Tulsa’s New Radio Voice Starts on Top
By D. J. MORROW INGRAM
Associate Editor
JOE KELLEY
D. J. MORROW INGRAM
For the first time in nearly three decades, Tulsans are waking up with someone new. After an extensive nationwide search, Tulsa radio station NewsTalk 740 KRMG selected radio veteran Joe Kelley to be the host of its morning program, the KRMG Morning News.
Kelley replaces longtime KRMG and Oklahoma Hall of Fame Broadcaster John Erling who retired at the end of July following 29 years at the station. Erling left the Tulsa radio market ranked as the leading morning drive-time radio talk show host, a position that Kelley plans to keep.
“I had never visited Tulsa until I came here to look the city over and interview for the job,” Kelley said. “But I fell in love immediately.
“Tulsa is a beautiful city with its rolling hills and lush vegetation and it is the kind of city where one can really make a difference.”
Kelley said he was also attracted to KRMG’s commitment to being involved in the community and he plans to be active here as he has in prior cities. A two-time cancer survivor, Kelley regularly takes ill cancer patients to their radiation and chemotherapy treatments as part of the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery program. He has also been involved with St. Jude’s Ranch for Children and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
Joining him in Tulsa is his wife of nine years, Nicole, and two children – their 15-year-old son, whom they adopted in 2001, and daughter, born in 2003.
Kelley’s broadcasting career began in Nederland, Texas, while attending high school. He has been a Top 40 radio personality and popular talk radio host and has worked at some of the most prestigious radio stations across the country including Houston, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Las Vegas and, most recently, Dallas. Along the way he has also worked as a TV weatherman, newspaper columnist, event speaker, non-profit spokesperson, and game show contestant. And a winning game show contestant, no less.
Kelley and his wife were winners on the Newlywed Game show earning a trip to Granada.
Kelley says he hopes his listeners will find him to be a good and fair host and says he realizes he has a lot to learn about the Tulsa area.
With KRMG’s new affiliation with Fox News Radio, Kelley says his goal is to make sure that when his listeners wake up in the morning they can get a quick update on the news, weather and traffic along with the commentary he will develop on what’s happening in our city, state, nation and world.
“Working with KRMG’s long time personalities like Rick Couri and Denver Foxx as well as KRMG’s terrific news department is an added bonus,” he says.
The KRMG Morning News is on from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays.
Updated 08-20-2005
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