NATCHEZ — From a nondescript building on the Vidalia-Ferriday Highway Desiree Smith has been turning out the hits for years.

Smith is the general manager and co-owner of two local radio stations.

For the past 16 years Smith has been running KFVN, The River.

But in just the last few weeks her business has doubled.

When a station in Natchez fell apart almost four years ago Smith began the process of purchasing the frequency.

“It was not easy,” she said.

Over a period of three and a half years Smith haggled with the station’s former owners and wrangled with the Federal Communications Commission.

The process lumbered on until last month when everything finally fell into place.

And KWTG, The Gator was born.

The Gator plays only classic country hits.

And if The Gator were an actual animal, right now it would just be a baby.

“Every thing we have for the station is brand new,” Smith said standing in the middle of a small room, its filled floor to ceiling with computer and broadcasting equipment that beams The Gator across the Miss-Lou.

In an adjoining room lives all the equipment for The River.

“It takes about a gazillion computers to run the stations,” she said.

But Smith has come up with a pretty smart system to do so — she keeps it all under one roof.

She is even using the same staff to run both operations.

“We can do it cheaper this way,” she said. “And that allows us to offer a better product for less money.”

Smith’s product is commercials.

And lately she has been selling a lot of them.

“Business is really good now,” she said.

But in Smith’s line of work success is a fine line.

More commercials sold equals more money, except listeners do not traditionally tune in to hear the commercials.

“Obviously they want to hear the music,” she said.

But Smith and her staff have a solution for that problem.

“We strive to make the commercials interesting,” she said. “We want listeners to want to listen to the ads.”

And Smith knows what makes a commercial good.

She has been in the radio business since she was 14.

And to make those commercials as appealing as possible Smith and her crew make their own.

If you listen to The Gator or The River and hear a commercial for a local business, Smith probably made it.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she said. “But it’s also hard work.”

Smith said depending on the product, a commercial can take anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours.

“But when a good commercial happens it’s like magic,” she said.