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artmorris
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Posted: Fri Oct 26th, 2007 02:31 am |
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and are what make life worth living!
Art
Last edited on Fri Oct 26th, 2007 02:32 am by artmorris
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XGM
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Posted: Fri Oct 26th, 2007 12:28 pm |
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| Ref: GEB selling to Journal...see my thoughts in the NEWS section of this board.
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Turner the burner
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Posted: Sat Oct 27th, 2007 01:12 pm |
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| Ok Art, we are still waiting to hear what your and Mr. McDonald's thoughts are on the "what if" with the GEB and KTTS sale/nonsale.
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rabbit
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Posted: Sat Nov 3rd, 2007 03:48 pm |
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Where would KTTS be today had it not sold ? Good question. I ask myself that quiet often. I personally feel it would be even stronger now than it was. Of course there would have been some changes here and there, as XGM mentioned, some tweeking. KTTS was the market leader for years. Obviously it had a long track record of strength. Because of the programing, listener loyalty,promotions, news and a hundred other great reasons it would be stronger than ever. Oh yes! Let's not forget about personalities. Before the sale KTTS had at least five or six air people with over twenty- years service AT KT. ( Literlly a hundred years of combined interacting with the listeners. You get to know your listeners and they get to know you pretty well over that period. You establish a mutual trust. You belong to their family. That kind of relationship is strong. It's a known fact that country music listeners,on the whole, are some of the most loyal listeners of all.
In todays "fast food radio" It only makes sense that a local radio station, as just described, would continue to grow, even though there are more stations in the market now. I believe that, Great Empire was such a great company to work for, most of the KTTS staff would would be there today. Nearly a decade more of "getting to know our loyal listeners better. Thak God...and GEB, those 20 year veterans now have a nice retirement, made better by the sale.
Where would KT be today? As a proud former ranch hand my feelings are that a lot of former ranch hands would agree with me that all in all and everything considered KTTS WOULD BE STRONGER THAN EVER. And the past 8 years would have been a whole lot more fun.
Rabbit
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rabbit
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Posted: Sat Nov 3rd, 2007 03:48 pm |
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Where would KTTS be today had it not sold ? Good question. I ask myself that quiet often. I personally feel it would be even stronger now than it was. Of course there would have been some changes here and there, as XGM mentioned, some tweeking. KTTS was the market leader for years. Obviously it had a long track record of strength. Because of the programing, listener loyalty,promotions, news and a hundred other great reasons it would be stronger than ever. Oh yes! Let's not forget about personalities. Before the sale KTTS had at least five or six air people with over twenty- years service AT KT. ( Literlly a hundred years of combined interacting with the listeners. You get to know your listeners and they get to know you pretty well over that period. You establish a mutual trust. You belong to their family. That kind of relationship is strong. It's a known fact that country music listeners,on the whole, are some of the most loyal listeners of all.
In todays "fast food radio" It only makes sense that a local radio station, as just described, would continue to grow, even though there are more stations in the market now. I believe that, Great Empire was such a great company to work for, most of the KTTS staff would would be there today. Nearly a decade more of "getting to know our loyal listeners better. Thak God...and GEB, those 20 year veterans now have a nice retirement, made better by the sale.
Where would KT be today? As a proud former ranch hand my feelings are that a lot of former ranch hands would agree with me that all in all and everything considered KTTS WOULD BE STRONGER THAN EVER. And the past 8 years would have been a whole lot more fun.
Rabbit
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XGM
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Posted: Sat Nov 3rd, 2007 09:05 pm |
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Dave...what can I say but      ...I agree with you my friend.
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Turner the burner
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Posted: Sun Nov 11th, 2007 10:04 pm |
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artmorris wrote: I had lunch with Warren McDonald today in Joplin. We were theorizing what KTTS would be like today, if Great Empire had never sold it.
Before I tell you our thoughts, what do you think?
