Tulsa 1170 to go back to Classic Country?

[midwestradio]

Local word has it that 1170 will dump talk and return to Classic Country.

Makes sense.  Conservative talk is going down.  Michael D. is a non-starter.

[GaryTheThompson]

What is your source?

Is it credible? I'm not in the market. So I'm not privy to the day-to-day rumblings.

[OKCRadioGuy]

Although I'd love to see it, wouldn't that be counter-productive since they have classic country (I'm in OKC.. It's still Classic Country isn't it?!) on FM within the group?  What they SHOULD have done is put the talk product on FM and continued the heritage on 1170.  The station wasn't broken, just not making as much as Journal thought it should due to their demo.  There's people in Tulsa that had their dials RUSTED in place for decades on 1170 listening to country.  The 99.5 FM signal in MONO would have been a good weapon against 740 for office workers, etc. wanting to hear talk.  Talk on FM is the way of the future.  Too bad Journal was too short-sighted to see that.

[In_Tulsa]

99.5 is doing to good in the Tulsa market to move it to am. That would just be dumb.

[OKCRadioGuy]

It would be even dumber to do it now.  They've already messed with the format ONCE. Doing again would just be idiotic.  I don't see it.  They'll continue down the right-wing hate radio path for quite a bit longer.   For some reason owners think that's the only answer for AM radio powerhouses these days anyway.  Take a feed and put some assclown in the morning ranting and raving about precious little.  Welcome to today's AM radio.

[tulsarick]

It would have made much more sense to have the talk on FM instead of wasting all that hot air on a 50,000 watt clear channel station trying to be a KRMG clone. Any truth to the rumor KFAQ is changing their slogan from "standing up for what`s right" to "bending over for Delgorno"?

[Radio55]

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....
   

[KJCB]

When you look how they've had most of their good shows poached, I'd say the 12+ number isn't bad.  Outside of Beck and Ingraham, there's nobody pulling any numbers nationally.  OK, O'Reilly, but he's boring and gets mediocre #s.

[BehindTheLines]

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...
   

So, what's the story on DelGiorno's bad blood with the people at 740? He used to be 'the man' when he did afternoons on KRMG. I remember listening to his show and thinking "Wow. This guy is great."

He had good numbers, he was a good fit for the station on air for the longest time. In my opinion, he was a dynamite talent overall when he was on 740.

I can't listen to the guy now for obvious reasons. I feel dirty and my intelligence is insulted every time I listen. But that's another story.

What transpired to cause him to leave? Was he fired? Did he quit? Anyone have the history? What's the full story?

[stan]

Music of any kind on AM is not likely - you can't compete with the audio quality people expect for music.  Certainly could broadcast all over the country with 1170's signal, but doubtful that people would enjoy listening to the sound quality.