Last November, Joe Pags got the call no radio host ever wants to receive: he was being laid off as part of widespread cuts at iHeartMedia, departing his longtime home at 1200 WOAI in San Antonio.
But, as they say, everything happens for a reason. And now, months later, he has a new flagship home for his nationally syndicated show at 550 KTSA in the Alamo City.
The return of a home station in his home city was obviously a welcome one for the host, whose show is nationally syndicated through Compass Media Networks.
“It was extremely weird because usually on my show, even though we’re across the nation, I would always reference where we’re from, ‘My listeners here in San Antonio,'” Pags said of being without a station in the market. “And for six-plus months, I didn’t have any listeners in San Antonio. I mean, I did. I think a lot of them found the stream, and stream numbers actually went through the roof, but to not be on the air where I’ve been for 19-and-a-half years was strange.”
Despite the exit from iHeartMedia and 1200 WOAI, Joe Pags said he knew he would be ok because he still had plenty of affiliates and digital avenues for listeners to consume the show. But the chance to return to 550 KTSA — the Alpha Media San Antonio news/talk station — was one he jumped on immediately.
In that process of returning, he’s learned just how powerful of a voice he holds in the Texas city.
“It’s been amazing in that the management, they’re really, really happy that I’m on. That’s a nice feeling,” Pags said, “I’m really, really happy to be on … But I always go to the listener first. The reaction has been ‘Thank God. Great, I can listen to you again. Man, my five o’clock ride home is normal again. I’m so glad you’re back.’ I haven’t heard any negativity at all. And I’ll be honest with you, I always expect some negativity. ‘You’re this, you’re that. I can’t believe you’re on the radio.’ I haven’t heard any of that.”
With the addition of The Joe Pags Show, the station underwent some changes to its daily lineup. It shrunk The Jack Ricciardi Show from 3-7 PM to 3-5 PM in the station’s lineup. KTSA also moved The Lars Larson Show from 7-10 PM to 8-10 PM to accommodate Pags, whose show airs from 5-8 PM.
That decision by the station was obviously a major one, with Ricciardi’s local show being one of the biggest in the market. But Pags gave the already established hosts on the station props for being willing to make the program fit into the daily lineup.
“The fact that the station was willing to figure it out, and there was no pushback at all from those guys. In fact, they welcomed me with open arms,” admitted Pags. “It means a ton to me. Because at the end of the day, they could have balked. They could have dug in and said, ‘Listen, we’re not going to move around. We’re not going to make any changes here. We have what we have, and this guy can go somewhere else.’
“But the entire thing has been very, very smooth, very seamless … These awesome talk show hosts in this building are open and accepting of what we’re doing. I think at the end of the day, we made a station that now has what might be considered an all-star lineup in the Alamo City. We comprise that, all of us together. Before, we had to compete with each other. Now, we’re on the same team, and it feels awesome.”
Every radio host is always in search of “the perfect show.” Joe Pags is no different. And the new 550 KTSA host says he’s going to continue improving on his craft every time he sits behind the mic.
“There’s plenty that I have to get better at. I pride myself on being a really good interviewer. I sometimes get wound up, and I talk over the person because I’ve got eight more questions that I want to ask. And I want to be better at that, because the listener doesn’t get as much out of it if I’m talking at the same time.
“I want to get better at explaining things in a very simple way, because the listeners aren’t simple, but they’re busy. And my job is to have information ingestion all day. Their job is to do what they do for a living all day, get in the car, and hopefully I can explain what happened while they were at work. I always strive to get better at that. I think I’m pretty good at it, but I always strive to get better at that.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
