Cumulus Fort Walton Beach

[BestRadioShowEver]

It's so weird to read all this stuff about my little hometown...I grew up in FWB and still own our family home there, and to hear that it's an "overradioed" market just cracks me up. I still remember the good ol' days when halfass top 40 WNUE was on 1400 and TK 101 was album rock...literally, album rock, as the jocks were prone to just slap "Dark Side of the Moon" on and you wouldn't hear from them again for about 45 minutes. Good times, good times.

Going to Cash's during the buffet and hiding out until the nightclub opened so we could drink underage and pick up tourist chicks from LSU, lifeguarding at the Officers Beach Club, fishing in the East Pass...damn, now I'm all nostalgic, and I'm not even drunk. Anybody here actually FROM the area, or are you all radio transplants?

 

[redneckriviera]

Like the rest of Florida, it's hard to find a native. That's what happens when the population quadruples in your lifetime! But, yes, your little hometown now has a dozen FM sticks... and enough advertising business to support 4 of them. Wal-Mart killed the local mom-n-pop retailer years ago, and the Beach Biz thrives by unlocking the door each day. Don't Need No Stinking Advertising! Not your typical radio town. On the other hand, the beaches are still fabulous... and them Baton Rouge college girls still come in from Elle Ess Yieux lookin' to get drunk and laid. So if The New 100.3 still has one of those $5 an hour jock gigs to fill, I might be tempted...

 

[Tibbs4]

RNR ---

With "fringe benefits" stated just prior to the per hour wage 100.3 is "offering"...I'd suggest you just opt out of the $5 part. Ah,
nothing really has changed on the Panhandle since 1986. That was the life. Up at 4:30 am, OTA from 6-10A, drunk by 2P and in
bed...ah never mind. Now, I am crying and depressed.

 

[redneckriviera]

Best jock gig I ever had was doing mid-days in Orlando in the seventies. PD assigned himself 10A-Noon, so my shift was a grueling Noon-3P. That meant I had to get my ass out of bed by 11... knocked-out a few spots post-airshift... and was poolside surrounded by bikini-clads & sipping umbrella drinks by 4P. After a couple years of this indolent life, I snagged a PD gig in a larger market, but have been kicking myself for that idiotic career move for the past 30 years! Oh, yeah, I've made more money--but...

 

[Tibbs4]

I know! We could have dreamed up the "Girls Gone Wild" and been billionaires. But, no. Played it to safe in the day.
Had to try to be a big shot. Nothing like PCB during the heyday of spring break.

 

[redneckriviera]

By the time I got to PCB I was a GM--trying like hell to keep the staff focused during Spring Break. "No, you can't make sales calls in shorts and a tank top!" "No, you can't start drinking til the remote is over!" And, of course, "No, you can't make sales calls with a beer in your hand!" From that perspective, Spring Break on Panama City Beach was The Month From Hell... but with lots of money attached... and GREAT scenery !

 

[Tibbs4]

What years were you in PC on the world's most beautiful white sand beeches? Yeah, funny I remember the amusement parks,
the haunyed house at the pier, the two main club spots (and ads) ...

I cannot get the talent out of my head. That was a special time.

 

[redneckriviera]

A decade ago--mid-nineties. Part of a near-full decade along the Emerald Coast. Had a nice run managing some "legendary" radio stations, and some not-so-legendary. But made a very nice living working with-and-for some crazy-but-talented people. Pulled a Golden Parachute chord when consolidation reared its ugly head and bounced back north, where I continue to GM a bunch of radio-TV stations and teach at one of the Big Ten universities. Appreciate the anonymity of these boards, though, so I'll keep it at that. How about yourself? Are you still down there in F**king Lower Alabama?

 

[Tibbs4]

No, but you never get the Panhandle out of your system. Just vacate there and had a beach house for a while. Cashed out and made
a promise to never have to think or work near sand. They'll never build enough to cover the radio overload down there. You couldn't
pay me to own a station there, today. Or program or run anything. You agree?

That time in PCB / FWB was just a stop off for way to short of a period. Mid 80's then markets 40's, two top 10's and even a while overseas being the guy with the accent. Just to old to get any attention in person...dereg was a great thing, wasn't it.

Wow, how did you survive 10 years? I appreciate the hidden ID. A few folks could figure out some stuff from my previous posts, but
overall PCB was the greatest fun ever and a hurricane/deregII saved me from $$$/heart disease mistake of trying to build a little cluster
in FWB/Destin in the mid-90's. Thank God. It still cost, but I got out before I really lost my sanity of trying to add pieces to the puzzle.

