Wilks Broadcasting names new GM for local stations

Jackie Johnson is the new general manager for Wilks Broadcasting's KHTO and KZRQ stations in Spring-field. Johnson sold her company, J. Taylor Johnson Advertising LLC, to Brown Marketing, Advertising & Pro-motion Group Inc. Dec. 31, 2001, to make the transition to Wilks Broadcast-ing.

Johnson's no stranger to the radio realm in the past, she's handled sales and sales management for other stations and she said the reason for her re-turn is quite simple.

"Quite honestly, they gave me the op-portunity to be the general manager of two radio stations, and that's my dream job," Johnson said. "They made me a good offer and I just had to take it."

Responsibilities

As general manager, Johnson is in charge of the entire operation, and not just the sales.

"It's my job to hire people who put the right staff together, to bring the advertisers in to the table and hit the budgets that are set by the company, to take care of anything pertaining to the stations, public image ... working with the program director and operations director to put out the best products that we can," she said.

Too, there's the notoriety of being one of the few female general managers in the area.

"To date that I know of, I'm the third (female) general manager of a radio station in Springfield, Missouri, ever," Johnson said. "Jane Meyer was the first, then Donna Baker and now, me."

The Brown Marketing, Advertising & Promotion Group is owned by Kirt Ed-wards Brown, and that firm has been in business since December 2001, Johnson said. She said selling her advertising firm to him was a natural fit.

"Kirt was getting ready to open his own agency, and a mutual business friend said hey, why don't you talk to him?'" Johnson said. "It was a fast way for him to get off and running with a good, established clientele, because he kept all but two of my clients."

The sale also meant that Johnson's clients would be taken care of, which was important to her.

In her new position, Johnson said, her primary goal is to develop the best product for each station's format KHTO 106.7 FM is Top 40 pop, and KZRQ 104.1 FM is active rock.

"These young people and these young format stations ... (are) exciting and energizing and fun," she said.

Wilks Broadcasting is the radio division of the Wicks Corporation, a communications company. The company is owned by Jeff Wilks, and it has stations in several different markets, including Saginaw, Mich., Des Moines, Iowa and New Orleans.