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Black Radio Station Fills Needs Not Wants

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Fri., April 13, 1973 ST. LOUIS POST- DISPATCH Black Radio Station Fills Needs Not Wants By Robert L. Joiner Of the Post-Dispatch Staff SAVANNAH, GA. UNTIL LAST YEAR, the format of the black-oriented radio station in this Deep South city was no different from that of many such stations throughout the nation: Strong in soul and gospel music, weak in news and public affairs programing and heavy on anticonsumer advertising read by nonstop, jive-talking disk jockeys. Then came Benjamin M.' Tucker, president of Black Communications Corp., which acquired station WSOKAM in January 1972, upgraded its programing and made it number one in Savannah and 11 surrounding counties, according to a survey made last spring by the American Research 1 Bureau. It •gave the station 43 per cent of the total listening audience, which is served by some tough, white competition. (The next Savannah ratings by ARB will be published next month.) Tucker's firm acquired the station from Speidel Broadcasting Inc., for $400,000 and Tucker immediately took over as general manager. "My philosophy is to program for the community and to give the listeners what they need as opposed to what they want," he said. It was a risky approach to soul radio, one destined to failure by many managers and owners who have largely insisted that the old formula of unsophisticated programing was the best route to attracting a large audience and making a profit in a market of complacent and "uncultured" black listeners. BUT TUCKER took issue with this assumption and gambled instead on transforming WS0K's mediocre soul S/** and gospel that format included into a all wider phases span of of awareness black music. First, he cut back on the amount of rhythm and blues and gospel music and expanded the station's album collection from 20 4000, - including ing jazz, popular tunes, classical scores black performers and composers and black comedy. In 1 addition to diversifying the sta# tion's music, Tucker beefed up the local news staff and stressed public affairs programing. Before he acquired the station, Tucker said, WSOK's news format was a "rip-and-read" operation. He and his wife, Gloria, coached the announcers and later hired an experienced newspaperman as news director. Tucker also discontinued the practice by station disk jockeys of shouting commercials and talking "trash" while playing music. For national news, Tucker made the station a subscriber to Mutual Black News, a service of the Mutual Broadcasting System Inc., which is aired in St. Louis by black-owned radio station KWK, On Monday nights, WSOK now airs a public affairs program called "Open Line Outreach", which allows listeners to call in and discuss with experts such problems as drug abuse, mental health, aging and alcoholism. And Tucker, himself, presents daily, hard-hitting editorials on specific problems in the black community. "JUST LAST WEEK, I was taking a drive through Hitch Village (a lowincome black area in Savannah) and found that the county was dumping raw sewage back into the city. There's a ditch there near the Village where the sewage is dumped and the stuff floats back behind the housing development. I got on my phone and called the city's chief engineer. "That evening, I put the story on the news and then I had an editorial, telling the people to drive through Hitch Village and see what's happening and report it to their city officials. The chief engineer was out there the following Monday trying to get things straightened out. These e are the kinds of things I'm trying to do." Another public affairs drive by the station was suits push for sickle cell anemia screening of black elementary school children on a state-wide •basis. Tucker had the bill introduced in the Georgia State House of Representatives by Representative Bobby Hill of Savannah. The House recently passed the bill. "I also rejected a good deal of the old advertising," Tucker said. "I rejected all the stuff about faith healing, you know, 'Put your hand on the radio, send me $2 and you will be healed.' We accept advertising from loan companies, but we make sure that the companies are reputable. At the same time, we have consumer programs that show the listener the difference between securing a loan from a bank as opposed to a loan company." THE IMMEDIATE UPSHOT of WOK's upgraded musical and community affairs programming has, according to Tucker, been increased information and understanding on the part of whites of current social problems and an authentic expression of the attitudes within the community whose views aren't adequately presented by the communications industry. "The format is to program in such a way as to have good music, news and public affairs programs for the community--and not alienate the potential white listeners with rhetoric about *black this and black that.' Hey, man, the disk jockeys don't have to keep screaming about the fact that they're black. Hell, the whites know we're black. "The whites like to know what's happening in the black community, what various groups are doing. They also like to hear good jazz, stuff like that." The new program format paid off, too, in potential profit. When Tucker took over WSOK, the station's advertising revenue came from about 40 accounts, most of them local mom and pop stores. The station now boasts about 400 accounts, many of them national firms and leading businesses in Savannah. Revenue for last year was about $280,000, up 20 per cent, and Tucker expects the station to gross about $350,000 by the end of this year. Black Communications Corp., the company that purchased WSOK, is a New York-based firm founded in 1969. Owners, in addition to Tucker, are G. • Douglas Pugh, former program adviser a for