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Project Jenny KLIK - 1st Inf Di v Women in Vietnam RELATED-- To AFVN To Saigon To Vietnam Further Afield Index
From: Forrest Brandt
Date: September 17, 2019
Subject: Country
Nancy, beat me to it. Roger’s connections to Gene Autry and his loyalty to the man was something to appreciate.
Forrest
From: Billy Williams
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
Very true Rick. AM antenna arrays, especially FCC-mandated directional ones with as many as six towers, require acres of land. A Walmart near I-10 and I-295 now occupies much of where a prominent AM station's antenna farm used to be. That station now uses a truncated portion to transmit after getting FCC to approve a modification. In suburban areas that were isolated 20 years ago, new developments make acreage more profitable as house lots. A predicament similar to drive-in movie theaters.
Instead of using the entire tower to radiate as AM systems require, FM uses compact radiating elements that can be mounted on top of a building. Electricity costs are another problem. Power bills for AM can run thousands of dollars a month. FM transmission is much more energy efficient due to the characteristics of FM signal amplification. Newer AM transmitters are somewhat more efficient but expensive. Many AM stations are stuck with older units that produce large amounts of heat as an unwanted byproduct. Heat that adds to monthly power bills.
When pagers were popular, many AM and combo stations rented tower space to communications providers. These were lucrative contracts. The radio station owner in Starke probably made more from tower space rental than from his broadcasting. Technology advances now allow cellphone providers to use less expensive alternatives. Sort of like what the local daily newspaper did recently. They sold their huge mechanical press, cut back staff and moved from their large riverfront building to a much smaller suite in a downtown office building. Now the paper is printed 70 miles away and the deadline is something like noon the previous day.
Billy
From: Marc Yablonka
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
I think they are, Rick. I recently drove up to Mojave to track down the station I worked at. Completely gone. Demolished. Nothing but a desert road leading to nowhere where the station used to be. I think there are two factors pertaining to country stations in particular. The major one is the coming on of satellite radio, such as Sirius XM, which I am a proponent of in spite of having to pay $25 a month for it. The other factor is the state of country music itself. I might get some hate mail out of the comment I am about to make, but for the most part, there is nothing country about country music today. At least the country that's getting played on the regular country stations. For the most part it sounds like raunchy rock n' roll. There are little to no pedal steel guitars, dobros or fiddles in most of it. At least that are audible in the final mixes. On a side note, one of the things I used to love about disc jerkeying out at KDOL was shutting the station down at 10 p.m. Sunday after all the little 50 watt stations were required to be off the air by the FCC. As a result, I could pick up several of the clear channel power houses--WWL New Orleans, KOB Albuquerque, KSL Salt Lake, KCBS San Francisco, all the way back into the San Fernando Valley section of L.A. Being able to listen to those stations late at night was an education in and of itself!
Marc Phillip Yablonka
From: Billy Williams
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
We surely weren't in radio for high salaries. Mark. I also shifted into education. After leaving the Army, I worked full-time radio briefly in Jacksonville at a top 40 station battling the legendary Big Ape (AM only). Kaplan, the Ape's owner, thought top 40 on FM would never work and passed on several chances to get on FM relatively cheap. We were on FM too and eventually beat them in the ratings. I continued working part-time at the radio station until they sold out to a chain in late 1976. In my three years there, must have been 100 DJs come and go. Awful job security. When I was offered work teaching electronic communications at the local junior college, didn't take long to make my choice. Annual contracts, higher pay, retirement after 30 years, etc.
From: Nancy Smoyer
Date: September 17, 2019
Subject: Country
I kept thinking about Roger during tonight's episode. I wonder if he was consulted in the making of it. He'd have loved it.
They kept talking about how country music permeated the country as the stations grew. This is what I wrote about my exposure to country music.
