A lot has changed at KCOY and KKFX in the last year. There are new owners, different anchors, and more than a few new employees. Despite all of the changes, however, the stations have been missing one thing: a boss.
Not anymore. Kevin Harlan has been appointed the general manager of KCOY-CBS 12 and KKFX-FOX 11.
The new general manager planned to be in the office for his first day on Sept. 28, and he has ideas for the station—but first he needs to find out what he’ll be working with.
“You don’t really know till you walk in the door,” he said from the road. He was somewhere past Las Vegas on his way to Santa Maria when he answered the call for this story.
Harlan may not know exactly what to expect in his new office, but he does know a few things about the Central Coast. He knows that he loves the weather, the location, and, of course, the wine.
“I like a good Cabernet,” he said, “a nice red wine.”
Harlan is such a wine connoisseur that he’d like nothing better than to run two TV stations and own a winery. The true California dream.
“I would certainly love to do that,” he said, “but first things first. My goal is to run the station.”
Two stations being managed together are known as a duopoly in broadcast journalism, and Harlan has run one before. Most recently, he served as the vice president and general manager of WKOW-TV in Madison, Wisc., and before that he was the vice president and general manger at the Nexstar/Sinclair-owned CBS/FOX duopoly in Peoria, Ill.
Harlan was one of the most experienced candidates for the job, according to Paul Dughi, president of Cowles California Media, the company that bought KCOY and KKFX from Clear Channel in June.
“We were absolutely in the same frame of mind,” Dughi said of Harlan.
Dughi said that he interviewed 25 to 30 people before hiring Harlan. The entire process took eight months, but picking a general manager is not something to rush, Dughi explained.
Harlan was only in a slight rush to reach California, having driven hundreds of miles in at least a few days to get here. He’s been traveling alone, but said that his wife and 14-year-old daughter would join him at the end of the school year. In the meantime, he needs to find a place to live, and his daughter will soon need to pick a high school.
As for Dughi’s plans, he wants for the two stations to become even more involved in the area.
“We believe we have to do a much better job at keeping up with what’s going on in the community,” he said.
The stations have increased their broadcast time to two hours of local news on KKFX and two hours on KCOY, Dughi said, and added a half a dozen new staff members to the newsroom. That’s in contrast to the hiring freeze that was in effect under Clear Channel.
Harlan and Dughi also share the goal of using television as a medium for change and to support local nonprofits.
“As a TV station, we can do a lot to expose some of the charities out there that can really make a difference,” Harlan said.
Contact Sports Editor Sarah E. Thien at sthien@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 2, 2008.