Radio stations prosper by keeping a "hometown" feel

by Donna C. Gregory
for Virginia Business
July 2006

WTYD (“The Tide” 92.3FM) is one station that isn’t trying to keep pace with trends in commercial radio.

In an industry where mass consolidation is the norm, The Tide and its sister station, WBQK (“WBACH” 107.9 FM) are still live, local and locally-owned.

“Our feeling is if you do a really good job and provide a good, solid product and you give [listeners] something they can’t find elsewhere, then they’ll come,” says Thomas G. Davis, president of Davis Media LLC, the company that owns and operates both stations.

Listeners, in fact, have put The Tide on top. Arbitron ratings released last April showed The Tide is now the No. 1 radio station in the Williamsburg market — beating out larger, corporate competitors in Richmond and Norfolk.

A newcomer to Williamsburg, Davis previously owned stations in Amherst, Mass., which he sold to radio conglomerate Pamal Broadcasting in 2003.
After closing the deal, Davis went to work for Pamal as a regional vice president. It didn’t take long, however, before he realized the pitfalls of consolidation.

“ There was no localism, no local content, news and information. Without that, there was no joy. It was all about how your sales numbers looked today and not how well you were serving your community,” says Davis. “I did that for two years and I hated every minute of it.”

Disenchanted with corporate America’s highly commercialized version of radio, Davis decided to re-enter the industry on his own.

“ We found two stations that served the Williamsburg area — all the other stations had already gone to Richmond or Norfolk to be part of the consolidated clusters,” says Davis.

He saw potential in the market immediately. “[Williamsburg] really doesn’t consider itself to be part of the Richmond metro or the Norfolk metro,” says Davis. “It’s really its own market and we saw it as a great opportunity to provide [local radio] service to this market. We could also build the radio culture for this market.”

With the backing of investors, which included singer/songwriter and Williamsburg native Bruce Hornsby, The Tide went on the air in June 2005. Then, almost a year later, WBACH made its debut.

Keeping things local has paid off for the two radio stations. “[The Tide and WBACH] just have a hometown feel,” says Mark Eggleston, vice president of Chesapeake Bank. “With that hometown feel, we are reaching out directly to our market, and it’s translated into business for us.”

Where its competitors stick to a short, safe playlist of songs, The Tide plays “a combination of old and new music for adults that is deeper and more eclectic,” says Davis. “Our target listener is someone who is 25 or older who loves music and is disenfranchised with having to hear the same old songs played over and over.”

WBACH caters to an older crowd who enjoys listening to popular classical music selections.

“ Between the two stations, we feel we have a product for everybody except the little kids who want hip-hop … We can’t help them,” Davis says with a laugh.