 |
||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
Thunderbolt Broadcasting Company Even though radio was born in the early 1920s, it wasn’t until June 17, 1957, that WCMT AM 1410 kilocycles began broadcasting on the airwaves. This new radio station in Martin with 1,000 watts of power reached northwest Tennessee, southwest Kentucky, northeast Arkansas, southeast Missouri and southern Illinois. WCMT, with its call letters standing for “Weakley County, Martin, Tennessee,” was built about a mile north of Martin in a pasture off Highway 45 North, now North Lindell Street. The call letters were unique and the subject of a Memphis newspaper column. Jones T. Sudbury was the sole owner of the station and placed the station on the air in Martin as a business venture to allow another family-owned radio station, KLCN 910 in Blytheville, Arkansas, to remain free of interference from other signals. The land on which the station is located was sold to Sudbury by Cliff and Virginia Weldon, both former Martin mayors, who were allowed to keep their cows grazing on the pasture land site under the 180-foot tower. It was truly a “country setting” because the radio station was actually outside the city limits. Much of the early radio equipment for broadcast was old and had previously been used by KLCN. Start-up costs were kept to a minimum and some local residents were unsure if the station would make it. Needless to say, the community was curious and interested in this “new voice” on the radio dial. It was also during this time that the James W.R. White family, publishers of the Weakley County Press, dropped their plans to put a station on 1310 kilocycles because of protest by a Caruthersville, Missouri station. Alabama native Will Coker was hired as the station manager. He put together a small staff, and WCMT became part of the county’s lifestyle. Alderman Billy McAdoo is reported to have said the first word broadcast on the airwaves, “hello.” Some marveled at the new voice of Weakley County, while others scoffed and said the radio station would never make it. Even though the radio station was strongly supported solely by local advertisers, it struggled to be profitable. A 30 second ad sold for about 25 cents. FCC regulations permitted the station to broadcast only from 7:30 a.m. until local sunset. There was no night time radio then. It was not until November 1958 that the station began to prosper. Paris radio advertising salesman Dwight A. “Duke” Drumm became the new station manager. He was a colorful personality and was known for his strong authoritative voice and announced many of the ads that were sold to air on the station. Drumm was very popular in the community and became active in everything, including a fund raising drive to expand the size of UT Martin’s football stadium. He is credited with making WCMT a public servant and for its early financial success. Instead of just music and weather, Drumm added local news and play-by-play sports to the station’s new image. WCMT aired live remote broadcasts and played a variety of music to serve the audience’s taste. This was called “block programming” and included country and western, big band, organ music, church programs, easy listening and rock n’ roll. Doris Gill of Martin became the station’s full time secretary and bookkeeper and held the position for 20 years. Later Herb Cathey of South Fulton was hired as the station’s first full time engineer and was an on-air personality and remained with the station for 15 years. There were a number of staff members who spent time on the air including Clarence “Chuck” Jones, Charles Sallee, Jerry Lee Douglas, Harvey Lionel Inman, Jerry Douglas, Bill Laney, Ralph Leon Faulkner, Herbert Lee Harris, Jerry Lynn Galey, Jim D. Townsend, H.L Harris, Roy J Avery, Fred Walker, Jerry Douglas, James Boggans, Eugene H. Huntley, Ray Jackson, Jerry McClain, Ronnie Gill, Robert McGraw, Tom Brooks Oliver, Kellie Lowe, Harry Williams, Gathern Leon Howard, James Jr. Horton, James Puckett, Ray Alexander, Wayne King Garner, Barry Wood, Larry Ray Reed, James Turnbow, Ronnie Young, Clayton Willis, Robert Paul Westpheling, III, Ellen Brasher Willis, William Lee Pope, Leon Polston, Don Fortune, Gary Lee Tuck, Charles H. Farmer, Bill Johnson, Don Darnell, Robert Conley, Mike Riley, Gary Gill, George Carey, John