Florida Architecture magazine described the building in gushy terms generally reserved for a luxury resort, not a utilitarian radio station. “The free shape swimming pool meanders into the interior of the lobby.” The “extensive use of wormy chestnut and walnut paneling greets the eye giving an overall impression of modernity properly associated with amusement of the multitudes.”
“Bill Brennan would concern himself with nearly every detail of the [station] design,” wrote David Israel in his blog. One detail that garnered much of his attention was the wavy-triangulated ceiling and roof over the lobby portion of the building. Architect Curt Scheel, a Jacksonville native and partner in Scheel and Logan’s design firm, brought Brennan’s concepts to reality.
Israel wrote that the building featured a “concave marble façade, open-glass lobby, and a system of fountains and flagstone walks. It was a fun building whose structure complemented the station’s whimsical personality. In sharp contrast to most other stations of the day, WAPE was accessible to fans. Drop-in tours were encouraged on the air and by signage facing Highway 17 in Orange Park. Visitors were first greeted by an inviting circular drive whose path led to the impressive free-form swimming pool in front of the building, complete with two diving platforms. They could then enter the station’s lobby in one of two ways. They could swim under the lobby glass or take the more conventional route through the two large gold-anodized aluminum glass doors” to be greeted by a large mural adorning the lobby, a sweeping montage of piano keys, musical instruments, and waves reflecting the building’s exterior.
Visitors could see the main studio and floor-to-ceiling racks of 45-rpm records from the lobby. Beyond the studio, through glass windows, stood the “mighty Brennan transmitter.” “The Brennan took on mythical, almost lustful, qualities by the engineers who knew her,” Israel wrote. “It can be said with great certainty that WAPE had a sound that was unique. Some said the station ‘jumped off the dial,’ loud without being distorted with a dynamic, full sound which was impossible to duplicate.” Long-time WAPE engineer Wayne “Don” Woollard explained that the station’s unique sound was a function of the Brennan brothers’ hands-on role in engineering decisions. “When any equipment was chosen, it had been researched and chosen for a specific reason. Each component contributed to the overall sound, which is why it will never be duplicated. From the needle in the phono cartridge [Elac] to the specifics of the tower structure . . . everything, and I do mean everything, had a reason for its existence.” Woollard paraphrased Bill Brennan, saying the station was built “to sound louder and wider coming out of a rotten six-by-nine speaker in somebody’s dashboard.”
The WAPE transmitter was the fourth and last custom-built by the Brennans. “The shimmering gold panels stretched for nearly 25 feet along the entire wall of the engineering room. So great was its appetite that it was fed by direct 4,160-volt electrical service provided by the Clay County Electrical Cooperative. Cooled by a series of water pipes circling to a fountain in front of the building, the WAPE transmitter at Orange Park would benefit from the knowledge gained from all of the Brennan/Benns designs that preceded it.”
All this power was transmitted through an antenna on a relatively small broadcast tower built by Vulcan Tower, a company owned by Bill Brennan and Billy Benns. The 299-foot height was one foot shy of the mark at which the Federal Aviation Authority would require tower lights—thereby reducing installation and operational expenses. The station’s tremendous range was augmented by its low frequency (690 kHz) and, equally important, the area’s moist soil conditions that intensified ground wave.
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