HomeMy WebLinkAboutJohn Hicks and WTAW Transcription, WTAW First 100 YearsProject HOLD
WTAW Interview
Bill Hicks | Former WTAW Radio Owner
Tom Turbiville | WTAW Radio Host
Daniel Hayes | Transcriber
Transcript
00:00:01 Dick Bolin (DB)
College Station, Texas, April 24th, 1947-
00:00:04 Speaker 2
Now let's go to the bonfire signed where WTAW's Tom Turbi-?
00:00:07 Speaker 3
-WTAW election night coverage. All 8 voting centers in Brazos County have been counted-
[Unintelligible sports broadcaster and crowd of screaming fans]
00:00:14 Speaker 4
Today on WTAW, we're joining with businesses from across the Brazos Valley, to support our -
00:00:20 Speaker 5
16.20 WTAW.
00:00:22 Tom Turbiville (TT)
This is WTAW, the first 100 years. I'm Tom Turbiville. WTAW owner Bill Hicks's family has
been in the radio station purchasing business since 1959, but John Papa Hicks, SMU grad and the
son of an SMU theology prof. Got the radio bug before that.
00:00:42 Bill Hicks (BH)
Was in the Army in World War II. He had graduated from SMU and ended up at the Houston
Post. Ultimately, he migrated to what used to be called a radio representative firm. The one that
he worked for was called the Raymer Company, and he would represent rad io stations and
television stations all over Texas, all over the Southwest. They would come to these
representative firms like the Raymer Company, an advertising group, and say, I want to buy all
your market. They would negotiate contracts and then those contracts would be fulfilled by the
radio and television stations all over the, the network that- So he did that. He was in that business
for at least 10 years in the 50s.
00:01:24 TT
Now the radio business evolved into radio-TV combos.
00:01:29 BH
So, there was a period of time after World War II when television became prominent. He would
represent television and radio stations. Lyndon Johnson was one of my dad's big customers.
Lady Bird was his primary contact. They owned a group in Austin. They also owned K-KWTX
in Waco, which then started KBTX in Bryan.
00:01:49 TT
Suffice it to say, John Hicks b(r)ought lots of radio stations, including WTAW in Bryan -College
Station. This is the first 100 years.