|
2005 Favorite Radio Personality 30.64% Turner (WBYR)*
Others with Votes (more than one):
* On the ballot |
Turner, an Evansville native, joined 98.9 The Bears’ popular morning show after moving from a Greenville, North Carolina modern rock station in 2004. He said he was surprised to get nominated. He was floored to win. "Realistically, I was honored and flattered to be nominated, knowing Doc and some of the other guys have been around longer than me," he said. "Honest to God, I really didn’t think I had a chance with Doc on the ballot. He’s such a legend in this town. If I win it’ll be because of the guys I work with." Turner said the camaraderie at the station is "just awesome. I’m part of a championship team. Everybody has a different style and tastes, pretty much interchangeable. It’s probably he best radio station I’ve ever worked for in that capacity." Turner and his cohorts on the TNT Show - Parker, Drew and Jerrdog - keep up lively banter between the "active rock" tunes the show plays. Sports and television seem to dominate the conversation, but Turner said anything under the pop culture heading is open. Anything within reason, that is. The recent crackdown by the Federal Communications Commission following the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction of a year ago and the ongoing battles with shock-jock Howard Stern has put the clamps on what can and can’t be said. "The FCC has forced people to be more creative, as much as I hate it," Turner said. "I think people are still saying a lot of the same things. But some subjects you can’t even talk about anymore. You can’t even describe the subject." But FCC restrictions are only one of the changes radio is focusing on. The advent of Internet and satellite radio has thrown new adversaries into the mix. "Rock radio is holding its breath waiting to see what the next big thing is going to be," Turner said. "The talent is getting better. Satellite radio and the Internet are forcing people to raise their game." Part of the game-raising game includes jumping on the very bandwagons that threaten conventional radio. Namely, using the Internet as a marketing tool. TNT has a presence on Myspace.com, and from that portal Turner launched a sort of Whammy campaign. On his Myspace blog Turner wrote of his Whammy nomination: "Now, normally I poo-poo these things because I'm very rarely involved and they always seem to go to the same people and so on and so forth - but now I feel like the punk band with a hit single. I'm delighted that people know who I am, and maybe our show is more popular than I thought." Apparently Turner himself is more popular than he thought. |
Copyright 2006 Ad Media Inc.
Turner Watson has been in Fort Wayne for
only two years. Yet in that time, the WBYR
morning jock has gained a loyal following that
helped him unseat Doc West as the reigning king
of the Radio Personality Whammy.