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Worst owners

F

ftballfan

I bet one can think of some pretty bad owners.

My nomination for worst radio station owner is Roy Henderson. He owns 15-20 stations in Michigan and Texas, and maybe five are on the air at any given time. In Michigan, he owns six radio stations and only one of them (101.9 WLDR Traverse City) is always on the air. Four of them are off the air most of the time and have been like that for most of the past ten to fifteen years. The stations are:
92.3 WBNZ Frankfort - it was licensed in the late 1990s, yet it's been off more than on (however, it was on the air consistently in the late 2000s, but hasn't been on in the past few months)
99.3 WOUF Beulah - see 92.3, except 99.3 had a good history (as WBNZ) before Henderson purchased it in around 2000
100.1 WCUZ Bear Lake - hasn't been on for more than a year consistently in at least 15 years (it was most recently on from last February through about Christmas with a news/talk format that aired the same shows as a nearly 50kW AM station owned by a competitor)
1340 WMTE Manistee - The previous owners shut it off in 2010, Henderson bought it a few months later, it allegedly has returned to the air a few times since then using a longwire antenna, but I haven't heard it on

Dishonorable mention goes to Radioactive LLC. They have multiple radio stations in multiple states and most of them are silent due to "staffing issues" and are licensed to run miniscule power amounts (i.e. 250W from a 30 foot tower)
 
Tom Whitehead, owner & GM of KWHI/KTTX in Brenham, Texas, is a functional sociopath. His own mother can barely stand him. :-\
 
Scout said:
Tom Whitehead, owner & GM of KWHI/KTTX in Brenham, Texas, is a functional sociopath. His own mother can barely stand him. :-\
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That's insane. Ironically, one of Roy Henderson's Texas stations is licensed to Brenham.
 
ftballfan said:
That's insane. Ironically, one of Roy Henderson's Texas stations is licensed to Brenham.
Click to expand...

Yep. And it is managed and programmed as haphazardly as his other properties.
 
My nominee would be FW Robbert Broadcasting, the owners of WMQM in Memphis, WNQM in Nashville, and WWCR shortwave among others. They're probably the bottom of the barrel in dollar a holler stations and allow any crackpot on that flashes enough money in their faces.
 
anotherguy said:
My nominee would be FW Robbert Broadcasting, the owners of WMQM in Memphis, WNQM in Nashville, and WWCR shortwave among others. They're probably the bottom of the barrel in dollar a holler stations and allow any crackpot on that flashes enough money in their faces.
Click to expand...

I checked out their website and it does, indeed, seem terribly low rent, but I'd be interested to know what kind of abuse is heaped upon its employees -- although I can't imagine WNQM has all that many in the first place.
 
Scout said:
anotherguy said:
My nominee would be FW Robbert Broadcasting, the owners of WMQM in Memphis, WNQM in Nashville, and WWCR shortwave among others. They're probably the bottom of the barrel in dollar a holler stations and allow any crackpot on that flashes enough money in their faces.
Click to expand...
I checked out their website and it does, indeed, seem terribly low rent, but I'd be interested to know what kind of abuse is heaped upon its employees -- although I can't imagine WNQM has all that many in the first place.
Click to expand...
Not anymore. They only have a skeleton crew there now, compared to what they once had. The station in Nashville is actually "managed" (term used loosely here) from the home office (WVOG studios) in New Orleans.

http://www.wwcr.com

Go to the photo gallery, and see the current staffers who still work there.
 
I was thinking mainly about the poor quality of the FW Robbert stations I'm familiar with, and allowing anything on for a buck. I don't know about how their employees are treated.
 
I managed to work for them for 11 years. But the first year of that was mainly weekends, with the rest being primarily overnights. The only reason why I was able to stay there for as long as I was is because I was the only one who would work overnights (at the time). So I was spared a lot of the "office b.s." that brought the rest of them down. Even so, I was still blamed for things that I had nothing to do with, but was usually given the "kid gloves" treatment because they knew that they would have trouble filling the overnight shift without me there.
 
Hey Scout/ftballfan:

I'll see your Whitehead and Henderson, and raise you a Jerry Russell.

