Commentary: KYXY, 94/9, KIFM, and Others Know How To Do Radio Right (January 12, 2005)

The radio landscape in any given city is full of tired old ideas that have gotten to the point where many listeners, sick of hearing stale old playlists, are planning and/or subscribing to satellite radio from one or both of the services costing between $10 and $13 a month.

Judging from tuning in several rap-infested R&B, teeny bopper Top 40, and worn-out cookie cutter oldies stations, you'd think that satellite, Internet, MP3 collections, and iPods are the way to go, but in a given radio market, there are a few stations that stand up and out above the heaps of small-brained rubble that pollutes the airwaves.

These are the stations that go beyond programming a music playlist. They liven them up with relevant music, listen to their audience, keep the programming fresh, and to understand the lucrative mature listener by keeping the stations suitable enough for all to enjoy.

A few radio stations in San Diego with musically-intelligent directors and radio jocks are the vanguards of the broadcast radio industry who are helping to maintain or gain radio listeners by staying in touch first-hand with what San Diego wants and doesn't want to hear on a single radio station. Some of the Music Directors in San Diego are doing something besides depending on the promotions coordiators to stage nationwide million dollar contests with high odds against winning. The Music Directors are keeping the music playlists alive by constantly evolving the playlists, adding relevant new songs that fit the style of the music format, and discarding old songs that nobody can relate to hearing anymore. This is basically a research-intensive job, but there are a few San Diego stations that stand out above the rest.

Mark Blackwell, the music director of KYXY 96.5 is one of the few local musical directors that understand what kind of music its listeners expect to hear. Relevant classic hits from last year through three decades ago, keeping the tone of the music mature but suitable for all ages to listen to, adding some of today's popular hits that fit the musical direction, having radio personalities that are easy to get along with, and to never stray from its core musical category: the love song. My radio hat goes off to Blackwell, as well as VP and GM Bob Bolinger, Operations Manager and PD Charlie Quinn, and the radio personalities: Sam Bass, Kevin Dean, Susan DeVincent, Yvonne Karlin, Gene Knight, John Q. Lawrence, Ralph Rodarte, and Sonny West maintain the radio station's rated-G programming whose sole purpose of creating the music programming concept is to relax and to entertain the listener, and they've been doing it right for almost three decades, earning the station a constant Arbitron Top 10 ranking most every quarterly survey I seen. Tune in KYXY in the evenings for a nightly love song show for lovers to unwind and to fall asleep to at night.

For those who don't care too music for music that's soft and relaxing, but want something edgy and fun, there's no better station to tune in than FM 94/9's alternative rock format. With Tommy in the mornings, Hansen middays, Music Director Halloran in the afternoons, Anya in the evenings, and Miorri with the Big Sonic Chill in the late night, as well as as programming the best mix of album oriented rock since the days of the late original incarnation of KPRI 106.5 and the once innovative KGB, playing deep cuts of some of your favorite artists and keeping the classics rolling in every now and then, it all adds up to the little frequency, once an oldies station, that could beat out an established longtime heritage station, 91X, in the Arbitrons. What matters to the listener isn't the nationwide contests they can't win, or the indie-paid songs they don't care to listen to, it's about the music that they care to listen to that helped in a big part put FM 94/9 into a top rock choice in San Diego to listen to.

Some people listen to this station while at an all-you-can-eat buffet. There's one in La Mesa that tunes in this station to provide great unobtrusive background music while you eat. Others such a convienence stores use this station's music over their store-wide intercom system to scare away the loiterers from hanging out all day, though the influence is negligible in the oldsters. Some doctors strongly advise against listening to the station while operating heavy machinery. Joke about it all you want, but this San Diego-based station has too much class to care about being the brunt of jokes. Smooth Jazz FM 98.1 has been giving San Diegans a longtime alternaitve to adult contemporary KYXY with its own mix of soft music on the contemporary jazz side. Program Director Mike Vasguez, Morning Connection host Melissa Sharpe, midday Mark Zegan, afternoon and Music Director Kelly Cole, Evenings Mike Vee ("Lites Out San Diego"), and weekender Shelley Fox fill the airwaves with a unique blend of adult music that's often imitated, even on Satellite, but never duplicated. Like KYXY and FM 94/9, KIFM stays in touch with San Diego with concerts, event appearrances, station-branded brunches and cocktail parties, public services, and recognizing local heroes. These are the things that XM and Sirius, despite being capable of programming over 200 channels combined, just can never do locally.

