Most Admired General Manager

[Dain]

Jimmy Davenport and Jerry Blum. Both great managers and knew what radio was supposed to be.
Joe

LOL...Joe - I agree with you on Blum because I worked for him... Jimmy, on the the other hand, was a Section Eight on his good days and an absolute nutcase on his bad days... and I had the bullet holes in my office wall at WFOM to prove that.... LOL... What, nothing about Jack DeHaven?

 

[jpedicino]

Hey Dain man... how you doin?
Jack was not only a great manager but one of the two mentors I have had in my life. Jack was absolutely crippled by the company that owned the station. He told them millions of times how to make big money but then some jerk upstairs would tell him we had to do something else! For example, they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars doing lots of research on to what format to change WLTA FM100 from elevator music. Before the research he told them we needed to go country. The research came back and said quote "there's a hole big enough to drive a 16 wheeler thru... for COUNTRY!" We got ready to change to country but then a dope named Sandy showed up and told Jack that the "powers" had decided for us to change to a "bright and beautiful" format called "WARM 100". Just like the one he ran in Cinncinnati! We did... we bombed... and not three months later ABC bought an fm in Marietta... changed its calls to WKHX... went country... and the rest is history! If they had listened to Jack they could have had the history that ABC had. We had the number 12 station in the market and the number 4 billing station in the market. 100% due to Jack's leadership. We sat down every week and had a meeting with no other purpose than to figure out new ways to sell time on that station. We couldn't leave till we had at least one that we both agreed would work and that I would go and get it going. Jack defineately deserves to be on this list. Thanks for bringing him up.
BTW... Davenport was crazy... like a fox... one of the smartest men I ever met. My Friday nights at WFOM changed my life!
Joe

 

[Dain]

Joe - I just discovered this website the other day - what a hoot. I totally agree that Jack DeHaven and you did an incredible job at WLTA - it was nothing short of miraculous with what you had to work with. And obviously from reading these other posts, you have quite a few admirers for your time in Newnan. I assume that you're still percolating along with CCU, right? But I won't touch that line about WFOM....

Sometimes I feel like Mao leading everyone along in the Great March to get American Radio Empire trading as a public company. Dealing with the FCC is a cakewalk in comparison to having to deal with the lifers at the SEC and the NASD...LOL... it will all end up in my book on radio, "A Face For Radio"....LOL... trying to find a reverse merger shell that isn't total dreck has been a search I don't ever care to have to do again in this lifetime or the next ten for that matter... Email me or call sometime... operators will be standing by to take your important phone call... LOL..... Dain

 

[jpedicino]

Dain...
No not still with CC... do a search for OJsBronco and you can read all the stuff that went on. I now own a company called the Radio Business Development Center. We have a print division that does the print guides for Radio Stations like the ones I used to do with CC. Our best project so far is the "Restaurant Menu Guide". Did one on our own here in South Atlanta that ended up with 64 pages and did very well. We are doing the second version of it and it looks like we will do about 75% renewals. Plus starting with this one we will be tied to a huge radio station here in the area. Now finishing up a RMG in Cedartown/Rome that will do very well. Plus just started RMGs with huge clusters of stations in Dothan and Panama City. Have signed long term deals with stations in all three markets plus here in South Atlanta. We now have 12 print projects lined up for 2007! Our company also offers turn-key client based promotions to the stations we work with. You sell the car dealer a "slasher" used car sale and we step in and do the entire event. All you have to do is show up an do the remote! We have 11 different promotions that we can do for the stations... all they do is sell it and take the money! In the next six months we will introduce a new concept to help the stations sales staff see new accounts. I honestly believe it will be huge and change the way our stations handle their sales staffs. Number one problem they have... sales people that won't prospect and find new clients.... we have a revolutionary way to solve that problem. Hopefully you'll be hearing about it soon. I'll get with you.

I know you think Jimmy Davenport was a loon.... so what if he kept a fully automatic machine gun behind his desk? So what if he used to decide what new music to play by playing lawn darts with the records? So what if he hired 14 year olds to run the board? (Oh wait, that was me... never mind). I worked with and for Jimmy for almost 8 years and I will tell you he was a genius. He had fun running a small station... that by the way for its time was a monster rock and roll station... a little 1000 watt station that didnt even reach Atlanta but was on the "must get on" list for every record label in America. Who else could have made WFOM the main competitor to Quixie? He was who taught me that local radio was king and that if you can't have fun doing it... why are you doing it?

I have been blessed in my life to have worked for people like Jimmy Davenport, Jack DeHaven, Ted Turner, John Hogan and the likes. I learned somethings very special from all of them.

BTW... to have had my name even mentioned with the managers in this thread is an honor. I don't want to get him in trouble... but thanks SweetDick... it meant a lot to me.
Joe

 

[ricksegers]

Maybe he is in a class by himself or perhaps he retired so long ago he's been forgotten...but what about Elmo Ellis? The man was true class and WSB is still syanding on his shoulders.

Rick