Question about Gary Todd

[Herschel Sills]

For many years Gary Todd dominated morning drivetime on WIBC-AM. Then he bought an FM station in Anderson, referred to it as "Circle North" and did morning drivetime there trying to sound as if he were in Indianapolis. With all the people who had listened to him for all those years and who knew who he was, why was the Anderson thing such a disaster?

 

[DouglasB]

For many years Gary Todd dominated morning drivetime on WIBC-AM. Then he bought an FM station in Anderson, referred to it as "Circle North" and did morning drivetime there trying to sound as if he were in Indianapolis. With all the people who had listened to him for all those years and who knew who he was, why was the Anderson thing such a disaster?

First, economics of the market. Trying to run an "indy-type" radio station on an "Anderson" advertising revenue stream was a giant challenge. Secondly, while Mr. Todd was a popular air talent, he might not have had the administrative skills or programming skills necessary to pull it off. I don't think anyone would believe that upon his departure, thousands of radios would switch from 1070AM to 97.9FM immediately. To Indy listeners, "Gary left Indianapolis to work at a small station in Anderson". And to Anderson listeners "hey, isn't that the old guy from WIBC on the radio. Did he lose his job there"? Never underestimate the power of the mass audience to completely and utterly confuse themselves.......
It did sound good while it lasted.

 

[11south]

Gary was the quarterback of the team. The team consisted of Fred Heckman, Bob Lamey, Jerry Baker and Big John Gillis as I remember. Just because you lose the QB doesn't mean you lose the game. Remember also, Gary went to Klamath Falls, OR with his son for quite a while before returning to 97.9 (out of sight, out of mind) and talking the guy from Denison Parking into buying WLHN from the then current owners.

Did Gary make WIBC or did WIBC make Gary? Did AJ Foyt make the Indy 500 or the reverse?

 

[DJDave113]

And I think maybe the major point being missed here was that Moody Bible Institute arrived with a multi-million dollar check to buy the facility to extend their ministry broadcasts to the Indianapolis market. Money talks! And the actual owners of then 97.9 took the check and ran, just as I would have.

 

[darrentandy]

Wow...what a great "experience" it was working at Experience 98. I drove from Franklin College to the studios in Anderson six days a week from '91-'93. Scott Todd is still one of my closest friends and Gary was like a father to me. You could write a long case study on why the station didn't succeed. Gary never expected significant ratings since his "Circle North" concept would exclude more than half of the Indy metro. He hoped to make money by delivering "results" to our clients. We were also a music-intensive soft A/C targetting females 35-54...yet we had Paul Harvey, farm reports and a lot of sports programming that appealed primarily to men. We tried to be all things to all people...and that never works.
It was a great team to work with, though. David Appleford, Ann Craig, Sam Graves, Dave Hood, Scott Roddy, Oleta Martin, Mary Weiss, TJ Byers (RIP) and many others worked very hard for Gary. I currently work with two (Karyn Sullyvan and John Mills) who got their first gigs at WXXP.

Kevin Spencer (WKLU) did a great job programming the station in its final days, but the writing was already on the wall.

 

[bigtime]

I never knew so many big central Indiana names (beyond Gary Todd) worked there!

 

[1316wwood]

A lot of people forget that Mr. Todd joined one of this boards favorite companies back in the late 80's, Artistic Media. He was there for only a short time and left, according to people who worked for them at the time, very abrubtly one day and a reason was never given why when asked. Personally I was never a fan. A bitter guy who never got over Bob & Tom knocking him off his pedestal.