G. Marino, Goble Pollock, David Bayer, Scotty Bell, Jim Bowden, Bill Teuton, John Kent Curnutt, Larry Doxey, Larry Bradford and Dan Pettie who were among those voices from the late 50s, 60s and 70s that paved the way for many others. Records are not available for those who were on the air the first day. Because WCMT was forced to “sign off” at sunset to avoid creating interference with other stations, WCMT needed an FM station to broadcast high school and college games “live” instead of recording them on tape and playing the taped broadcast back the next day. Mr. Drumm persuaded Sudbury to seek an FM station and on October 1, 1968, WCMT FM was added to the airwaves. Known as WCMT’s sister station, WCMT FM 101.7 began broadcasting “live” playing music on tape and then used the station to air local election returns and football and basketball games. To encourage listeners to start tuning into WCMT FM radio, Drumm promoted the FM station by saying “don’t buy half a radio, buy a full radio with an AM/FM radio.” That promotion sold a lot of AM / FM radios in the local stores! WCMT FM 101.7 began airing UT Martin Branch football games “live” and the UTMB-McNeese State game was the first offered on the radio. WCMT FM 101.7 was also the home for St. Louis Cardinals baseball as well as little league baseball games. Drumm saw to it that WCMT opened its microphones to a popular quartet program hosted by J.T. Jones on Sundays. Wilbur Vaughn aired the “Dixie Farm News” which featured hundreds of human interest interviews. Local listeners tuned in for programs such as The Swap Shop, the hospital report and funeral notices which were included in the format. The station prospered under Drumm’s direction. In 1960 a thirty second announcement on WCMT cost only $1.00. Drumm was considered a top notch salesman, on-air announcer, manager and innovator. At one time he held the record for most continuous time spent on the air! He oversaw the expansion of the radio building and gave a number of UT Martin students an opportunity to work and go to school at the same time. In 1970, Drumm hired Paul Tinkle to be the “clean up” boy for the station. After Tinkle earned his 3rd class radio telephone license, which were required of all announcers, he became a board operator and worked at the station until he finished high school. Tinkle later went on to graduate from UTM where he also worked at the campus radio station WUTM FM and other area stations after leaving WCMT in 1972. On August 31st, 1979 Drumm retired and
hired Tony Youngblood to become the station manager. Mr. Sudbury then
sold WCMT AM-FM to Harold T. Brundige, a local attorney who formed
Thunderbolt Broadcasting Company in March 1980. Tony Youngblood, Don
Goodlow and Steve Hilton were station managers for a short time. After
Doris Gill retired Cindy Stewart Prince was hired in September of 1979 and
later became the operations manager. To grow the company Mr. Brundige formed a partnership in February of 1983 with Tinkle, accountant Larry Parrish and attorney’s Mike Maloan and Tommy Moore. In 1985 Maloan sold his interest and Fred Stoker, Jim Fisher and Jimmy Smith became partners. Mr. Parrish and Mr. Fisher later sold their interest in the company to Thunderbolt Broadcasting. Following deregulation of radio by the FCC in the mid 1980s, WCMT AM became a 24-hour-a-day station with reduced night time power. Until then the station had been required to “sign off” the air at local sunset because of interference with other stations on the dial. In 1987 Brad Hosford became the station’s chief engineer. He has over seen every phase of the technical improvements since that time. Other engineers for the station included Mr. Drumm, Herb Cathey, Gary Tuck, David Peacock, Mark Lowrance and Kenneth Turner, a former owner of WFUL. In 1989 an expensive new 328-foot tower and antenna system was constructed for WCMT AM and WCMT FM and new transmitters and other broadcasting automation equipment were purchased to continue to upgrade the radio stations allowing them to be louder and heard farther. Also WCMT FM doubled its power from 3,000 watts to 6,000 watts. Only three AM and three FM transmitters have been used to broadcast the signals during the six decades. It was also in 1989 that Tinkle hired Chris Brinkley as a part time announcer. After his high