The Grand Marshals of the Black Patch Festival is led by WPKY owner/operator Beth Mann.
Mann is the heart and soul of Edge Media and WPKY, her love and support for broadcasting and the community is the center of everything she does.
Mann is living her childhood dream of owning a radio station.
click to download audioThe road to owning her own station came after obtaining her college degree and master’s degree in communications and marketing. She then went on to work in TV and radio until the opportunity came for her to purchase WKDZ & WHVO radio stations.
click to download audioIn 2018 Mann started another new chapter in her career by buying WPKY and that was new to her as she had not worked there before purchasing it. She had the challenge of changing it and building it to create the station she envisioned.
click to download audioMann shared the main purpose WPKY has in our community.
click to download audioBeing named Grand Marshall for Black Patch has special meaning for Mann and her staff.
click to download audioMann has goals for WPKY in the future.
click to download audioEveryone is invited to the Black Patch Parade at 5:00 pm on Friday to recognize Mann and the WPKY staff.
Beth Mann Article in Black Patch Parade Book:
The Grand Marshal for Black Patch 22 is local radio station WPKY and owner Beth Mann and her staff. Since taking ownership of WPKY in 2018 Beth and her staff have been constant supporters of Princeton, Caldwell County and the Princeton Optimist Club. The first days of operating the station on September 1st Beth was approached by the Optimist Club with requests to cover and be a part of Black Patch activities which were only days ahead and she immediately supported the effort. Since that first introduction, she has continued to be a strong supporter of the Optimist Club. This year under the leadership and suggestions of Beth the local Radio Auction tripled in the amount of funds raised to better serve the Youth activities of our area. Many individuals and groups joined together to give back to this community and at the forefront of those involved was WPKY, Beth and her staff. These are part of the reasons that the Princeton Optimist Club has chosen them to serve as Grand Marshall of the Black Patch Festival for this year.
The road to her being in Princeton started when she was a child growing up in Elkton Kentucky. The local radio station was located in front of her grandmother’s house. That station drew her attention and she watched the activities surrounding it and that is when she first made her statement to those around her that one day she was going to own a radio station.
Beth kept this thought in her mind as she graduated from Logan County High School in 1983. The next step was attending the University of Kentucky and graduating with a degree in Telecommunications and Marketing in 1986. She later received her Master’s degree in Corporate Communication from Western Kentucky University.
In 1984 she began her career in media at the TV station in Hopkinsville as a sports reporter. This is where she met D J Everett and formed a professional friendship that would result in them working together for 31 years. She continued her time at the TV station working her way up the professional ladder and was set to become one of the top executives until 1994. That is when Mr Everett who had ownership of WKDZ & WHVO offered her the general manager position at the radio stations. This was a time in the media world that women didn’t have as many opportunities to serve in key leadership positions as men. She weighed her options and even with a promising career in TV where she was currently secure she decided to take the leap into radio and took the General Manager role.
In 2015 after the passing of D J Everett she had the opportunity to purchase the radio stations and did so becoming the sole owner. She was operating those stations when in 2018 WPKY became available. The decision to purchase WPKY was a new adventure for Beth as this would be the first station she would own that she hadn’t worked at before. She would be coming into a totally new situation and community, she felt well at home in the Trigg area and would be starting in new surroundings and learning a new area. She made the decision and had to go into her retirement funds to purchase the business. She also made the decision at that time to be fully committed to Princeton and the entire community. The purchase was only the first step and had to be followed up with major improvements to become what she envisioned for WPKY. The Covid outbreak slowed things down but now she is even more determined to be a community involved and community service radio station.
There have been some big changes in the radio industry since she first started. The height of the tower and size of the transmitter used to be major components of how your station could operate and function. Now the main thing is technology, now it doesn’t matter the size of you operation you can be heard all over the world. In the past when you drove out of range you lost all possibilities of hearing a local venue but now they have listeners who listen worldwide and they hear from them about the local programming. Now the challenge is to keep up with the latest developments in technology and use them to made the station available to more people in different ways. Beth’s goal is to stay on the cutting edge and reach more people.
She feels like they have just scratched the surface of what they can do in servicing this community. She is committed and here for the long term to help the entire community in whatever way possible. She feels she has the abibity to see potiental in people and in situations and wants to encourage those to be the best they can be for themselves and others.
Beth is proud of her staff that serves along beside her and will also be part of the Grand Marshalls. She said it is important to surround yourself with people who have similar vision and goals. In fact, 4 of the people who were working at WKDZ when she purchased it are still with her today. The Princeton Optimist Club wants to thank the entire staff for being instrumental in making the Radio Auction a success this year.
Serving along with Beth at WPKY is Tammy Hancock. Tammy has been with Beth for many years and is a broadcast journalist and oversees the local news. Tammy is the voice you hear in most local newscast.
Tess Cowan serves as the morning host with the popular Coffee Talk program Monday though Friday that brings in local people to talk about local activities. Tess also brings you the early morning newscast and does live remotes.
Heather Riley serves as the media sales specialist in our area and also helps with live remotes and as she says is all things WPKY.
Todd Griffin is the sports reporter and covers all sports in the area. Todd has been involved in local sports for many years and is an expert in covering and knowing all things about local sports.
John Miller is the technology expert that is behind the scenes but makes everything work properly. You won’t see or hear from him but he is vital in the operation of WPKY.
Bryce Thompson is a recent graduate of Caldwell County High School and serves as a producer for the Station.
The Princeton Optimist Club says “Thank You” to this group of dedicated individuals that work to serve our Community and for the support they show our Club. We encourage everyone to take time to recognize them during this time.
