Springfield News-Sun from Springfield, Ohio • 9

II SPUNGHEll (0) NEWS-SUN Ssnday January 26 19M IB BUSINESS 9-1 1 STOCK LISTINGS 12-13B AGRI-BUSINESS 14B Synday Morning Son fiab i By Daa Haghu 1 What playing TO I I informs Bob Yontz that his kJ new book is entitled Under the Bleachers by Seymour Butts Smiley laughs and gives his best Ned" but you could feel him yearn for a seven-second delay button The moment passes Smiley winces then continues his 33-year odyssey of early morning chatter on WBLY He squints at an advertising log an length away plugs in commercial tapes and lords over a console between sips of coffee This is his world: But Smiley isn't selfish He shares it with dozens of (translation: kids who call his show before school and get nicknames) adult callers and competitors He has fun with the first two He worries about the latter Station managers pore over Arbitron ratings local record sales and trade magazines like Gavin and Billboard to get the edge Sure they have fun but they know research is essential to profit Studio atmospheres are loose at the local radio stations coffee and banter flow freely but especially at the commercial stations no one forgets how they get their paychecks Commercial formats are tightly controlled and despite the camaraderie competition is keen among stations Even nonprofit college and religious stations in town constantly monitor listener interests lest they lose the pledges which keep them on the air Radio is a business sometimes big business and it is treated as such But ease up hinky dinks still entertainment and they have as much fun on their end as we do on ours Stay tuned The station The Bob show is moving to the Marketplace in the spring and more hinky dinks than ever will have a chance to hear it Yontz is boosting tower height power and probably ratings But the real gem in the Champion City enterprise is the FM side he says WAZU took when it switched to its adult contemporary format good for us for the advertisers and for the The veteran must be doing something right because the move from studios at 1711 Main St to downtown will be no small venture Increases in tower heights should carry their signals to the tri-state area of Ohio Kentucky and Indiana Champion FM holding now broadcasts 1000 watts from sunrise to sunset Its AM counterpart a 50000-watt station always is on air The stations employ 29 people 17 of whom are full- or part-time disc jockeys WBLY came on air in 1956 to take the place of the old WJEL It stuck to the prior MOR (middle of the road) format for several years The station got an FM license in 1961' and simulcast on both bands as WBLY until 1974 when the FM side started playing rock music In 1980 Champion City started playing country music on WBLY changed the FM call letters to WAZU and switched its format to the now-popular style In a business where the only constant is change WIZE has to be considered an institution It signed on in 1940 and has retained the same call letters ownership and position on the dial 1340-AM ever since Great Trails Broadcasting Corp headquartered in Dayton operates WING and WGTZ (Z-93) there and WXGT (92-X) in Columbus The company also has radio and television holdings in Milwaukee Louisville Fort Wayne and Hagerstown Md WIZE broadcasts 1000 watts of adult contemporary music 24 hours a day from studios at 1529 Miracle Mile The station employs 25 full- and part-time staffers including five full-time DJs and 5 part-timers It was an ABC network affiliate in the 1940s before switching to top 40 in the 1950s It adopted its present adult contemporary format in 1984 with emphases on news and community services WKSW 1017-FM is the new kid on the block It operated as WCOM from 1965 until hut March when owners of WDBN in Medina changed its call letters and switched formats to adult contemporary The station operates at 3000 watts 24 hours a day from its studios at 225 Main St Urbana Fifteen staffers including five full-time and four part-time DJs get their paychecks from United States Broadcasting Corp Although licensed by the FCC to serve Urbana station manager Greg Bachman says WKSW is heavily involved in the business since high school bouncing among West Virginia Piqua and Toledo before finding a home here market is good for he says Competition is tangible in the field but a different thing in radio room enough for everyone Dennis Carter is like a brother to Carter the WIZE morning disc jockey returns the affection and agrees there is a DJ fraternity The 35-year-old native of Alabama hide his drawl just myself I feel like a lot of people think you can go on their air and not be yourself but it would never work sound phony and you make Carter considers himself a good radio personality but not one with the talent to break into a major market like New York or Chicago His company me very well and I think I have lots of room to grow in management That seems to be a natural progression in the field John Hall makes no bones about his plans to own a radio station or chain is a dynamite the 39-year-old 23-year veteran says knew what I was going to do when I was 4 or 5 years old I just knew it and pursued it It's hard for me to envision someone paying me for spinning records just be playing at home The Columbus native always a morning DJ started at WIZE in 1969 moved to WAZU in 1983 and was monetarily lured to the station up north last September He says he wouldn't move from his morning slot because really enjoy the quiet of the morning just peaceful tranquil At least until the equipment Alternative radio Listeners who've heard one too many commercials can tune into three diverse non-profit stations and hear anything from Rock of Ages to the newest offering from Echo and the Bunnymen WEEC 1007-FM offers music from its studios at 2348 Troy Rd The non-profit corporation run