Today is
Wednesday June 03, 2026
JACKSONVILLE — A man accused of robbing the Jacksonville Payless Shoe Source has been arrested. KETK-TV reports John Robert Nichols was arrested just over an hour and 15 minutes following the robbery, which was reported shortly after 11:30 yesterday morning. He was taken into custody after authorities stopped him on Highway 79. Authorities feel he is the man who pointed a silver revolver at a clerk and took money from the register. He then fled on a black older model motorcycle with an American flag on the gas tank and red and white stripes on the fenders. No injuries were reported.
TYLER – The North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority (NET RMA) Board of Directors has selected Englewood, Colorado-based CH2MHill as the design/build firm for Toll 49 Segment 3B. “The selection of a firm to construct Segment 3B of the Toll 49 project demonstrates the project’s continued momentum. The next step is to prepare to sell bonds,” said NET RMA Project Director Everett Owen. “Our colleagues in the financial industry are still very bullish on the deal and believe that there is no better time to sell a transportation bond than right now.” Toll 49 Segment 3B is a 9.7 mile section of roadway that stretches between State Highway 31 and Interstate 20.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded the Tyler Pounds Regional Airport $2,500,000 to improve a runway safety area and acquire safety equipment. “Upgrades to Texas’ airports are critical for the regional economy and for the traveling public,” Senator Hutchison said. “These infrastructure and safety improvements to Tyler Pounds Regional Airport will help ensure the safe and smooth flow of goods, services, and people.”
TYLER — “It’s All Here.” That’s the theme of UT Tyler’s 2010-2011 Cowan Center season, with an October 19 appearance by former President George W. Bush among the highlights. That and other presentations are co-sponsored by KTBB. Cowan Center Executive Director Susan Thomae-Morphew is very pleased with the variety. Gladys Knight, Howie Mandel, and touring companies of “Mamma Mia” and “The Color Purple” are just a few of the others on the schedule. Thomae-Morphew thanks all the supporters, saying, “We are not getting any state funding to do the Cowan Center’s work, and it’s important to note that the community makes this happen.” Subscriptions are available starting at 9 a.m. Monday. You can go to http://www.cowancenter.org for lots more.
LONGVIEW — Longview investigators say two deaths appear to be suspicious. On Friday, authorities released the identities of two bodies found Thursday morning. Laura Beth Sullivan, 28 and Zocorius Lamonte Gray, 19, both from Longview were located around 9:10 after officers responded to a welfare call at 128 Myrle Street. The caller told dispatchers that two people at the location appeared to be dead. Authorities found Sullivan and Gray inside an upstairs garage apartment behind a duplex on Myrle Street. Authorities say the deaths appear to be suspicious and foul play is suspected.
Detectives are pursuing numerous leads, but an arrest has not been made and a motive for the shooting has not been announced. Detectives do feel certain the shooting was not a random act. “I believe the individuals were targeted,” said Justice of the Peace B.H. Jameson.
Anyone with information about this crime is asked to contact Gregg County Crime Stoppers at 903-236-STOP or online at http://www.greggcountycrimestoppers.com. A reward of up to $1000.00 may be paid for information leading to the arrest of any suspects.
KILGORE — Kilgore has a new ordinance aimed at teens 16 and younger. According to KETK, those 16 and younger must remain off the streets and out of the parking lots too from 10:30 in the evening until 6:00 in the morning Sundays thru Thursdays. On weekends, they can stay out a little longer with a curfew from midnight to 6:00 in the morning. Exceptions include coming home from work, sporting events, public assemblies or an emergency errand. If you’re caught out past curfew, first offenders will get a warning and a letter to parents.
NACOGDOCHES — Nacogdoches Police are trying to track down the culprit behind a mail scam. According to KETK, residents received a notification by mail of winning a shoppers sweepstakes lottery. Enclosed was a letter saying they won with a counterfeit cashiers check from Chase Bank. Police say the winner are then asked to deposit the check and wire the money to a tax agent. The person’s account is then charged thousands of dollars.
PALESTINE — A well known Palestine pastor is under indictment for sexual misconduct with a child. Hezekiah Stallworth, 75, was indicted February 26 for alleged sexual contact with a 7-year-old. According to KETK, following the arrest, another victim claims Stallworth sexually assaulted her back in 1989. Stallworth is in jail on $50,000 bond.
TYLER — Authorities feel they have a better understanding of what happened over the weekend in the deaths of a Tyler lawyer and his ex-wife. It happened Saturday night in Smith County’s Hidden Hill Lake subdivision where the bodies of Thomas Blow and Kinsey Lynn Lewis-Blow were found. Both had been shot to death. Authorities believe Thomas Blow shot his former wife and then turned the gun on himself.
KETK-TV reported a woman, who authorities say was a friend of Blow’s ex-wife, had dropped her off and was waiting in the drive-way for her to come out. When she never came back to the car, the woman went looking for her, and found the bodies. The couple’s two young boys, ages 5 and 7, who had been staying with their dad for Father’s Day, were not injured.
I sure have missed KDOK and it’s great music. Do you think there will ever be another radio station that will play the kind of music KDOK played in Tyler? There is not a radio station in the area that plays the 60’s,70’s music. Can’t pick up KLUV, station from Dallas. Thank you for a reply.
ANSWER
I cannot speak for other broadcasters in the market. There is always a
chance that one of them will make the business decision to change formats on
one of their stations to something similar to what KDOK did. When and under
what circumstances that might occur, I cannot say.