urban affairs of the Ford Foundation, and Billy Taylor, a jazz pianist. TUCKER, himself, 'a bass player and composer of "Coming Home Baby" -a tune made famous by Herbie • Mann -got into black radio programming by accident. He was born December 1930 in Nashville, Tenn., to strict Baptist parents who disapproved of any music other than gospel. After college at Tennessee A&I University and a stint in the Air Force, Tucker played with some jazz groups* and later set up a music publishing company. He worked for a time for a recording firm and records at radio stations throughout the country, taking notes on the stations' formats. That's how he became interested in programing. "I put the whole package together," he said. "I had visited several cities and checked out the black radio programing. •With few exceptions, most of the stations weren't doing much of a job. I decided on Savannah as the site of our station and the company's first venture. "I.had done my homework, learned a great deal about radio, its programming* and what our. company had in mind. But I had a problem, man. I had no idea as to where to go to get financial backing for this venture. I went to private investors, foundations and several banks. No luck. Then I went to the local bank and I got the right backing in no time." THE LOCAL BANK, the Citizens & Southern National Bank, provided about half of the $400,000 needed to purchase the station. Promising and successful as it might seem, station WSOK saw hard times shortly after Tucker's firm acquired it. "First, I got a lot of lip service from the young blacks," he recalled. "They didn't want to be informed; they didn't care much about news coverage. They wanted to be entertained. It wasn't their fault - the way they think, I mean because they've been conditioned to this rhythm and blues thing, and nothing else, for years. **The young blacks also said the programs on WSOK weren't relevant. They wanted to hear about Africa. With all the pressing problems in Savannah. unemployment, poor housing and health care - I just couldn't see focusing on Africa." He noted, however, that no such pressure on the" part of young blacks was exerted on the station when it was under white ownership and management, and that the same sort of bickering was common among the black disk jockeys. "I found that the blacks looked to me for favors," he said. "One of the black employes, who had worked under the old management, wanted me to double his salary overnight." But what angered some of the disk BENJAMIN M. TUCKER: His philosophy is to run radio programs for the community. jockeys most was Tucker's lecture on decorum: No WSOK employes were to be seen loafing on the job or standing on a street corner, intoxicated and talking loud. The lecture angered some of the workers to the point that they left the station and Tucker finally found the right management team that fitted h his new format. The station now has 21 employes, nine of them white, including the news director, two bookkeepers, three consulting engineers and one of the advertising salesmen. "I GOT RIPPED OFF when I bought the station," Tucker says. "In buying a radio station, there are things people ought to be aware of. All you're buying is a license. You need decent equipment, too. When I was at the bank closing the deal, the owner of the station had some of his employes taking out, some of the equipment.' Three days after he began running WSOK, Tucker said, the Federal Communications Commission came in and found the station operating with its emergency broadcasting band turned off. "A white engineer was operating at 700 watts per day when he was supposed to be operating at 1000 watts. bill vaughan TRAVELERS flying out of Paris will pay a tax for the noise the jet planes cause. People living close to the airports can wad up the franc notes and stuff them in their ears. INCREASED citizen involvement means that some member of the family has to stay home all day to sign the door-to-door petitions. With all these problems at the beginning, I had little time to concentrate on being number one in the radio market or in anything else." With the acquisition by Black Communications® Corp., station WSOK became the fifteenth black-owned station in the country. Nationally, there are about 7000 radio stations, about 300 of them catering to black audiences. Tucker said that black radio had been a financially successful venture for many years, but he added that the industry would not reach its maximum potential* until more 'stations are acquired by such black-controlled companies as his and become a watchdog for the community's interest. THE ULTIMATE IN Retirement Living and Professional Nursing Care DELMAR GARDENS WEST The most modern facility of its kind in the Midwest. Situated on 15 beautiful acres off Hwy. 40 at Woodsmill Rd. Come see us and inquire about our modest rates. 878-1330 APPROVED FOR. MEDICARE AND MEDICAID See the Sunday Travel Resort pages for where to how te set thers. St. Louis Post-Dispatch Your little girl is getting married At Last. The corporation's long-range plans include acquiring other black-oriented stations. in other cities and beefing up their ratings through the same watchdog, professional approach used at WSOK. Meanwhile, Tucker sits at his office with crossed fingers in hope that next month's batch of ARB ratings for Savannah will again show that he's the greatest. EASTER SPECIAL Rug & Drapery CLEANING 10% Off Additional 20% Cash and Carry Discount Missouri's Leading Adjust-a-Drape (guaranteed length) Cleaner OFFER EXPIRES APRIL 24, 1973 This Ad Must Accompany Order WOODARD Rug and Drapery Cleaners 9308 Manchester WO 1-9102 I I The end of your hang-ups! The Faultless Sonata feminine syringe is hoseless.
Article from 13 Apr 1973St. Louis Post-Dispatch(St. Louis, MO)
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