Looks like rocket radio didn't survive in Waldport. Station went off the air last month, not sure of the date. Looks like it was early April. Even at a price of $129,000 there were no takers. Too bad Larry Profitt couldn't pull in a buyer to keep it going. Hate to see those small town radio stations fail like this.

Rocket Radio debuted April 1st. Are you saying that it lasted less than one month?

Yup! It's FCC lottery time. KORC issued "RSA" on 3-30-09.

Earlier this morning, I checked on the FCC's lookup, where the status says "licensed and silent" as of 4-1-09.

After all of the noise generated here on the 'KORC For Sale' thread, I think everyone has various questions:
Did Rocket Radio air on KORC for even one day?
Can anyone verify any of the information on the Rocket Radio Affiliate Page?
Or, did it pull a Team Rocket?! (I can't believe I just wrote that!!! )

You mean to say that after all that "Look at me" trumpet blowing, he headed down the runway but could never get the wheels up?

Should we be surprised?

If this is true, I wonder how many friends Woody has in Waldport now?

Why don't we get the facts from Woody?

rockmewoody@aol.com or at (229) 233-6153.

Email sent, awaiting reply. Thanks Craig.

> Did Rocket Radio air on KORC for even one day?

I can confirm that it did: I was listening to 820 kHz on the morning of April 1, and I heard a DJ make a reference to the "Rocket Radio Network."

....Waldport went dark last month.......

Coincidently, Woody and the KORC thread went dark about the same time.....

He hasn't replied to me either.

"SPECULATING" here.....
Realised the $$$ weren't there and backed out.
Had some backing that pulled out.
Thought he would flip the Georgia Stations and use the money for KORC.
Found out there was no action in Waldport.

So the question now is...
What price would make someone else take a shot?
and
What kind of revenue can this place truly generate under ideal circumstances. ( my best guesstimate was 4-5k per month. You could spike that some with HS FB and BB... but at this time 2k was probably more accurate) Not nearly enough to make this go........

Wonder if Woodman ever came to town and made the rounds, or relied on others.....

When this first came up, I looked at it on Google Earth. It looked to me like you could call on every business in town in about 20 minutes.

Gee that's a surprise, Rocket went dark. Who woulddda thunk? Anyway, I can confirm that they were on the air. I heard them several times. By the way, the signal sucks. KORC does not even come in well in Newport, which is only 14 miles up the road.

I am surprised that somebody here hasn't done a bit of research on Woody's adventures outside of Waldport. I just spent half an hour with Google and found a mother lode.

How about starting with Michigan? Search for "Woody" on the Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard for some grim tales and odd behavior.

The legend of Woody can also be found in Dixie. The Radio-Info.com boards in Georgia and Florida have been pretty active. He posts as "WJEPPD" and the threads are enlightening.

Search for "Woody Nelson" on the Public Radio Talent Quest and it yields yet another string of Woody sightings.

"Woody's big network" is actually a DBA controlled by a woman named Doreen A. Blood. Her company is Georgia Triangle Broadcasting. She is listed as the sole owner of WSBX. I found no evidence that Woody, GTB or Mrs. Blood purchased KORC.

It appears that he may have a history of misleading small town radio stations and talking advertisers out of money. In 2005, he used the alias "Jack Hammer" and had an interesting time running a "network" at a station in California.

For now, we can follow the drama on Twitter, or patiently wait for his local NBC affiliate to out him for fraud, or hope that Opie & Anthony have him on their show again.

I think most folks around here would have been happy to see KORC survive under any new owner. After reading about this character in other parts of the country, I am awfully curious to hear what Larry Profitt has to say about him.

Rocketradio's (Woody's) last post on the "KORC AM For Sale" thread was on April 16th. The thread itself hasn't had anyone respond since the 19th.

I have no idea what that means....but it seemed interesting.

Thanks for the research, Littlesongs. The plot certainly thickens here regarding how 820 was kept on the air for the relatively short run of the Rocket Radio Network there. Did Woody talk Larry Profitt into keeping the lights on while waiting for money to materialize somehow?

Dave, Didn't know about Michigan, but some of the other stuff was out there. Interestin' wat-n-tit?

He used to hype on All Access...

Actually has some solid ideas, but maybe not the packaging to pull it together...

Would also love Larry's POV.

Littlesongs:

Wow. Thanks for the most entertainment I've had in a while.

Hard to believe creatures like this still roam the earth masquerading as humans.

Hard to believe

Hard to believe? Doesn't Bernie Madoff ring a bell? Its hard to walk 20 feet in this world without bumping into somebody wanting to take your money for dubious purposes.

Holy Cow! If you want to kill a couple of hours, follow the links in the post above by Littlesongs. It is truly fascinating.

Woody replied to my email. Here, in it's entirety, is his email:

Who is this ?

