Small Market Operators who do it well?

[RadioDizzle]

In Oklahoma...who are they? Anyone you respect?

 

[country24]

KBLP Lindsay.

Managed by experienced, competent, responsible owner who does a good job of hiring and training local talent and serves the community.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Let's see... The top of my list would be Score Broadcasting (Chickasaw Nation) in Ada. They run a first-class ship where programming still matters. Then there's Bill Colman up in Ponca City. Bill, the guy that offered air time to the jerks in Kansas to keep them from protesting an OSU funeral... Bill, who built a studio inside the Poncan that's better than most OKC operations... Then there's Wright Radio, winner year after year at OAB. They're playing better radio out there than the metros. There's of course the battle that continues in Woodward with a previous king of the market being pretty much outgunned by Bret and his classy folks at Classic. His Brother in Western Oklahoma runs a fine operation also. Let's not forget Sleepy Lee Anderson in McAlester. They have guys that worked in Dallas that work for him. He's in it for the long-haul. Also, the boys at Magic 95 and over at KLAW in Lawton are very good and competitive. First class radio. Last, and certainly not least, there's the Potters in Bartlesville. Another very community-oriented operation that cares about their product and their listeners. Metros? There are a few shinny spots, but for the most part it's 7 minute car-dealer marathons three times an hour with big huge EMPTY voice-tracked studios owned by heartless corporate jerks from somewhere else. They could care less about the help, the listeners, or even the advertisers. You know, in today's broadcast scene in Oklahoma, small market radio still IS radio. What goes on in most of the Metro stations is just a shell of radio it seems anymore.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

It's not that the people left in the metro markets don't want win. The problems is that you can only fight the bean counters so long before you get to just "shut up and do what your told" to stay below the radar. It's not about winning or excellence... It's about surviving the next cut. Small market, for the most part, was not affected by the corporate buy-ups for stupid money. They don't have that hanging over them which lets them make good decisions at this point (still). They are investing in their equipment and people to make their product even stronger and stay relivent. Sadly, metros aren't.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

How well do the small-market folks pay these days? As much as Tulsa/OKC or enough to buy 2 cans of cat food a week?

 

[ionosphere]

How about KCD Enterprises in Bartlesville? They actually have a nice little 3 station cluster with KYFM being the flagship. They've been operating for 30 years and have been pretty successful at it.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Yup. Kevin Potter.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

I doubt there's anyone "getting rich" in small market, but it does seem that many of them are able to give a living wage. The gap between medium-market and clustered smaller markets with populations over, let's say 20,000 potential listeners, has seemingly improved a bit.

 

[LiveMic]

Nobody's getting rich in the small markets, but many of them are still committed to serving their local communities. Yes, they have challenges and many are using technology to improve their product and control expenses, but many are still allocating resources to cover local news, staff for severe weather coverage, and value the local booster club fundraiser enough to give them airtime. There was a time when this business was actually fun. If you could research and score the "fun" and "job satisfaction" of radio guys now - in large and small markets, I think the small market guys would be higher in both. Just speculation, I know, but many of the guys staffing the stripped down, voice tracked, Wal-Mart radio stations have been reduced to little more than glorified producers who fear they might be the next to be victims of down-sizing. Then, of course, I may just be full of crap. ;D

Small market operators doing it right?
Kevin Potter in Bartlesville. Good people. Great local radio.
Lyman James in Ponca City. Has brought KIXR back to life - really good.
Hiram Champlin in Enid. Could use a little more programming muscle, but good local operator.

 

[Countryjock]

This may not be a popular choice but I think Bill Payne, despite all of his flaws, runs a great organization. It seems that at one point or another everyone worked for him. And most of the folks who worked for him (Clayton Vaughan etc) went on to be pretty successful, and that speaks to his ability as a teacher.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Generally speaking, most of these guys seem to have their quarks. The truth is that people that are passionate about the radio product are generally not exactly mainstream folks. Bill is certainly eccentric but I agree he is pretty much a good operator past those oddities. I'd much rather take the "odd guy that owns this joint down the hall" than San Antonio or Alanta ANY DAY.

 

[michaeldean]

In the course of my career in radio, I worked at a number of stations in Tulsa (KVOO, KTOW, KELI, KRMG, and KRAV), two stations in Wichita, and KOMA and KRXO in Oklahoma City. But my favorite memories are of working for Ed Montrey when he left Swanco to buy KTMC in McAlester. I was production director at KRMG when he persuaded me to go with him as Sales Manager. He and I did an hour long morning newscast and I did all the play-by-play sports. We won almost every small market award the Oklahoma AP Broadcasters offered, Best Editorial from the OAB, and in general had a blast. We did radio in what we considered the “right way.” We “served the folks,” meaning we offered the best programming, news, sports and community service broadcasting we were capable of doing. Sadly, those days are gone. Ah, but what memories they left for me.

