Albert Ercelle Smith, a local radio station owner and Florida Strawberry Festival board member, dies. Civic activist, Florida Strawberry Festival board member, local radio station owner and on-air personality, Albert Ercelle Smith died Tuesday, April 18, 2000. Smith, a 68-year-old native of Plant City, passed away at his home, said one of his daughters, Debbie Heaton. "Dad had been extremely ill for years," Heaton said. "But he was able to be in his home and to be in his yard that day." Smith, 68, is survived by his wife, Doris; his son, Clay, also of Plant City; two daughters, Heaton of Plant City and Janice Holloway of Lakeland; a sister, Vonelle Miles of Plant City; 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Along with Al Berry, Smith owned and operated WPLA(-AM 910), Plant City's only radio station. "But I think it was more of a brotherly bond than a business bond," said Berry, also a member of the Florida Strawberry Festival Association's board of directors. Smith started working at WPLA in the late 1960s, according to Heaton. Smith's father, William, founded the station in the early 1950s "with the intent of a gospel station, to spread God's word," Heaton said. In later years, the station added country music to its format and a popular local talk show called "This n' That," according to Berry. The show ran between 8 and 10 a.m. on weekdays for almost 20 years in the 1970s and '80s, Berry said. Heaton recalled the show had a very casual, informal tone, well-set for a small agricultural community. "People called in and they shared their thoughts," Heaton said. "They traded and sold things on the air." Often, Smith would use the show as a pulpit to let residents know when a neighbor was in need and what they could do to help, Berry said. "He was always there if somebody got burned out of their home or something like that," Berry said. "He spent a lot of time helping people and he did it with a lot of vigor. He was very intense about what he did." Smith and Berry sold the station in 1987. The new owners changed its call letters and relocated the station to Tampa. In 1988, Smith joined the Florida Strawberry Festival Association as an associate director, said Patsy Brooks, general manager for the annual festival. Five years later, Smith became a member of the Florida Strawberry Festival's board of directors, Brooks said. "He worked on the steer show committee and he was chairman of the "Organic Olympics,' the rooster crowing and the milking contests," Brooks said. While hosting the "Organic Olympics," a cow chip throwing contest at the festival, Smith liked to inject his own brand of humor as errant chips occasionally flew into the audience. Smith even provided the chips from his farm in Wesley Chapel. In addition to his work at the radio station and the strawberry festival, Smith was an elder at the Plant City Church of Christ at 315 N. Wilder Road. In 1992, he was named Plant City's Citizen of the Year, an award given to one citizen in recognition for contributions to the community. "He did an awful lot of good for this community and he is going to be missed," Doris Smith said.