FARMINGTON — There’s not much the public knows about Rick Davis, a former owner and radio host (since 2004) at Farmington’s WKTJ Big Hits 99.3.

A quick google search will come up with the bare minimum: mention of Davis on WKTJ’s website, a brief quote of his featured in a Daily Bulldog story about a new WKTJ DJ; a LinkedIn profile with no activity; and a few more quotes in a 2006 article by Sun Journal’s Donna Perry about relocating the station office.

When the Franklin Journal first reached out to inquire about interviewing him, Davis was hesitant. He doesn’t make much of his life, personal or professional, public, he said. And he’d like to keep it that way.

“I’m a private guy,” Davis said. “I don’t like the limelight.”

The Franklin Journal immediately agreed to those terms — an interview with the enigmatic Rick Davis, personal or not, is quite the catch.

On a weekday morning in mid-November (11-11, to be precise) Davis invited this reporter to sit in on the tail end of his daily morning show, in which he runs his well-known “Phone Mart” segment three times a day.

On the way into the studio, Wilton Selectperson, former Maine state legislator and all-around townsman Tom Saviello was on his way out. He had just sat for his weekly interview with Davis, where they discuss various topics and take calls from listeners.

This time, Saviello was visiting in the wake of the Nov. 2 approval of Referendum Question 1 to ban the NECEC corridor. Saviello and Davis fielded questions from callers about what might come next for Central Maine Power’s controversial high-energy transmission line.

Listeners will also call in to talk with Saviello and Davis about community goings-on, complaints and concerns as well as politics.

“I love the complaints. When someone’s mad, I want to hear them,” Davis said. “I can play with that a little bit. What are you mad about? Why are you so mad? Why does that matter to you?”

That riles them up, Davis said. Sometimes, they swear — which in certain instances is prohibited by federal law.

Generally, Davis lets the swearing go if it’s just once, a slip of the tongue. But two strikes, you’re out.

On the inside of the WKTJ building in downtown Farmington, Davis welcomed this reporter in his radio booth. Here, in a cozy, black-walled room where every surface is covered in radio equipment, a string of songs were playing. WKTJ and Davis play a mix of Top 40s, oldies, country, pop etc.; really, whatever is on trend and locally in demand — though he has a bias for country music. His morning show is peppered with music, trivia, news, weather forecasts, information about events, and public service announcements.

His show also features his famous “Phone Mart” segment, where listeners call in to pitch their businesses, things they are selling, etc. These free ads vary: sales for hospital beds, railings, trucks, tires, firewood, etc.

Sometimes, the caller may go off topic, which is when the fun starts for Davis.

“I can play off somebody pretty easily,” Davis said.

There are only two rules to Davis’ show: you can’t sell firearms and you can’t Google the answers to his trivia questions (lest you want to end up like the eight-year-old who cried on air after Davis jokingly told him it was illegal to look up trivia answers).

In between his time on air, Davis made some small talk. His voice, in regular conversation, is deep; ever-s0-slightly raspy.

Davis’s voice transforms once on air. It deepens further, smoothens out; it sounds more melodic. He definitely has the voice for radio.

On this morning, the system had gone rogue; the computer was not properly running. All Davis could do was “accept calls, push buttons and go on the air.” The rest was up to the grace of the universe.

With Davis at the WKTJ helm, there was luckily no “dead air,” a term for when a broadcast unintentionally goes silent for an extended period of time. It is also one of the biggest not-to-do’s in the radio industry and potentially finable by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). But luckily, that wasn’t WKTJ’s fate for the day.

It was a slow “Phone Mart” that morning. A caller selling a ’95 Ford Ranger; the Coat Closet in Wilton was holding a grand re-opening with child and adult-size coats galore. A listener also called in to answer yesterday’s trivia question about flying squirrels in Washington — unclear if D.C. or the state.

Only a handful of calls came in. However, Davis said that the station would get 20-25 calls within a 10 minute span before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

It was so popular that a phone company once approached Davis and requested that the station move the time of Phone Mart because there was “such a surge of attempts to call in” to the station that the company’s phone lines “shut down and knocked people off their calls,” Davis said.

“They said, ‘you know, is there no way you could do this to help us?'” Davis recalled. “And I said ‘No. that’s the way it is. I’m sorry. Get better equipment.”

