Women to Watch: Katy Dempsey; 100.3 The Bull, Houston

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Katy Dempsey is co-host of the Frito & Katy morning show which just landed at Audacy’s 100.3 The Bull (KILT) in Houston. In their second week of being on the air there, they’re currently in the middle of a snowstorm that has no business ever happening in Texas. Good times! 

In her nearly fifteen years on radio, Dempsey has been everything from an intern all the way up to a PD. The majority of that time was spent at an independent radio group out of College Station, TX, known as Bryan Broadcasting. Right now she says she’s lucky, she’s just focused on being on air in her hometown with her best friend (Tucker “Frito” Young).

It really started for Dempsey when she was offered a job to do middays with KNDE/Candy 95.

“I’d just celebrated my second year of being hired off an internship with Cox Radio’s KKBQ/93Q in Houston. I was running boards and doing some weekend and traffic work, but I wanted to further hone my skills on-air,” she explains. “I figured I’d give that a shot for two, maybe three years before making my triumphant return to a major market. What I didn’t anticipate was falling in love with community-centered radio. I spent 10 years working my way from middays to mornings and adding various titles like Promotions Director, Music Director, and ultimately, Program Director. It’s also where I met my on-air partner, Frito.”

“During our tenure, the station received three Crystal Radio Awards for excellence in community service, three Marconi Radio Awards for excellence in broadcasting (two for CHR Station of the Year and one for Small Market Station of the Year), and a Service to America Award for community service from the National Association of Broadcasters. Our work at KNDE was also honored with several Bonner McLane Awards from the Texas Association of Broadcasters. Frito & I even won a Marconi Radio Award for the show in 2021, earning us the title of Small Market Personalities of the Year.”

“We probably would have happily spent another decade there if the perfect opportunity had not presented itself in San Antonio, with Cox Media Group’s Y100 in 2022. In just three years, we took a 14th-ranked morning show to 1st. We won a Crystal Radio Award (the first for the station), received Service to America and Marconi finalist designations, and both the station and the show were nominated for CMA Awards in our first eligible year. We won a Bonner McLane award for a program we created called ‘Read and Feed’ with the San Antonio Food Bank. They honored us as their ‘Hunger Fighters of the Year’ just this past November. We ended our time at CMG San Antonio by winning the CMA Award for Major Market Personalities of the Year for 2024.”

The Houston native says she grew up on great radio. “You could find phenomenal talent and larger-than-life personalities with every turn of the dial,” says Dempsey. “I listened to a bit of everything, but I initially wanted to do political talk radio. A couple of internships and colleges later, I became fascinated with the fast-paced world of FM radio.” 

“I think I was enamored with all the wrong things. I wanted to meet celebrities and interview bands. I imagined front row seats at concerts and backstage access at festivals. It was a superficial idea of radio. I was only interested in how it could serve me. I didn’t understand the real power of what radio could be until I started working for Ben Downs and the team at Bryan Broadcasting. At its core, radio is a tool for public service, and I think we’d be wise to remember that. It’s so easy to get burned out in this business, but when you’re doing something or you’re a part of something larger than yourself, I think that’s what makes this a fulfilling career.”

“To me, radio is all about community and the people we serve. Given the nature of our business, I believe we have a duty to go beyond merely entertaining audiences on their commutes. To be effective, we need to help where we can. This idea becomes especially apparent in the wake of an emergency. We not only have the ability to react but also to respond. The fact that we can provide both information and resources in such a short (but critical) time frame is nothing short of incredible. When people are actively coming to us for relief, we need to do what we can to provide it. Our impact is often tied to our flexibility. What other business allows you to see a problem and move an entire community to solve it?”

“I strongly believe that if something is worth investing time on-air, it’s probably worth investing your time, too. Our jobs shouldn’t end with a donation link or a drop-off site – we should be hosting, helping, and volunteering at these events and for these causes. If we don’t care, why should our listeners? It physically pains me to hear about talent that won’t do something for charity unless they’re being paid.”

