HomeMy WebLinkAboutAM versus FM with Bill Hicks Transcription, WTAW First 100 Years
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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. Here's a quick AM FM 101. AM stands
for amplitude modulation. FM stands for frequency modulation. Now, you don't have to
remember that, but you might want to know about the history of WTAW AM switching from a
music station to a talk station. Well, music sounds better on FM. Listen to station owner Bill
Hicks.
00:00:51 Bill Hicks (BH)
It's music format, country, its ability to uh, a dominant listener station. But in the '80s, that began
to dwindle as FM became more prominent. And the FM stations here locally did a good job of
taking that market share. By 1990, WTAW, as a music station, was just sort of a has-been. I
mean, it-it wasn't going to work very well anymore as a music station because it’s, the fidelity of
AM broad amplitude modulation is far less than frequency modulation because it's, it’s, it's a lot
better product to listen to FM than AM was back in, in those days. And listeners preferred it,
preferred FM to listen to music. So that's when a guy like Rush Limbaugh came by, came along
and, and, and was successful.
00:01:42 TT
Now there's a name, Rush Limbaugh. There are many who say that he saved AM radio. And
that's a whole ‘nother story and a whole ‘nother part of the history of WTAW. The first 100 years.