Station Owners' antics vs. Real Programming

Recently I read an article regarding the actions and antics of the Zwerling family, Michael and his mother, Kay, regarding programming changes they made on their station KOMY-AM. Without repeating the entire story, it seems that basically they changed their station from progressive talk to oldies after giving progressive talk a half-hearted attempt, mixing in a hodgepodge of station advertorials, infomercials and the like.

I'm no fan of talk radio, period, but I do understand business and the principles of supply and demand. What I don't get, however, is why radio station owners are so quick to jump on formats that they either a.) don't believe in or b.) don't know how to make it work.

Having been employed in commercial radio for the better part of the last 15 years, I learned several things in relation to sales in particular:

1.) Many local advertisers buy on emotion rather than results. They either like the station and
its programming, a personality on the station, or have some other personal reason for making the buy. These business people aren't looking at Arbitron ratings, for the most part.

2.) These same advertisers will pull quickly if you change things around too much.

3.) The real business in radio comes from relationships. A bond of trust needs to exist between the business owner and their station rep.

4.) The station must broadcast a format that people will listen to, because with no audience, your entire broadcasting enterprise is rolling along on a roller coaster, and a fall is somewhere down the path.

I could not sell a format that I didn't personally believe in. I successfully sold thousands of dollars a year of advertising on a local Christian station for several years. Every one of the four items I mentioned above came into play during this time period. One of the owners' changes
cost us an advertiser that had been with the station for over 20 years. Nothing would get him to come back, nor did I blame him.

Many owners do not know how to make their format work..for them. This includes adding local elements, interaction with the listeners, involvement in the community, and many other things.

Also, formats that are a result of owners' whims generally cannot sustain themselves over the long haul. Why? Because if you are going to broadcast a format to yourself, it is much cheaper - and better - to buy an iPod or mp3 player, or CD player - and listen to that. Why waste a broadcast signal?

Here's an analogy to another business model to put things into a different perspective:

Suppose Mr. Brown owns a gas station. He's done very well with it, and earns a good living. He has expanded through the years and has several loyal employees now working for him.

But one morning, Mr. Brown has an idea. The previous evening he watched a John Wayne move, and the idea of cowboys comes to mind. He doesn't tell anyone, but a few weeks later, when the customers drive up, they discover not gasline pumps, but a store selling cowboy boots and saddles for horseback riding.

Mr. Brown may still have some customers - maybe even a couple of his gas customers - but he has totally changed his business - its product, its target, and his employees - have now all been affected. Maybe he'll succeed selling cowboy stuff, maybe not - but it was a whim.

Maybe the FCC should just issue the calls WHIM to every station that's operated this way, so we'd know which ones not to be loyal to.

Tallahassee's Job Market..Where Is It?

Sheri Chance of Crawfordville wrote an interesting letter to the Tallahassee Democrat, which was published today. Her husband is in the military. She writes that even though she has lived in the area since July (of 2006) she cannot find a job. She's asking, where is the support for military families?

She's not alone. And, the problem is not just relegated to military families. I know many folks around town that could tell similar stories. People in my own family and even I have run into the tough job market of Tallahassee, Florida.

A family friend currently works for a company in Arkansas. He lives here, but has to either drive or fly to various destinations several times a month to job sites. His pay is good, but the trade-off is..limited time with his daughter; no way to plan in advance, since he never knows what the next destination is; and now the company has had some layoffs, so there's no security with the company either. He's looking, but says he's found very little here that can compare
with his present salary.

My wife, Marianne, received her college degree in August of 2006, after five years of plugging away at her studies, and often making the dean's list. She's still working at Chaires Afterschool program and has had almost no real "bites" related to her degree. I blogged recently about
college degrees recently. I still think they are overrated, at least in Tallahassee.

