Don McDougald, former owner of WWNS and WMCD in Statesboro passed away Wednesday. He also owned stations in Sylvania and Milledgeville, was past president of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, and is credited with having what some describe as “the first automated broadcast station in Georgia”, utilizing early-on IBM card sort machines that he became familiar with at the Georgia Teachers College bookkeeping operations. He is the brother of Dr. Worth McDougald, Horace McDougald, and Walter Edwin McDougald (all deceased) and Mike McDougald. The McDougald family was played a huge role in the history of Georgia radio. Condolences to his family
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Don McDougald Passed Away
- Thread starter grhof
- Start date
Don and his late wife Betty, faithful Presbyterians, had lived at Montreat, N.C. for a number of years. As it was in Bulloch County, he was active and heavily involved in civic and community affairs in Montreat, Black Mountain, Buncombe and Swannanoa Counties.grhof said:Don McDougald, former owner of WWNS and WMCD in Statesboro passed away Wednesday. He also owned stations in Sylvania and Milledgeville, was past president of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, and is credited with having what some describe as “the first automated broadcast station in Georgia”, utilizing early-on IBM card sort machines that he became familiar with at the Georgia Teachers College bookkeeping operations. He is the brother of Dr. Worth McDougald, Horace McDougald, and Walter Edwin McDougald (all deceased) and Mike McDougald. The McDougald family was played a huge role in the history of Georgia radio. Condolences to his family
Don and my father became acquainted when Don was comptroller at the college, and my dad was a primary on-campus building contractor in the late-40s and 50s. Don later inherited me after telling daddy that I didn’t have to be “a grown-up” to work at the radio station. While he never confessed it to me, I believe he deeply regretted correcting Jack Braswell on that topic!
More than once, I’ve wished that Don had never given me that dog-eared Third Class license study guide. Truthfully, there are more than a few others that also wish he’d never encouraged me!
I always thought it astounding that four of five brothers became broadcasters – three of them owning a station that their father was more or less responsible for naming. Back in the 30’s, the Chamber of Commerce held a contest for a new slogan for the city. Walter E. McDougald, Sr. submitted the winning entry, “Where Nature Smiles”. Statesboro Mayor Alfred Dorman built the radio station in 1946, and selected the call letters from that slogan – WWNS, Welcome Where Nature Smiles.
The radio station’s “automated” logging and billing system was at least 10 years ahead of its time, and a site to behold. It consisted of several large IBM accounting machines. To build a log, there had to a punch card for every single item on the log – programs, spots, etc. If an advertiser had 10 spots on a particular day, there had to 10 punch cards. 36 weather forecasts required 36 punch cards. In other words, it took a BIG bunch of cards for an 18-1/2 hour broadcast day. Each card had to be stacked in order of placement on the log, in a hopper on the card-reader/printer. The log was printed on 17 inch-wide paper.
Don, Worth and Horace bought WWNS from Bob Thompson in 1958 for $85,000.00. After Horace died in the early 60’s, Don acquired 100% interest in the station. In 1975, he sold WWNS and WMCD to Billy Woodall and Cecil Grider for $800,000.00. Not a bad return for an 18-year effort.
After selling the Statesboro stations, Don worked as a broker, bank president and county commission chairman. Along the way, he briefly owned 3 other stations in Georgia and Virginia.
A good husband, father, community servant, true broadcaster and gentleman. Most can only hope for a portion of those words to be truthfully inscribed on their tombstones.
I’m told that services will be held at First Presbyterian in Statesboro on Wednesday, December 29th. I don’t yet know the time.
A history of Georgia radio by you (co-authored by Art Sutton) would be a spectacular read. Tell me it's in the works.
For those interested, here's the full obituary for Don McDougald:
Longtime broadcast and cable executive owner Donald Outland McDougald passed away unexpectedly Wednesday afternoon (Dec 22) in a Brunswick, Georgia hospital after a brief attack. McDougald, whose home is in Montreat, North Carolina, was visiting with relatives and friends in Darien at the time. The 83 year old Statesboro native was born on February 25, 1927 and attended elementary and high school in Statesboro, before entering Clemson College and later Emory University in Atlanta.
After service in World War II, where he was being assigned as part of the planned Japanese homeland invasion force, McDougald returned to Emory and completed his education with graduation from the Emory University School of Business. The end of the war in the Pacific theater with the Hiroshima / Nagasaki atomic bombs led to a cancellation of the invasion, of which he would have been a part. He remained in Japan for some time as a member of the occupation forces.
