You know guys, I am kinda concerned about this, being a person that worked with or for half of those stations. The other day I told my professor about WGTM, and he decided to give the owner a call to see if maybe we could do something to help. We can't help on her forclosure but we thought if we could get in there and help do some REAL radio stuff, maybe we could help turn it around. I did the same thing for WLLY after Wallace Bullock passed away, and though it wasn't much, we at least kept it from going under.
I gave my professor (living at the moment in Indiana) the phone number and he call them... about a half hour later he calls me back asking me who was on the air. I didn't know, at about 2pm or so. He tells me that whoever it was on the air refused to even give her name, nor tell anyone if the owner (Celestine Willis or whomever) could even be reached. It's odd because he asked her if he could speak to the owner, to which she said, "I am WGTM"
???
He tried to ask her again if he could speak to either the owner or Celestine Willis, and the lady on the other end absolutely dodged every angle to either reveal that she was that person, or if that person was even in the station. She told him that she was "WGTM" and asked what his business was. He didn't want to tell her, because he didn't know of whom he was talking to. After a few minutes of this dance, they got nothing resolved and he asked me for a land address so he can write a letter.
It sounds like maybe Willis is going through a lot of stress, and I do feel sorry for her. Whether these stations run it into the ground or not, I hate to see any station fail. It sounds like she had been getting too many creditor calls. I guess it may look grim for WGTM.
As for WVOT, I was told that they were looking to get an engineer to put the crystal in the tower, and they told my professor that they would be on the air in a few days...but that was a few days ago. And the idea that they did not inform the FCC of this problem could be a bad thing to ignore. I wonder if MK has been just telling guys what they wanted to hear. It's almost like he does not know that people who KNOW radio can tell if he is telling the truth or not. He told my colleague that they would be back on the air in early January...that didn't happen. I think he said in the newspaper article that they would be back on very soon,but months have passed. I don't know what to expect from them now.
I don't know so much about WUBN, but we had a chance to work with them with sports, but I was never happy with how he ran his spots...it just bordered on questionable to me, and I could not deal with that. It just seemed like the station was an extension of his business, which also included his church, the recording studio and now a religious supply store. One man can't run all that and still minister to the congregation, just too much to do. I fear for that station too, even though he said he wanted the station to reach out near Raleigh, how can you do that if you are LPFM?
And as mentioned on WLLY, I worry how long they have. We tried to help them do some new things but because the two co managers was never taught anything by the late Mr. Bullock, they were stuck in their ways and afraid of losing their jobs to people that were more qualified. I can't blame them for that, but in doing that, they refused some simple ways to help the station grow. Time will tell how it goes, but deep inside, I am pulling for all four.
, wonder if she will sell it cheap? But somebody from out of town would have to kicking some big bucks just to upgrade WGTM 4 towers.