You can demolish a building. But you can never tear down the bedrock of memories.

In its day, creative juices flowed from WROV, the AM radio station that rocked Roanoke from the late 1950s to the '80s.

The early years of ROV featured Jerry Joynes, who played "pop" records of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Peggy Lee. Radio personalities routinely claimed 55 percent of the Roanoke listening audience.

During the 1960s and '70s, ROV dominated the teen audience. Hot-rodding teenagers tuned in as they cruised Lendy's, the hot spot for mixing and mingling amid Buddy Boy burgers and onion rings.

ONLY ONLINE
WROV DJs Play some clips from past WROV AM DJs, including Bart Prater, Starr Stevens, and Jack Fisher & Fred Frelantz. (Requires RealPlayer) The chimes: Chimes and call letters (0:19) Fisher & Frelantz: Bonsack New Year's Day Parade (2:09) Quarter past the hour: Chimes and voice (0:07) Chris Stevens: Comics and other bits (1:29) Bart Prater: Tour of the remodeled WROV studio (2:15) Starr Stevens: Song intros, weather (1:00) Larry Bly: Morning show (1:10) Bruce Jacobson: Night show (1:13) Station ID: Super Summer ’69 (0:09)

Personalities such as the late Fred Frelantz, Jivin' Jackson and Jack Fisher all gained popularity with their shows broadcast from the studio on Cleveland Avenue Southwest. On Monday, the old, double-wide-sized studio building - built around an original Quonset hut - was demolished.

"It's gut-wrenching," said former disc jockey Bucky Stover.

But it also has helped former DJs to spin stacks of memories from their time in the station's AM heyday.

The ROV of the late '50s through the mid-'60s was perhaps best known for its "chimes" format, which featured "Big Ben" chimes on the quarter hour along with voice-overs by Jess DuBoy.

"It was the kind of station you could put on in the background and you always knew what time it was," said Phil Beckman, a Bedford native and former ROVer in the mid-'60s and again in 1971. "The chimes were one of the selling points of the station."

Over the years, personalities came and went. Managers shuffled the on-air lineup. The station won awards. Personalities garnered national attention. Ownership changed. Musical formats changed. Personalities clashed.

In 1981, the king of disc jockeys, Bart Prater, left ROV to join rival K-92, WXLK-FM. He then told The Roanoke Times that philosophical differences between him and station owner Burt Levine led to the parting.

"Whatever that means," Prater says today.

"I wanted to get fired. I wanted to go to K-92, but I had a noncompete clause. ... Finally, one day, Bert came up to me and said, 'I love you. Now get out of here.'"

If there ever was a genius behind the fantastic success at ROV, it was Burt Levine, said Prater. "He was something."

Levine, who died in 1995, had the ability to spot talent and bring out the best in people.

In the early '80s, less emphasis was put on the disc jockeys. News and information was hot. WROV launched an FM station in 1989. The AM frequency, 1240, became an oldies station.

Fast forward to 1999. The Cleveland Avenue studios closed down. WROV and its AM sister station, WGMN - now known as ''The Game'' - moved into new studios on Brandon Avenue.

"The 1240 Guys," known as the "Old ROVers," have been in touch for almost a year now sharing stories and memories. One of them, Pat Garrett, has been building a Web site of the station's history.

Starr Stevens, an ROV announcer in the mid-'70s, credited Levine for giving his announcers the freedom to be themselves. "Every announcer has his own shtick and delivery style," Stevens said.

Levine wanted ROV to stand out as the most entertaining radio station in Roanoke. And during the days before FM, ROV was a legend in radio circles.

Levine was the exception to the "numerous species of sharks that wear suits and own or otherwise run radio stations," said Rich Randall, another DJ from the '70s at ROV. Levine was "tough but fair, and compassionate as any human could be. He trusted his key people and that made him 'comfortable' and made them lifelong successes."

When Randall left ROV, he did a show and tried to imitate Prater. "If you listened close, I was doing Bart Prater - only earlier in the day and without the whiskey voice," Randall said.

"And don't forget my cigarettes," said Prater, who used to work the afternoon shifts at ROV. "I couldn't stand to get up early." The then-lanky disc jockey who sported a mustache was named International Billboard Disc Jockey of the Year in 1975.

In the mid-'70s, Prater hired Bill Jordan. "We played what we wanted to play, Jordan said. "I don't think any of us had any more fun than we had at WROV."

The story wouldn't be complete without mentioning the infamous two-man show of Jack Fisher and Fred Frelantz.

"They were like bacon and eggs on the air," Beckman said. "They were just right for each other."

Fisher fondly remembered his best friend, Frelantz, and all of the whacko things they did.

"Bert encouraged us to have fun. We made things happen," Fisher said.

He recalled the Fisher-Frelantz Freeloaders show, where Frelantz would tell the audience that he and Fisher hadn't eaten in days. They got themselves invited to clubs and organizations so they could have a dinner. "Their expectations were always higher than our delivery," Fisher said. "Fred would usually tell one joke and then we would eat."

The personalities were pranksters. Garrett, who made his debut at WROV in 1980, remembered the summer of 1980 when Prater, Fred Palmer, a promotions guy known as "Quiddly" and Chris Stevens would fish in the Roanoke River. "I remember standing there when the receptionist, Carole Beane, sat down at the front desk and opened her drawer and screamed when she saw a fish laying there. About that time, Fred walked around the corner and asked her if she liked her fish, then said, "Good! Because you still have two more to find!"