Then there's KPRI 102.1, Authentic Rock, that's been giving mature San Diegans a better choice for adult rock and roll for almost ten years (when it started out as KCBQ 105.3, then moved to KXST 102.1 when Compass traded the former for the latter in a complex radio deal.) KPRI fills a niche gap by playing new adult alternative rock and roll mixed in with classic rock from up to four decades before this decade. A station like this isn't in every city, but you can go to authenticrock.com and listen to the station stream via the Internet. This is a station that has never taken the classic rock music playlist in a cookie-cutter manner and kept the stream of rock moving constantly by replenishing it with the best of the new rock music that older listeners enjoy to hear and suitable for the younger listeners to tune in.

Among all of the music formats Clear Channel San Diego has programmed, only one station in San Diego that they program has stayed the course of the format since 1997 when Nationwide introduced it on 95.7. Magic 92.5 playing the best of old school favorites (which is R&B, funk, disco, soul, and mature rap) mixed in with some of today's R&B hits that fit the scope of the format. The result is a station that is suitable for all ages to enjoy with enough new music to keep the playlist from becoming stale. Duncan Payton the PD, midday jock Sherry Knight, afternoon jock The X-Man, and the evening jock Lisa St. Regis "The Quiet Storm" keep the old and new school songs jammin through the airwaves 24 hours a day. And be sure to check out the Friday and Saturday night old school mix shows for a blast from the past, mixing in the classic R&B hits from the 70s and 80s from 7pm until 3am.

Some great concepts off of the satellite deserve to bump off a stale format locally with a format that deserves to be on a local station with a San Diego connection. Try combining XM channels Deep Tracks 40 playing tracks from the latest adult rock albums, with Top Tracks 46 playing classic rock hits of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and you will have a station in San Diego that can potentially clean up in the classic rock ratings. I wish that the Planet 103.7 would adopt this kind of programming concept and nurture it with relevant new and classic music tailored to this market and you'll have a ratings grabber long after Howard Stern leaves the public airwaves for you-know-where. Planet FM 103.7, otherwise, has given a local connection to the XM 46 classic rock format with Cindy Pace in the midday, legendary jock Jim McInnes in the afternoons, Dawson in the evenings, Tony Martin overnights, and PD Todd Little among others give San Diego a top alternative to the musically-aimless KGB, who can't seem to keep an afternoon jock since they fired McInnes two years ago. Hats off to the nine-year old Planet FM for sticking with a format that has finally toppled KGB according to most people, but with Stern leaving by the end of the year, Planet better think about getting a music director that can mix in today's newer adult rock songs with the classics that stood the test of time. Is The Planet up to the challenge?

Sure, Satellite radio is great for providing musical choices that are not available locally, but in reality, many of the overniched channels by themselves won't cut it in any given radio market, which is why they thrive as a pay subscription service.

Local broadcast radio can do what satellite radio cannot do, such as providing a local connection to the music, adjusting the mix to suit the listeners, providing needed public service, combine several half dozen channels to come up with a great music format, keep the music fresh, kick off the stale oldies, and to have friendly local hosts keep you company, and as long as the jobs of the music and program directors are based on how well their stations show up in the Arbitrons, it is their job to do whatever it takes musically to keep their stations interesting enough for the locals to choose them over a given overniched satellite radio channel.

The MDs and the PDs who have failed to keep the station from foundering in the ratings are ending up working for stations in smaller markets or getting out of the radio business and managing a fast food chain franchise. Those who think that radio is the equivilent of a fast food chain are probably working there after failing to understand their listeners's collective taste in music.

In converse, those who work in a fast food chain who think that their store should go independent and serve whatever kind of menu their customers demand to have are in the wrong industry; they should be working at a local radio station instead!