• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Will Nashville Follow the Trend to Resurrect A Once Popular Format?

deltas69 said:
no matter who was there..or when..sure beat the hell out of the "shell dinner hour" and mantovani.. ;D
Click to expand...


That reminds me of the movie "Good morning Vietnam when the Bruno Kirby roll said: and now for 2 back to back Ray Coniff classics.:::Snicker::::
 
when i went to work at WMRL IN 1980 in portland (later WQSI)..they were playing the most screwed up format i had ever seen. no one there, had any radio experence..you would hear frank sinatra, followed by the tubes, patsy cline, rolling stones, duke ellington..etc..you get the idea. their thinking was if we play a little of everyone..everyone will listen..in a town of 2500 people..most of whom made 6.50 an hour at several factories in town..not to dis the people, but they had no clue about what to play. it was rainbow valley only NOT FUNNY ..they would have a local preacher come in and read poetry, play some of the above format..then have the wife of one of the jocks give her recipe for green beans..cue the clash..i was barely able to convince them to go country, all the time. for the first time in my life..i had fond memories of the shell dinner hour....at least is was consistant til the fat lady sang..
 
I don't think the listenership increased much more with the Country format. You made $6.50? Impressive.
The team there during my sentence was at $6.00 or $6.25. The billings were about half that, cept Sunday. :)
 
in a small town like that, once the format stabilized to country and doing local news, sports, etc a lot of listeners..well..couple thousand or so..a station that small and directional at that didn't rely on ratings....no..i didn't make 6.50..that was the going rate for factory work in that area..i made 125.00 a week..pulling what ever shift..7 days a week..plus doing production, programmig, repairs, remotes,..about 40 hours week..wait..let me run the numbers..125.00 devided by 40...little more than 3.00 per hour...hummm..more money at a factory..but then ..i'd have to get out of show buisness !!! LOL ;D
 
deltas69 said:
in a small town like that, once the format stabilized to country and doing local news, sports, etc a lot of listeners..well..couple thousand or so..a station that small and directional at that didn't rely on ratings....no..i didn't make 6.50..that was the going rate for factory work in that area..i made 125.00 a week..pulling what ever shift..7 days a week..plus doing production, programmig, repairs, remotes,..about 40 hours week..wait..let me run the numbers..125.00 devided by 40...little more than 3.00 per hour...hummm..more money at a factory..but then ..i'd have to get out of show buisness !!! LOL ;D
Click to expand...

My understanding was that WMRL was put on (I forget the dude's) name, by an "out of towner" and he just didn't really understand folks here in the Nashville Market, especially Portland. I heard it a few times, and it's programming presentation was o.k., but business wise, I heard it was a mess from the beginning. Bob Hudson comes in and made it worse. It wasn't until Ron got ahold of it and ran it right. People laught at Ron for being Mr. Cheap, but his plan worked. Moving the studios to it's current location was a good idea. It's a shame that the zoning board of Sumner County kept it dark as long as they could, stopping Ted Johnson and his dad from finding a tower site. It's funny that it had to move to the county line, SHAME ON SUMNER COUNTY!

This is one reason Pat why me and Bill Draper at Gallatin Electric got into a "heated discussion" on why I have lost much pride in Gallatin and Sumner County, but from what I hear, it's going on all over the country. I call it plan ole political & corporate GREED! You do everything to cut back on the expense of running a small business or your home, but then, the big dog wants more! Portland, Gallatin, Westmoreland, White House, etc. may be small towns, but it seems that behind the curtain, it's NASTY, GREEDY, CORPORTATE POLITICS running the show! :mad:
 
Scott:

You're spot-on about the politocraps ruining this area. You can't do business in Nashville anymore. You know Starbucks won't build in Davidson County anymore, etc? The good side of it is that these arrogant gvt morons are so full of themselves and us semi-normal everyday middle income folks are growing sick and tired of their games. They are building a wall around themselves and as we all get more frustrated and vocal, eventually things will come to a head. We've got a lot of more important things to worry about than a couple of radio towers in the middle of a field near nothing or someone speeding one mile over the speed limit gets pulled over. The more people read or hear about this sort of garbage, the sooner we'll start getting some freedoms back in this country. Sorry, I know I got off subject.
 
Tibbs2 said:
Scott:

You're spot-on about the politocraps ruining this area. You can't do business in Nashville anymore. You know Starbucks won't build in Davidson County anymore, etc? The good side of it is that these arrogant gvt morons are so full of themselves and us semi-normal everyday middle income folks are growing sick and tired of their games. They are building a wall around themselves and as we all get more frustrated and vocal, eventually things will come to a head. We've got a lot of more important things to worry about than a couple of radio towers in the middle of a field near nothing or someone speeding one mile over the speed limit gets pulled over. The more people read or hear about this sort of garbage, the sooner we'll start getting some freedoms back in this country. Sorry, I know I got off subject.
Click to expand...

The NIMBY's have started alot of this bullcrap. What burns me up Tibbs is this, these people want Cell Service in thier subdivision they live in, but they don't want the tower or monople there. Then they get all tore up when thier cell phones won't work. Usually, it's some ole fart in the subdivision that still uses an old AT&T land line and a 1995 analog cell phone the Verizon refuses to upgrade.

