Indiana RadioWatch: March 7, 2016
Northeast
TCT's low power Religious/W38EA-D (Channel 38, Fort Wayne) changes call letters to WEIJ-LD.
Northeast Indiana Public Radio's Talk-Jazz/WBOI (89.1fm, Fort Wayne) replaces a half hour encore of "WBOI Presents" with the Peabody Award-winning program "Reveal." This show airs Saturday afternoon at 4pm.
Eastcentral
A tip of the IRW cap to GM Jered Petrey and his student staff at South Madison Community School's CHR/WEEM (91.7fm, Pendleton) earns "Best High School Station" honors at the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System conference in New York City. Individual award winners: Heidi Przytulski (Best Newscast), Torin Messer (Best Air Personality, Best Station Promo, Best Event Promo) and the trio of Kaitlyn Hale, Heidi Przytulski and Logan Skillman (Best Promotional/Contest Event).
Central
New call letters for LPFM Construction Permits: For the Big Car Media LPFM, please mark down WQRT-LP (99.1fm, Indianapolis).
Southcentral
In 1936, "The Radio Reading Circle" debuted on Michigan State University radio station WKAR. It later became "The Radio Reader: Public Radio's Reading Program" and became syndicated across the country. The show will soon end, with the last book read (John Grisham's Rogue Lawyer). With reader Dick Estell (a mainstay since 1964) currently sidelined with an illness, longtime colleague Bob Page will end the last few days. "The Radio Reader" airs each weekday at 11:30am on Indiana University's NPR-Classical-News-Talk/WFIU (103.7fm, Bloomington) and its five FM translators around the Hoosier state. That time will be filled with locally hosted classical music (11am until 12pm) and allow "Just You and Me" to expand from 3pm until 5pm.
Southwest
Raycom Media's NBC affiliate WFIE-TV (Channel 14, Evansville) welcomes Megan Thompson as a sports anchor and reporter. Ms. Thompson last held the same duties at Fox affiliate KEVN in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Radio Spotlight
Here's part three of our WTHI(AM) history series.
The WTHI Air Force
A very long time ago, for a very brief moment, radio magic happened on WTHI-AM, 1480, in Terre Haute, Ind.
The station was part of an AM-FM-TV combination owned by Wabash Valley Broadcasting and was part of the Tony Hulman interests. Yes, that Tony Hulman. The voice that told the Indianapolis 500 drivers, "Gentlemen, start your engines" every Memorial Day.
Ronn Mott, who grew up in the area and who had been Ron Pepper on KIOA in Des Moines, returned to the city in the mid-60s, got hired as the morning jock on WTHI-AM and was, months later, programming it. The company's attention was riveted on the TV station, at that time the only one in the market, which gave it cash to bale. Ron took his first paycheck to a bank to cash it and the teller asked him what he did at the TV station. She was surprised to learn WTHI was also a radio station. Ronn instantly saw the magnitude of the task ahead of him.
He began playing current pop hits that could be intermixed with the standards the station had played for years. Examples would be "Downtown" by Petula Clark, "Yesterday" by the Beatles and "Mr. Tambourine Man" by the Byrds. Some "announcers" didn't like it. One even said during an afternoon show, "Well, the kiddies are getting out of school about now, so I have to play this rock and roll song." Ronn persisted. One of the announcers had migrated to TV and the other one who had name value left for another career.
Here are the pieces Ronn had to work with in the summer of 1966:
* A 1,000 watt signal, high on the dial, directional at night.
* A heavy CBS Radio commitment that included a 10-minute hourly newscast and a five-minute CBS Dimension feature at the bottom of the hour. There was also Arthur Godfrey Time and Art Linkletter's House Party (a 90-minute block starting at 9 a.m.) Additionally, there was CBS World News Roundup sopping up an hour in the early evening.
* The loss of the recognized announcers.
It's tough to be a contemporary station when you have to give up a quarter of every hour to an outdated network, plus bigger chunks of morning and afternoon drive.
