So, the weird little robot countdown on WKY has ended. And the result? More sports talk! Yipee! If you couldn’t get your fix from the Sports Animal, KREF or whatever the hell 1340 is called, we now have 930am “The Jock” to satisfy your sports cravings. Want to hear Pat Jones stutter? Turn to The Jock. Want to hear Billy Tubbs talk about Waymon Tisdale? Turn to The Jock. Want to hear commercials? Turn to the Sports Animal!
Seriously, the last thing the Oklahoma City radio market needs is another sports talk station. What we really need is something like “The Spy” to return. With XM or Yahoo Music I can listen to all the Indie music I want, but only with radio support and promotion will good bands come to Oklahoma City.
For example, just last night I went to The Stills concert at The Conservatory. The Stills are a pretty mainstream indie act, and have had videos featured on MTV, etc. There were literally 100 people there to watch them play. Why so few? Probably because most people who have heard of The Stills didn’t know that they were playing, or, people who would enjoy their sound haven’t heard of them because they are force fed Linkin Park, Hinder and Metallica all day along.
Anyway, with crowds of 100 showing up to see mainstream indie acts play, I can see why most of them bypass Oklahoma City for Dallas or even Tulsa. Until we get a decent station to play their music and promote their tours, they won’t be coming. But at least when they drive through town, they’ll have plenty of local sports talk to choose from. That’s something to be proud about…right?
UPDATE: Per today’s Oklahoman, the name of the new station is Jox 930.
I’m glad you wrote about this, because I’m so annoyed at the situation I would have come off as unhinged.
One of the first things I heard on the Billy Tubbs show this morning was him saying that “It was a surprise Adrian Peterson came back after his sophomore year.” Oy. Billy Tubbs is a fantastic storyteller, but he has no business being on the radio in any capacity other than that.
What is so mind-numbingly annoying about the situation is that they are just recycling the same hosts. And not just the same hosts that are on the air now — they’re the same ones that have been on the air for YEARS. Mike Steely and Dean Blevins? Really? We don’t get enough of them on the Sports Animal? I half-expect to hear that Tony Sellars will be joining the station soon.
Four sports stations now in this market. Wow.
Indie bands suck ass anyways.
Better to have another sports station than another music station that figures out a way to inundate us with Tony Romo’s girlfriend.
I don’t think the reason “mainstream indie acts” bypass okc is because of the radio market. It’s because there really are only 100 people who care to listen to them.
i totally agree. if only ou or ocu or whatever would get their act together and start a college indie station a la kcrw or the current (minnesota public radio). with gas prices being what they are, i just can’t afford many more trips to tulsa/dallas/denton to hear decent music. and indie bands do not suck ass. emo bands do.
OU does have 1710AM the Wire, but you have to be about a block from the station to get a signal.
I am listening to “The Jock” right now. Craig Humphreys is on, telling the same dull story he has told on every other program on WWLS. Good God, is there no escape from this witless buffoon?
Hey, nothing wrong with the wire, I had a show there for 2 years. All hip hop baby.
Ok, I made a comment last night that I knew you wouldn’t agree with. If you want to have a free and open exchange of ideas (a blog) you probably shouldn’t block comments that displease you. That band still sucks, and so does indie rock.
Big Boy: I have nothing against your comments, but our Spam Filter does. For some reason, it flags and marks all your comments as Spam. I would suggest registering as a user so that your comments won’t be flagged.
Also, enjoy Katt Fest!
Since exactly when does “a free and open exchange of ideas” = a blog, anyway? Did Slashdot become the first Continental Congress while I wasn’t looking?
This Big Boy character is lucky Clark and Patrick are more forgiving than I am, as I would have given him a lifetime ban for this outburst. Maybe even a 2 or 3 lifetime ban. I would at least have punished him by locking him in a room and making him listen to Hinder for 48 straight hours.
Also, I have accumulated plenty of evidence over the years that Big Boy listens to country music.
i’m exited about the new jox station. its about halfway between the sports animal and what i actually want to listen to as a sports fan.
now they need to:
1) get rid of craig and a few of their other hosts
2) hire a few more ex-coaches who actually know what they’re talking about
3) get rid of the fm version of the sports animal
4) and finally, reformat 97.9 to play 90’s alternative all the time
i would have a perfect sports radio station and 95x back on the air. at that point i would be a very happy man.
I love Toby Keith, what can I say.
People still own AM radios?
The Billy Tubbs Show: so Billy, who’s better, Oden or Durant? Billy: I can’t say. I haven’t seen film on either one. So Billy, how’s O.U. going to do in basketball next year? Billy: I don’t know. I haven’t gotten to watch them practice, but I hear they’re going to be very good. So Billy…well, you get the idea.
I want to thank Tony for bringing up my name. I’m just trying to figure out why he thinks having me back on the air talking about sports would be such a bad thing, since I am more knowlegeable and more entertaining than 99.9 per cent of the clowns that are on the proliferation of worthless “sports” stations that the unimaginative radio programmers have put on the air in this market.
You would probably be shocked to know that I agree with most of the rest of your ideas here. We don’t need another so-called sports station. Actually, we don’t really have one at all, but now there are five pretenders.
Secondly, I too, long for the days of the original KSPI in Stillwater.
I am a music junkie and you can’t hear anything new or original in the OKC market. Of course, that has been the case for about 20 years now, so why is anyone surprised.
I actually have a real job now, helping people, and I work with radio stations across the country. Practically every market is cookie-cutter: Soft Rock, Oldies, Classic Rock, Jack FM (which sucks) and Talk. Nobody ever programs a station with the idea of playing good music. It’s all about the commercials and the cumes.
Do yourself a favor, get satellite radio, read Paste magazine, download all the music you can and you will never, ever need local radio again.
For the record, I hope Tony Sellars checks back and reads this, because I don’t actually think that him returning to radio would be a bad thing. I was just trying to think of someone who was on the air locally here years ago, and Sellars was the first I thought of. As you’ll note if you poke around the site a bit, I like Mike Steely, too.
Anyway, Tony Sellars was on the air before I was of an age to think critically, so I have no opinion as to whether he was good on the radio or not. I do seem to remember rumors that he was behind the original departure of Jim Traber years ago, and that they did not like each other. So that is a positive, obviously.
I’m glad that story gives me some street cred.