Names: Tyrone Bynum and
Robert S. Womack
Ages: 62, 58
Occupations: lawyer, Kent County
Commissioner
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Bee-otched For: attempting a hostile
takeover
The saga of
the radio douchebag known as Tyrone Bynum just
won't end.
Last year, we
handed BOTD dishonors to the asshat who
operates urban AC WPRR 1680 and its
low-powered translator at 102.5 - operating as
The Ride - for running an illegal operation.
Under FCC rules, 1680 and 102.5 must be
simulcast 24/7. But, 10,000-watt 1680 has been
airing an oddball mish-mash of random classic
urban tunes for about a year with no
commercials and another FCC no-no, no legal
station IDs.
We also
ripped Bynum a new one because The Ride's new
studio is located at Rogers Plaza, the Grand
Rapids area's most-dead shopping mall and the
butt of many, many jokes. You could say that
it is more embarrassing than the rickety
parking area at Rivertown Crossings. If you
want to hear some of those jokes, BTW, just
listen to the old Chris Rock routine of "Every
town in America has two malls: the mall white
people go to and the mall white people used to
go to."
Well now,
we've heard from a reliable source that
Tyrone, along with fellow radio prick and Kent
County commissioner Robert S. Womack - who has
a show on The Ride - attempted a hostile
takeover of 97.3 The Heat. The 49-watt urban
station is owned by the non-profit Empowerment
Radio Project, which is run by Jose Flores.
Word has it that Flores knows a few folks from
the FCC and is now threatening to report WPRR
to them.
But, there's
one problem: Tyrone does not own WPRR.
According to
my source, Bynum has been leasing the station,
formerly liberal talk Public Reality Radio
from longtime owner Robert Goodrich who filed
for bankruptcy in 2020. Goodrich was marred
with poor business decisions, such as firing
station programmer and Southpaws host
Darren Gibson because of his lack of support
for 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton
due to the screwjob the Democrats put on the
more progressive candidate, Bernie Sanders.
Goodrich also made headlines for firing all of
his minor employees at his movie theaters so
he could start selling liquor. In the end,
Goodrich lost the GQT movie theater chain his
father started in 1930, which is now owned by
several private equity firms.
Goodrich -
now in his 80s - also lost his home and now
lives in a small townhouse off of East Paris
in Kentwood. But somehow, he still has WPRR,
which he's leasing to Bynum, who is also his
personal lawyer.
If WPRR is
fined for Bynum's idiotic bullshit, sadly,
Goodrich might be the one slapped with the
fine. Why, you might ask? Look no further than
Traverse City.
A few years
ago, a similar situation occurred between a
radio station owner and another entity that
was leasing his stations. The renters broke an
FCC law but it was the owner who paid for
their snafu.
The owner was
Roy Henderson, who owns WLDR 101.9 Traverse
City, WBNZ 92.3 Frankfort, WLLS 99.3 Beulah,
and WWKK 750 Petoskey. He used to own 100.7
Bear Lake and WMTE 1340 Manistee, but he lost
those stations due to them being silent for
too long.
With a
partner, Henderson started WKLT in Kalkaska in
1979, then at 97.7, 6,000 watts, and a top 40
format. With northern Michigan being
overloaded with CHRs, Kilt 98 was a ratings
dud, even with Michael O'Shea as one of their
jocks. In 1981, WKLT flipped to country, but
ratings did not improve.
Obviously,
Henderson had nothing to lose when he flipped
WKLT again a year later to a format that was
successful in larger cities, but not up north:
album-oriented rock. Now known as 98 Rock, the
station's ratings rose and two years later in
1984, Henderson sold the station for $250,000
to Langer Gokey, a wealthy Pepsi bottler from
Minot, ND.
Henderson
took the money and ran off to Texas where he
started a chain of successful stations that
played Texas-style music. He also bought tiny,
small-town stations that made little - if any
- profit and moved them to larger cities,
which made him millions.
The
Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a blessing
to deep-pocketed broadcasters like Henderson.
He could buy up more radio stations and he was
eying one of the fastest-growing in America:
the one he abandoned years ago, Traverse City.
While he was investing in Texas, WKLT's new
owners boosted their signal by moving 97.7 to
97.5 and expanding their power from 6,000 to
32,000 watts. They even purchased 98.9 WJML in
Petoskey - a station that once creamed WKLT in
the ratings in its short lifespan - and
flipped it to WKLZ, a full-time simulcast of
WKLT. Henderson was jealous of KLT's success
and growth. So, he felt that buying up a ton
of lackluster signals in the Grand Traverse
region - plus a 100,000-watt heritage station
in the area - would boost his ego.
In 2000,
Henderson bought WLDR from longtime owners Don
Wiitala and Dave Maxon for $3.6 million, the
biggest price for one single radio station in
northern Michigan. Henderson also bought
several other stations, such as 1210 AM in
Kingsley, a station that despite being a
50,000-watt flamethrower, was daytime only to
protect WPHT Philadelphia.