As far as the show goes, Dempsey says, “We’re not ‘characters,’ and we’re not always particularly polished or even positive. We’ve been doing the show together for about fourteen years and we really are just two weirdos talking about things that interest us and hoping they also interest at least a portion of our audience at any given time. I think we have a natural chemistry that probably makes the rest of our personalities somewhat tolerable.”

“Our show is heavy on listener interaction. We aren’t a podcast; we don’t just talk to hear ourselves talk. We want to start a conversation with our audience. If a caller makes a certain joke or stumbles upon something profound, it might spin off a topic we’d never think of on our own. It’s fun to see how a collaborative discussion can evolve in real time.”

Dempsey says one of her most exciting experiences over the years was proving a lot of people wrong. “Going from a top 40 station to a country one, Frito and I were frequently told that we weren’t country enough,” she says. “People doubted our knowledge of the music and our ability to connect with a country audience. That made winning the CMA Award for Major Market Personalities of the Year this past year even more delicious. The country music industry has been nothing but welcoming and accommodating, and we’ve loved everyone we’ve had the opportunity to work with.”

Another big accomplishment for Dempsey and the show was creating a literacy program (Read and Feed) to run in conjunction with a summer meals program to combat two massive issues affecting children in San Antonio. Getting to be in the parade and dye the river green for St. Patrick’s Day on the River Walk was another big deal. “We also gave over 200 local non-profits air time in one day of giving that raised millions of dollars, emceed ‘Mutton Bustin’ at the San Antonio Rodeo, sold pottery made by local kids to help stock entire school food pantries, and helped host and raise awareness for a rare form of pediatric brain cancer that successfully resulted in a clinical trial. After COVID, we even created a community Halloween event for an entire city. These are some events and memories I’ll never forget.”

“I also won’t soon forget the recognition bestowed upon me by my peers in this business. Radio Ink has featured me as one of the top PDs in the nation, and I was also honored to find myself on their inaugural list of ‘Radio’s 30 and Under Superstars.’ In 2019, the Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio selected me as one of their Mildred Carter mentees, and I’m also a graduate of RAB’s Rising Through the Ranks program. To say I’ve been blessed throughout my career is a massive understatement.” 

“One of the biggest challenges over the years is one I’m currently facing right now,” says Dempsey. “It’s always tough to start over in a new city and market, and Frito and I have now done it twice. We started in San Antonio to an online cacophony of hate and vitriol. I was seven months pregnant at the time with my son, I was living away from my husband and my then two-year-old daughter, and I was just an absolute wreck. Minus a few crying episodes on the floor of random extended-stay hotel showers, I like to think Frito made it out all right.”

“It’s just something you’ve got to get through. We hung in there, put in the work, showed the city we were invested in them through our words and our actions, and got out in front of them whenever we could. We told them we’d break them down over time, and eventually, we did.”

“I’ll tell you, the second time around, the hateful comments don’t cut nearly as deep. They still sting, but thankfully, Houstonians don’t have the same penchant for creative death threats as their Western counterparts.”

“All jokes aside, we know change is hard. My best advice to anyone going through this is that, as hard as it is, do not read the comments and do not engage. Don’t take the bait. Don’t feed the trolls. This is one of those instances where ignorance really is bliss.”

“And I didn’t think I’d get the opportunity to get back to Houston, so right now, my goal is to just try and survive and not screw it all up. Coincidentally, those are also my parenting goals at any given time. On a more long-term timeline, I don’t know when or if we’ll ever snag the top spot in such a competitive market, but we’ll have fun trying.”

Follow Katy Dempsey on Facebook and @andkaty. The show page is also on Facebook and other platforms @fritoandkaty.

1 COMMENT

  1. It’s apparent that Katy’s success is due to her attitude toward what radio should be, regardless of the size of station or the market. It’s moreover a shame that more radio folks don’t take this attitude – especially those golden-parachute execs. br

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