Pat Fant

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

As architect and captain of some of the most influential major market radio stations of our time, Pat Fant has become recognized as an influential figure in the business of high-profile radio. For over three decades, Fant has designed and built the enduring powerhouse brands that have dominated the major media markets of Dallas and Houston. He’s a 2011 inductee into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame and his station KLOL was Billboard’s Rock Station of the Year, while American Women in Radio & Television named him GM of the Year. Fant is a Beaty Award winner for Broadcasting, and holds both the New York Festival Award and Pro Max Award for broadcast marketing. His collegiate studies took him to the University of Houston and Rice University’s management program.

How would you describe your first radio gig?

My first three radio gigs were in the bag by age 21. Doing that in a top ten market was probably lost on me at the time. In high school I got to do a live phoner with James Brown while at Top 40 KILE/ Galveston– a moment I was sure I would never top, and maybe haven’t. Regardless, I got a good snoot full of what it took to be on the radio for 2 hours every night, particularly as a teenager. I must have liked the idea well enough because I found myself looking for what else I could get away with on the air. They let me run with it. Shocking. Houston-Galveston radio was packed with real radio legends at the time. Bill Young ruled KILT and I was across town at KNUZ with Joe Ford and company. I was so privileged to be given the opportunity to work alongside some very heavy cats. Then one day I got the call to come build KLOL from scratch. I never looked back.

What led you to a career in radio?

Politics drove me to radio. When I was chosen at 16 to represent Galveston County at Texas’ Boy’s State (week-long, highly competitive mock government exercise held yearly on UT campus) one of the organizers mentioned returning to your hometown and approaching local radio to give up an hour on weekends for the big local high school. So I did, and 50+ years later here I am. Today they would tell you to go start a podcast. Whoopee.

You signed on legendary Rock station KLOL/Houston in 1970. What was it like to run a free-form Rock station at such a young age in one of America’s biggest cities?

Well, I wasn’t that young, 21 seemed about right at the time since the whole point was to give voice to the music of a counterculture that was just being born. Translation: we thought we had all the answers and no one could tell us any different. The music was changing (Summer of Love) and it was changing the nation with it. So I followed the music in starting KLOL, and hired an air staff who had the taste and sensitivity to pull off a fresh presentation with fearless confidence and a flair for the moment. They could talk more than 8 seconds about new records, allowing KLOL the freedom to charm and invigorate the music vibe of the Texas Gulf Coast. We weren’t trying to be different, it was built in. I had 13th Floor Elevators, Billy Francis Gibbons and Lightning Hopkins all in the audience and on the air. Captain Beefheart, Ravi Shankar, Alice Coltrane, George Harrison would drop by - and they got to pick the records. Try that today and be ready to defend it in the meeting you’re going to have tomorrow. But sales was the validation we really wanted. Even hippies knew that the whole thing ran on money. It’s what set KLOL apart from so many others and put us on the right path. Clarity. Money is how we kept score and sales made it run. This was no eleemosynary organization.

You’d left the station in 1973 and returned 10 years later as GM. What are some of the highlights of that part of your career?

We all went crazy for video in 1973 when we produced what we believe to be the first weekly, 1 hour, live TV/Radio simulcast with Houston’s Channel 26. Mother’s Midnight Media Mix featured the likes of Dr. John the Night Tripper (thank you, Louisiana). That’s when a couple of us peeled off and went into film. For the next 10 years I wrote, produced and directed, and traveled constantly to shoot corporate films for clients like Coca Cola, Allied Corporation, Sperry-Univac and even a 90-minute feature for Aramco (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.) TV production is still my thing honestly and led me to produce and direct KLOL’s TV spots and marketing movies throughout the 80s and 90s. I continued doing that when I started The BUZZ and when I ran Q102/Dallas and then KRBE later on. I’ve probably done as much TV as radio. I really like directing – I want to do more of it.

Not only did KLOL win numerous industry awards, but you won where it really counts—with the listeners. How did you acquire so much loyalty with the audience, and was it even harder work to keep it?

Well we didn’t win because of a bunch of dumb music tests – I can tell you that. KLOL was not science, it was art. So I brought in the right artists and let them paint. KLOL knew how to make noise, and lots of it. We acted out, and when we did something bold to piss off the right people, we just celebrated the other million or so who loved us that much more. Houston was in a big growth spurt then and people were coming from everywhere to make their fortune. Traffic jams were everywhere and when you were in the car we had you cornered. “You’re mine for the next hour,” we thought. Fearless, non-apologetic really does work, but apparently not today. That’s a bigger issue we can talk about later - when HR rules your life and your business you have already lost the fight. KLOL knew how to get people worked up and then come back to raise money for children and animals - and bikers – and doctors who wished they were bikers. We gave away 5 Corvettes in 5 weeks – twice – and had car dealers to pay for it (thank you Muriel and Doug.) KLOL was owned by one of Texas’ most influential and significant media families – the class act of all time really. It was a privilege to work for them and be able to report great earnings. Best radio job ever.