Henderson
also planned a giant multi-use project called
the Covelly Broadcast Centre at the corner of
Front and Park in downtown Traverse City. He
demolished several buildings and put up a
foundation. However, he butted heads with the
city commission over building height and even
threatened to sue them. He even tried to move
the long-troubled Bear Lake station to
Bellaire, but the FCC didn't allow it.
And then,
9/11 hit and it gave Roy an excuse to abort
the Covelly project. He blamed a lot of people
for his problems. One finger was pointed at
Ross Biederman, the owner of Midwestern
Broadcasting (owners of WTCM, WCCW, Z93, and
KLT) and Radio Centre. Roy wanted Covelly to
be taller, but the city commission complained
that it was too tall. Feeling that the city
was in bed with Biederman - whose father, Les,
founded WTCM and NBC affiliate WPBN 7&4 -
Henderson flipped WLDR from its decades-old AC
format to country as Sunny Country 101.9.
Biederman's
WTCM-FM 103.5 had ruled the radio ratings
roost for many years. Henderson even took one
of WTCM's top jocks, Ryan Dobry to handle
middays at WLDR. However, WTCM still came out
on top of the ratings heap. Even worse, Dobry
and the rest of WLDR's jocks all quit due to
bounced paychecks and a toxic workplace that
Henderson inflicted on his staff. Rumor had it
that Henderson threw staplers and even
computer monitors at his staff. At that time,
Henderson put his botched Covelly project -
basically a hole in the ground with a fence
around it - on the market for $5 million. It
sat abandoned for years until the city forced
Henderson to sell it to the highest bidder. He
got $2 million.
Not long
after the mass exodus at WLDR, Henderson hired
market vet Dan Stevens - the former night jock
at WCCW - to handle mornings, programming, and
even sales at the station. I chatted with
Dancin' Dan a few years ago and he told me
that under contract, Henderson was supposed to
pay him $28,000 plus benefits. Instead, he was
paying him $22,000. He knew that he had to
cover his ass, so he recorded himself arguing
with Roy and his British wife, Susanne. Well,
it was enough for a judge to rule in favor of
Stevens, who was awarded $25,000.
Over the
years, Henderson had his fair share of legal
problems and people who simply avoided him and
his stations like the plague. He installed an
HD transmitter for WLDR so he could air more
programming, such as smooth jazz and oldies.
He even used WLDR's signal to retransmit the
programming on his Bear Lake station, which
aired a conservative news-talk format that
featured Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Don
Imus. Word had it that he slapped on a banner
on his stations' studios across from Tom's
West Bay telling fans of those shows that they
now needed an HD radio to hear them. Well,
that didn't sit well with WTCM, and
eventually, Henderson had to knock it off.
Rumor also had it that Henderson forced
electronics stores to carry $100 tabletop HD
radios. Obviously, all they did was collect
dust on the shelves.
It's worth
noting that the Bear Lake station at 100.1 FM
is now silent, and so is another Manistee area
station Henderson bought, WMTE 1340. In WMTE's
case, the previous owners sold off the
transmission site. Henderson couldn't secure a
new site and its license was deleted by the
FCC due to inactivity. As for 100.1 - whose
call signs over the years included WRQT, WZTU,
WSRI, and WCUZ - the station never had a
stable life, no matter the owner. When it was
AC-formatted WRQT in the late 80s, it was
silenced due to tax trouble. When it was
80s-centric classic hits Star FM in the late
90s, it lasted only a short time due to its
lack of profitability. It was silent most of
the time Henderson owned it, save for its
short-lived talk format and when it
simulcasted WLDR. A few years ago, Henderson
finally sent 100.1's license back to the FCC
after the station's tower's owner, Roger Hoppe
- who himself owned 100.1 in the early/mid-90s
as WZTU 100.1 The Storm - reported him to the
FCC because he did not pay him tower rent for
two years.
Speaking of
the West Bay studios, with few people working
for Roy, it became very neglected. In 2015, a
water main in the building broke, forcing WLDR
off the air. Word had it that Roy shut the
heater off to save on his bills. Reportedly,
Henderson was forced to toss most of the
station's equipment because it was
water-logged.
Also during
the 2010s, Henderson would have his non-WLDR
stations off the air without telling the FCC.
One brave soul reported him regarding 99.3,
only to have Roy lie to the Commission by
telling them what commercials aired during the
time in question by his station's programming
supplier, Westwood One. Often, if you listened
to WLDR's top-of-the-hour ID, you'd hear Roy's
other stations bunched in to make the FCC feel
that all of them simulcasted each other. On
the outside, Roy wanted everyone to feel that
he was almighty and powerful. Instead, he was
in dire need of help.
Roy owned
several houses in Texas, Michigan,
Connecticut, and even England, where his wife
was born. He allegedly stopped paying his
taxes and he had to sell them to pay them off.
Henderson even lost the transmitter site for
WLDR, which was sold in a Sheriff's sale to
Jerry and Sheryl Coyne, whose Blarney Stone
Broadcasting owns Grayling-based rock station
WQON/Q100 and sports-talker 101.1 WGRY.
