By Miles Flynn | Southern Indiana Business Report
JASPER —Gene Kuntz is retiring later this year as general manager of WITZ radio, and seeing as how he’s been holding down the fort at the radio station in one capacity or another for 45 years now, the departure will mark a significant transition for the station, the community and for Kuntz himself.
At 67, Kuntz told Southern Indiana Business Report he feels like the timing is right since he’s young enough and feels good enough to spend his days traveling with his wife Phyllis and enjoying the outdoors. He wants to spend more time hunting with his two grandsons, who live near Evansville, and more time getting to know his young granddaughter in Florida.
He plans to remain in Dubois County, though, and won’t be a stranger. In fact, he’s told his crew that he’ll always be available to answer questions and possibly even fill in running a board shift if needed. “I told them at the station, ‘If you need something, just holler,’” he laughed.
Starting in radio
The radio bug bit Kuntz during his early years growing up near Cincinnati. He listened to that city’s radio stations, including powerhouse top-40 outlet 1360 WSAI, and made recordings on his cassette deck. It wasn’t just the music he was recording, though. He also captured the disc jockeys. “I’d kind of try to emulate them,” he said.
By high school, he decided to pursue a career in radio, and his next stop was Vincennes University. His first radio job was at a station in Greencastle, and after a while he was in Washington at WAMW and WFML.
After about a year and a half in Daviess County, a friend encouraged him to try to get on board at WITZ. Kuntz said he bugged and bugged WITZ’s then-program director Ron Weeks until he finally relented and agreed to put him on nights.
After moving up to afternoons, Kuntz was able to slide into the program director’s spot in the early ‘80s after Weeks left to help start a station in Petersburg. By 1983, Kuntz landed honors as Billboard Program Director of the year for small markets. “I was always pretty aggressive,” he said of his approach to the job. “I love radio.”
What sets the station apart
Kuntz said he’s looked at other job openings through the years but never found anything out there that was better than what he had at WITZ and Jasper. That attitude is widespread at the station. Of the 10 full-time and five part-time workers there, many have been at the station for several years. “I think that’s a testament to the work environment and the community,” Kuntz commented.
He gives a lot of credit there to the late Earl Metzger, station owner and his general manager. Metzger’s father was one of the original partners who put 990 WITZ on the air on July 4, 1948. Kuntz said Metzger always gave staff the tools to succeed and opportunity to advance at the station. “I learned every aspect of the radio station except play by play,” Kuntz said.
In addition, Metzger, as a pillar of the community, helped instill that sense of community service in his employees. As an example, Kuntz has served as master of ceremonies for the Jasper Strassenfest Queen Contest for two decades now.
Metzger passed away from cancer in July 2011. “I think it left a big void not only at the station but in the community as well,” Kuntz shared.
Kuntz took over as general manager and worked closely with the station’s business manager Jeri Weisheit on coming up with a plan to continue Metzger’s longtime vision for the station. “We’re here to support the local community and give back to the community,” Kuntz related.
He said the spirit is embodied in WITZ’s slogan: Everything you need, every day. While the station does play adult contemporary music, the emphasis has always been on news, public service, coverage of local events, and of course, sports of all kinds.
Technical and creative innovation
The AM station’s sign on in 1948 signaled the beginning of several technical and creative innovations at the station. An early adopter of FM, the company put on 104.7 WITZ-FM in 1954. The station was upgraded to 50,000 watts of power, bringing its signal to all or parts of nine counties in the region, in 1972.
Another FM station, 98.5 WQKZ, took to the air in 1997. Kuntz explained the FCC opened up the allocation for southeast Dubois County then and Metzger saw it as an opportunity to bring a new service to the Ferdinand and Saint Meinrad area. WQKZ broadcasts a country format.
That spirit of innovation continues today with the addition of a website that’s chock full of local news (and sponsors), sponsor videos, as well as streaming that brings the radio stations’ programming to listeners outside the signal area.
One of the biggest innovations, though, is a unique new format that launched on the AM station in 2015. JUAN is a music and information station tailored to the growing Hispanic community in the area. Kuntz pointed out nearby Huntingburg’s population is now 35% Hispanic. “To me it was like, ‘Well, duh, we’ve got to do this,’” Kuntz recalled.
He said the station worked closely with Denny Spinner, who was then mayor of Huntingburg, on building relationships with the Hispanic community. “They’re here looking for a better life just like the German immigrants were,” Kuntz said.
JUAN has been a winner for the company. In fact, Kuntz said response has exceeded expectations. Many existing advertisers are adding schedules on the station, and it has even helped attract some new advertising the company wasn’t getting previously. The stations is home to a mix of English and Spanish ads. Kuntz explained the rationale is that businesses with bilingual staff are advised to record ads in Spanish as a sign Spanish speakers can be served directly. Businesses without bilingual staff are urged to record in English, which signals the customers should bring along a family member or friend to help with translation.
The station has benefited greatly with the addition of a low-power FM simulcast, known as a translator, that came on the air on 99.1 in 2016 and has expanded the coverage area, particularly at night. The aforementioned streaming is now helping push the service even farther into the Evansville area. “We think streaming will open it up not only for listeners but for advertisers,” Kuntz said.
Working through COVID
COVID’s arrival in early 2020 put a major pinch on operations. One of the biggest hits came in sports. The stations rely heavily on sports for ad dollars and produce more than 200 high school sporting events from around Dubois County annually, including boys’ and girls’ basketball and soccer, football, softball and baseball. In addition, Purdue University, Indiana University, the Saint Louis Cardinals, Indy 500, Brickyard 400, and the Dubois County Bombers minor league baseball team are also in the mix.
COVID’s shutdown of nearly all things sports in 2020 was disastrous. “There was a point in time we were down about 80% because we didn’t have sports,” Kuntz said.
However, two successful Paycheck Protection Program loan applications helped alleviate employee fears and keep everyone paid, including idled sports announcers and salespeople.
WITZ’s spirit of community service also featured heavily during the early COVID period. With so many restaurants and other businesses shut down completely, the station approached owners with a plan for giving away gift certificates. The idea was that putting the certificates into the hands of listeners would mean traffic for the advertisers as soon as their doors were open again, for no out-of-pocket cost for the businesses. “We did hundreds and hundreds of dollars of gift certificates,” Kuntz recalled.
The program succeeded, and Kuntz feels it helped the businesses and also helped build loyalty among the station’s advertisers. Now, with businesses operating nearly as they were before COVID, Kuntz said station revenue has recovered to 2019 levels or slightly better.
What lies ahead
Looking ahead to his departure, Kuntz feels the veteran staff in place at the station, and that spirit of serving the community, will help guarantee continued success for the company. “I think we’ve got a good future coming up,” he concluded.