WORST Tennessee stations of all-time

[NotSoClearChannel]

[I suppose, like the rest of you, that WCMT is good at what they do, but they would never make it in the big city where they actually had some real competition. Like so many small-town stations, they are a big fish in a small pond.

Absolutely! You have to give it to Paul...he knows how to work the small town angle.

NSCC

 

[firepoint525]

It's worth noting that because of me, WCMT has now gotten mentions on both the best AND worst Tennessee radio stations threads! I should further point out, however, that my mention here primarily refers to WCMT-FM, particularly during the 1980s and early 1990s. Not to say that that WCMT-AM was well-programmed during that time, but it didn't make sense to continue to program the AM live (while continuing to automate the FM) after most of your listeners had migrated over to FM. The afore-mentioned WALR (for example) gave up its diet of automation and elevator music in 1980, which was probably early for a small-town FM station. WCMT-FM, meanwhile, was still hooked up to the machinery at least as late as 1992. At least, beginning then, Paul began moving the live djs off of WCMT-AM. The AM's broadcast day (after that vaunted "good times in the morning," anyway) is now largely made up of Rush and Sean, with the evenings and overnights also now primarily given over to the satellite-fed network talk shows. Makes more sense than having live djs when you're only pumping out 54 watts.

 

[Bat Fastard]

Yeah, the place sucked...but it was RADIO, man. I would have worked for free.

If you had worked there after Tinkle took over, you would have just about had to! He probably puts in something like 100 hours a week into the station, including selling ads, high school play-by-play, and those oh-so-boring remotes, and he expects his staffers to have that kind of dedication, too, only without the pay. No wonder turnover was always so high there!

Somehow, this doesn't surprise me. I AM surprised that this is the path Paul took for his career. I would have guessed that he would pursue life in the radio bigs. That he chose to remain in his home town perhaps isn't surprising to some, but it is to me.

I talked with someone who worked there and confirmed the micro-managing. They said he tends to "hover" over you while you worked. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to live like that.

Credit where it's due: he's been successful and in some circles, that's all that's important.

In some circles.

 

[firepoint525]

Paul has now been with that station for more than half of its history. They came on the air in 1957, and he joined them (permanently, this time) in 1981. He also briefly worked for WCMT while he was in high school in the early 1970s, this according to the station history page on the WCMT website.

 

[firepoint525]

Any of the dollar a holler stations that are owned by FW Robbert: WNQM and WWCR shortwave in Nashville, WMQM and WLRM in Memphis. They also bought AM 730 in West Memphis, AR, but I think they're still sports talk for now, and I think they have a station in Knoxville as well.

Their mission is to "get out the word," yet most people, at least here in Nashville, have never heard of them. So much for "getting out the word"! :

A former sales manager at the station tried to get station management to increase the station's visibility in the community. Save for power increases, that never happened. How can you listen to a station if you don't even know that it exists? :

 

[anotherguyTN]

They probably don't care if nobody listens as long as they're gwetting paid for the airtime by anybody who's willing to flash enough money in their faces. On the Memphis board a former employee has said before their god (little "g") is green.

 

[firepoint525]

They probably don't care if nobody listens as long as they're getting paid for the airtime by anybody who's willing to flash enough money in their faces. On the Memphis board a former employee has said before their god (little "g") is green.

I can tell you that at the Nashville office, the same mindset applies. However, it seems to me that if broadcasters don't get at least some monetary feedback from their listeners, then they won't be broadcasting with them for very long. Evidently, they encourage their own congregations, followers, etc., to listen in, thus bringing in a "built-in" audience with them to support them with $$$$. But it seems to me that they could leave out the middleman, and accomplish the same thing by "passing the plate" at church. But hey, maybe that's just me.

 

[firepoint525]

[I suppose, like the rest of you, that WCMT is good at what they do, but they would never make it in the big city where they actually had some real competition. Like so many small-town stations, they are a big fish in a small pond.

Absolutely! You have to give it to Paul...he knows how to work the small town angle.

I talked with someone who worked there and confirmed the micro-managing. They said he tends to "hover" over you while you worked. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to live like that.

Credit where it's due: he's been successful and in some circles, that's all that's important.

In some circles.
NSCC

And therein lies the paradox of how WCMT has made the list of "best stations in Tennessee," while also making the list of "worst stations" here in the volunteer state. 8)

 

[firepoint525]

They probably don't care if nobody listens as long as they're getting paid for the airtime by anybody who's willing to flash enough money in their faces. On the Memphis board a former employee has said before their god (little "g") is green.

I can tell you that at the Nashville office, the same mindset applies. However, it seems to me that if broadcasters don't get at least some monetary feedback from their listeners, then they won't be broadcasting with them for very long. Evidently, they encourage their own congregations, followers, etc., to listen in, thus bringing in a "built-in" audience with them to support them with $$$$. But it seems to me that they could leave out the middleman, and accomplish the same thing by "passing the plate" at church. But hey, maybe that's just me.

