New Station, Business Model Bring New Life to Veteran DJs

He can hardly keep from smiling, and for good reason. Having been to the brink and back, veteran disc jockey Jon Williams says he’s bigger, stronger and happier than ever.

Reunited with longtime friend and co-host Derek “Deek” Kastner, and as owner of “The Jon and Deek Show” on KXNA-FM 104.9, popularly known as “The X,” Williams is in full command of his Loyal and Royal Army Inc.

He’s cut out the middle man, rebuilt his advertising base and, in his words, is “blessed” by the resultant financial windfall.

Williams is the show’s general manager and salesman. Kastner, meanwhile, is head of production. In exchange for the studio and radio signal, Williams gives KXNA a percentage of his earnings.

A client list that includes Collier Drug Stores and Nestle, and an event schedule that includes Bike Night at Jose’s and all University of Arkansas home football games shows Williams is back at a familiar place — the top.

He hashed out his deal with KXNA in September 2011, and since that time has worked out of the station’s antiquated facility near the intersection of Sang Avenue and Wedington Drive. But that’s about to change. Before the end of the year, the station will move to what Williams calls the “corner of business and fun” — the third floor of the First State Bank building at the intersection of College Avenue and Dickson Street.

“It’s been an amazing deal,” he said of his gig at KXNA. “Had I known it would’ve been this satisfying, I would have done it 10 years ago.”

 

Disenchanted with Direction

If Williams is feeling the pleasure now, it’s also true he’s felt the pain.

Around this time two years ago, Williams was in the dumps, and he had lost command of the Loyal and Royal Army — his tag for the thousands of fans who tune into his show each morning. On his own for the first time, he had to scramble to maintain his career.

Recounting those days, Williams can only frown and shake his head. It all started around 2008, when Williams became increasingly weary of his employer, Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest radio conglomerate in the United States.

“I had grown disenchanted with the direction they were taking locally and nationally,” he said. “I began to realize that my interests, and the interests of the show, weren’t at heart.”

Even though he was chafing under Clear Channel’s micromanagement, his morning show on KIGL-FM 93.3 “The Eagle” was popular. Indeed, it was his stint at 93.3 that cemented his celebrity in Northwest Arkansas. For the sake of his career, he stayed put.

But in early 2010, Clear Channel fired co-host Kastner, and at that time, Williams said, he knew the writing was on the wall. A year later, he walked away from his 15-year relationship with Clear Channel.

“I was a cog in the wheel of the corporate machine, so I got out,” he said.

And that’s when he made the big mistake.

He immediately went to KAKS-FM 99.5, known as “Hog Sports Radio”, and started a new show with Kastner in February 2011. In a bid to bring in more revenue and create more exposure for “The Jon and Deek Show,” he contacted Ryan Hughes, then publisher of the now-defunct Vertical Arkansas magazine.

The business model had merit, Williams said, but it was never properly implemented. Williams said the goal was simple: cross-promote the radio show in print and the magazine over the radio. One would feed the other and advertisers would pay a mint for the benefit of multiplatform marketing.

That was the idea, at least. In reality, it never worked out.

 

Going Vertical

Dan Storrs, general manager at Hog Sports Radio, was excited that Williams was coming on board. At that time, KAKS was struggling, and the station could use the boost Jon and Deek were sure to bring.

“I thought it was the perfect opportunity to set ourselves apart from the other sports stations in the market,” Storrs said. “I’m getting the most popular show in town and all I’m doing is giving up some inventory [of advertising space].”

The excitement was short lived. Jon and Deek fans didn’t cotton to the switch from the familiar rock format on Clear Channel to the sports-talk format on Hog Sports. Perhaps more importantly, Williams and Kastner never saw eye-to-eye with their new partner, Hughes, Storrs said.

“From my perspective, Jon and Ryan [Hughes] couldn’t iron it out on the business side of it,” Storrs said. “Jon and Deek felt that they were owed money, but Vertical didn’t see it that way.”

The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal contacted Hughes by phone on July 25, and he agreed to an interview July 29.

Hughes, however, canceled and did not respond to a second request for an interview.

Not long into the partnership, Williams, frustrated with Hughes, came to Storrs and suggested they cut Hughes and Vertical out of the picture and move on, Storrs said. Storrs agreed, but Hughes had other ideas. He and his legal team held up the non-compete clauses Williams and Kastner had signed and threatened to sue if the radio personalities continued to broadcast with Hog Sports Radio, Storrs said.

“I just had to wash my hands of it,” Storrs said. “From an image standpoint, it hurt us.”

 

Tulsa Time

Williams wasn’t the only one left in the lurch.

Kastner, the father of three children, had to keep the money rolling in. Old contacts came through, and in July 2011 he was hired as head of a Tulsa morning show at KMYZ-FM 104.5 “The Edge.” On the surface, things seemed perfect. Working in a larger market and broadcasting from a modern studio in a skyscraper on Interstate 44, the future looked bright.

For a while, that was the case. But the corporate giant started looking over his shoulder, Kastner said, and suddenly, the petals had fallen off the rose. But one thing remained constant — Williams.

“We talked to each other every day through Facebook,” he said.

Once Williams was in position to make the offer, he did, and Kastner started at KXNA in March. The timing couldn’t have been better. Shortly after Kastner left, the Tulsa station was sold and all but two people at “The Edge” were fired, Kastner said.

Safe and sound back in Northwest Arkansas, he, like Williams, is about as happy as he’s ever been.

“Who wouldn’t want to work with your best friend doing what you want to do?” he said. “You hit rock bottom and you go to where the grass is greener and then you realize, ‘It’s good here.’”

 

Lesson Learned  

When Williams walked away from Clear Channel, he said he didn’t have a whole lot of business savvy. Sales reps sold the ads, accountants crunched the numbers and station managers handled the day-to-day operations. Williams came in for his show, entertained his listeners, did as he was told and collected a handsome paycheck.

All that changed when he left. At KAKS — where he was not a DJ but a sports talk personality — he could not hope to make as much. To supplement his income, he had to have a partner, so he made the fateful decision to approach Hughes and his upstart men’s magazine.

While there is certainly no love lost for Hughes, Williams says he appreciates what he learned from the failed partnership between he and Vertical.

“I made a big mistake for who I left Clear Channel for,” he said, referring to Hughes. “But had I not made those mistakes, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

From February to July 2011, when he was tied to Hughes, Williams says he wasn’t getting paid. To get out from under Hughes’ thumb, Williams and Kastner had to agree to take only a fraction of what they said Hughes owed them — just $4,500 of the $45,000 total — in exchange for Hughes voiding the non-compete clause. Williams emerged from the ordeal a bit “thin” in the pocket book, but prepared for his arrival at KXNA.

“It was a crash course in business, and it will serve me for the rest of my career,” he said.