Thursday, April 02, 2015

WATO 1290

There are a ton of interactive stories on our 101 Facebook page. Ron Meredith posted this recently, a great WATO story...

"I bought WATO in about 92 from Frank Treese. We bought new equipment, digital automation in '92 (the management) we took it talk and launched with Pat Buchanan and G Gordon Liddy on the 4th July. The talk of the Town. We remodeled the entire inside of the building. Painted, new carpet, new, slightly used office equipment. We put a new roof on and painted the entire outside and bought a station vehicle. We were profitable in a few months. We did every local sport we could and people listened to us. In '99 Doug Horn was growing his radio holdings. They were interested in WYSH. I would not sale WYSH and they opted for WATO. When they closed the local office and moved everything to Knoxville/Farragut it went down hill fast. Hated to see it as David Clary can tell you we had it rockin' better than it had in a long time or has since. There is so much history with that station and I could tell you some incredible stories. We received a waive on lighting the towers in '93, the high did not require it. And our engineer Bob Wallace was able to correct the signal and the directional pattern. It took him 3 years though. It was a mess when we got it, but in good shape making money when we sold it." (Ron Meredith)