Clayton Mapoles debuted his new AM radio station WEBY
on September 1, 1954. He was a former newspaper publisher in both Crestview and
Milton. Initially, the station broadcasted with 1000 watts, but in 1958 the FCC
approved an increase to 5000 watts.
Eventually, near the end of his involvement with WEBY,
events on this station’s airwaves changed the broadcast rules for stations
nationwide.
Ben Henry Pooley, who broadcast a morning show on WEBY
from 1957 to 1968, showed up for his morning show at about 6 am. He read in the
Milton Times a political ad for State Senate candidate, John Boles. In this ad,
Boles attacked his opponent, John Broxson for his association with Mapoles when
Broxson’s father Bart Broxson had been a political adversary of Mapoles.
Pooley was incensed when he saw this. Putting aside
his planned editorial for his 6:45 show, he quickly wrote some notes for a
reaction to what he just read.
There is no actual record of what Pooley said on the
air. Though he usually would leave a copy of his script to be filed at the
station, he was seen folding up his notes and putting them in his pocket as he
immediately left the station after his 15-minute show. John Boles, the subject
of Pooley’s ire, claimed later that he took notes while listening and he said
that he was referred to as “the black sheep of his family”, and even his mother
wouldn’t vote for him.
Boles also later claimed that he called the station
and demanded equal time for a response and was refused. A couple of weeks later
he filed a complaint with the FCC.
This was not the first time WEBY, and Pooley was the
target of shutdown by their political opponents. In November of 1959, a
petition was filed with the FCC by Clifford Wilson, Albert Golden, Richard
Finlay, Bart Broxson, Morrison Kimbrough, and Newman Brackin. The petition was
for revoking the station license for personal attacks in a political editorial.
During broadcasts, Pooley would refer to public
officials with colorful nicknames such as, “The Bald Eagle from Pollard”,
“Super Octane – the Gas-Guzzlin’ Commissioner from Harold”, Little Sir Echo,
Prince Albert, and others.
In May 1959, Pooley had been pulled over on the way to
the radio station one morning by two police officers, and two alcohol revenue
agents. Searching his car, a container of illegal whiskey was confiscated and
Pooley was arrested. A grand jury cleared Pooley of charges and it was believed
the booze had been planted.
Other intimidation tactics included three threats that
the station was going to be dynamited unless it stopped criticizing Sheriff
Broxson, and removed Pooley from the air. These attempts failed and in November
the station was sued for slander by Wilson for $50,000 for claiming he used
county gasoline for his private and business vehicles.
The FCC refused the petition since the station license
was not up for renewal at the time.
Incidentally, a thief stole 4000 records from the
station, and a Women’s apparel store Mapoles owned by Milton High School was
burglarized. There was an arrest in these cases in May 1961.
In 1961 when Wilson’s slander case was dismissed, he
challenged WEBY’s license renewal. He also lost this challenge. The license was
renewed in 1962.
Through all this process, however, the FCC updated the
“Fairness Doctrine” and this along with the later Boles case is now referred to
in legal publications as the “Mapoles Decision”.
So, back to the Boles incident, in July 1967, the FCC
voted to designate the license renewal of WEBY for a hearing, after the
commission received complaints against the Milton Broadcasting Company, for
potential violations of the fairness doctrine for the Pooley editorial
broadcast on April 22, 1966. This was due to Boles’ claim that the station
would not give him equal time.
Mapoles attempted to sell the station to Lawrence
Hankins Locklin, (aka, singer, Hank Locklin), in early 1968 and terminate the
renewal proceeding, but the FCC denied the request.
During this period Mapoles started claiming poor
health to avoid appearing at the hearings. A whole group of doctors including
Dr. Rufus Thames, Dr. Enzor, Dr. West from Jay, a doctor from Duke University, and
the Rev. Bamburg gave their opinions on the health of Mapoles. Another group of
witnesses gave statements alluding to the apparent good health including Albert
Golden.
The hearings concluded with the decision to just renew
the license for one year. The FCC Broadcast Bureau disagreed with the decision
of the hearing examiner, Herbert Sharfman, and appealed. After oral arguments
in Jan 1972, the commission denied renewal for WEBY, who claimed that Mapoles
showed an “unpardonable lack of candor” in supplying a purported copy of the
editorial that was considerably milder than the one that actually aired and
inconsistencies in his medical status. Mapoles appealed allowing the station to
remain on the air past the July 3 shutdown date. WEBY finally shut down on
March 30, 1973, with much of its programming moving to WXBM-FM.
There were four known attempts on the life of Ben
Henry Pooley. In April 1979, Pooley’s trailer was destroyed by dynamite while
he slept. He was lucky to survive due to the blast being absorbed by a closet
packed with overcoats, and other clothing. One of his dogs was killed in the
blast and the toilet, or bathtub blew through the roof and landed in the yard
of the next-door rest home that was owned by Annette Pooley.
In August 1984, Leroy Johnson was arrested for
allegedly participating in a murder-for-hire plot to kill Pooley. This was
known as the “ketchup killing”. The FDLE, through an informant, learned of the
plot and took Pooley and his family to an undisclosed location. Pictures of Pooley with ketchup on his head were taken to simulate a gunshot wound.
The picture was then used as “proof” of the killing. The informant showed the
picture to Johnson who then made a trip to Harold. After his return to Milton,
he was pulled over by the police, and just under $10,000 was found under his
seat. He was taken into custody but died of a heart attack 6 days later. There
were no further arrests.
In September 1987 Chester Cole was sentenced to 35
years for his role in another murder-for-hire plot. Cole was recently paroled
and was harboring an escaped convict and convicted murderer named Boo Adams.
Adams was supposed to kill Pooley, but backed out and turned the whole thing
over to the Sheriff’s department. Chester Cole was on the FBI’s most-wanted
list in the early 1960s for armed robberies. Supposedly, Chester Cole was the
second choice of the “money man” who wanted Pooley dead. His first choice was
William Sanders. Sanders was too sick and died soon after. Interestingly, Sanders had once been a
teacher at Milton High School. He was actually voted “Most Popular Teacher” by
the students in 1960. He owned a sporting goods store in Milton, where the
downtown parking lot is now, across from the old Florida Café.
A fourth and final attempt was made in 1988. It didn’t
go very far when the man contracted went to the police instead. Ex-County
Commissioner Clifford Wilson of Harold was arrested and ultimately was
acquitted at trial in December 1988.
Pooley returned to the radio in 1991 on WECM 1490-AM.
