1977...A Sad Year, Indeed
James
Earl Clueless Carter was in the White House. Some junk called Disco
dominated the airwaves and it seemed that Rock'n'roll had been forgotten
forever and to top it off, Elvis died. Personally, I was fired from my
second job in radio--the one I truly wanted to be involved in--Christian
Radio at what was then WRNC. I got fired because I stank at reading
news and had five or six newscasts in my afternoon drive slot.
I applied at every conceivable radio station in the Triangle with my little resume and aircheck (a tape of what I sounded like on air plus some of my production [commercials] ) There were not even nibbles. Then a miracle happened. I got a phone call out of the blue from Bill Kirby, General Manager of WETC smack dab between the little towns of Wendell and Zebulon, North Carolina.
The station was working in cooperation with Oral Roberts University and Professor, Dr Tom Durfey's Broadcasting students. They recommended me, somehow. I've yet to figure that one out. I got hired to do the morning show and was given an air name that was a corruption of my REAL name..."Johnny Buck."
The owner of the station, Lewis Parrish was trying to have a presence in the Triangle Area and my morning show became the very first Country station to show up on "the book" The ratings, even though we were on the very edge of Raleigh Durham and our signal was pointed east. There was one tower actually working against sending our signal toward Raleigh, to protect a Canadian station. We covered all of Eastern North Carolina, though and up until that time had been known as "Wetsy Radio" or "Big Country." The term used for what we were trying to do then was "country-politan" and we pioneered what came to be known as "Positive Country." We mixed the less offensive elements of country music (no cheating, beer guzzling, etc) with some contemporary Christian and gospel music. Cleaning up country ticked off a lot of the staff because of the songs we couldn't play.
After a while, I was made Program Director and a liaison between the staff and ownership. It was a difficult situation, because I did not answer to the General manager. Rather, I got my orders from the Owner, which is a strange, and potentially volitile combination.
It didn't take long for me to lose favor with the owner because in my view, the staff had legitimate concerns about the station. After all, these guys had been in broadcasting for years. That was a difficult time, but I learned respect for traditional Country Music and its artists. Bill Kirby loved Tom T Hall, who is quite a poet and has written some great songs. The late Aaron Pitt, our copywriter and news director, taught me a lot and there was Charlie Hocutt, sales genius, who told me stories of Loretta Lynn driving up with her husband, Moody, to promote her latest record. We had copies of one song with two titles: originallyh released as "Here, in Topeka" the song title was later changed to "One's on the Way." which was the "hook."
This week saw the passing of a country legend, Miss Kitty Wells who was, as I recall the first female Country artist to hit number one on the charts. The ladies didn't used to fare so well in the genre.
No, I'm not a country music fan, by any means, especially the junk their putting out today, but I HAVE to respect Lefty Frizzel, Hank Williams, Senior, Ernest Tubb and the likes of "Little" Jimmy Dickens.
Country is no different than Rock'n'roll in that it has been taken over like the patients taking over the asylum.
Note to the "hip hop" crown. Set down parameters and copyright your junk or twenty years from now, someone's going to put something out with an actual tune and some actual rhythm that's non-repedetive and call it hip hop and you're going to be snorked off! lol
I applied at every conceivable radio station in the Triangle with my little resume and aircheck (a tape of what I sounded like on air plus some of my production [commercials] ) There were not even nibbles. Then a miracle happened. I got a phone call out of the blue from Bill Kirby, General Manager of WETC smack dab between the little towns of Wendell and Zebulon, North Carolina.
The station was working in cooperation with Oral Roberts University and Professor, Dr Tom Durfey's Broadcasting students. They recommended me, somehow. I've yet to figure that one out. I got hired to do the morning show and was given an air name that was a corruption of my REAL name..."Johnny Buck."
The owner of the station, Lewis Parrish was trying to have a presence in the Triangle Area and my morning show became the very first Country station to show up on "the book" The ratings, even though we were on the very edge of Raleigh Durham and our signal was pointed east. There was one tower actually working against sending our signal toward Raleigh, to protect a Canadian station. We covered all of Eastern North Carolina, though and up until that time had been known as "Wetsy Radio" or "Big Country." The term used for what we were trying to do then was "country-politan" and we pioneered what came to be known as "Positive Country." We mixed the less offensive elements of country music (no cheating, beer guzzling, etc) with some contemporary Christian and gospel music. Cleaning up country ticked off a lot of the staff because of the songs we couldn't play.
After a while, I was made Program Director and a liaison between the staff and ownership. It was a difficult situation, because I did not answer to the General manager. Rather, I got my orders from the Owner, which is a strange, and potentially volitile combination.
It didn't take long for me to lose favor with the owner because in my view, the staff had legitimate concerns about the station. After all, these guys had been in broadcasting for years. That was a difficult time, but I learned respect for traditional Country Music and its artists. Bill Kirby loved Tom T Hall, who is quite a poet and has written some great songs. The late Aaron Pitt, our copywriter and news director, taught me a lot and there was Charlie Hocutt, sales genius, who told me stories of Loretta Lynn driving up with her husband, Moody, to promote her latest record. We had copies of one song with two titles: originallyh released as "Here, in Topeka" the song title was later changed to "One's on the Way." which was the "hook."
This week saw the passing of a country legend, Miss Kitty Wells who was, as I recall the first female Country artist to hit number one on the charts. The ladies didn't used to fare so well in the genre.
No, I'm not a country music fan, by any means, especially the junk their putting out today, but I HAVE to respect Lefty Frizzel, Hank Williams, Senior, Ernest Tubb and the likes of "Little" Jimmy Dickens.
Country is no different than Rock'n'roll in that it has been taken over like the patients taking over the asylum.
Note to the "hip hop" crown. Set down parameters and copyright your junk or twenty years from now, someone's going to put something out with an actual tune and some actual rhythm that's non-repedetive and call it hip hop and you're going to be snorked off! lol
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