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...
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