school graduation, Brinkley teamed up with Paul Tinkle to form “Good Times in the Morning with Chris and Paul” a popular “town hall” program that remains on the air to this day. In July 1992 Brundige sold his interest and Tinkle was named president of Thunderbolt Broadcasting. In March of 1994, Thunderbolt purchased 6,000 watt WCDZ FM 95.1 in Dresden, formerly WGNN which went on the air on 95.1 FM, from Valley Wide Broadcasting of Camden and moved the Dresden studios to its Martin facilities to better serve the listeners. The 370-foot tower remains in the Dresden industrial park. With the invention of digital audio, commercials are aired in digital stereo and are broadcast by computers. No records are played on any of the three stations. All music is aired on computers. This technology has changed dramatically from the days when all commercials were taped on a reel-to-reel player and when many commercials were done live by the announcers. In June of 2000 Thunderbolt Broadcasting formed Gibson County Broadcasting and purchased WTKB FM in Milan and WTNE AM/FM in Trenton. New facilities were built and upgraded and those stations were sold in January 2005 to Grace Broadcasting. It was in October 2002 WCDZ FM 95.1 increased its power to 25,000 watts and in July of 2004, WCMT FM moved from 101.7 FM to 101.3 FM and increased it’s power to 25,000 watts also making them the strongest local stations in the area! In December 2005, Thunderbolt purchased WYVY FM 104.9 and WQAK FM 105.7 in Union City from Twin States Broadcasting. That brought five radio stations into the Thunderbolt family. In 2007 a new state of the art broadcast facility was constructed at 223 Westgate Drive, Union City. It was also in 2007 Thunderbolt was able to place three low power stations on the air called “translators” which allowed WCMT AM to broadcast on 100.5 FM as well as 1410 AM. Channels 96.1 FM and 102.9 FM rebroadcast selected stations and they became a part of Thunderbolt’s eight station radio family. In addition to its community involvement and public service programs, WCMT AM/FM and WCDZ FM have served as a training ground for numerous UTM students by providing internships and opportunities for students to work their way through college. Thunderbolt Broadcasting awards the WCMT Duke Drumm Scholarship to UTM students from Weakley County who major in communications. Thunderbolt stations’ have held radio-thons for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Community Developmental Services, We Care Ministries; helped those in need with its Can Caravan food drive and coat drive, broadcast thousands of ballgames, been an authoritative voice during tornadoes and snow storms and a friendly companion to its listeners for more than 50 years. In 1997 WCMT was named a finalist for the prestigious National Association of Broadcasters’ Crystal Award for community and public service and won the award in 2005. WCMT has been a six time finalist for the award. In 2001, Tinkle was named the Distinguished Service recipient by the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters, the highest award presented to a broadcaster in the state. In 2004, Thunderbolt Broadcasting was named Weakley County Chamber of Commerce “Business of the Year.” Current staff members include Paul F. Tinkle, president and general manager; Cindy Prince, operations director; Brad Hosford, chief engineer; Dave Chaffin, news director; Chris Brinkley, Mark Franklin, Lana Carpenter, Benita Evans, Blake Caldwell, Tramel Kearney and Misty Menees as announcers; Amy Keathley, Brandi Skelton, Gary Capers and John Quinton are sales representatives. The three stations, WCMT AM 1410, WCMT FM 101.3 and WCDZ FM 95.1 along with 96.1 FM, 100.5 FM and 102.9 FM continues to broadcast 24 hours daily from the studios at 1410 North Lindell Street in Martin, Tennessee. WCMT and Thunderbolt Broadcasting is proud for the opportunity to serve our listeners for 50 golden years from 1410 “YOUR BEST FRIEND.”
Martin Office
Associated Press Station Information: On air since 1968 WYVY - KYTN 104.9 On air since 1974 WQAK 105.7 On air since 1993
Seven time finalist and 2005
Winner for "NAB Crystal Award for Community Service"
2004 "Weakley County Chamber of
Commerce Business of the Year" Thunderbolt
Broadcasting Thunderbolt Broadcasting
|
|
||||||||||||||
