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Starting Small
- Thread starter H82BL8
- Start date
I used to manage a daytimer AM station, and we managed to run with 3 people for several years.
Our schedule looked like this:
Monday-Friday
6:30 am - 1:30 pm "Mark"
1:30 pm - signoff me
Saturday
6:30 am - 12 noon "Mark"
12:00 Noon -signoff me
Sunday
7 am - 6 pm "Erby"
"Erby" helped with sales during the week. "Mark" was music director and handled production.
I was program director, did sales for 8 years, and put out a lot of day to day "fires."
If either Mark or I got sick, the other had to put in a full day.
We billed about $12k a month. I had to sell by mail and phone since I'm legally blind and don't drive.
When I got married, I cut back on the hours and we hired a couple of part-timers, one
worked all day Saturday. Mark left, and I decided it was time for Erby to be manager.
I stayed on for 3 more years after that.
Our rule was everyone got at least 1 full day off each week.
Without automation, I'd say 4 on-air people and at least 1 manager/salesperson.
With automation, one or two people could handle it.
This works best if everyone has a passion for radio and a strong work ethic. Those were LONG hours sometimes! Like the summers 6:30 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. all on the air!
And I loved it!
Our schedule looked like this:
Monday-Friday
6:30 am - 1:30 pm "Mark"
1:30 pm - signoff me
Saturday
6:30 am - 12 noon "Mark"
12:00 Noon -signoff me
Sunday
7 am - 6 pm "Erby"
"Erby" helped with sales during the week. "Mark" was music director and handled production.
I was program director, did sales for 8 years, and put out a lot of day to day "fires."
If either Mark or I got sick, the other had to put in a full day.
We billed about $12k a month. I had to sell by mail and phone since I'm legally blind and don't drive.
When I got married, I cut back on the hours and we hired a couple of part-timers, one
worked all day Saturday. Mark left, and I decided it was time for Erby to be manager.
I stayed on for 3 more years after that.
Our rule was everyone got at least 1 full day off each week.
Without automation, I'd say 4 on-air people and at least 1 manager/salesperson.
With automation, one or two people could handle it.
This works best if everyone has a passion for radio and a strong work ethic. Those were LONG hours sometimes! Like the summers 6:30 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. all on the air!
And I loved it!
Alan McCall said:
You had to love it. How many years ago was this?
Alan McCall said:
Wow--that's alot of work.
We all really liked working there. If we hadn't, it just wouldn't have worked.
When I got married in 2001, I did cut back somewhat - no more Saturdays, for instance.
If you have someone that's good at sales, it could be done with 3. But those 3 will
probably each have pretty good-sixed work loads.
But the automation will relieve some of that "I have to be back at the board in 2 minutes"
syndrome. The station I mentioned was in a mobile home, with the control room in the back room.
Many fast runs/sprints were made down that hallway to hit the breaks, especially during
football games.
And there was no receptionist..
When I got married in 2001, I did cut back somewhat - no more Saturdays, for instance.
If you have someone that's good at sales, it could be done with 3. But those 3 will
probably each have pretty good-sixed work loads.
But the automation will relieve some of that "I have to be back at the board in 2 minutes"
syndrome. The station I mentioned was in a mobile home, with the control room in the back room.
Many fast runs/sprints were made down that hallway to hit the breaks, especially during
football games.
And there was no receptionist..
Alan,
Do you mind telling us what station you owned that was set up in the mobile home? Call letters? Frequency? Power? Format? You know, the usual "stuff".
Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380 Ormond Beach - Daytona
[email protected]
Do you mind telling us what station you owned that was set up in the mobile home? Call letters? Frequency? Power? Format? You know, the usual "stuff".
Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380 Ormond Beach - Daytona
[email protected]
Mark,
I didn't own it, although I did make a run at buying it at one point. It was owned by a
man in Chicago (he still owns it, but it is now run under a time brokerage agreement
by a third party.)
It was WCVC, 1330 AM, in Tallahassee, a 5kw daytimer. It was a combination of contemporary
Christian music with some Christian preaching/teaching blocks.
Because WAY-FM and K-Love, along with several other local Christian stations, had not come into the
market, it actually did pretty well at that time. Now the Christian market is flooded here. WCVC runs a satellite feed of EWTN, without a single person at the station. Kinda sad to me.
But I was able to purchase the Christian music library. The owner also gave me the albums, which are hard to find these days.
I didn't own it, although I did make a run at buying it at one point. It was owned by a
man in Chicago (he still owns it, but it is now run under a time brokerage agreement
by a third party.)
It was WCVC, 1330 AM, in Tallahassee, a 5kw daytimer. It was a combination of contemporary
Christian music with some Christian preaching/teaching blocks.
Because WAY-FM and K-Love, along with several other local Christian stations, had not come into the
market, it actually did pretty well at that time. Now the Christian market is flooded here. WCVC runs a satellite feed of EWTN, without a single person at the station. Kinda sad to me.
But I was able to purchase the Christian music library. The owner also gave me the albums, which are hard to find these days.
Alan,
Wasn't WCVC 1330 an all news formatted station at one time? It sounds like you had a lot of fun running the place... I would love to own and operate a small market AM station (daytimer is fine)... In small markets, there isn't much, if at all, direct competition and the station has a real opportunity to get involved and well known in the community which is what radio was originally intended to be in the first place...
What format is WCVC now?