My last full-time radio gig paid me a whopping $8 per hour. That pay was for being on-air
7 hours a day, 5 days per week, doing sales (no commissions), running errands to the bank and to pay the light bill, handling all the station traffic and program logs, and handling public relations and community liaison issues. That $8 was my top pay even after years with the company, working like a Trojan to keep the station broadcasting and making money.

I've also worked as a clerk for the state. They offered health insurance and benefits. The pay there was a salary but worked out to about $7 per hour.

In 2004, I opted to retire and just forget about the traditional "making a living working for an employer" rut. The pay wasn't that much less to get rid of the headaches!

But to stay on track here..a lot of folks work for the government, the universities or the community college. I don't know what other folks do to maintain all these homes that are constantly being built. I barely was able to buy my mobile home, which was about $30k
in 1989. It took some help from the family to do it.

I've lived in Tallahassee for almost all of my life..and I still don't know where the job market is!

I wish Sheri Chance every success at finding something, but I'm not holding my breath.

Kelley Murphy Ministries

This past Sunday I was privileged to meet Kelley Murphy and her husband, Jamie, and
hear Kelley's music and their testimony. Kelley is the mother to five children. Their second
son, Micah, has autism.

Their story is not one of miraculous healing. Nor is their story even complete..rather it is a compelling story of a young family searching for answers, especially before the diagnosis, when they didn't know what was wrong. It is the story of relying on God for strength when you have
almost no hope left.

Kelley writes her own music and sings beautifully. I'll be playing some of her music on WJJD over the coming months.

If Kelley comes to your area, make it a point to hear their story. It comes from their heart and you will be touched.

Kelley Murphy's web site

Request Show on WJJD..

For the past two weeks, I've been doing a live show on WJJD on Sunday nights..and had an
absolute blast.

From 7 to 9 pm EST, I'll be playing as many requests as I can. Of course, these requests
must be received prior to the program. Once the live feed in rolling, there's not much time
to dig through the stacks, find the song, and wait the required one hour. Internet music regulations state that you can't play a request within one hour of receiving it.

If I don't have requests, then I'll just play what I want, of course!

Feel free to send your favorite country songs and artists to me at alanmccal@hotmail.com.
If I've got it, I will do my best to get it on the air.

A close friend told me a few days ago, "Doesn't look like there's much chance these radio
companies will hire local folks like us. If you want to do radio, you've got to do it for yourself."

I agree, and hope you'll tune in often!

http://www.live365.com/stations/alanmccall

Are College Degrees Overrated?

How many of us heard this line while we were growing up: "Get yourself a good education so you can get a good job.." or something similar?

Marianne received a Biblical book and workbook/journal from one of our churches for her graduation. She was mentioning an item in there to me and I happened to flip through the workbook. I noticed she had written: "I feel so inept and klutzy. I thought getting a degree would help but it hasn't."

This makes me wonder how many others of us feel exactly the same way. I got my primary
radio jobs BEFORE I ever graduated. Matter of fact, at my first radio job, in the classroom we were told to do things one way; while on the job, they told me, 'no, that's not right. For this job, forget what they told you in class..' I ended up leaving college for a year to get the work experience.

I've recently had to look realistically at Tallahassee's radio market and the available jobs.
There's nothing here. More and more stations are bringing in canned shows and/or voicetracking. WTNT's Julie Miles lost her midday shift to a voice-tracked show instead.
I never listen anymore past Cash and Carrie, a local morning show. Magic 107 has put on the syndicated John Tesh show; B103 has Big D and Bubba and I could go on and on..ad nauseaum. AM stations are even worse, if that's possible. I used to listen quite often to Christian radio, but with WCVC's demise there is no station here that appeals to me.

Starting over at 48 has been tough, tough, tough. I've discovered that I like the direct-mail approach of EasyLife Marketing, and have jumped into this venture big time. With one big mailing just two weeks behind me and another coming in February, I'm optimistic that this will
ultimately be a profitable venture. I've also pursued a couple of copywriting gigs, most of which were not worth the time and effort..but 2 or 3 are, and I'm hoping to begin one of those next month as well. I'm actually fairly booked for February. That's promising in itself.

