Jacksonville is not getting an outsider with a fresh notebook and three months of market research ahead of him. Cox Media Group has elevated Jud Heussler to Director of Operations for its Jacksonville radio group, handing broader responsibility to a programmer who has already spent more than five years inside the cluster, already knows the audience, already knows the talent and already has fingerprints on 95.1 WAPE and Easy 102.9. Now the job gets considerably bigger. Heussler is moving from helping steer two music brands to helping coordinate programming strategy and day-to-day operations across one of the most diverse radio clusters in the market.
This is not a title polish.
This is:
HERE ARE THE KEYS TO EIGHT STATIONS
Now make the damn thing work.
EIGHT STATIONS IS A LOT OF RADIO
Look at the room Heussler is walking into.
95.1 WAPE.
Power 106.1.
Hot 106.5.
ESPN 690.
Easy 102.9.
96.9 The Eagle.
104.5 WOKV.
X99.5.
That is not one format.
That is not one audience.
That is not one lifestyle.
CMG’s own Jacksonville job description for this role lays out the scale clearly: the operation spans hit music, Urban, R&B, sports, AC, Classic Hits, News Talk and Alternative brands under one roof.
That means Heussler now has to think in stereo.
Actually, more like octophonic.
😂
He has to understand what WAPE needs without making Easy sound like WAPE.
What Hot 106.5 needs without making Power sound identical.
What WOKV needs without flattening everything into generic corporate radio.
What X99.5 needs from an Alternative audience.
What ESPN 690 needs from sports listeners.
That is the real job.
AND HE ALREADY KNOWS JACKSONVILLE
This is where the promotion makes sense.
Heussler joined Cox Media Group in March 2021 after programming Pulse FM in Raleigh.
Since then, he has been the Director of Branding and Programming for WAPE and Easy 102.9, two very different music products serving two very different audience needs. CMG itself said in 2024 that Heussler had played a major role in shaping the branding and programming strategies of both stations.
That matters.
You do not hand somebody broader cluster responsibility because they know one clock.
You do it because they understand how different stations fit together.
THE WAPE EXPERIENCE ALONE IS VALUABLE
WAPE is not some sleepy station where a programmer can hide.
It is a full-on CHR operation with live personalities, active contesting, local events, apps, artist content and constant audience interaction.
Its current lineup includes Dex and Barbie T in mornings, Adam in middays, Cait in afternoons and additional weekend talent, while the station app lets listeners interact directly with music, contests and on-air content.
That is a modern radio brand.
Broadcast.
Digital.
Social.
Contest.
Community.
Personality.
All at once.
That is excellent training for somebody moving into a market-wide operations chair.
AND EASY 102.9 IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ANIMAL
Easy 102.9 is not CHR.
It is built around a broader 80s 90s and more presentation, lifestyle content, local food and restaurant coverage, weather, hurricane preparation, performance-studio content and a more relaxed adult audience environment.
So Heussler has already had to operate in two different programming languages.
That is important.
Because the worst possible cluster operator is somebody who believes every station should sound like the one they personally like best.
That is how you end up with eight stations wearing different logos and somehow sounding exactly the same.
JACKSONVILLE DOES NOT NEED THAT
This market is too distinctive.
The 904 has its own rhythm.
Its own neighborhoods.
Its own sports obsessions.
Its own beach culture.
Its own military presence.
Its own growth patterns.
Its own hurricane reality.
Its own music tastes.
Its own local businesses.
CMG has been leaning into that local identity across the cluster, including its new Bold City Boardroom initiative highlighting Northeast Florida business leaders across all eight stations.
That is exactly the kind of market-wide project Heussler will now have to think about.
Not simply:
WHAT SONG GOES INTO POWER
but:
WHAT CAN THIS ENTIRE CLUSTER OWN IN JACKSONVILLE
That is a completely different level of programming responsibility.
THE 904 SHOULD BE THE STRATEGY
This is where I would challenge Heussler.
Do not make Jacksonville fit CMG.
Make CMG fit Jacksonville.
There is a difference.
The stations should sound like the market.
WAPE should feel young and current.
Easy should feel familiar and comfortable.
WOKV should sound urgent when the city needs information.
ESPN 690 should sound like somebody actually understands what people in North Florida are arguing about.
X99.5 should sound like Alternative belongs in Jacksonville, not like somebody exported a national playlist and changed the logo.
That is where cluster leadership becomes valuable.
You are protecting individual brands while creating shared market muscle.
AND CMG CLEARLY WANTS GROWTH
The job description for Heussler’s new role makes audience growth central to the assignment.
CMG says it wants someone who understands the 25-54 audience, evolving listening habits, digital media, community involvement and entertainment, while helping the cluster adapt to changing audience behavior.
That is the real challenge of radio in 2026.
Not simply:
HOW DO WE WIN THE BOOK
It is:
How do we win the dashboard?
The phone?
The app?
The stream?
The social feed?
The podcast?
The event?
