James Pickens
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Bio Coming Soon!
Dustin Tatro, CBRE
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Dustin Tatro is your Radio Abilene Station Manager, Program Director, Chief Engineer, and host of Middays on the Raider.
Dustin is a 25-year veteran of radio and television in West Texas, working with stations in Andrews, Odessa, and Abilene in some capacity over classic rock, oldies, country, red dirt, and Christian rock formats. He previously was the host of the syndicated The RockDown Show with Dustin Tatro, heard internationally on almost 150 over-the-air stations.
Dustin holds credentials through the Society of Broadcast Engineers as a Certified Broadcast Radio Engineer, sits on the SBE’s education and certification committee, and is an elected member of the Texas Association of Broadcasters Board of Directors, filling one of the small-market radio director seats.
Dustin is the official organist and director of game entertainment with the Abilene Flying Bison and was also official organist for the Texas Rangers through the World-Series winning 2023 season. He is a retired Texas EMT and firefighter with over a decade of 911 service. Dustin serves as Organist/Choirmaster at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Breckenridge, Texas. He holds both undergraduate and masters degrees in organ and choral conducting from Hardin-Simmons University.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Broadcasters, representing small market radio, on the Board of Trustees for Global Samaritan Resources, and a member of John Sayles Masonic Lodge.
Tatro is married to Staci, a junior high faculty member with Wylie ISD. They are pet parents to the Beagle twins, Louis & Loretta, and a tuxedo cat named Bella after Grizabella, the “memory cat” from Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s “Cats.”
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Roger Wallace
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Roger Wallace has been anchoring and covering sports since 1995 at KXAN and can be seen on KXAN News at 6 and 10 as well as host of Game Night on Sundays at 10:30pm.
He also serves as play-by-play voice for High School Football and Basketball on KBVO-TV.
Roger has also been part of the Longhorn Football Radio Network since 2004. After seven years as sideline reporter, he moved to the color analyst position in 2011.
He began his career on the central coast of California in San Luis Obispo where he was a sports anchor/reporter for KSBY-TV. From California he went to Tyler, Texas and was the main sports anchor for three years at KLTV.
His next stop was Wichita, Kansas as sports anchor at KAKE-TV and was the television voice of Wichita State basketball and baseball. In 1995, he made his way to Austin and has been here ever since.
Roger has covered both the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He has served as the radio analyst for the University of Texas Football radio network since 2011, and before that he was their sideline reporter for the previous seven years including their National Championship season of 2005.
Roger is a multiple winner of “Best Sportscast” voted on by the Texas Associated Press and has also been named Best Sportscaster by The Austin Chronicle.
Roger has been involved with numerous Central Texas charities including “Neighborhood Longhorns”, CASA, Caritas of Austin, and FCA. He is also a regular on the reading circuit to kids at a number of area elementary schools.
Roger and his wife, Tammi, have two daughters. When he’s not covering sports, Roger loves to play golf, basketball, and the never-ending battle with the elliptical machine.
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Quita Culpepper
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Quita Culpepper is an anchor at KVUE in Austin, Texas.
Quita is one of Austin’s most celebrated and trusted TV journalists. Since moving to Austin at the age of 13, the city has become her home; sharing the stories of the community has become one of her biggest passions.
Quita earned her first television job in Austin, and during her time on the air she’s been honored with numerous awards and accolades. She first landed on the Austin Chronicle’s “Best of Austin” list in 1999, when she was named “Best TV Reporter.” She’s been on the list nine times since then and in 2015, Austin Way Magazine named her one of its “8 Influential Austin Women.”
With more than 15 years of experience, Quita has met everyone from the President of the United States to the man who works behind the counter at her favorite restaurant. She’s even made a few appearances on the silver screen in the movies, “Bernie,” “The Quiet,” and “Booth.”
Quita said there’s never been a dull moment in her time as a journalist. She feels fortunate to work with such a great group of people every day at KVUE.
When she’s not behind the desk or chasing a story; Quita enjoys live music, spending time with her family, comic books, breakfast tacos and a good game of laser tag.
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Chris Meinhardt
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Chris Meinhardt has been a driving force in the radio industry since 1992, getting his start at WROU-FM in Dayton, Ohio. Following roles with the Associated Press and iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel) in West Palm Beach, he joined Arbitron (now Nielsen) in 1998.
Over nearly three decades, he has managed a diverse portfolio of responsibilities across the radio landscape. Today, he works extensively with local diary and PPM markets, national groups, and industry consultants, while also overseeing relationships with non-commercial and public radio networks like NPR, the Radio Research Consortium (RRC), PRX, and American Public Media among others.
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Ally Hugg
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Ally Hugg is the Executive Director of Media at McGarrah Jessee (McJ), the independent creative company known for building fanaticism for brands like Whataburger, YETI, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and Shiner Beer.
She leads McJ’s media discipline across planning, buying, optimization, and reporting, with an omnichannel team of specialists spanning OOH, broadcast, digital, search, social, and beyond. She has built media strategy for clients across retail, CPG, financial services, and food & beverage, powering award-winning creative campaigns.