In 2018,
Blarney Stone worked a deal to help Henderson
by operating his stations. Under the Local
Marketing Agreement (LMA), WLDR rebranded from
101.9 The Bay to simply 101.9 WLDR. Meanwhile,
99.3 simulcasted Q100, and 92.3 repeated WGRY
as Up North Sports Radio.
Things seemed
to be hunky dory in the beginning until the
FCC slammed Henderson with yet another fine.
This time, it helped to expose how neglectful
Henderson really is. In the 2010s, 99.3's
50,000-watt transmitter had a failure and it
could only pump out a few hundred watts. With
no money to fix the transmitter, Henderson
kept 99.3 silent most of the time. Since
99.3's signal could not reach Traverse City,
the Coynes installed a small transmitter on
their WLDR tower without FCC approval.
Apparently, the engineer at Alpena country
station WATZ - also at 99.3 - was
flustered at the Traverse City area 99.3
bushwhacking at the Alpena 99.3's signal.
By the way,
WATZ is owned by Roy's sworn enemy, Ross
Biederman.
Because of
this, Roy evicted the Coynes from their LMA.
Within days, they moved WLDR's format to 94.5
Mackinaw City and 106.3 Thompsonville as North
FM. They also moved their Traverse City
studios to Building 50. North FM was a ratings
flop, so they ended up relaying Q100 while
WGRY's sports format moved to 1210 and 101.1
Traverse City and 1110 Petoskey.
Henderson
took the Coynes to court, which was all done
virtually during the pandemic. The Coynes
alleged that Henderson violated the contract
because 99.3's signal was not at full power.
All sorts of vitriol was put on Henderson
because of his mismanagement.
However,
Henderson had his excuses. He told the judge -
and even the FCC - that he hasn't been in the
involvement in managing his stations for years
because he had a heart attack several years
ago. He now lives in Cascade Township - just
outside Grand Rapids - in a townhouse over by
the Walmart there. According to Henderson, he
moved to GR to be close to his son, Ward, who
now works in real estate.
(Interesting
fact regarding Ward: when Roy traded 1210 for
AM 750 in Petoskey, he assigned 750 with the
call sign WARD. On the other hand, 1210 was
given WJNL since it now simulcasted 1110 WJML
Petoskey. Oddly enough, WARD and WJNL were
once the call signs of what is now CBS-owned
independent tv station WPKD channel 19 in
Pittsburgh, formerly a dual CBS and ABC
affiliate in Johnstown, PA. Long-hampered with
a poor signal and competition from
far-superior Altoona CBS affiliate WTAJ-10,
the station moved to the Pittsburgh area in
the 1990s. Being a move-in expert, Henderson
might know a thing or two about the station
and its unique history.)
To make a
long story short, after the judge read his
verdict, the results were made confidential.
But, he also had to report to the FCC, who
made the results public. Simply put, he told
Roy that he needed to buy the transmitter back
if he wanted WLDR to broadcast ever again.
Right before the verdict was made, Roy started
broadcasting WLDR from the station's tiny
relay tower on top of its West Bay studios
with an oldies format. With a meager 800
watts, the station was only heard in Traverse
City proper. He also re-signed 99.3 (now WLLS)
and 92.3 WBNZ back on the air with various
formats, such as adult standards and even an
all-over-the-road rock format ala Q100.
Last April,
all of Henderson's stations in northern
Michigan fell silent due to financial
distress. If the stations do not re-sign back
on the air until then, the FCC will
automatically revoke their licenses. Now, if
WLDR, WARD, WBNZ, and WLLS all leave the air
forever, the good news is that it could be a
game-changer for the northern Michigan FM
dial. The bad news is that if Henderson either
A) allows his stations to be silenced forever
or B) sells them all off (and he ain't gonna
get a million bucks for sure), it's likely
that it will probably go into the hands of a
religious group like K-Love or the dolts who
now own the old WFUR-FM 102.9 here in Grand
Rapids, Bible Broadcasting Network.
(And in the
"Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone
Department", I used to trash WFUR for sounding
boring and ancient. BBN's programming is just
simply horrible.)
Coincidentally,
guess who just lives down 28th Street from
Roy? None other than Bob Goodrich. Maybe the
two are good friends.
If the world
could ever learn anything from the Bob
Goodriches, the Roy Hendersons, and the Tyrone
Bynums of the world, it's NOT how to run a
successful business. Gaslighting, lying and
backstabbing are no ways of treating others.
I've worked for many people in my lifetime and
the company that I work for now is the sole
employer I've ever had where I'm paid a decent
wage, have good benefits, and haven't had my
hours cut to make way for an asshole who can't
wipe his own ass. I wanted to be a DJ growing
up, and I'm happy I never got behind a
microphone in my life knowing how idiotic
radio station owners are.
If Bob
Goodrich gets fined for the shit Tyrone's been
pulling for years, it will be karma for
putting his trust in the hands of someone who
should not be trusted. He left the left in
Grand Rapids voiceless. Judging by the
ratings, 102.5 The Ride has few, if any
riders.
As Trent
Reznor sang, "Bow down before the one you
serve, you're gonna get what you deserve."
---
Got a Bee-otch to nominate?
E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All
suggestions (except for me) are welcome!
Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on
http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of
Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern,
politics and more!