Working Hard To Keep KICKS 99 On The Air!

I take it for granted. Turn on KICKS 99 and it's there. 365 days a year. We turn on the mic and talk to you in over 5 counties, in your car, at home, and worldwide with your  KICKS 99 app. It's free, by the way! Get it...(hint hint)...FREE Guitar Pull tickets can be had via the app!

We've been hit by lightning, moved studios from North Augusta to Augusta, and had our 600 ft tower come crashing down from the weight of the ice storm a few years back and we are still on the air! This brings me to my point. Meet Charlie and Alex (pictured below) our engineers who work extra hard to keep everything in great shape here.

So, here's how radio works......Radio works by transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves. The radio signal is an electronic current moving back and forth very quickly. A transmitter radiates this field outward via an antenna; a receiver then picks up the field and translates it to the sounds heard through the radio.

Yall know I didn't come up with that...Ha! I have no idea...I just talk and play country music. But, if you're really interested and bored right now read all about it here.

Here are a few shots of our engineering department and the KICKS studio.

Thanks for listening y'all!

2014 will always be known around the KICKS studios and the Beasley Media Group in Augusta as the year KICKS 99 went off the air, for a few days.

Here’s the story....

This ice storm was a big one. In radio, when a major weather event happens, you get rooms at the closest hotel or sleep in your office til it’s over. It’s our job to serve the community.

It started slowly and we were actually enjoying our hunkered down time together doing weather and traffic reports around the clock. About 5 of us were at the stations throughout our building.

Finally, things start to get a little better and it was a good thing, KICKS 99 just went off the air, which usually means we had a power outage at our transmitter site off Highway 25 in Edgefield County. When this happens, usually our generator kicks in and we’re back on, but not this time.

Our engineer, Charlie, drove a very slow 12 miles through the ice to check things out.

Then, I got a call. The KICKS 99 tower had collapsed due to the weight of the ice that had accumulated on it.

Nashville and many of our listeners sent in pics of them holding signs saying “I want my KICKS 99 back”. It was awesome.