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1010 WHIN, "Response to Deltas 69"

S

scottwmro

Guest
Below, Quote from Deltas 69 (Pat Julian)

For what is worth. No one has listened to WHIN other than ball games since the late eighties. I still get people to this day that ask me how things are put there. or say.."i heard you the other day".."sounded good"..(no i sounded great..shameless self promotion there lol )..but point being..some people still think i'm there i guess..for the record, i left in late 76..missed the disco era,,damn it..lol


Pat,
For what it’s worth, you are correct, nobody is listening to 1010 WHIN on a regular basis, here in town (Gallatin), as far as music goes, they can get what their playing on FM, XM, etc. Same goes for Magic 1560, WMRO. Some of these people in Gallatin have a mentality that WHIN is the only station in town, and they have not even listen to it since the 1980’s. Outside the ballgames, WHIN is a satellite fed from ABC, just like 1560 WMRO.

There are few people like Robert Baker at Baker Used Cars (was Baker Buick) that believe there is no other station in Gallatin than WHIN. From what Bill Buntin told me, his family had stock in WHIN years ago, and sold it. I bet now he doesn’t listen to the station, he’s where the masses are, FM! Robert can’t even look me in the eye and say hello. I told my dad (back when he was alive) that I couldn’t believe you bought a used car from him for my sister when he could careless about us! Bill Buntin said the same thing!

Back when me and Bill Buntin was really pushing WMRO and its Oldies Format in the mid 90’s, Bill would asked them for example; “Who made you a winner today”? The response was WHIN. I quickly realized they were not listening to WMRO, and had no clue who WMRO was and could careless.

Pat, what we have here is the people who have lived in Gallatin for many years and WHIN is the only AM station they know of. I have made mention in previous post that WHIN has been the “Voice of Sumner County” for many years, and I’m not out to try to beat them, create a contest, etc. There are some stupid, ignorant, citizens here in Gallatin that think that (and I can create a list of names and post them on this list) really believe that WHIN & WMRO is in some contest to beat up each other. How stupid they are, there is no such contest. Why waste my time on people like that? Like you said, they only listen to WHIN for the local ballgames that Sparkman does, just to hear their kid’s, grandkid’s names on the radio, and that’s about it.

Bottom line is the people whom have come to you and told you they heard you on WHIN the other day and how good you sounded are out of touch with the world by about 25 years. Hell, some of them still think WHIN still has only 1000 watts, when it is licensed for 5,000 during the day.

There is no need for WHIN or WMRO to do any promotion. Jack Williams and I would be wasting our time. Jack and I would be better off going fishing in Punta Gorda, Florida and having a good time!

Gallatin is getting bigger, the people whom I mention of are dying off anyway and new people are moving in that don’t know who WHIN or WMRO is. Heck WYXE is a Gallatin station, with studios in Nashville, and people in Gallatin are so out of touch that they don’t even realize that.

The truth is nobody is listening to WHIN or WMRO on a regular basis. They are both AM stations with bad audio (thanks to the car radio manufactures) and people left WHIN when Kicks 104 came on the scene. From that point on in the early to mid 1980's, Gallatin became a FM world! Lee Raines and WAMG was already dead with no listeners, and 1010 WHIN was just right behind them. FM took over with the masses of Gallatin listening to Kicks 104, KDF, Nashville 95.5 or 98 WSIX-FM.
 
