Pamal Broadcasting Bringing Radio Back to Local Level
by Greg Draiss
Don Verity Station Manager of WGHQ and WBPM is no stranger to the broadcasting business in the Hudson Valley. Verity has been in the Hudson Valley market over the last twenty five years. He saw what happened to local radio when the FCC relaxed rules allowing broadcast companies to own more stations in the same market. It was then that Clear Channel began to gobble up over 1200 stations across the country. Verity said that while it forced the industry to” clean up our act” it made radio no longer local. With a large company like Clear Channel the focus became on the bottom line and the share holder with corporate dictates coming from far away.
Verity, with Pamal Broadcasting, is aiming to return radios focus to local markets. While Pamal owns stations in several markets including Albany and Vermont Verity says it’s “one guy” making decisions not a corporation many miles away. Verity says the Pamal treats each market differently and his job is to still make money and stimulate local commerce.
As an example of this philosophy Verity proudly said that WHUD their lead station with a killer signal has always focused on the Hudson Valley. Pamal inherited KCR (Kingston Community Radio) with the purchase of WBPM and WGHQ. Verity described KCR as the epitome of local radio delivering to the hometown audience. Clear Channel he said tried to bring GHQ into the Poughkeepsie market but failed because of the strong sentiment of Ulster County listeners.
In fact Verity plans on taking advantage of that sentiment with a series of ads entitled “Uniquely Ulster” in which local businesses get to tell of their Ulster County heritage. Verity spawned this idea with the help of Ulster County Chamber of Commerce President Ward Todd.
When Verity first took the helm of GHQ he dropped syndicated talk shows like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Several listeners complained but Verity felt that these and other syndicated shows could be heard elsewhere n the market. In fact Limbaugh and Hannity both broadcast on stations in New York City and Albany. Currently the stations format is music from the past. Verity’s plans are to bring talk back to the stations but with a local flavor. Plans include a garden show, home improvement and a financial show. Hurdles to do so include the cost of having live personnel on the air and the need for the shows host not only to be an expert in their field but to communicate that to an audience. With that in mind Verity said the shows will be one hour in length as opposed to the three hour format of the syndicated shows. Verity also said while such shows are easy to get from satellite feeds who in the Hudson Valley really cares what is happening in San Diego?
Currently three stations make up what Pamal calls Hudson Valley Radio Network. WGHQ in Kingston, WLNA in Peekskill and WBNR in Beacon broadcast a modified news format focusing on the valley from 6AM to 10AM. At 7AM WGHQ broadcasts Kingston Community Radio’s The Morning Show until 9AM. At 9 GHQ re-joins the other two stations for day.
Verity says the GHQ and BPM enjoyed their best years ever in 2007 which he said is pretty good considering the state of the economy. He added that 2008 is expected to be turn around year for the industry. Listener response is strongest in Kingston in what Verity describes “unheard of” response levels. He attributes this to Ulster being politically active and a steady demographic and has maintained a local flavor and pride.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Saving 10 Cents a Gallon Won't Help..doing this will
It is a well known cliche’ of the love affair Americans have with their automobiles. It odes seem to mater the status symbol of the four wheels we ride on cars represent freedom. And is that not what America is all about...freedom? From the classic 1955 Chevy to the latest Lexus it is hard to separate us from our cars.
Americans are also in love with convenience. Witness the surge in fast food joints and the increasing amount of food dollars spent on take out and dining out versus dining in. It is a right of the commuting culture to drink coffee on the way to work. Drive thru coffee windows once a west coast phenomenon are now common place all over America. Several franchisors offer drive thru coffee shop formats that are solely that..........coffee and baked goods.
The best these days for a 10 ounce coffee and buttered hard roll combo now exceeds two bucks.
Get this morning ritual at a national chain switch the hard roll for a bagel cost is closer to three dollars. This does not include the upgrades for the latte’ and cappuccino crowd. These upgraded
luxuries run the bill beyond the current cost of a gallon of gas.
However the focus remains on the cost of the fuel to get to the donut shop in the morning. Drivers search for the station with a lower fuel cost to save a nickel on a gallon of gas and pay no heed to the
hidden costs of the daily commute.
Assuming your car gets 20 miles per gallon and your daily round trip is 40 miles. You are using two gallons of gas per day at a cost of $7.00. Like may other morning crusaders you line up in the drive thru lane at Dunkin Donuts craving the fuel that runs you for the morning, coffee and a bagel. The Dunkin Donuts drive thru on Rt 44 in Poughkeepsie is often stacked 10 cars deep waiting for take off. If the average serve time is sixty seconds for an order of one coffee and one bagel you can expect a 10 minute wait. All the while you engine is running consuming expensive gas. A car idling uses about one gallon of gas per hour.
Now you gas bill may seem high at $7 per day but now add in the coffee stop to come up with your real cost for the morning drive. Coffee and a bagel adds $3.00. What about the 10 minute wait in line at the drive thru? At $3.50 per gallon a ten minute wait adds costs 58 cents for the gas used while waiting in line. The total cost for the morning drive is now $11.08.
