Tom Oakes, SummitMedia Springfield, MO. OM, and Country KTTS PD will retire from the industry at the end of 2024.
“Commander Tom’s” radio career spanned 49 years, including stops in Madison, Anchorage, Knoxville, South Bend, and Omaha. He joined the Springfield cluster in 2019 in what was supposed to be an interim role before signing on permanently in September 2020.
On his Facebook Oakes said, “On December 31, I will be retiring after more than 49 years of a fantastic career in an incredible industry. Much has changed since I started in the 70’s from playing music off of 45’s and albums and commercials on carts and live radio around the clock to everything on computer, systems that work hand-in-hand, groups of stations that used to be competitors and an industry that went Wall Street.”
Oakes, a cancer survivor, added his thanks to those he has worked with, his family and friends, and added, “And on December 31st, it’s on to the next stage of life.