Don was preceded in death by his father Walter Edwin McDougald and his mother Isabel Hall McDougald of Statesboro and Clito. He was also preceded by his wife Betty Sue Brannen McDougald of Register and Statesboro, and late brothers Walter Edwin McDougald II, John Horace McDougald of Statesboro, and Dr. William Worth McDougald of Athens. He is survived by one brother Michael Hall McDougald of Rome, GA, and by three children, Sally (Fred) Hooks of Atlanta and Darien, Margaret Brannen (Meg) McDougald of Marietta, and Walter Edwin (Sydney) McDougald of Montreat. Grandchildren include Jason (Ellen) McDougald of Fairview; Maggie and Abby Thurmond of Marietta/Atlanta; and Sarah Hooks of Dallas, Texas and Lauren Hooks of Atlanta; three great-grandchildren, Isabel, Ian and Lachlan McDougald. Sisters-in-Law include Alice McDonald of Harris Neck, Georgia; Julia Riley of Brunswick and Buford Brannen of Register.
Prior to his Emory career, Don studied at Clemson before entering the military. His service took him to several posts in the states and ultimately to occupying forces of Japan. Following his service, he married his long-time sweetheart Betty. After college graduation, he was hired as Comptroller of Georgia Teachers College (now Georgia Southern University). In 1958 he joined with his mother and brothers Horace and Worth and purchased Radio Station WWNS.
Soon, he purchased the full facilities of the station from the other family members and instituted the building of FM Radio Station WMCD which with WWNS he operated until his retirement from active broadcasting. In addition, he owned and operated radio stations in Sylvania, Milledgeville and in Danville, Virginia. He organized and brought into being a partnership of local entrepreneurs in Statesboro to form Statesboro’s first cable company, Statesboro CATV, Inc. He is credited with having what some describe as the ‘first automated broadcast station in Georgia’, utilizing early-on IBM card sort machines that he became familiar with at the Georgia Teachers College bookkeeping operations. He adapted them to building the daily logs for WWNS and WMCD. Later on, as computers were developed and became available, he moved his stations further into that area.
Don was President of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters at the time of the unexpected death of the Executive Director, and in order to keep the nation’s largest state broadcasters organization fully active, found it necessary to work many days in Atlanta. He learned to fly at Statesboro’s airport so that he might get to and from Atlanta somewhat easier than driving on two-lane roads the 450 mile round trip. For this work, Don was named to the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Don was extremely active in various civic endeavors in the community, including his Presidency of the Statesboro Rotary Club and his work with the Chamber of Commerce, the Jaycees, and with various sports activities of Georgia Teachers College and local high schools. He was a leader with the Georgia Rotary Student Program which offered scholarships for visiting college level students from other countries, developed after WWII when many schools and universities in war-torn cities were not available to their native youth. In return, he and Betty visited the students in numerous foreign countries to renew acquaintances.
Don and Betty spent many days working closely with First Presbyterian Church and its many outreach ministries. In 1996, after working with a branch of Savannah Federal Savings and Loan Association, they fully retired to North Carolina, building a permanent home on a mountainside very close to the Billy Graham home in Montreat.
In Montreat, he was active in local municipal government and conservation activities including building of local tennis courts and sports facilities. Plans have been announced that a mountain peak in the community will be named for Don and Betty McDougald.
Visitation will be Wednesday December 29th, 2010 from 5:00pm until 7:00pm at the Joiner-Anderson Funeral Home in Statesboro, Georgia.
Memorial Services will be held on Thursday December 30th at First Presbyterian Church of Statesboro at 11:00 am with Reverend Danny Grace, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Darien officiating.
Inurnment will be in The Nancy Holland Sibley Memorial Columbarium in Montreat next to the free flowing mountain stream from Greybeard Mountain and Lake Susan that has been the lifeblood of that community since time began. Those memorial services will be scheduled for early spring and warmer weather, when friends return to their mountain homes.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the First Presbyterian Church of Darien Building Fund at PO Box 706, Darien, GA 31305. Or, Don and Betty McDougald Land Conservation Fund, c/o Montreat Cottagers, Inc. att: Philip Arnold, PO Box 111, Montreat, NC 28757; or Bulloch County Historical Society, P.O. Box 42, Statesboro, GA 30459.
Longtime broadcast and cable executive owner Donald Outland McDougald passed away unexpectedly Wednesday afternoon (Dec 22) in a Brunswick, Georgia hospital after a brief attack. McDougald, whose home is in Montreat, North Carolina, was visiting with relatives and friends in Darien at the time. The 83 year old Statesboro native was born on February 25, 1927 and attended elementary and high school in Statesboro, before entering Clemson College and later Emory University in Atlanta.