(I know he is no longer with us, but neither are a handful of the stations he once owned in Texas.)
 
purpledevil said:
I'll see your Whitehead and Henderson, and raise you a Jerry Russell.
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I believe I've heard the name before, but the only Russell I know firsthand is Jack Russell -- another brilliant broadcasting mind who is slowly killing an FM cluster in the East Texas town of Center. That's also where I met Danny McWilliams, the most incompetent, chicken hearted GM...well, maybe ever.
 
Scout said:
purpledevil said:
I'll see your Whitehead and Henderson, and raise you a Jerry Russell.
Click to expand...

I believe I've heard the name before, but the only Russell I know firsthand is Jack Russell -- another brilliant broadcasting mind who is slowly killing an FM cluster in the East Texas town of Center. That's also where I met Danny McWilliams, the most incompetent, chicken hearted GM...well, maybe ever.
Click to expand...

Wonder if Jack and Jerry were related? Google KZEY or KOFY, scout. This is where you've probably heard of Jerry Russell.
 
Willis Broadcasting (Levi Willis) owns stations in Virginia and the Carolinas, he makes frequent appearances in those "worst stations" threads. His stations generally run religious formats, but its the lack of technical upkeep that makes him famous. I remember reading one of his FM stations had its transmitter on a front porch, when it rained it jumped frequencies. His other properties are apparently run with that much care too ....
 
WHDM, McKenzie, TN, in the Dick Bennett era (early '90s). The station owed money to ASCAP, so we were not allowed to (knowingly!) play anything published, or even co-published, by ASCAP. They apparently also owed money to ABC (their apparently former news network), so we did not carry any network news, this at the height of the first Persian Gulf War! :eek: And even our local "news" consisted primarily of "news" of upcoming local events like fish fries, bake sales, etc. (Think of the kinds of announcements that your high school prinicipal did over the intercom every day at the end of the school day!) And even in 1991, they STILL did not have a CD player yet!

WIZO, Franklin, TN, when Alice Jackson owned it. She came from a journalism background, so she was very good with news, but apparently knew next to nothing about the broadcasting end of things. She couldn't afford to keep the building heated, and there were only a few space heaters in the back, but that was about it. Most of the rest of the building was freezing cold! She checked the mail every day, specifically looking for any checks that might have come in. At least, she could afford real network news, and had a satellite feed providing music for the rest of the hour. She probably couldn't have afforded to pay live djs. A couple of years later, she sold the station to hispanic interests, and it is now WHEW, broadcasting all programming in Spanish.

WDXN, Clarksville, TN, in the "Big Daddy Bobbaloo" era. This egomaniac actually put up billboards all over town promoting himself, saying that he was "back." I asked around if anyone actually "missed" him, and the answer was no! He got hit with a sexual harassment charge (which made THEIR news!) and had to leave soon after. (Notice that I did not use his real name here.)
 
firepoint525 said:
The station owed money to ASCAP, so we were not allowed to (knowingly!) play anything published, or even co-published, by ASCAP.
Click to expand...

I ran into the same thing at a little daytime AM in Bellville, Texas -- at 1090 KACO; this was in 1988, the "on air" light was a yellow bulb and we played records! That's where I learned the phrase "Cue burn." ;D
 
Scout, you reminded me of an example of a station that, unlike my other examples above, I never worked for: the old WDSG in Dyersburg, TN (DSG stood for Dyersburg State Gazette, the newspaper there, but could also have been used as shorthand for Dyersburg itself). I knew a guy back in college whose first radio job had been there, and he claimed that they never even taught him how to cue a record! :eek:

I'm also reminded of this example about WDSG from one of my old threads. Hit this link and scroll all the way to the bottom of that first page. Since I never worked there, I can't tell the story like this guy can!

http://radiodiscussions.com/smf/index.php?topic=183529.0
 
I checked it out and, uh, well...wow! There does seem to be a worse owner out there other than Tom Whitehead! Maybe. That lady seemed more shady than abusive. How do these people end up owning radio stations?!?! ???
 
Scout said:
firepoint525 said:
The station owed money to ASCAP, so we were not allowed to (knowingly!) play anything published, or even co-published, by ASCAP.
Click to expand...

I ran into the same thing at a little daytime AM in Bellville, Texas -- at 1090 KACO; this was in 1988, the "on air" light was a yellow bulb and we played records! That's where I learned the phrase "Cue burn." ;D
Click to expand...

Small world.....
 
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