M:M What's Next On The Playlist?

(Photo: M:M)

By Richard Thompson
Mediaverse:Memphis

This month, Art Gilliam, chairman and president of Gilliam Communications Inc., will be one of four inductees into the Society of Entrepreneurs.

Gilliam—along with Hilliard Crews of Shelby Group International, Doug Marchant of Unified Health Services, and Dan Poag of Poag & McEwen—will become members of that august organization during its 15th Annual Dinner and Awards Banquet at the University of Memphis Holiday Inn on April 21.

One more accolade earned for Gilliam, who purchased WLOK 1340AM thirty years ago. It became the city’s first black-owned radio station and grew into a historic landmark on South Second Street. While traditional gospel music is its forte, WLOK is a well-respected voice and counselor for communities throughout the Mid South.

“We’re really a community station and always have been,” said Gilliam, 63.

Yet, how can WLOK preserve and grow that over the next 30 years?

“We’re in the embryonic stage,” said Gilliam, adding that it might take a year or two to really find out what’s ahead for WLOK.

To be sure, Gilliam is focused inward.

Gilliam, who also owns WHGM Radio Inc., is in the process of selling its Savannah, Ga. station, WHGM AM 1400. The $200,000 sale was approved by the FCC last year and was scheduled to be consummated in January, but it’s unclear if the deal will be completed.

Gilliam said there’s a hope “to preserve WLOK as a community asset going forward,” but it’s unclear what shape that would take. For instance, forming a foundation is an option, Gilliam said, because it would put the station’s future under a structure more concerned with its role as a community-asset than just a business.

“If you look at it only as a business, you might make (different) decisions” than if one considered it as a community asset, he said.

In the last 30 years, Gilliam, a former Commercial Appeal reporter and opinion writer and WMC-TV, has seen the media landscape change dramatically. WLOK has changed too, switching from R&B to a traditional gospel music format in the 1980s. It hasn’t looked back since, building a loyal listener base that is primarily African American and older. They tune in daily to listen to longtime on-air personalities like Brother James Chambers (aka. the Dean of Gospel Music), Jahue “Doc” Mumphrey and Delsa “Fireball” Fleming.

Yet, WLOK is more than just music. Gilliam said its annual Stone Soul Picnic in September is a microcosm of what the station represents. The event, held every year at Tom Lee Park, features music but also offers health screenings and voter registration. The station is also part of an initiative that provides counseling for people suffering from drug addiction; it also offers a hotline for people who want to get out of gangs.

“People identify with us a member of their family,” said Gilliam.

Kim Harper, the station’s program director, agrees. Memphis, she said, is definitely a gospel town and right now WLOK wants to improve what it currently does. The Stone Soul Picnic, for instance. “We want to make it international. We are doing some things now to invite some people, other cultures to come in,” she said.

And yes, Harper said the station will continue to grow its listener base. To that end, it can be heard via the Internet. “We’re now heard worldwide,” said Harper, who has been with WLOK for 10 years and hosts the early morning show.

As for the future, Harper said the day is coming when AM radio will sound no different than FM or even HD.

However, Gilliam said, that doesn’t mean the station plans to get involved in satellite radio.

“We may very well get into areas that are related to what we do, but we don’t have a five-year game plan that puts us into another field (like FM or HD). Certainly, it’s possible that we would look at other things,” he said.

As for himself, Gilliam does not foresee any change in his own program. Radio, he said, is a business that is most conducive to community activism.

“It never stops being something you are not interested in doing,” he said. “There’s never a time that it wouldn’t rewarding and challenging to me.”