Featured Media Information Bureau columnist Ken Benner and his wife, Karen, have just returned to Tucson from a 4,000-mile tour of several dozen radio, TV and translator stations — where they teamed to conduct FCC-approved alternative inspections.
“We had inspected most of these operations in the past and were warmly greeted at each stop by some of the most amazing broadcast people on the planet,” Benner says, recounting his experiences on the road — and at a Class B AM billed as “The Talk of mid-Utah.”
Along the way, the Benner battle wagon — with some 230,000 miles on the odometer — blew its radiator.
“In one of the most heart-warming moments ever, the manager of the group of stations scheduled for that morning’s inspection arranged an appointment for us with a service manager at a center that has long served his fleet,” he says.
It promptly replaced our radiator “at a most reasonable price.”
Others arranged to truck Ken and Karen from station to station and to their motel for the two days stuck without a car.
“At one multiple station group we met a most amazing young lady in her early 20s who had earned a four-year degree in broadcasting,” Ken says. “Never in our 50+ years in broadcasting have Karen and I met such a talented, enthusiastic, dedicated professionally broadcast person.”
The management even provided this up-and-coming radio industry professional with her own personal studio, which she proudly demonstrated for us.
“No question about it, that young lady is making a ton of money for that group of stations,” Ken believes.
Of course, those 50+ pages of laminated suggestions addressing various items of marginal compliance frequently came in handy to copy. They were used, he says, to document the suggestions of Ken and Karen for correcting minor items of compliance.
One of the biggest takeaways?
“We learned as much as we taught during this tour,” Ken says. “In more than one incidence, we realized that a station that was by no means profitable, deeply in debt, and would soon be up for sale. In due time, they’d be approached by ‘weasels’ — i.e. folks waiting to capitalize on the opportunities to obtain a station at a rock bottom price.”
Ken and Karen also learned that with respectably talented management and long term employees, stations even in the most heavily competitive markets still could be amazingly successful.
What was the common denominator: serving the stations’ community of license with great entertainment, news, community involvement and remote broadcasts win, because they involve direct contact with people … “lots of people!”
Ken remarks, “Simple as what I have just suggested, it is amazing how many licensees fail to realize the value of what they hold in a station license and the extent to which they can play a role in the lives of the listeners or viewers with professionally dedicated service for their coverage area.”
On the way home to Tucson, the Benners visited a station Ken managed more than 50 years ago.
It was KSVC-AM 980 in Richfield, Utah. Today it is owned by Sanpete County Broadcasting.
Ken met with an employee who he worked with all those years ago. At the age of 102, he is still hosting a weekly program on KSVC.
“A tribute to this remarkable gentleman is scheduled as soon as I receive a photo of him at the console doing his program,” Benner says.
Now home, the trip proved to be rewarding — and a reinforcement of his pride for radio and TV.
“Broadcasting is still a great profession,” he says. “Let’s continue to enjoy it!”
Ken Benner is an independent Alternative FCC Compliance Certification Inspector and a research analyst for the Coalition for Transparency, Clarification and Simplification of Regulations pertaining to American Broadcasting. Benner has more than 55 years of experience providing service to the broadcast industry.
The views expressed by Media Information Bureau columnists are those of the writer only and not of the editorial board of the Radio + Television Business Report or its parent, Streamline Publishing.
