Gray visits Andy Albright at National Agents Alliance headquarters

BURLINGTON, NC, March 25, 2011 (Press-News.org) Joe Gray, owner and manager of WBAG 1150 AM radio in Burlington, N.C., stopped by National Agents Alliance headquarters to visit with President and Chief Executive Officer Andy Albright earlier this month.

For Albright, who once hosted a radio show on WBAG with Alex Fitzgerald, it was a trip down memory lane, as the two friends talked about the radio show, "Silver Security Life with Andy Albright and his sidekick Fitz."

Gray, President of Gray Broadcasting, LLC, had just purchased the station on Nov. 3, 1999, and Albright came to see what it would take to host a weekly show. According to Gray, it was really the beginning of WBAG selling local programming blocks, and Gray thanked Albright for opening his mind to the idea.

"He really was the one that sold me on letting local people with local businesses provide local programming," Gray said. "He was the one who set the tone for me to pursue that and really sell to our local people here."

WBAG now boasts local programming for people dealing with finance, insurance, chiropractors and a host of other topics. But, it all started with a Monday morning show from 10-10:30 a.m. with Albright and Fitzgerald that experience an eight-month run on WBAG.

"We really didn't know that much about it, but people would call in and ask questions," Albright said. "I'd be looking up the answer to their questions and Fitz would be trying to sell them a coupon book until I found it."

Gray, who has guided WBAG to a wider broadcast radius, a new building and a state-of-the-art facility, said he remembers how much fun Albright's weekly show was.

"They had a ball and they were like Frick and Frack," Gray said. "They did a good job of keeping the needle moving for us. We didn't have to worry about them. They did their thing and paid their bill on time. It's hard to beat that. People tuned in just to see what they were going to say next."

Once the show ended, Fitzgerald moved to Dallas, Texas, and National Agents Alliance was born in 2002. Still, Albright couldn't help but laugh when asked about his radio show on WBAG.

"We joked and cut up the whole time we had that show," Albright said. "We were broke, but we didn't care. We were having fun."

ABOUT WBAG 1150 AM

In late 1999, Joe Gray, President of Gray Broadcasting, LLC, acquired WBAG and constructed office and studios on Burch Bridge Road, which has always been the station's transmitter and tower location. Gray remained committed to local service for Alamance County listeners. Gray has maintained that service and extended it beyond what previous owners have done in the past.
The station features local broadcasting and covers Alamance County high schools and area college sports teams. WBAG has won The Burlington Times-News' "Readers Choice Award" as best radio station for six straight years under the direction of Gray. WBAG signed on the air on Feb. 24, 1947 at 2 p.m. under the ownership of the Burlington and Graham Broadcasting Company with the assigned call letters of WFNS. The call letters were officially changed to WBAG in 1964.

ABOUT NATIONAL AGENTS ALLIANCE

National Agents Alliance is an innovative lead generation and marketing organization that sells life insurance, annuities, and other financial services products through more than 7,000 active independent sales representatives in 50 states. Focused on serving middle-income families, National Agents Alliance is the No. 1 United States provider of mortgage protection insurance and offers a broad array of other affordable products from highly regarded companies such as Mutual of Omaha, Foresters, and ING. Since its inception in 2002, National Agents Alliance has helped more than 670,000 families successfully apply for more than $78 billion in life insurance coverage.

For more information about National Agents Alliance, visit http://www.nationalagentsalliance.com/contact-us or call 1-866-752-1163.

For additional information on this topic, please call Mac Heffner at 336.227.3319 x1189 or email Mac at mheffner@naaleads.com.