Art
Okay Art, we've been waiting now for several days...what are your thoughts on the subject?
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artmorris
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Posted: Wed Nov 14th, 2007 01:30 pm |
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Oh, sorry. I thought I had done this already. Senior moment, I guess.
In our discussion, Warren thought that KTTS would have changed... slowly. However, we both agreed that they would have been very slow to adopt voice tracking, and the news would be a bigger part of the air presentation.
But, in our informal discussion, we both agreed that change was inevitable. But, GEB would have addressed it much more slowly than Journal did. Journal came blasting out of the gate, making wholesale changes. GEB would have kept familiar voices, slowly adapting to the new realities of the market.
I wonder if GEB would have taken 1260 to News/Talk. Perhaps not. And, even if they did, it would be quite different than KSGF.
Summary: Change, but more slowly, and with a greater emphasis on the needs of the listener.
Art
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XGM
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Posted: Sat Nov 17th, 2007 10:30 pm |
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| Art, you are right, we would have changed slowly, depending on how the ratings were reflecting our audience both in total and in certain demos. As to change to all talk on 1260...quite possibly, but not the extreme right wing bit it is now. After all, we had the first talk show in Springfield History...Cracker Barrel beginning in 1972. In those early years C Barrel frequently had a 50 plus share on Sunday mornings. We got $75. for a 30 on the show back in the late 80s.
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MurrowNYC
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Posted: Wed Nov 28th, 2007 03:59 am |
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Interesting discussion.
The transition from GEB to JBG was awkward for the following reasons:
1. For many veteran GEB employees, the culture shock was just too great to overcome. Mike Oatman's management style was to make pronouncements and then expect employees to carry them out. It was very top-down. They were viewed as loyal employees if they did. ("That's a good employee," Oatman once said to a Journal exec. "He'll follow your orders and do whatever you want without making a fuss.") The stated JBG management style at the time -- and remember, this was BEFORE Journal went public, which, despite prior assurances to the contrary, greatly changed the company's culture -- was to share a vision and then empower employees to carry it out with little interference. Suddenly not having a strong top-down leader left a lot of GEB folks lost and unsure of what to do.
2. Some senior JBG executives were arrogant and declined to take advantage of offers to help the two companies' cultures meld, which were made by people with close ties to both. (A few years later one of those senior JBG executives acknowledged regret about not having taken advantage of the opportunities.)
3. A certain JBG VP of radio programming, who shall remain nameless. He was the most arrogant of all. Instead of trying to understand how GEB's uniqueness created its success, he mocked and ridiculed it. Instead of following JGB's most prized corporate philosophy -- acting ethically while respecting individuals -- he regularly berated and embarrassed GEB employees trying desperately to fit in. Instead of respecting the power and heritage of call letters such as WOW-AM in Omaha, KFDI-AM in Wichita, KVOO-AM in Tulsa and KTTS-AM in Springfield, he unceremoniously changed them all and flipped their formats. Journal didn't catch on and cut him loose until way too late.
It wasn't all JBG's fault, however. Chew on that a while and I'll have more later...
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morrisjames
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Posted: Wed Nov 28th, 2007 10:19 pm |
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You are correct in your assessment, Murrow. I was one who wanted to be part of the new direction, but the change in course to a public company, and managment at the local level, was making us call Milwaukee to settle every little thing. I don't know how many times I heard, "Call Dan Shelley" or "run that by Carl," etc. I encountered more of callling Milwaukee than I ever did having to call Mike Oatmen.
With GEB. you knew the boundaries but there were many times Shelley, Gann and I would go outside the box and not penalized.
I think there could have been better ways to meld the two philosophies and for Journal to understand the rich culture of GEB. Journal started out doing that. They had a gal who was brought over from the newspaper side to orchestrate that but she was let go in the Public switch-aroo of Journal.
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DB
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Posted: Wed Nov 28th, 2007 11:01 pm |
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| Welcome back Morris
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