Of course. Bad actors shouldn’t be able to deprive hard-working people of what is justly due them.
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Looking to buy radio station $$ cash Deal ,,,on the coast of Georgia,,,,,or East Coast or Florida /West Coast of Florida. Michael 401-578-7919
- Thread starter Mondo Mike
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VHS Hi-Fi VCRs actually produced very good audio -- not up to CD quality, but much better than audio cassettes, and probably better than a good reel-to-reel audio tape deck. So it had the potential to have very good sound quality.
But out of curiosity, I remember years ago reading about a one man FM radio station up in Massachusetts. It was a class A FM near Boston that ran a classical format. is that the station you were thinking of?
I'm not sure which station or where it was located. I just remember reading about a full-power station that had more or less been a one man operation for years and that's how he'd operated it - recording his programming to VHS tapes using EP mode to get 6 hours on each one, then playing them back while he was out making sales calls and conducting other business.
That was probably the old WVCA FM 104.9 Gloucester Mass. back in the 1970's run by Mr. Simon Geller. I'm sure if you did a google search on him or WVCA You'd find all sorts of info.
WVCA never used VCR tapes. His music library was on reel to reel and he played them manually. There was a website dedicated to the station. Simon would say he had a doctor's appointment and sign off the air saying when he expected to be back. About once a week he shut down to grab a meal at a restaurant and maybe a movie. He fought the FCC for years over non-entertainment programming requirements. He asserted the audience wanted classical music, no news and such. To appease the FCC, he signed on at 5:30 each morning to play the same weekly public affairs show until 6am. He sold to a company that agreed to keep the station classical.
KYND 1520 in Cypress/Houston started off with one guy who taped his first 5.75 hours on VHS, rewound it during a 15 minute program and replayed it while going out to sell. The station was likely about 50% ministries back then, just not enough to expand the operation. Don't know how long that lasted but likely about 6 months or so.
KYND 1520 in Cypress/Houston started off with one guy who taped his first 5.75 hours on VHS, rewound it during a 15 minute program and replayed it while going out to sell. The station was likely about 50% ministries back then, just not enough to expand the operation. Don't know how long that lasted but likely about 6 months or so.
Cold Coffee
Banned
By 1975 cassette tape recorders sounded really good. I played commercials on cassette until I could afford a Digilink for my stations.
Sounds kind of like Randy Mathena and WPCI (AM) in Greenville, SC. I know it wasn't him, as his operation was a bit more sophisticated, but same basic idea.
WPCI is an interesting little station. If I had the money to fiddle with, I'd like to do something like that myself.
Quartzsite had KBUX run by Buck Burdette and his wife Maude. Buck borrowed records from locals, recorded them on reel to reel, back announcing each song with his 'so called legal ID' KBUX, the heartbeat of Quartzsite. I believe he had about 28 hours of music (all Big Band, Beautiful Music & MOR). The automation went this way: you manually stopped the reel to reel to play a commercial on cart, then restart the reel. He averaged about $16,000 a year with all but one client buying during the busiest winter visitor months. After Buck's passing Maude continued the station with a 1960s/1970s based lite rock on hard drive. 8 months a year they were commercial free 24/7. The station was in their home. The utility room held the transmitter and the 80 foot wood pole in his side yard was where the antenna(s) were mounted for his (was it) 210 watts ERP. It was all music in the later years except for a 5 minute weekday devotional from a local pastor and a 15 minute program on Sunday. Buck said he read all the local PSAs and the weather forecast 3 times a day when it was on reel to reel.
As long as the azimuth is accurate between the recorder and the playback machine. If not, that mono-compatibility thing will eat you alive. Anyone remember the Howe phase-chaser?
Dave B.
KBUX, a 2 bay on a telephone pole outside the home of the owners buck and maude burdette.. studio in the home.. programming was on reel to reel.
buck died, she sold the station.. the operator got another station built.. and then he died in a car crash, @kwthom
Two brief airchecks here
Anyone who has been in Quartzsite knows that the way this station operated is also the way that town looked and felt.
Cheaper gas than "across the bridge" is its only highlight.
...and a few rocks.
It did stay classical for a while, but eventually the classical format did get dumped. Since then, formats have included show tunes, jazz, oldies, and adult contemporary. It is now another satellite drone owned by EMF and carrying the K-Love network.
