Caution: Subject Matter May Be Disturbing....

...Especially for those who understand and appreciate the enduring value of local broadcasting.

At Southern Communications, we take great pride in being locally owned.
We're not run out of a corporate board room somewhere out of town, like some other broadcast organizations in our area. The guy that owns Southern Communications, Shane Southern, grew up in southern West Virginia and lives in Monroe County.

Shane's commitment to his home area is a big reason why we broadcast so much local sports here on Classic Rock 102 The New River. We cover the Princeton Rays, Concord Mountain Lions and Summers County Bobcats. That means we do more sports in Mercer and Summers counties, by far, than any broadcast organization in the Two Virginias. By far. Nobody else is even close.

Being locally-owned makes us unique in this age of conglomerates. In this case, unique is good, since large, centrally-controlled broadcast organizations are increasingly proving they can't do four things:
1. Run a business
2. Run a radio station
3. Understand what "local" programming means
4. Appreciate what their listeners want and need from their hometown stations


I recently found this blog and wanted to share it with you. It doesn't deal with local sports, but it sheds a light onto some of the horror stories emerging from corporate radio:

http://insidemusicmedia.blogspot.com/2009/06/games-radio-consolidators-play.html



Other broadcast groups say they're local, but they're run by someone in, for example, New York or California.
Southern Communications' headquarters is at 306 South Kanawha Street in Beckley. The owner has an office there, and not just for show. He works there everyday. Stop by and see us sometime.