Radio Programming Veteran Joel Folger Dies

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Do I feel like I have a mission to succeed for the format in a Top 5 market? No. I feel like I have a mission to succeed for Susquehanna and the people who work for me. 


Those words were shared by Joel Folger in a column appearing in the January 30, 1998 edition of Radio & Records. Speaking to columnist Sky Daniels, Folger was fresh off of a run as the top programmer of KDGE in Dallas. With 15 years in the market that included a well-remembered run as PD for Rock-oriented Top 40 KEGL “97.1 The Eagle,” Folger was now programming the short-lived KKZN.

In 2000, he’d jump into consultant work, and consistently served in this role until a setback tied to a recent stroke. He made “tremendous progress,” AllAccess.com reports. Yet, that couldn’t prevent a fatal heart attack suffered Thursday by the veteran radio industry figure.

Folger, who was 65, began his career at KTRF in Thief River Falls, Minn., but behind the scenes. He then earned on-air positions at KCLD in St. Cloud, Minn., famed Album-Oriented Rocker KQRS in Minneapolis, and then at AOR KBPI in Denver. His resume also includes a role as PD of Top 40 KDWB in Minneapolis.

In May 1987, he became PD of KJYO in Oklahoma City, a move that proved so successful that then-R&R CHR Editor Joel Denver dubbed Folger “the KATT Killer,” as the Top 40 station beat the Rocker in the summer 1987 Arbitron ratings.

Speaking of his success to Denver, Folger said, “This place was like Hiroshima after the
bomb. It had just received its third or fourth down book in a row. Yet I needed the staff to feel like winners, because they’re the cornerstone of the station. To instill a positive outlook, we talked with everyone and listened to them on the air. For the most part everyone stayed, but some had their shifts changed to where they were better suited and some new people were brought in.”

He continued, “The key word is `effort.’ When you generate 100% effort, you seldom fail.
My staff gives that kind of effort.”

However, it is his combined time in Dallas-Fort Worth, and his consultancy, that is perhaps Folger’s greatest mark on Radio. He is known for having coached air personalities who would later go on to host nights at Z100 in New York and KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, the nation’s two leading CHR/Pop stations.

News of Folger’s passing was first reported by AllAccess.com.

He is survived by his wife, Becky, and three children.