Friday, March 29, 2024

Mike Greene’s legacy: sincere, passionate about radio

Posted

Mike Greene was passionate about being a radio broadcaster, and his connection with the listening audience and the community itself was obvious to anyone who knew him.

Greene, a Hood County resident who owned and operated KOME 95.5 FM (known as K-Hits), died at age 60 on April 7 at Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth. He and his wife, Julie, resided near Pecan Plantation after moving to the area in September 2014.

KOME’s offices had been in Glen Rose until August 2020, when Greene moved it to Temple Hall Highway just northeast of Granbury. Greene changed KOME’s previous format from country and western music to country rock, before finally switching in July 2018 to the its current classic rock and pop that he had grown up loving.

Even after the KOME offices moved out of Somervell County, the station remained focused on local Glen Rose community news and sports coverage of the Tigers and Lady Tigers of Glen Rose High School. 

Greene teamed with Glen Rose ISD Asssistant Superintendent of Operations Tommy Corcoran starting in the fall of 2015 doing live GRHS football and basketball broadcasts. Corcoran said Greene was a “great radio guy” and his death is “a loss for everybody.”

Corcoran added, “He was a very kind-hearted man. He loved doing things for people. He was so personable. He was a joy to be around — always a laugh.”

The Greenes bought KOME from Richard Witkovski, the owner of the Dallas-based North Texas Radio Group. When Witkovski reached out to the Hood County News by phone last Thursday for more information on Greene’s passing, he said he felt he lost a real friend. 

“He took a real keen interest in the people’s business,” said Witkovski, the former owner of KYOT, which he said had been Granbury’s first FM radio station about 20 years ago. “I’m so brokenhearted, I just don’t know what to do. I could see he was a keen mind in radio. He was so good. He was a sincere person. Very well respected.”

Julie Greene texted the Hood County News in response to questions submitted through KOME’s Facebook page. She said there will be a Life Celebration for her husband at 10 a.m. Friday, April 16 at Stonewater Church in Glen Rose.

Julie joined Mike on the air each weekday morning for KOME’s conversational segment called the “Wakeup Crew,” along with other on-air personalities.

The message posted on KOME’s Facebook page states that 95.5 “will go on,” adding, “It won’t be the same without Mike at the controls, as he was one of a kind.”