[BC] Mom & Pop Stations endangered?

[Rob Atkinson]

haven't read the earlier comments on this so i apologize if i'm repeating 
someone....the problem in some places is that small merchants have no idea 
of the costs involved in starting and running a radio station.   about 25 
years ago i worked at a small town FM that had signed on about 3 years 
earlier.  the GM told me the total cost of the license, CP, engineering, tx 
site, tower etc. had been around $250,000 (in 1979).   the guy who went out 
on sales calls always came back with stories about small town merchants 
whining about how a few spots on our station cost so much more than a little 
display ad in the local weekly paper.   the GM told me how you just could 
not make them understand that it cost 10 times more to start and run a radio 
station than it did to put out a small town weekly and we reached people who 
probably never read newspapers.

rob atkinson
st. charles IL
k5uj

From: "Paul B. Walker, Jr." <walkerbroadcasting at gmail.com>
Reply-To: Broadcasters' Mailing List <broadcast at radiolists.net>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Subject: Re: [BC] Mom & Pop Stations endangered?
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 12:09:40 -0600

It's sad to hear of situations like Larry's where people come up to him and
stuff in Shamrock. Good people don't deserve sh*t like this

Paul




On 2/14/06, Barry Mishkind <barry at oldradio.com> wrote:
 >
 > At 08:26 AM 2/14/2006, Larry Fuss wrote
 > > > Those loyal locals must have used the service but not supported it
 > with
 > >advertising.
 > >
 > >The last few times I've been back to Cleveland, Mississippi, people come
 > up
 > >to me on the street and say "we sure wish you had the radio stations
 > back,
 > >they are terrible now."  Indeed they are, but I was never ever to
 > generate
 > >enough advertising revenue to pay all the bills, despite having the best
 > >small-market stations in the state.  The local morning shows are gone
 > now,
 > >the local news is gone,
 >
 >         ... in many cases, so is the entire station.
 >
 >         In 1980, I was part of group that bought a little station
 >         in southern Arizona. Once we took over and discovered
 >         it was clear that the businesses in the town were more
 >         interested in using the station (we gave the station over
 >         to the local "service groups" several times, for example,
 >         so they could raise money) than supporting it in any way.
 >
 >         It wasn't as bad as Shamrock, TX, but it nearly
 >         destroyed us.  In the end, the station went dark,
 >         and eventually was deleted. The only way we
 >         survived as long as we did was to move into
 >         the station and live there, with virtually no
 >         staff.
 >
 >         After it was all over, the business owners all
 >         complained that with the FM station coopted to
 >         a city 35 miles away, they had no local station.
 >
 >         One of the oldest stations in the state was
 >         reduced to mere memories.
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >
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