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CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

T

tillman

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Wonder Who'll replace him.


Ric Hampton Exits KVOO
JOURNAL BROADCAST GROUP Country KVOO/TULSA PD RIC HAMPTON has left the building. He was with the station for 12 years and has resigned to pursue new opportunities inside and outside of radio. He can be reached at [email protected]. No word yet on his replacement.


Speculation time. Candidates currently in the market?
 
The battle between the two really heated up over the past year or two. Here to me are the differences:

K95 seems to have a much shorter playlist. KVOO has greater variety, but the cost is you're not always hearing one of your favorites. Perhaps because of the shorter playlist, K95 seems more consistent... you know what style, mood, tempo, etc you're going to get from K95 while KVOO might be up or down, slow or fast, hard or soft, playing a hit or obscure. It may sound like KVOO should win because of less burnout, but I found myself drawn to K95's guaranteed hits.

KVOO is a bit more personality driven. K95 is very liner-card based with minimal original content from the announcer. Again, the surprising result (at least to me) is a much more consistent image from K95. If the jock isn't careful, KVOO can sound cluttered as a result. Another confusing reversal: I like personality driven radio, but K95 is more pleasant to listen to because I don't risk hearing a bunch of undesirable talk.

Both stations sound similarly loud, with perhaps the edge going to KVOO for loudness. Neither sounds compressed too hard, but K95 again wins for a more open and slightly brighter sound.

KVOO seems to be out at a LOT of remotes. Again, this adds some clutter but it does make them appear to be everywhere in the community at all times. K95 is out regularly but doesn't seem to promote it as hard and perhaps isn't out as long or as often... this is a perception, perhaps not a reality.

Both stations host great charity events.

Both stations have similar imaging.

KVOO feels perhaps a LITTLE more country, that is to say a little more rural in their attitude, while K95 sounds like an "big city" station which happens to play country music. I'm not saying KVOO's presentation is amateur because it's not; you're just more likely to hear a twang in the announcer's or the voiceover guy's voice than on K95. KVOO feels like "country for Green Country" while K95 feels like "country for Tulsa."

As you can tell from my descriptions, both stations seem very similar to me... not identical, but similar. I'm sure that's why they continue to battle in the ratings so closely.

It would be interesting to see a county by county breakdown of the two stations, but I don't have access to those numbers and wouldn't want to guess... I could see it going either way, but I'm betting one gets more of their numbers from Tulsa county and the other likely gets more of their numbers from the other five counties... but I couldn't tell you which is which. Does Tulsa county prefer a "slick" presentation? Or if they're going to listen to country, do they expect to hear COUNTRY? I have no idea.

As always, these are just my general impressions, your mileage may vary and if somebody comes behind me and says the stations are night and day different, their opinion is at least as valid as mine if not more. :D
 
Don't forget that KXBL plays into this battle. 99.5 does well as the #3 country station in the market. There have been monthly extraps where KXBL beats KVOO and comes close to KWEN. The country share in Tulsa is very high.
 
Heck, maybe KQLL should flip to country. After all, I remember a not too far back discussion about how at one point, Tulsa had four or five country outlets. K95, KVOO FM, KVOO AM, Kick 99, and K-Fox 103.3

Ok, it probably won't happen. Plus, I would argue that Tulsa is well served with the three it currently has. More would be ridiculous. However, if one more signed on I'll be they could at least keep the light bill paid for. They wouldn't get rich. But they'd be able to survive.

Of course, that idea is pretty "Pre-1996"
 
With KXBL doing so good they need to get LIVE DJ's. That station screws up more then any other station in the market. And there numbers went up when they started playing more 90's country. I think that is because most of there listeners are 25-45 and they seem to love the 90's. I was surprised that there listeners are so young.
 
I have programmed a successful small market country station on the East Coast for the last 4 years...was thinking about moving to the Tulsa area for personal reasons anyway. So, some questions, if anyone can answer them:

Is this position likely to be filled internally?

Or locally?

How is the company to work for?

And what kind of freedom does it give its PD's?

Any other questions you could answer would be a big help...thanks!
 
1. They bring their country PD's in from the outside more often than not these days.

2. see #1

3. There are people who have been there for years and years. Their core crew has been there forever. So I would imagine it's not bad. I have a buddy who works there and he loves it.

4. You'll have freedom to do good radio. If the numbers stay good, you'll be good. You'd have a heritage stick to work with and it's a healthy baby. Most of the hard work is already done. Stay on top of it, play nice with the boss and everyone else, pay attention to the details and they'll love you. Unless you just let it go to crap, you should be a success.
 
you don't want to work for journal.. they have had a number of pd's at this station... if you are not a yes man you won't make it. they program at corp. stay as far away from KVOO and Journal Broadcast group as you possible can.
 
That's not what they're telling thier applicants from corporate for this position. They want to slap KWEN.
 
Ric left the building and apparently went to do "tech" stuff @ Cox. That's the rumor. ???
 
Ric is a great guy and he will do well. It would make sense for him to wind up at Cox. He would make a great employee for them.

That would be a good situation for him. Best of luck Big Daddy!
 
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