By Joe Hyde
Publisher
March 29, 2008

What would you do if you were offered the challenge to revive two radio stations in a small market like San Angelo? Here is the situation report:

The number of individual radio station signals reaching the San Angelo market exceed 20 in number on the FM dial. There are about half as many AM stations. That is formidable competition in itself. Added to this are other media that compete with what was once traditional radio listening habits—iPods, satellite radio, and cellular phones. And then there are the naysayers in West Texas who are reluctant to grasp or embrace outsiders and their wild-brained ideas.

Given any challenge, no matter how steep, and you are bound to find someone foolish enough to accept it. At least that is what Terry Hucks says about himself.

The former Regency Broadcasting Corporation, owned by Texas Radio Hall of Famer Jack Auldridge and his wife Beth, was sold to Four R Broadcasting, Inc. in early 2007 for $1.5 million. Hucks came on board shortly after that as the general manager.

Hucks isn’t a greenhorn in the radio station business. Nor did he build his entire career in radio. His most recent experience was as director of sales for a cluster of four FM and two AM radio stations in Lubbock under the Clear Channel corporate umbrella. But before that, Hucks built and managed successful sales teams at a dental supply company, in the telecommunications industry, and in the medical publishing business. Even still, Hucks caught the radio bug early in his life, as an undergrad student at Texas Tech. “My very first sales job was for KLBK-FM in Lubbock. It paid my way through college,” he says. He started his business career after a short stint in the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating from Tech. He wasn’t far from radio in the Marines, either. His assigned specialty was electronic warfare, intercepting and decoding enemy radio signals.

It is probably the Marine Corps in him that causes him stand up to the San Angelo challenge. What is the game plan?

“You still have your corporate people who are driven a little more differently than those in your smaller radio markets like San Angelo’s. But in your smaller markets you have more opportunity to provide more local content. We’re seeing a national trend now to get off the satellite feeds, bring back the local jocks and get more localized,” says Hucks.

KMDX, the smaller station at 106.1 FM, was Hucks’ first project. He says the station was basically operating on autopilot, on a 24-hour satellite feed, without much regard to the local market. The niche he wanted to exploit with KDMX was the at-work listening audience. “The challenge there is to make sure your play list is mellow enough, not too radical, to even slightly offend the listener,” he says. Particularly, he felt that rap music was too boisterous for the at-work audience. They built a rather large play list of songs and took the station off the satellite feed, and re-imaged the station to be the “at work listening station.”

Hucks kept Kidd Kraddick in the Morning, the popular, nationally syndicated morning drive show that is broadcasted out of Dallas. “You can’t beat Kidd Kraddick for morning drive time,” Hucks says. He believes Kraddick is very popular in San Angelo, particularly with the working females, and that maybe Dallas isn’t too far away to match his localization strategy. By November 2007, KMDX was completely weaned from 24-hour satellite.

Working with Hucks is his operations manager Aaron Harris. Harris is smart and hard working. He helped launch this magazine while finishing his degree at Angelo State University in 2006, writing and editing the first two issues. He also has five years of Lubbock radio experience. Harris views the audience building as a disciplined methodological process of small tweaks and measuring them against benchmarks. He also thinks local radio needs to be more promotionally driven.

“You have to get out into the local community,” he says. KMDX’s two main promotional activities are “Ladies Night Out” held in the fall and the annual bass tournament on Lake Ivey in the summer. “If you are going local with your station, you better be out there in the community and community events are the way to do it,” he says.

On the bigger stick, KDCD 92.9 FM, Hucks is going beyond applying just small tweaks, he is reinventing the station. KDCD formerly played contemporary country music, but that changed in February when the format was changed to what industry insiders call “real country.”

There is an ongoing argument inside the country music industry about authenticity. In the late 1980s, Country Music Television brought a change to traditional country that many view with disdain. The newer artists like Shania Twain and Garth Brooks moved away from storytelling, and became more pop-focused. Lost were the crooning stories of Johnny Cash and George Jones. When you move away from country music’s roots, critics charge, you become less authentic, or outright forgeries.

Possibly in response to contemporary country’s loss of authenticity, the late Buck Owens founded the original “real country” format, and it is still syndicated worldwide by ABC Radio Networks. The “real country” format tends to attract a more male audience, ages 18 to 54-years-old. Hucks is supercharging the real country format by adding Texas country to the mix. “We’re going after the Texas country music movement in a big way, and we’re also saving airtime for local artists, too,” Hucks says.

Branded “Lonestar True Country,” KDCD is now playing an extensive playlist of traditional country for San Angelo. More contemporary Texas country playlists are being added as well. It is a mix of Johnny Cash, George Jones, and Willie Nelson mixed with regional Red Dirt and Texas Country artists like Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland, Randy Rogers, and Johnny Cooper. In Fort Worth, The Ranch 95.9 describes the format as containing “Texans, outlaws and legends.”

Hucks is also introducing special local programming in conjunction with San Angelo LIVE! called “Texas Country LIVE!” in April. The locally produced radio show will air every Saturday evening from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. highlighting an artist on the Texas Country Music scene. The first show will debut April 19 with Kevin Fowler as the special guest. The first hour will feature one rising Texas country recording artist with an interview and their songs. The rest of the show will highlight the top artists and new releases to the scene. Hucks’ objective is to allow San Angelo radio to have more of an impact on the emerging regional music scene.

Realizing financial success from the format changes isn’t going to come quickly. Arbitron ratings, the yardstick media planners use when selecting advertising buys, is a lagging indicator. “It usually takes two books to fully comprehend any improvements in what we’re doing,” Hucks says. “Two books” refers to two rating periods, spring and fall. That means it will not be until early next year before any audience jump on either station is chronicled in the official ratings.

“I know we’re up against the Goliaths in town, but we’re genuine. We’re competing against people we respect [in the local radio market], but what I want to do is raise the bar in San Angelo,” Hucks says. “We want to make local radio worth listening to.”