 

[cooptulsa]

Payne gets my vote. Has built an impressive state-wide network. Knew what it would take to make radio go in the new era and has employed it very well.

 

[TexasTuner]

I have to blow my own horn..KMGZ in Lawton, better known as "Magic 95". Same format, ownership, and frequency for 30 years (or will be 30 years November of this year).

Fred Morton
Proud co-owner of Magic 95 since 1982!

PS: It's the OAB's Station of the Year this year as well.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Congrats to you Fred and "Chuck" and the gang down at Magic 95! Your operation is a shining spot in what is a very dull statewide radio market.

 

[H Anthony Wayne]

Let me be the first to set you straight on Wright Wradio: you've got an owner who, as a State Rep passed a bill to keep kids from selling the lottery because "it's for the kids", but tells his salespeople to tell advertisers "it's for the kids" when they're selling high school sports packages, thinks 8 hour unpaid talent remotes is good radio, and yells at staff and volunteers on-air; you've got a GM...who, by the way of nepotism is the owner's son...who gives special rates to golfing buddies and charges non-profits to run commercials, and sits in one of his stations with the sales manager of the direct competition and hands over a rate card for his biggest promotion of the year because the competition's sales manager represents ONE local business for media buys; an Ops Manager (who also acts as PD for three different stations with three different formats) who calls the radio stations "advertising companies", which is good, because you've got a sales staff (with a 200% turnover rate in 2 years) who bypass him on a regular basis to schedule programming elements without approval or consideration to content, audience, or format because "they spend a lot of money".
The only reason the three Wright (or "Wrong", as it's called by the air-staff) Wradio stations aren't all satellite is because management wouldn't have the chance to add 5 minutes of :30 spots per hour if they were.
OAB means nothing. You pay to have your stuff submitted. Big deal. Wright Wradio is NOTHING but wrong.

 

[ionosphere]

Let me be the first to set you straight on Wright Wradio: you've got an owner who, as a State Rep passed a bill to keep kids from selling the lottery because "it's for the kids", but tells his salespeople to tell advertisers "it's for the kids" when they're selling high school sports packages, thinks 8 hour unpaid talent remotes is good radio, and yells at staff and volunteers on-air; you've got a GM...who, by the way of nepotism is the owner's son...who gives special rates to golfing buddies and charges non-profits to run commercials, and sits in one of his stations with the sales manager of the direct competition and hands over a rate card for his biggest promotion of the year because the competition's sales manager represents ONE local business for media buys; an Ops Manager (who also acts as PD for three different stations with three different formats) who calls the radio stations "advertising companies", which is good, because you've got a sales staff (with a 200% turnover rate in 2 years) who bypass him on a regular basis to schedule programming elements without approval or consideration to content, audience, or format because "they spend a lot of money".
The only reason the three Wright (or "Wrong", as it's called by the air-staff) Wradio stations aren't all satellite is because management wouldn't have the chance to add 5 minutes of :30 spots per hour if they were.
OAB means nothing. You pay to have your stuff submitted. Big deal. Wright Wradio is NOTHING but wrong.

Bitter?

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

As with many companies behind the scenes, things are far from perfect. Honestly some of the big guys, some of your comments also ring true. My inclusion of those who are doing "good radio" is more of what makes it out as an on-air product. In this case, Wright is doing something right. What happens off-air may not be. You seem to have more of a direct insight to that. High school sports in small market radio is something that MOST small-market guys actually support a great deal of their station from. Getting local sponsorship of friday night lights pays a lot of small market's bills. Although I can appriciate your distaste for the the owner using the "kids" as a form of modivation, the truth is IF he didn't have a live and local radio station, chances are many of the high school sports wouldn't make it air, similar to most of the huge teams in the OKC market don't. Although I personally don't think I'd hire "my kids" to be a manager at a station group, if I owned one, my goals and Mr. Wright's are probably different. My guess is he wants to train his kid to take over the place after he passes so it doesn't just get bought up by someone from out of town, getting absorbed into a large group that could care less about the market. Small market radio can be a very difficult place to sell. The 200 percent overturn is partially due to the stress of trying to sell out there, but I agree they might not be the easiest people to work for. Asked, he would actually probably agree with that statement. Is Wright Radio perfect? Probably not. Are they attempting to serve the public and community and put out a relitively decent product for their listeners? Yes. I have no axe to grind or cheerleading to do here. I just call it as I see it.