Nancy
Midway through my tour while at Da Nang I started dating a Navy dentist from Alabama... Alabama!!!! I barely knew Alabama existed except that since I'd been in Vietnam I'd discovered that there was a whole other section of the US which I hadn't been exposed to in my New Jersey upbringing and Colorado college. Barry was a died-in-the-wool southerner, country music and all. He used to talk about country singers and not infrequently sing country songs to me, especially Hank Williams and Waylon Jennings. One night when we sat on the double lifeguard stand on China Beach, he sang Waylon's "It's Time to Bum Again" to me. ("Woman, you get meaner very day and your naggin' is hard to stand. So I'll pack my bags and be on my way, cuz it's time to bum again.") For some reason, I loved it. When Waylon died in 2002, I wrote Barry, and he said he'd thought about that night on China Beach, too. I came to love country music. When I got back to the States I bought records of Hank Williams (who became my special favorite), Waylon, and Johnny Cash. I still think of it as a gift during those sweet innocent times when I first learned about country music.
From: Nancy Smoyer
Date: September 17, 2019
Subject: Country
Uh, Joe, as my story says, I met the guy in Da Nang--that's in Vietnam. The main work I saw him do was to pull villagers teeth, so it sounds like he'd fit right in in Alabama. Oh, and he did fill a tooth for me there. Alaska came later, after I had traveled and worked in the south, if you count Ft. Knox and Jacksonville as the south.
Nancy
From: Roy Burnette
Date: September 19, 2019
Subject: Country
I own two AM stations and one plays Classic Country. The translator gives much more coverage and we stream which is strong. The other AM is adult contemporary but the FM translator keeps us alive. Having to relocate, property owner selling tower site. Very expensive move but to keep FM must keep AM on the air at 5k. It is so expensive to operate and now high schools are charging $200 to broadcast a game. It gets harder all the time.
From: Larry Rogers
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
When I was in the Army I was offered a share in a radio station in Coalinga, California. I decided not to invest, and shortly after, an earthquake brought down the station tower and caused other damage.
I began broadcast career at a 1K station south of Atlanta. It was great experience for a 17-year-old who did everything from sweeping floors to writing advertising, DJ-ing and reading news. In the history of the station back in the 40s, the local newspaper owner put up the station and gave free advertising on radio for those who put ads in his newspaper. Sounded like the station had a lot of advertising to a prospective buyer. So, when he sold the station, the new owner found he could not sell advertising to those who had been getting it for free. This led to the original owner getting the station back. He would then repeat the procedure, until a company with stations in Alabama bought it. After I went into the Navy, an engineer bought the station, running it with his wife and some local students for low wages, such as I had been. He even stopped the news wire service, bought a newspaper and read stories from it for “news.” The last I heard, it was a 5K station. Don’t know who was the owner..
PS: I wasn’t the youngest announcer; that was 14-year-old Larry Calloway (now deceased) who went into the USMC.
Frank
From: Walt Christiansen
Date: September 16, 2019
Subject: Country
Darn...
And AFN is, of course, not broadcasting this. No PBS to tune in and watch while stationed here in Bremerhaven.
Walt
From: Rick Fredericksen
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
Off topic, but the small country radio discussion raises a question: are the often small, rural AM stations gradually becoming unsustainable assets? Perhaps some of these terrestrial operations will be worthless some day, as advertisers and listeners go elsewhere, to internet etc.
The first radio station I worked at was WUSM AM outside Cherry Point NC in 1968. When I tried to track it down recently I found it had changed call letters, changed hands and most recently went defunct. No one wanted it and it just vanished. Are they becoming dinosaurs, at least the little AMers?
Rick Fredericksen
Country Music, Demise of Local Radio & Burns' Documentary - 1
September 2019
From: Rick Fredericksen
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
Billy, this all makes sense. Biggest issue seems to be small AMs. When you consider the costs of transmitter and tower upkeep, power, staff, regulations, etc. it sure makes the internet alternative seem almost free. If I had one of these aging AM'ers I think I'd be out lookin for a buyer before it's too late.
