Well thank you for your honesty. I worked with a guy named Bobby Earl in Longview, who was a pretty good guy and I'd like to find him again. Now that we know who you are, I have one question for you. If you guys were going to stay in broadcasting, and keep a Soft AC format, why in the world would you guys even think about selling KOOI?! When I was living up there and working in radio (albeit never for your father), this was the only station Dudley owned. The signal is a monster. I can pick it up as far west as Southeast Dallas, far east as Shreveport, as far south as Lufkin. Outside of when KPXI's stick was in Mt. Pleasant, that's the best stick in the area. I would have sold all my other properties before I sold that one.
On a personal note, I'm quite upset you guys didn't keep KFRO-AM & FM together. And, that both have become irrelevant (KFRO-FM has always had issues). 1370 KFRO used to be "The Voice Of Longview" and it was the pride and joy of the late Mr. Curtis and his son J.R. It seems like both have become an afterthought and no one up there wants to concentrate on Longview anymore. Everyone is so damned concerned about being in Tyler and having that Tyler presence. Ever since Longview was pulled into the Tyler Market DMA (it used to be just Tyler and Longview-Marshall were separate), Longview has been like the Red-Headed Step Child. And, it irritates me. Back when I was growing up there, KFRO, KLUE (and then KAAW & KLGV all at 1280... now gone), KYKX, and 96X were all committed to Longview and events going on in Longview. Everytime I am up there now, I hear mostly Tyler spots and events going on in Tyler. The TV stations are guilty of it, too. GAP Broadcasting, Access-1, and Reynolds is also guilty of this, so don't think I'm just picking on you guys. I just wanted to address that. Again, we appreciate your honesty and please keep in mind, most of us are on this board, because we care about Radio and Broadcasting a great deal and the community it serves. That something radio has forgotten about, over the past 10 years or so, as technology and limited ownership has come into play. Voicetracking, Satellite and Syndicated Personalities have pushed good local personalities to the side. But listeners want that local presence from a radio station. They want to be able to turn on the radio and hear someone who is talking about matters that concern them, whether it be news, weather, sports, current events, or something else. I would be willing to bet that a quarter or less of the personalities are local, which is very sad. That's not really serving the community. Well, thanks for listening Bill. I hope you will take what I said as person who cares about this business and East Texas and not as a critique on your company. Thanks for listening.