I was listening to one of WVOL's talk show coming home one afternoon. The host was Pastor Fuzz of the Nashville NAACP. He was supporting a group of citizens against T-Mobile building a cell tower near an East Nashville subdivision. All his callers were old, complaing they would get cancer, silly stuff. I hope Fuzz reads this comment. That so called cell tower your opposed to in East Nashville could SAVE SOMEBODY'S LIFE! You didn't think about that, now did you, AND to get your message out on AM Radio, your sitting under a 5 KW transmtter with six towers behind it and people living around it. This is how silly he puts his message out on cheap towers that were put in in 1959, a danger of falling on to traffic on Brick Church Pk and Whites Creek Pk, but he carries on about a Cell Tower or monople in East Nashville that will HELP the citizens there. Makes no sense to me!
Come on Pastor Fuzz, do your homework. Do the people want their cell phones to work or not? The same with AM radio.

The members of the suburban communities will call us up and want PSA's on about their event coming up, city and county officials want messages on the local AM stations on the air to alert the public about changes or upcoming elections, etc. But my message back to all of them is this, how in the hell are we suppose to get the message out to the public if we don't have the right tower height up according to FCC specs, so they will hear our signal, making us able to get that vital information out to the public.

They want to hear public service announcements, but they don't want to see the towers that carry those messages out? What has gotten into the public. My answer, more education about towers, including Cell Service towers and AM Towers!
 
My understanding was that WMRL was put on (I forget the dude's) name, by an "out of towner" Slim williamson from Geogia built the station i 1979, his two sons, cliff and marty along with a friend, carrol brown (man) moved here from georgia to run it. slim owned two other stations in georgia, and they helped fund the portland station. the call letters WMRL..stood for slims wife..Merle..Cliff did mornings, and then "sold" carrol brown did middays, marty "sold" all day..i was hired to do afternoons, and weekends..sat and sun morning. i had just gone through the obligatory DJ D-I-V-O-R-C-E..and was living with two other friends, and looking for work when this popped up. your right about them not understanding portland..cliff, however had worked for several years as buddy killians right hand man..but was "released" from that position. he had a grasp of the music pub biz..but not the radio end. It was Carrol's idea to play everything from sinatra to the tubes...carrol had zero radio experience, and would often sit his 2 year old son on the boafrd and try to get him to talk.."on the air"..riviting radio for sure..
 
Not entirely accurate delta. While Slim may have been from Georgia, my understanding is he owned a recording company here in Nashville. I have know his son Cliff since he worked with us at WKDA AM in the early 70s. Cliff was married then to the late Connie Eaton, a country singer.
I have run into Cliff a couple of times over here on the row. He's fine, although quite busy as either the COO or the CEO for all of Reba's businesses. Yes....that Reba.
I don't know much about the Portland station though, just wanted to add a little insight on the Williamson family.
 
olebud said:
Not entirely accurate delta. While Slim may have been from Georgia, my understanding is he owned a recording company here in Nashville. I have know his son Cliff since he worked with us at WKDA AM in the early 70s. Cliff was married then to the late Connie Eaton, a country singer.
I have run into Cliff a couple of times over here on the row. He's fine, although quite busy as either the COO or the CEO for all of Reba's businesses. Yes....that Reba.
I don't know much about the Portland station though, just wanted to add a little insight on the Williamson family.
Click to expand...

What happened the first go around when the station went dark in the 80's?
 
yea..oldbud..i was aware of the nashville connection, although i didn't know cliff had worked as a jock in nashville..slim owned scorpian records where a guy named ronnie from portland had a 5 million seller with "the king is gone" . i've talked to cliff a few times over the years and knew he was with "the reba".there are quite a few other details i CHOSE not to mention..we'll have to discuss those live...if we ever get to have that reunion..
 
What happened the first go around when the station went dark in the 80's? do a search on here for WQSI..i've posted a history concerning the rise and fall of the portland empire there..there is quite a bit more..but best left unprinted here..
 
Jack Nicholson said it in Batman

WHAT THIS TOWN NEEDS IS AN ENEMA!

So does most of radio - no matter what format.

and now to put the finishing touches on my new interactive website,

WHAT IS RIGHT ABOUT RADIO.

It will be the shortest message board in the history of radio.

Hey, an if anyone is truly interested in making GREAT radio again, I know all the legendary
jocks that are not currently employed...JACK ARMSTRONG, CLEVELAND WHEELER, BOB DEARBORN, FRED WINSTON and a laundry list of others. Just an idea, but wouldn't it be novel to put on an ALL TIME GREATEST HITS format (that includes everything up until now) and hire these guys to present it? On second thought, naaawwwwww, that would be much too
entertaining and that means we'd have to fire all of our "expert" PDs for not being productive enough to come up with that. Besides, we, at Conglom-Maxout Radio, encourage mediocrity.
 
Cleveland Wheeler is happy to be back in Chattanooga and is gainfully employed as the morning man on WUUS, a great '60s-'70s-'80s music station. Please scratch him from your list.
 
Update on Cleveland Wheeler

Trying to get that whole story now but apparently, Wheeler walked over the alleged deceit in a "blue skies" picture he was given of what wonderful things were to transpire subsequent to his hiring.

Among rumors, are that the station was being (mis) managed by some former John Boy and Billy board op and musically (under) programmed (unannounced to the staff of two) by a mystery man in San Antonio. The station had no visible presence and no marketing. Wheeler was working bare-bones solo without a news person or sidekick.

No one is for sure but the people who seemed to know bits and pieces, said he still has a home on one of the mountains there.

A guy with a background of wins like Wheeler doesn't need to be involved with amateurs like that ..but where are the pros?

He'd be an upscale catch for big time Nashville radio, for sure. Any of the top guns I mentioned would be too. All it takes is for someone with more than a clock for brains, to take that step.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom