Yeah, but with all the incredible improvements, I hear you may be
bringing some broke brainsurgeon on that thinks he knows everything and
gets his panties in a wad on a regular basis. Why would you do that?
The Spindoctor
> Glad to hear you were in the area. Bet you had lunch at
> Webb's, didn'tcha? GREAT food! You should have stopped by
> the radio stations...You are welcome any time. If you know
> you are coming and it's after hours, email me and I'll give
> you my cell number.
>
> I could write for days about the upgrades in the works.
> Let's start with WFXY.
>
> The first improvement will be a new BE 1kW solid-state
> transmitter (actually a pair...one for each station). I've
> already put in a new Optimod 8100, but I can't push it any
> at all, or the old transmitter groans. We are still running
> the original 1967 CCA. It won't even make full power unless
> it's exactly 68 degrees outside. Any hotter or colder, and
> she'll get mad. The new BE is on the way. I want to make
> speakers shake when it's installed. I've also replaced the
> STL jumper on the building here, which made a difference.
> When we are modulating properly and have good processing,
> the signal should carry a whole lot further. As-is, they
> barely make it past the 5mV contour.
>
> At the moment, the biggest holdup is that I won't put
> anything new in the building until the new roof is installed
> and we do some light renovating. We had major storm damage
> last month, and the roof leaks like the Dick Cheney's press
> office. I'm haggling with the insurance adjuster at the
> moment. I'm planning to rip the studios out one by one and
> re-do the paint and flooring. Crazy as it sounds, I'm doing
> all hardwood, even in the studios. You know how dirty the
> carpet gets in radio stations. I want to see if wood floors
> will make things look and smell cleaner. The boards and
> source equipment will also be replaced. I'm locating the
> racks for both AMs, plus one extra for another acquisition
> I'll be announcing soon, in one room. It'll have separate
> HVAC and be kept at 68 degrees around the clock and
> calendar. We are also starting from scratch with wiring. You
> should see some of the rats-nests we have here. My theory is
> that we'll be MUCH better off to just rip everything out.
> That way, I know how everything is wired. We'll also have
> the wiring mapped and documented so that anybody working on
> the system here will know what they are working on. Novel
> idea huh?
>
> Once we get things clean and fresh, I'm going to put in new
> automation. That'll allow us to do much more clean local
> programming. We are going to toss out the satellite
> automation totally and go with a mix of live and
> voice-tracked programming. WFXY will be live/local from 6am
> - 3pm at least to begin with, and WANO will have just a
> couple ours less live/local initially. But, until we get the
> new automation in, I don't have much choice except to stick
> with the bird. With our old system, I have no choice except
> a train-wreck after our news. Since we run between fifteen
> and twenty minutes of local news at the top of the our five
> times a day, we can't have a smooth re-join. Also, none of
> the switchers "talk" to each other. So, you'll be listening
> to the news on WANO, then hear thirty seconds of Madonna,
> then jump right into the middle of the Beach Boys. It makes
> me cringe every time I hear it, and I'm ashamed that it
> happens on one of my stations. It'll be fixed very soon.
>
> Over at WANO, we have even more work than at WFXY. A new
> Transmitter is necessary there too. WANO has absolutely no
> real processing, so I'm going to stick on an Omnia3AM. The
> most important part will be a new ground system though.
> Apparently somebody really wanted the topsoil around the
> tower. You can just use your imagination, and think about
> what a dumptruck and backhoe did to the ground system. Both
> stations will get an essentially brand-new airchain, from
> microphone to transmitter, and even ground system at WANO.
> And, when things are settled, the signals should get out
> MUCH better. We have no way of monitoring WANO here in
> Middlesboro, even though we almost fall within the 5mV
> contour. Also, a year down the road, I'm hoping to build out
> a secondary studio/office site in Pineville, hopefully
> downtown. We need to be a bigger part of that community than
> we are.
>
> This is quite a process, really, but I'm enjoying it. Years
> of neglect caused the stations to be in the state they are
> now, so they won't be corrected overnight. Fortunately, I
> have the money to invest in what we need. That's the easy
> part. The hard part, at least for me, is to be patient while
> we get everything done. Unfortunately, though, there are
> only so many hours in the day.
>
> On the business side, things are screaming. January was the
> best month the stations have had in three years, and things
> are on the up-swing. I'm trying to get acclimated to the
> market and meet the people I need to. It's honestly great to
> be an owner again. Fortunately, despite the engineering
> neglect, the former owners did a GREAT job making sure the
> stations have good reputations in the community. They are
> both heritage stations which have essentially been asleep
> for seven years. It's an honor to be the one to wake them
> up.
>