jack williams and i were hired the same night at buntins executive house apt..he to do sales and engineering..me part time..sunday mornings..jack is from lafeyette..and bill taught him the ins and outs of selling here opposed to macon county..although in gallatin, unbeknownst to us..we had a lot of listeners in nashville..to the fact we would show up # 2 on weekends..a little lower in other times..but at the time..we had no clue as what those numbers meant..we just gleefully sold 60's for 4.50, 30's for 3 bucks..and discounted on major (for us) buys..in the early 70's WHIN would do 10k to 12k monthly. station paid for, pretty big profit for the pates, bakers, and perkins family..if i rememeber right jack left whin for wamg and lee raines..can't remember why..but he did up the wamg books quite well..buntin was gone from whin by then..and i think lee possibly reneaged on a deal with jack..I DON'T KNOW THIS FOR A FACT..but something happened and jack, skit, and mike st john got whin..what jack has done and quite well is convince the business community that gallatin still listens to whin...he had bob perry, do the live morning show for years, used to do remotes..stuff to keep the image up around town..but the only time gallatin tunes in is on football nights..and that audience is split between you and jack..the feedback i get around town is you pull more listeners with bill on ball games than jack..bill has ALWAYS been the voice of the green wave..and has done pro, as well as collage games..in fact he is the cumberland college play guy now...but to be noticed in a local mkt like this takes being out there all the time, the way we were back then.and that takes a lot of people, overhead etc..from a dollars and cents standpoint..you have it made.jack has to meet payroll everyweek..even though there are only a few employees..you can show up on sunday morning, arbor mist in hand..and roll on..we were on remote somewhere every weekend in that 63 dodge van with turntables and marti blazing..worth every bit the 15.00 talent fee we jocks got for an all day remote...and i still miss it.. :'(...now i need a drink.. ;D
 
"Back when me and Bill Buntin was really pushing WMRO and its Oldies Format in the mid 90’s"


Wow.... do you use the same grammar in your copywriting?
 
deltas69 said:
jack williams and i were hired the same night at buntins executive house apt..he to do sales and engineering..me part time..sunday mornings..jack is from lafeyette..and bill taught him the ins and outs of selling here opposed to macon county..although in gallatin, unbeknownst to us..we had a lot of listeners in nashville..to the fact we would show up # 2 on weekends..a little lower in other times..but at the time..we had no clue as what those numbers meant..we just gleefully sold 60's for 4.50, 30's for 3 bucks..and discounted on major (for us) buys..in the early 70's WHIN would do 10k to 12k monthly. station paid for, pretty big profit for the pates, bakers, and perkins family..if i rememeber right jack left whin for wamg and lee raines..can't remember why..but he did up the wamg books quite well..buntin was gone from whin by then..and i think lee possibly reneaged on a deal with jack..I DON'T KNOW THIS FOR A FACT..but something happened and jack, skit, and mike st john got whin..what jack has done and quite well is convince the business community that gallatin still listens to whin...he had bob perry, do the live morning show for years, used to do remotes..stuff to keep the image up around town..but the only time gallatin tunes in is on football nights..and that audience is split between you and jack..the feedback i get around town is you pull more listeners with bill on ball games than jack..bill has ALWAYS been the voice of the green wave..and has done pro, as well as collage games..in fact he is the cumberland college play guy now...but to be noticed in a local mkt like this takes being out there all the time, the way we were back then.and that takes a lot of people, overhead etc..from a dollars and cents standpoint..you have it made.jack has to meet payroll everyweek..even though there are only a few employees..you can show up on sunday morning, arbor mist in hand..and roll on..we were on remote somewhere every weekend in that 63 dodge van with turntables and marti blazing..worth every bit the 15.00 talent fee we jocks got for an all day remote...and i still miss it.. :'(...now i need a drink.. ;D
Click to expand...


Pat,
You know, I got to thinking about all this and that you described happen almost 25 years ago. Radio has changed dramatically since then! I was talking to Bill this morning and it just isn’t the way it was. You had mention Jack doing engineering, I thought Bob Mayben did all that, then after Bob went back to Alabama, Ivan Davis too over Jack’s engineering stuff. This is when Kicks 104 was #1 in the Metro Nashville book.

WHIN has always shown up in the Nashville book up until the late 90’s. The only reason why they showed up in book with a very low rating in the 90’s was because of NASCAR. When WSM-AM started carrying the NASCAR races, along with WAKM in Franklin, this killed WHIN for good in the book. To my knowledge (but consult Bill Buntin on this) WHIN has not showed up in the 8 county metro book in over 15 years or so.

