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10 Questions with ... Kevin “Meatball” Kerr
May 18, 2021
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. When I was working in Oklahoma, my morning co-host, Jimmy Green, just… randomly started calling me that. And I didn’t really get it at first. But then it evolved to him singing Adam Sandler’s “I Love you Meatball” song to me, that Adam used to sing to his bulldog named “Meatball.” And the more he used it, the more I liked it, and thus… Meatball was born. I really wish there was something more to that story, like I won a meatball eating contest or something… but nope. It all started from a song Adam Sandler used to sing to his dog. I am literally named after Adam Sandler’s Dog.
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1) What was your first job in radio and early mentors and influences?
TECHNICALLY, my first gig was board-oping for Dickson high school football on KVSO in Ardmore, Oklahoma. But the “real” first gig was the morning news guy and “computer and web” guy for the Southern Oklahoma Radio Center – KKAJ, KTRX, KVSO, and GTO 107 (KYNZ) in Ardmore.
I was working in news and web mostly, but right away, my influences were the morning man and PD for KKAJ, Win Patton, and Jay “Ramone” Pitts on KTRX. Jay was a big influence on getting to know rock music on a much more intimate, and “radio” level (not just as a consumer), and Win was just a HUGE personality, and regularly pulled me into his studio for bits in the morning… even though I had NO experience. HE made me fall in love with the “Act” of radio.
2) Can you give us a rundown of your radio career up to now?
A lot happened in a VERY short amount of time. I was working at a newspaper, and needed a little extra cash. Jay recruited me to board-op high school football in the fall of 2013. Then, in January, their computer and web person left, so, I asked about doing that, AND doing the news for all the stations. Got that job for two years, then Stephens Media bought our cluster of stations. By that time, I’d soaked in a TON of knowledge from these guys, and when the new General Manager asked me what I wanted to do, I said “I wanna be on air on the Rock station (KTRX).” So… the next day, I was on afternoon drive… with absolutely no experience. I was TERRIBLE. But I kept at it, listening to everyone around me, and eventually, moved to mornings with a co-host,
Jimmy Green (who came down the hall from GTO 107), and for the last year of me being in that market, we ruled KTRX and Ardmore.
Then, I got a call from a friend in Wichita (my hometown basically), saying an on-air position was open at T95, and I’d be stupid not to apply… so I did, and Summer 2018, I slid onto nights, and eventually middays on T-95… the same station I grew up listening to in high school. I got some great coaching from my PD at the time, Pete McNair, and in 2019, we had some staffing changes. Late summer, I moved to afternoons, and a month later, Pete told me he was leaving… so I finished our 40th anniversary year on my own (no experience programming). Since then, it’s been me handling things. From board-op of high school football in Oklahoma to program director of my hometown rock station in 7-ish years.
3) I know you’ve been rocking afternoons at KICT (T-95) for a bit and recently were handed the PD stripes. What makes this station so unique?
There’s a legendary, almost mythical feel to this station. While we were doing our 40th anniversary stuff in 2019, I learned a TON about the station’s history, and the crazy past it’s had. When it was launched in 1979, after being on air for like two months, T-95 got caught up in the Herman Hill riots in Wichita, and a lot of people thought “the new rock station” was to blame. It was LITERALLY just bad timing (or good timing, depending on how you look at it).
There’s something uniquely “Wichita” about this station, but yet it still feels BIGGER than just Wichita. And nearly everyone who listens to T-95, has a story about a concert, a promotion, a giveaway, or a stunt that is stuck in their heads forever. The stickers, the license plates, the original shirts, punch cards... people still carry those punch cards in their wallets to this day, and I see cars around town with those vintage T-95 license tags on them still, after 40 years. The listeners to this station are very loyal, and they’re very vocal about it. It’s a local station, geared toward the local listeners… it’s just as much theirs as it is ours when it comes to the product we put out. We value what they have to say, and we take it to heart.
Personally, though, this is the station that made me fall in love with rock music. I was a fair-weather fan of it growing up, but listening to the passion the guys on air had about what they were playing… THAT got me to love this genre.
4) Can you walk us through the T-95 on-air lineup from Mornings to Nights?
Currently, we have the Todd and Tyler Radio Empire on in the morning. They’re a great group of guys to work with and they do a great job localizing. Middays, we have Laura Hardy. She and I recently started a podcast together called "The Sound Hole" that has good initial response. And then you have me on afternoons.
