Realizing the Magic was not going to cure all ills of this poor sick little radio station we decided to explore, what is called in the radio business "The Greater Fool Theory" That is find somebody with a bigger ego than ours to come in and buy the Station.
We talked to several radio station brokers, but there seemed little encouragement. We had a eureka moment and realized the best salesman in the World, Bob Coker could sell anything, could spread a little Magic and sell this puppy.
I put in a telephone call to the Century 21 Office and asked the receptionist to speak with him, she in a disturbed tone ask me to hold, which I did, and seemed to be an extended period of time. Then another female voice picks up and says "you want to speak with Mr. Coker?" I say "yes, just for a moment, I have a listing for him" she says in a very sedate voice" Mr. Coker passed away six months ago, instantly, with a massive heart attack." He was 39.
We had decided to change the format of the Station from News/Talk to Oldies and Beach Music in that no other Station was doing that exclusively, still nobody listened.
Then we changer the format to Nostalgia/Big Band known as "Music of Your Life" at the time, but also called by anyone under 40 as "Music of your Death" The programming was exclusively targeted at folks 55 and older back then, which meant it was music from the 30s, 40s, and very early 50's. We were also able to receive all of the programming from satellite, which saved us considerably on payroll. We also changed the call letters from the Heritage WMYB to WCSE "Classy 1450"
The first Arbitron Rating Book had come in after the change and for the first time in more years than anyone could remember the Station had received ratings, about 2 points. which isn't much, and all of the listeners had come from WJYR, the beautiful music station, yet they were still number one. So what we had effectively done was peel off the older, less attractive audience to advertisers, from them.
Though this was some satisfaction that someone was listening, it was not near enough traction to build any momentum and we had tired of "chasing bad money"
We retained an auction Company to come in and auction off the property, the Company advertised it well Nationally in all of the Trade publications and the Wall Street Journal. No bidders showed.
We received an offer to buy the Station from some guy based in the Mountains of Colorado. He had some sort of cultish religion that he broadcast over satellite to his flock and felt the Station and Myrtle Beach would be a good base. He offered us one million shares in his broadcasting corporation for our assets.
The two of us discussed the offer and decided one million of anything was more valuable than what we had and would stop our financial bleeding. We took his stock which never appreciated, though he took control of the station, I do not think he ever broadcast from it. The Station went dark which means he just turned it off.
Our experience with the Station had involved a total of five deaths, including the double murder of the previous operators, Coker, a suicide, the tragic death of Bill Allman's college age son in a car accident, I paid the funeral costs for his funeral. Three divorces, and thousands of lost dollars in investment. It was well past time to fold.
Numerous lessons learned, there are bad radio stations, in real estate it is location, location, location. In radio it is signal, signal, signal. regardless of format or management. To paraphrase the Gatlin Brothers song, "all the gold n Myrtle Beach is in Bank in somebody else's name" most of it at that time was a Company known as Myrtle Beach Farms, now called Burroughs and Chapin, the last name of the two original land owners of the area. They were the radio stations landlord at the tower-transmitter site, and required the tower be moved so they could build their Broadway at the Beach which now occupies the huge lot where the tower sat.
It was many years before either one of us went back to Myrtle Beach, even for a visit. That has now passed and my youngest son, who was not yet born at the time of this misadventure, has lived there for three years, ironically working in management for an oceanfront hotel.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Myrtle Beach Magic Part III
As you can see we cleaned up the outside, but also freshened the inside with new paint, carpeting and resort furniture. The building is always the easy part. The difficult part is the personnel.
WMYB was no different than any other neglected radio station I had been in, structurally or the type of people. Though there was one exception in the WMYB case. The office manager-traffic manager-receptionist was a winner. Carolyn Neyrey was a sharp and sassy blonde that got with the program of what we needed to do to make things better. She had a great smile and attitude plus God had gifted her in a way that allowed me to make an exception to my hard and fast "no jeans" in the office rule. Carolyn was a native, so knew many of the ins and outs that outsiders like us might not be aware.
The rest of the staff that we had inherited was the usual motley crew that probably should not even be allowed to listen to radio, what else be on the air. But these were the days before satellite and computer hard drive programming, so you had to deal with them until you could find talented and qualified replacements, which we eventually did.
