By Bethany Chambers

Staff writer

VOLUSIA COUNTY - A local radio travel show has gone off the air amidst a flurry of complaints to state agencies about its business practices.

The Premier Travel Show, which sold discount travel certificates on the Ormond Beach-based WELE 1380 AM, had its final broadcast Tuesday afternoon after more than a decade on the air.

Doug Wilhite, station owner and travel show co-host, said in an answering machine message and letter to customers posted at the station's Nova Road office that he was in financial hot water and everything he owns is "up for sale." Mr. Wilhite went on to blame the demise of the show on a story published this summer in the Hometown News.

"We have been unable to find a way to keep the Premier Travel Show, our offices and call center open as a result of the story in the Hometown News," he wrote.

Hometown News publisher Steve Erlanger disputed those claims.

"It is really a shame that Mr. Wilhite was not able to keep his business going, but I take offense to him insinuating that because of a story we covered, he lost this part of his operation," Mr. Erlanger said.

Attempts Wednesday to reach Mr. Wilhite and his attorney by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful.

The story, which ran in July editions of the Hometown News, quoted several customers of the travel show who had filed complaints with groups like the Better Business Bureau and Seniors vs. Crime, a volunteer arm of the Florida Attorney General's Office, because they said the travel vouchers they purchased were laden with hidden costs and restrictions. Several of them also complained about not being able to get promised refunds from the station.

"We only reported on the facts of the story," Mr. Erlanger said. "Mr. Wilhite's troubles began long before Hometown News got involved."

The Premier Travel Show was not immune to criticism prior to the article. The show had been the subject of several similar stories in other newspapers, such as the Daytona Beach News-Journal, as far back as 1999. The Better Business Bureau has received 37 complaints dating back to 2005.

A customer of The Premier Travel Show, David Kelso, 65, of Port Orange, said Mr. Wilhite is the only person he holds responsible for the money he said he lost on the show.

"I think it's a disgrace he's trying to blame (Hometown News) and not his own shady business practices," Mr. Kelso said.

This week, at least one state agency confirmed that an investigation into Wings Communications, which did business as WELE and The Premier Travel Show, is ongoing. Mr. Wilhite is listed as the chairman of that corporation.

A spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services confirmed that the company is being investigated. The station currently still has its license to sell travel certificates.

The department received 69 complaints about The Premier Travel Show this year, spokesman Terence McElroy said.

Mr. McElroy could not say if the complaints were filed before or after the Hometown News story ran, but he said it's not "unusual for people to bring complaints forward after they've seen something on TV or in a newspaper."

"If we found they had some basis in fact, we'd look into it," Mr. McElroy said.

In some of the complaints filed, consumers claimed the station did not provide refunds for certificates that had been returned, Mr. McElroy said.

"The law is very specific," he said. "The consumer has 30 days to cancel and get a full refund."

One of those customers was South Daytona resident Edie Jones, 40. She filed complaints with the state, the BBB, Seniors vs. Crime and her bank after returning a purchase and not receiving a refund.

She said she was empowered to do so after reading the Hometown News article.

"I had been trying to get my money back and I was just sort of going to accept that (I'd been) ripped off," she said, "but when I read in the Hometown News that it was other people too, that encouraged me."

She received her $128.05 back in early October.

Others, such as 55-year-old Pat Quigley, who was quoted in the July article, have not been so lucky.

She said she's still out $247 and blames Doug Wilhite and WELE for "misrepresenting" their products.

She won't seek any more recourse, she said.

"Frankly I was so overwhelmed with it emotionally," she said, "it was just too much for me."

In his written statement, Mr. Wilhite said he hopes to be able to supply credits to customers "some time in the future" but currently has "no income from which to give refunds."

"Please know that I have borrowed against my home, my business, and personally from every source to try to stay here to serve you. We have maxed out our entire family's credit cards," he wrote. "Everything I own is up for sale or has been taken back by the banks."

He said he will seek to recover his losses in an upcoming lawsuit against Hometown News and called for his customers to join him.

As of press time, no such lawsuit had been filed. Mr. Erlanger, the publisher, called the threat "ludicrous."

"We gave Mr. Wilhite all the space and time to give his side of the story. The fact that the residents of Volusia County had a louder voice than Mr. Wilhite turned out to be his problem," he said. "It might be time for Mr. Wilhite to stop blaming others for his problems and start working on fixing them."

In the meantime, it could be weeks or months before the state investigation concludes, Mr. McElroy said. Depending on the outcome, the company could be exonerated, receive a warning or, in the most egregious case, be stripped of its license to sell travel and face investigation by law enforcement.