To add to what I posted earlier:

We once had an infomercial advertiser who (apparently) complained about the lack of response to one of his infomercials. These guys swoop down on unsold airtime like vultures, and then they have the aducacity to complain about the LACK of a response? They might want to consider asking themselves why the airtime was unsold, in the first place! :

 

[RadioGaGa75]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned WBCR 1470 in Alcoa, TN. All of that crazy ultra-conservative right wing militia programming that makes Rush Limbaugh look like the poster boy for the NAACP along with a bad signal and bad production, and what a stinker!!!

 

[firepoint525]

Bo Bradshaw's bio on the Mix 92.9 website tells the story of the fire that burned down the old WALR in Union City far better than I ever could! He witnessed it first hand!

http://www.mix929.com/programs/bo-bradshaw

 

[oldTomG]

I worked at that old WCMT way back before it was Thunderbolt Broadcasting years ago and also in 2006 when it was. It hasn't changed much at all. The now GM, PT thinks they are what young people call the Shizzle Dizzle but it one of the worst in TN. Terrible management, dead air all the time, horrible male and female voices on air and commercials too and the GM is one of those who works 90 hours a week and expects everyone else there to do the same with at no extra pay. With that local Goodyear plant closing down there and the stock market freefall to boot it's going to be tough times for that little Martin group of stations. So long WCMT and Company. Even CC wouldn't want ya!

Old Tom G
Still Alive and Kicking

I'm guessing that all of the stations mentioned so far have been AM stations, so it's time to add an FM station into the mix. WCMT-FM of Martin, TN. Up until about 1992, they were still automated with reel-to-reel tapes, and may have used those tapes for even longer than that! That may have made sense back in the '60s and '70s, when listenership on AM radio far surpassed that of its FM counterparts. But to continue to program the AM live while automating the FM (which is what WCMT was still doing as recently as the early '90s) didn't make any sense at all. Martin is a college town, so it isn't like Tinkle couldn't have found jocks to work the station for cheap! : To make matters worse, they were still playing '50s and '60s oldies on that station (again, remember, it's a college town!) on the weekends until as late as at least 1992! We would get requests from as far away as southern Illinois (for the FM station, of course), but since the FM was automated, we couldn't play them! : Meanwhile, we were live on our AM station pumping out a whopping 54 watts at night! :

My first commercial gig (after a brief, but pivotal appearance on WUTM-FM, the 10-watt wonder) was at WCMT, B.T. (before Tinkle). It was 1973 and Tinkle was at U.T.M., working on what was then WALR-FM, on the Highway between Union City and South Fulton.

J.T. Sudbury of Blythville, Ark. owned it but rarely came to town. Duke Drumm was the G.M. The A.M. was old-style block programming with Country in mornings with engineer Herb Cathey and in the middays with Gary Tuck, who switched to pop music in the afternoons. A variety of UTM kids rotated throughout the afternoon and nighttime dayparts.

The AM was a daytimer then and the FM was mostly automated with truly bad elevator music. The automation system was a box (about the size of a big microwave" that contained several reels that repeated. We called it the "fairy box". In those days, the FM would sign off at 11pm. There was no provision for playing spots while on the fairy box, even if they HAD sold any. The place was full of memorable and colorful people.

It was the perfect place to allow a complete beginner (me) the opportunity to be truly bad on the radio...and slowly improve. Yeah, the place sucked...but it was RADIO, man. I would have worked for free.

 

[NotSoClearChannel]

Which begs the question, has PT worked anywhere else in radio? Has he spent his whole career in small market radio?

As a listener to his stations (not that often though), I agree that the value put into the on-air product is awful.

NSCC

 

[firepoint525]

Which begs the question, has PT worked anywhere else in radio? Has he spent his whole career in small market radio?
As a listener to his stations (not that often though), I agree that the value put into the on-air product is awful.
NSCC

According to someone earlier on this thread (also on wikipedia, for what that is worth), he was at the former WALR in Union City, when they were in their former studio on the old Fulton highway, now known as KenTenn Road. That was in the '70s. He was also at WYMC in Mayfield, KY. I believe that this was shortly before he returned to WCMT in 1981 or so. I believe that he was also at at least one station in Paducah, although I don't know which one.

 

[oldTomG]

Yep, small market radio only. He thinks he's something because he hob knobs with some people in a little bit larger markets.

Old Tom G
Still alive and kicking

Which begs the question, has PT worked anywhere else in radio? Has he spent his whole career in small market radio?

As a listener to his stations (not that often though), I agree that the value put into the on-air product is awful.