I miss KDOK, too. I liked listening to it a lot. But it was not a growing
business and it was taking away resources that were necessary to protect and
grow our core franchise, which is news and talk. Playing music on the radio,
and particularly music from a “frozen” playlist, in other words a playlist
that does not continually take in new material, has become a very different
business than it used to be. The proliferation of personal music devices and
the ability to easily interface those devices to the sound system in one’s
vehicle has dramatically chnaged the game for FM radio music broadcasters.
In order to keep time-spent-listening to KDOK at competitive levels, I was
having to spend a ruinous amount of money every year doing focus group
research on the KDOK playlist in order to determine which songs were getting
burned out and which songs needed to be brought back into rotation. The
truth is, it is hard to compete with a person’s iPod. The playlist on a
person’s iPod is the absolutely perfectly researched playlist for that
person. It is particularly true in a format that doesn’t regularly introduce
new music, such as an oldies station like KDOK, that constant music research
is necessary or the audience will not spend as much time listening and that
ratings will suffer.
KLUV in Dallas conducts continuous music research in order to address this
issue. The problem for a similar station in a market like Tyler is that it
costs the same amount to do the research in Tyler as it does to do the
research in Dallas-Ft. Worth. The cost of research as a percentage of KLUV’s
revenue, however, is a fraction of that same cost as a percentage of KDOK’s
revenue.
Thus, we made the decision regarding KDOK and, despite the fact that I miss
KDOK, it has proven to be a good business decision.
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Paul L. Gleiser
ANSWER
David Smoak left KTBB for reasons that we cannot disclose at this time.
Bill Coates is now hosting SportsTalk every weekday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. on KTBB FM 92.1. Bill is an experienced, talented, network-quality sports broadcasting professional with over 30 years in the business and over 19 years at KTBB. Bill brings and encyclopedic knowledge of professional, collegiate and high school sports together with an easy, inviting conversational style. We are excited to have Bill on the air in a long-form format and we expect him to take SportsTalk to a new level in the coming months.
I was wondering to what measures KTBB has taken in light of the FCC’s recent power trip.
In recent months, the FCC has been cracking down on certain shows and programs in various areas in the country. I realize that the programming on KTBB and the other stations that your company owns shouldn’t have problems with program content and shows such as “Bubba the Love Sponge” and “Howard Stern” will never make it to the Tyler market. With that said, I am sure that pressure from the FCC has affected your stations in some form or fashion.
Read the rest of this entry »
You all have a very classy site. The images are always crisp and there is a minimum of nonsense throughout. You have a good sense of what is news and what is hype – unlike your source (ABC) some of the other media outlets, local and national.
I especially applaud you on your advertising being local and tasteful – and free of the ultra annoying doubleclick, Bonzi Buddy, weatherbug
and google addcents offerings. It’s a reflection of the radio station/broadcast in that there is a level of professionalism immediately apparent.
Question: Is it hard to maintain this higher standard in this day of flashing, obnoxious ads and content? Do you feel that there is a higher reward and/or return in such a high standard? Or does your web market simply make it impossible to do otherwise?
ANSWER
Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to share them.
We have done our best to make http://www.ktbb.com the best possible reflection of our commitment to high standards on the air at Newstalk 600 KTBB.We want there to be a seamless relationship between what we do on the radio and what we do on the web.
We decline opportunities to sell advertising on KTBB AM 600 nearly every week. Most of the ads we decline are selling things we can’t in good conscience inflict on our listeners. Examples include products that purport to enhance sexual performance, get-rich-quick-in-the-comfort-of-your-home schemes, miracle weight loss products, multi-level marketing programs and other products and services that are fraudulent, close to fraudulent or in bad taste.
Less frequently, we decline advertising on KTBB AM 600 because the commercial is overly loud or is in some other way obnoxious or offensive.
We attempt to apply the same standards to our websites, including http://www.ktbb.com. We pursue good content, we try to present it in a useful way that is pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate and we do not pursue advertising revenue opportunities that we don’t control.
Therefore, you will not see “hit the monkey” ads or pop-ups or Google ads on ktbb.com.
It is more gratifying than I can tell you that you noticed.
Thanks for coming to the site and thanks for sharing your input with us.
Paul L. Gleiser
President
I understand that there was a major “changing of the guard” involving several key radio stations in the area. I don’t remember all of the call letters for these stations but one station was KOOI, which we listen to here in Tyler.
How does a deal like this change and affect our market? Do you think that there will be format changes for these stations?
Also – I understand that your company had been interested in a share of that deal… is that true?
Thanks for your time
ANSWER
Yes, some changes in ownership have recently taken place in the Tyler-Longview market.
Waller Broadcasting sold several of its radio stations to a company called Access.1 Communications. Access.1 is headquarted in New York and they own stations in several other markets in addition to Tyler-Longview.
The stations that Mr. Waller sold include: KOOI 106.5 FM, KKUS 104.1 FM, KYKX 105.7 FM, KOYE 96.7 FM and KFRO 1370 AM.
It is impossible to know what, if anything, Access.1 will do with respect to changing the formats of any of these stations. That will depend on their best judgment as to the value of the respective assets in their current setup vs. what they believe they might do to enhance the value of the assets by doing something else.
And yes, Gleiser Communications, LLC very vigorously pursued purchasing many of these stations when Mr. Waller offered them for sale. Ultimately, we were not able to come to terms that made sense for us and Access.1 was able to make a deal that made sense to them.
For our part, we continue to believe in radio as a great medium for both listeners and advertisers. And believing that, we also believe that strong operators in our market serve to drive all of us to do a better job.
Toward that end, we wish Access.1 well and we welcome them to East Texas.
Thank you for your input.
Paul L. Gleiser
President