My first thought was, 'Where on earth did this come from??!?'... But I do have a couple of thoughts....
Switching KFAQ to country and return the great KVOO calls letters to 1170 is really not as farfetched as it may sound. Journal's station in Wichita AM 1070 The Ranch (which is what they used to call the KVOO's here) retained its classic country format after Journal's purchase of the Great Empire stations. Since KFAQ is pulling a 3 or 4 share 12+ really isn't saying so much for the station and I don't buy into the hoohaw about KFAQ doing 'great' in certain dayparts. Maybe so, but a total number, which is 12+ says a lot about a station. Anyway, they could return KVOO-AM to classic country, bring the news department back to its glorious past (again under Great Empire and someone who has to be one of America's best news directors, Brian Gann) and become the great 50k watt blowtorch that is its legend. Journal has had their eye on the Renda and Shamrock stations for some time, but couldn't get them for unknown reasons, so they could, and this is a BIG could, switch formats (!!) on 99.5 and give it a version of Adult Contemporary. God knows what, though. In between Mix 96 and KBEZ, it is pretty much covered, but diversifying the group has always been a good idea for Journal in Tulsa. That is why it made sense to get the Renda/Shamrock stations... more variety in the group. The heartache about all of this is when Journal came to Tulsa, immediately they began fiddling with the stations. Just about ruined them. They could have simply let the stations run for a year until they really decided what they wanted to do, but no, just like any corporate ownership, they knew better than the locals and boom, now they are in the mess they are in with KFAQ. KFAQ may be doing fine the way it is and I seriously, seriously doubt they will pull the plug on their talk franchise. The only problem is in their morning programming, they have a guy who has alienated so many people and caused so much damage to the great 1170 frequency, it will take a lot of work to rebuild it, no matter what format they choose to keep or change to. It would be a dramatic step to change formats and return 1170 to classic country. Another thought is this... (man, I'm on a roll here... sorry)... Turn 1170 to classic country (early country from Hank, Ray Price, to say, the mid-70s. Let 99.5 keep their pretty much 70s-80s version of classic country. Might work. Might not. But it sure is fun to think about. But this is coming from a company who will junk 75 year old call letters (WOW, Omaha). Whatever they do, I wish them well. Radio is a tough business and its getting tougher by the minute. Good luck.
I would like to hear your thoughts....