Radio Waves Podcast #135

Airwaves: July 8, 2016

 

Former General manager of KIIS-FM (102.7) and KPRZ (now KEIB, 1150 AM) Wally Clark was honored with a Diamond Circle Award by the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters on June 29.

 

The mild-mannered, highly-respected Clark oversaw the operations during the record-setting ratings era of the 1980s, when KIIS-FM attracted an audience share of over 10 in the Arbitron Ratings -- about double what they earn now -- and KIIS-FM was the top-40 trendsetter throughout the nation. So popular was KIIS that the station was able to charge a full $2000 per commercial for advertising time during prime hours while most other stations were charging about one-quarter of that amount.

 

Under Clark, KIIS-FM became the highest revenue-producing station in the entire world.

 

And it wasn’t just KIIS. Playing adult standards, KPRZ was earning ratings for the AM side of things into the high 2 and low 3 shares, something the station has not done since dropping the format ... ironically also under Clark. That change was rumored to be related to allowing Clark to break the salary cap then-station owner Gannett had in order to keep Rick Dees at the station.

 

He was named Gannett’s top-10 manager, was recognized by Billboard Magazine as a Trendsetter of the Year, co-created Rick Dees’ Weekly Top-40, and created the Satellite Comedy Network, which among other things supplies material for morning shows throughout the country.

 

Less Everything, More Ads

 

I’ve been liking the sound of Heidi and Frank on KLOS (95.5 FM); it seems the addition of Lisa May last year and the addition of music to the morning show have made a decidedly positive change to the program. Overall the show is more entertaining and fun than in the recent past.

 

The only problem? It is dogged by commercials. In a recent morning, I sat through eight minutes of commercials at the 9 0‘clock hour. Eight minutes! And it was at the start of the hour, traditionally when most stations generally try to avoid commercials.

 

Imagine being the 6th, 7th or 8th advertiser during that block ... how much is your ad worth? How many listeners tuned away about that time? KLOS needs to learn from the past -- limit the total number of commercials so you can charge more for each (each commercial has far more value to advertisers) and stop with the long commercial sets ... that’s been “yesterday” since ... forever.

 

Rhodes-Sandler Connection

 

Former KTLK (now KEIB) talk host Randi Rhodes will team up with programmer-turned-host Nicole Sandler (remember her form Channel 103.1?) to co-host four hours of talk available on their respective web pages.

 

Running live 11-1 p.m. locally on NicoleSandler.Com and live 1-3 p.m. at RandiRhodes.Com, the free shows will also be available as podcasts on both sites. 

 

Perfect 10

 

Go Country 105 now ranks as the #1 most weighted Country station in America.

 

What this means is that, due to the continued success and influence Go Country has seen over the past years, every time the station plays a song, the “spin” is counted for ten points on the Mediabase Country Charts, which tracks radio station airplay. 

 

Think of it like surveys in which each person surveyed represents a much larger portion of the general population. Go Country’s “perfect 10” for Mediabase makes it the #1 station in the panel.