Mark Tillery
WELE-AM 1380
Wasn't WCVC 1330 an all news formatted station at one time? It sounds like you had a lot of fun running the place... I would love to own and operate a small market AM station (daytimer is fine)... In small markets, there isn't much, if at all, direct competition and the station has a real opportunity to get involved and well known in the community which is what radio was originally intended to be in the first place...
What format is WCVC now?
Mark Tillery
WELE-AM 1380
When WCVC was still WMEN Radio in 1975, they did attempt an all news format. It was extremely
short lived, I believe less than a year, going silent by summer of 1976. A;;-news just never caught on.
Dr. W.R. Crews and his wife, Freda Crews, bought the station and retirned it to the air as WCVC,
The Christian Voice of the Capital, in 1977, with pretty much all preaching programs. They did begin
adding CCM in the early 1980s. The Crews' sold WCVC in 1985 to the current owner.
WCVC is running EWTN, the Catholic Satellite Network, full time now. There's nothing local on there.
short lived, I believe less than a year, going silent by summer of 1976. A;;-news just never caught on.
Dr. W.R. Crews and his wife, Freda Crews, bought the station and retirned it to the air as WCVC,
The Christian Voice of the Capital, in 1977, with pretty much all preaching programs. They did begin
adding CCM in the early 1980s. The Crews' sold WCVC in 1985 to the current owner.
WCVC is running EWTN, the Catholic Satellite Network, full time now. There's nothing local on there.
Alan,
I am somewhat familiar with the Crews although I have never met them nor done business with them... I believe Dr. R. Crews has a program called Bible Study Time while Dr. Freda Crews has a program geared toward women, but I don't recall the name of the program... They also owned and operated Select Broadcast Media which they may still own... I never knew, however, that they ever owned any radio stations, especially in Florida... That's interesting as I am learning something new... Thanks for the info...
Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380 Ormond Beach Daytona
[email protected]
I am somewhat familiar with the Crews although I have never met them nor done business with them... I believe Dr. R. Crews has a program called Bible Study Time while Dr. Freda Crews has a program geared toward women, but I don't recall the name of the program... They also owned and operated Select Broadcast Media which they may still own... I never knew, however, that they ever owned any radio stations, especially in Florida... That's interesting as I am learning something new... Thanks for the info...
Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380 Ormond Beach Daytona
[email protected]
D
Davie123
Guest
Why would this only apply to small market stations? Four employees per station is the goal of the major broadcast groups, and I'm not talking on-air staff.....TOTAL. Ask any Clear Channel manager who is returning from their recent executive conference.
TamiamiSammy said:
Although I agree with you that the major broadcast companies are cutting all staff positions, I believe you have completely missed the point of this thread. We were discussing specifically small market radio and how to efficiently operate a small market station. I, for one, have for a long time wanted to own a small market station, getting involved in the local community on a small scale... To me small market radio has many advanatges over large and major market radio although ad revenue isn't one of them... There are trades offs... I have worked all size markets from single station small market all the way to major clusters in large markets and just about everything in between...
Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380
Ormond Beach - Daytona
[email protected]
Mark:
I, too, am one of those dreamers who wants to own a small market station and actually serve the community. It's rare when an opportunity to do this comes along, and when it does, it seems that all that you encounter is nay-sayers and non-believing financial institutions. In this economy, I can understand some of the apprehension, however, I truly believe a small town would embrace their local station as their own and if you truly are local and try not to compete with the larger stations around you, success can happen. Do what the big guys won't and be as good, if not better, as they are with your product.
I, too, am one of those dreamers who wants to own a small market station and actually serve the community. It's rare when an opportunity to do this comes along, and when it does, it seems that all that you encounter is nay-sayers and non-believing financial institutions. In this economy, I can understand some of the apprehension, however, I truly believe a small town would embrace their local station as their own and if you truly are local and try not to compete with the larger stations around you, success can happen. Do what the big guys won't and be as good, if not better, as they are with your product.
BINGO!!!
You just hit the proverbial nail on the metephoric head... I know of a handful of small stations in the general regional geographic area where I live that would make excellent "true" small market stations catering to the needs of the local community... Currently the stations in question are owned by larger groups that acquired the smaller stations as part of a group purchase... These groups care nothing about the smaller stations in their portfolios and it shows...I know of at least two of these stations that can be bought...However, like you said, investors are reluctant and forget about banks...
Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380 Ormond Beach - Daytona
[email protected]
You just hit the proverbial nail on the metephoric head... I know of a handful of small stations in the general regional geographic area where I live that would make excellent "true" small market stations catering to the needs of the local community... Currently the stations in question are owned by larger groups that acquired the smaller stations as part of a group purchase... These groups care nothing about the smaller stations in their portfolios and it shows...I know of at least two of these stations that can be bought...However, like you said, investors are reluctant and forget about banks...
Mark Tillery
General Manager
WELE-AM 1380 Ormond Beach - Daytona
[email protected]
M
MN Maniac
Guest
Yeah. What he said.
I sure wish Asterisk would let go of 99.5/LaCrosse. Judging from the latest ratings, it doesn't seem to be doing them much good in Gainesville.
Sunshine's 106.9/Cross City would be another good candidate.
I sure wish Asterisk would let go of 99.5/LaCrosse. Judging from the latest ratings, it doesn't seem to be doing them much good in Gainesville.
Sunshine's 106.9/Cross City would be another good candidate.
jmtillery said:
There's a station in my area that is 80% brokered with talk or programming other than the main format, and even the live jocks vary in their presentation of the format. Would love to get my hands on it, but for some reason, the unofficial asking price is about 7 times more than what it's worth. Way too much for a small market station.
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