Starkville In My Rear View Mirror
I came to Starkville in May of 1973 to work at the old WKOR-AM. Having worked in near-by Columbus for a couple of years I knew the station always had a good product on the air. I just didn't realize at the time what a legend it would become. It was a fun place to be during the early and mid 1970's. Early on, the station was owned by Ken Irby an Alabama resident, who was seldom there and managed by Lep Boyd. By the time I got there the station was being managed by Ben Yarber with whom I had worked with at WMBC-AM/FM in Columbus. About 1975 (?) or so, a good station got even better when Chuck Cooper and his business partner bought it from Ken Irby. Chuck, always the ultimate broadcaster, improved the working conditions and upgraded everything, in addition to putting WKOR-FM on the air. I had a great ride doing the morning show which later added Dennis Hudson doing the news and being nutty on the air. That combination really caused the station to rocket. And then came cell phones. They were going to be the next big thing. Chuck pretty much got out of the radio business and started working in the new field of cell phones. Most people had never heard of a cell phone or knew anything about them, except Chuck Cooper. What was a cell phone? A phone used in jail cells? Just another passing fad? A gadget? Probably. He applied for and got several authorizations around the country and bought and sold them as the rest of the world caught up to cell phones.
Meantime back in Starkville, AM radio was still alive, but just barely. Chuck brought in a couple of different station managers, neither or which lasted very long. By then FM's were taking over and that meant moving the WKOR-AM format to WKOR-FM. Around 1980 when disco thankfully died, things were moving into Miami Vice inspired pastels and music. By the time I left in 1984 the stations where just a shell of their former glory days of the 70s. Sadly or thankfully I understand the old WKOR-AM license has been turned in. The station has been dark for a long time now, and it probably overstayed its welcome anyway. WKOR-FM continues as a Cumulus owned and operated station in Columbus. It has been a successful country formatted station in spite of Cumulus.
So in 1984 I'm still in Starkville working at one of the best jobs I ever had at the Progressive Farmer Radio Network, owned and operated by Jim Yancey. I never met a better person with which to be associated. Jim always went first class. He treated people right, paid them well and conducted himself and business open and above board. I stayed there until 1996, when the agricultural advertising business hit bottom. Kind of like what happened to the housing industry a few years ago. At that point it was time to do something else. I was lucky to have gotten a really fun job at Mississippi State University working in Computer Networking. It was great.. loved every minute of it. Then one day Jim Yancey called. He had sold the radio network to some company called Clear Channel. He was going to retire in a year and if I would come back as Assistant Manager, I would be Manager when he retired. That was all great except for the one thing I didn't know about... Clear Channel. Yup. A year later they came in on a Thursday and said everyone's last day was tomorrow. They consolidated the network with one they owned in Oklahoma. Cheap Channel. No problem, I'll just call my old friend from the WKOR-AM days, Bob Green, who was managing the cluster for Cumulus in Columbus. Surely Cumulus couldn't be as bad as Clear Channel. Wrong again. I stayed there for about two years in sales, until it got to the point that the sales manager was even more unreasonable and overbearing than two years earlier. What an un-manageable mess that place was. So, I've still got another great idea. Why not take everything I learned about sales at Cumulus and the business contacts I'd made and try the last of the Mom and Pop stations in the market. WLZA-FM Eupora has studios and business offices in Starkville. Six years down the road it turned out to be a good move and a good place to work. Enough radio for one lifetime.
