Finally, Larry Dixon, our morning guy, asked to be let out of his contract after 13 months. He and his wife just were not happy in Chicago and they wanted desperately to get out. It was a tough town to crack and he suddenly regretted leaving Dallas where he had spent many years building a good name for himself. Wetherbee resurfaced at WAGQ, Athens, Georgia and Dixon soon joined him there and eventually worked his way back to Dallas. The WFYR morning show had been and continued to be a revolving door.
When Dixon left - quite suddenly - I was offered the morning slot. I agreed on a raise which brought my salary up to a little over $120,000-a-year and my contract was redrawn. Of course, I had wanted to do mornings from the beginning and now I felt I would have the chance I needed. Unfortunately, only a few months went by before the plague, which had been slowly killing the RKO properties, finally caught up with WFYR-FM.
In a letter dated June 26, 1989, Pat Servodidio, President of RKO General wrote:
As you already know, the ownership of WFYR will be transferred from RKO to Summit Broadcast today. RKO and the station have been though a very trying period and I know that the last two years have been especially difficult for you. During that time, however, each of you at WFYR has maintained a commitment and spirit of which we are very proud.
It was over. On my last paycheck issued from RKO, the pay stub simply said, “Happy Trails from RKO General, Thank You All!” We had a big “Farewell, RKO - Hello, Summit!” dinner party where people were roasted, cocktails were poured, a slide show of memories was viewed and we all quietly mulled over our future.
Summit Communications, based in Atlanta, wasn't a terribly large company. They owned 16 stations and 4 cable systems and felt pretty good about themselves for plunking down $21 million dollars for WFYR-FM, which at the time was their biggest property. The first thing they did was come into town and have a big meeting where someone announced “We're not buying a radio station, we're buying the people.”