Do you suggest that your students run from radio??? I doubt they even know what it is.

 

[redneckriviera]

You're right about the Panhandle sticking with you. One of the hated cluster-owners flew me down last year to consider a market manager gig, and I was very tempted--especially sitting at one of the beach bars babying a Cap'n Morgan and staring at the... uh... water. Part of what made the years go quickly was overseeing a half-dozen different stations in 3 separate markets. Every minute-and-a-half another new owner/company seemed to surface somewhere along U.S. 98, ready to conquer the coast, so there was always a challenge brewing--and for a GM, that's invigorating. For an owner, I'm sure it's infuriating. I've told the kids that the nuts & bolts of radio have been changing constantly for 90 years, so far, and that they'll continue to change constantly--but that there will always be opportunity for creative, entrepreneurial thinkers. Are you completely out of it, at this point? Or do you still have your fingers in the radio pie?

 

[MickJ]

Ron Hale should have done fine, but he took another course. Why, I dunno. I guess that's just him. You pay for it in health, stress, shortened
life and financially for sure. I won't beat Hale up. I feel sorry for him, actually because he'll pay. Tom Birch did a similar thing with Wave and he's had it
rough ever since. A lot of that comes back to haunt you quickly. Mark Carter from Seabreeze is just the opposite. A world class fantastic friend to this day.
Other "raydio people" in Deausttin laugh at him, but he focuses on his game and screws with their minds because I guess he is so ethical, honest and just
himself that most in the industry cannot fathom those traits (sorry to say.)

I agree with almost everything you say. Actually, Carter is respected by the big guys. He seems to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder and badmouths them somewhat but he's doing very well and they know it.

I wonder if the market isn't doing a little better now than you might think. I have some inside skinny and I have it pegged at around $11 million or so. Lots of stations but with Cumulus having 4 FM's and Qantum 3, it's not the scorched-earth sales environment you may remember.

 

[Tibbs4]

I have to agree with you on the market growth. I still think Cumulus made a decision to pay higher multiples because they
can cost average it into the company. If they were buying the cluster and owned nothing else (or very little) like Double O
or Quantum, it would be prohibitive and risky. That's were those two companies (esp. Double 0) may get taken down or
sold.

Mark Carter throws his frustration and amazement of the big boys out there. But, I find it usually tends to be
either as a joke or "can you believe this" or that or "how can that be logical?"

It can't be fun playing on the big playground with the big boys everyday, if your a 6kw Jazz format. He's sure done a
good job for having so few toys. I think he appreciates and respects the situation and most of the big boys realize
he works his plan and minimally affects their business, so they let him play.

As for Ron Hale, can you or anyone explain how he does stay in business? The legal fees and gov't fines alone have to
be taking all his revenue. Is there any advertising?

The growth there will certainly pay off in the next five years, provided a real estate crash doesn't send people packing.

 

[MickJ]

As for Ron Hale, can you or anyone explain how he does stay in business? The legal fees and gov't fines alone have to be taking all his revenue. Is there any advertising?

I don't know. He's like a dead man walking isn't he? I imagine it could get worse for him if Qantum prevails in court against him. There could be some hefty damages deducted from the sales price.

The growth there will certainly pay off in the next five years, provided a real estate crash doesn't send people packing.

It hasn't crashed yet, but it sure has softened. And it could well get worse.

 

[tombirch]

I just tuned into this board for the first time, and as a radio guy on the Emerald Coast in the early 90s, I was surprised by all the misinformation floating around on this site - particularly from Tibbs2 regarding WAVE 102. Fact is, Tom Birch and Ray Quinn took WAVE 102 from an also-ran to #1 in the market in one year and continued to dominate for the first part of the 90s!

From what I've heard, the Carters duped Birch and Quinn on the size of the market revenues and B&Q overpaid for the station - then, when B&Q attempted to negotiate a longer payout on their loan, the Carters attempted to foreclose on the note and lots of nastiness between the two parties ensued.

I think FWB owes B&Q a vote of thanks for raising the level of professionalism when them came to town. They raised rates, increased the quality of air product and put FWB on the map.

 

[Tibbs4]

Laughable response. Thanks Tom.

Ask the judge about all this professionalism. It's also sort of wrong to just refuse to pay a promissary note on something
after two parties agree to the terms and sign the documents. You can always try to re-negotiate, but generally that comes while
you are making a good faith effort to live up to your part of the agreement. I am not sayig Carter was right or wrong on what
he presented the business to be, but of all people, Tom Birch should have had plenty of demographic/rating information to look
at when he made the decision. Did Birch rating service not monitor the market?

