I worked for Dick Zimmer in 1980.
Bill Pirtle had owned KTER for many years. When I listened to the daytimer, it was automated country with a few ads each hour, usually played at a rate of one per song without liners and Texas State Network News at :55.
KTER was sold to Dick Zimmer, I think, in 1979. If I recall correctly, Dick was from, I think, Illinois. He was a good guy to work for and generally speaking, just a nice guy.
Dick was a fan of Classical Music and he liked current Urban music. He didn’t think much of country music.
If you recall the guy that did the NPR underwriting spots for years, Dick sounded like this on air.
Dick had some ‘different’ rules. For example, he wanted an announcer versus a personality and actually didn’t want the audience to bond to you. The reasoning was you were there until you could jump over to a position in Dallas. He told me if a personality really connected to the community, they’d jump to Dallas inside 6 months and he’d have a really tough time finding another jock with equal talent.
You were allowed to give your name 2 times in your shift (6 or 7 hours). You were to identify the station 6 times an hour, about every 10 minutes with this exact phrase “Your radio station, KTER”.
Dick felt constant IDs weren’t needed on the local station because folks knew where it was on the dial and what station they were listening to.
Dick had some research done and the station opted for a country/contemporary beautiful blend. Until 9 am that was a 50/50 mix and the remainder of the day it was 75% country, 25% Contemporary Beautiful. Before 9am Country was 100% currents and 2/3rd current after 9am.
The thinking was the ‘up and coming young families’ would want a mix of country with adult hits. At that time Contemporary Beautiful included instrumental covers of top 40 hits in a less lush style than traditional Beautiful music and some of the vocals seemed really out of place: Dancing Queen – Abba or Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac bumping up against George Jones and Tammy Wynette doing Two Story House (a current at the time).
My personal opinion was the research was pretty ‘clueless’. Terrell was 15,000 people 30 miles outside of Dallas and just a country town. People didn’t commute to the metro; at least a huge percentage didn’t.
The station had a 2.5 minute local newscast 5 times a day weekdays and 4 times on Saturday. Basically 2 minutes gleaned from the local afternoon daily paper and 30 seconds for weather.
When I started we had an AP ticker and I did 5 minutes at 6:15, 7, 7:45, 8:30 and 10 minutes at 10:30, I think 10 minutes at noon, 5 minutes at 1. Gus, the afternoon guy has 10 minutes at 2:30, 5 minutes at 4:30, 10 minutes at 5 and 5 minutes at 5:30.
From 6 to 9am, I was to give the time between every song (this was 1980) and the time was read as on a digital clock. The weather forecast every 10 minutes until 9 am then only as needed. What I hated was having to look through the newspaper to find somebody to call about something the paper covered. I was to call at 7:05 and put them on the air for 2 or 3 minutes at 7:20. What I hated was having to insist when virtually everyone said something like ‘we’re eating breakfast’ or ‘we’re trying to get the kids ready for school’. Dick insisted it was a live interview (I had recorded it for a couple of months in the afternoon for playback until I got caught).
General rule, talk at least every couple of songs. Maximum spot load 7 per hour, not minutes but spots. It was one commercial at a time. It had been 1 sixty second PSA each hour but our commercial load was so low he opted to play a 30 second PSA each 15 minute. Later they’d play 3 songs and read a PSA.
At one point we carried Mutual’s Radio Theater from 2:30 to 3:30. I would not have carried it during the workday. As a daytimer, I think this is better as an evening feature.
Listening to Dick on the air was a treat. He talked about things he saw as he went around town calling on clients and sometimes about those places he visited. His weather forecasts were not read but conversational.
Dick might come out of a song, “I noticed John at Terrell State Bank is back in the office in case you’d been missing him.” Weather might be “It’s a good day to fly a kite, sunny, breezy and heading to 85. It’s 70 at your radio station, KTER.” The impression you got was Dick was talking to you at the kitchen table and these songs would interrupt him.
I was not smart enough to catch what he was doing and adopt his style.
KTER had decent billing because all but two of the 8 usual commercials were news sponsors (and during Radio Theater days there were 7 more spots for the bank that sponsored the daily airing). I recall Sunday mornings were filled less a 30 minute slot for classical music. I think there was an hour a church bought on Saturday. Program rates back in 1980 were $80 an hour cash in advance before 3pm Friday with the tape. First Baptist did the 11am worship Sundays and 15 minute devotional weekdays after the 7:45am Local News. I think the ‘paid religion was $560 a week. The 44 commercials a week (less Mutual Radio Theater) was likely about the same dollars as paid religion. To put it in perspective, my shift was 6am to 1pm weekdays on air and every other Sunday morning 7 to Noon for $540 a month. There was another fulltimer and a part-time weekender. Dick would work every other Saturday morning and every other Sunday morning. Granted we did have a few weeks with many more spots but that was for a certain holiday or community event. As I said, spots weren't cheap. A 60 in drive was about $10 and I wouldn't doubt a newscast sponsor was 50% more. I'm guessing KTER was billing $6,000-$7,000 a month back in 1980.
I’m guessing that Dick didn’t get enough billing because the station went back to Bill Pirtle. When Dick got KTER, KTLR FM came on the air with a country format and hit the airwaves running. They had a good commercial load rather quickly. I think KTLR really hurt KTER.
What I appreciated about Dick Zimmer was he charged a good rate for commercials. He ran a very organized station and you never felt overworked. One thing I loved was you’d open a desk drawer and there was a list of the drawer’s contents. Everything had its place. Everything you needed was there in the building.
I think I would have hired a local news director and gone 2/3rds Country Gold and 1/3rd hits in 3 song sweeps after 9am. But that’s water under the bridge. And that accounts for years more experience under my belt.