Onward and Upward,

Woody Nelson
"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is NOT Being talked about"...Oscar Wilde Circa 19th Century
OM/PD KORC AM 820 "THE ROCKET" www.korcam820.com
OM/PD WSBX AM 1020 "RADIO EL CHONGO" www.wsbxradio.com
OM/PD THE ROCKET RADIO NETWORK www.rocketradionetwork.com
OM/PD RADIO EL CHONGO WORLDWIDE www.radioelchongo.com
CEO Georgia Triangle Broadcasting
Founder of Cabo Wabo Radio
Creator of Radio Cabo

www.RockMeWoody.com

www.RadioCabo.com

"Who is this ?"

Tell him its pdxradio calling.

At least Woody hasn't yet conned anybody out of his or her retirement savings. I am not angry at Woody; rather, I see some comedy in this sham. I never thought that a niche music format like Active Rock was really appropriate for a small market like Waldport, and the chances of it working on AM would be that much smaller. However incompetent and delusional Woody might have been, I think that what he was trying to do touches on a dream that many of us here have: to go against the odds and save a struggling AM station that nobody else would consider of much worth.

......Tell him its pdxradio calling.....

Collect!

The list of "CURRENT" Titles he hold reminds me a lot of the third world dictator "generals" who wear uniforms festooned with ribbons, medals, cerimonial swords, and the like. Must be important. Meanwhile everything around them is in decay.

Self importance makes the man. Got to give it to him, he is a hustler. If the radio thing doesn't work, there is always vinyl siding, or car sales as a career.

Makes you wonder if he will ever pull something off. (probably won't be in Oregon or Michigan!)

( I don't think I've ever used the word "festooned" before)

littlesongs, you did a terrific job on your investigation. Great reading. Boy, that Jack the hammer sure love to give away trips!!

Actually, it sounds more like he enjoys making people THINK he is giving away trips.

I don't think Woody ever figured he'd make any money at KORC in Waldport. His motivation had to be someplace else. In the best of times, Waldport is an almost impossible market. The money is just not there.

I believe I was the first one on the original KORC thread to point out that Woody's plan was world domination and that he didn't care about Waldport or the people in it. Looks like I was right.

Onward and upward, eh Woody? More like business as usual. Again, if you haven't read through the linked articles supplied by Littlesongs, take the time to do so. If you were an original supporter oh Woody and what he was trying to do at KORC, you are likely to change your mind quickly after a little reading.

I appreciate the responses, but I don't deserve any credit. These discoveries are too little and too late. Even though it is an incredible story, it gives me no pleasure to pass this kind of information along. Nor do I feel good about the fact that we are discussing this right now.

Hashing it all out in May of 2009 means that we missed an important opportunity. All of us are enjoying the anecdotes and having belly laughs today, rather than months ago when we had half a chance to help a small stick avoid a potential disaster.

I hope that I am wrong about back channels, but it appears that not one of us hit the information highway to see what this guy was all about. Or if somebody did know something, they never shared their findings in this forum.

Instead, the response was largely cheerleading or cheap potshots about demographics, coverage and rate cards. Now, the next "due diligence" investor will have a great deal of new negative information to weigh into his or her decision.

Larry and his family spent $185,000 to buy the station. Over a half dozen years, they dedicated even more money and a whole lot of time to serving their community on the airwaves. They might have been making a little when they asked for $285,000. It was clearly a loss when it dropped all the way down to $129,000.

When a small town radio station owner says "every $50 hurts" -- he means it. If any funny business occurred that put him even deeper in the hole, then this unbelievable tale stops being amusing in a big damn hurry.

Is it our job to help somebody avoid a pitfall? Is it our duty to give a small town guy the benefit of positive rational discussion when his life savings are on the line? Perhaps not by definition, but it would be clear evidence that this is a real community. The KORC saga contains a very important lesson about watching out for each other.

If this does have a happy ending out on the coast, it could be one of the funniest and most twisted radio stories to ever unfold. I have found even more information from the internet, but I really want to see who else weighs in before going any further.

With hindsight, Woody's posts had all the earmarks of a fast buck artist. Most were implications, incomplete explanations, and outrage when someone challenged anything he said.

I have no idea what his motivations were, or whether or not he really believed in what he was doing, but anything that seems too good to be true almost always is.

I'll take a hit here. I have been in contact with Wood for several years. He's shared some ideas and dropped some names, and always seemed pie in the sky. but he was focused on his idea. I wouldn't have put a nickel in with him. He always wanted to make it on someone elses money. I didn't call out the emperor was naked, ONLY because I wasn't privy to
the details of the KORC deal. Sounds like there wasn't one, and this may have been the only offer Larry saw. Without his input we won't know the details, but probably easy to guess. I never delved too deep in to woody saga, but would have if it was a business dealing.