Searching for lower gas prices doe little to save money for the average commuter. Even I find gas for 10 cents per gallon less my daily savings would amount to 40 cents for my 100 mile four gallon a day round trip. That amounts to twelve dollars a month or $144 per year. An average commuter driving 40 miles per day would save a lot less.
To really lessen the daily impact of commuting means giving up or changing one of the commuters
bill of rights. The morning coffee and pastry. Instead of waiting in line at the drive thru park and walk in. At the Dunkin Donuts I pass every day there is never more than one person standing in line while the cars average ten deep at the drive thru. Savings, 58 cents per day, three times the amount of paying 10 cents a gallon less for gas. Amazingly this translates into $11.60 per month or around $130 dollars a year saved just by parking your car and walk in to get coffee instead of waiting at the drive thru.
Of course savings really sky rocket for commuters who give up buying coffee and a pastry on the way to work and instead bring coffee and hard rolls from home. The cost of making coffee at home is around 20 cents a cup and hard rolls can be had in bulk for 30 cents a piece.
Savings for the brown bagger: $2.50 per day, $30 per month and $360 per year. Over a twenty year career the amount saved runs up to $7200. Invested at traditional stock market returns of nine percent annually over the course of twenty years that small savings of $2.50 a day would easily exceed ten thousand dollars when it comes time for the retirement dinner.
Greg Draiss lives in Greene County and commutes to Poughkeepsie, just over 100 miles a day round trip. In addition Greg is a freelance writer and photographer and owner of Epigram Media Service.
Americans are also in love with convenience. Witness the surge in fast food joints and the increasing amount of food dollars spent on take out and dining out versus dining in. It is a right of the commuting culture to drink coffee on the way to work. Drive thru coffee windows once a west coast phenomenon are now common place all over America. Several franchisors offer drive thru coffee shop formats that are solely that..........coffee and baked goods.
The best these days for a 10 ounce coffee and buttered hard roll combo now exceeds two bucks.
Get this morning ritual at a national chain switch the hard roll for a bagel cost is closer to three dollars. This does not include the upgrades for the latte’ and cappuccino crowd. These upgraded
luxuries run the bill beyond the current cost of a gallon of gas.
However the focus remains on the cost of the fuel to get to the donut shop in the morning. Drivers search for the station with a lower fuel cost to save a nickel on a gallon of gas and pay no heed to the
hidden costs of the daily commute.
Assuming your car gets 20 miles per gallon and your daily round trip is 40 miles. You are using two gallons of gas per day at a cost of $7.00. Like may other morning crusaders you line up in the drive thru lane at Dunkin Donuts craving the fuel that runs you for the morning, coffee and a bagel. The Dunkin Donuts drive thru on Rt 44 in Poughkeepsie is often stacked 10 cars deep waiting for take off. If the average serve time is sixty seconds for an order of one coffee and one bagel you can expect a 10 minute wait. All the while you engine is running consuming expensive gas. A car idling uses about one gallon of gas per hour.
Now you gas bill may seem high at $7 per day but now add in the coffee stop to come up with your real cost for the morning drive. Coffee and a bagel adds $3.00. What about the 10 minute wait in line at the drive thru? At $3.50 per gallon a ten minute wait adds costs 58 cents for the gas used while waiting in line. The total cost for the morning drive is now $11.08.
Searching for lower gas prices doe little to save money for the average commuter. Even I find gas for 10 cents per gallon less my daily savings would amount to 40 cents for my 100 mile four gallon a day round trip. That amounts to twelve dollars a month or $144 per year. An average commuter driving 40 miles per day would save a lot less.
To really lessen the daily impact of commuting means giving up or changing one of the commuters
bill of rights. The morning coffee and pastry. Instead of waiting in line at the drive thru park and walk in. At the Dunkin Donuts I pass every day there is never more than one person standing in line while the cars average ten deep at the drive thru. Savings, 58 cents per day, three times the amount of paying 10 cents a gallon less for gas. Amazingly this translates into $11.60 per month or around $130 dollars a year saved just by parking your car and walk in to get coffee instead of waiting at the drive thru.
Of course savings really sky rocket for commuters who give up buying coffee and a pastry on the way to work and instead bring coffee and hard rolls from home. The cost of making coffee at home is around 20 cents a cup and hard rolls can be had in bulk for 30 cents a piece.
Savings for the brown bagger: $2.50 per day, $30 per month and $360 per year. Over a twenty year career the amount saved runs up to $7200. Invested at traditional stock market returns of nine percent annually over the course of twenty years that small savings of $2.50 a day would easily exceed ten thousand dollars when it comes time for the retirement dinner.
Greg Draiss lives in Greene County and commutes to Poughkeepsie, just over 100 miles a day round trip. In addition Greg is a freelance writer and photographer and owner of Epigram Media Service.
