"JournalGuy:
Spending some extra time in the OKC area this week and weekend. Love the Bricktown area."
It cost us in sales tax but the hidden value probably is the ability to attract some businesses to relocate here, etc. OKC has always been bascially just an oversized cow-town. Bricktown gave us something to a bit more proud of the place we live. "Tulsa has a long way to go there." Tulsa has more to work with it they get organized about it since it has a REAL river. The only disadvantage is some of the pollution issues wiht that river.
"As for radio (and even television) the product is not as good as Tulsa. What gives? Isn't OKC a larger metro?" In these days of corporate crap radio I'm getting the opinion that the INVERSE of the market size in many cases equals quality. My opinon of Dallas radio is it's much WORSE these days than OKC. It probably has something to do with ultra-conservitive programming approaches and all the damn consultants/research that goes into larger markets. The harder those without a soul try to have soul the more the fork it up. Some smaller market stations sound pretty good these days because the guy that does the music log lives and plays in the market the station(s) serve and aren't micromanaged by remote control.
"The only good station here is KRXO." KRXO is about 1/2 the station is used to be. It might be one of the better stations in the market, but I have to tell you it's nearly souless and pretty damn mechanical these days. There's a reason why that station was one of the highest rated classic rockers in the country. It was gut-programmed by people that knew what the hell they were doing and weren't at the mercy (at the time) of idiot consultants. They had them, but the P.D. and M.D. rand the thing as they saw fit and double digits were the result, along with printing money. After Bob-FM came on and the music got real restricted and the 1520 talk abortion came on the air the KRXO morning show got tired of being treated like they didn't exist and decided the go elsewhere and music that should only be played on AC stations was played on the station by the consultant's demand things started stinking. KRXO is much better than that low point but it's still never recovered IMHO. "The newstalk and country stations are not as good as we have in Tulsa." For years KTOK was the only game in town, riding on it's repuation of greatness from the late 70s-80s when it WAS a great station. KOMA-AM and then WKY tried to come in and compete which made CC spend a penny or two on KTOK. Both KOMA-AM and WKY were half-hearted attempts at doing the format right. Neither were given proper resourses, including a PDs with any real capablities. In the case of KOMA-AM the guy that ran it was from fresh from running Metrosource. He only had a bit of on-air experience and certainly didn't need to be running an upstart news-talk station against a 20 year established station. It was clear he didn't know what the hell he was doing because he would make so many changes on the air it was hard to tell day to day what the programming line-up would amount to. When the FM revenue fell they kept chopping off help around it to where now there are about 1.5 people that are actually dedicated to that station. WKY went into Mexican music and then sports. That basically leaves KTOK again to sit there and hold the format but at very little cost and quailty. OKC remains a TV-news market becuase there is no sustaining quality news-talk radio product being put forth on the air. I wouldn't look for that to change due to the cheapness of most of the owners around here. Let's just hope Cox continues to own KRMG. They are far from the best, but at least they seem to still employ people that are and are still willing to put some resources behind them to get a good product out. "The AC station (Magic) is weak and boring." KMGL is good at what it does. I would agree it's pretty boring and mechanical, but considering what it's up against and the fact it's been in format for a LONGGGG time it's unlikely they'll be unseated. I don't see anyone in this market putting enough into a station to do a real personality-driven AC format like KVIL used to be in Dallas back when it didn't suck. That's what it would take to unseat KMGL. "If you compare the two markets, Tulsa's worst station is better than most OKC stations." Tulsa has several good stations. I can certainly point to some pretty lousy ones up there too. The truth is today's commercial radio is nothing short of a joke as a whole. There are a few shining spots on the dial here and there, but in general it's only a hull of what good radio of even just 10 years ago was. 10 years ago was only a shell of what radio was 20 years before that. The sad truth is radio has been dumbed-down to the point that consumers have little other choice than to either endure it or try some other source like XM or an iPod. Radio pays a great deal of money out to get ratings that idicate how much slice of the pie they are getting. The problem is the pie is getting smaller due to lack of quality in the product. Until big corporate owners have to sell markets like OKC and Tulsa it'll be more of the same.
When I read about the legendary radio stations in Oklahoma, I hardly see anything about OKC. It is mostly Tulsa with KVOO, KAKC, KRMG, KELI, etc. Has OKC radio always been substandard?
I don't have a copy of the OKC ratings, so I have no idea where anything stacks up. KRXO sounds great. The oldies/classic hit station KOMA is not bad. The Twister is the best sounding country station out of the bunch. KKNG sounds like a small market country station. KTOK is lucky not to have a strong competitor. KATT sounds like they want to be KMOD when they grow up.
Amazing difference between the two markets.
Same for television. Channel 9 is the only good local newscast here. The rest are weak. (For some strange reason, it looks just like channel 6 in Tulsa. HA!) In Tulsa, we have at least two good TV stations. (Channel 6 and channel 2.) KTUL & Fox23 would fit in perfectly in OKC.
Has anybody worked both markets? Why is there such a difference?
