Terry Foxx has accomplished plenty in his long career in the radio business. After getting his start over a Corona in a bar in Corpus Christi, he has risen to lead several major sports and news/talk radio brands around the nation.
Currently, Foxx serves as the Director of Spoken Word for iHeartMedia in Austin and San Antonio, overseeing news/talk brands like the legendary WOAI in the Alamo City. And while there are certainly staunch differences between news and sports talk, Terry Foxx believes there are similarities that many misunderstand.
“It’s actually a fun challenge, meaning that the principles are always the same, meaning you always want to have good content on the air,” said Foxx. “You always want to make sure your talent is informative. You want to make sure that they’re entertaining, but you also want to make sure that they are well-informed. The engaging part and communicating with our audience is always key. So you really have, no matter what format you’re doing, you always have the same what I call ‘essentials’. I wouldn’t call them challenges. It’s the same essentials apply in spoken word.”
However, while sports talk can be more fun and free-flowing, the gravity of news/talk isn’t lost on the longtime programmer.
“News can be very serious, right? We’ve got wars going on, we’ve got a presidential election, but you’re still having to tell a story. There’s some slight differences in maybe your approach and how you tell the story, but the premise is still the same. You have to tell the story,” shared Foxx. “And you have to make sure that it’s engaging the audience in how you tell that story. I mean, anybody can read the copy. That’s easy, but it’s how the host actually engages with the audience with those topics.
“If you’re talking news, and you’re talking about the war, that’s a whole different ballgame. You’re inserting your opinions, audio, news, actual things that are happening on the ground. So it’s the same theory, just a different forum. You also have to be careful on the news side because you have to be credible. News, you certainly have to be credible. It’s not necessarily, in my opinion, opinion-based, it is facts. When you’re doing news, you want facts.”
WOAI, which serves as the home of the nationally syndicated Joe Pags Show, has long been a staple in the San Antonio market. When asked what separates it from other news/talk outlets, Terry Foxx has several reasons for the station’s success.
“History. Credibility. Longevity. Honest. Forthright. it has such great integrity and there’s a connection. WOAI has a very strong, strong local connection,” he added. “Generations of people have grown up listening. It has all of those elements and, to me, you have to have all those elements.”
Terry Foxx didn’t have what could be considered a conventional path to a career in radio. He credits his outgoing personality for leading to him landing his first break into the business.
“I can strike up a conversation with anybody and I think as I was growing up, I was always an extroverted guy. I didn’t aspire to be in radio, I was at the wrong place at the right time — underage in a bar. There was a station, KZFM, they were having a promotion.
“The DJ was there, and the program director was there. I didn’t even know what a program director was. We were talking over a Corona and he’s like, ‘Hey, you know, I have an overnight opening. Would you like to come in and try out?’ And I’m thinking ‘Ok, first of all, I don’t even know what the term overnight is’, so he gave me his card and I thought maybe this guy had too much to drink,” Foxx said with a chuckle.
“I actually followed up on that Monday. And I was full-time a week later. I was horrible. I did midnight to six. But you know what, in my high school class, I was the coolest kid, I’ll tell you that much.”
It can be easy to question what continues to make someone like Terry Foxx — who is nearing four decades in the industry — motivated each day. That’s an easy answer for the Texan.
“It’s people. I enjoy people and being able to come into their lives,” said Foxx. “What I’ve always enjoyed from the first day I got in this business ’til now, and I still enjoy that, is the one-on-one connection that you have with your audience. You cannot get that anywhere else. When you’re in your local market and you’re talking about things happening around you that affect everyone else — I don’t care if it’s traffic, it could be anything, it could be a concert — you can’t get that anywhere else. So that’s why I first got into business and why I still love the business.”
It isn’t lost on Terry Foxx that, in a profession sometimes dominated by white men, he can be viewed as an anomaly. However, he shared he never wants to be defined by his race, but rather the quality of his work.
“I don’t want to be known for being an African-American in the business, I want to be known to be the best at what I do every day. I want to be known as a person that is successful and working hard to be even more successful and working well with others in this business,” he said. “But I understand, as an African-American, there’s a standard that comes with that. There are women in the business or trying to get in the business, as well. African-Americans, Latinos, I mean, folks who may not get the same opportunity because either they don’t think that they will, quite honestly get the opportunity, or they’re afraid to step forward.
“So there are some challenges there but I will attest and tell you that everyone who has been in and shaped my career, they’ve all looked out for me. They have all helped me, get to where I am today. And guess what, none of them are where it is situation where they made me feel because I was black I was getting some sort of advantage,” continued Foxx. “I had to work for everything. And by the way, the folks who to this day are my mentors and look out for me are not African-American.”
As the news/talk and radio landscapes as a whole continue to evolve, those working in the industry — as well as those leading it — continue to become more diverse. And while that is a net positive for the format and the industry, Terry Foxx wants to remain cognizant of hiring the best person for the job, rather than checking a box.
“I hate when the word ‘diversity’ gets thrown around. Because what would happen sometimes is that if you throw that word out, people automatically go ‘Ok, well, do we need to go hire people that are just because they’re this or that? Or are we going to hire someone who is diverse but yet they’re qualified?’ That’s what I believe in.
“Diversity really means a lot. It means Ivy League versus city college, black, white, yellow, green, purple, female, male, I mean, whomever, however you want to look at it,” said Foxx. “Diversity is a lot, but the word gets thrown around a lot. But I believe you hire the best person for the job, no matter what. Where they come from in diversity, not just because you need to fill a spot because of diversity.
“I’m part of the NABJ, I’m part of the NAACP. I’m on these panels. And I speak honestly, as an African-American, going ‘Look, you want these opportunities, but you have to also earn these opportunities. You have to fight for these opportunities just like anyone else, no matter what culture you come from. I want to be clear about that. You have to work hard. You have to put in the time.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
