Volume 3, No. 8. April 25, 2003
Airing out
Sara Sumner’s
job as public relations coordinator is getting easier in many different directions
at Wild Adventures Theme Park. Last month the Valdosta, Georgia, park went on
the air with its own radio station.
Located at 92.1 on the FM dial, WDDQ offers residents and any travelers driving
down the Interstate 75 corridor in South Georgia a continuous stream of park
information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Utilizing the voices of Sumner,
the park’s Vice President of Marketing and Entertainment Jimmy Holmes,
and the park’s Senior Vice President and General Manager Michael Jetter,
the radio provides news and features on the park’s shows, animals, rides
and upcoming concerts. “We do some educational facts about animals, do
stuff that interests the kids,” Sumner said, a ploy to placate travel-weary
children in the back seats of touring cars and vans.
Able to instantly update the broadcasts or go on the air live, the park also
announces weather conditions and traffic reports. “If traffic is backed
up we can give alternate routes,” Sumner said. Eventually she would like
to broadcast skits from the park’s shows.
The station first debuted as an AM broadcast in the mid-1950s. In the late ’60s
the station added a 3,000-watt sister station on the FM dial, and when the latter
changed hands again in the late 1980s, the signal was boosted to 6000 watts.
Adventure Radio Group purchased the station in February. “We became aware
that it was for sale, and it looked like a perfect fit for Wild Adventures to
inform travelers along I-75 about the park,” Sumner said.
WDDQ reaches as far north as Tifton, Georgia, and west to Albany, Georgia, but
south only a few miles to the Georgia-Florida border. Billboards along the interstate
give travelers the dial location for Wild Adventures Radio, but south of Tifton
the station has something of a monopoly. “I found out from my aunt who
was driving from Michigan to Florida that when she hit the scan button on her
radio (Wild Adventures) was the only thing that locked in,” Sumner said.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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