Who is the man who got The FAIRtax Guys to jump from podcasts to over-the-air broadcasting? His name is Bob Scarborough.
Bob and Andy Paxton, the younger brother of FAIRtax Guy Bob Paxton (by eight years), were classmates at Forsyth Country Day School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. All three grew up listening to radio station WTOB, which was THE radio station in Winston-Salem at the time. Smitty Marshall, a student at R.J. Reynolds High School, got on the air and inspired the young men to resolve, “If he can get on the air, we can get on the air, too!”
While at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, Bob worked at WKZQ in Myrtle Beach. He spent his summers there and learned a lot about civics. Taxation and the federal government have always been a concern of Bob’s.
His father, who was in the banking business, used to say he always thought he would have competition from other banks for business. However, he discovered that his biggest competitor was not other banks, but the federal government.
In Myrtle Beach, Bob ran a company with about fifteen employees. In that capacity, Bob notes that he had to deal with the IRS to the point where he felt like an employee of the Federal government. As an employer, Bob constantly felt exposure to tax liability.
Bob always had an interest in photography and visual arts. That interest led him into television in the mid-'80s, where he spent much of his time behind the camera.
In 2014, Bob moved back to Winston-Salem and began to follow his old radio station, WTOB. The station was then resurrecting the top forty format of its glory days using vintage jingles. In 2015, Bob joined the sales force at WTOB. About then, WTOB changed ownership and reestablished itself as THE radio station in Winston-Salem.
Enter now the FAIRtax! During his time in Myrtle Beach, Bob listened to the Neal Boortz show on a local station, thus exposing him to John Linder’s movement, the FAIRtax. This got Bob thinking about taxes, and raised the question in his mind, “How can we move the needle in Washington, DC, on this?”
At WTOB, following a conversation with his wife, Kathy, Bob started looking at The FAIRtax Guys’ podcast, FAIRtax Power Radio, and thought, “I could run that show up here on WTOB!” Bob reached out to The FAIRtax Guys and Bob Paxton replied. FAIRtax Power Radio has been a 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning feature on WTOB ever since.
But Bob didn’t stop there. Thanks to Bob, FAIRtax Power Radio is now also on WAME, Statesville, North Carolina, 7:00 a.m., Sundays, and on WLSC, Loris, South Carolina, 10:00 a.m., Sundays. Bob says two more stations are “getting ready to pop up.”
Bob Scarborough was not the first radio person to approach the FAIRtax Guys about going on broadcast radio. Bob Paxton says that several radio stations reached out to them, and then sent a rate card. “They weren’t really interested in promoting the FAIRtax, they just wanted to sell us time. When they learned we had no budget to do a paid program, we never heard from them again”.
Paxton continues, “When we first heard from Bob Scarborough, my first reaction was that this is just another radio station fishing for a sale. When I learned that Bob was genuinely interested in advancing the FAIRtax and that the radio station involved was WTOB, I was beyond ecstatic”.
FAIRtax Power Radio is currently carried as a no-charge public affairs program. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) requires that radio stations devote a certain amount of broadcast time to community affairs, and FAIRtax Power Radio is an excellent way for stations to meet that requirement.
Scarborough is looking for local and national sponsors who actually will pay for air time at the local or national level. A car dealer or other business with a large payroll might be low-hanging fruit. With sponsors, we can get better time slots and pay for the time. Weekends are easier to place. This effort, Bob says, will take “another layer of convincing.”
Bob is now presenting FAIRtax Power Radio to a group of about 1,800 more independent stations. If you know of a radio station in your area that might be interested, send their contact information to Bob at scarboroughenterprises@gmail.com. Bob knows how to talk to broadcasters.
Who knows? Through Bob and The FAIRtax Guys, we may get back the megaphone we lost when Neal Boortz retired!
On a personal note, Bob is married to his wife, Kathy, and has four children, two out of college and two still in.
Yours In the FAIRtax Movement!
Jim Bennett
AFFT Grassroots Coordinator & Secretary
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