Houston is now radio market # 6, not far behind Dallas. Did you see that kind of growth coming and how does radio sound in town to your ears today?

I have to take exception to any sentence with the words “behind Dallas.” I put a KLOL billboard in Dallas for a summer that read, “Not Available in This Market” – I’m such a trouble maker. But the biggest takeaway for me now hearing Houston music radio is the near complete absence of any bigger-than-life characters. There’s no Moby, or Outlaw Dave or Donna McKenzie. I’m sure the kids on now have all passed their background check and are probably woke and take the bus to work (if they ever go to work). But honestly they sound like grapefruit and oatmeal eaters that call it in from the couch. No thank you - that’s what Spotify is for. Grego on 95.7FM The Spot is the exception. Best jock in town by far (used to do Outlaw Radio for me at KLOL). Honestly, it feels like the enthusiasm in radio today is all on the talk side. The TALKERS convention this year feels like NAB used to feel. So whatever it takes to get the magic back would be good right about now. Where and how does new talent cook and brew their craft with years of being live, in a control room with the red light on? You have to build up to it - starting the process early in Galveston or Beaumont or Corpus Christi. After your record run out a few times you learn what it’s all about. I want radio to be important again. If you’re not working that angle already you’re going out of business slowly.

Was there one determining thing or situation that made you start up SuiteRadio?

We started the company doing a new rock discovery station online for NASA. Our Third Rock Radio – America’s Space Station is now 10 years into the mission of “Exploring and discovering New Rock.” Steve Robison (was with me at The BUZZ) programs the most creative and tasteful alternative station on or off the planet. No exceptions. Along with Donna McKenzie and Pam Kelly on air we reach millions of loyal listeners worldwide on behalf of spreading the word, day-to-day, about the remarkable mission of NASA. After that, we decided to go ahead and get back into broadcast with syndication done right. The “rent-a-radio” products we heard out there were clearly just a means for operators to fill up the silence, and not much more. We now have 8 SuiteRadio formats and two high-functioning, stand-alone daypart shows with top national talent. SuiteRadio was started to offer something AUTHENTIC to stations who miss the chance to be the talk of the town. We did it because we have the right talent, infrastructure, technical ability and music sense to compete in any size market.

Are you looking to add more formats to your repertoire down the road?

With 8 formats we probably have enough of the major slices covered. Of course if it were up to me, I would want to spin up something drastic like “Bad Radio – listen now before it gets worse!” Who wouldn’t tune in to that if you saw that billboard? But nobody listens to me. But that’s the magic - give listeners a reason to be curious about what’s on the radio - then watch what happens.

Are there program directors for all of the specific channels?

My partner Cruze has format captains for everything – but he is the master of structure and clocks and categories and balance that makes an ordinary station sound good every quarter hour. So his fingerprints are all over it. I never realized he knew about Country too – but there it is. Between Cruze and Rowdy Yates our Country formats are eye-popping in their music flow and progression. Remember, if you know how, you can make a record sound better depending on what you play before it and after it. Science or art?

You’ve got some amazing air talent on your roster. Has it been exciting to build your air staffs?

My partner Cruze along with Chief Talent Wrangler Rowdy Yates are unbeatable at standing up a full staff of real radio heat!. We could not be prouder of this SuiteRadio on air team. Every one of them sounds like a million bucks (in large bills) and would shine in any size market. We’re in this for the long term and only hope that the brand-x syndication providers (un-named here) with whom we compete for affiliates will rethink their undervaluing of the product by signing up affiliates for free. Shameful. What’s the point? It is just a race to the bottom that is the last thing radio needs right now. For a fair price, SuiteRadio will give you 24 hours of programming that will get you noticed. Don’t get me started; sweatshop-radio is not a healthy strategy and it certainly will not last.

When station owners sign on with you what do they count on you to deliver?

We hope they want a syndication company that cares as much about how their station sounds as they do. Cruze makes sure we don’t fail at that. Yes we have big market talent, but the whole package is what Cruze has designed into the flow to make SuiteRadio work so well. Clearly, if your station is not playing the right music, you really have no shot. Our Synchronicity delivery system is very friendly and gives us a fully integrated structure to pull this off under the care of Technical Director John Whiteside.

What was it like for you when you got that call that you’d be inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame?

I was just glad it didn’t say Delaware! Texas anything is exciting enough but adding “Hall of Fame” makes it even better. The honor of being there alongside legends like Stevens & Pruett and all the rest means everything. My friend Doug Harris runs it now and that only means one thing: TRHOF is about to get even bigger! The job now is to help preserve the profession and never lose the magic behind what you can do with a LIVE mic and two turntables. When you fly into any town, get into a car (even an electric one) and turn on THE RADIO you should hear the vibe of the city you’re in – its music, its family feel. That’s not a playlist from somewhere else – that’s radio. I miss that terribly, but we will never recover it until we come back from the idea of 9-minute commercial breaks. Wake the hell up!