Head South Young Man

Hi again, I probably will write this in a few different parts as there is a lot of history to talk about at WMPT from 1975 to 1979. After a big mistake in working at WLYC/WILQ I took some time and worked for a friend of mine selling of all things cut flowers, plants, and floral supplies, wholesale, in a large part of Central Pa. I must admit is was at times a nice job, I covered a lot of ground every week. Well then came the recession of 1975 and the floral industry dried up, so I was laid off. As luck would have it, I ran into Dave Castlebury on the street one day, and told him I was looking and explained my situation. Dave asked me if I would be interested in a short term position, maybe 3 or 4 months doing license renewal for him. In those days the F.C.C. license had to be renewed every 3 years, and the process was quite exhaustive, surveys, and tons of exhibits that the station was serving the "community interest." Well anyway, I took him up, as he was offering a steady pay check, at least for a few months, and the hours were good, and a lot of the work I could do at home and only come into the station after hours to use the copier. As I progressed along in the project I soon found that WMPT was adrift. No one was really at the helm, and while the air sound was decent, with Bob Edwards as the P.D. and a good staff on the air, sales were slumping and critical items were not being attended to. I should point out that after Chuck Hoffman left and Harry Seltzer left, Bob was not given the authority to do a lot. Well to make a long story even longer, after I finished the license application and follow up corrections and additions, Dave asked me if I would be interested in staying on and "helping out." I was given the title of Public Affairs Director. That job involved producing a 30 minute weekly informational show as well as coordinating the station "public file" and other public service programming. Behind the scenes I was looking at all area's of the operation, sales, expenses, facilities, etc. It was quite a job, and at first Bob Evans was, I think, figuring I was out to get him. After a time, he saw what I was up to and we became allies and worked hard in promotion of the station. I had a good track to Dave and Bob knew it so we all benefited. The biggest problems I saw were sales and expenses. I found things like lease program lines that were never used the station was paying for, no one followed up on collections, etc. On the sales side was Bob Jackson and Gary Strausser, I had worked with Bob before and knew Gary for a long time. Both were decent sales people but not really motivated. Well as I looked over the inactive accounts, I decided to take a shot at some of them as I had serviced many of them before. The result, I took a cold list, and with some additions turned it into the hot list on the station. One mistake I felt Dave always made was the sales staff was on salary, no commission. While I never could change that per say, I did get bonus deals for the staff in the form of dinners, clothes, and other stuff that the station traded out. It was a hit, and along the way I added another sales person to the staff. One thing we did was to use the stations two way radio system to a real advantage. Each person had a two way in their car, so we could instantly handle sales calls, breaking news, etc. We even covered the arrival of the Freedom Train with Dave following the progress from the air in his Cessna 150 from Bellefonte to Williamsport. Using the two way radios was a real advantage to sales as well. One day Jack Lowery (Dodge) called in from Jersey Shore to talk to Gary, now I knew Gary was in the area, but was not scheduled to see him that day, well I called Gary on the radio and he was at Jack Lowery's doorstep in less than 5 minutes. Jack was impressed to say the least! More to come soon, I promise!!