KXNT adds morning news, moves Stock to afternoons

They've taken Stock -- right out of his time slot.

Shuffling its format, KXNT-AM, 840 is switching longtime morning talker Alan Stock to 3-6 p.m. weekdays, his sunrise slot turning into a news block while Stock replaces the departed Casey Hendrickson and Heather Kydd. Stock will handle both drive-time shows Friday until the new lineup kicks in Monday. In addition, Mark Levin, who held down the 3-to-5-a.m. show, will move to 9 p.m. to midnight.

"When I got here, I couldn't believe nobody on the AM or FM dial had any kind of strong (morning) news presence," says Bob Agnew, who took over as program director from Jack Landreth last month and orchestrated the changes. "Ours was meager at best. We did maybe three minutes total on the half-hour."

Titled "KXNT Morning News," the new 6-9 a.m. block will feature Corey Olson, Kristen Flowers, Robert Rytina and street reporter Julianne Thomas. "Many of them were just kind of buried at the station, not doing much," Agnew says.

Now they'll host a revamp that includes four-minute news four times an hour, plus traffic, weather, sports, the stock-market watch, financial news, medical and local entertainment reports, plus commentaries by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Charles Osgood.

"We're doing newsmaker interviews if they warrant it," Agnew says. "But we're not doing polls, we're not opening the (phone) lines."

Stock, an 11-year KXNT vet, will bring his signature aggressive style and conservative ideology to afternoons, with slight alterations. "We'll have the only live, local talk in that slot," Agnew says. Leaving mornings, Stock will no longer face off with Heidi Harris at KDWN-AM, 720. At 3 p.m., he takes on KDWN's syndicated "Michael Savage Show."

"Alan has a real feel for the pulse of (listeners). But we're not going to do 'The Flip' (listeners flipping off newsmakers) and that kind of stuff. We'll do more CBS, AP and Wall Street Journal-type interviews, and it's a great time with the primary," Agnew says. "It won't be as heavy on calls, but we'll open the lines when there's a hot topic."

(Review-Journal writers will continue to appear regularly on Stock's show.)

Eyeing the ratings, Agnew says KXNT's are solid but could kick it up with the changes. "Based on who we have on the air, this radio station should be ranked higher than it is," he says.

"We're not in the top 10 in adults 25 to 54 (years old). We're number seven in 35-plus. We could do much better."

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.