I took a job that was the worst job I ever had and stayed there six months. I gave a month's notice with no job prospects and nothing in mind. So, have you ever had one of those light bulbs go off, just out of the blue that said "how about this idea ?" I had most of the tools and about twenty years of experience doing home repairs for myself and family and friends. Turn your hobby into your job. Done. Now this is the best job I ever had, working for myself. Going on seven years now at this job and never had a bad day of it. I had more work than I could get to. It's still amazing to me what people will pay you to do. For every job I accepted I turned down at least two. Just couldn't get to them all. Each year it multiplied. Finally it got to be exclusive. If I didn't know the person, probably didn't take the job. Still had more work than I wanted. So now it was retirement time. Best thing ever... Really... ever. Do it tomorrow if you can. Work at repairs when and if I want to for fun money. I take off from repairs all of August and all of December... just because I can. No pressures... don't wear a watch... I don't let anything bother me. So, one day there was another life changing moment. It's time to leave Starkville. No real reason... It's just time. Now I have moved about a far north in Mississippi as possible to be near family. Still doing repairs. Still have too much work.
That wrapped up forty years in Starkville. While I wasn't born there it will always be home. Characters and personalities I met along the way? At the radio network I traveled about twice a month for twelve years to affiliate stations across the delta. From the boot heel of Missouri to northeast Louisiana on both sides of the river. Memorable folks from forty years included Ken Irby, Chuck Cooper and Joe Phillips in Starkville, JBI at Batesville, Bobby Caldwell at Wynne, Arkansas, Jim Buffington at Aberdeen. Others in Memphis and Jackson, Mississippi. Gene Sisk in Tupelo and on and on. On-the-air folks like Grady Motes (Chris King), John Weeks (Johnny Franklin), Randy Bell (Larry London) Dennis Hudson, Ron Loggins, Mike Grace, The Blakeneys, The Barbers, John "Boogie" (Smith) Bailey, Robert Grayson, Bill Evans, 'Ole Don Vaughn (now Dr. Don Rodney Vaughn, PhD at EMCC) and many, many more.
So, if you're a young person looking for a place to try and make your mark, consider Starkville. What brought me there was the radio. I stayed for the community. Even for a college town it's a unique place. After you get use to the obnoxious and arrogant students, whose only interest is beer, it's still a good place to live and raise a family. Stay awhile. Maybe not forty years, but awhile. Then later maybe you'll see Starkville in your rear view mirror and be able to reflect on it too.
GJames, much older and a little wiser.
I came to Starkville in May of 1973 to work at the old WKOR-AM. Having worked in near-by Columbus for a couple of years I knew the station always had a good product on the air. I just didn't realize at the time what a legend it would become. It was a fun place to be during the early and mid 1970's. Early on, the station was owned by Ken Irby an Alabama resident, who was seldom there and managed by Lep Boyd. By the time I got there the station was being managed by Ben Yarber with whom I had worked with at WMBC-AM/FM in Columbus. About 1975 (?) or so, a good station got even better when Chuck Cooper and his business partner bought it from Ken Irby. Chuck, always the ultimate broadcaster, improved the working conditions and upgraded everything, in addition to putting WKOR-FM on the air. I had a great ride doing the morning show which later added Dennis Hudson doing the news and being nutty on the air. That combination really caused the station to rocket. And then came cell phones. They were going to be the next big thing. Chuck pretty much got out of the radio business and started working in the new field of cell phones. Most people had never heard of a cell phone or knew anything about them, except Chuck Cooper. What was a cell phone? A phone used in jail cells? Just another passing fad? A gadget? Probably. He applied for and got several authorizations around the country and bought and sold them as the rest of the world caught up to cell phones.
Meantime back in Starkville, AM radio was still alive, but just barely. Chuck brought in a couple of different station managers, neither or which lasted very long. By then FM's were taking over and that meant moving the WKOR-AM format to WKOR-FM. Around 1980 when disco thankfully died, things were moving into Miami Vice inspired pastels and music. By the time I left in 1984 the stations where just a shell of their former glory days of the 70s. Sadly or thankfully I understand the old WKOR-AM license has been turned in. The station has been dark for a long time now, and it probably overstayed its welcome anyway. WKOR-FM continues as a Cumulus owned and operated station in Columbus. It has been a successful country formatted station in spite of Cumulus.
