I met Mike Clark working at KITE FM in Kerrville, Texas in 1992. My information is from Mike directly.
Mike was the managing partner of KDCY FM in Cotulla, Texas, a 3,000 watt commercial FM. There were no other stations licensed to Cotulla at that time. KDCY came on the air in December 1985.
Mike had taught school before running KDCY. At one point he worked in the Corpus Christi market, I think, doing sales for the guy that owned KITE in Kerrville. As Mike put it, his heart wasn’t in it then and to make it up to the owner, he offered to come to work and sell for free during his summer vacation from teaching. Mike had the desk in front of me.
Mike was an incredibly nice guy and the sort of person you could trust without worry. He was fun to work with. I have a deep respect for Mike as a person.
Mike could sell. I was dressed in dress slacks, dress shirt and tie. Mike was in jeans, untucked wrinkled shirt, unshaved and a little dried dip around his mouth. Our sales tactics were the exact opposite. I worked on building relationships, writing proposals and shooting for long term advertising. Mike saw every call as a sale that had to happen or he lost money. If he started at $150 and walked out with a $20 order, he was happy. He made money for his time invested. He walked out with something at nearly every business he walked in to.
When KDCY came on the air, the station needed $5,000 a month to meet expenses and payroll. He was told he had to sell $8,000 a month because his partner needed $3,000 a month off the station, something he never got during any given month.
I asked Mike about the set up. The station and tower were in a farmer’s field just north of Cotulla in a tiny village named Gardendale. You can check Google Maps by typing in Cotulla, Texas, then follow the freeway north 5 miles and they still show the location of the KDCY tower. The station was in a mobile home, likely used. The studio had two Radio Shack 4 channel mixers, a pair of Radio Shack microphones and a pair of dual cassette decks. If they had a production studio it was likely a Radio Shack mixer, microphone and cassette deck. Music was recorded on C-60 cassettes timed out to a 25 minute segment. Music was classic country. The five minutes in each half hour were for commercial and any DJ chatter. Jocks got minimum wage.
I asked Mike about News, Weather Sports and such. Mike said Cotulla was so small they didn’t have news. He said when the morning guy remembered he got the forecast off cable TV before leaving for the station. He said it was music and commercials.
The station was classic country in English 6am to 5pm. Then a local fellow came in from 5 to 10pm to do a Spanish language program. He had approached Mike about taking the time and splitting the revenue he brought in. Mike thought that was a great idea even though there was hardly ever any ‘share’ of income. His thought was that’s 5 hours of payroll he doesn’t have to come up with.
I asked Mike how well he did selling in Cotulla, after all it was 4,000 people. He said he tried selling everybody in town but got virtually nothing. The station income came from out of town. Mike did best in Laredo and San Antonio. He’d get up early, drive to the city and visit every mom and pop business he could within a day. I asked the spot rate. Officially it was $5. Mike put it in reality. The spot rate was whatever he could get. If it was 50 cents, fine. Most paid about a dollar a spot. He thought his average order was about $50.
Mike managed to round up the cash to meet payroll each month but, as he recalled, he was working for free. After he sold $8,000 a month, he began to make money. He never eclipsed the $5,000 mark by but a few dollars.
I’m not sure exactly when Mike left KDCY. I gathered he had taught school in the 1991-92 school year. I know Broadcasting Yearbook says KDCY was Spanish language as of 1991. I gathered the guy that had worked 5 to 10pm for a 50/50 split on what he sold, made a deal to cover the monthly bills and split income. Maybe he bought the station. At any rate, the station did go dark not long after.
Mike had long days. He did all the sales, all the management duties and copywriting. He collected what he sold and he created the logs for each day. I never knew Mike to voice his spots, maybe he did then. I doubt he did much other than sleep and work.
You can imagine what KDCY sounded like. Just remember they did $5,000 a month at 50 cents to $1 per spot. That’s 5,000 to 10,000 spots a month with all the spots running 6am to 5pm. If you divide that down by day, KDCY likely ran about 22 spots an hour.
