Tulsa Media: September 2021 Archives

Local (almost), live conservative talk radio has returned to the Tulsa airwaves, on the frequency that was the first full-time talk radio station in Tulsa over 40 years ago. AM 1300 KAKC, owned by iHeartMedia, has rebranded itself as 1300 The Patriot, as of September 15, 2021.

The station's line-up features live national talkers for most of the day. Glenn Beck is on live from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. after a long absence from Tulsa. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, the Excellence in Broadcasting (EIB) Network's choice to fill Rush Limbaugh's shoes, are live from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, is on from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Two competing afternoon drive shows are offered on delay: Jesse Kelly from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., followed by two hours of the Joe Pags Show from 10 p.m. to midnight. The eerie Coast to Coast AM with George Noory is on from midnight to 4 a.m., followed by This Morning: America's First News with Gordon Deal, an hour-long show repeated four times, from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. (Looks like a couple of those repeats could easily make room for a local morning show.)

From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Lee Matthews, program director at KTOK 1000 in Oklahoma City, hosts "The Drive," a call-in show that is simulcast on KTOK. (Matthews also does a two-hour 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. morning drive slot on KTOK.) I called into Lee's show Thursday evening to call attention to my post on Tulsa City Council redistricting and was surprised to get right on the air. Lee was very gracious, and I hope to talk to him again soon.

News breaks feature the familiar voice of Brian Gann, former program director and news director at KVOO/KFAQ. Gann moved to iHeartMedia in 2014 and is now South Central Region News Director, covering Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

RadioInsight reported on September 15:

KAKC was one of two "Buzz" branded Sports station in the iHeartMedia Tulsa cluster running CBS Sports Radio programming around the clock, while 1430 KTBZ carried Fox Sports Radio programming. With Fox moving to Griffin's new "The Blitz 1170" KTSB, KTBZ is now simulcasting local programming from iHeart's recently launched "94.7 The Ref" KREF-FM Oklahoma City from 6am to 6pm and CBS Sports Radio at night.

It was a smart move by iHeartMedia, a response to Griffin Communications' decision to convert 1170 KFAQ from news/talk to sports talk, now rebranded as KTSB, The Blitz 1170, a result set into motion by KFAQ morning host Pat Campbell's medical challenges last year.

On January 12, 2020, Campbell had a car accident caused by a seizure that had been triggered by brain tumors. Although he returned to the air on January 22, he went on to endure radiation and chemotherapy and had additional seizures and additional absences. A seizure in October 2020 required him to be intubated, which left him "sounding like Carol Channing," requiring vocal therapy before he could return, which he did on Election Day, November 3, 2020.

But Pat's show on December 4, 2020, turned out to be his last. Casey Bartholomew, until recently a full-time radio freelancer -- in August, Casey was named program director for two Cumulus stations in Columbia, Missouri -- became Pat's permanent fill-in, broadcasting from his home studio in another state; KFAQ program director Jeremie Poplin had already taken over the 10:00 a.m. to noon slot. We heard that Pat's return was going to happen after the new year, then in late January, and then no planned date at all.

In early May 2021, Griffin Communications announced that Pat would not be returning and that there would be a nationwide search for his replacement. Pat continues to be active on Facebook and Twitter, reporting continued improvement, but he has not yet resumed his broadcasting career.

In late July 2021, Griffin announced that they were scrapping news/talk for sports talk for mid-August; the launch date was later delayed until September 6.

Poplin had been a sports talk host at KTBZ The Buzz, spending 18 years at the station before being caught in a massive iHeartMedia layoff in January 2020; he landed at Griffin Communications as the new KFAQ program director a few weeks later, replacing Shelby Travis. Poplin never seemed comfortable dealing with controversial political controversy, and it's understandable that he would steer the station back in a familiar direction. For Griffin, however, it seems like a strange move, given declining viewership for sports in recent years.

According to FCC records, the station debuted at 1310 kilocycles on January 9, 1939, as KOME, licensed to Harry Schwartz and Oil Capital Sales Corporation, with a transmitter at 3904 S. Newport Ave. in Brookside and studios in the American Airlines Building at 910 S. Boston downtown. The station moved to 1340 with the 1941 NARBA frequency reallocation, then in 1947 to 1300 with a higher powered transmitter (5 kw daytime, 1 kw nighttime) at 86th and Harvard. The call letters stood for Oklahoma's Magic Empire.

For many years, KOME's studios were on the second floor of 724 S. Main St., in the building that was home for many years to Harrington's. It was there in 1957 that KOME disk jockey Rocky Curtiss (later known as Rocky Frisco) began his 600-mile ride on a three-speed bike to see Elvis at boot camp in Fort Hood, Texas, a publicity stunt to try to supplant rock-and-roll radio rival KAKC, then at AM 970. In 2009, Jim Hartz, retired host of NBC's Today Show and PBS programming, and Mike Ransom, webmaster of Tulsa TV Memories, did some urban exploration and took photos in the old studios, where Hartz had begun his broadcasting career in 1958. The studios had been abandoned for 40 years at that point. The building has since been renovated as loft apartments.

In 1973, the station (along with KMOD) was purchased by San Antonio Broadcasting (which became Clear Channel in 1979 and is now iHeartMedia) and renamed from KCNW to KXXO. In the late 1970s, KXXO became the first full-time news/talk radio station in Tulsa, featuring network programming from CBS Radio (CBS Evening News with Douglas Edwards, CBS Mystery Theater) and the Mutual Broadcasting System (Larry King Show) and local programming including Hal O'Halloran's Sports Night, play-by-play for local teams, daytime news and talk hosts like Kitty Roberts and Glenda Silvey, and commentary from local activist Vince Sposato. KXXO and KMOD shared studios in the City Bank building at 5350 East 31st Street.

The news/talk experiment didn't last long. KXXO changed call letters and format in October 1980, becoming KMOD-AM, then KBBJ (big band & jazz) in April 1982, and ultimately KAKC in January 1987, picking up the call letters that once graced AM 970 as a pioneering rock-and-roll station. 1300 has had a variety of formats since that time, including oldies, a mixture of sports and news/talk (featuring syndicated shows like G. Gordon Liddy in the 1990s and a local morning drive show with "Commander" Ken Rank), Spanish language ("La Bonita"), and sports talk.

It's great to have talk radio back on AM 1300, and I hope that the station soon finds room in its schedule for truly local Tulsa talk.