Who Thinks Tulsa Is a Big Rock Market?

[Gregg.]

Tulsa is in the Southwest. You'd think Country would be king. But Mainstream Rock station KMOD is #1 and Classic Rock station KJSR is #2. Not to mention Alternative Rock station KMYZ is at #8. Three rockers in the top ten? That's similar to big rock markets like Philadelphia and Denver.

Sure, there's plenty of country music too. There are country stations at #3, #8 and #12 plus a Classic Country outlet at #8. But who would guess Tulsa has this affection for rock music? In nearby Oklahoma City, only one rock station, KATT, has decent ratings.

 

[Delete My Account]

The continued success of KMYZ has surprised me. That format overall goes through so much musical fragmentation, but they managed to stay an alt station since the much stronger days of the format and found a formula that works. And even more amusingly, ended up being bought by the people that once only did Contemporary Christian radio in Tulsa and went national. If you'd told me when I first heard KMYZ that the KXOJ people would end up buying and retaining "The Edge" I'd have been cynical. But history is stranger than fiction sometimes.

 

[Kent]

Tulsa is in the Southwest. You'd think Country would be king.

Country IS still king in Tulsa. It has almost 20 shares; rock only has about 15. Tulsa was country when country wasn't cool, but rock has always had a bigger following there than people realize. The two also have often found themselves working together. KMOD, for example, frequently gave away tickets to country music concerts in the 80's and early 90's. One of the biggest promotions it had ever done at the time was a "Show Your Judds" contest that was a ticket giveaway to a Judds concert. One of the jocks even ended up married because of it! Actress Jeanne Tripplehorn got her start hosting the night shift at KMOD. Can't remember if she went to Edison or Memorial High School, but she started bugging the KMOD jocks before she was through with high school and landed a position. One of Steven Tyler's ex-wives, I believe Teresa Barrick, is also from Tulsa, a Memorial High School graduate, and they got married in Tulsa. You can view their marriage license application on OSCN if you search "Tallarico."

Rock was also popular in the days before FM with KELI, KAKC, and KXXO. Despite its reputation and history as a country music outlet, KVOO 1170 has been multiple different formats over the years. It was "Solid Gold Radio" at one point in the late 60's/early 70's before going back to country. It went relatively unchallenged, at least in town, until KTFX became Tulsa's first FM country station in either 1979 or '80.

Sure, there's plenty of country music too. There are country stations at #3, #8 and #12 plus a Classic Country outlet at #8. But who would guess Tulsa has this affection for rock music? In nearby Oklahoma City, only one rock station, KATT, has decent ratings.

Tulsa has always been Dallas compared to OKC's Ft. Worth. Tulsa was the cosmopolitan urban center while Oklahoma City was the cowtown. Tulsa, though, has always looked to northward to Kansas City more than it has ever compared itself to anywhere in Texas. If you've ever visted both, you'll easily be able to tell that Tulsa is modeled after KC. Tulsans have generally looked at OKC as a hicktown full of rednecks while Oklahoma Citians have looked at Tulsans as a bunch of rich snobs who have always thought they were too good for everybody else in the state.

The continued success of KMYZ has surprised me. That format overall goes through so much musical fragmentation, but they managed to stay an alt station since the much stronger days of the format and found a formula that works. And even more amusingly, ended up being bought by the people that once only did Contemporary Christian radio in Tulsa and went national. If you'd told me when I first heard KMYZ that the KXOJ people would end up buying and retaining "The Edge" I'd have been cynical. But history is stranger than fiction sometimes.

That has always surprised me, too. Having said that, if you know the Stephens family, you'll know they're businesspeople first and foremost. That they kept the Edge is less surprising to me than that it has worked for roughly 30 years. It's not the same formula, but it's basically the same station. Something else to keep in mind is that Tulsa had an alternative station when it was truly an underground format for several years before The Edge. KTOW 1340 starting running the format in the mid-to-late 80's after the people who own(ed) Cust-O-Fab bought the station from Roy Clark as a toy for their son, who was blind. He got into underground music and flipped the format from country shortly after he discovered it. I remember a friend of mine in middle school saying he started listening to 1340 when most of us were still listening to KAY 107 and the old Z-104.5 (right after it switched from classic rock to Rock 40). It signed on an FM at 102.3 in either '88 or '89 with a whopping 1,700 watts. Unless you had what was then a late-model Chrysler, you started having trouble with it on Broken Arrow Expressway when you got east of the Harvard exit (which was kind of a bummer because the next exit, at Yale, was the one you took to get to my old house). In 1991, 102.3 took over the urban format KBLK 1550 had, which went back to Stephens and KXOJ when the LMA with the owner of Donnie's Super Curl on Apache expired. The alternative format continued on 1340 for about another six months, but the same people who LMA'ed 102.3 from Cust-O-Fab took over 1340 and flipped it to a gospel format at some point in the summer. Z-104.5 became "The Edge" about six months after that.