Rick Fredericksen
From: Marc Yablonka
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
Speaking of stations that run programming in other languages, Billy, I'm told that there are so many French Canadian snowbirds that come to Florida to avoid those cold Canadian winters that stations in Florida run French programming. Perhaps someone in the group who lives in Florida can confirm that. Marc
Marc Phillip Yablonka
From: Billy Williams
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
The bar for air talent wasn't too high in smaller markets fortunately, Steve. Augusta was size #105 to 110 in the early 1970s. The extra check came in handy. I remember doing remotes at car lots hawking new cars for under $2,500. The VA was my impetus for finally getting out of part-time radio in Jax. After the local ownership sold out to a chain, the clock was ticking before benefits deadline. A masters degree meant a major pay increase at the college.
From: Larry Rogers
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: AM radio notes
I heard Japan will phase out all AM broadcasting.
Received this on the FENgroups. The sender might be interested in AFVN, too.
Frank
Hey Fellow FEN Alumni, I would love to bring the magic of The Far East Network back to life. I'm looking for your skills and talent to make that happen! I run a very successful internet radio station which I called Desert Radio AZ, an it's based in Bisbee, AZ. I've been doing this for years because I believe in the magic of communication! The station plays a variety of music genres. I pay all the ASCAP and other licensing fees so it's a legitimate radio station business. The station is heard around the world, we even have a serious Russian audience! If you have an iPhone and a closet full of clothes and have a burning desire to be back on the the air I can make that happen for you. I'm looking for people who enjoyed being on the air and maybe somewhere down the road if the station expands into greatness I can afford to pay you for your hobby participation. For more information send me an email at desertradioaz@gmail.com.
From: Billy Williams
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
In Starke, a small town about 50 miles away, the owner of the only station--originally an AM/FM traditional combo--turned off his AM saying it wasn't worth the license fee to renew. His ~3kw FM is profitable playing country music with live announcers mornings and middays. He emphasizes high school sports and other local events and has a good ad salesman. Here in media market #42, some AM stations survive by transmitting programs and music for Mexican, Haitian etc. audiences. Others take advantage of an FCC provision that allows licensing a counterpart FM "translator" station as long as the AM signal stays on the air.
Most AM/FM combos seldom ID or announce their AM frequencies. I visited a 5kw AM religious station to pick up donated equipment for a local non-profit group. It apparently stays solvent by selling time blocs to local churches and trading out much of their expense for advertising. At least two AMers licensed for 60+ years though are no longer on the air. As with daily newspapers, time seems to be running out on many AM stations.
AFVN Group Conversations
From: Marc Yablonka
Date: September 17, 2019
Subject: Country
Nancy and Preston,
Sorry to be late to this exchange about country music. In reading your posts, I was reminded of a story a music publisher once told me. He'd gone to a lecture by some programmer and the fellow told those in attendance, "You don't have to go to radio school to get into radio. All you have to do is get into your car and drive towards Bakersfield!" That was pretty close to my own reality as my first "paid" job in radio was at "Country K-Doll", KDOL Mojave (population 3,500). The station was an old ranch house that'd been converted into a radio station out on the old Boron Highway, where you often had to compete for air time with the mice that stampeded all around the board. I wrote "paid" in quotes because, as a weekender, my "salary" was $2.50 an hour. When you went full time at KDOL, the owner lowered your hourly wages to $2.00! In spite of that, I still love country music and have two buttons on my car radio set to "Willie's Roadhouse" and "Outlaw Country" through Sirius XM.
Marc
From: Marc Yablonka
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
Nice to know I wasn't the only one, Billy. When i took a job at KLAC in Hollywood as a remote broadcast producer in 1980, I made the jump from $2.50 an hour at KDOL Mojave to a whole $5.00 an hour. Of course, the trade off was working with some of the greats in country radio, among them AFRTS's Gene Price, and being in the same room with country stars from Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, and Emmy Lou Harris to actors like James Garner, Slim Pickens and Connie Stevens.