What year(s) did Jack work at WAMG? Was Lee in control when Jack was over there? I do know Bob Perry was involved in WAMG along with Bigfoot in it’s beginnings in the 60’s, when the WAMG studios were in the Enlow Center on the square. Bob told me that before he died.

I would love to move WMRO’s studios back up there, but I’ve looked in the building and it is in bad shape. The roof looks bad, the building has a “strange odor to it, and the whole place just needs lots of maintenance. All we really need is 3 rooms, plus a restroom.

I recall when Jack, Skip, and Michael St. John bought WHIN. My understanding was that Michael had too much outside business going on and he sold his part to Jack and Skip.

Bill Buntin and I were talking this morning, and we were discussing that Bill is coming up on his 40th year doing Gallatin Football. Like you said, this is the one of the few times that the citizens of Gallatin are listening to the WHIN or WMRO. Sparkman sounds boring on the air, Calvin Short is a “has been”, and the newer population moving into Gallatin could careless who Calvin Short “is or was” and they don’t even know who he is. He’s just an ole fart living in the past, like Jules Brazil! As far as I concerned, they sound like two old dead men trying to do a ballgame. Sparkman needs to retire. I fired Jules (he was just a volunteer) this year because of various reasons and attacks he made against me and my wife, Leslie.

What Bill has over them is his personality, and mentioning different people’s names on the air, that may not have anything to do with the game, but just a listener. Bill Buntin is just able to hold listeners better than Sparkman, and that’s all there is to it.

Jack Williams is related to me as a distant cousin. He has been a good friend, and a great family member, and I have nothing but good things to say about Jack. We have discussed where this business is head to, and it’s already in a state of “crash & burn”. I’m hoping Jack will be able to retire and have all the stress on him that he has now. Doing all those little league games must drive him crazy, but he has do what he needs to do to make a living out of that place. Jack was a big help to me when we changed format from Dial Global’s Classic Hits format, to ABC’s Hot AC/Alternative Rock Format. Actually, Jack had input in my decision to change to Alternative/Modern Rock, and Jack was for the idea. The downside is nobody listens to AM anymore for music, except for WSM-AM, and I predict that will go away as the youth of America takes over.

Bill does a 2 minute sports commentary program each morning on WMRO, during the Jonathan & Mary Show from Dallas. Heck, I not much on the air anymore, except on Sundays when I have to do intros and outros for the religious programs. I’ve had all my thrills of being behind the mic over the years, and it’s more of a chore for me than a thrill. I have too much engineering work to do and bookwork!

I have a question to ask you, were you ever in my building, before 1976, when the two offices were added? Who’s idea was that? I guess Lee Rains used the office on the left, (which I use now office) when he had the WAMG in there and his insurance company. These days, one office (office on the right) is not even being used (a waste of space) and I use the main office, but not much because I do all the billing and record keeping at home on my laptop, where I have an office there, which was a bedroom, converted to an office for me.

Leslie (my wife) and I have been throwing this idea around, since we really don’t use the two offices anymore, we thought about tearing them down and the building would be back to it’s original size like it was when it was built around 1970 (I guess that’s when WAMG made the studio move from the square to Blythe Ave, where we are now) and we figure we would save on our electric bill somewhat as well, and cut down a little on property taxes. I recall when I was a kid driving by WAMG before the two offices were built in the summer of 1976.

If anybody has a layout of where the studio/control room was, production room etc, in the WAMG building (now WMRO) back in 1970 when it was built, email me and let me know! Leslie and I are interested.
We want to make building look like it did when it was first built!
 
Hillbillicus said:
"Back when me and Bill Buntin was really pushing WMRO and its Oldies Format in the mid 90’s"


Wow.... do you use the same grammar in your copywriting?
Click to expand...

When I get carried away typing, grammar fades away in my bonehead (HA!) No time to proof reading anything these days!
 