During my first year in the radio business in New Martinsville, WV, I had a high school student who had worked on the air part time and presented newscasts. Jim Forbes. Jim had a desire to have a career in broadcasting and later attended Marshall University with that goal in mind. Jim was about to get out of school, he had talent and I knew him well. I could trust him, though while working at the station in New Martinsville, if he were the only one at the station and was hungry. He would put Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin which ran over eight minutes in playing time on the turntable and drive quickly through the McDonalds Drive Thru, often not making it back before the record timed out. This of course did not set well with me, plus it was against FCC Regulations which forbid you to leave a station unattended, neither of which seemed as important to Jim as feeding his high school hunger pangs.
We saw Jim as an ideal and affordable if not experienced person to bring in as our News Director and "eyes" at the Station. Jim, never shy of having a good time accepted the opportunity at Myrtle Beach.
Jim and my first work assignment was attending a National Association of Broadcasters Seminar on AM Radio that was held in Charlotte, NC. One night there after an expensive steak dinner for us both and three martinis for me. I suggested Jim be my designated driver and we make a visit to nearby Heritage Village, the elaborate amusement park built by Jim and Tammy Baker of the religious PTL television fame. I had never been there and was curious to see it in person. Once we arrived in the Park, I recalled that Pastor Jim had solicited money to build a home for unwed mothers at the Park. Jim Forbes being single at the time, and me being somewhat gin and vermouth infused, insisted we might want to find the facility and do a panty raid. Jim's judgement was, that was probably not the best idea I had ever had. Which lead me to abandon the suggestion and affirmed he had suitable management skills for the job that was ahead of him at WMYB.
Bill Allman, that had served as General Manager during the interim of the FCC approval left shortly after the closing, which is most often the case when a radio station changes hands. We were to begin with Jim, Carolyn, and a capable young woman I hired, Helen Hancock. Helen was smart, attractive and professional. My father in law at the time, who was a lawyer, suggested one of his female divorce clients that had experience in media sales in West Virginia might want to start anew in Myrtle Beach.
Kathy Taylor, was experienced, personable and attractive, Kathy was perfect for the Market as she could have been easily cast in the television show Designing Women with her looks and Southern charm we had the core of solid and talented people to get us to where we wanted to be.
Embracing my over confident manor following the "no such thing as a bad radio station" mantra and because of the Myrtle Beach Magic. I had failed to do the most simple of due diligence on the radio station. I knew it was a Daytime AM, which means you have to sign off everyday at local sunset, and where the tower and transmitter were located. All other details I was confident would be overcome by the improved management and often aforementioned Magic.
Being the original radio station in Myrtle Beach the signal of the station covered the town of Myrtle Beach well, but the signal did not cover what Myrtle Beach had by then become which is the Grand Strand. The Grand Strand consisted of the area from Little River, SC to the North, to below Murrell's Inlet to the South, a distance of over 30 miles. WMYB's was lucky on a clear day to cover a third of that area. Not a good thing. I rationalized though that with our target being that of the The City of Myrtle Beach's community station this coverage would be enough.
With all of our programming and people being in place. WMYB now had good people and good morale to follow a clearly defined programming niche. We were on our way to success.
The Station sounded good and was serving the community as hoped, it was just there was such a small signal and a smaller number of listeners which meant no new advertisers. Without advertisers there was no revenue to pay back the other people's money we had used to buy the place.
I had received the most recent of the dismal monthly financial statements of the Station and booked a flight to Myrtle to figure out how to make adjustments to get the Station to where we needed to be.
When I walked into the Station I received my usual warm reception from all including Jim. With Allman gone Jim's duties had expanded to include driving sales. I said "Jim, buddy sales suck here! What is going on?" Jim pulled up his shirt and slightly folded down the waistband of his slacks and said "look at what a great tan line I have!" Which really did speak volumes to many of the issues going on at the Station.
I had made the decision that I was going to stay in Myrtle Beach to see if the problems could be repaired or figure out an acceptable exit strategy.
As part of out community programming we did a weekly radio show for the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce that was hosted by Ashby Ward the Director of the Chamber, and another West Virginia native.
When you heard Ashby's voice you knew he had been in radio at one time. He had been an announcer for WMYB in the early years and had an affection for the Station and supported its revival. After he did his show that week he stopped by my office to say hello and ask how things were going. I was honest with him and told him not well. I told him that my idea was to do a radio station for the people of the community and offer them news and information that they had not been able to receive before. Ashby listened with interest and then said,"you should have stopped by and seen me before you made that decision" Him obviously not realizing that though I was only 34 years old at the time, I had all of the answers one could possibly need to embark on this venture. Even with this I thought hear him out, so I asked what he would have told me? He said "the full time residents here do not give a damn about this community or its government, all they care about is one thing, tourists." I responded that he was the Leader of the Chamber of Commerce and surely that could not be the case. He said the Chamber there was basically a tourism group, that is all they wanted, so that is all they were.
