Well, I suppose it is finally time to mourn the passing of a once legendary station in the shamokin area. I've been wondering had happened to it. YOu see, I too had cut my teeth, along with a few fingers in the hollowed halls of WISL! Can't say I'm surprised by it...that station was doomed from the start since being sold to CC back in 2000.
Before that it was a strong full service station for more than 50 years. But after after a failed attempt to bring back the AM powerhouse back in 2002. In fact, I was hired there by radioboss, and after just serving my internship at another local Fm station was hired as News Director of WISL.
So you can see the career ladder was missing a few steps. But, I was just pleased to be working in radio at the time. In the course of about 30 days, I was recommended to take over as the GM of this up start station. With no budget and no idea what direction ownership wanted to take the station I took over the reigns of running it...I mean what was the worst that could happen...right?
Well I made the mistake of hiring people that I knew to help with sales and I shouldn't hold anything against them because we really had no product to sell..I mean, the station was sometimes on the air and sometimes not..in the early days of the "resurge". In fact, most days while I was the ND, I had to go out to the TX site to turn the damn thing on, then head in to the sation to do the news. That was fun for like a minute!
Plus, trying to contact the owner was something of a mystery..sometimes he answered sometimes he didn't..check that..MOST times he didn't...This guy was a real nut....he told us that he had a "station vehicle" for us to use..but he used it to get around not us! Then, the issue of pay came into light when the staff and I waited for alomst 90 days until we recieved payment for our services. Not to mention allt he technical problems that were addressed by me but never resolved...of course what's a GM supposed to do when you cannot make a decision without getting ownership approval...Has anyone else ever had to pay staff with the Petty cash? umm yeah that's how we did it for a while....!!!!!
We had a contract with ABC oldies affilliate but the never came to fruition because there wasn't an automation system in place to operate in corectly..it was on the air for 2 weeks..and when they would break in with what Nat'l spots to remove from the rotation...well that went over the air ..pretty much everything went over the air .....except for a legal ID...thank god no one took the station seriously so no one listened....cept for the CC country station down the hall..but they turned a blind eye to us.
This was my first venture in radio and I can say that I must be really dedicated to the craft because anyone else would have ran for the hills and said nevermind but I pressed on and after several failed attempts at other Am'ers i landed with Citadel and finally feel like I'm at a working station.....
I have more stories about the ownership at WISL that would amaze you at how we mananged to stay on the air physically and legally....but I said enough for one post!!!!