Ditto on your comments on Jack Williams. I've known Jack for at least 35 years(beginning with my days at WHIN-FM) and he is one of the nice, decent guys in the radio business. Remind me one day to tell you guys what Ron Simpson called WHIN-FM after he came back from Florida in 1974. ;D
 
bob and ivan may have engineered after the sale to bledsoe..but during the time i was there..late70 to 76..jack and later charlie persly did the am..tinker lee was the original tech for the fm and kept it humming until he left sometime in the mid 70's.ivan may have taken over the fm then, but i never saw him since the tx was in a differt building than the control room.bob was at wamg in the mid late sixties as sales/mornings i think..he had the country side of sales in gallatin locked up..but wamg did not come close to sales as far as whin did beginning in 70. i can't remember when bob left wamg..but later ran and was elected trustee for several years.wamg started in the north water location, the old arcade, in 66 i think..i rememebr it being there in 68..i think they moved to your location around 70. the fm was on top of the ridge where the old studios and office building have fallen into decay currently.st. johm did sell his part to jack and sjip..i think he saw the am writeing on the all way back then. the addition was added when jack williams got the billing up at wamg..jack can give you precise details and dates and what the deal was with lee. lee was the gm at whin back in the mid/late sixties..and bill replaced him in 1970..the original studios at wamg were where they are now i believe, the prod room is the door that opens off the lobby, small room..to the right of the bath. the original office was down the long hall to the right of the door where i think you have the live studio. the wall that you removed was a small alcove where the news teletype sat fed paper all over the floor. trans. was on the back where it is now..at least that was the layout when i worked there in 1988.jerry pond can give you the exact timeline on wamg/wfmg up til around 1970 when he went to work at wkda. he helped bigfoot put both on the air and was a big help in getting me into radio. jerry and i graduated together..he was in radio as a kid back in 66 working at the original arcade location and the fm. charlie brewer was the gm at wfmg back then just before we bought it. i did basketball with him in tournaments in 1970 before i had a license.the funniest double take on the fm sale came when bigfoot approached us to buy 104.5..price 161k if i remember correctly..included the station, the house on the mountain,80+ acres of land and two vehicles. the owners, bob pate, bubba baker,tommy perkins, and lottie shaw(who was the book keeper at whin) were discussing the buy, when tommy asked miss lottie..have you figured how much all of us need to put in to buy this ? mis lottie said.."well we (whin) have that much in the checking acount..actually more than that" so tommy said..well just write them a check then.. :eek: at the time of the buy..they didn't know the house, porperty and cars were in the deal..they thought they just bought the fm and buildings and the property it was sitting on..probably one of the best radio buys in history..shame they wouldn't let us use it like we wanted...when they sold to bledsoe for close to a million, they thought they had made the best sell in radio..when bledsoe sold it for 10 million..i'm told bubba baker almost had a heart attack......
 
This might be a little off topic from the original but here's a question.

deltas69, you mentioned Bledsoe. If my information is correct, wasn't the property on the hill auctioned off. Possibly a mistake on a notice I read. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
kc4rae said:
This might be a little off topic from the original but here's a question.

deltas69, you mentioned Bledsoe. If my information is correct, wasn't the property on the hill auctioned off. Possibly a mistake on a notice I read. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

I think you're refering to an auction of property of tower(s) that was owned by the late J. Tom Park that passed away a few years ago. Pat Julian (a.k.a deltas69) or Jim "Turbo" Turvaville can fill you in more on that than me. I didn't keep up with that whole story. I just know it was almost 1 year after Tom passed away, his wife, Sandy passed away. It's nice to know they are now together in heaven.
 
deltas69 said:
jack williams and i were hired the same night at buntins executive house apt..he to do sales and engineering..me part time..sunday mornings..jack is from lafeyette..and bill taught him the ins and outs of selling here opposed to macon county..although in gallatin, unbeknownst to us..we had a lot of listeners in nashville..to the fact we would show up # 2 on weekends..a little lower in other times..but at the time..we had no clue as what those numbers meant..we just gleefully sold 60's for 4.50, 30's for 3 bucks..and discounted on major (for us) buys..in the early 70's WHIN would do 10k to 12k monthly. station paid for, pretty big profit for the pates, bakers, and perkins family..if i rememeber right jack left whin for wamg and lee raines..can't remember why..but he did up the wamg books quite well..buntin was gone from whin by then..and i think lee possibly reneaged on a deal with jack..I DON'T KNOW THIS FOR A FACT..but something happened and jack, skit, and mike st john got whin..what jack has done and quite well is convince the business community that gallatin still listens to whin...he had bob perry, do the live morning show for years, used to do remotes..stuff to keep the image up around town..but the only time gallatin tunes in is on football nights..and that audience is split between you and jack..the feedback i get around town is you pull more listeners with bill on ball games than jack..bill has ALWAYS been the voice of the green wave..and has done pro, as well as collage games..in fact he is the cumberland college play guy now...but to be noticed in a local mkt like this takes being out there all the time, the way we were back then.and that takes a lot of people, overhead etc..from a dollars and cents standpoint..you have it made.jack has to meet payroll everyweek..even though there are only a few employees..you can show up on sunday morning, arbor mist in hand..and roll on..we were on remote somewhere every weekend in that 63 dodge van with turntables and marti blazing..worth every bit the 15.00 talent fee we jocks got for an all day remote...and i still miss it.. :'(...now i need a drink.. ;D
Click to expand...


Hey Pat,

I got a call from Bill Buntin this morning saying that someone is upset with me saying that AM is dead. Let me re-phrase that, it's been dead for 15 years or better! I have an AM station and I know. AM is just a tuff sell all the way around, thanks to the FCC restricting our bandwidth down to 10 Khz and now they are looking into us going down to telephone audio, 4.5 to 5 Khz on the high end.

My favorite FM station, Lighting 100, WRLT has better ratings & more listeners than all the AM station in this market! Like I told Lt. Dan Buckley over at Lighting 100, some people just want to live in the past. It's totally o.k. to visit the past, and think about the good memories, but they need to realize they can not re-live it! To me, that shortens you're life span.

In My honest opinion, Lighting 100's audience a is much more intelligent, high class audience with thier AAA format. Oh, they do Oldies on Saturday Mornings. I think this Saturday they are going back to visit 1973. Pat, you should be working there.

I think it's funny on how people think your still on WHIN and you have said a word on that station since 1976! (HA!)
 
AM is and has been dead it's hard enough to get people to ocassionally listen to AM. If Scott and others can sell AM They are miracle workers. How long before the AM dial is shut down?
 
If my information is correct, wasn't the property on the hill auctioned off. Possibly a mistake on a notice I read. Please correct me if I'm wrong. i don't know what happened to the property after the tv station went up there. there was a guy that used to come in the music store i managed, Paul can't remember his last name,..he owned the property where the original tower,homesite,transmitter shed was. he had a small travel trailer up there..the tv station had to put in a seperate drive way below his property to get back to their site..the original studios and office buildings visible from 109N..are there and the last time i was up there, the office had a lot of stuff stored in it..i've been told that the county owns it now..there are a lot of towers up there..not sure of the status of the original wfmg 50k watt tower..it's still standing, but the standby tower that was next to the control room has been bent in half from tree damage. looks like the roof has caved in on the studio building..i haven't been up there in 20 years or so..i go by it a couple time a month..but never have time to shoot up that drive have a look see. scott may know about the tv station building..i went up there when tom park had it..and he gave me a tour..had never seen a water cooled transmitter before..very intricate. sad to see a piece of property some of us spent so much time in run down..wish i had taken pictures back then..
 
I went up there not long before I moved to Texas, before WVCPs antenna was laying across the highway and it looked like trees were taking over the first site to the right. I remember a building there (is that what your talking about).

Anyway, I had read the notice and thought that Bledsoe (had his name on it) owned some of the property up there and they were going to auction. Scott, I knew that Tom owned a tower or two; I was told that he owned the TV tower. Never knew what happened to it after Sandy left. I met Tom at a ham radio meeting just after getting my license. He was a great person. Too bad that I never got to talk to him more when I reached adult age.

