Pretoria Fields set to kick off radio renaissance

ALBANY — Radio in Albany is headed back to the future … back to a time when “live DJs” were actually live in the studio, when local artists’ music actually got air time, when playlists existed of more than 50 to 60 songs and were determined by people in the community who actually listen to the station.

Or as Tara Dyer Stoyle, who will serve as station manager of the Pretoria Fields Collective’s “Q-102, The Queen B” station that will be built and operated from the downtown Pretoria Fields Brewery, says, “This is the kind of station that will make people love radio again.”

The collective, which won the hearts of southwest Georgians with the development of the unique brewery in Albany’s then-floundering downtown, is best-known for its eco-friendly agricultural dynamic — organically-grown crops that are used in the brewery’s signature beers, a move into the hemp business as both grower and processor of the CBD oil extracted from the plant — but collective mastermind Tripp Morgan said a community radio station fits right in with Pretoria Fields’ business plan.

“Local radio has suffered as corporate radio giants like Cumulus bought into what quickly became a failed business model,” Morgan, a vascular surgeon who has other business interests in the region, said. “I started getting interested in radio when I saw how they did it in Macon at Creek 100.2. We’re affiliated with the Creek restaurant group — we have the Pretoria Stage at their restaurant in downtown Macon — and the way they did things introduced me to the idea.

“I met Tara, talked with her about a plan for developing a community radio station that will allow us to focus on all of our Pretoria Fields Media entities and on bringing a local feel to radio in our community. The entry cost into the business is not near as much as it once was, so we decided to move forward with this project. (When the station goes on the air), we will be able to shine a spotlight on Albany and southwest Georgia and promote positive stuff that’s going on in the city and, particularly, downtown.”

Stoyle’s initial conversation with Morgan came when the physician/businessman made a guest appearance on her “Saturday Night Rock Show” on Tifton-based Plant Broadcasting station Rock 105, where she was the station manager. (Full disclosure, the writer of this article was co-host of that show.) Morgan said he “had a blast” doing the show, and the next week he met with Stoyle for initial talks about the Albany-based Q-102 Cumulus station that was for sale.

Cumulus has long been embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings, and the local Cumulus group was also ordered by the FCC to divest itself of one of its stations that gave the corporate radio giant a monopoly in this area.

Morgan made an offer on the station through the Pretoria Fields Collective; the offer was accepted, and the past several months have been about waiting out the painstaking details involved in purchasing a radio station.

“I guess you could say this came about pretty quickly, but it doesn’t seem that way from where I’m sitting,” Morgan said. “We did that radio show in, what, April or May, so it’s taken six months or so for us just to get to this point.”

And while the sale has been finalized, lawyers are still going through the fine print required by the FCC for an ownership change.

Stoyle, meanwhile, has begun work on the process of building a radio station from scratch. She declares herself “confident” that the kind of station she and Morgan are planning is the kind of throwback to “when radio was great” that will have an impact on the local market. And Stoyle has been in the market for quite some time.

She started work in the profession at Peterson Broadcasting in Albany, which eventually became a part of the I Heart Media network. In her work as a secretary, she often talked with popular former on-air personality Ken O’Brien, who told her she was working on the wrong side of the microphone.

“I told Ken I didn’t know anything about radio broadcasting, but he said ‘I’ll teach you,’” Stoyle said. “I took him at his word, gave my notice, and started working with Ken at Rock 103 (in Albany).”

Since then, Stoyle’s 23-year radio career has included stints with the Tifton Radio Group, Three Trees Media and, most recently, Plant Broadcasting. She also worked in sales for three years at The Albany Herald. (Full disclosure: Stoyle writes a popular music column for this newspaper.)

“Anybody who’s been in radio for any period of time will tell you that it — like any other profession that people are passionate about — gets in your blood,” Stoyle said. “I also love music, so it was fitting to me that I was able to be a part of a profession where I’d get paid to be around music.”

Morgan said he knew immediately that Stoyle was the right person to manage the new station, from the construction of the studio inside the brewery to determining what mix of music would make up the station’s playlist.

“Tara is our partner; she has a vested interest in the success of this venture,” Morgan said. “We wouldn’t have done this without her. I don’t know anything about radio. This is her dream, and we’re helping her dream come true so that our dreams will come true, too.”

Stoyle is in the infant stages of putting The Queen Bee — (“The bee is Pretoria Fields’ unofficial mascot, with its hemp, honey and other agricultural products, so everything just seemed to fit,” she said.) — together, but she said she’s already lined up some on-air personalities for the station. Among them are longtime area DJ Kenny Mitchell, members of a couple of local bands — This Solid Ground and BoDean & the Poachers — and she will (wo-)man the mic for a daily request show that will help make community music lovers part of the fun.

“Two of the complaints that I hear everywhere about modern radio is that ‘they play the same songs over and over’ and ‘there are no live DJs that you can talk to about the music that’s being played,’” Stoyle said. “People are tired of corporate-run radio, tired of the same handful of songs being played time after time, tired of stations trying to fool listeners into thinking that someone they recorded in California or other parts of the country are part of the community.

“I’m nervous, but it’s a good kind of nervous. I think this is a project that this community is going to love. And I can’t wait to get on the air.”

Staff Photo: Carlton Fletcher