
104.3 Positive Country radio to broadcast from Main St.
The comings and goings of Olney will be the subject of a new morning radio program hosted by Chad Edgington and Reed Mankins out of the Olney Chamber of Commerce office on Main Street, radio station owner Tim Walker said. The show will air on 104.3 FM Positive Country radio on weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. starting later this month, Mr. Walker said. The show will be the first ever to air from Olney, although the coverage area centers around a tower Mr. Walker installed north of town and reaches into Young, Archer, Baylor and Wichita counties and as far north as southern Oklahoma, he said.
“Olney has not had a radio station,” he said after checking with the Federal Communications Commission. “I don’t know if it has ever had one.”
Mr. Walker also owns Positive Country 100.5 in Graham. He credit Tom Parker, executive director of the Olney Economic Development Corporation, for being “the driving force” behind locating the new station in Olney.
Dr. Edgington, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Olney, said the idea for a morning radio show grew out of the Cubs games that he and Mr. Mankins have been broadcasting for the past two years. They will pick up their sports broadcasts starting on Aug. 30 and will cover most Cubs sports, he said.
Mr. Walker dubbed the station “Positive Country,” joking that it plays “music where your dog doesn’t die and your wife comes back,” to provide music that families can enjoy and that promotes positivity, Dr. Edgington said. “I love that mission,” he said. “I think it would be a great opportunity to get more involved and meet more people and be more accessible. I think it will be great for Olney.”
He and Mr. Mankins are planning a live morning talk show that discusses local issues with in-studio guests and keeps the community updated on local sports, weather and emergencies, he said.
Mr. Walker said he will reconfigure the front area of the Olney Chamber of Commerce office at 108 E. Main St. to hold a lobby and a soundproof broadcasting booth with microphones, a work center and mixer for Dr. Edgington and Mr. Mankins and guests to do the show.
“Then on top of that we are going to configure it in such a way that we will be able to use that studio if something were to happen in Graham, we could run up there and stay on the air with a backup,” he said.
The Olney station also airs Sunday services from FBCO and First United Methodist Church of Olney services and is open to broadcasting other local church services, he said.
“We would love to have them,” Mr. Walker said. “My foundation is Christian programming. While we are calling ourselves Positive Country, we want to have that faith aspect. I want people to have that relationship with Christ.”