This week Tulsa lost yet another Christian radio station. Let's review this decade so far, shall we?
2001: a new Christian Rock station turns up in place of an underappreciated and undernoticed pop/rock station. Live 101.5 is on the air for about a year and a half, and then in July of 2002 suddenly Christians all over Tulsa wake to their clock radios unexpectedly playing foul-mouthed hip-hop songs. Thanks for that, Clear Channel. I'll bet those urban beat fans were surprised one day a couple of years later when suddenly they tuned in their station to hear people speaking Spanish! Ha ha, ha!
2003: the same people who run the local Christian pop station, KXOJ, introduce The Kross, a new Christian rock station. Signal isn't that good in certain parts of town, but it gains a lot of popularity... until April of 2007, when, citing lack of advertising revenue, the station is converted to a repeater station for the programming on the mother station. Oh well... at least it wasn't Coolio this time.
2006 - A new competitor in the Christian pop market turns up. Spirit 102.3 plays the same kind of stuff as KXOJ. My family likes Spirit 102.3 better than KXOJ, but sometimes we jump back and forth a little. I have a Spirit 102.3 sticker on my car. Last Monday, suddenly Spirit 102.3 turned into a repeater for a sister station, formerly AM-only talk radio KRMG. So Cox Radio can't see their way clear to keep a Christian station on the air either, huh?
So now we're back where we were at the turn of the millennium... KXOJ or nothing. Well, not quite... we have some Air 1 stations now. They're national stations, so it's not like having a local Christian rock presence, but at least it's something. And if you're really desperate, there's that Southern Gospel station with the preachers during the day. :)
R.I.P, Spirit 102.3 and The Kross and Live 101.5 . You were on our station presets when you were with us. We hope now you're in a better place!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
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1 comment:
Thanks for the heads up on the Air 1, I did not know about them and will give them a listen.
I will not listen to KXOJ. I know history of the station from working there. While I am sure that the current management does not know about what former management did, it still is built on sinking sand. Spirit 102 never let us believe it was run by Christians, something KXOJ did. I would rather listen to KNYD in BA then KXOJ.
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