Station Showcase

December 8, 2009

WGGH AM 1150 Marion, Illinois. Monster Radio!
By William C. Walker





Jimmy Fishback, the Owner and GM of WGGH at work in the main studio.



Welcome to the first in what I hope to be an ongoing series of articles on both licensed and Part 15 broadcasters that are using their facilities to make a positive impact on the airwaves in their local community. Real community broadcasting is dying thanks to the corporate take over of radio and the use of syndicated programs to replace live and/or local on air talent. Fortunately there are still station owners and managers that have made a commitment to hiring talent or using volunteers found in the local area to entertain and inform the listening audience.



WGGH AM 1150 in Marion, IL. This is real community radio alive and well on a licensed radio station. Stations like this are not easy to find these days thanks to the corporate take over of the airwaves over the last couple of decades. Changes to the industry have driven up the cost of doing business and made it very difficult for independent owners to retain a “Mom and Pop” flavor on smaller licensed AM and FM outlets around the country. This is especially true in metro areas around the country where competition for advertising dollars is fierce. Enter GM Jimmy. I had a chance to spend the afternoon of November 14 in Marion, IL visiting with an acquaintance of mine by the name of Jimmy Fishback. Jimmy or “Fish” as he is known is the owner of WGGH AM radio in Marion, IL.




Jimmy is a former highly rated on air talent at KISS FM in Cincinnati and also a former Part 15 AM broadcaster. Two years ago he decided to take the plunge into commercial station ownership when he purchased WGGH AM in his home state of Illinois. He took a station that was not only struggling financially but also lacked at providing real live and/or local programming to serve the Marion area. Now, some two years later he’s turned the station around and it is now not only making a small profit and meeting all its monthly expenses, it also provides some much needed local programming to the Marion area.

I had a rare opportunity to take a road trip to see first hand some of the work that Fish and WGGH AM is doing in the community. On this particular day Fish and station personality Paul B. Walker (no relation to William C. Walker) were broadcasting live from the Chili Cook Off at Molly’s Bar and Grill on North Market St. in downtown Marion. The event was well attended by several hundred people and probably over a dozen booths filled with various local products from area vendors. Copious amounts of Chili was served up by area expert Chili cooks and consumed by area Chili enthusiasts. Both Jimmy and Paul broke into the Classic Country format that was airing o WGGH this afternoon to broadcast live from the event asking people to come on down and enjoy the Chili.

The station format is a true Full Service format complete with local news, weather, syndicated and local talk and music. WGGH also offers a live morning drive time show along with local high school sports and specialty programs on the weekend. Jimmy says the station cannot really be categorized to fit into one specific niche because it is trying to serve a number of niche audiences in the local area. Despite this “all over the road” format, success is being achieved and the station will continue to build on its current success for the future thanks to the tireless efforts of the entire staff at the station.

WGGH AM uses some of the latest technology available to AM radio stations including a HD transmitter on standby if they decide to broadcast a digital AM signal, a digital telephone Hybrid and various production equipment from Lexicon, Behringer, BBE, Tascam and American Audio. The transmitter is model SX 5a and manufactured by Harris Transmitters. Automation is provided by a software program on a Windows computer.

Clearly AM radio broadcasting in small town America is far from dead. WGGH AM is but one example of the thousands of important live and local AM stations serving a niche in markets that may otherwise have little or no real community radio. GM Jimmy recommends that would be professional commercial Part 15 AM broadcasters should try to find communities that don’t have any real local radio presently serving the community and get up and running with a live and or local format. With the right programming you will be able to achieve success. And that success could at some point lead to owning a licensed radio station like WGGH AM.

A follow up to this station’s story is a possibility. I’ll be checking back with Jimmy sometime next year to see what new projects they have going in the community or if any new programs have been introduced on the station. Click here to visit the station website and to listen online.