 

[Rob]

Reading this, I'm a native since 2000 (this area sucks)

What happened was 93.3 did become active. But not without it's problems. Their attorneys didn't fill out the C.A. (Construction application) properly and were waiting upon final approval from the FCC. http://www.recnet.com still shows it as "the power pig" out of Evergreen since there is a 100KW station out of Evergreen, Alabama which comes down here on skip (not anymore)

The DJS were saying "program 93.3 and 100.3 so when the switch happens, you will know"

So 3 days later at 6:30 PM the switch was made.

100.3 is "K ROCK" now owned by Quacomm (sp?) of Fort Walton Beach. The same people who own the Ticket (Blah) In fact, their at the same building in Fort Walton.

They tried the "KROCK" format on 92.1 out of Destin which is now "FLY 92.1' (ARRRRGH) and people wonder why I own an XM.

Radio down here is dull and it sucks. I've been hearing rumours (see my other thread) that 98.1 the ticket may become another format as Sportz on FM radio doesn't fly. Their 100KW signal could be used for even a talk radio station with Coast to Coast AM.

About wanting to move to Destin, stay in Ohio this is clearly not a place to live unless you want to deal with the hurricane threat every year. The houseing market is slow here and we can't even sell our home to get the crap out. I'm looking to move either to Nashville, or to Vegas but defiantly for the sake of your marriage DO NOT move down here. Our insurance rates just doubled and I'm going to start selling the place by 2008 or sooner. I'd rather take cold and snow then the fu*kin hurricanes.

Rob

 

[MN Maniac]

> About wanting to move to Destin, stay in Ohio this is clearly not a place to live unless you want to deal with the hurricane threat every year. The houseing market is slow here and we can't even sell our home to get the crap out. I'm looking to move either to Nashville, or to Vegas but defiantly for the sake of your marriage DO NOT move down here. Our insurance rates just doubled and I'm going to start selling the place by 2008 or sooner. I'd rather take cold and snow then the fu*kin hurricanes.

I hear ya, Rob.

I was in Ocean Springs, MS (just across the bridge from Biloxi) until August, 2005. Before Katrina, it was a wonderful place. Extremely affordable. I had a large 1BR apartment right on the water for $575 per month.

Now, of course, anything within 1/2 mile of the water is just a slab. Further inland, apartments start at $1,000 per month and go up from there. IF you can find a place, that is. All available waterfront land is being sucked up by the condo and casino developers. Soon, it will be just like Destin where you have to have a six-figure income to even SEE the beach.

 

[Rob]

Oops I posted that in the wrong thread. Glad you moved. Does anyone know whats going on with 98.1 and I think 104.7 may be going for sale to (a locally owned mom and pop country station sending in stereo but playing in mono)

Rob

 

[Tibbs4]

I haven't had many dealings with Destin/FWB in a while, but I think Jim Whitaker is still programming
104.7 (WAAZ.) I am not sure about his health though. When I knew him better years ago, he was
a wonderful person. Very honest, very old radio, very much just happy where he was in life and
didn't/doesn't get all the fake radio fads of the last 20 years. I guess he'll do something somehow
with it.

Ron Hale was part of the Evergreen 93.3 situation that I haven't a clue about where it is in the
scheme of the problems. The same, sort of, for 98.1. It's a possessed frequency. Maybe someone
can give us a real update.

I enjoy going down to the area on vacation, I do miss my beach house, the area is growing and
looking great and yes it's expensive, but most people buying property appreciate that.

As for Nashville. It's the absolute best place I have ever lived. Beautiful, full of great people
and offers lots of awesome things (except the beach) and if you didn't like it, it's worth an
attitude adjustment from you, because most everyone really loves the city. It's booming.
Cranes are everywhere, new skyscrapers including the tallest outside of NYC and Chicago
are going up and it's transforming into a world class city with style, culture and energy. It's
getting expensive (housing) but everything else is pretty normal $$$. I feel honored to be
a part of such a vibrant city and getting to look at the skyline everyday.


The radio stations on the Panhandle, though, are pretty decent considering the number
and few revenue sources. You have a signal on every frequency. But a few jewels considering.
Radio in Nashville is corporate, as usual. A few exceptions are here, but don't expect
life changing formats.

 

[Rob]

I wish the 104.7 would fix their transmitter and go stereo again.

Rob