KAAY Comments

Thanks to those who take the time to send a comment or to those who take the trouble to send me stuff. I am putting a comment I received here on the front page in case some of you don't take the time to read the comments. The comments I receive here are always so positive. There is a TV insiders blog that has some of the most vicious comments I've seen. I don't ever remember being vicious toward our competitors. In fact one newsman, Herbie Byrd. (Yes, that's his real name.)comes to mind. He always worked at a competitor. We didn't have much contact, but I have always had the up most respect for him and his work. He was at KVLC and later KLRA. I'll look up the TV blog address and post it later as an example of what the media has become. All of this to introduce someone that worked in the same market I did and we never worked together but we should. Russell, has always had an interest in archiving radio. A trait I wish I had developed. Speaking of archives, the airchecks that are scattered throughout this blog are on various free websites that I have and most recently on podomatic. I may in the future, move this audio to one website. In that process some files will probably be lost. Therefore I recommend if you are interesting in saving any of these files I recommend you do so before I start messing with it. Go back in the archives to the first post and move forward, saving what you want.

Now today's comment from Russell Wells,
Hi, Doc/A.J.--

I've been reading this blog for a number of months (I'm surprised Savannah, Georgia wasn't listed like a rash on your hits list!), and enjoying the aircheck clips you've included.

I haven't posted any comments mainly because I wasn't really "part of" KAAY back in the day, except just as a nighttime listener when I was little (1970s).

Also, I felt like I didn't really have much to say. So, I've been your basic "lurker."

My connection to Arkansas began when I was 17 and my family was transferred to the state, first to Hot Springs. I received my first radio job at 17, doing 6PM-sign off at KBHS 590 ... a station said to have had a bigger daytime footprint than KAAY. I made my foolish mistakes on a 5 kW blowtorch during critical-hours ... egad!

Went to college at ASU in Jonesboro, worked for KASU (and KEZQ during the Summer), and then graduated in 1987 ... landing my first fulltime gig in Pine Bluff. Young, stupid and green as a 7-UP bottle.

And that's where our paths barely crossed -- I started at KCLA/KZYP, becoming news director, and - if I recall - you were at KOTN. We both left our stations and were co-workers for about 20 minutes at the ill-fated KPBA (someone should write a book about that place). And from there we reversed paths; I was hired to do middays at KOTN and you became ND at KCLA.

I left Pine Bluff and Arkansas in 1990 for Alabama, and eventually coastal Georgia, where I am now.

But while I was in Arkansas, I heard much about KAAY ... it seemed like every radio person I worked with had a sober reverence for the station. And being the radio history geek I am, I was very curious how 1090 sounded back in the day. In the early '90s, I struck a correspondence with the late Pat Walsh, and he loaned me dozens upon dozens of airchecks.

And years later I learned that what he offered me was just a part (!) of his archive. I got hold of some more over the years, and much of what you've offered on your blog is new to me.

KAAY just might be the most archived station outside WABC, WLS and KHJ. Count your blessings!!

As for competition -- I truly believe that radio should never have been allowed to get to the state it's in today (clusters, unattended operation). I doubt there's any way to return to the way it used to be, and slowly I've come to accept this.

You nailed a lot of what I've been thinking in your competition post. Where's the EXCITEMENT? We hear endlessly how radio is a profit-driven business .... ummm, yeah, was it not back in KAAY's glory days??? I doubt LIN was operating that property as a charity! They wanted to make MONEY for their shareholders. Then, as now.

A business can make a profit and still make life fun for its employees AND its customers. I was professionally brought up to believe that music and entertainment was not merely "content" (I hate that word), or - quoting one GM - "the junk between commercials." Spots = $$ to feed the big machine with feeds the real customer (listener). No customer = no ears for commercials.

You know that, but it seems to have been forgotten by many in commercial radio today.

I have a 15-year-old, and few of his peers even consider radio. To them it's as quaint as a typewriter. If I think about that long enough, it can keep me up at night.

Thank God for the old time radio recordings. And for those like Mr. Walsh who rolled lots of tape on what amounted to world-class radio.

This is long enough - I write more and I'll get depressed! Thanks for this blog ... KAAY finally has the good, loving and living tribute she deserves.

Sincerely,
Russell Wells
(Operations Manager,
WSVH 91.1/Savannah, Ga.)