If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Thomasville, Georgia, should be flattered.
Dothan Mayor Pat Thomas and members of the Dothan Downtown Redevelopment Authority (DDRA) visited the Georgia city a few years back “because they have a great downtown area there,” Larry “McKee” Williams says. The group noticed a radio station broadcasting from a window in a building on a downtown street.
“When they came back, Pat said, ‘You know, that’s one of the things we really need in downtown,” says Williams, a radio personality with WDYG-AM 1450. “So he approached me about moving a studio here in downtown Dothan,” Williams says.
For the past two years, Williams has broadcast his weekday morning talk show from a window on the ground floor of The Nest, a DDRA business incubator on North Foster Street.
“There’s a huge effort to try to generate and improve and bring downtowns back to life in some way,” Williams says. “We don’t ever expect them to be a real big trade center type thing like they used to be, but a lot of good things are happening in downtown Dothan.”
WDYG-AM gives downtown Dothan a voice straight from the street from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
