It was the Central Missouri Radio Association. We got an invite to join them, and for a couple of years, either Chuck or me would try to attend the informal meetings. We weren't full members, since we weren't located in Columbia or Jefferson City, but associate members. If the group voted to do something, Chuck and I couldn't vote.
In a very competitive time for small market radio it was an interesting group with an interesting idea. I'm not sure who had the idea to start the group, but at one time it included:
Tom Theis, GM at KTXY working for Brill Media.
Frank Newell, GM and Owner at KJMO
Dave Baugher, Al Germond and John Ott from Premier in Columbus, associated with KPLA and KFRU.
Chuck Thomas, PD, Gary Leonard, GM, KWWR
Richard Hauschild, GM, KFMZ
Don Lynch, GM, KCLR
One thing we all had in common was a real passion for radio. It wasn't just a job, wasn't just a source of income - it was RADIO.
The idea of the group was how to promote radio as a primary advertising medium - mainly as a way to take advertising dollars away from newspapers At the time newspapers around the region had a much larger percentage of the available advertising dollars from businesses and retailers - and the idea was to work together to promote radio over newspapers and increase sales.
There were a few areas that the group did not discuss - ad rates for the radio ads - to avoid any image of getting together to set a going rate for the market and avoiding anything that might be considered a trade secret - like the type of processing used, length of commercial breaks, specific sales techniques and practices, etc.
In a market climate where radio not only competed with other radio stations for listeners and advertising dollars, there were many competitors that weren't radio stations, too - newspapers, yellow pages, billboards, etc.
Each GM had a unique personality - since most had been in radio for a while either starting in sales or sometimes on air, sales and then management. Generally, Tom Theis from KTXY didn't like any idea the group came up with. Frank Newell, Dave Baugher, Richard Hauschild and Don Lynch were fairly even keeled - with opinions voiced for and against certain ideas. And because KWWR was an associate member, Chuck and I remained fairly quiet compared to the rest of the group.
Most states had state broadcasting organizations, like The Missouri Broadcasters Association, where as an industry ideas and projects could be explored to further advance radio and TV. But I'll bet there were very few organizations like the Central Missouri Radio Association.
In later years, with deregulation and two main groups controlling all of the stations in Columbia and Jefferson City, the Central Missouri Radio Association soon faded away.
But when our tower was taken down by storms in August of 2000, Frank Newell with KJMO and the Zimmer Group, (KTXY/KCLR) were quick to offer us assistance to get back on the air. They were willing to loan us any spare coaxial cable or microwave dishes that we needed to get KWWR back on the air.
In the 90s, Dave Baugher and Al Germond made an offer to Anne Johnson, the owner of KWWR, to buy KWWR for 1.9 million dollars. Jerry had a passion for radio, but Anne wasn't interested in giving up local ownership.
By the turn of the century and after, Cumulus would buy the Premier stations, and Zimmer would buy most of the other stations in the market.
Local ownership of small market stations was disappearing quickly. But not at KWWR. In retrospect, retaining local ownership was not the best course of action - for either our employees - or the Mexico business community. But it's been said that hindsight is 20-20.
So it goes.
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