Marc Phillip Yablonka
From: Preston Cluff
Date: September 16, 2019
Subject: Country
All I can say is; WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!!!!!
Any one of us who THOUGHT we knew a lot of country music history were brought back down to earth last night if we watched part 1 of Ken Burns' eight-part special on the subject.
I'll bet not a no one knew even 10% of the nostalgia dished out...and there's still 14 hours to go! It just blew my mind. I wrote down a lot of names, and will be checking Amazon today to see how much I can find in the way of the music. Several artists I had not even heard of.
I know you said you were taping it, Rich, and I'm certain you will be glad you did. Cue it up for next Sunday, same time, same PBS station.
Preston
From: Marc Yablonka
Date: September 17, 2019
Subject: Country
Forrest,
As a producer at KLAC, I worked with WWII veteran Art Nelson, "the Corsicana Flash", whose last job in radio was working down the street at KMPC. Art was also very loyal and very appreciative of Mr. Autry.
Marc
From: Marc Yablonka
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
I hear you Billy. The only sour grapes I have regarding my 36 years teaching ESL to immigrants--many Vietnamese--in the L.A. school district is being forced to pay dues to a union whose political point of view I did not agree with. Now, in semi-retirement, I'm teaching our guys and gals in uniform at a satellite campus of Columbia College of MO on the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, CA. It's the teaching job I waited 40 years to have! And no union dues!!
Marc Phillip Yablonka
From: Rick Fredericksen
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
Very informative Billy. You know your stuff. Seems that we were lucky to have worked in these stations---even if the salary was paltry---just for the experience, and the launch of our broadcasting careers. Glad I don't own a small, old AM station!
Rick Fredericksen
From: Billy Williams
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
Low pay for radio DJs was relative in the early 70s. While at Ft. Gordon near Augusta, I worked part-time radio in town before and after Vietnam. $2.50 to $3 hourly plus a little extra for setting up and doing remote broadcasts. I made double to triple my Army pay working three radio shifts a week.
Billy Williams
From: Steve Sevits
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
Me too! After the Army I went back to small town radio but my one short coming (a total lack of on air talent) dictated a change of direction. Selling used cars proved a better career track (and more money) for me. And I've never looked back.
Steve Sevits
From: Joe Green
Date: September 17, 2019
Subject: Country
Nancy! Surely you jest. "Alabama!!!! I barely knew Alabama existed. . . ."
Now, I accept that New Jersey, your home state, is a closed society, but ALASKA!- - oh, no! You were in Alaska when that dentist fellow showed up, and I know from personal experience that Alaskans are smart, and carry a grudge for a long time. Ever since Statehood, Alaskans have been painfully aware of Alabama. It's the single state which blocked that big ol' iceberg from Alphabetical First Place.
Oh! One additional comment . . . you might check out the credentials of that so-called Alabama dentist. We don't have much need for dentists in Alabama -- too few of us have teeth.
- - Joe
From: Billy Williams
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
Yes, Mark, there were fringe benefits. Maybe even an advertising trade-out or two. I liked driving the radio station remote van around Augusta. The station had a big searchlight for nighttime remotes. We worked hard for our (low) pay then. No computerized stations, only clunky automation at some. Going from turntable to turntable for six hours and having a blast doing it.
$5 an hour in LA area probably didn't go very far. I heard then that cost of living in Augusta was probably half of what it was in Calif.
From: Marc Yablonka
Date: September 18, 2019
Subject: Country
$5 an hour in L.A. in 1980 didn't go very far, Billy. You're absolutely correct. Full disclosure though, I was never really in it for the money as I was otherwise gainfully employed as an English teacher. It was more for the experience since I loved radio and still have dreams about being in it, both the hope dream for the future, and, as I've mentioned in the group before, actual recurring dreams where the record ends, I haven't cued up the next one, and I don't know what to do, and there's all this dead air!
Marc Phillip Yablonka