Happy anniversary friends of Willy

It’s been a year since Navasota experienced a change in its local radio station. The station went from playing oldies and geared more toward news to a classic country station playing a plethora of hits.

Helping to make the transition smooth into Willie 98.7, a Bryan Broadcasting Station, are Kenny Graves and Andre Perrard. The duo come from different backgrounds, but they share a like-minded goal of making everyone “friends of Willy.”

Locals from around town that enjoy the station are given the opportunity to give a soundbite which plays on air declaring they are “friends of Willy.”

“I just encourage everyone to give us a listen and see if you like what we have to offer,” said Graves. “If they like it, they can continue to listen. If not, at least they gave us a try. I guarantee you won’t find a station with more local news than we provide.”

Graves said he and Perrard make a great duo kind of like yin and yang. “News really isn’t my forte because I’m a disc jockey through and through, but Andre does a great job with keeping our news in line and up to date.”

Graves is from Paris, not France, just Texas. He said he has always had a love for music and admits being on the radio crossed his mind before but never envisioned acting on a career in radio.

Fresh out of high school and just 18-years old, Graves was approached by his neighbor who had recently moved to Paris and was starting a new radio station. “He asked me if I ever thought about working in radio,” explained Graves. “Of course, I thought about it but never seriously. He invited me to do an air check to see how I sounded on a recording. So, I did, and he hired me on the spot.”

Graves continued that path for seven years working for KLYN, KBUS and a couple smaller stations. “It was great. I worked for a classic rock station which sounded pretty funny with my hick accent, but it worked out perfectly,” stated Graves.

Perfectly until the radio station decided to go with digital DJ’s, beginning a new era of stations with digital programming and replacing live radio. “Radio really changed. Stations use to be fully staffed 24 hours a day seven days a week. If you called the station, you spoke with the DJ you listened to on air and could ask them anything from weather to the local parade.”

Instead of relocating and uprooting his family from Paris, Graves left radio and began working in the oil and gas industry. He made the move to Aggieland in 2004, and one day driving home from work he realized how miserable he was. “Radio is engrained in you. Once you get into media it never leaves you. It’s one of the best jobs you can have,” said Graves. He decided to send an email to inquire about getting back into radio part-time to hopefully provide balance from a job he despised with a passion he thoroughly enjoyed.

“Within 10 minutes of sending the email I received a response. All the cards fell into place. I would have given up on this dream if this opportunity to get back into radio didn’t transpire,” said a grateful Graves.

On the other side of the spectrum is Perrard who was greeted with an open door when his expectancy was just to get a view from the keyhole.

A graduate of Texas A&M, Perrard wrote sports covering Aggie Baseball, and worked in student housing on campus. He decided to attempt to get his foot in the door with Bryan Broadcasting.

“I just wanted the opportunity to work part time, operate sound boards or anything. Radio is a hard industry to break into,” said Perrard.

While interviewing with Louie Belina, Perrard said he was thrown off guard. “Mid interview Mr. Belina stands up and walks out of the door. I had no idea what was going on. A few minutes later he walks back in with the program director and asked how I’d like to go to Navasota and have my own show.”

He jumped at the opportunity and after approximately a week and a half of training he was “thrown into the fire.” Perrard was bit by the media bug while covering Aggie Baseball, which led to this opportunity.

“I thought working in student housing is what I would always do. It was what I knew, but once returning to the job I began to have media withdrawals.” Perrard’s last stint in student housing lasted just three-months before he started getting the itch to return to media.

Although there has been a learning curve Perrard has settled in nicely with Willy 98.7. “He’s doing a great job,” Graves said of Perrard. “He’s modest but he has filled in multiple times for our flagship station WTAW 1620, an award-winning station and the premier station in the Brazos Valley.”

“That’s just every now and then,” explained Perrard. “My main goal at hand is further developing this station into an award-winning station.”

Navasota is a community both Graves and Perrard are excited about. They agree that everyone here is extremely helpful and the community driven activities are unmatched by other towns.

“We had the chance to emcee the Texas Birthday Bash and cover the Lamborghini Festival, both are extremely cool,” said Graves.

“I come from a sports background, but I have really fallen in love with covering news. It’s something different every day,” stated Perrard. “Some days there isn’t much happening and then other days your covering a monumental event such as the Bush train.”

Moving into their sophomore season with Willy 98.7, the common goal is to engage and expand their listeners. They already have audiences tuning in from as far as Oklahoma, but the main goal is to create an award-winning station.

A lot more listeners have become engaged with daily trivia on the stations Face-book page, with winners receiving Schlitterbahn tickets, Six Flags Tickets, gift certificates etc.

Whatever it takes to get listeners engaged and to tune in to the radio station is all Perrard and Graves seek to accomplish.