In the glory days, the consultants used to hammer home a couple of points about Cap Cities (the then owner of WKHX). It was a boring three - in - a- row country jukebox. But, it was a well - done three in a row. Never lose sight of the fact that it was well done. The other was, Schrutt's a jerk. But, he's not a stupid jerk. Never lose sight of the fact that your competitor ain't dumb, or you'll hurt yourself.
Neal was - and likely still is - the master of guerillia radio warfare. He was privvy to Schrutt's moods and actions about as quicjkly as they were made... and he cashed in on every one. A fair amount of what went on Y's air was aimed specifically at getting under Norm's skin, because it was known that he would become Very Unhappy, and the staff felt it. One good way to improve morale in your store is to destroy it in the other guy's, and then let your staff see how the other half lives. That was a fun place to work, it did better in about every respect than it had any right to do.
The sound had Soft Hearted John (Marino, currently VP of Science and Technology at the NAB) to thank for the most part. We figured The Bushman had the best sound in the industry, and started by emulating it and adjusting for the (really bad in some instances) product we had. I don't think it ever beat 96 for really awesome sound, but we managed to keep it real close and still play the Kenny and Dolly slop we had from time to time without having it come totally apart.
