On February 13, 2013, my life was forever changed. I had been “let go” by my last radio employer after almost seven years. Prior to that, I was single and childless. That day I found myself not only married and with a young daughter, but now jobless.
The broadcasting industry has never been a “family friendly” one. As radio and television stations are expected to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including weekends and holidays, most of those who work in it have either never been married or working on a third or fourth marriage. As a child of divorce myself, I didn’t want to put my career first and leave my family vulnerable.
I took a job at a cable TV company while trying to figure out what to do for the rest of my life, now that radio was going to have to play a secondary role. As many inside the broadcasting industry will tell you, when you’re suddenly out of work, word spreads quickly.
Some offered jobs at their stations. Others advised me to sue my former employer. And a couple others said “start your own station.”
Start my own station? What a novel idea. Now...WITH WHAT???
Two other colleagues gave me invaluable advice on how to set up my own Part 15 AM station, which turned out to be more time-consuming than it was difficult. Various online resources filled in the gaps of expertise, and after two missed target dates, Saxonburgradio.com went on the air as AM 1620 WSNQ Sarver on October 25, 2018. We were mostly a music service, with little local or regional programming, primitive equipment, and no audio processing.
Over time, we added more full-service programming elements to our lineup. We hit (and missed) with two long-form daily talk programs. We added network national and international news, plus a local news brief weekdays. More short-form programming vignettes. Public-affairs geared programming on weekends.
Then in November 2016, we concluded a deal with the South Butler Community Library in Saxonburg, the community in which we market ourselves, to host a central transmitter location for a second AM transmitter in addition to our original one in Sarver. After some technical challenges were overcome, we signed on an FM transmitter at 100.3 from this same location in October 2017. With this addition came the change to WIYQ AM/FM Saxonburg. We were in the heart of our community over the air at last.
Since then, we’ve made technical upgrades to improve our sound, such as newer, more state of the art computers, broadcast software, audio processing and a digital on-air console, rivaling our competitors. Thanks to the support of our community, Saxonburgradio.com has not only survived, but thrived, in a relatively short period of time.
We thank you for taking the time to visit this page today, and hope you will also take time to visit our website at www.Saxonburgradio.com. We hope you’ll also make us a part of your workday. We not only broadcast our signal over the air in town, but also stream our audio full-time over the internet. You can also listen on your smartphone or tablet using the TuneIn Radio app. We’re also available on the Google Home mini device...all you have to say is “OK Google, listen to Saxonburg Radio.” The device does the rest!
Once again, a sincere thank you.
Yours truly,
Ken Hawk, President and General Manager
