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Hawkinsville

D

DJ God!

Guest
Hello Gang:

I see that things have change in Hawkinsville the last decade especially with WCEH.. can someone give me a run down of the changes. Do the Popwells still own the stations and is Charlie Hill still alive? What about Jim Ball, what is he doing these days?
 
DJ God! said:
Hello Gang:

I see that things have change in Hawkinsville the last decade especially with WCEH.. can someone give me a run down of the changes. Do the Popwells still own the stations and is Charlie Hill still alive? What about Jim Ball, what is he doing these days?
Click to expand...

Staton Broadcasting currently owns WCEH-610, as the Popwells no longer own either that station, or sister station WQSY-Sunny 103.9, which has since become News/Talk 103.9 The Patriot, WRPG.
 
I can tell you that Charlie Hill is alive and well...listening to WCEH everyday. Some former WCEH/Tri County Broadcasting staffers showed up at our Gene Watson concert earlier this month to honor Charlie and enjoy a sellout concert. That is the true power of WCEH for you. Even the Hawkinsville Dispatch had a few great articles on this. Charlie is great on stage he should do his own comedy act.

Staton Broadcasting purchased these stations three years ago and now operate WCEH, WRPG and WQXZ (Formerly Cordele) in the Broadcast Center. In fact, Hawkinsville Football is now on WQXZ, with Perry on WRPG. When US Broadcasting needed another frequency to put WMGB, I got them together with Big Jim. My commission from Big Jim was a Hardee's Milkshake, that I never received. Sadly, we lost Big Jim not long after the sale to Staton Broadcasting. His photo is still in the lobby and the stories are still fondly told. (Jay Braswell has a few comments I'm sure on my Popwell moments lately).

Despite the rantings of certain former employees on the street, the stations still do very well and actually broke a few sales records this year. WQXZ actually showed up in the Macon book for the first time and WRPG has half the audience of WMAC without trying. In fact, WRPG is doing better that it did as WQSY. And yes, we even pay our bills and still serve as a regional station, where WCEH is purely Hawkinsville, Cochran and Eastman.

Bill Boys, who has been here over 15 years, does a great job as our Ops Manager and even handles traffic. Sarah (Truelove) Brady handles Promotions, Production and even sales a few accounts. Other than a few sales openings, we are doing fine in this little corner of God's Country.

Happy not to be back in the Corporate Microscope...and doing what I enjoy,
Hank (GM/PD/Window Cleaner)
 
Jay Braswell has a few comments I'm sure on my Popwell moments lately

Well HELL, Hank...like I used to tell Jerry EVERYDAY...if you kids would just get out there and sell, sell, sell (and collect), I wouldn't be at my rosy end, all the time. As for the milkshake, as I told Liz...you need to speak to Jerry about that. He spent WAY too much money building that studio in Cordele. He denied me the opportunity to "pick it apart", and just did it...WITHOUT telling me! It was as useless as tits on a boar hog.

Yes, Charlie is alive and well, and there is a definite and welcome breath of fresh air swirling around the D. R. Jackson Broadcast Center. Uh, Hank...you've still got quite a distance to go, before you reach total "Big Jimness"...and that's really a good thing :D

Carry on
 
Kinda a shame that you built it, then I took that Cordele studio apart when we moved....but it is now a production room/sales office in Downtown Cordele. Well, all are welcome to come visit when I get this place where I'm heading to...now I must Sale, Sale, Sale and eventually collect.
 
Well! It's good to see that you guys are keeping things going. I was there in 87-89 and Charlie was a great guy then and I'm happy to see he's still kicking. If you see him tell him that Dam Yankee said hello! See if his memory is still alive.

Some lady at one time told him I was a Charlie Hill Jr and would have made a good replacement for him. Although I think those are some big shoes to fill. It was a great compliment anyway. Does Jim Ball still live or work in the area? I take it the FM studio is still in Hawkinsville? Is that Gates monster still in the hallway. I just came across some pictures from that a couple weeks ago. You would have been amazed at that thing working. Even Gates had forgotten they made it 20 years before I got there. Truely the first live sounding voice track I ever heard. Jim Popwell Jr. even had a temperature machince going at one time. That boy had some talent. I miss my days there. They were the best in radio i ever had. But for a single guy back then it wasn't the greatest. You guy have not single woman there or at least at that time there wasn't.

I've since moved on from radio and have a real job. Make a little bit more money but miss the fun I had on air. I stopped in one time back in the mid 90s to look things over. Still looked the same. The kid working there recognized my voice which was still on the sign off cart. Boy was that odd to hear. Small town Radio. I had improved 10 fold from that time on air.
 
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