The text line?
The listener’s actual life?
Radio operators cannot think only in quarter-hours anymore.
AND HEUSSLER HAS ALREADY BEEN WORKING IN THAT WORLD
WAPE’s own app strategy tells you how seriously CMG thinks about interaction beyond FM.
Listeners can stream, vote on songs, enter contests, make requests and consume personality content through the app.
That is where somebody with a branding background becomes useful.
Because modern programming is no longer:
Music.
Jocks.
Commercials.
Repeat.
It is:
BRAND EVERYWHERE
And if you cannot keep that brand coherent across platforms, you lose.
LOCALISM IS NOT JUST A BUZZWORD HERE
CMG Jacksonville still actively solicits local nonprofit PSA submissions across its stations, providing free airtime for qualifying community organizations.
That may sound small.
It is not.
That is part of how radio maintains relevance when everybody else is fighting for attention with infinite content.
Streaming can give you songs.
TikTok can give you entertainment.
YouTube can give you video.
But a local radio cluster can become part of what is happening in a city.
That is the edge.
AND JACKSONVILLE IS GROWING FAST ENOUGH THAT THE OLD PLAYBOOK WILL NOT BE ENOUGH
This city is changing.
The audience is changing.
The population is changing.
Music tastes are changing.
Media habits are changing.
Radio usage is changing.
That means Heussler cannot simply protect what worked in 2021.
He has to figure out what works next.
That is why this promotion matters.
HE ALSO HAS LOCAL CREDIBILITY
In 2024, the Jacksonville Business Journal selected Heussler for its 40 Under 40 recognition, and CMG specifically tied that honor to his local leadership, programming work and community involvement in Northeast Florida.
That is not a radio trade award.
That is the business community recognizing somebody inside local broadcasting.
Important distinction.
Because if you are going to lead operations across eight stations, relationships outside the studio matter.
Advertisers.
Community leaders.
Nonprofits.
Venues.
Promoters.
Sports teams.
Local businesses.
Those connections are part of radio’s real infrastructure.
THE BIGGEST TEST WILL BE KEEPING THE STATIONS DIFFERENT
This is where cluster operations can go wrong fast.
Efficiency is seductive.
Same promotion.
Same digital idea.
Same imaging philosophy.
Same talent strategy.
Same everything.
Then suddenly every station has been optimized into beige.
Do not do that.
Eight stations should mean eight personalities.
Eight emotional products.
Eight reasons to listen.
The central operation should make them stronger.
Not make them identical.
HEUSSLER NEEDS TO DEVELOP PEOPLE TOO
This is another part of the job I care about.
Look at WAPE.
There are personalities across the schedule.
There are weekend opportunities.
Heussler himself is still listed on the station’s weekend schedule.
That is valuable.
If you are leading eight stations, find people.
Develop them.
Move them.
Teach them.
Give them hours.
Let somebody become the next Jacksonville morning star.
Because cluster leadership is not simply maintaining what you inherited.
It is building what comes after you.
THE JOB IS ALSO ABOUT CRISIS
Jacksonville radio has another responsibility that cannot be ignored.
Weather.
Hurricanes.
Severe storms.
Emergencies.
When Northeast Florida gets threatened, radio becomes something different.
It stops being entertainment and becomes infrastructure.
Easy 102.9 is already promoting hurricane preparedness resources.
WOKV exists in a News Talk role where emergency information becomes critical.
That means operational leadership across this cluster is not just format strategy.
It is readiness.
Do the systems work?
Can the stations coordinate?
Can the audience get information?
Are the right people in the building?
That is serious radio.
ON THE DIAL PERSPECTIVE
I like this promotion because it actually looks like succession.
Heussler arrived in 2021.
He proved himself on WAPE and Easy.
He built local credibility.
He grew into broader branding responsibility.
Now the company is asking him to operate across eight brands.
That makes sense.
And it gives Jacksonville something valuable:
A leader who already knows Jacksonville.
THE NEXT MOVE SHOULD BE BOLD
Heussler now has the ability to think bigger than a single station.
Imagine cluster-wide community projects.
Shared artist access.
Sports crossover.
Local business initiatives.
Digital partnerships.
Weather coordination.
Major market events.
Talent development across formats.
That is where eight stations become more than eight separate P and L lines.
They become a media system.
AND THAT IS THE REAL OPPORTUNITY
The easy version of this job is operational efficiency.
The great version is cultural leadership.
Make these stations matter more in Jacksonville.
Make them harder to ignore.
Make them sound more local.
Make the talent bigger.
Make the digital products better.
Make the community projects impossible to miss.
Make the brands distinct.
And when somebody in the 904 hears one of them…
MAKE DAMN SURE THEY KNOW THEY ARE IN JACKSONVILLE
That is the assignment.
Not eight transmitters.
Not eight playlists.
Not eight logos.
EIGHT LOCAL BRANDS
Jud Heussler now gets to help decide what all of them become.
That is a big damn radio job.
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