# Big Johnny Reb



## ingram (Jul 11, 2012)

My dad owned a sign company and made a good living in Neon, hand painted signs/buildings/racing autos/commercial work/gold leaf work.......and billboards.  Yep, back in the '50's daddy built and hand painted billboards from Columbus, Ga. on down through the state.  
 Allen Woodall, Sr. owned a radion station,   WDAK,  which had the "mascot" Big Johnny Reb. The station played an "eeeeeee-awwwwwwwwwwww" which was a rebel yell.  To advertise the radio station, daddy built billboards on farm lands that Mr. Woodall had worked deals with in which to build the signs to advertise Big Johnny Reb....
 When Dana INgram (my dad) died in 2000 at age 86, I found a metal head of Big Johnny Reb. Dana made the first signs in which the character overlapped the regular board.........Johnny Reb's head stood above the sign, with the rebel, in his confederate uniform, painted on the sign....I also have a Big JOhnny Reb T shirt from the station which has BJR and WDAK advertised on it...raggedy, but, wearable....
 These billboards were built and maintained from the '50's to about the early 80's when Mr. Woodall's son, Allen Woodall, jr., decided to not maintain them and let the land leases go, so my dad said. Allen, jr. wanted to change from billboards to old cars with advertising on the doors.  Of course, there was no BJR allowed in the '80's, but, the sites were great advertisiing sites, and the station itself continued....so daddy said. 
 I'll try to take pictures and post if anyone is interested.
 I just love history.....especially from my hometown.....


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## surfaceone (Jul 11, 2012)

Hello Gina,

 Welcome to this place. We enjoy photos always in these blue pages.





From.




From.

 Was this a sister station, or was everyone a Rebel in Columbus? I see the JORDAN VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL alumni were tuned in.

 They cropped up in The King Center archive.


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## ironmountain (Jul 12, 2012)

wow..I haven't seen a Norge sign since I was a kid in the 70's!


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