The Magic was waning and the financial statements were bleeding red ink and the green of other peoples money was burning fast, something had to change. Had we indeed found a bad radio station?
Stay tuned...
Monday, November 21, 2011
Myrtle Beach Magic Part Deux
Just a few months after the Partnership took over the station they became disturbed by the dwindling sales and huge monthly losses. The investors took a trip to the station to have a heart to heart with the fellow they had invested in and find out the problem.
They found the truth to be that the prominent newsman they had placed their faith and money in was in fact the gay lover of the younger assistant and with the WMYB investment these guys had been funding a tropical love nest for these two.
With our shrewd entreprenuerial instincts we had found motivated sellers and a property that had a clear management problem that could be turned around easily, and of course we had the benefit of my successful turn around experience. This would be like shooting fish in a barrel and indeed we had the Myrtle Beach Magic on our side too. There was no such thing as a bad radio station, just bad management.
We agreed to pay them them $250,000 cash at closing signed the deal and eagerly waited the 120 days for the FCC transfer of license approval to allow us to take over the Station before its condition deterioated more. We were assured that the two guys would maintain the place during that period and this would not be a concern.
Instead what happened was the younger of the two Newsmen/Operators fell in love with a woman, infuriating the senior of the two. The younger man and his new female lover went on the lam leaving Myrtle Beach in fear of their lives. After learning this the senior of the two also left the Beach in pursuit of the lover who had scorned him. The radio station was left with nobody in charge.
I get a call from Wade informing me of the Love Triangle issue and the void it had created. The Federal Communications Commission rules do not allow an applicant for a license to have any input into the management of a station until they have given their final approval, so we were helpless. The sellers were able to rehire a former General Manager of the Station to take over until the closing. A Clarksburg, West Virginia native named Bill Allman. This seemed like a reasonable solution and we eagerly looked forward to the closing before anything else negative could possibly happen.
We weren't that fortunate. A week before the scheduled closing the Myrtle Beach Sun Times had a front page story detailing how the two gay lovers of WMYB had traveled around the Country just missing each other until the previous day the senior of the two found his former lover in a motel room in Salem, Virginia. Senior broke down the door to the room with pistol in hand, his estranged lover was also armed and they simultaneously shot and killed each other.
I was pretty certain from my college Public Relations classes that this incident called for what is known as "crisis management"
In this bizarre case though we decided to ignore the recent history and portray ourselves as the "White Knights" that were there to save Myrtle Beach's original radio station. The station had previously had an FM companion which had been sold off prior and now operated in a different facility. The station was WJYR, Beautiful "elevator" Music, but with the predominance of retirees in Myrtle Beach it was the number one ranked station in the Market. The other popular station was Myrtle Beach's Heritage Rock Station WKZQ, which I had always enjoyed when at the Beach. Also at about the same time a 100,000 watt sleepy FM station licensed to Conway,SC had been purchased and changed to a "flame throwing" pop format that they were calling "The Wave" WMYB did not even show up in the Arbitron Ratings. We were fearless, remember.
After a non scientific analysis of the Market, as to needs and voids in programming and knowing the station was the only stand alone AM in Myrtle Beach, which is tantamount to being an orphan at a family reunion. I brilliantly decided that WMYB would be Myrtle Beach's Community and News Station.
The only programming the Station had made any revenue with was Myrtle Beach High School
Football broadcasts. I felt we could build upon that with heavy localism and news and the natives and full time residents would love us.
The Voice of Myrtle Beach was launched with great fanfare. we had an affiliation with NBC Radio News and local news support. We were on our way to a huge success, what I felt would be a groundswell of community support, and perhaps even a key to the city.
With this quick turnaround and contribution to the community we knew the task of raising more money from investors to further exploit the Myrtle Beach Magic would be a breeze.
In the next episode we'll discover more about the characters involved in this fun filled adventure...
Photo of WMYB courtesy of Tom Myslinski of New Martinsville, WV, who was a member of a party of golfers that visited the Beach during this time. During their visit I hosted a pig roast in their honor and offered other tourist tips to several in the group. Though well over 25 years have passed, I am pretty sure I could raise some "hush money" from them to not do a blog on that week's antics.
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