student at Converse College. They were married December 7, 1929, in Gastonia. They were the parents of three children, Martha R. Ingram of Nashville, Tennessee, also a South Carolina Business Hall of Fame laureate, Elizabeth R. Lewine of New York, and John M. Rivers, Jr., of Charleston.

Rivers and his family worshipped at St. Philip's Church, where he served on the vestry and was a senior warden. John Rivers died January 24, 1988, at his home. He was 84.

He was inducted into the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame in 1997.

©1999 South Carolina Business Hall of Fame