On a Wednesday afternoon, two 30-foot moving vans drove down the slightly rutted, pothole-filled road that is Hiob Lane. With much dust but little fanfare, Aberdeen became the new home of KHZTV.com, a multimedia radio, Internet and television company owned and operated by longtime radio executive Bill Parris.
As president of Radio Broadcast Communication, Inc., Bill, along with his wife and company vice president Libby, operated four radio stations out of the Pasadena site: AM 970, WAMD Aberdeen; AM 810 WYRE, Annapolis; AM WTRI 1520, Brunswick; and AM 1460 WKHZ, Easton.
For the last several years, KHZ-TV has called a small, nondescript shopping center in Pasadena home. After purchasing WAMD in December 2010, Parris made plans to move the company to Aberdeen.
The couple spent most of its time at WAMD getting the station up and running. They soon found that having everything under one roof, including engineer extraordinaire Jay Harrison and radio personality Davey Jones, was much more efficient and cost-effective. The decision to move to the newly refurbished WAMD building made sense.
After two weeks, the main studio, offices and green room are furnished, and the soon-to-be-outfitted TV production room and green screen will make the transfer from Pasadena to Aberdeen complete.
I sat down with Bill Parris to get his take on the radio business.
Having been in the radio business since 1965, Bill has seen it all. He's worked at more than 30 radio stations from Baltimore and Washington, D.C. to Detroit, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Parris said he loves the medium for its fast and efficient way it delivers content. Ask him what he feels he?s best at and Parris quickly answers?program development. He acted as a consultant for stations looking to maximize their market share. His track record and hands-on philosophy earned him a Billboard Magazine Program Director of the Year Award in 1977.
When talking about the changes to the radio industry, Parris pointed out that deregulation caused the biggest corporate changes to the radio landscape.
Prior to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a company could only own one AM, one FM and one TV station in any given metropolitan market. After deregulation, a company could own up to eight stations, thereby ?owning? that market and thwarting any competition in terms of programming and community service.
The loss of younger listeners and ad dollars, in addition to company consolidation, continues to threaten broadcast radio.?
With this in mind, Parris, ever the one to think outside the box, said broadcasters need to "simultaneously deliver the content to different electronic platforms? in order to achieve success.?
Thus, the birth of KHZTV.com.
Today on WAMD, as the radio personalities Maynard, Steve Mann and yours truly talk, interview?guests and just sit back and listen to the music, cameras broadcast live and stream what we're doing online.
When we?re not live on the air, the station streams music videos or local scenes continuously on KHZTV.com.
Clicking on the site also links the listener to the station's sponsors' websites and professionally shot and edited TV ads produced right there on Hiob Lane.?
Bill, Libby and their daughter Tricia, who handles sales as the director of the entertainment division, are happy to be part of the community.
The Parris family is anxious and excited to further serve Aberdeen and Harford and Cecil counties.
When asked what listeners can expect in the future from the KHZ-TV radio empire, Bill said to look forward to the seamless delivery of broadcast radio and online TV to provide the best content possible. ?Watch this space for further developments," he said.
About this column:
(Mark Schlottman writes Aberdeen Happenings, a weekly column that appears on Tuesdays. If you have a column idea or would like to reach Mark Schlottman send e-mail at aberdeenhappenings@comcast.net. And don?t forget to listen to Aberdeen Happenings every Monday morning at 8:05 a.m. on the NEW AM 970, WAMD. Mark interviews people of both local and national interest. You can call in and be part of the discussion at 410.306.6270.)Source: http://aberdeen.patch.com/articles/now-on-air-khz-tv-comes-to-aberdeen
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