Conv-Local Radio Stations

Local Radio Stations

September, 2018

From: Rick Fredericksen

Dated: September 20, 2018

Subject: Local Radio Stations (Original Name; The Daily Appeal, Thursday, September 20, 2018)

Dick, the Daily Appeal, and news coverage of the presidential visit yesterday, mention's Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station at Havelock, NC. I was at Cherry Point in 1968 and worked after hours at WUSM Havelock, my first job in radio. It is now WWNG and owned by Dick Broadcasting. Is this your station?
Rick Fredericksen

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    From:   Dick Ellis
   Dated: September 20, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

I had a friend who owned four little 500-watt day-timer's around NC and Virginia and sold them all.... The internet, cell phones, cable...whatever,,,has destroyed the local need for a small town station. The local merchants are being killed by the big boys like Wal-Mart and don't have the money to put into advertising... We have an old station in Smithfield, Johnston County...that does the noon farm report, the call in show, the local news...but they are few!!!! Owned by a family. Tax...benefits, insurance....the government...local stations just can't hire and pay enough to keep announcers anymore.

Dickie

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    From:   Marc Yablonka
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

Thanks for passing that on. A few years back, got invited to a small gathering of Nam vets where Nguyen Cao Ky was in attendance. The occasion was the celebration of the publishing of the book “Buddha’s Child: My Fight to Save Vietnam”, which he co-wrote with my friend Marv Wolf, 1st Air Cav, An Khe. I know Ky had his detractors, especially in the Vietnamese community according to my “ba xa”. But I found him to be very much a gentleman. I still chuckle when I remember the question he asked me when I told him my wife was from Saigon. “Oh! Does her family know me?” He asked. I assured him that they did and that both my father-in-law and brother-in-law had fought in his army.

    From:   Rick Fredericksen
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

So many careers started at these little stations...even Mary Tyler Moore's Ted Baxter: "It all started at a 5,000 watt radio station..." My first commercial job at WUSM in Havelock, NC was not eventful, but before playing my first country western song I had to sign on the station transmitter. Had to get my 3rd class FCC licence in Norfolk in order to get the job. Bulletin: Just heard on NPR that Vietnam's president has died.
Rick Fredericksen

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    From:   Tom Reinhart
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

I have had that exact same dream about 500 times!! I have worked at WISE in Ashville, NC, WKGN, Knoxville, WIXY1260, Cleveland, 13Q, Pittsburgh, WIFE, Indianapolis, WAAY Huntsville, AL, and pretty much all of the other stations in Huntsville. I got out of the Air Force in 1970 after 1 year at Da Nang and several of the American cities [?]. Love to read all of the AFVN posts. I fixed aircraft radios...BUT always listened to AFVN!!

Tom Reinhart

"Gary Drake" on the air. (Why? I have no idea....)

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    From:   Dick Ellis
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

Correction...that is "Ask your neighbor." Old arthritis is creeping into these old hands.

Dickie

    From:   Marc Yablonka
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

Rick,
One of my favorite radio memories was the year I spent disc jockeying weekends at KDOL, Mojave, CA ("Country K-Doll") in the 70s. It was an old converted ranch house out on the Boron Highway not too far from Edwards AFB. A lot of good memories of the year I spent there, notwithstanding the fact that my salary was $2.50 an hour and mice ran wild all over the station--including across the board when the mic was hot! One of the cool things about it was driving back to L.A. through the desert on Sunday nights, having shut down the station at 10:00 pm per FCC regs. I used to be able to pick up the power house 50 and 100, 000 watters from across the country. WWL New Orleans, KOB Albuquerque, KSL Salt Lake, a station out of Del Rio, TX, whose call letters I can't remember (might have been XERB) but they ran Wolfman Jack's syndicated show, and KCBS San Francisco. Still have dreams to this day that I'm running the board, the record ends, I haven't cued up another record and don't know what to do!
Marc

    From:   Rick Fredericksen
   Dated: September 20, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

Dick, a follow up. I see on Wikipedia that WWNG gave up its licence in Feb. of this year and the station is defunct! Can't imagine why the Marines would not have picked up this little AM daytimer just outside the gates of Cherry Point. 50 years ago, when the station was WUSM, I broadcast storm alerts for hurricane Gladys which hit the NC coast in "68, but nothing like Florence.
Rick Fredericksen

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    From:   Ken Kalish
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

XERC – Wolfman Jack
Ken Kalish

    From:   Marc Yablonka
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

Thanks Ken. Was one letter off. Come to think of it, XERB was probably the station in the San Diego market that broadcast out of Tijuana. I used to pick it up as a kid growing up in Orange County, CA.

    From:   Rick Fredericksen
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

Sounds like a news story to be done on the demise of small town radio.
Rick Fredericksen

    From:   Roy Burnette
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

Adding to the commentary about small town radio. My wife and family have two AM stations in Western North Carolina each with a newly activated FM translator which gave us a little boost. Few people realize the costs of running a radio station. The license fees for music, the FCC, and other operational software plus phone and utility and the expenses already mentioned drain the money rather rapidly. Corporate stations make it tough on independents as well. I’ve seen plenty of success stories. I guess the hardest comment to explain from a local business, “Radio worked, we got a lot of response but the people who came in did not spend as much money as I thought they should.”

    From:   Dick Ellis
   Dated: September 21, 2018
Subject:   Local Radio Stations

Roy, I always said I would buy a little home-town station somewhere in NC and run that when I retired....but now I am older and wiser and too smart! Bless you man, the flame still burns for local AM stations~! You should make all of our old pros send you a station ID tape...it will then sound like you have a staff of 30-! I hope you still do the Bulletin Board, On-the-air swap meet, and other great features. When I was a kid in Wilson, NC our local station had a morning man who kept a live Canary in the control room with him. You could hear that thing behind him on the air and the whole town loved it. Raleigh had a morning show called "As your neighbor" and people called in with all kinds of questions and ideas... resist Brothers resist! I am the only person in America without a cell phone!

Dixie is for Dickie