Mike was the managing partner of KDCY FM in Cotulla, Texas, a 3,000 watt commercial FM. There were no other stations licensed to Cotulla at that time. KDCY came on the air in December 1985.
Mike had taught school before running KDCY. At one point he worked in the Corpus Christi market, I think, doing sales for the guy that owned KITE in Kerrville. As Mike put it, his heart wasn’t in it then and to make it up to the owner, he offered to come to work and sell for free during his summer vacation from teaching. Mike had the desk in front of me.
Mike was an incredibly nice guy and the sort of person you could trust without worry. He was fun to work with. I have a deep respect for Mike as a person.
Mike could sell. I was dressed in dress slacks, dress shirt and tie. Mike was in jeans, untucked wrinkled shirt, unshaved and a little dried dip around his mouth. Our sales tactics were the exact opposite. I worked on building relationships, writing proposals and shooting for long term advertising. Mike saw every call as a sale that had to happen or he lost money. If he started at $150 and walked out with a $20 order, he was happy. He made money for his time invested. He walked out with something at nearly every business he walked in to.
When KDCY came on the air, the station needed $5,000 a month to meet expenses and payroll. He was told he had to sell $8,000 a month because his partner needed $3,000 a month off the station, something he never got during any given month.
I asked Mike about the set up. The station and tower were in a farmer’s field just north of Cotulla in a tiny village named Gardendale. You can check Google Maps by typing in Cotulla, Texas, then follow the freeway north 5 miles and they still show the location of the KDCY tower. The station was in a mobile home, likely used. The studio had two Radio Shack 4 channel mixers, a pair of Radio Shack microphones and a pair of dual cassette decks. If they had a production studio it was likely a Radio Shack mixer, microphone and cassette deck. Music was recorded on C-60 cassettes timed out to a 25 minute segment. Music was classic country. The five minutes in each half hour were for commercial and any DJ chatter. Jocks got minimum wage.
I asked Mike about News, Weather Sports and such. Mike said Cotulla was so small they didn’t have news. He said when the morning guy remembered he got the forecast off cable TV before leaving for the station. He said it was music and commercials.
The station was classic country in English 6am to 5pm. Then a local fellow came in from 5 to 10pm to do a Spanish language program. He had approached Mike about taking the time and splitting the revenue he brought in. Mike thought that was a great idea even though there was hardly ever any ‘share’ of income. His thought was that’s 5 hours of payroll he doesn’t have to come up with.
I asked Mike how well he did selling in Cotulla, after all it was 4,000 people. He said he tried selling everybody in town but got virtually nothing. The station income came from out of town. Mike did best in Laredo and San Antonio. He’d get up early, drive to the city and visit every mom and pop business he could within a day. I asked the spot rate. Officially it was $5. Mike put it in reality. The spot rate was whatever he could get. If it was 50 cents, fine. Most paid about a dollar a spot. He thought his average order was about $50.
Mike managed to round up the cash to meet payroll each month but, as he recalled, he was working for free. After he sold $8,000 a month, he began to make money. He never eclipsed the $5,000 mark by but a few dollars.
I’m not sure exactly when Mike left KDCY. I gathered he had taught school in the 1991-92 school year. I know Broadcasting Yearbook says KDCY was Spanish language as of 1991. I gathered the guy that had worked 5 to 10pm for a 50/50 split on what he sold, made a deal to cover the monthly bills and split income. Maybe he bought the station. At any rate, the station did go dark not long after.
Mike had long days. He did all the sales, all the management duties and copywriting. He collected what he sold and he created the logs for each day. I never knew Mike to voice his spots, maybe he did then. I doubt he did much other than sleep and work.
You can imagine what KDCY sounded like. Just remember they did $5,000 a month at 50 cents to $1 per spot. That’s 5,000 to 10,000 spots a month with all the spots running 6am to 5pm. If you divide that down by day, KDCY likely ran about 22 spots an hour.