MAY 6, 2019 RADIOINK•COM 23
1990, at the ripe age of 22, I was recruited
by Paul Stone and Charles Giddens to be
the GSM for their 50,000-watt FM Country
station (South 107) and an AM Gospel sta-
tion across the street. I went over there as
their sales manager and became the GM
when Bobby Price, my boss, retired.
That was around 1995. Then the
Telecom Bill was passed, and we bought
the stations that I had originally worked
at when I started my career. I ran that
cluster for a while, and then I ended up
moving to Pennsylvania and buying sta-
tions in Altoona, Pennsylvania. And I did
that for three years.
Radio Ink: How many was that? And
was that your first buy?
Cantrell: It was an AM/FM combo, and
it was in 2000 when that came down.
Overall, I learned how much I did not
know. It was a difficult time in radio. It
was 2000, and then it was 9/11 and all
the fallout from that. I was 30 years old
and I was owning and operating radio
stations, and I was in way over my head.
I was undercapitalized. I had some wins
and losses. It was extremely painful, but I
learned a lot.
Radio Ink: Who mentored you on how
to buy stations?
Cantrell: My dad and his partner, Donald
Alt, have been unbelievable mentors all
my life. My dad more on the creative and
sales side; Donald is a financial guru. They
have both been very generous with their
time and knowledge. But it really took
until I was in my 30s to be able to say, “I
don’t know how to do that.”
I was sort of a prodigy. A woman in
the radio business when there generally
were not a lot of us around in leader-
ship roles, certainly not in ownership. I
was a 4.0 student. I did college in three
years. I can do 25,000 things at once. I am
high-energy, I’m positive, inspirational —
woohoo! Failure was not on my radar.
Those years at WPRR and WVAM, I
realized how much I did not know, and
that’s when I reached out to the mentors
in my life and I said, “Please teach me.”
I thought I knew how to handle it, but I
didn’t. It was very humbling and forced
me to take a hard look at my skills and
abilities.
Radio Ink: Were there others who
helped?
Cantrell: When I worked in Georgia for
Paul Stone and Charles Giddens. I worked
for them for 10 years. Paul has a very
strong engineering background, brilliant,
and was the CEO of the company, and his
partner, Charles, was one of the partners
at Media Venture Partners. He knew
everything about brokerage and financing
and capitalization.
They taught me how to read a P&L,
what expense ratios should be for cer-
tain categories — I credit them with a lot
of that. They let me make mistakes and
apply lessons learned. We had a great run
together. When we do an acquisition, I
can go in and do everything from run the
traffic system to look at the P&L to do an
on-air shift to conduct an aircheck to run a
sales meeting, because I had to do all that.
It was like all my mentors got together and
had a baby — and they named it Kristin.Radio Ink: What happened after
Altoona?
Cantrell: The company that owned
WPRR and WVAM in Altoona was called
Vital Communications. There was a
change in FCC rules that allowed Forever
Broadcasting at the time to buy me out.
I was drowning. I had never worked for
Dad because he had a strict no-nepotism
policy, but by 2003 he had retired from
day-to-day operations, and Carol Logan
wanted to hire me and buy me out. They
saved me.
I went to work for Forever as their
regional/national GSM and director of
training in 2004. I did that for three
years. I was good at that job and liked it,
but I’m not good at being in the middle.
For example, if I’m an actor in a theater
production, the director says, “Do this,” or
I am the director and I call the shots. But
do not make me an assistant director.
At Forever, I was a middle manager.
I struggled with that because I thought
things should be done differently. I
would take feedback from the people
I was training and try to interpret that
to people I was working for, managing
up and managing down. I can do it, but
I struggled with that position. I wanted
to control the culture, but it wasn’t my
company, so I didn’t have the right to
expect that type of influence.“Kristin has all the
qualities of a legendary
broadcaster. A genuine
passion to see local
communities thrive.
A hunger to solve
problems and innovate.
The ability to see and
bring the best out of
people. You only have
to spend five minutes
in her presence to feel
the natural energy and
excitement that she
has for the industry; it’s
infectious! That’s why
there are so many of us
that feel truly grateful for
the opportunity to have
worked with her.”
Dave Taylor
Chief Creative Officer
CapCity Communications
Seven Mountains Media