Randy Michaels is filling out his Louisville leadership team with someone from his Jacor days. Former iHeartMedia programming executive Tony Tilford has been named Operations Manager of classic hits WAKY, overseeing day-to-day programming.
Tilford began his career in 1985 doing weekends at WKQQ in Lexington. He later programmed WKQQ, WMMS in Cleveland, WTUE in Dayton, and WFBQ (Q95) Indianapolis, and was named Director of Rock Programming for iHeartMedia’s Kentucky-Indiana region in 2016 after serving as the company’s Regional Senior Vice President of Programming for its Southwest Ohio-Indiana region.
Wakyana LLC, led by Michaels, acquired the WAKY stations from W&B Broadcasting in 2025.
Michaels said, “Tony learned programming at Jacor. He is solid. In no time, he will remember how to schedule more music than commercials. Tony knows how to do radio that isn’t cookie-cutter corporate, and that is what WAKY needs.”
WAKY Vice President and General Manager Bill Gentry said, “We are thrilled to have Tony, who has programmed some of America’s greatest radio stations. At WAKY, he will be responsible for one of the most unique. WAKY plays music, a lot of it made in Louisville, that no other station plays. Our playlist is wide, deep, and local. Tony will have to get used to operating without a corporate playlist, really without corporate anything. We are locally owned and programmed.”
“The opportunity to work for Randy Michaels and Bill Gentry again was too good to pass up. It feels like coming home,” Tilford said.
