Ponca City???

[JRZFM100]

Can anyone give me info about Ponca City - general information about the city, the region/counties and the local radio stations, both commercial and non-com?

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Equal distance from Wichita, Tulsa, and OKC. Extreme weather. Snow, tornadoes, dust storms. Lots of wind year round blowing from all directions.

Town has a Wal-mart, a couple of grocery stores. Used to be home to Conoco oil, refinery is still there, but the corporate operations are long gone.

Not a bad town, a smaller version of Salina, KS. No mall or major shopping/entertainment. Some very good hole in the wall restaurants if you like BBQ and/or steak.

 

[Glenn Quagmire]

Ponca is in Kay County and is the county seat. Closest town is Blackwell which is much smaller. Stillwater is about 45 minutes to the south, home of Oklahoma State Univ. Arkansas City, KS is about 10 minutes north. Kaw Lake is nearby for fishing/boating. No night life.

Rural, agricultural driven place. If you enjoy farming/ranching and small-town living, it's a great area.

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Radio-wise, Bill Colman's Team Radio group has a couple FMs and a sports AM. He has a 1st-class facility in the Poncan Theater. There is a stand-alone AM that is town doing the live and local thing very well. For a stand-alone AM you'd think they were an FM. Very cool. Then there is the "Love Station, Inc./ The House FM / Praise FM guys that have two sticks in the area and tons of them around the state pumping out Christian Hits radio. Ponca is a very cool radio market for it's size.

 

[Jay Walker]

Northern Oklahoma radio markets such as Blackwell, Ponca City, Enid, and many others were great examples of small market performers back in the day which fed a lot of talent into medium markets like Wichita, Tulsa, and of course OKC.

I remember listening to many of these small town stations and being amazed at the professional way they were presented. It's been many years since I've spun the dial that way. Used to really enjoy KCRC in Enid and noticed with pleasure 1390 is still alive and listed in the data base.

As far as a place to live... You have to be one of those types of people who enjoy "Miles and Miles, of Miles and Miles" of wide open spaces. It does get hotter than blazes and colder than Hades as well. ;D

 

[JRZFM100]

All excellent replies, that y'all so much.

More on commercial stations that are in and around Ponca. Possible to get a part-time on-air gig on weekends, perhaps pitching them and develop a specialty show (Like 60 / 70's Saturday Nite?) live radio of course?

Any thoughts on where something like that could be pitched?

And, Jay, I am curious when / what you did at the Eagle. Did you work there in the Joel era??

 

[Jay Walker]

All excellent replies, that y'all so much.

More on commercial stations that are in and around Ponca. Possible to get a part-time on-air gig on weekends, perhaps pitching them and develop a specialty show (Like 60 / 70's Saturday Nite?) live radio of course?

Any thoughts on where something like that could be pitched?

And, Jay, I am curious when / what you did at the Eagle. Did you work there in the Joel era??

I came to the Eagle from mid-days @ WLS/WYTZ in 1987 hired by John Roberts. I was hired as imaging director and swing air talent. I was the Creative Services Director and voice of the Eagle for five years all the way through the Joel Folger era until the beginning of the Stern era.

I also was responsible for the sonic signature of the station i.e. the audio processing. It was a real treat working with Joel Folger and Jimmy Steel. I was proud to be a part of the creative team that took on and beat Y-95 in one of the best top-40 battles in Dallas in years...

I left a couple of weeks into the Stern format change and went to Sunny 95 as morning drive talent along with engineering duties at Young Country. I have been with 105.3 now for 20 years. Currently as Chief Engineer for 105.3 and 100.3 CBS Dallas.... Also the "image voice" of "KLUV Oldies" HD-2 and "The Strip" 100.3 HD-2.
Jay Walker

 

[LymanJames]

Jay Walker! A little reunion online! Hope you're doing well. I just spoke with Ron Eric earlier this week and found out he's a moderator on this site.

