Not All Change is For the Best..

..And don't even get me started on politics :)

Earlier this week, I read on a young man's blog about his desire to work for a radio station where
the station and its staff and locally involved in the community, where everyone listens to the Friday night ball games, where residents know the DJs by name..etc. You know, the things that radio was good at. Small-market or small-town radio, would be its moniker.

Researching just a bit in my radio market, I discovered that this type of radio station is just about extinct. But NOT QUITE.

In Thomasville, Georgia, about 35 miles up the road, WSTT-AM 730 is still all local, and manned with a live board operator all day. WSTT is a 5000 watt daytimer with a construction permit to go 25,000 watts. They program black gospel and a number of local preaching shows..with very little syndicated programming. Maybe an infomercial or national show here and there, but obviously, still local.

Kudos to Bill James and station owner Marion Williams for keeping the local touch on WSTT.
I sincerely applaud your effort.

Likewise, Len Robinson at WTUF and its sister station on AM 1240, of which the call sign eludes me at the moment, also is a classy operation with local DJs and community involvement. I'd still
like to go up and visit TUF Radio sometime.

Mostly, the stations I've enjoyed the most are extinct. One that I spent more than 13 years at is on the brink of going silent even as I write this post. I'd love to have the resources to bring this station back, even if under new calls and format, just to keep it from getting deleted out of the FCC database. I don't see it happening unless a BIG miracle takes place. I do see the real possibility of Tallahassee losing this station, which first began in 1953.

In the 70s and 80s I listened to AM 730 - the aforementioned WSTT - a LOT. Back then it was country WLOR, a station I just absolutely loved. After its sale from Mills-Bellamy Enterprises to a new owner in the mid-80s, however, things went downhill for WLOR. When they started playing country music from a satellite, I tuned out. I never really was a regular listener after that.

I considered buying AM 730 in the early 90s when it went silent, but I had applied for a grant
to help with the project, and the grant was not approved. The late John Pembroke eventually bought the station and moved it from its longtime location ("six-tenths of a mile from the city limits of Thomasville, Georgia on Highway 319 South" it proclaimed on an old WLOR sign-off by Carl Barnes) to its current location at Beachton, near JB's Barbecue.

John and I became friends and I met with him a few times while he owned the station, helping him with transmitter tube numbers and such. John's gone to be with the Lord now, but I treasured his friendship and still miss him and his rhyming commercial spots.

If I were to job hunt in radio today, I don't think there's a station here that fits the description of what the young man is looking for. Corporate radio has killed it.

I wish I could somehow bring 1330 back with a strong local presence. But I'm not sure that there are radio people left in Tallahassee with that kind of vision.

Local radio people..owners, DJ's, engineers..thanks for all you do.