There was a station in a small town in south Florida owned by a guy that all of the local engineers called "Flea" because it looked like everything in the station was bought at a flea market. The station aired Satellite Music Network's country format. The station was in the same strip mall as the local cable system. SMN was on the satellite sub-carrier of WGN TV out of Chicago. There was a pair of wires that ran from the cable system office down the breezeway to the radio station. The station had two Collins ATC cart machines. One held the legal ID and the other had a 30 minute cart with all of the spots for the day in two minute segments. On a piece of plywood nailed to the wall was a clock that probably came from a Shaffer automation system, wires stapled to the plywood and a bunch relays. Audio from SMN was looped through the cart machines. When SMN sent the 25 Hz cue, one of the relays started the cart machine which inserted the spots. At the top of the hour the clock would route the next trigger to the machine with the ID. No live local programming. His wife or daughter watched the station during the day. Meter readings were taken by the local answering service.
It was really a kluge city.
BTW: The guy eventually sold the station and made a killing.
It was really a kluge city.
BTW: The guy eventually sold the station and made a killing.
I think the call letters were KDCY in Cotulla, Texas. A guy from Kerrville and a teacher from Pearsall started the station. The Kerrville investor put up most of the cash and wanted to get $3,000 a month off the top while not being involved with the station. He never got the monthly payment. The teacher, with a short stint selling radio a few months, was the managing partner (the sweat equity guy). I worked at a station with the the managing partner.
The station was in Gardendale, a tiny community of about 30-35 people just an exit north of Cotulla. It set in a field that was farmed with a used trailer to house the station. The studio was all Radio Shack: 2 mixers, 4 dual cassette decks and two $20 microphones. The two owners recorded country songs they could find (classic country). The mix may have been okay because of the money investor but that's a big 'if'. I say that because the money guy had been an investor in Video Jukebox (the All request MTV styled format where the station got paid off the requests which were charged by the phone company). Music was recorded on cassettes.
Commercials were recorded on cassette or read live (all voice only). Sure they billed only $4,500 a month on average but the teacher's style of selling was to get something from every business he visited. He wanted to 'teach' me sales after I had been in radio sales several years so I played along. We walk in to a business and the lady says she's spent her budget. The $100 package dropped to $20 over a few minutes for a half package by the time the lady said okay and handed him a $20 from the register. And smiling as he walked out, he said and that's how you sell. He said he got whatever he could from out of town businesses...50 cents, a dollar a spot, it didn't matter. Each day he was off to San Antonio or Laredo to sell as much as he could.
I asked if he did news, weather, Cotulla PSAs and such. He said no. He said nothing happened in Cotulla and everybody said no to advertising so they are just a music station. The morning guy (6am to 11:30) would grab the forecast off cable TV before leaving the house. I knew a girl that dated a guy that worked the afternoon (11:30-5pm shift) and he said you played one side of a cassette and then ran a bunch of commercials and repeat. I actually doubt Cotulla even knew they had a local station.
There was a guy that offered to do a Regional Mexican/Tejano format from 5 to 10pm sign off offering a percentage of sales going to the station. That, it seems, never happened but the managing partner said he didn't care because he didn't have to pay the guy.
I believe the guy that worked the evening shift made a deal to buy the station after a few years.
The station was in Gardendale, a tiny community of about 30-35 people just an exit north of Cotulla. It set in a field that was farmed with a used trailer to house the station. The studio was all Radio Shack: 2 mixers, 4 dual cassette decks and two $20 microphones. The two owners recorded country songs they could find (classic country). The mix may have been okay because of the money investor but that's a big 'if'. I say that because the money guy had been an investor in Video Jukebox (the All request MTV styled format where the station got paid off the requests which were charged by the phone company). Music was recorded on cassettes.
Commercials were recorded on cassette or read live (all voice only). Sure they billed only $4,500 a month on average but the teacher's style of selling was to get something from every business he visited. He wanted to 'teach' me sales after I had been in radio sales several years so I played along. We walk in to a business and the lady says she's spent her budget. The $100 package dropped to $20 over a few minutes for a half package by the time the lady said okay and handed him a $20 from the register. And smiling as he walked out, he said and that's how you sell. He said he got whatever he could from out of town businesses...50 cents, a dollar a spot, it didn't matter. Each day he was off to San Antonio or Laredo to sell as much as he could.
I asked if he did news, weather, Cotulla PSAs and such. He said no. He said nothing happened in Cotulla and everybody said no to advertising so they are just a music station. The morning guy (6am to 11:30) would grab the forecast off cable TV before leaving the house. I knew a girl that dated a guy that worked the afternoon (11:30-5pm shift) and he said you played one side of a cassette and then ran a bunch of commercials and repeat. I actually doubt Cotulla even knew they had a local station.
There was a guy that offered to do a Regional Mexican/Tejano format from 5 to 10pm sign off offering a percentage of sales going to the station. That, it seems, never happened but the managing partner said he didn't care because he didn't have to pay the guy.
I believe the guy that worked the evening shift made a deal to buy the station after a few years.
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Flea’s real name = Rube Goldberg
What's a "kluge city"?
When something is cobbled together using a bunch of different parts. Also a terrible Jan and Dean song.
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