My wife and I bought a station in Ponca about a year and a half ago - KIXR. Lovin' it. And I agree it's a great area. I'm one of those guys who appreciates miles and miles of miles and miles. ;D The station is now Bright AC, Sunny 104.7.

And JRZFM100 - I'd be open to talking about some weekend possibilities. Just email direct: [email protected]. Happy to hear your ideas.

Jay - take care!

 

[Jay Walker]

Jay Walker! A little reunion online! Hope you're doing well. I just spoke with Ron Eric earlier this week and found out he's a moderator on this site.

My wife and I bought a station in Ponca about a year and a half ago - KIXR. Lovin' it. And I agree it's a great area. I'm one of those guys who appreciates miles and miles of miles and miles. ;D The station is now Bright AC, Sunny 104.7.

And JRZFM100 - I'd be open to talking about some weekend possibilities. Just email direct: [email protected]. Happy to hear your ideas.

Jay - take care!

Great to hear from you Lyman!!
I had heard you were living the dream ;D
It is great to see you doing well. My email is in my profile here.
Tell Ron Eric "hey" as well

Jay Walker

 

[JRZFM100]

Jay-

I just have to ask.... regarding the Eagle, it sounds like you and Folger and maybe Jimmy worked to "fine tune" the stations sound. I was under the impression that prior to 1989, KEGL had tried a Frank Foti Vigilante and didn't like it, threw it away. I was also under the impression that KEGL's CE at that time was the audio tuning authority!!

Two additional -

Y-95 used two processors, Texar+Bare back Optimod 8100 for mornings and mid days and then a Gregg Labs box for Billy Burke and nites... did you know that and what did you think about the Gregg box. It would switch via mechanical relay about 2pm or so. First station I knew of that had day parted processing.

Also, I remember coming to Dallas for the first time in Dec 1988 and hearing that 100.3 Jamz had more bass than anyone in the southwest. I made it out to cedar hill and the only had an optimod with an XT-2 chassis (and it was just sitting on a table real hap hazzard). Do you recall anything about Jamz audio circa Dec '88?

AND one or two more. When I first moved to Dallas circa 1989, KEGL did a live stereo music broadcast for a whole friday nite and the feed was out of phase. Looked really funny on my L+R summed spectrum analyzer.

Finally, can you confirm if Leigh Ann did Saturday Nite 7pm-mid. That is the schedule I remember from '89.

I better shut up now; my new format is "Four in a row with NO talk" haha!

 

[Jay Walker]

Jay-

I just have to ask.... regarding the Eagle, it sounds like you and Folger and maybe Jimmy worked to "fine tune" the stations sound. I was under the impression that prior to 1989, KEGL had tried a Frank Foti Vigilante and didn't like it, threw it away. I was also under the impression that KEGL's CE at that time was the audio tuning authority!!

Two additional -

Y-95 used two processors, Texar+Bare back Optimod 8100 for mornings and mid days and then a Gregg Labs box for Billy Burke and nites... did you know that and what did you think about the Gregg box. It would switch via mechanical relay about 2pm or so. First station I knew of that had day parted processing.

Also, I remember coming to Dallas for the first time in Dec 1988 and hearing that 100.3 Jamz had more bass than anyone in the southwest. I made it out to cedar hill and the only had an optimod with an XT-2 chassis (and it was just sitting on a table real hap hazzard). Do you recall anything about Jamz audio circa Dec '88?

AND one or two more. When I first moved to Dallas circa 1989, KEGL did a live stereo music broadcast for a whole friday nite and the feed was out of phase. Looked really funny on my L+R summed spectrum analyzer.

Finally, can you confirm if Leigh Ann did Saturday Nite 7pm-mid. That is the schedule I remember from '89.

I better shut up now; my new format is "Four in a row with NO talk" haha!

Wow, it's been 25 years since I've thought about this...
Here's what I recall from my time at KEGL.

As one of many hats I wore during my time at the eagle, I was hired as the "engineering liaison" so to speak as the interface between engineering and programming. I had a lot of experience as a processing consultant from my earlier days as a chief engineer / air talent. There were several CE's during my time at the Eagle. Hue Beavers (a very good engineer) was there when I was hired. At that time we used an Orban 8100XT. When Wes Bell (another great engineer) came on board I took an extremely active role in the audio setup.

