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Turmoil at KMYZ in Tulsa

G

Glenn Quagmire

Noticed Tara's bio is now missing from KMYZ's website. She's telling those who like her on Facebook to like her on a new page not associated with KMYZ. She was on the station as of yesterday. No formal announcement she is gone.

Also Mikey Bee who does nights just announced on Twitter he was fired.

Is this related to the rumored Stephens purchase? Something else?

KMYZ used to have a pretty large staff of part-timers/weekend people. That seems to have really dwindled lately.
 
I'm getting the vibe that there are a lot of unknowns related to the Stephens' purchase. Even long-time employees are taking personal items home in preparation for the move "in a few weeks" to the Cityplex Towers... a move that may or may not include them.

I don't know that anybody knows anything... or if they do, they're not talking.
 
Kriegler was mentioned in AllAccess Action last night. Something definitely seems to be afoot there. It will be kinda sad to see 104.5 leave the Remington Tower. They've been there for 20+ years now. Ah well...it's just rental space. Life goes on.
 
I find it interesting that the KXOJ guys are already making moves with the personnel on these stations before they take control. They are hiring people to staff these stations with a tentative date of 7/1/13. My guess is that it will be a huge culture shift working for the new company. Not sure if running a EDGE station fits their wholesome image. That could backfire for them and hurt KXOJ.

It is sad to lose one more independent broadcaster in the market. It is down to two major companies, Cox Communications and Clearchannel. One medium company, Journal and now KXOJ, Inc.

Hope everybody lands on their feet and all in the right places after the dust settles. I hope the Perry people hang onto their stations and do not give in to selling.
 
shaneradio said:
I find it interesting that the KXOJ guys are already making moves with the personnel on these stations before they take control.
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I suspect KXOJ knows what's going on, but they're not the ones firing these people. Companies that are selling tend to start cutting people before the sale takes place. This is one of several reasons LMA's became so common. New owners got sick of the previous operator poor-boying the station(s), and the sellers didn't want to keep up high payrolls when they felt they could bill the same with a smaller staff.

They are hiring people to staff these stations with a tentative date of 7/1/13. My guess is that it will be a huge culture shift working for the new company. Not sure if running a EDGE station fits their wholesome image. That could backfire for them and hurt KXOJ.
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Stephens doesn't own Christian formatted stations outside of Tulsa. They have at least one station running some derivative of alternative in Rochester. I also can't see how operating an Edge station would hurt KXOJ when they've had The Sports Animal in their building for more than a decade now. When you hear about what sports stations talk about sometimes, it's far more compatible with rock than CCM. I do agree, however, that it's likely to be a culture shift, just not necessarily for the same reasons. Any ownership change brings in a new culture, unless, maybe, it's the same management buying the stations. However, I hear those Cox castaways that went to the Birmingham market's management are experiencing major changes that have left some scratching their heads.

It is sad to lose one more independent broadcaster in the market. It is down to two major companies, Cox Communications and Clearchannel. One medium company, Journal and now KXOJ, Inc.
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I'm not sure I'd call Times-Shamrock an independent broadcaster. Its radio group is about the size Journal's was when it bought Great Empire Broadcasting roughly 15 years ago. While it's certainly not a huge broadcaster, it owns stations in five states and 8 daily newspapers. Adding community newspapers, weeklies and alternatives, it has a total of at least 24 publications.

Hope everybody lands on their feet and all in the right places after the dust settles.
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I agree with you here.

I hope the Perry people hang onto their stations and do not give in to selling.
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Don't know how I feel about Perry's operation. I guess you could say he's local since he's based in OKC, and that's a good thing. However, all of his Oklahoma stations have the same PD, and it's been that way for a long time. That kinda strikes me a Cumulus-lite.
 
Here's a question. The sale of 100.7 in Catoosa, 94.5 in Locust Grove, and 100.3 in Muskogee... Is this an actual change in operators (notice I say operators not ownership) or is this on paper so they can own 104.5 and 94.1? Will those stations stay the same and continue as repeaters of KXOJ or go forward with something more meaningful to those local communities?
 
Your guess is as good as anyone else's not affiliated with KXOJ at this point. Under the letter of the law, 100.7 and 94.5 can't relay KXOJ if Stephens takes over 104.5 and 94.1 because you can't LMA a station you can't legally own. Of course, in the past, there were ways around that. I remember an operator in Virginia Beach selling his programming to another operator and entering a JSA with the same operator about 20 years ago. Don't know if that would still be legal or not, but the FCC concluded it wasn't able to do much about it at the time.

100.3, by the way, has never been a KXOJ repeater as far as I know. It presently runs a Christian rock format known as "The Kross." It briefly ran a CCM format and called itself "KXOJ Muskogee," but it ran separate programming from the main KXOJ signal.
 
KCXR has this posted on their website at http://thekross.fm/

Dear Friends,

100.3 KCXR is now under the ownership of ABS Communications. ABS will be airing a contemporary Christian music format as of June 21st.

We want to thank you for your years of support of The Kross. It has been a labor of love for more than 10 years and the faithful listeners have made it all worthwhile.

If you are looking for similar radio streams, you might try NGEN Radio at ngenradio.com or His Radio Z at hisradioz.com or RadioY at radioy.com

Thank you again for all your support.

Staff of KCXR
 
God bless anyone having to work either for these new asshats or for the ones unemployed by them. At the rate they're going, they could write a book entitled "how to tank a radio group in three short years". That's maybe a bit generous. Who knows... It might be less than three.
 
