Constructon Zones, Chapter 1
I work with a couple of radio stations in South Florida one of them being a sports station WFTL 6-40 Sports.
The station recently hired a new GM and it turned out to be Dave Manning who I knew years ago. I oftened wondered what had happened to him.
Seeing him again brought back some fun memories of the time I first met him in Nashville. The only down side to seeing him again was he still has all that damn hair.
During my consulting career I’ve had a few stations turned over to me that I like to refer to as stations being put into the under construction mode.
Some of these are stations were already doing quite well but for reasons of their own, management wanted to change them anyway.
WLAC FM in Nashville was one of of those stations and I still remember how it all started. One day I received a phone call from then GM Vic Rumore asking me if I was up for doing a special secret project he had in mind. He said he had heard from the grapevine that if anybody could pull off what he had in mind it might be me.
He wanted to know if I could jump on a plane and come to Nashville as soon as possible so we could chat about it before he lost his nerve. Being very intrigued by all this I thought what the hell and was soon sitting in his plush office.
After exchanging pleasantries and a few radio war stories about folks we both knew, Vic got right down to business about what he wanted to do with the station.
At the time of our meeting WLAC FM was a CHR station, but Vic wanted to know if I thought there was a way we could quickly turn it into an A/C station with out his owner noticing he had done so.
He claimed that his ratings were pretty good doing CHR but they consisted mostly of teens and there was only so much sugar money to go around. He said he needed a shot at all those big female buys that he was currently missing out on.
Vic went on to say that this project was super confidential and if we do it together there couldn’t make any announcements in the trades about them being a client of mine because then everyone would know that WLAC FM was about to do my CLASS/CLASSY format. He was very worried about that word leaking because if it did the owner would soon get wind of it and put a stop to it.
I told him the trades haven’t noticed anything I had done so far so even if I did announce it which I wont, they would probably ignore it anyway. They’re too busy reporting on the activities of their friends to worry about what we’re doing.
I cautioned Vic in order to pull this off we would need to do a lot of crazy stunting type activities which would hopefully distract most people from noticing all the musical changes we were making.
He said that was OK with him because his only concern was he just didn’t want to hear or read anything about WLAC going A/C.
He asked if I thought we had any chance pulling this off. I told him it was a little weird but very exciting also, and I thought maybe we could.
I then handed him a little card that I had written this liner on … “We never dreamed nor did we anticipate this kind of reaction to our fun promotion.”
Whats this he asked. It’s a get out of jail free card Vic, your going to need it when all the TV cameras are pointed at you and the newspaper people seem to be all up set about something your station did.
Plus the Mayor and the Police Chief will probably be on their way over to chat with you at the same time and it would be nice for them to hear your prepared statement before they got there. If I were you Vic I would consider think real hard about maybe memorizing that line pretty quick.
You not going to do anything illegal he asked. Not if you didn’t dream or anticipate the enormous results that are about to happen, I replied.
Vic looked a little nervous about all of this as he said, George if you can pull this off, not only will I pay your exorbitant fee, but I will also send you and as many people as you can get into a private jet that I will charter to send you anywhere in the world you want to have a fine dinner and maybe even a bottle or two of your favorite wine.
As we shook hands on the deal Vic said there is only one other person who knows I’m even thinking about doing this project, his name is Dave Manning but we all call him Hollywood. Dave is our Sales Manager and he is very excited about the potential of all this, and your going to love him he claimed.
I knew I was going to need a lot of help from sales because we might have to figure out how to limit the obvious teen spots, although a lot of them sounded fine because they were soft drink jingles which are usually pretty good. But acne spots etc. would never fit.
I also need a bad boy morning man and that usually took getting them a car on trade so we could sweeten the deal. These special needs of mine usually forced me to make nice with the SM. I was just hoping this “Hollywood” character I was about to meet, was a halfway decent guy.
I’ve learned through painful experience that most sales types are a lot of fun outside the station but usually aren’t much fun to work with.
Right on cue in walks Hollywood Dave Manning. Let me see if I can describe this piece of work to you if I may. He wore his hair all long and slicked back like, plus he was sporting at least a thousand dollar suit on his back, Dave later claimed it cost him two grand, and was hand made by a tailor who constantly comes to his office just to measure him up for new ones. I thought that that claim might just be sales talk, I mean after all these guys lie for a living
But the staff confirmed the story and said, hell he even has his custom made shirts done the same way. And did I mention that he also drove a Fire Red Ferrari and owned a 45 ft.Sea Ray he couldn’t drive.
It sure didn’t take me too long to figure out why they called this character Hollywood, I think I had it the instant I met him.
Vic quickly introduced us and as we shook hands and I started getting a little nervous about the nice firm hand shake he had mainly because I was wondering if my watch was still going to be on my wrist after we were done.
Dave has one of those little shy smiles and speaks with a soft soundin’, slow talkin’ southern drawl with just a touch of hillbilly mixed in.
I was warned about these kind of people when I first moved to America but I thought they were just talking about Texans. I think your hip to what I’m talking about.
You know the kind I’m talking about, the ones where you hold on to your wallet full time when ever you are communicating with them.