Knowing what Y-95 was using, I tried to get a Greg Labs processor but the cost was prohibitive at the time. I'd heard about Frank's Vigilante he was using at Z-100 and so I got in touch with him. We flew Frank down installed the new Texar's, a Vigilante, the Cutting Edge Dividend composite filter, A composite clipper, and a new stand alone Stereo generator from CRL. This was one LOUD system... But, you had to be real careful as you could clip the crap out of everything, however you could gain several db in loudness without too much effort.

I remember the day we put it on and got a call from someone in management at Y-95 complaining that we were "over modulated" They were PO'd that we finally had gained parity in the loudness war. We were however perfectly legal but the mod monitor looked like we were broadcasting a tone at 100%.

Since programming called the shots, we ran that system for quite awhile. Shortly after my friend Chris Huggins became CE the power supply failed in the Vigilante. Since Chris was not a fan of the Vigilante (he was more of a purist) we tried numerous early DSP processors over a 6 month period. Chris finally settled on the Orban 8200 as the replacement for the Vigilante. But during the "Battle" between The Eagle and Y-95/Power 95 The Eagle ran the Vigilante the longest. I always felt that the Vigilante was the best the station ever sounded considering the mission at the time.

100.3 Jamz's secret bass processor was the Barcus Berry 901 Sub-Sonic enhancer they used to fatten up the bottom end. I had one in the production room at the Eagle in my microphone processor side-chain. I called it my "Add a Ball"

I don't recall the live broadcast out of phase...I wonder where it came from? It would have been dry pairs since T-1 and / ISDN wasn't around the station at that time...
I have however slept over the last 25+ years (wow-It's been that long?)

Leigh Ann was working at the station during the time you mentioned. She is now down the hall from me at KVIL.

As a side note, when Young Country LMA'd 94.9 the Greg Labs was still on the air when I started mornings at Sunny 95. A Greg Labs on an A/C Country station LOL.
Overkill? You Betcha...

 

[JRZFM100]

Jay- Thanks for the very detailed reply. (I couldn't tell you had slept since then... great recall).

A question:

I had one in the production room at the Eagle in my microphone processor side-chain

Regarding the BBE, did you use it in "In Line" with a conventional processor, like a Symmetrix?

I am curious as to your meaning of 'side chain' in this application. Side chain to me seems to suggest that the BBE plugged into the side chain I/O jacks in the back of a compressor (or other mic processor), that's the only place I've ever seen side chain I/O actually, on the back of a DOD brand wide band compressor. Would love to better understand how to use BBE for mic processing in a side chain?

Hey, also curious if you are now working with the Symmetrix DSP based mic processor which has a full computer interface to adjust its parameters, any experience?

Finally, do you remember that certain 80's on-air consoles (audiotronics for sure) had a user plug in card with three trim pots on it that served to tweak the optional voice EQ. Jocks could be given a personal plug in card to tailor their voices. Saw that at CHR 96 (KHFI?) in Austin circa 88. Thought it was really fancy!

And here is one really funny Y-95 story floating around. As I recall, Richard Marx or similar person was there in the Texas Commerce Bank Building production studio. And as I remember, Buzz or Aubrey (I really think it was Buzz) spend a lot of time adjusting the mic equalization before they let Marx record. After the session, it was realized that the mic processing was set to "bypass". So the joke was on Buzz.

Is Aubrey still around? I know that Buzz-Post (not Buzz Benet) is no longer in business... Buzz-Does, as Aubrey would say!

 

[Jay Walker]

Jay- Thanks for the very detailed reply. (I couldn't tell you had slept since then... great recall).

A question:

I had one in the production room at the Eagle in my microphone processor side-chain

Regarding the BBE, did you use it in "In Line" with a conventional processor, like a Symmetrix?