 

[stan]

The companies that broadcast there know of the heritage of musicians from the area and Tulsa has always had more of a rock presence than country. Rock stations have been around much longer than most of the country stations currently there.

 

[CTListener]

The companies that broadcast there know of the heritage of musicians from the area and Tulsa has always had more of a rock presence than country. Rock stations have been around much longer than most of the country stations currently there.

Aren't Garth Brooks and Vince Gill both from Tulsa?

 

[Kent]

Aren't Garth Brooks and Vince Gill both from Tulsa?

Garth Brooks is from Tulsa. He still has a house outside of Owasso, though I understand he spends most of his time in his Nashville area residence now. My sister lives a couple miles from him and has run into him around town two or three times. A friend from high school worked at the Owasso UPS Store for several years, and Garth and Trisha had boxes there. They usually sent a courier to get their mail and parcels, but they visited the store in-person on occasion. When my friend had fallen on particularly hard times, someone showed up at the UPS Store, asked for her, handed her more than $10,000 in cash and walked out without saying another word. She never was told who the gift was from, but we're almost certain it was Garth Brooks.

Vince Gill is from Oklahoma, but I don't believe he's from Tulsa. I did meet him in Tulsa several years ago at Roy Clark's funeral, and I understand he has been coming back to Oklahoma more often. I want to say he and Reba McEntire are from the same area, though not exactly the same towns. Blake Shelton is also from that area. If you drive the most common route between Tulsa and Dallas, you'll go through their hometowns.

Roy Clark was from the Washington, DC area but moved to Tulsa early in his career because he could get to Nashville, Las Vegas, and DC quickly from there. He was also the person who made Branson year round. He could get there quickly, too, and didn't even have to fly. Christian singer Carman also lived in Tulsa for at least part of his career and moved there for some of the same reasons. I suspect, however, that the evangelical connection brought him there, too. Nearly every major evangelist from the 80's had Tulsa connections in one form or another.

As Stan mentions, Tulsa has had its share of rock musicians. Leon Russell and Elvin Bishop grew up there. They went to high school together. They were also briefly in a band together with another of their classmates, David Gates. Dwight Twilley was from there, too. The "Tulsa Sound" was something you might've heard on rock stations in the 70's and early-to-mid 80's. That was usually referring to Russell, Twilley, and a few others. As I mentioned earlier, Steven Tyler used to have a place in Tulsa when he was with Teresa Barrick, though they spent most of their time in Boston. Not sure if I could still remember, but I used to know how to get to his house in town. You couldn't see much of it from the road, but it was gated and walled with a "T" on the gate. I've been told Jack White has a house in Tulsa now as well, though I don't believe it's his primary residence.

 

[joelr]

Garth is from Yukon in the OKC metro. He did have a house in Claremore for a while. Vince Gill is also originally from OKC.

 

[Kent]

Garth is from Yukon in the OKC metro. He did have a house in Claremore for a while.

Garth moved to Yukon from the Tulsa area when he was either a baby or a toddler.

I don't know if he still lives there, but his house in Rogers County used to be on the flight route from Tulsa to KC. I've been told it's quite a site-to-see if you fly over it at night. I say "used to be" because I've been told there's no longer a direct Tulsa to KC (or KC to Tulsa) flight. I understand he had it on the market at one time, but I don't know if he ever sold it.

You can't see it very well from the road, especially when the trees have leaves, but, if you take 96th St N east from Owasso as far as it goes, it'll be to the left. The neighborhood is gated, and his house has a separate secure perimeter.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I don't know if he still lives there, but his house in Rogers County used to be on the flight route from Tulsa to KC. I've been told it's quite a site-to-see if you fly over it at night. I say "used to be" because I've been told there's no longer a direct Tulsa to KC (or KC to Tulsa) flight.

Google Flights is a great resource for figuring out this kind of thing. It shows no direct MCI-TUL flights. The best you can do are a couple of Southwest flights via Dallas, one with total time of 3:20, another taking 5:00. If you really have time to burn, you can take a Frontier flight with a 20-hour layover in Denver. On the other hand, Google Maps says it takes a little more than four hours to drive from one airport to the other.