But..did I really need a college degree to do any of this? I think the answer is no. I'm not
sorry that I got it, but I think I'd be at the same point in life without it.

I hope Marianne's degree pays off better than mine has.

Always on a Mountain When I Fall..

One of the country songs about "losing" that's been around for most of my life is
by Merle Haggard called "Always on a Mountain When I Fall." In the chorus he sings,
"Losing wouldn't be so bad at all, but I'm always on a mountain when I fall."

I'm relating more and more to that song, but not in terms of love life. I've about come to
the point of giving up in regards to our housing problem. I can't make our
house pass muster with the Arbor health and safety requirements. I've not heard
anything back from the small housing grant, and in any case, that particular house has already been sold, so it's pretty much a moot point.

I'm tired of brick walls, and of getting my hopes up only to be shot back down. I guess
I'll try to piecemeal fix what is fixable on this place and stop trying to pursue buying something to replace it at this point. I've become frustrated almost to the point of anger and I just can't
continue this battle with no support.

Case in point: We still have no furnace. We have three space heaters, which is probably a violation of the health and safety regs right there..but it is all we can do. I appealed for help in the fall, with no response from anyone. Guess it's not that important to folks that we have no heat, and yet I have two young boys here. My temporary fix was to go to Lowe's and buy three safe space heaters.

My best hope is that the entire proerty will sell, and we'll have to move. Of course, we hope the move is to a bigger farm. That's my dream, and I know it's Mom and Dad's as well.

Chillin' in January..

Actually, it felt like spring today, with temps in the mid 70s.

Marianne and I decided to take a drive to Wakulla County. We packed a picnic lunch
and got outta the house (yay!)

We went and visited with my brother Roy and his family. They are building a house, so we got a tour of the construction, which is in progress. Then headed over to the Sopchoppy park
to eat lunch.

We went back through Panacea and went to the coast, first time we've actually been on a beach in
probably two years.

It was one of those days that just feels..nice. No pressures. No worries. No housework.

That's what I call chillin' in Florida..at 75 degrees!

6 Year Anniversary!

Ladies..gentlemen..I didn't forget! Today marks my six year anniversary.

Good grief..six years already! A lot has changed in my life during that time period.

In 2001, I thought my future with WCVC was a bit more secure. Little did I know all
of the problems that were to come at that station. It really is a good thing that I found life outside of WCVC, or I'd be much more miserable and discouraged than I am now.

In 2001, I wasn't thinking too much about how quickly I'd become a grandpa. Now I'm taking
care of Benjamin(3) and Daniel(2) on a full-time basis. Aaron (8) is also a part of our family,
although technically I guess he's not. We are still close and he often comes to spend Friday nights and Saturdays with us.

I still don't know what Marianne sees in me. I have hard a hard time finding a career path
outside of radio. Nothing feels "right" somehow, and yet, I don't think it's time to pull out the rocking chair and do nothing. I yearn to be a better provider and give her the things she deserves.

In any event, we've been together 6 years today. Guess who's cooking a special dinner
for tonight..

Running A Tighter Operation..

I'm often asked questions concerning the costs of running an internet station. I finally
have some cold hard figures regarding the real costs.

First, here's the breakdown of operating WJJD/WLOR-The Country Giant:

Live 365:
Streaming fees/music royalties to ASCAP, BMI and SESAC:
$383.52 per year, or about $31.96 per month

Internet:
Local provider at $27.99/month ($335.88 annually)

Bottom line answer: $719.40 a year for Country Giant.

The MUSIC OF NEW LIFE station, which I decided to close down in November, was more expensive to run:

Live 365:
$39.95 per month

Internet:
DSL line: $44.95 per month

So NEW LIFE cost $84.90 a month to operate (roughly $1,018.80 annually).