Here is the simple reason for the changes -- they purchased the radio stations and cannot afford the overhead to keep both stations fully staffed. It is like buying the most expensive house that you could afford and not having the money to furnish it. This will be interesting to watch. Sad that so many people were affected by this sale.

Yes, there are efficiencies by eliminating duplicated positions throughout the station. Everybody there will feel the pressure once the deal closes. It will be interesting to hear the low budget EDGE. KTSO was just starting to do well again. Oh well.
 
shaneradio said:
Here is the simple reason for the changes -- they purchased the radio stations and cannot afford the overhead to keep both stations fully staffed. It is like buying the most expensive house that you could afford and not having the money to furnish it. This will be interesting to watch. Sad that so many people were affected by this sale.

Yes, there are efficiencies by eliminating duplicated positions throughout the station. Everybody there will feel the pressure once the deal closes. It will be interesting to hear the low budget EDGE. KTSO was just starting to do well again. Oh well.
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I have a few questions:
1.) Who is signing the paychecks? Stephens or Shamrock? When will Stephens start signing the paychecks?
2.) Who is running the place? EdgeTulsa's Twitter bio still says Derek and Tara in the morning. Derek has been gone for months. When you're still referencing a morning drive person who has been gone for that long I tend to think they have some staffing or quality control problems.
3.) Who is getting canned? On-air staff? Office folks?
4.) How automated is KMYZ? I get the drift outside of mornings, noon, remotes, and nights the station is "live."
5.) Whose signal/programming goes where once the Stephens deal closes? I get the drift 94.1 and 100.9's programming will switch spots on the dial.
OKCRadioGuy said:
I agree. Look for this soon-to-be-mess to sell again, soon. 3-5 is my prediction.
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Who would buy them?
 
Would've helped for me to use Google first.

All Access says the deal has closed. Jason Taylor, Randy Young, Paul Kriegler PD are out. Jason and Randy are voice talents on 94.1 KTSO. I heard Randy a few days ago on the Edge doing afternoons while Chuck was doing a remote.

A real shame. Randy was the voice of the Edge even after going to 94.1. The promos. Still remember him doing middays. Great talent. Jason was great too.

Got to love corporate radio!
 
Glen. I usually agree with most of what you say. I have to disagree with you on corporate radio. Stephen's Media Group is the furthest thing from corporate radio. They still operate like a Sapulpa broadcaster that got lucky with a signal that gets into Tulsa. If 98.5 was still owned by Salem, they would have never been on the radar in Tulsa.

If things don't work out for them and they have to sell, maybe the FCC will have changed the ownership caps and the stations could be sold to the three majors in Tulsa; CC, Cox or Journal. They would have to split them up.

Randy, Jason and Paul are all solid broadcasters. I bet they will land on their feet quickly. Start the Death Watch clock on the stations NOW.
 
Apparently today (6/28) was the last "official" day for the offices on Skelly. Traffic director Terry Jenner (who did some on-air work back in the "Hot New Z104.5" days) will apparently stay on for about 30 days to close down the old offices.

I should be happy the stations will be locally owned... for some reason, I'm just not.

I suppose part of it is that, to my mind, any company that cans Paul, Randy, Terry and others has let extraordinary talent slip through their fingers.

I wish the Stephens nothing but the best with their new signals.
 
shaneradio said:
Glen. I usually agree with most of what you say. I have to disagree with you on corporate radio. Stephen's Media Group is the furthest thing from corporate radio. They still operate like a Sapulpa broadcaster that got lucky with a signal that gets into Tulsa. If 98.5 was still owned by Salem, they would have never been on the radar in Tulsa.

If things don't work out for them and they have to sell, maybe the FCC will have changed the ownership caps and the stations could be sold to the three majors in Tulsa; CC, Cox or Journal. They would have to split them up.

Randy, Jason and Paul are all solid broadcasters. I bet they will land on their feet quickly. Start the Death Watch clock on the stations NOW.
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Better term would've been consolidation instead of corporate radio. I'm just not a fan of it.
 
Glenn Quagmire said:
3.) Who is getting canned? On-air staff? Office folks?
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From what I hear, it's pretty much everyone. However, I suppose it's possible some people could be retained after everything gets set up and moved. It's fairly common for a new company to come in and require existing staff to re-apply and interview for their positions. While I've never seen such a transaction happen like this, where everyone posts their contact information in the trades looking for jobs, I suppose it can't be ruled out either.

4.) How automated is KMYZ? I get the drift outside of mornings, noon, remotes, and nights the station is "live."
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During the weekdays, KMYZ used to be live in every daypart except overnights. Don't know if that's changed or, if it has, when it happened.

5.) Whose signal/programming goes where once the Stephens deal closes? I get the drift 94.1 and 100.9's programming will switch spots on the dial.
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Judging from what they've registered in terms of websites and social media, KXOJ will stay where it is, and 94.1 will go with some derivative of AC. Also, given ABS has launched CCM on the stations it acquired from Stephens, it probably doesn't expect Stephens will do anything to compete with its new format like put KXOJ on a stronger signal.
 
NightAire said:
Apparently today (6/28) was the last "official" day for the offices on Skelly. Traffic director Terry Jenner (who did some on-air work back in the "Hot New Z104.5" days) will apparently stay on for about 30 days to close down the old offices.
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Terry "Matthews" Jenner and Randy Young had been there for over 20 years. AllAccess listed Randy's tenure as 24 years, but I remember it being at least 26. Sad to hear so many people appear to be out. Hopefully, they either get picked up by the new operation, which is possible though not likely, or another local company hires them.
 
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