I am curious as to your meaning of 'side chain' in this application. Side chain to me seems to suggest that the BBE plugged into the side chain I/O jacks in the back of a compressor (or other mic processor), that's the only place I've ever seen side chain I/O actually, on the back of a DOD brand wide band compressor. Would love to better understand how to use BBE for mic processing in a side chain?

Hey, also curious if you are now working with the Symmetrix DSP based mic processor which has a full computer interface to adjust its parameters, any experience?

Finally, do you remember that certain 80's on-air consoles (audiotronics for sure) had a user plug in card with three trim pots on it that served to tweak the optional voice EQ. Jocks could be given a personal plug in card to tailor their voices. Saw that at CHR 96 (KHFI?) in Austin circa 88. Thought it was really fancy!

And here is one really funny Y-95 story floating around. As I recall, Richard Marx or similar person was there in the Texas Commerce Bank Building production studio. And as I remember, Buzz or Aubrey (I really think it was Buzz) spend a lot of time adjusting the mic equalization before they let Marx record. After the session, it was realized that the mic processing was set to "bypass". So the joke was on Buzz.

Is Aubrey still around? I know that Buzz-Post (not Buzz Benet) is no longer in business... Buzz-Does, as Aubrey would say!

My bad.. I meant IN-LINE not side-chain.

In the main production room I built at Eagle, I used an 8 bus MCI console. The microphone chain consisted of an SM-5 mic, an Orange County Vocal Stressor, Barcus-Berry 901 and a Urei LA-4 into the a line input on the console. I also had the first DAWs in Dallas radio. I used the Otari 424 (?) 4 track digital work station in Production Studio A. We also used the 2 track Otari DAWs in studio B. All of these ran on a Mac Lisa IIRC.

I have the Symetrix DSP mic processors, both the early and latest versions. I don't like them, but I did figure out settings that are acceptable but not perfect... I prefer the 528/528E series myself. My home studio uses 528 and Neumann mics. I have one of the Auditronics consoles with the EQ modules you mentioned in my barn LOL. I collect consoles and processors. My favorite microphone processors I use for my AM ham radio station are the PR&E modules and rack I got from KHYI.

I'm pretty certain Aubrey is around Dallas, he's quite a talent and I always admired his work. I'm not sure which station he's at or if he's just a free agent.

I'm not surprised about the EQ story, I will tell you I was stunned the first time I was in the TCB studios after we took over during the LMA. Y-95 had every single toy you needed to build a winning station. It was the best studios I'd ever seen since Chicago. Compared to Y-95 the Eagle looked like small market. Y-95 was a very tough competitor and they made the Eagle better because of their strengths. They had every top flight PD in the business in the place from Buzz to Charlie and it kept us on our toes. They also had money to burn while we had to use our brains to compete.
It was a very fun time in radio...

 

[JRZFM100]

Thanks again for the discussion!

You don't happen to have the Dolby "SR" noise reduction system that Y-95 was using on their carts in your possession? That was the coolest and most expensive NR system ever, and I never found anyone using that for carts anywhere else!

On audio processors, I want to cut an air check and then run it through a pseudo modern processor with a muti-band limiter such that it sounds "on-air". 8100+XT2 or similar would work.

Do you have such a processor, know where I could rent one, or do you know of a plug in that would give me the equivalent loudness, feel, and absolute peak limiting that a stand alone would?

I have tried the free demo of a downloadable, inexpensive processor for PC (forget the name) but it didn't have any customization features, just five presets. I'd really like to work with an 8400 or equivalent.

 

[Jay Walker]

Thanks again for the discussion!

You don't happen to have the Dolby "SR" noise reduction system that Y-95 was using on their carts in your possession? That was the coolest and most expensive NR system ever, and I never found anyone using that for carts anywhere else!

On audio processors, I want to cut an air check and then run it through a pseudo modern processor with a muti-band limiter such that it sounds "on-air". 8100+XT2 or similar would work.

Do you have such a processor, know where I could rent one, or do you know of a plug in that would give me the equivalent loudness, feel, and absolute peak limiting that a stand alone would?