But Dave was very cool and I just loved how he was laying it on me pretty thick with good stuff like … So your the famous George Johns that is going to help us with this great project and I’ve heard your name a lot and wondered if we would ever get hooked up and Vic says you have the ability to make us all rich with your magic etc. etc. I’ve got all day to listen to this kind of stuff, pour it on baby!
As I stood there enjoying the mental massage I couldn’t help but notice that even in all his splendor there was just something a little off about his look.
I checked out his tie, perfect. His hankie in the upper suit pocket, superb. His custom shirt, nice. I didn’t think the belt buckled to the side was what ruined the look but something just didn’t get it.
Then it hit me, of course, it was his patent leather shoes. They matched his suit man!
I guess he didn’t get the memo from Frank Sinatra that claimed there are only two kinds of shoes black and brown. And you lose the brown ones right after the sun goes down.
The shoes not withstanding I instantly liked old Hollywood, you couldn’t help it, he was a charmer from the “git go” and he sure turned out to be a lot of fun for me. The part I liked about Dave the most though was he was very very connected in Nashville which I needed badly if I ever had a shot at pulling this weird project off.
My next step to move this project forward as quickly as possible was find a morning man that could shake things up and maybe cause a little talk of his own around town while we were doing some huge stunting during the rest of the day that was designed to get us some of that much needed outside publicity.
The whole plan as I said earlier was to try and distract everybody from noticing our big musical changes by getting them focused on all the special promotions we were doing.
I told Vic I needed the type of morning guy who was real talented but seemed to keep getting fired anyway. I said you know the type, the listeners love him but management doesn’t
Vic says, I think I have just the guy for you his name is Steven Wesley Bridgewater and he has a butler named Ogden but I don’t think your going to like him he’s an ego maniac very arrogant, and tough to get along with. I said, Vic bring him on he sounds perfect and did I mention I specialize in that kind of talent Vic.
I explained to Vic that the way I liked to do A/C was to play very wussy music all mixed together with very hot jocks, loud promos, and some wild and crazy promotions. The fact of the matter is, about the only thing soft on the station will be the music.
Back in Texas I always used to tease Bill Gardner who was a great jock at KVIL whom I thought occasionally sounded a little too soft and sleepy for what we were trying to do with a never heard before format. I would ask Bill once in a while if he thought he could find it in his heart to Pick Up The Tempo as good Ol’ Willie used to croon.
Bill was doing mid days for us at the time and even won radio personality of the year while he was there. But I had this sound in my head and that special sound I heard, needed him to sound a tad hotter.
Bill complained to me about how tough that was to do, what with the music being so soft and everything. I persisted though with lame things like … Can’t you just turn up the music a bit louder so you cant hear yourself, that will force you speak up a little bit I would think, or couldn’t you just lean back from the mic a touch etc.
I guess Bill got a little pissed at me though because one day he popped into the programming office just after his show to say he thought for sure I was going fire him or at the very least Hot Line him.
Fire you I asked, why would I do that. He claimed he had screamed his whole show and was sure he even coughed up a little blood when he was screaming so loudly.
I told him I listened to his whole show and thought he had some great moments that we surely could make some promos out of. But Bill you sure didn’t sound like you were screaming to me, you just kinda sounded happy and up. Thanks for a great great show Bill.
I know I know, I always get side tracked now where was I again, oh yeah, Music City baby, Nashville Tennessee.
So we get our new morning guy Hollywood gets him a Benz, and he sounds just great. Now we are all set and it’s time to start turning up the heat.
It’s not very long after that until I’m just relaxing in my hotel room having a toddy and watching Ol’ Vic on TV in the middle of a small crowd of reporters saying my all time favorite words … We never dreamed nor did we anticipate … and playing softly in the background on WLAC FM was just another pretty Carpenters record.
Shortly there after the book comes out. Bang! Number one 12+. But even a whole lot better than that we get an almost 20 share in women. It looked like those ladies in those tight fittin’ jeans didn’t like that cowboy music as much as everybody thought Can you sing the old standard, “We’re in the money, we’re in the money”. Vic’s dream had come true big time man!
I later heard that Vic had a piece of the station when it sold. Maybe that’s why I’m still sitting in this lonely airport waiting for that private jet to show.
Do you think I’m at the wrong airport or could it be that Vic really was an owner all along, and he like all owners just hate sharing that big up side. The only thing they seem to like to share very quickly is the down side.
On a side bar to all of this was I was there when Bridgewater resigned, he said he was moving to Hollywood. I said Hollywood, what for. He said I was in a movie recently with Gene hackman called Mississippi’s Burning and I think now I want to be an actor full time. I saw that movie I told him but I didn’t notice you, what part did you play. He said he played a klansman. A klansman,didn’t they all wear hoods in the movie. Yeah he responded but I scrunched mine down on the side so everyone would know it was me.
So he gave the station back his brand new Mercedes and rode off into the sunset towards Rodeo Drive.
Oh and by the way, I sure hear a lotta stations today that need a lotta construction work. Some even need to be demolished !
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