Her approach is guided by two beliefs: media is creative and creative is media, and media runs on data. It’s a philosophy that shows up in how McJ is built, with the media discipline sitting within the technology department, reporting into the Chief Technology Officer — underscoring that modern media strategy is inseparable from the digital landscape, measurement, and signals behind it.
In 15 years at McJ, Ally has risen from PR and social strategist to executive director — giving her a fluency across paid, owned, and earned media that few leaders can claim. Fittingly, her love of media doesn’t clock out at 5: she spends her free time consuming it in every form, from movies to live shows in the Live Music Capital of the World to virtual reality with friends.
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Phyllis Slocum
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Phyllis Slocum (SLOH-kuhm) joined the University of North Texas in Fall 2002 after a long career in the broadcast industry.
Having worked in both radio and television, her focus for the majority of her career has been television news, television management, and the broadcasting industry.
During her more than 15 years with several different television stations, she served as an anchor, reporter, producer, executive producer, and news director. In those capacities, she was recognized by her colleagues for outstanding work.
Moving into the arena of broadcast consulting, Slocum worked for nearly 16 years with one of the nation’s most highly acclaimed broadcast consulting firms: Audience Research and Development, with a focus on news, marketing, management, audience, and talent development.
In addition to her work on the industry and academic side, she is also a professional voice-over talent working with companies as they develop their on-air sound and with individuals in a voice-presentation coaching capacity.
At UNT she teaches upper level and graduate studies in media with an emphasis in television. Slocum teaches the capstone Television News Producing course which culminates in a special certificate for students completing the television news producing program as well as Media in the 21st Century, International Communications, Broadcasting Copywriting, Interviewing and Performance, and other industry-related courses. She also serves as Station Manager for ntTV (North Texas Television) the 24/7 student-programmed and -operated cable channel which has gained national recognition over the past decade for outstanding student work.
For her students the mission is simple: “My goal is to help, nurture and teach these students to enable them to take their place as dedicated, highly motivated, and competent media professionals in whatever area they choose.”
Slocum holds a B.A. in Political Science/International Studies from Kalamazoo College and an M.A. in Radio, Television and Film from UNT.
She is active in various professional organizations serving on panels, making presentations, and has published and co-authored several papers.
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Bill Urciuoli
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Bill Urciuoli is the Chief Technology Officer at McGarrah Jessee (McJ), the independent creative company known for building fanaticism for brands like Whataburger, YETI, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and Shiner Beer.
He leads the agency’s converged media, data, and technology group, building the data operating system, identity and measurement infrastructure, and custom tools that power McJ’s creative campaigns.
A researcher and marketing-science innovator by training, Bill continues to pursue the art of turning data and measurement into impact, translating signals to drive business decisions clients can leverage for growth.
Prior to McJ, he spent his career at WPP’s Eicoff, rising to SVP of Analytics & Innovation, where he modernized the agency’s media offering and built its data and business-transformation capabilities. .
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Cindy Shekoski
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Cindy Shekoski is the Media Director leading broadcast at McGarrah Jessee (McJ), an independent creative company known for building fanaticism for brands like Whataburger, YETI, Academy Sports + Outdoors, and Shiner Beer.
She oversees the agency’s broadcast investment practice, negotiating, buying, and stewarding video and audio across linear TV, radio, and streaming. Prior to McJ, Cindy spent her career at Kelly Scott Madison, the Chicago-based independent media agency, where she rose from senior planner to Associate Director of Video & Audio.
A sought-after industry voice, she has spoken at the MediaPost TV & Video Insider Summit, the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters Convention, and the Texas Association of Broadcasters Show, where she shares perspective on navigating TV and audio investment in a rapidly fragmenting landscape.
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Steve Laukhuf
Kalahari Resorts & Conventions
Round Rock, TX
Steve Laukhuf is a native Texan who was born and raised on a ranch near Holliday, Texas. He began his broadcasting career in 1983 at KKQV-FM and KTRN-AM in Wichita Falls, where he worked in promotions, on-air, and radio sales. His career has taken him to San Antonio, Waco, back to Wichita Falls as Station Manager, and ultimately to ownership of a group of stations in the Nacogdoches-Lufkin markets.
Today, Steve is Owner and CEO of the Cowboy Broadcasting Network, which includes KRXT-FM, named the 2025 Texas Country Music Association Terrestrial Radio Station of the Year. He is also the founder and CEO of One Voice Communications, Inc., an award-winning marketing and communications firm based in Williamson County. His diverse media career has also included television and serving as publisher of the Round Rock Leader.
Steve has earned numerous advertising industry and community awards and has been featured in several national trade publications. Outside of broadcasting, he raises Longhorn cattle on his Double S Ranch in Lee County, serves on multiple boards and community organizations, and is passionate about rodeo, the western lifestyle, and developing the next generation of agricultural leaders.
As host of the daily Hometown Highlights radio program, Steve interviews more than 30 local guests each week on a wide range of rural topics. His passion for local media led him back to community broadcasting, where he continues to deliver an authentic local entertainment experience for Central Texans.
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