Familiar voice to return to Southwest Georgia airwaves

TIFTON — Life has a way, sometimes, of taking a person on a journey before bringing them back around to where they started.

Tara Dyer didn’t start her radio career at independent Tifton classic rock station WFFM, Rock 105 — she’s been in the industry for 23 years — but she left the station a little less than two years ago for what she felt was a once-in-lifetime opportunity in Albany, the chance to build a radio station from the ground up. That experiment, it turned out, was a business bust, despite being a critical success and a local favorite of music fans.

With the coronavirus unleashing its fury on the world a few days after the independent Q-102, The Queen Bee station, located in the Pretoria Fields Brewery in downtown Albany, took to the airwaves, the station struggled to generate the amount of revenue needed to keep it viable, at least businesswise. Even with a loyal and growing base of fans listening on a regular basis and recognition as the area’s top station in the Albany Herald’s annual Readers Choice poll, station owner Dr. Tripp Morgan decided to sell the station’s frequency.

Dyer, given the opportunity to continue as manager of the Queen Bee as an online streaming site, decided she’d rather not and turned in a letter of resignation. She wrote a column about the experience in The Albany Herald and decided to look for other opportunities.

It didn’t take long for one to present itself.

“I got a text from my former boss at Rock 105, David Nelson, and it said, ‘We need to get together and talk about your future,’” Dyer said.

A couple of meetings later, and Dyer is heading back to Rock 105 to manage the Plant Broadcasting station.

“David and the folks at Plant Broadcasting were always good people to work for,” Dyer, who will return to the Rock 105 (105.7 and 100.9 on FM dials) airwaves at 10 a.m. Monday to kick off her weekday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. midday show, said. “One of the really good things about working at Rock 105 is that you’re working with people who understand radio.

“It’s an opportunity to work with someone who has the same vision: local radio in an old-school way that, nowadays, is back to being new-school. There just wasn’t that vision at Q-102.”

Nelson, the general manager of Plant Broadcasting’s family of stations, which also includes WTIF (107.5) and Real Country (99.9), said Dyer will be a vital part of expanding the reach of Rock 105.

“We kind of look at WFFM as the little brother station of WTIF,” Nelson said. “But with the classic rock format, it’s an opportunity to reach a different market. We have a strong signal in Tifton, Sylvester, Cordele, throughout Worth County and into Albany. And we’ve ordered a translator for 100.9 that we hope will boost the signal in Albany.

“A lot of our plans are based on what Tara brings to the station. She is very good on the air; a lot of people have called and asked about her since she left. She’s funny, has a great personality and is passionate about radio. We’re excited to have her back. One of the things I think she’ll do is replace the station she built in Albany for the fans there who enjoyed her brand of classic rock.”

Dyer said her career in radio always has been built around the concept of community radio. And she said she expects to expand that concept at Rock 105.

“Until corporate radio took over and bought up all the larger signals, radio was about informing and entertaining stations’ local communities,” she said. “Part of the vision that I share with David and Plant Broadcasting is to bring that community concept back.

“What I have learned throughout my career — and during my time at Q-102 — is that people want that kind of station. I also learned that I will never work again for people who don’t have a background in radio.”

Dyer said she’s encouraging Nelson to “do all he can” to boost the signal in Albany so that more fans of the Q-102 format will once again have access to the music they wanted to hear. She also said she’s “talking with” people about being on the air.

“We are not going to put people on the air just to have people on the air,” she said. “We’re not looking for warm bodies. We are talking to some people who love music about what they can bring to the station.

“Plus, like we did at Q-102, we’re looking into bringing some local artists into the studio to give them a boost. David does that on WTIF, and I think that’s something that is good for the musicians and music fans in the community.”

In addition to its 105.7 and 100.9 spots on the radio dial, Rock 105 also will stream live at wffmradio.com.

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