[BC] THE POWER & SMALL MARKET SOUNDER

[Scott Bailey]

Dave,

In the beginning, my original engineer told me and my father that 250 watts would be adequate enough to cover the town. This was 1993 and the town was smaller then. We had an old 1948 "Gates BC-250GY" transmitter.
     
My engineer got cancer and Gary Brown took over. Since we had a CCA 2500D in the building, he talked us into applying for 1500 watts daytime and 930 watts critical hours. The station was new in town, although I've lived in Gallatin all my life. We had lots of trouble getting business.

Over the years, it has gotten better. I have clients that have been on with me since day one. They are all in Gallatin. Outside Gallatin, in the county, we have never been successful. This is because there are one too many AM radio stations in the county. There are 4 AM's in Sumner County, with on being licensed to Portland, TN and one Gallatin station was bought up by a Hispanic Church in Nashville. Their studio is in Nashville, but the transmitter site has to remains in Gallatin. It has 2,300 watts during the day.

This leaves WMRO and WHIN in Gallatin. People here are more accustom to WHIN because it is a heritage station, being here since 1948. My facility housed the old WAMG AM 1130, which started with 250 watts and did really good in the 60's and 70's.

To be honest with you, I don't take a salary out of WMRO. In fact, nobody does. I worked for Nashville Electric Service for 22 years, got hurt on the job, and I get disability. The station is just somewhere for me to go each day, it gives me something to do, and as long as it can pay its bills, I happy. The property, building, tower, transmitter, and all of my equipment are paid for. I do not owe a dime on it. My dad made sure of that before he passed away in 2007.

Normally, the station brings in about an average of $50,000 a year. Not bad for just 1 person! Last year, due to the economy, I only brought in $39,300.00. I still managed to pay all the bills and keep on going.

I have many customers that stay on with me all year, due to they get High School Football with their package. This keeps me from working so hard. I have medical issues that I'm addressing, and the little station gives me the strength to keep going.

I'm not interested in no power increase, due to it would do me no good. I'm too close to Nashville and the FM's get all the ad business. The little mom and pops shops and service companies are what I get. I give them a great deal in ads.  At one time, we did do remotes like you were talking about, but both me and WHIN caught whim that if the customer didn't see results out of the remote, they would tell other businesses not to buy local AM Radio. This is why both stations sold our vans and we stopped doing remotes.

Jack Williams that owns part of WHIN will tell you that all I care about is serving the town. I've been on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, The Executive Board of the Gallatin Chamber of Commerce, I did MC the 4th of July festivities for a long time, but now I can't do that anymore due to my health. I am a member of the Sertoma Club and attend the weekly meetings, which other business owners attend as well. It gives me a chance to network with them, we become good friends, and they get cheap advertising from me.

On Sunday's, I'm loaded with preachers, a man that pays me $700 dollars for 5 hours of playing D.J., playing Southern Gospel Music, and two live church services.

Dave, there's more that I do to make the little station go, it's just not seen by any of you. As you know, I'm not an engineer, but fascinated with the workings of transmitters, AM antennas, audio processing, etc. I'm not an FM guy, I'm an AM guy and I love it! If you ever heard the song "The Little Man" by Alan Jackson, that describes me, only I know how to stay in business on a budget.

The tech geeks don't understand me. I've always wanted a little 250-500 watt AM station, even when I was working at the FM stations in Nashville. With the help of my family (mainly my parents) I got one, and it sounds good.

I'm not replacing the tower or the unipole on the tower, although I read about things that are in my budget to make it better. I got the tax situation finally straighten out where the county and the city found were I was being "double taxed".  I'm requesting for a refund of some of my money back. I may not get it, but now the tower tax looks like it is going away because the county has realized my tower is not a cell tower. They tax cell towers in this state. 

In closing, 250 or 500 watts is enough for me. I cover the whole county with 250 watts! 1 KW is still a waste. As long as the City of License is covered with the power I choose, then I'm happy. I'm not out to make money and run a cash register. I'm just trying to relax, have fun with the station, and yes I'm blessed to have it. 

When I die, the license will get turned into the FCC and the property will be sold. Heck the way the economy is going, it could happen before I die, but that's o.k. I'll find something else to do.

Personally, I believe the geeks are just jealous of what I have and think I should operate it like WSM, milk it for all I can get, and then sell it. Nope that's not in my plan.

Best Regards,
         Scott
  

--
Scott Bailey
WMRO Radio, Gallatin, TN