The total annual costs to operate both stations was about $1,738.20. Country listeners
outperformed the Christian audience in terms of support, donations and purchasing from
our sponsors. Basically, the Christians gave lip service while the country audience voted with their support of the broadcasts.

The MUSIC OF NEW LIFE station started out strong, with about $800 in donations. However,
after the first month, contributions lagged and for the final six months, the $84.90 operating cost was coming out of my pocket. Without advertisng support and contributions, it just
didn't make sense to continue.

This is a small scale version of real-life broadcasting. Stations flip and tweak to find a format that brings in listeners and revenue. Stations need both if they are to stay healthy and flourish.

I've decided to concentrate only on the one country station for now. Since signing off
MUSIC of NEW LIFE in November, I have yet to receive a single email from anyone "missing it" so maybe it wasn't quite the station I had hoped it would be. If anyone was blessed or ministered to during the year, however, then it was worth it, by all means.

It is my hope that bigger and better things are yet to come.

Constant State of Flux?

One thing I've found frustrating lately is the fact that it seems like every time I make a
hard decison, like what to do about our house, a brick wall pops up to stop it.

I'd recently come to a decision, and had put things in place for the possibility of actually replacing our mobile home, with one just a little smaller, on this same site.

That's when one of my copywriting letters from last summer happened to be discovered by
a family friend doing some business for a local real estate company.

Last week, my folks received two calls, within hours of each other, from two separate parties who are interested in buying our Tallahassee property.

This brings us full circle to two years ago, when a binder was placed on the property. Believing
a move was immenent, we were told to start packing up some things. Those boxes are floating around the house even now.

Funny thing, I stopped sending out that particular letter last June. Mom and Dad decided to just sit on it for the time being. Of course, the letters are still out there. One was discovered on Jan. 3.

So...will we stay here or will we move? That's been a question we've been dealing with for nearly six years now. I'm about ready for an answer to it - one way or another.

The Downside of Traveling..

During our week long vacation during the holidays, I ended up with a bad case
of sciatica - that horrible sciatic nerve problem that makes it difficult for me to move around.

I didn't have a trace of it when we left Tallahassee on Dec. 26, but by the time we got to
Marianne's parents house in Tennessee, I could barely move. I went swimming twice a day
and used the hot tub, and those things helped..but I'm still aching at night and am not quite up to speed (literally!)

I wonder what the solution is to make traveling more pleasant! I loved the time spent with family, the zoo at Greenville, S.C., and even the (yikes!) karaoke attempt at singing "When the Sun Goes Down" on New Year's Eve..but it would have been better if I hadn't been in so much pain from the sciatica.

I Actually Listened to the Radio...

During our holiday travels, I actually listened to, and liked, several radio personalities
and terrestrial radio stations. Of course, my format of choice is country, for the most part.

We traveled through Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas to visit with family. The stations
that I enjoyed along the way were:

WDEN 99.1 FM in Macon - listened to several hours of Gail Daniels' midday shift and enjoyed it as much as ever. I like WDEN overall, and Gail sounds great on the air. I was especially pleased to note the contact information on the WDEN website. Also I noted that the jingle package is the same as Tallahassee's WAIB (B103.)

KICKS 101.5 in Atlanta - I caught part of Wylie Rose's afternoon drive show and heard a song with "I Will Be Your Everything" in the chorus that I really liked and had never heard. These Georgia stations seem to be ahead of Tallahassee's in the new releases. I think the only thing
about KICKS that I don't like is the long stop-sets, although the "Kicks 1015" ID in the middle is
a nice touch.

WNGC 106.1 in Athens - I only discovered this station during the trip home on Jan. 2. I especially liked the style of Shana Vaughn during the middays and the all-request lunch program. The station reminds me of Tallahassee's long-gone KIX 99.9 and Carole Chastain's midday program.

Also caught just a few minutes of WNPC-AM in Newport, Tennessee, whuch was playing
soft oldies/AC. We lost their 1 kw signal, though, since we were in the mountains at this time.
I would have liked to have been able to listen longer.