After service in World War II, where he was being assigned as part of the planned Japanese homeland invasion force, McDougald returned to Emory and completed his education with graduation from the Emory University School of Business. The end of the war in the Pacific theater with the Hiroshima / Nagasaki atomic bombs led to a cancellation of the invasion, of which he would have been a part. He remained in Japan for some time as a member of the occupation forces.
Don was preceded in death by his father Walter Edwin McDougald and his mother Isabel Hall McDougald of Statesboro and Clito. He was also preceded by his wife Betty Sue Brannen McDougald of Register and Statesboro, and late brothers Walter Edwin McDougald II, John Horace McDougald of Statesboro, and Dr. William Worth McDougald of Athens. He is survived by one brother Michael Hall McDougald of Rome, GA, and by three children, Sally (Fred) Hooks of Atlanta and Darien, Margaret Brannen (Meg) McDougald of Marietta, and Walter Edwin (Sydney) McDougald of Montreat. Grandchildren include Jason (Ellen) McDougald of Fairview; Maggie and Abby Thurmond of Marietta/Atlanta; and Sarah Hooks of Dallas, Texas and Lauren Hooks of Atlanta; three great-grandchildren, Isabel, Ian and Lachlan McDougald. Sisters-in-Law include Alice McDonald of Harris Neck, Georgia; Julia Riley of Brunswick and Buford Brannen of Register.
Prior to his Emory career, Don studied at Clemson before entering the military. His service took him to several posts in the states and ultimately to occupying forces of Japan. Following his service, he married his long-time sweetheart Betty. After college graduation, he was hired as Comptroller of Georgia Teachers College (now Georgia Southern University). In 1958 he joined with his mother and brothers Horace and Worth and purchased Radio Station WWNS.
Soon, he purchased the full facilities of the station from the other family members and instituted the building of FM Radio Station WMCD which with WWNS he operated until his retirement from active broadcasting. In addition, he owned and operated radio stations in Sylvania, Milledgeville and in Danville, Virginia. He organized and brought into being a partnership of local entrepreneurs in Statesboro to form Statesboro’s first cable company, Statesboro CATV, Inc. He is credited with having what some describe as the ‘first automated broadcast station in Georgia’, utilizing early-on IBM card sort machines that he became familiar with at the Georgia Teachers College bookkeeping operations. He adapted them to building the daily logs for WWNS and WMCD. Later on, as computers were developed and became available, he moved his stations further into that area.
Don was President of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters at the time of the unexpected death of the Executive Director, and in order to keep the nation’s largest state broadcasters organization fully active, found it necessary to work many days in Atlanta. He learned to fly at Statesboro’s airport so that he might get to and from Atlanta somewhat easier than driving on two-lane roads the 450 mile round trip. For this work, Don was named to the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Don was extremely active in various civic endeavors in the community, including his Presidency of the Statesboro Rotary Club and his work with the Chamber of Commerce, the Jaycees, and with various sports activities of Georgia Teachers College and local high schools. He was a leader with the Georgia Rotary Student Program which offered scholarships for visiting college level students from other countries, developed after WWII when many schools and universities in war-torn cities were not available to their native youth. In return, he and Betty visited the students in numerous foreign countries to renew acquaintances.
Don and Betty spent many days working closely with First Presbyterian Church and its many outreach ministries. In 1996, after working with a branch of Savannah Federal Savings and Loan Association, they fully retired to North Carolina, building a permanent home on a mountainside very close to the Billy Graham home in Montreat.
In Montreat, he was active in local municipal government and conservation activities including building of local tennis courts and sports facilities. Plans have been announced that a mountain peak in the community will be named for Don and Betty McDougald.
Visitation will be Wednesday December 29th, 2010 from 5:00pm until 7:00pm at the Joiner-Anderson Funeral Home in Statesboro, Georgia.
Memorial Services will be held on Thursday December 30th at First Presbyterian Church of Statesboro at 11:00 am with Reverend Danny Grace, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Darien officiating.
Inurnment will be in The Nancy Holland Sibley Memorial Columbarium in Montreat next to the free flowing mountain stream from Greybeard Mountain and Lake Susan that has been the lifeblood of that community since time began. Those memorial services will be scheduled for early spring and warmer weather, when friends return to their mountain homes.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the First Presbyterian Church of Darien Building Fund at PO Box 706, Darien, GA 31305. Or, Don and Betty McDougald Land Conservation Fund, c/o Montreat Cottagers, Inc. att: Philip Arnold, PO Box 111, Montreat, NC 28757; or Bulloch County Historical Society, P.O. Box 42, Statesboro, GA 30459.
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