On the plus side, though, there were some rather amazing young people; all of them students at Indiana State University, who sort of showed up at 'THI.
John Coleman: a bright and energetic kid, who had worked in South Bend radio before coming to college. He did afternoon drive and had a bent to promotions.
Julie White: A very imaginative and creative young woman who would become the promotion director, write wonderful local commercials and be "a thousand voices" on the air.
Loren Owens: local boy going to ISU on a pre-med course, who thought radio might be fun. He played straight announcer on the FM for a little while before getting the night gig on AM. It was the stereotypical duck to water. L.O. was a great talent from the first time he opened the mic.
Ronn Mott: program director, father confessor, morning drive personality. His strong suit was topicality and understanding the market. He instinctively "got" radio.
Andy Bickel: went from part timer to afternoon drive when Coleman left. Andy was deeply introspective and delightfully nuts. Which of his personas would appear on any given mic break was anyone's guess, but he was highly entertaining to listen to. He did "Andy's Place"; never used his last name. For the listener, it was like stopping by the neighborhood bar on the way home.
Bryan T. Hayden: ISU student from Evansville. Ball of energy, worked weekends and some fill-in. Was sort of the internal mascot. Looked like Howdy Doody.
Dick Randall: had jocked earlier at WBOW (the traditional market leader) and then did news at WTHI for two years. When the last "name value" announcer left Ronn's circus, Randall became the midday personality.
By this time (August of 1966), WTHI had become middle road station; Petula Clark yes, Dave Clark Five no. And then the tether was slipped off Loren Owens at night, whose first contemporary hit played was "Henry the Eighth" by Herman's Hermits. Water began seeping through the dam.
By the summer of 1967, WTHI was in a new showcase studio with sparkling new equipment. Additions to staff included newsman Guy King and sports guy Joe McConnell. The station kissed off CBS and affiliated with the American Information Network (ABC) for five minutes of hourly news.
The personality lineup included:
Mike Ventura, sign-on till 6am.
Ronn Mott: 6am - 10am
Dick Randall: 10am - 2pm
Andy's Place: 2pm - 6pm
Loren Owens: 6pm - 12am
With the pieces in place, promotion was needed. Ronn and Andy were Air Force veterans. "The Good Guys" and the "All Americans" had been done to death. With a bright, new on-air presence and a new jingle package, buttressed by produced promo announcements and a billboard campaign, The WTHI Air Force was launched. It caught the competition napping. There was even an illuminated sign in the showcase studio window that showed what "First Class Airman" was on the air. TV station artist Don Moldrowski became a fan and started drawing little flyguys for us. They decorated the survey sheets we put in record stores. One had a little guy in a leather helmet with wings strapped to his arms and roller skates on his feet; a modern day Icarus. Next, the flyguy characters were screened onto WTHI Air Force sweat shirts, a lot of which showed up on ISU and Rose Polytechnic Institute students. In the middle of all of this, Arbitron sent us a letter saying we ought to subscribe to their service because we were No. 1 in the market. Ratings hadn't even crossed out minds. We were too into playing with this wonderful new toy we'd been given.
We staged "Go Fly a Kite Day" and gave away WTHI Air Force Kites, then put on a day of competition at a local general aviation airfield. Loren and Gene Rump, who worked FM, did a Harold the Nighttime Janitor routine for months and decided to kill it off with Harold getting fired for sleeping in the hallway. The phones lit up and the petitions began, one signed by the district congressman. After a couple of weeks, we brought Harold back, in costume, during a live show on the street in front of the studio. Police had to close down Ohio Street. A little girl was seen looking up at "Harold", waving and saying "Welcome back Harold," while tears streamed down her face. We made parade mini floats out of Sears riding lawn mowers, shrouding them in plywood and paper mache to look like F-100 fighter planes and "flew" them in the ISU homecoming parade.