Bill Pirtle had owned KTER for many years. When I listened to the daytimer, it was automated country with a few ads each hour, usually played at a rate of one per song without liners and Texas State Network News at :55.
KTER was sold to Dick Zimmer, I think, in 1979. If I recall correctly, Dick was from, I think, Illinois. He was a good guy to work for and generally speaking, just a nice guy.
Dick was a fan of Classical Music and he liked current Urban music. He didn’t think much of country music.
If you recall the guy that did the NPR underwriting spots for years, Dick sounded like this on air.
Dick had some ‘different’ rules. For example, he wanted an announcer versus a personality and actually didn’t want the audience to bond to you. The reasoning was you were there until you could jump over to a position in Dallas. He told me if a personality really connected to the community, they’d jump to Dallas inside 6 months and he’d have a really tough time finding another jock with equal talent.
You were allowed to give your name 2 times in your shift (6 or 7 hours). You were to identify the station 6 times an hour, about every 10 minutes with this exact phrase “Your radio station, KTER”.
Dick felt constant IDs weren’t needed on the local station because folks knew where it was on the dial and what station they were listening to.
Dick had some research done and the station opted for a country/contemporary beautiful blend. Until 9 am that was a 50/50 mix and the remainder of the day it was 75% country, 25% Contemporary Beautiful. Before 9am Country was 100% currents and 2/3rd current after 9am.
The thinking was the ‘up and coming young families’ would want a mix of country with adult hits. At that time Contemporary Beautiful included instrumental covers of top 40 hits in a less lush style than traditional Beautiful music and some of the vocals seemed really out of place: Dancing Queen – Abba or Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac bumping up against George Jones and Tammy Wynette doing Two Story House (a current at the time).
My personal opinion was the research was pretty ‘clueless’. Terrell was 15,000 people 30 miles outside of Dallas and just a country town. People didn’t commute to the metro; at least a huge percentage didn’t.
The station had a 2.5 minute local newscast 5 times a day weekdays and 4 times on Saturday. Basically 2 minutes gleaned from the local afternoon daily paper and 30 seconds for weather.
When I started we had an AP ticker and I did 5 minutes at 6:15, 7, 7:45, 8:30 and 10 minutes at 10:30, I think 10 minutes at noon, 5 minutes at 1. Gus, the afternoon guy has 10 minutes at 2:30, 5 minutes at 4:30, 10 minutes at 5 and 5 minutes at 5:30.
From 6 to 9am, I was to give the time between every song (this was 1980) and the time was read as on a digital clock. The weather forecast every 10 minutes until 9 am then only as needed. What I hated was having to look through the newspaper to find somebody to call about something the paper covered. I was to call at 7:05 and put them on the air for 2 or 3 minutes at 7:20. What I hated was having to insist when virtually everyone said something like ‘we’re eating breakfast’ or ‘we’re trying to get the kids ready for school’. Dick insisted it was a live interview (I had recorded it for a couple of months in the afternoon for playback until I got caught).
General rule, talk at least every couple of songs. Maximum spot load 7 per hour, not minutes but spots. It was one commercial at a time. It had been 1 sixty second PSA each hour but our commercial load was so low he opted to play a 30 second PSA each 15 minute. Later they’d play 3 songs and read a PSA.
At one point we carried Mutual’s Radio Theater from 2:30 to 3:30. I would not have carried it during the workday. As a daytimer, I think this is better as an evening feature.
Listening to Dick on the air was a treat. He talked about things he saw as he went around town calling on clients and sometimes about those places he visited. His weather forecasts were not read but conversational.
Dick might come out of a song, “I noticed John at Terrell State Bank is back in the office in case you’d been missing him.” Weather might be “It’s a good day to fly a kite, sunny, breezy and heading to 85. It’s 70 at your radio station, KTER.” The impression you got was Dick was talking to you at the kitchen table and these songs would interrupt him.
I was not smart enough to catch what he was doing and adopt his style.
KTER had decent billing because all but two of the 8 usual commercials were news sponsors (and during Radio Theater days there were 7 more spots for the bank that sponsored the daily airing). I recall Sunday mornings were filled less a 30 minute slot for classical music. I think there was an hour a church bought on Saturday. Program rates back in 1980 were $80 an hour cash in advance before 3pm Friday with the tape. First Baptist did the 11am worship Sundays and 15 minute devotional weekdays after the 7:45am Local News. I think the ‘paid religion was $560 a week. The 44 commercials a week (less Mutual Radio Theater) was likely about the same dollars as paid religion. To put it in perspective, my shift was 6am to 1pm weekdays on air and every other Sunday morning 7 to Noon for $540 a month. There was another fulltimer and a part-time weekender. Dick would work every other Saturday morning and every other Sunday morning. Granted we did have a few weeks with many more spots but that was for a certain holiday or community event. As I said, spots weren't cheap. A 60 in drive was about $10 and I wouldn't doubt a newscast sponsor was 50% more. I'm guessing KTER was billing $6,000-$7,000 a month back in 1980.
I’m guessing that Dick didn’t get enough billing because the station went back to Bill Pirtle. When Dick got KTER, KTLR FM came on the air with a country format and hit the airwaves running. They had a good commercial load rather quickly. I think KTLR really hurt KTER.
What I appreciated about Dick Zimmer was he charged a good rate for commercials. He ran a very organized station and you never felt overworked. One thing I loved was you’d open a desk drawer and there was a list of the drawer’s contents. Everything had its place. Everything you needed was there in the building.
I think I would have hired a local news director and gone 2/3rds Country Gold and 1/3rd hits in 3 song sweeps after 9am. But that’s water under the bridge. And that accounts for years more experience under my belt.