Hey I would have loved to see it work. Having been busted many a time for being less than positive, I wished him success but didn't think he could pull it off and didn't think he had any real interest in the coast. No more than a stepping stone at best.

As for Larry, You could pull for a guy like that, while just up the road, you kinda hope the queen of mean would have a little less success. Yet both are small market radio station owners.

maybe best we turn out the lights on the Woody. You won't get a response. He burned this bridge.

Who is this indeed. He knew who. Hell, I didn't even get a reply.

Dave, Agreed we need to look out for one another.

(BTW, you were looking for PITFALL, as for hitting the highway, a dilemma indeed. if we find dirt, is it our place to share, or only inform the principals that it is there? You risk the MYOB retort.)

Dean, yeah, I think he believes in his idea. Probably can't scrape two nickels together and wants to find someone else to finance it.

Seems unfair that some are truly stand up people and never get the ring, while some true shits always seem to do just fine.

This is still a developing situation, so I will reserve any additional backstory for a future post. Patrick Martin is based in Seaside and filed a reception report of KORC earlier today. He is arguably the greatest MW DX'er in the region, so I have no reason to doubt it.

Does anyone have a way to get in touch with Larry? Could someone who knows them discretely pass some or all of this information about "Woody" to the Profitt family? With papers signed not long ago, it makes me wonder what the devil is going on right now.

You know, if one was to take this whole story, take the radio component out and replace it with a motion picture component, we'd be sitting around going, yup, business as usual, just another typical week in Hollywood.

Too bad this had to happen around a decent small time station owner who tried to make a go of it.

BTW, littlesongs, this would make a pretty good investigative piece for The O to run, but apparently they've not the staff these days.

I was down in the Waldport area yesterday and 820 was still on the air...with "Rocket Radio"...and a slew of the standard issue PI type spots for debt reduction services, etc.

What is going on behind the scenes? Who knows.

ACTUALLY, this morning, KORC is on the air, as "Rocket" radio. If they were gone, perhaps it was for tech. considerations. Who knows?

STRANGE.......Around 9:30am I heard "Rocket Radio" on 820am.......Ten minutes ago, there was no mention of the Rocket, or KORC, or any other station.... But, instead, there was "Doo Wop Express"(with a huge amount of technical glitches in the form of false starts, and terrible motor boating)....and, unless some other station was bleeding over, which I doubt, I'm pretty sure it was KORC. The mystery continues.

Is Larry even reachable? Emails are "undeliverable"...

Woodman ain't talkin either.

Looking at the bigger overall picture, this sordid little episode is just another festering blister on the terminal patient that is "radio as we knew it".

And it sure seems like a lengthy death... doesn't someone have an assisted-suicide bill for radio?!

An "assisted-suicide bill" for radio would have to involve the re-allocation of broadcast radio frequencies for other uses. I believe that it is only a matter of having somebody make a good enough offer to the FCC for this to become a reality. Look at the DTV transition: the ability for stations to multicast and the elimination of channel assignment "taboos" were the main justifications for why channels 52-69 were no longer needed for television broadcasting. One of those former television channels (55) was bought by the operator of a pay-TV multiplex system.

I was headed back to the station a few minutes ago, and tuned-in to 820am.........Gone! KORC is completely dark. "News at 11"............

KORC dark? All who are surprised, raise your hands.

(I didn't think so.)

So it was on After the date on the FCC form. who has it on? Who is powering up the transmitter?

Who is on site?

Perhaps someone who legally SHOULDN'T be there?

Like I said, this morning it was the "Rocket", an hour later "Doo Wop Express" and a couple hours later gone.....all today.

For those of you looking for answers, we are in the midst of fixing station issues such as a short tower and no processing. We have been waiting for a station inventory which was not received as of yet. The LOI to buy the station expired over the weekend and so we are on hold here at Rocket. As for anything you folks read on that Michigan board, take that with a grain of salt, there are some really nasty people at work in that forum that have mental issues all their own. Once we get everything addressed we will update you. One of the issues with the Oregon station we found out about was that the resumption was never filed which is part of our decision to cease providing content until it could be properly addressed.More as it all develops...

Oh, never mind on the updates, I think we got the picture.

In the past year, I have gotten caught up in two different situations, where I believed people who turned out to be "all talk, no action." Those situations ended up putting my family and I into a couple of pretty seriously precarious situations that nearly hurt us deeply. Those situations have helped tune my "bullshit detector" to a level previously never attained.

I read all the things said on the boards we've been linked to, plus what Woody himself has posted here(And his wonderful "Who is this? email), and the needle on my "bullshit detector" has been bent severely after pegging so hard.

Why on God's green Earth should we believe you even for a moment?

All talk, no show. How are we to believe all the talk around the internet is wrong and you are right?