We don’t have any night jocks right now, we use a lot of artist liners and imaging to continue our station “character” through the night. I’m on 10-4 Saturday and Sunday. Sunday nights, we’ve got Lou Brutus and hard Drive, and Saturday nights, we have T-95 Live Nights, which is a full hour, commercial-free, of a live show. So live albums, chopped down to an hour, or audio pieced together from multiple shows. We knew people were missing that live music experience, so… we brought it into their homes every week.
5) Now let’s talk about the Todd and Tyler Morning Show on T95. How are they performing in the market?
Well, we just got our Winter book and they’re No. 2 overall with persons 25-54. They dominate with Men, #1 18-49.
6) Do you do any special benchmarks or features in the Afternoon?
You know, I really don’t. I tried a few things, but they never really accomplished what I wanted them to do. Now that I’m PD, my plate’s pretty full, so we’ve kept my role on-air pretty simple. Local content, lots of contesting lands in my shift. But I was fortunate to be #1 in afternoons this last book, so simple and focused must be working.
7) Being the new PD at T-95, what is your take on current Rock Music and the Active Rock format as a whole?
There’s something kind of exciting about it right now… a LOT going on, a LOT of shifting from an “old guard” feel, to the newer sound, and acceptance of other artists and sub-genres “invading” the rock radio scene. I’ve been doing a lot of artist interviews lately in another podcast, and for the most part, the consensus is… there’s something kinda bubbling under the surface right now, that’s ready to explode. A LOT of rock influences in other genres, like hip hop and pop. You have artists like Machine Gun Kelly, Hyro the Hero, KennyHoopla, all dipping their toes into rock and metal now… and rock should embrace that. Additionally, you have artists like Bring Me the Horizon, Falling in Reverse, I Prevail, Asking Alexandria, these historically REALLY heavy bands, kind of tweaking their sound a bit in the direction of pop, or electronic, utilizing more clean vocals… and now they’re all competing for top spots on the rock charts. It really reminds me of the initial impact of nu-metal… except now, instead of Rock “invading” hip hop for a new sound, it’s kind of coming from the other direction. Rock has an energy that these other genres can’t deliver on, and I think other artists are picking up on that, and encroaching in a little, and I LOVE that. If Billie Eilish ever released a rock or metal album, I’d be pre-ordering the SECOND it comes available.
8) What are some of your favorite new Rock artists or tunes since the beginning of this year?
Man, I named a few of them already, I REALLY love what Bring me the Horizon is doing right now, really twisting the mold in every direction. I Prevail put out one of the best rock albums in the past five years with “Trauma.” Honestly, an artist that SHOULD be doing better in rock, All Time Low. That track “Monsters” with blackbear is a MASSIVE hit in alternative. I just wish it got a little more love in Rock. Pop Evil’s about to put out one of my most anticipated albums of 2021. I’ve loved everything I’ve heard from it so far. Dirty Honey’s debut album is amazing, Ayron Jones is a breath of fresh air, like… I could go on for DAYS about artists I’m really high on right now.
9) Your Bio on the T-95 website says about once a week, you scan Netflix for something new, but ultimately land on the same three shows: Walking Dead, The Office, and Sons Of Anarchy. If you were to add two more shows to this list, what would you add?
HA, well, that does need to be refreshed it seems. Still love those shows, but now we have Disney+ and HBO Max… I’ve been all over the Super Hero stuff. Oddly enough, I’ve stumbled on “Doom Patrol” on HBO Max, and love it, and then I think I’ve re-watched The Mandalorian, front to back, like 6 times now.
10) Finally, where did the name “Meatball” come from?
I like to tell people, I did one of those “food personality” surveys on Facebook, and it just showed me a picture of a meatball… BUT, the truth is, when I was working in Oklahoma, my morning co-host, Jimmy Green, just… randomly started calling me that. And I didn’t really get it at first. But then it evolved to him singing Adam Sandler’s “I Love you Meatball” song to me, that Adam used to sing to his bulldog named “Meatball.” And the more he used it… the more I liked it, and thus… Meatball was born. I really wish there was something more to that story, like I won a meatball eating contest or something… but nope. It all started from a song Adam Sandler used to sing to his dog. I am literally named after Adam Sandler’s Dog.
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