Tison Bowers of WOIC, 1230 AM
Star Profile
By John Temple Ligon Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

Tison Bowers

When Tison Bowers finished college, he entered the grain business, which left limited opportunities for Bowers and his Hampton County farm. President Jimmy Carter imposed restrictions under his grain embargo in an effort to send a signal to the Soviets that the U.S. protested the invasion of Afghanistan.

Grain exports were down, and so were revenues. It was enough to push this farmer into alternative career directions.

Bowers was born in Estill, S.C., where his father farmed cotton, watermelon, peaches, corn, and soybeans. The farm had a cotton gin and a grain elevator, which made his father deal with crops, not just farming.

With the first soybean processing plant in S.C., the farm sold its soybeans separately as soybean meal and soybean oil.

Bowers' father was also a S.C. State Senator, a Democrat serving Hampton County from 1960 through 1964.

Bowers attended two years of kindergarten in Estill, where he finished grammar, junior high, and high school.

Bowers' older brother is in real estate in Beaufort. His sister, who is five years older than he is, lives in Aiken.

After taking four years in liberal arts education at the Citadel, Bowers graduated with training in discipline, character, and leadership.

After another year in trust banking school at Campbell University in N.C., Bowers returned to S.C. and the family grain business in 1979.

Under the Carter grain embargo, grain production in 1980 dropped 80 percent in Hampton County, while the price of cotton began a 12- year trend from $0.40 a pound to $1.10.

The emphasis on cotton was not hard to understand when a cotton gin, producing 30 bales an hour, was good for profits approaching $500,000 a year.

Bowers took advantage of the cotton farmer's calendar and its seasons interrupted with down days. He commuted to Columbia and Charleston and the N.C. coast, mostly Wrightsville Beach.

He met his wife, Columbia's Julie Roman, in Charleston, where she was finishing at the College of Charleston. They have two boys, one in high school and the other in college.

In 1985, Bowers left the family agribusiness for the commercial real estate business in Columbia. While staying busy in real estate, Bowers bought Fran's Restaurant on Forest Drive in 1998.

The sellers worked with Bowers and his wife for two months before the sale, so ownership changed into relatively experienced hands. The cost of food, however, was experiencing spiraling increases, so Bowers sold Fran's and the building in 2002.

Within a year, Bowers bought the Stadium Restaurant and its pricey parking lot strategically situated across the street from Williams- Brice. The developers of The Spur condominiums soon came calling and made Bowers an offer suitable for a sale of the property.

In the fall of 2007, Bowers put himself on radio, broadcasting every morning on Columbia's WOIC, 1230 AM. What began as a one- hour show from 7 to 8 am now airs from 8- 9 am.

Bowers tells and sells the truth, the strength of his program and his guests. Within the month, he expects to stage a program grand opening coupled with an advertising blitz now that his morning show appears to be on the air for the long haul.