It was a magical time with enormously talented people making great radio, but at a starvation wage. Those times always end. It first raveled when Loren and Randall (always referred to internally by his air last name) got drafted on the same day; April 4, 1968. The Army sent Randall back (bilateral flat feet), but the Marines drafted Loren and sent him to Viet Nam. Shortly afterward, Randall ended up in the hospital with a stress-induced ulcer. By August, Randall decided to swim in deeper waters and left for WCOL in Columbus, Ohio, to do radio news.
There was a flicker in early 1969, when Ronn, Andy, Julie and Randall went to Wichita to try to replicate the magic on KWBB. The manager didn't want us there and the light soon went out. The Air Force was grounded.
But this writer still hears in his mind's ear the roar of piston aircraft engines mixed with the theme from The High and the Mighty every now and then and remembers those heady days of great radio that mattered; to a staff and to a city.
Paul Randall (Dick Randall) Dickerson
2016
Ashland City, TN
This Week in Indiana Radio History
If there's something we need to add to the "calendar," please let us know. Also, errors do sometimes occur. Please e-mail us if this information is not correct!
March 6: In 1997, 107.5fm, Evansville signs on as WABX, and remains so.
March 7: In 1938, WOMI in Owensboro signs on at 1500am (and moves to 1490am with the NARBA shift.) In 1983, Bob and Tom debut in mornings on WFBQ/Indianapolis. In 2002, Ralph Miller, who helped start Crawfordsville's WCVL(AM) dies.
March 8: In 2005, Fort Wayne's WPTA-TV and WISE-TV merge operations. In 2002, "Elvis and Hammer" end their highly successful morning show at Fort Wayne's WBYR "98.9 The Bear."
March 9: In 1949, WCTW-FM in New Castle was granted a CP for 102.5fm, running 4000 watts at 250 feet.
March 11: In 1949, 1370am, Bloomington signs on as WTTS ("TT" = Tom Tarzian). Today it's WGCL. In 1971, Philo T. Farsnworth dies. In 1993, 98.7fm, Battle Ground signed on; Today it is WASK-FM. In 2008, 88.3fm, Muncie signs on. Today, it's WKMV.
March 12: In 1964, 1500am, Indianapolis signs on. In 1991, the tower for Frankfort's WSHW fell. In 2001, a three way frequency swap occurred in Fort Wayne. First, WCKZ (102.3fm) ended its simulcast a day earlier with WYSR (94.1fm). WCKZ moved its call letters to 94.1fm and began an Urban AC format as "The Wiz." The 96.3fm WEJE call letters and alternative format moved to 102.3fm. 96.3fm flipped to a country music format, as WWWD. Today, the WCKZ calls are on 91.3fm in Orland, 102.3fm airs a Spanish music format as WGBJ, and 96.3fm is Classic Rock as WXKE.
Employment Opportunities
Operations Director - West Lafayette - WBAA
Description: Responsible for scheduling prerecorded and live programming on all WBAA content channels including AM/FM/HD2 platforms. Maintain program schedules and logs for all stations. Oversee and troubleshoot broadcast transmitters. Schedule regular and holiday/special programming on automation system. Manage automation system to achieve the highest quality broadcast service for all content channels. Position reports to the Director of Content.
Qualifications
REVISED
Required:
Bachelor's degree.
One year of experience with public media operations.
Consideration will be given to an equivalent combination of related education and required work experience.
Experience with broadcast automation systems.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Self-starter, highly motivated, along with ability to work well on a number of projects simultaneously and effectively.
Proficiency with computer software.
Detail-oriented, organized, dedicated and results-oriented.
Broadcast operational trouble shooting skills.
Preferred:
Bachelor's degree in Broadcasting, Electrical Engineering or related field.
Familiarity with public radio distribution platforms including Content Depot and PRX.
Knowledge of web platforms including NPR's Core Publisher.
Computer troubleshooting skills.
Additional Information:
A background check will be required for employment in this position.
FLSA: Exempt (Not Eligible For Overtime)
Retirement Eligibility: Defined Contribution Waiting Period.
