Ah, yes. WEMB.
Which stood for "Wisely Employing Marky Billson."
And they did from 1996-97.
And I said that on the air once and instead of thinking it was original and catchy- they somehow criticized me for it.
I still say it sounded better than "Tennalina Country."
But what you're about to read is an inside look at the mindset of your local Tri-Cities media. And though this was an extreme case and I'm about to whine more than a California vineyard, it will explain a lot of questions as to why things go uncovered and why I have the attitude I do.
Now, when you're trying to compete with Bill Meade and your forum is WEMB, that's like trying to take on ETSU with Uncoi County's basketball team. WEMB's signal doesn't make it into Bristol or Kingsport. WEMB did not even have a phone line. I was to use the BUSINESS LINE to take phone calls- which led to things like when I did get a caller- the rings of the phone going out on the air.
Real cutting edge technology.
But the mindset of the station was absurd. We had no listenership. None. Their idea of promoting the talk show I had was not to buy some ads or even write a press release- or even in the programming notes in the Johnson City Press- but instead to write a promo where my short lived co-host (he insisted that Deion Sanders was a good tackler. He once said on the air in a commentary that he "would not be surprised to see Sanders play quarterback for the Cowboys in a wishbone formation"- WHAT?) would say my name and I would say his- confusing to say the least.
Then again- "Tennalina" made sense to these people.
I have to tell you it was horrible. Just horrible.
You know the kind of show I wanted to do. Instead, I got written up one day for saying "Gosh Darn" on the air.
I then had a DJ tell me "You can say 'Ding Dang' on the air but you can't say 'Gosh Darn.'"
MADNESS!
They had no idea how to promote the show. We were the lowest rated station in the market and after that horrible one promo they wrote- they wouldn't play any other ones.
They had no understanding of talk programming. In other words, they thought it was like a music station, so promos were irrelevant.
We had syndicated shows like Leonards Losers- and never said "Leonards Losers will be on at noon."
No- it was like you had a playlist and "just try to put the shows in- in any order you choose." So the person running the station before me might play Leonards Losers at 9 am one day. Then the next day he'd play it at noon. The next week it would be at 1 p.m.
This was not changing around the schedule. This was a taped, recorded shows that should have had a time slot and instead they got on the air- unannounced- at any time the board operator chose.
I finally got hold of the sports related shows- like Leonard's and Southern Pikwit- and just announced I'd play them on Saturday when I was on the air at 4 and to listen up so they could have SOME sort of following- even if they were being re-run.
We were told instead of running promos that would tell people we were on the air to instead give our sponsors free ads and re-run commercials. If you bought 10 ads on WEMB- you might as well expect to have on 25.
That was great for the sponsor but lousy for us. How could we ever get you to buy more ads if we were just going to give them to you?
We refused to air advertising for Mouse's Ear. We were going to get $5000 a week for it. I was making $10 a show and they did that.
And I'm sorry- a lady taking off her clothes was far more moral than paying me what they did.
What was worse was the salesman never thought about trying to pitch the sports show to the Mouse's Ear. He never, ever, ever attempted to sell my show- except to one NASCAR store that wanted to dictate the programming. But he couldn't even get a commitment to that. He didn't know who Johnny Majors or Heath Shuler were- this was in 1996 mind you- and was trying to sell my show?
I actually got him potential sponsors to call and he wouldn't do it.
I would try to cater the show to a more intellectual audience. Then they'd give me wrestling tickets to give away.
One day I had on Phil Garner on my show. Jim Crawford- the station manager- responded to this by saying "Make sure you talk about girls basketball" because the grandmother of the center on Unicoi County's team wanted to hear her daughter's name on the radio.
So I made one mention of it, got off it, and then went right to Garner.
I always, ALWAYS tried to get big name guests and contacts. I had on Heath Shuler twice through the help of a stringer- who is now Pitt's beat writer at the Post-Gazette.
I had on Michael Holley YEARS before I, Max. YEARS!
Peyton Manning. Had him on. Chuck Tanner- enjoyed that one. Scott Ferrall- he took over the show.
I covered ETSU like a hawk- for free. That's how I got good contacts with Ed DeChellis and such. I was the first guy in the area to say he was on the ball.
I had people call up my show. Let's see- I had people want to know how Bob Dole would get elected President. I had NUMEROUS people call up in the middle of the show and ask what time it was or if school was closed.
You consider that. "I think ETSU needs to play Gabe Lisicky more because- wait a minute! Got a call! You're on the air!
Caller- "What time is it?"
I finally had to pretty much forget about taking calls. And if I told the guy too cheap to buy a watch to just stay tuned and we'd get to it in a second- in the hope that I might convince them that they were calling up a sports talk show instead of the time service- I would be told that I was being rude to them by the idiots who ran the damn station.
One lady- I remember- had no idea she was calling a radio station. She had literally just gotten this number on the understanding the other party would tell her what time it was.
It was total madness. They wanted me to do commentaries in the morning- didn't pay me any more for them- then got on me for being too controversial.
I got press credentials for some events and then they wanted me to get them drag racing tickets for free- thinking there was some sort of correllation.
The thing that did me in was one day a syndicator called while I was on the air. And for three minutes I tried to explain to her she had called up a sports talk show and she just didn't get it. Finally I asked her to call back at 5 p.m. when I could talk to her- but at that time I couldn't.
She called back the next day and said I was rude to her.
I probably was, but the factors were out of my control. And you know what- so what if I was rude to her?
They brought in Marty Ricker- he couldn't make sports talk work- and now he plays records there.
I will say this, though. From that show and UCHS play-by-play I got the Johnson City Cardinals gig- and from that the next year I moved up to Pittsburgh figuring that was where I wanted to make it. In 1998 I got work on the Pitt network as the Panthers' sideline reporter, as a sports talk show host on the Steelers flagship, and as a high school play-by-play guy. From that the Post-Gazette. From that national pieces. And from there a higher paying position at the Intelligencer.
The same hard-hitting stuff I gave you in Sports Talk and here I did back then at WEMB. Got no support for it from WEMB- but if you listened, you knew, and I can say I got lots of respect for the little listenership I had because that show was like NOTHING they'd heard before in the market.
The reason I blog on here so much in many ways THIS is the second life of my old WEMB show. That's why my presense on these boards has been legendary in influence. The next step is to bring back ETSU football.
And you know, I'm really not paid any less than I was at WEMB . . .
But Kev, you ask why there is no competition for Bill Meade.
And now you know- the rrrrrrrrrest of the story!
|