NSCC

 

[firepoint525]

This is the pic that Tinkle does not want you to see! Scroll down to the very bottom; he is on the far left in the bottom-most photo:

http://mywymc.com/photos/

The clothes are hilarious! And his aren't even the worst! Here is the same photo, enlarged:

http://mywymc.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/original-on-air-staff-wymc-10-18-761.jpg

 

[RadioZack]

I interviewed with Paul Tinkle around 8 years ago for the PD job at WCMT. I was fresh out of college and had been steadily rising through the Nashville ranks and I first met him at a TAB job fair at the Maxwell House Hotel, where I gave him my resume. I was working for Citadel part-time and couldn't find full-time work in Nashville for anything, so when he called me a few weeks later, I entertained the interview. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life (and not in a good way).

I was living in Mt Juliet at the time, so it was about a 3-hour haul to Martin, meaning I left sometime around 5:30am, WAY before my normal rise-and-shine time. I had expected to be there an hour or two and then go back home. It didn't exactly turn out that way.

I got to the station and he showed me around, brought me into his office and asked me a few questions. Then, he said he had to meet with a client and suggested I spend some time with the outgoing PD. Once Tinkle left the room, that guy closed the door and said, "Get the hell out of here while you can. You DO NOT want to work for that prick," and then went on to call Tinkle every other name not fit for print as he told me what an awful micromanager he is. He told me that he had lied to Tinkle and said that he had taken a job as a PD in Missouri somewhere, but in reality he didn't really have another job offer anywhere. He just wanted to get away from Tinkle, and that if Tinkle knew he was just quitting without another gig lined up, he wouldn't have allowed him to work out (and get paid for) his final two weeks.

Tinkle then took me to the local greasy-spoon and introduced me AS HIS NEW PD to, I kid you not, everybody in the restaurant. The interview continued in his car as he took me all over northwest Tennessee... Union City, South Fulton, McKenzie, everywhere. Once we got back to Martin, we sneaked into the basketball arena at UTM through the back door and he proceeded to give me Pat Head Summitt's entire family history. After that, we went to the courthouse and sat through about 5 cases so that he could introduce me, again as his new PD, to the judge and the sheriff, who both were apparently investors in WCMT.

So, it's been about 6 hours at this point--3 in the afternoon or so--and Tinkle takes me to his house, where the interview continues in his living room with his wife. We're there about an hour or so and he takes me back to the radio station. I'm SO glad at this point to be going home...but then he pulls out the WCMT photo albums--EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM--and goes through them with me page-by-page telling me about every freaking remote he'd ever done.

It was dark when I left Martin. I'd been there 9 or 10 hours. He had just assumed that I'd already agreed to take the job (probably because everybody else he'd ever tried to interview this long had just left on him), and told me that I could start in a week and a half and then went on to tell me about all the apartment complexes in town.

I told him I'd have to think about it...and that didn't take long. I probably should have just told him then and there that I was not interested, but I at least drove back to Mt Juliet and slept on it, and called him the next morning and told him I wasn't going to be working for him, now or ever.

A couple of years ago, I was covering a Titans game for my then-employer (WUMP - Huntsville, Ala.) and was in the pressbox. Next to my normal seat was a card that said "RESERVED FOR WCMT". My first thought was, "oh shit"... Sure enough, it was Tinkle. Apparently it was Titans Radio Affiliate Day, when they give credentials to representatives from every affiliate. I prayed that he wouldn't recognize me, and thank God he didn't. By the way, I found another seat. I didn't want to risk him suddenly having an epiphany as to who I was. I'm not sure I could have handled another conversation with that man.

 

[jharmon]

Small town, small market radio.
Obviously tied in with the local movers and shakers, far better than big corporate groups.
Whatever happened to the out-going PD?
Interesting story.

 

[firepoint525]

I interviewed with Paul Tinkle around 8 years ago for the PD job at WCMT. I was fresh out of college and had been steadily rising through the Nashville ranks and I first met him at a TAB job fair at the Maxwell House Hotel, where I gave him my resume. I was working for Citadel part-time and couldn't find full-time work in Nashville for anything, so when he called me a few weeks later, I entertained the interview. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life (and not in a good way).

Tinkle also got hold of my resume' at one of those same TAB job fairs at the Maxwell House. (I did NOT talk to him, nor did I give him my resume'!) Somehow, he got hold of it and called me anyway. Since I had worked for him before, I turned him down FLAT! (No need in worrying about him recognizing you, because he also didn't recognize me, and I had previously worked for him! There was also another former employee of his there--representing the station that he NOW works for--and Tinkle didn't recognize him, either, AFAIK.)

 

[Kent T]

WLLJ-103.1 Etowah, WBBX 102.7 Trenton, GA. Programming very good, technically lousy (has had a long record of frequent off air periods and they overdeviate to high levels (if the FCC inspected them, I'd bet on fines. Contemporary Christian Music. And owned by an absentee owner.