October 1990 - October 1991

KDXY-FM 104.9 was the epitome of what a small town radio station should be. Even though it was only a 3,000-watt station in a town of about 20,000 people, it was in most ways run as professionally as any radio operation I've worked for since. While the call letters spelled out K-Dixie, the station hadn't been known as that in years. Through many ownership changes over the years it had evolved into an adult contemporary station then known as K-105.

The studios and transmitter were located on a picturesque hilltop, alongside Highway 49 outside of Paragould. I liked the building, which had housed the station since hitting the air as KHIG in October 1971. The large control room was in the center of the building, with windows looking into surrounding rooms and one toward the highway. K-105 had surprisingly professional equipment and, when I started, had live DJs 24 hours a day. It was also very active in the community, manning booths or finding other ways to be involved in every festival or event in Paragould. I was also impressed with how carefully researched and programmed the music was, with this being the first station to give me a computer generated log listing what songs to play. KDXY used a TM Century music library on CDs.

Morning show host Trey Stafford was co-owner and had an outgoing personality that seemed to extend from the radio station into the town. I think that was a key part of the station's success. He also treated the staff with a great deal of respect, which is evident in this formal letter he sent me, asking that I work while the company Christmas party was being held.

I was hired in October 1990, two months after starting college in nearby Jonesboro at Arkansas State University. Initially I did the Saturday morning overnight shift, but quickly worked my way into doing weekend evenings. Sunday evenings were especially enjoyable because K-105 did what they called Super Gold Sunday every weekend, playing nothing but oldies. This was nice because the music was a little more fun than the strict AC format, which was heavy on people like Lionel Richie, Celine Dion and Barry Manalow.

By the summer of 1991 I was offered the full-time evening position, which also included doing a little bit more commercial production. My promotion was part of a big change up at the station, which GM Trey Stafford wrote about in a staff memo.

K-105 was the first station I worked at that made regular airchecks of my show, with Program Director Ron Roe going over the tapes and writing suggestions. The management worked hard to make sure the staff presented a consistent image to listeners.

To the right are three aircheck critiques by Ron, which you can download as PDF files if you're interested in reading. He would fill out a standard form that KDXY used to evaluate its DJs. Ron would randomly record an hour of my air shift from home once every few months. If you read the first critique, you'll notice that he caught me not completely following the music log, skipping a song that I couldn't stand, a duet between Anne Murray and Dave Loggins. Oops. Ron wrote that I sounded "good, warm, friendly and happy," but noted that I needed to work on sounding more natural, saying I still had some "Johnny Jock" inside me. It's something I have always had to work on. I found it difficult, especially when I was a DJ.

I enjoyed the position, but unfortunately it didn't last. About that time the FCC had approved a power upgrade for the station, which would allow it to become part of the nearby Jonesboro radio market and greatly expand its listener and advertising potential. Because of the expense of making the upgrade, which necessitated building a new broadcast tower, the station decided to use satellite automation from 8 PM to 5 AM to save money. That meant my six-hour shift was suddenly cut back to a two-hour shift, after which I would have to record an automation reel with all the local breaks that would run during the night. They also completely canned overnight jock Cal Nilsson.

I quickly grew to hate recording the nightly automation reel because I would spend about two hours hearing every one of the commercials over and over and putting in my own local weather forecasts. I also went from being full-time back to part-time, which I resented. I started looking around for other work and got a quick response from a powerful CHR station in Jonesboro called Power 102. I expressed much of my frustrations in my resignation letter to the station.

I felt bad leaving K-105 because the staff really was in many ways like a family and had, for the most part, been very good to me. One of the last things I did for the station was participate in events marking its 20th anniversary. The station took out a full page ad in the Paragould Daily Press, that included then and now photos. I felt kind of funny doing all these public appearances and talking so lovingly about the station after having already put in my two weeks notice.

Eventually KDXY made its upgrade and became more of a regional station. It's now known as The Fox, 104.9, has changed its format to country and is typically number one in the ratings. The last time I checked its web site, Trey Stafford was still doing the morning show. Also, they hired Christie Mathews, who I had worked with at Power 102. I'm glad to see the station is doing well and that several people I worked with are still there.