Former WGRR owner Bill Dalton Passed away.

[microbob]

As CC made cuts in Cincinnati, there is this small blurb from Tom Taylor's newsletter. A Radio good Guy who shared some of his wealth to his employees unlike some who save it's pennies so the CEO can have a private jet.


http://somethinglikenothing.net/ttn/ttn-11302012.html

Bill and Sue Dalton spread the wealth in Cincinnati, too.”
A NOW reader, seeing yesterday’s story about the Daltons sharing some of the proceeds with employees when they sold their Charlotte station, offers this anecdote – “The Daltons did the same thing when they sold oldies WGRR in Cincinnati for $30 million, distributing a major pile of money. I heard that one of the ‘GRR guys bought a boat with part of the money, and named it ‘The Dalton Queen.’” He says “Somebody estimates the distributions had to be somewhere between $2 million and $3 million. What a concept – owner shares the bounty, unannounced.” These stories come up as the industry remembers the many contributions of Bill Dalton, who died just before Thanksgiving at age 80.

 

[partymarty]

Bill was an amazing owner and an even better man. Our poor night guy was making next to nothing (per the GM). Bill was so upset with how little we paid him... During budgets, he insisted we up his salary to a decent wage. I don't expect I will ever witness that in (or out) of radio ever again.

Mr Dalton, rest in peace in His loving arms.

 

[Icangelp]

Sounds like a great employer, and a good person.

Though not in the communications industry, I have worked at one private, and one public company that gave a significant number of the employees a share of the sale proceeds. In both cases, for me anyway, it was totally unexpected.

No doubt, more common with privately held companies.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

We need more Bill and Sue Daltons in our industry in the worst way right now. A few good local owners that give a darn about their product and employees would do wonders to restore the industry. After they beat the corporate guys up in sales and revenue, it would quickly make them sell off properties, which would further cleanse the industry of the crap that passes for programming on the air these days.

 

[Bobby Leach]

My Dalton Group story;

After 55KRC was sold by Great American, I split my time between WGRR/Trafficwatch and RCS when they had a Cincinnati office headed by Dangerous Dan Allen. For those that may remember Master Control, it was built and shipped from a warehouse on Glenway along with other RCS products.

Anyway:

I missed despositing a WGRR check once and forgot about it. A couple of months later I received a letter from Bill and Sue concerned I had lost it; enclosed was a replacement.

Of course sharing the sale of the Dalton Group with the employees made them legend in my book.