Location: 1001 E.SE. Loop 323, Suite 455, Tyler, TX 75701
Phone: 903-593-2519
Cell: 214-914-2022
About Me
I loved the business from the time I listened to Gary Mason, the all night guy on KPUR in Amarillo, Texas as I threw my morning paper route.
I got my first paid job in radio at KIXL AM/FM in Dallas doing all nights playing easy listening music. I was still in school. I went from there to doing weekends at KLIF, Dallas, one of the original Top 40 stations in the country and, at the time, far and away the dominant station in the market.
While in college at SMU I worked at PAMS, Inc., in Dallas, the original jingle company.
I jumped to sales at WFAA in Dallas and eventually became General Sales Manager. Shortly after I joined WFAA, the station abandoned music for the then-new format of News & Talk.
I became a GM for the first time at KATT in Oklahoma City, at the time one of the biggest album rockers in the country.
With the experience and the money I made at KATT, I bought my first radio station in Tyler, Texas in 1991. I bought KTBB, now my flagship news-talker in 1994. I put the KTBB brand and programming on the FM band in 2015.
My Market
My company is one of two independently owned operators in the Tyler-Longview, Texas market, the other being Reynolds Radio that owns three FMs.
The two biggest operators in the market (based on number of signals) are Townsquare Media and Alpha Media.
Tyler-Longview sits 90 miles east of Dallas, Texas at the midpoint between Dallas and Shreveport, Louisiana just south of Interstate 20. It is a very healthy market with a diverse economy anchored by healthcare (two large hospital systems), education (three four-year universities and two junior colleges), manufacturing (Raytheon/Trane) and a very large oil & gas exploration and production industry.
My Stations
KTBB AM 600 went on the air in August 1947 under program test authority and was licensed on November 8. It programs news & talk with a mix of local and syndicated programming. We have a full-time local newsroom. The station bills itself as, "Your Only Local News Radio."
In May 2015, we purchased KWRW in Rusk, Texas and via a rule making, got the city of license switched from Rusk to Troup, which is contiguous to Tyler. KTBB 97.5 FM now simulcasts with KTBB(AM).
KRWR 92.1 FM is known on the air as "The TEAM Sports Radio." It is the East Texas home of the World Series Champion Texas Rangers Baseball Club (pigs occasionally CAN fly). It is also the local home for the University of Texas Longhorns and the Texas A&M Aggies. Friday nights in the fall are, of course, devoted to high school football.
The TEAM is also home to the longest-running program on radio in East Texas, SportsTalk with Bill Coates.