Purdue University is an EEO/AA employer. All individuals, including minorities, women, individuals with disabilities and veterans are encouraged to apply.
More, here: http://purdue.taleo.net/careersection/wl/jobdetail.ftl?job=1600021?=en&sns_id=mailto
WIMC/WCDQ/WCVL, Crawfordsville is looking to hire a full time outside sales person with prior sales experience or a marketing/broadcast education. This person will handle some existing accounts plus prospect new businesses in Montgomery and surrounding counties. Must be able to handle multiple projects, meet deadlines and monthly sales goals. Must have reliable transportation. Mail resume and references to dapeach at forchtbroadcasting dot com or mail to Dave Peach, GM, PO Box 603, Crawfordsville, IN 47933. Forcht Broadcasting is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Lake City Media Group (an Equal Opportunity Employer) is searching for a News & Content Director for our local News & Information Station, "News Now Warsaw" (1480-AM & 99.7-FM). The ideal candidate has a clear understanding of fair, balanced and non-sensationalized news radio. Applicant should have a general understanding of news, government and law and the ability to build a successful newscast from start to finish. The perfect candidate will lead our news department and be willing to do what it takes to get the accurate story first. Duties include writing and generating news for on-air and web, interviewing news makers, producing local news casts, attending press conferences and/or meetings, monitoring local scanner traffic for lead generation and will take ownership in our acclaimed news department. Minimum of 1-2 years of small market on-air news experience preferred. Send resume, salary requirements, audio and writing samples to Program Director Kris Lake at klake at lakecitymediagroup dot com. No phone calls, please. Lake City Media Group is part of Federated Media.
89.1 WBOI (NPR News and Diverse Music), and Classical 94.1 WBNI seek a Chief Engineer for the two public radio stations serving Fort Wayne and Northeast Indiana. We are a growing organization in the process of relocating to a new facility in two-to-three years, which will include substantial investments in new equipment, new studios and production facilities. You will be an important part of our team while enjoying considerable autonomy and responsibility as our Chief Engineer.
The Chief Engineer is responsible for all technical and building operations and maintenance. Position reports directly to General Manager, and works closely with the Program Director and other staff. Occasional night and weekend work is necessary, with availability to respond 24/7 as needed. You must have the technical knowledge to operate and maintain two radio stations and all associated operations, be able to climb ladders, work in small spaces and have the ability to lift 50 pounds. Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate technical issues to non-technical personnel are important. The ability to solve problems, think creatively, work independently, and troubleshoot is highly valued.
Requirements:
AASEET Degree or similar
5 or more years of radio broadcast engineering experience
Knowledge of FM broadcast and STL transmission systems including combiners
Ability to troubleshoot and repair FM and HD transmitters and associated equipment
Minimum 3 years of experience with Broadcast Electronics AudioVault Delivery Systems for both time-based and control-based satellite automation
New construction involving studio and transmitter sites
Familiarity with FCC rules and regulations
Network administration and IT support for Microsoft Windows Server and Windows 7 & 8 operating systems
PBX management
Drafting budgets for expenses, capital expenditures, and projects
Valid driver's license and means of transportation
The following experience will be particularly beneficial:
· Work with AudioVault FLeX
· Experience with Axia Livewire or Wheatstone Wheat-Net audio over IP solutions
· Knowledge of IP based phone systems
· Familiarity with Microsoft Exchange
· Traffic and music software automation integration
· Engineering remote broadcasts and live performances
· Experience with FTP delivery systems
Please include resume and narrative/cover letter detailing how your experience relates to the job duties and qualifications of this position.
Position is open until filled.
E-mail resume and cover letter to: Peter Dominowski, President and General Manager, at: pdominowski at nipr dot fm.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, and do not discriminate with regard to race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.
