Virgil Thompson

Virgil Thompson began his broadcasting career in 1980 while in high school on the air in Savannah. He would work in Georgia, Florida, and California and earn a degree from the University of Florida before arriving in San Antonio in 1991 as Program Director to return 99.5 KISS to a rock format.

On December 31 at 12:31 pm, the newly reformatted KISS signed on the air with a live event on the San Antonio Riverwalk. The ratings showed instant success with KISS debuting as the #1 rock station in a 3-rock station battle. Virgil’s programming vision eliminated their direct competition within 15 months and led KISS to two decades of ratings and revenue success.

Their airing of harder-edged rock music and their lifestyle events and community service efforts would capture local and national attention. From 2003 to 2008 KISS dominated the San Antonio market as the leading revenue generating station, a feat extremely rare for a rock station.

In 1993, Virgil became Operations Manager for KISS plus Magic KSMG and The Loop KLUP. In 1998 he added duties as Cox rock format, in-house consultant … programming all non-sales departments concurrently for all Cox rock format stations. This included working with General Managers and Program Directors at 20-plus stations in 10 markets.

In 2003 Virgil became Vice-President and General Manager for Cox Radio East. During this time, he facilitated the consolidation and move of KISS and KSMG into their new state-of-the-art facility with five other Cox Radio stations in San Antonio. In 2006 Cox East merged with Cox West and became Cox San Antonio.

In 2009 Virgil became Vice-President of Programming for Cox San Antonio where he managed programming, promotions, marketing, engineering, web development, and I-T for six Cox stations until he retired from radio broadcasting in 2012.