Monday, January 7, 2008
The New Hampshire Tidal Wave
This is the shortest time ever between the Iowa and New Hampshire caucus and primary. This is important for the two winners of Iowa for a number of reasons. First off is the limited memory of the American voter. In the past thirty years the winners of Iowa have only won New Hamsphire 50% of the time.
Now we have a short 5 day window and Obama and Huckabee are still fresh on the minds of the voters. Both can also be considered somewhat of underdog status. You know David vs. Goliath.
Woe to Mrs. Clinton. Iowans called her cold and "she is not warm and fuzzy" like Obama, Edwards and the Huckman.
Another advantage to the front runners and winners of New Hampshire. Super Tuesday is now Super Duper Tuesday with many more states holding primaries. Combine the early Iowa and New Hampshire dates with a shortened cycle of primaries and the whole nomination thing can be over in the next thirty days.
It does not bode well for Mrs. Clinton. The right side of the program is still wide open. However Rudy stands little chance against Mc Cain, Huckabee and Romney's backyard.
Now we have a short 5 day window and Obama and Huckabee are still fresh on the minds of the voters. Both can also be considered somewhat of underdog status. You know David vs. Goliath.
Woe to Mrs. Clinton. Iowans called her cold and "she is not warm and fuzzy" like Obama, Edwards and the Huckman.
Another advantage to the front runners and winners of New Hampshire. Super Tuesday is now Super Duper Tuesday with many more states holding primaries. Combine the early Iowa and New Hampshire dates with a shortened cycle of primaries and the whole nomination thing can be over in the next thirty days.
It does not bode well for Mrs. Clinton. The right side of the program is still wide open. However Rudy stands little chance against Mc Cain, Huckabee and Romney's backyard.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Pharisees In The Modern World
History repeats indeed and is alive within the walls of the enlightened.
During the time of Jesus the religious righteous were known as the Pharisees. They would be known today as "holier than thou".
Today's' holier than thou are the sociologists and liberals in academia who dictate through state mandates school curriculum's, environmentalists who some how know how to walk more softly on the earth than the rest of us, and media whores.
Lets' face it we cannot even watch the weather without being told how to dress in warm and cold weather. And how often the weatherman is wrong!
During the time of Jesus the religious righteous were known as the Pharisees. They would be known today as "holier than thou".
Today's' holier than thou are the sociologists and liberals in academia who dictate through state mandates school curriculum's, environmentalists who some how know how to walk more softly on the earth than the rest of us, and media whores.
Lets' face it we cannot even watch the weather without being told how to dress in warm and cold weather. And how often the weatherman is wrong!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Slippery Sidewalks and No Art Decks These Walls
As an update to yesterdays post on the Athens Cultural Center. It is snowy and cold in Athens on New Years Day 2008. The sidewalks in front of the empty storefronts on Second Street in Athens are ice covered and hard chunky snow is blocking the street at the end of the sidewalks.
Also there is little art in the "Cultural Center". A photo of a boat yard which has been there all summer remains along with a painting of a nude visible to the children walking to Animal Crackers Pre- School a few doors up.
The Renaissance crowd says the arts are growing throughout the Hudson Valley. Well the arts related jobs are not. I often peruse craigslist a somewhat artsy friendly bulletin board looking for writing and photo assignments. Simply click on the New York Page and look for listings in the Hudson Valley (aka the new suburbia and commuter mecca), the Catskills (i.e. Woodstock) and you will find few viable listings for this new economic engine that will save us from the computer chip fab plants.
Forget about even finding listings in the depressed upstate and southern tier region.
The pipe dreaming arts and latte' crowd has a lot of proving to do. Everyone likes a nice sculpture, photo or painting.
However looking at art hanging in windows does not an economy make.
Another old time river town Catskill boasts nine art galleries now. But a drive down Main Street among the white lighted trees shows all the shops closed by 5 except for a well run home furnishings store who gets it.
OPen late during the holidays and pretty Christmas music playing for folks on the street to hear.
Also there is little art in the "Cultural Center". A photo of a boat yard which has been there all summer remains along with a painting of a nude visible to the children walking to Animal Crackers Pre- School a few doors up.
The Renaissance crowd says the arts are growing throughout the Hudson Valley. Well the arts related jobs are not. I often peruse craigslist a somewhat artsy friendly bulletin board looking for writing and photo assignments. Simply click on the New York Page and look for listings in the Hudson Valley (aka the new suburbia and commuter mecca), the Catskills (i.e. Woodstock) and you will find few viable listings for this new economic engine that will save us from the computer chip fab plants.
Forget about even finding listings in the depressed upstate and southern tier region.
The pipe dreaming arts and latte' crowd has a lot of proving to do. Everyone likes a nice sculpture, photo or painting.
However looking at art hanging in windows does not an economy make.
Another old time river town Catskill boasts nine art galleries now. But a drive down Main Street among the white lighted trees shows all the shops closed by 5 except for a well run home furnishings store who gets it.
OPen late during the holidays and pretty Christmas music playing for folks on the street to hear.
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