Such a shame but is anyone really surprized? This story came out on The Oak Ridger Website Late Thursday Night. [http://www.oakridger.com/preps/x1346892019/After-60-years-Oak-Ridge-sports-loses-radio-signal]
My 2 cents appears on the papers comments section (if it really matters) and I've included it here as well along with some addition.......................
It appears that yet another heritage A.M. station has gone dark (the last standing radio station in Oak Ridge no less) and it appears that it will stay that way. I'm not really too shocked by that. In driving by the station and looking at it's 1960's era appearance, (neglected would be a better word) it appears that it would be in need of LOTS of equipment upgrades in addition to the obvious of repairing the downed tower. (I wonder when the last tower inspection was done???)..... or the last inspection of anything for that matter. Having someone that actually cared about it's upkeep would have helped greatly. Unless someone else gets this piece of Oak Ridge History before it's license is surrendered, it will be gone forever. It just gets to me that such a large piece of broadcast history can have the life sucked out if it, treated like a fifth wheel, and be allowed to just go away because of seeming lack of interest. No, i have no personal stake in it, never worked there (wouldn't have minded though) but I just hate to see our "old guys" be allowed to deteriorate like this.
I am a former broadcaster having spent 30 years of my life in radio up north before deciding to get out back in 2005. I came to the local area shortly after. I really hate to see an area such as this have no real local radio service. To his credit, Ron Meredith, over at WYSH does a good job of servicing Anderson County as a whole but it's just not LOCAL Oak Ridge Radio. The truth be told, it really has not been for quite a while now but , to borrow a phrase from an old preacher friend of mine, "as long as there's life there's hope". It now looks like the life is gone. I would like to see someone that is really interested in providing that service pick up this historic station and do something with it. It would be better than the 'absentee' operation that the place has endured in the past with all the programming being shot over here from Farragut (Horne's base of operation). Heck, I might even be persuaded to get back in and get involved and put my years of programming and knowledge into the effort.
My 2 cents appears on the papers comments section (if it really matters) and I've included it here as well along with some addition.......................
It appears that yet another heritage A.M. station has gone dark (the last standing radio station in Oak Ridge no less) and it appears that it will stay that way. I'm not really too shocked by that. In driving by the station and looking at it's 1960's era appearance, (neglected would be a better word) it appears that it would be in need of LOTS of equipment upgrades in addition to the obvious of repairing the downed tower. (I wonder when the last tower inspection was done???)..... or the last inspection of anything for that matter. Having someone that actually cared about it's upkeep would have helped greatly. Unless someone else gets this piece of Oak Ridge History before it's license is surrendered, it will be gone forever. It just gets to me that such a large piece of broadcast history can have the life sucked out if it, treated like a fifth wheel, and be allowed to just go away because of seeming lack of interest. No, i have no personal stake in it, never worked there (wouldn't have minded though) but I just hate to see our "old guys" be allowed to deteriorate like this.
I am a former broadcaster having spent 30 years of my life in radio up north before deciding to get out back in 2005. I came to the local area shortly after. I really hate to see an area such as this have no real local radio service. To his credit, Ron Meredith, over at WYSH does a good job of servicing Anderson County as a whole but it's just not LOCAL Oak Ridge Radio. The truth be told, it really has not been for quite a while now but , to borrow a phrase from an old preacher friend of mine, "as long as there's life there's hope". It now looks like the life is gone. I would like to see someone that is really interested in providing that service pick up this historic station and do something with it. It would be better than the 'absentee' operation that the place has endured in the past with all the programming being shot over here from Farragut (Horne's base of operation). Heck, I might even be persuaded to get back in and get involved and put my years of programming and knowledge into the effort.