DLC Media's True Oldies 104.9 WAXI--FM needs a Marketing Consultant. Retail Sales and/or Marketing Sales background. Team Player, energetic, Problem solver. Good people skills and an effective multi-tasker. Must have good computer skills and can create customized presentations. We require a high school graduate with some college preferred. Retail background a plus. We provide basic training and daily support. We offer a monthly Salary/Draw of $2,500 with commission opportunities and bonus money. We pay 67% of your personal and family health insurance premiums. We offer a Simples IRA Retirement plan and will match your contribution up to 3% of your annual income. We provide monthly travel allowance as well as 2 weeks paid vacation plus paid holidays and paid sick days. We have a great team environment. DLC Media, Inc. owns and operates Radio Station True Oldies 104.9 WAXI-FM as well as Memories 107.9 WAMW-FM and The General 95.9 & 1580 WAMW. We have a LMA with Vincennes University's 96-7 Jack FM WFML. We are seeking a local direct sales professional. Candidate must display strong communication skills. The winning candidate will focus most of their time selling advertising on WAXI which serves the Terre Haute area market with our exclusive Oldies format, The Bob & Tom Show, Cubs Baseball, IU Sports, High School Sports and other local programming. While we do offer special sponsorship opportunities we are looking for a person who can probe and find ways to help local retailers with their marketing needs with customized solutions. You must understand retail and the challenges business owners face. If interested, please send a cover letter and resume today to; Dave Crooks, President & General Manager at dlcmediainc at gmail dot com. or mail to 800 West National Hwy Washington, IN 47501. DLC Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
WIBC/Network Indiana is looking for a multi-media platform news talent who can gather and interpret content on multiple platforms, including digital (web, social media) and on-air. The position requires the production and gathering of text, images, audio/video, etc. The ideal candidate will have strong delivery, a versatile mindset for varying tasks, and be a natural storyteller.
Please apply online at http://www.emmis.com
Please send your resume' and air check materials to cedavis at indy dot emmis dot com.
G101-3, the world's most interactive radio station, is seeking its next Midday host. You'll do live middays on The G (Adult Top 40) and voicetrack evenings on our A/C sister station. Can you do a great show with phones, remotes and appearances, plus keep yourself plugged into our historic community? We need someone that can hit the ground running! If you think you can handle local, creative radio in a non-corporate environment and blend in with our talented yet dysfunctional staff you can E-mail your info to rickduncan at g1013 dot com ("Midday/Promotions" in the subject line)
Whitewater Broadcasting is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Federated Media is currently accepting applications for the position of Promotions and Events Coordinator for our South Bend Radio Group.
The position encompasses all facets of the radio business on-air, on-line and in person. It requires multi-tasking along with managing people and your own personal time. Problem Solving Skills required.
As Promotions and Events coordinator you will be responsible for, but not limited to:
Working hand in hand with Program Directors and General Sales Managers to plan, schedule and execute contests, promotions, and events.
Hiring and scheduling of part time employees for live broadcasts and events
Implementing Interactive elements of marketing campaigns and events. (mobile, email, online, social media)
Making sure the listener experience at live broadcasts & events is a memorable one
This is a very enjoyable job but requires you to bring your best to the office every day. It is a job where no two days are alike and will be a job that is always evolving to meet the demands of each station's needs. Requires working on evenings and weekends as needed. Two to three years' experience and/or marketing degree preferred.
Interested? Contact Stephanie Michel at smichel at federatedmedia dot com.
Confidentiality assured. Federated Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Indiana Country - WKKG - South Central Indiana's #1 country heritage station, is looking for our next morning show superstar. If you can deliver an upbeat, LOCALLY relatable, music-driven show then send me your best stuff. Local is how we win, so you'll be expected to seek out ways to get involved in the community. We offer a competitive salary, great benefits including 401(k), excellent work environment and an exceptional community. E-mail your resume and demo to John Foster, Station Manager at jfoster at wkkg dot com. White River Broadcasting is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.
That's all for this issue. Thank you for your continued support.
Blaine Thompson
Indiana RadioWatch
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