I have tried the free demo of a downloadable, inexpensive processor for PC (forget the name) but it didn't have any customization features, just five presets. I'd really like to work with an 8400 or equivalent.

In the barn I've got the Otari 8 track and the Dolby SR for that. The Tomcat cart system is long gone.

For winamp there is a DSP program FREE called sound solution. It takes a while to tweak but it will emulate the sound of an Orban 8100 and other multi-band processors.

All of my multi-bands are in use on my ham station. I'm active on AM Phone on 75m using a 1957 Gates BC1T broadcast transmitter fed by an Optimod AM. on 160m I use a 1941 Western Electric 451A broadcast transmitter fed by either a CRL stack, the Audimax/Volumax or the Dorrough 210 system from the old 10Q/KTNQ LA.

I will check around in my server and see if I've got any stand alone processor programs worthy of your needs...

What part of the country are you located in? Also feel free to use my email.
jay [dot] walker [dot] voiceover [at] gmail [dot] com Since we've pretty well Hi-jacked this thread into oblivion LOL...

 

[Jay Walker]

On audio processors, I want to cut an air check and then run it through a pseudo modern processor with a muti-band limiter such that it sounds "on-air". 8100+XT2 or similar would work.

I have tried the free demo of a downloadable, inexpensive processor for PC (forget the name) but it didn't have any customization features, just five presets. I'd really like to work with an 8400 or equivalent.

Here's the link for the Winamp Plug-in.

http://www.winamp.com/plugin/sound-solution/120741

Some people rag on this, but I've found that with a little effort you can make it sound pretty good especially for FREE. I have ran this on my various Part 15 applications and it does a decent job handling peaks. It is NOT a brick wall, but neither is the Optimod. If you want to nail it, use the Limiter plug in Adobe Audition. That is an absolute BRICK WALL.

 

[Kent]

I'm not surprised about the EQ story, I will tell you I was stunned the first time I was in the TCB studios after we took over during the LMA. Y-95 had every single toy you needed to build a winning station. It was the best studios I'd ever seen since Chicago. Compared to Y-95 the Eagle looked like small market. Y-95 was a very tough competitor and they made the Eagle better because of their strengths. They had every top flight PD in the business in the place from Buzz to Charlie and it kept us on our toes. They also had money to burn while we had to use our brains to compete.
It was a very fun time in radio...

And Y-95 was a winning station, especially after KTKS left the air. Y-95 won the CHR battle in 75% of the surveys over the next three years. Unfortunately, they were caught up in being a CHR when no one wanted to be a CHR. So, they decided to get KEGL out of business once-and-for-all, and their plan backfired horribly. They focused so heavily on getting KEGL that they lost sight of their listeners. It just wasn't any fun to listen to them once the personal attacks on the KEGL staff started airing. In the end, that destructive CHR war didn't end up helping KEGL either, and it got out of the format, albeit in a less radical switch, about a year after Y-95/Power-95/94.9 FM went away.

 

[Jay Walker]

I'm not surprised about the EQ story, I will tell you I was stunned the first time I was in the TCB studios after we took over during the LMA. Y-95 had every single toy you needed to build a winning station. It was the best studios I'd ever seen since Chicago. Compared to Y-95 the Eagle looked like small market. Y-95 was a very tough competitor and they made the Eagle better because of their strengths. They had every top flight PD in the business in the place from Buzz to Charlie and it kept us on our toes. They also had money to burn while we had to use our brains to compete.
It was a very fun time in radio...

And Y-95 was a winning station, especially after KTKS left the air. Y-95 won the CHR battle in 75% of the surveys over the next three years. Unfortunately, they were caught up in being a CHR when no one wanted to be a CHR. So, they decided to get KEGL out of business once-and-for-all, and their plan backfired horribly. They focused so heavily on getting KEGL that they lost sight of their listeners. It just wasn't any fun to listen to them once the personal attacks on the KEGL staff started airing. In the end, that destructive CHR war didn't end up helping KEGL either, and it got out of the format, albeit in a less radical switch, about a year after Y-95/Power-95/94.9 FM went away.