The world, of course, entered what many call ‘these unprecedented times’ and the calls slowed. Davis said people are now less inclined to invite strangers into their homes.

“Still, [Phone Mart] is pretty active,” Davis said. “It’s a fun little show.”

In fact, Downeast Magazine named listening, calling into Phone Mart as the 91st of “200 Reasons to Love Maine”  in July 2020.

The real conversation began once the day’s show came to an end,

Davis is originally from the Madawaska region in Northern Maine. He was raised in Hyannis on Cape Cod — which “was lucky” for him, because there were seven radio stations in town.

“I had plenty of guys to bug,” he said.

Davis began professionally working on the radio when he was 15. But his interest in radios began well before.

At five or six years old, Davis recalls “sitting on the lap of the morning guy” at Boston’s WBZ station where his father advertised his company.

At 11 years old, Davis would sit in the attic of his home on Cape Cod, playing with an old Air Force transmitter gifted to him by a local DJ. And at 11, he “lived at radio stations” in Hyannis.

In high school, Davis read out the morning announcements with some added national news and weather forecasts — not unlike what he does now.

“The first thing I ever wanted to do was be on the radio,” he said. Davis fell in love with everything about radio (down to the atmosphere and smell of a station). He felt at home the instant he entered his first station.

Davis studied in the radio program at the now defunct Grahm Junior College in Boston.

Following college, Davis began his first full-time job in radio at 21 years old in White River Junction, Vermont. Six months into the job, Davis was told by the big-wig, “pompous” owner that he was not “good” and “not getting better.” Rather than lash out or call it quits, Davis asked “how do I fix it?”

Thereafter Davis spent two to three hours every Sunday night with the owner learning how to be a better DJ.

At this station, Davis revealed he did his first interview with a musician that left this reporter star struck: the one-and-only Dolly Parton.

Davis was given opportunity to interview Dolly at a fair in Canaan, New Hampshire, within his first few weeks on his first job. She was “brand new” at the time, he said, around the time that her song “Coat of Many Colors” was on the rise.

Davis remembers it as a “great interview.”

“For my first interview, I just remember her saying to me, ‘you’re okay at this,'” Davis said — with a Dolly Parton accent to boot.

Since then, Davis said he’s lost count of the number of stations he’s worked at or owned  — from Vermont, Northern Maine and New Hampshire to Montreal, New Jersey and Colorado.

He moved on to Farmington, an area he’s always been fond of, full-time in 2004. To start this chapter, Davis went to the former WKTJ office, found the owner and asked him if he’d ever thought about selling. The rest is history.

“I just liked the town. I like the people and it had this little radio station,” Davis said. “And one day I was sick of corporate-type radio.”

Davis believes “this town embraced me when I first came better than anyone ever had” soon after he bought the radio station.

He quickly learned “this is a community show that you could have fun with.”

Davis said he’s loved the time he’s spent at WKTJ because of its focus on the Franklin County community.

“Of all the stations I’ve had over the years, this is the only one where the public is engaged,” Davis said.

They’ll give their name on the air without the worry of being recognized, he added.

“This area is perfect for the kind of radio I like, which is audience involvement. Because I’m not funny. So I need the audience to make me funny,” he said. Rather than delivering set-ups and punch lines, Davis will riff off of the callers, he said.

Davis is not all that optimistic about the future of the radio industry at large. However, he firmly believes that at some point, any radio station still around will be just like WKTJ: local.

“The future of radio is local. If you’re not local to your audience, I don’t think you have a chance in the long term,” he said. “To be successful, long term you’ve gotta relate to the people in your audience.”

“That’s why this station still stands apart from the others,” Davis added. “Because it is all about Franklin County.”

Davis sold WKTJ to another owner in 2017. But he still spends day in and day out inside the walls of Big Hit’s office on Broadway well before the sun rises.

Davis has four children, all grown. He won’t say much else about his personal life.

“In general, radio people are rather quiet in their personal life,” he said. “They lead a quiet life when they shut the mic off.”

What Davis will say plainly: he’s not planning to retire and hang up his mic any time soon. That time will only come when he’s “tired” of waking up at 3 a.m. after 40-50 years on that schedule.

“I love this area,” Davis said. “As long as I can [still host the morning show] and don’t mind getting up, I’ll keep doing it.”

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