With all the negative things to pick on in Tulsa radio, sometimes it IS hard to keep perspective on this market.
As a Tulsa native, it was easy to watch the "dumbing down" of the stations in the market; watching the sound quality and fidelity go up even as the actual program content quality went down. It felt like we moved from being diners where sometimes you got food poisioning, but MAN could they make a mean chicken fry, to McDonalds: consistent, but your expectations were lower. It was confusing before I got into the biz to see the truly impressive talent pool we have here be stuck in rather dull stations.
What I should have been doing is comparing us to other markets. I remember the shock when I started listening to New York & L.A. stations over the internet. After hearing legendary tapes from the 60s, 70s and 80s of these stations, my response in the mid-90s often was:
"They aren't any better than we are here... maybe not as good!"
Tulsa sounds more polished and more consistent than any market I've heard our size, mostly better than larger markets, and as has been said earlier, could hold their own in the biggest markets. While Tulsa may have lost something in interesting content, it has not fallen like most other markets across the nation.
It's the same companies owning Tulsa stations and other stations; what's the difference?
We have world-class air talent, production talent, and program directors who can take whatever B.S. may be shoveled out by corporate headquarters (or good ideas, to be fair) and craft it into great sounding stations. I tremble to think about what some of the guys caught between staff and owners could do if left to their own devices... we have some really smart cookies in middle management! Others have proven their talent in previous years at previous stations and have (smartly, IMHO) decided to steer clear of being responsible for a station but not in control of the station.
I'd start listing names but I'd miss multiple talents, I'm sure... suffice to say, I've never worked at a station here where I didn't admire somebody or multiple somebodies.
Again, as a Tulsa native, I've seen crime, bad roads, taxes, and so many more negatives increase... still, there's no place I'd rather live, and as was mentioned there are numerous radio people here who could write their own ticket but choose to make Tulsa home because they know what's out there... a number have even returned to this market after going elsewhere, not because they have to but because quality of living is so important to them.
With all I'd like to change, we still have so much to be proud of in Tulsa! Thanks for the "vision checkup."
