Pretoria Fields radio station set to go on the air

ALBANY — This all started, as such things often do, with a chance meeting and a request.

Vascular surgeon Dr. Tripp Morgan, who’d brought the Pretoria Fields Collective Brewery to downtown Albany, flagged down a guy he knew and mentioned the possibility of being on a weekly radio show on a Tifton-based rock station. The guy passed on the request, and that weekend Morgan was a guest on The Saturday Night Rock Show, hosted by the Tifton station’s manager, Tara Dyer Stoyle.

Before that night was over, Stoyle mentioned to Morgan that an Albany radio station was for sale and told him of her desire to, basically, build a station from the ground-up. The two agreed to meet and discuss radio, and in less than a month’s time, Morgan had made an offer on the station.

On Jan. 26, the results of that chance meeting will be unveiled to southwest Georgians when WNUQ — 102.1 The Queen Bee — will debut on the local radio airwaves. The unique station, whose studio stands nearly complete in the Pretoria Fields Brewery, is — according to Morgan, Stoyle and all involved — set to take radio back in time to when on-air talent did their shows live and found room for music that lay outside the corporate-run format that has become the radio norm.

“There really is no name for our format, so the name I came up with that best describes the music people will hear on The Queen Bee is ‘independent,’” Stoyle said. “The station is not owned by some corporate entity, so we have been given the freedom to play the music that we want. Even more important, all the DJs have been given the freedom to play songs outside the norm, within certain parameters.

“That’s where the magic is going to happen with this station. Most of the stations in the Albany market — and I worked at several of them — have a playlist of less than 100 songs. And the DJs voice track, which means they’re not in the studio; the music they play and the things they say are prerecorded. Plus, they have no say in programming the music, so anyone who calls in a request is wasting time. There’s no one in the studio, and the show is preprogrammed.”

And there’s that limited playlist.

“Yeah, we have a playlist right now of 4,500 songs, and we’ll be adding more songs on a daily basis,” Stoyle said. “There are more than 100 great songs in the history of music.”

Morgan says the concept of The Queen Bee — which references Pretoria Fields’ organically-grown honey — fits in well with the collectives’ other interests, which include organically grown fruits and crops, some of which are used in the making of beer at the brewery, and Pretoria Fields’ nascent hemp-growing and production arm.

“When Tara approached me about the idea of a truly community radio station, I was immediately convinced she was on the right track,” Morgan said. “The more she talked about her ideas of taking radio back to its ‘glory days,’ the more I wanted to be a part of it. For some reason, radio today sticks with a failed format that completely takes out the human element. I believe our station has an opportunity to have the kind of impact on our community that we’re trying to foster through the Pretoria Fields Collective.

“I’m excited to get to this point where we’re getting ready to go on the air. Like a lot of people in the community, I can’t wait to hear the new station.”

Stoyle has kept the format of The Queen Bee a closely-guarded secret. Now, she says she’s ready for the community to hear what the station has to offer. Some of the highlights include:

— Stoyle’s mid-day all-request show that will feature songs from the station’s expansive library and may even venture outside that collection.

— “The Buzz,” a Saturday-morning public-service program in which community leaders and policymakers come on the air to talk about issues and answer questions gleaned from the public. Albany City Commissioner B.J. Fletcher will host the show, whose debut will feature a visit by community lighting rod for controversy Will Geer.

“I think Tara has come up with an excellent format for this show; that’s why I agreed to get involved,” Fletcher said. “Some people are quick to express their opinions on issues — and we all know there are three sides to every story: yours, mine and the truth — but they’re never asked to back those opinions up. Hopefully, we’ll be able to use this show to inform the public.”

— A morning show that features music, a smattering of comedy, and limited commercials.

“There’s plenty of morning talk radio on in the area — good and bad — and some people like that,” Stoyle said. “But we want to offer an alternative to people who want to hear music while they’re getting ready for or driving to work or school.”

— Area radio veteran Kenny Mitchell’s return to the airwaves with “Generation X Revival,” during which Mitchell — who has a long local radio career and still produces a weekly show on the Italy-based and international Eurobeats Radio — does fun things with music from the era of Gen X.

“When Tara called me to ask if I was interested in doing a live show again, it took me maybe five seconds to say yes,” Mitchell, who will also do programming for Q-102, said. “My initial thought was, ‘Hell yeah, count me in.’ Like many people who’ve been in radio for any length of time, I had grown sick of what I call ‘corporatized radio.’ To have an opportunity to be a part of something like this — a show with no set music list and with live DJs — man, I can’t wait.”

— Once-weekly shows hosted by local bands This Solid Ground (“Solid Rock with This Solid Ground”) and BoDean & the Poachers (“Pickin’ With the Poachers). The former will play harder-edged music that influenced the band, the latter the Americana music that is the basis of their repertoire.

“Getting the chance to do this is mostly about getting to share music I love with other people,” Poachers’ lead singer/guitarist Brandon Fox said. “It’s an opportunity to play music people haven’t heard, outside satellite or web-based radio. There is a market for what people are calling Americana — and I don’t like that term, what this music is is true country music, not the auto-tuned tight-jeans music that comes out of Nashville now — it’s getting bigger, but you never hear it on mainstream radio.

“We also plan to feature local musicians, who’ll come into the studio and perform live and maybe talk a little about their music. (Being on the radio) is something that never crossed my mind, and when Tara first approached me about doing it, my low self-esteem made me hesitate. But the more I’ve talked about it, the more I’m convinced this is something that will be a lot of fun … for us and for the community.”

— A weekly (Sunday’s) program called “Church” that will feature “uplifting” music and positive news in the community.

— A twice-monthly late-night show featuring Nikki Miller, who will play and discuss heavy metal music from a woman’s perspective.

“I’m both terrified and excited to be doing this,” first-time DJ MIller said. “I became obsessed with music when i went with my music-playing dad into clubs and bars to hear him play when I was young. I am looking forward to sharing my love for this kind of music.”

Stoyle said carefully selected advertisers should appreciate the format that is the antithesis of anything on corporate radio.

“I was listening to a local station the other day, and they played 14 commercials in a row,” the Queen Bee station manager said. “We’re going to limit our advertisers, and we’ll never do that kind of thing. Because, I can promise you, if you’re an advertiser, and your ad was played as part of 14 consecutive ads, no one heard it. Those (advertisers) just wasted their money.”

Q-102 The Queen Bee will go on the air at 6 a.m. on Jan. 26 and play — commercial-free — until 8 p.m. Afterward, regular programming begins. Morgan, Stoyle — who can be contacted at [email protected] — and the others who are involved in the project say the community should tune in … to see what the buzz is about.

Staff Photo: Carlton Fletcher
Staff Photos: Carlton Fletcher