So in 1984 I'm still in Starkville working at one of the best jobs I ever had at the Progressive Farmer Radio Network, owned and operated by Jim Yancey. I never met a better person with which to be associated. Jim always went first class. He treated people right, paid them well and conducted himself and business open and above board. I stayed there until 1996, when the agricultural advertising business hit bottom. Kind of like what happened to the housing industry a few years ago. At that point it was time to do something else. I was lucky to have gotten a really fun job at Mississippi State University working in Computer Networking. It was great.. loved every minute of it. Then one day Jim Yancey called. He had sold the radio network to some company called Clear Channel. He was going to retire in a year and if I would come back as Assistant Manager, I would be Manager when he retired. That was all great except for the one thing I didn't know about... Clear Channel. Yup. A year later they came in on a Thursday and said everyone's last day was tomorrow. They consolidated the network with one they owned in Oklahoma. Cheap Channel. No problem, I'll just call my old friend from the WKOR-AM days, Bob Green, who was managing the cluster for Cumulus in Columbus. Surely Cumulus couldn't be as bad as Clear Channel. Wrong again. I stayed there for about two years in sales, until it got to the point that the sales manager was even more unreasonable and overbearing than two years earlier. What an un-manageable mess that place was. So, I've still got another great idea. Why not take everything I learned about sales at Cumulus and the business contacts I'd made and try the last of the Mom and Pop stations in the market. WLZA-FM Eupora has studios and business offices in Starkville. Six years down the road it turned out to be a good move and a good place to work. Enough radio for one lifetime.
I took a job that was the worst job I ever had and stayed there six months. I gave a month's notice with no job prospects and nothing in mind. So, have you ever had one of those light bulbs go off, just out of the blue that said "how about this idea ?" I had most of the tools and about twenty years of experience doing home repairs for myself and family and friends. Turn your hobby into your job. Done. Now this is the best job I ever had, working for myself. Going on seven years now at this job and never had a bad day of it. I had more work than I could get to. It's still amazing to me what people will pay you to do. For every job I accepted I turned down at least two. Just couldn't get to them all. Each year it multiplied. Finally it got to be exclusive. If I didn't know the person, probably didn't take the job. Still had more work than I wanted. So now it was retirement time. Best thing ever... Really... ever. Do it tomorrow if you can. Work at repairs when and if I want to for fun money. I take off from repairs all of August and all of December... just because I can. No pressures... don't wear a watch... I don't let anything bother me. So, one day there was another life changing moment. It's time to leave Starkville. No real reason... It's just time. Now I have moved about a far north in Mississippi as possible to be near family. Still doing repairs. Still have too much work.
That wrapped up forty years in Starkville. While I wasn't born there it will always be home. Characters and personalities I met along the way? At the radio network I traveled about twice a month for twelve years to affiliate stations across the delta. From the boot heel of Missouri to northeast Louisiana on both sides of the river. Memorable folks from forty years included Ken Irby, Chuck Cooper and Joe Phillips in Starkville, JBI at Batesville, Bobby Caldwell at Wynne, Arkansas, Jim Buffington at Aberdeen. Others in Memphis and Jackson, Mississippi. Gene Sisk in Tupelo and on and on. On-the-air folks like Grady Motes (Chris King), John Weeks (Johnny Franklin), Randy Bell (Larry London) Dennis Hudson, Ron Loggins, Mike Grace, The Blakeneys, The Barbers, John "Boogie" (Smith) Bailey, Robert Grayson, Bill Evans, 'Ole Don Vaughn (now Dr. Don Rodney Vaughn, PhD at EMCC) and many, many more.
So, if you're a young person looking for a place to try and make your mark, consider Starkville. What brought me there was the radio. I stayed for the community. Even for a college town it's a unique place. After you get use to the obnoxious and arrogant students, whose only interest is beer, it's still a good place to live and raise a family. Stay awhile. Maybe not forty years, but awhile. Then later maybe you'll see Starkville in your rear view mirror and be able to reflect on it too.
GJames, much older and a little wiser.