Scott, I occasionally listened to your station...I didn't live that far away from it, so it was really easy to get a good sound (for MW). The programming was good for an Oldies station and it probably would have none nicely if it wasn't for restricted audio bandwidth, and the lack of C-QUAM receivers in mobile applications. I can't remember, but I don't believe that you'll find AM Stereo in cars nowadays. I had a 95 Chevy that had it. I still have a Chrysler radio with C-QUAM. It came with a '88 K-car.

I still do listen to AM. I'm sure that the folks here in Austin, if they are Jonesin' for a Oldies station, can listen to KONO on MW. Apparently, we lost a oldies translator in Austin to a STA, but I don't know how true it is since I have been to Austin in quite some time. San Antonio is about a two hour drive from my location and I receive it well enough to listen to, except at night.
 
If my information is correct, wasn't the property on the hill auctioned off. Possibly a mistake on a notice I read. Please correct me if I'm wrong. i don't know what happened to the property after the tv station went up there. there was a guy that used to come in the music store i managed, Paul can't remember his last name,..he owned the property where the original tower,homesite,transmitter shed was. he had a small travel trailer up there..the tv station had to put in a seperate drive way below his property to get back to their site..the original studios and office buildings visible from 109N..are there and the last time i was up there, the office had a lot of stuff stored in it..i've been told that the county owns it now..there are a lot of towers up there..not sure of the status of the original wfmg 50k watt tower..it's still standing, but the standby tower that was next to the control room has been bent in half from tree damage. looks like the roof has caved in on the studio building..i haven't been up there in 20 years or so..i go by it a couple time a month..but never have time to shoot up that drive have a look see. scott may know about the tv station building..i went up there when tom park had it..and he gave me a tour..had never seen a water cooled transmitter before..very intricate. sad to see a piece of property some of us spent so much time in run down..wish i had taken pictures back then..<<<deltas69



Amen Pat!!
 
wish i had taken pictures back then..

maybe Jim Sparks has some: he spent lots of time on "Music Mountain"
 
didn't think about jim..he worked for us after we bought the fm..and i'll give jerry pond a call..crazey the way you never think about pics..i've owned over 200 cars and 100 motorcycles..got four car pics and one bike pic.."never made the connection"...thanks
 
deltas69 said:
didn't think about jim..he worked for us after we bought the fm..and i'll give jerry pond a call..crazey the way you never think about pics..i've owned over 200 cars and 100 motorcycles..got four car pics and one bike pic.."never made the connection"...thanks
Click to expand...

If Jim has pics, somebody post them on a web page somewhere. That was back, way back before I was a teenager. I think Bill Barry might have old pics of the WFMG studio when it was it was on the square. I'll have to call and ask him. They need to be scaned an put on a webpage!

You know Pat, I got to thinking, that old momopole up there would make a good AM radiator for an aux for me. Who owns that property now where the old WAMG studios/WFMG studio are on the square? It's a quite rusty where the white paint once was, but it could be sanded down and repainted. My mine is coming up with ideas???? Maybe Bill knows.
 
Wow, 12 hours without a post about "AM" radio! Are we all intoxicated by the dead air?

Time to unscrew another bottle and celebrate. Is Bill Buntin on vacation or what??? At this rate it's going to be a long summer...
 
Is Bill Buntin on vacation or what??? ..no he's on double secret probation :eek:..actually we talk several times each day..plotting our overthrow of underperforming am stations... ;) but seriously...he has a basement full of old reel to reels, and just last night i dubbed a 1968
 
i hate when that happens...dubbed a 1968 WHIN Christmas spot done by our on beloved Buddy Sadler..My home production studio has progressed nicley with the addition of a Teac A 6300 reel to reel in mint condition complete with large spools and reels...next is some video capture software and a dvd burner and i will be able to go from cassette, reel, and vhs to hard drive..
 
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