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Daily Outtakes: Post Office leaving , WCOA coming downtown

   Published Date: February 1, 2024  1 Comment on Daily Outtakes: Post Office leaving , WCOA coming downtown

We now have the official last day for the downtown Pensacola post office. It’s Friday, April 26. All services are moving to the East Hill Station, 3001 North Davis Highway.

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WCOA Celebrates 98 Years

We broadcast this morning from Trader Jon’s bar inside Pensacola History Museum.

In late 1925, Pensacola Mayor James Bayliss. City Commissioner Frank Sanders, City Clerk John Frenkel, Sr. and George Hendricks got the city to buy radio equipment from WOAI in San Antonio for $3,500. They assembled the equipment, procured a license in the city’s name and set up a studio on the second floor of Pensacola City Hall, which is now the Pensacola History Museum.

The studio contained a baby grand piano, phonograph and several stand-up microphones. A published schedule showed WCOA broadcast at 7 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with weather reports daily at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Church services aired 11 a.m. and 7:25 p.m. Sundays. Read more.

1 thought on “Daily Outtakes: Post Office leaving , WCOA coming downtown”

  1. Post Office: Downtown crowd types not familiar with the rest of the city are in for a very rude shock when they visit the East Hill 32503 Post Office. The area truly is slum and blighted. People may come up to you in the parking lot to beg for money. Be sure to lock your car doors and don’t leave anything in plain sight when you go into the post office.
    The post office is not located in East Hill and not located in Pensacola, at least not the City of Pensacola. Pretty bizarre. That said, the people who work there are wonderful.

    WCOA: Don Priest of WCOA just lived across the street. We still call his place – “The Radio Man’s House.” At the time of his death he had a very tall antenna on the roof. During wind storms it used to swing about making ominous sounds. The new owner finally had it removed. There are also lots of fascinating articles about WCOA in the old city newspapers that you can access via the West Florida Public Library website. Don Parker is mentioned in the Inweekly story. In 2017, WSRE did a great interview with him that also tells a bit about WCOA too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pwdrEQnwOg

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