You are correct. While Y-95 was a straight ahead CHR Eagle was a "Rock-40". During that time the Rock based format was an advantage since it was during the time of Guns and Roses, Hair Bands, and MTV. We had a lot of alternate product to off-set the urban product/rap that Y-95 played. Our mission was to force the perception that Y-95 was an urban station, and push them towards K-104.

I always called K-104 the stone monolith in Grand Prairie which had/still has a lock on urban in DFW. We always tried to push our competition towards competing with K-104. We forced 100.3 Jamz that direction and they died. When Y changed to Power they died. However when Y-95 switched to Power 95 both Power and Eagle suffered. It was a lot of fun competing and I learned a lot about strategic warfare. When they changed to KODZ the hand writing was on the wall for the end of the Eagle as well.

Great times and I still have a ton of respect for the talents at KHYI Y-95

 

[Kent]

You are correct. While Y-95 was a straight ahead CHR Eagle was a "Rock-40". During that time the Rock based format was an advantage since it was during the time of Guns and Roses, Hair Bands, and MTV. We had a lot of alternate product to off-set the urban product/rap that Y-95 played. Our mission was to force the perception that Y-95 was an urban station, and push them towards K-104.

I remember that. KEGL's eschewing the rap product was a lot of why I preferred KEGL to Y-95, though I found myself flipping between the two of them quite frequently. I also never liked the morning show on Y-95, whichever one they had! My friends and I used to often say we listened to KEGL by day and Y-95 by night, and it was pretty close to the truth!

I always called K-104 the stone monolith in Grand Prairie which had/still has a lock on urban in DFW. We always tried to push our competition towards competing with K-104. We forced 100.3 Jamz that direction and they died.

K-104 has always had the benefit of having an owner that believes in its product. During the last few years of 100.3 Jamz, it beat K-104 almost every book. However, when Jamz was owned by Summit, it started having financial problems, and ratings declined again toward the end of the Summit years. Granum bought the Summit stations outside New York, Chicago and Denver. They almost immediately flipped Jamz to V-100, and you could argue it made a lot of sense. After all, they already had KOAI, and V-100 was a great combo deal with the Oasis. It probably would've continued to sell if the tower didn't come crashing down a few years later.

When Y changed to Power they died. However when Y-95 switched to Power 95 both Power and Eagle suffered. It was a lot of fun competing and I learned a lot about strategic warfare. When they changed to KODZ the hand writing was on the wall for the end of the Eagle as well.

KEGL did a very good job at forcing Y-95 to go in a more urban direction, hence Power 95. And, yes, they died very quickly after making that change. That was really the wrong change to make at the time. While the urban product generally was attractive to the younger listener, it was exactly what the advertisers didn't want. With the economy heading into recession, they wanted 25-54 females, and that was an audience that wasn't going to tolerate the music mix on Power 95 for very long.

KEGL didn't benefit at all from 94.9's departure from CHR. It had a very slight uptick in the book right after KODZ launched only to drop below previous levels in the Winter '92 book. It didn't get much better from there.

 

[Jay Walker]

Before the KODZ format change the plan at the Eagle was to try and work our way into the female demo. That only hastened the demise of 97.1 as there was really no way to gracefully make the transition without killing the male demos. So Sandusky Corporate decided to take the chance on recycling the previous "Bad Boys of Rock" image and go for broke with Howard Stern and a heavier rock format. It worked well for a while.

After Stern/Russ left, the station really never performed to it's full potential and has spun the format wheel numerous times. I wonder what the next step is for 97.1? Will they continue to use a 100KW stick as a flanker for their other Rock, Pop and CHR properties? Or will they spin the format wheel again into Oldies? Country seems out of the question, and Dance really doesn't have a decent base here in Dallas. It's hard to say at this point since the cluster has pretty much locked up the mass appeal formats..

Jay Walker