by a board of trustees pushes 7000 watts into the tri-state area 24 hours a day There are no playlists formats or DJs per se says station manager Bob West just announcers playing some bright Christian music more of an easy listening he says WEEC signed on Dec IS 1961 and has been thriving each year since thanks to annual three-day during which listeners phone in Seven full-time and five part-time announcers take turns at the console and pe-riodically tap into the Moody Broadcasting Network in Chicago for special programs Turn the FM dial left for more secular fere and WYSO-FM 913 Community Public Radio Program director William Miller savors the Antioch College-based station's freedom to extend musical boundaries beyond the commercially tried and true But his station need not rely on advertisers only pledges The 10000-watt directional signal is pointed toward the Dayton area but listeners in Springfield usually have no trouble picking it up Miller says Ninety percent of the DJs are community volunteers who bring along their own music libraries to augment sizeable collection Its predecessor WRAV went on air in 1927 took a hiatus for a while until 1939 when it was reincarnated as WABS Both were common carriers transmitted through through the college's electrical systems to the dorms WYSO was born in 1958 and still offers a variety of music eclectic and freeform than says Miller Listeners can hear bluegrass in the morning followed by folk classical jazz blues reggae Latin Celtic new wave and yes polka introduced it not long ago and it's incredibly Miller says getting great great feedback There was a real hunger for it" Listeners might not hear polka music on WUSO 891-FM and may not hear anything at all if they stray too far from the origin of its 10-watt studios on the campus of Wittenberg University But station manager Krista May says that's their problem have a tremendous record library for the size of the she boasts have jazz shows blues Christian rock shows mostly progressive in the evening and punk shows after one of which May hosts as Chrystal Meth See TUNED on Page 2B You don't just coincidentally hear particular songs on the radio during particular times Commercial stations develop "rotation lists" which contain hit songs that must be played within given time intervals Those lists gleaned from trade publications and local research change from week to week Non-commercial radio is much looser WEEC and WYSO have no playlists per se WUSO has one but DJs can play two of the top 10 songs no less than six hours apart Following are the top 10 songs by station for the week of Jan 19: WUSO 1) Fine Young Cannibals Johnny Come Home 2) Full Time Men I Got Wheels 3) Positive Pictures 4) The Water Boys This is the Sea 5) The Replacements Waitress in the Sky 6) The Clash This is England 7) Golden Palominos Boy 8) Echo and the Bunnymen Dancing Horses 9) Love and Rockets If a Heaven 10) Artists United Against Apartheid Sun City WIZE 1) Dionne Warwick and Friends What Friends are For 2) Lionel Richie Say You Say Me 3) Maurice White I Miss You 4) Dire Straits Walk of Life 5) Stevie Wonder Go Home 6) Bruce Springsteen My Home Town SJohn Cou-ellencamp mall Town 8) Mr Mister Broken Wings 9) Barbra Stresand Somewhere 10) Stevie Nicks Talk to Me WKSW 1) Bruce Spnngsteen My Home Town 2) Whitney Houston How Will I Know? 3) Mr Mister Kyrie 4) Starship Sara 5) Michael Franks and Brenda Russell When I Give My Love to You 6) Elton John Nikita 7) El deBarge The Heart Is Not So Small 8) Freddie Jackson Never Love You 9) Sade The Sweetest Taboo 10) Billy Ocean When the Going Gets Ton WBLY 1) Crystal Gayle and Gary Morris Up for Lost Time 2) Juice Newton Hurt 3) Oak Ridge Boys Come On In 4) Marie Osmond There's No Stopping Your Heart 5) John Conley The Old School 6) Stevg Warner You Can Dream of Me 7) Forrester Sisters Just in Case 8) George Jones The One I Loved Back Then 9) Dolly Par-ton Think About Me 10) Sylvia and Michael Johnson I Love You By Heart WAZU 1) Bruce Spnngsteen My Home Town 2) Dire Straits Walk of life 3) Dionne Warwick and Friends What Friends are For 4) Sade Sweetest Taboo 5) Barbra Streisand Somewhere 6) Michael Franks and Brenda Russell When I Give My Love to You 7) Lionel Richie Say You Say Me 8) Isley-Jas- per-Iuey Caravan of Love 9) Maurice White I Need You 10) John Denver Dreamland Express colleagues when he says that sleeping in means 7:30 am on the weekends I take the day off I still get up at he says course you have to go to bed by 9" Smiley is his own engineer adman and goodwill ambassador He's popular with the kids who faithfully call him between 7 and 8:30 am but sometimes not so popular with targets of some of his ensuing talk shows Yontz dismisses criticisms that he fuels callers' rumors without substantiation I just hate he says (callers) say something absolutely false I'll let them have it There are some nuts out there You know it and I know Look through the window of the WBLY studio and find Chuck McGee spinning records for WAZU-FM The 28-year-old London native seems serene in his incredibly hot studio A ceiling fen slowly revolves above him as in a scene from Casablanca keep telling myself going to grow up some day and get a real he laughs but a living I make a lot of money but I have a new car and I pay the McGee might have a hard time adjusting to anything else been in the Springfield market Its news staff covers the city he said and it hired long-time Springfield radio personality John Hall away from WAZU The DJs Most of us are rolling over in bed between dreams when the morning drivetime DJs hook into their coffee IVs and somehow muster enough brightness to wake up their listeners But they seem to thrive at dawn Theirs is the prime-time for radio with audiences held captive in automobiles bound for work Smilin' Bob speaks for most of his i.