KTAR Programmer's Posts

Corporate radio ignores teen's murder

The difference has never been clearer. 

After years of competing against corporate controlled radio stations I used to make the mistake of thinking I had seen it all.  Not anymore.

I love talk radio.  One of the reasons I make my living in this business is because I am a major consumer of it.  I love hearing a community get on the air and discuss and debate the issues affecting it.  Neighbors talking to neighbors.  Opinions being fired back and forth.  Political leaders being held accountable.  And, all of it available on the radio.  It's where communities come together.

Well, it used to be that way on most radio stations.  Not so much anymore.

I was frankly amazed today as ALL but one of Phoenix's talk radio stations completely ignored the story of an innocent teenage girl being brutally attacked and killed when her parents went out of town.  I know we're incredibly fortunate at KTAR-FM to have amazing resources and a huge news team, but the way the other stations in town turned a blind eye to this tragedy is thoroughly disappointing.

KTAR-FM was the only radio station with a reporter in Queen Creek yesterday when the mother of Amber Hess spoke about a body being found that was likely her daughter.  Not only that, but KTAR-FM was the only radio station that even bothered to GO to Queen Creek to cover the story in the last few days. 

Then, this morning, KTAR-FM broke the story of the two arrests in the murder.  It came through hard work by one of our star reporters, Jim Cross, who has pounded the pavement to get answers to questions everyone was asking about this story. 

And even when every media outlet in this town was alerted that the Pinal County Sheriff's Department and the parents of Amber Hess were holding a news conference at 11am today to talk about the dramatic developments, no other radio station even bothered to go to it live.  They didn't carry the news conference.  They didn't even interrupt their east-coast talk shows to tell the segment of this community that listens to them what had happened.  Many syndicated talk shows demand their affiliates never interrupt their shows.

As a journalist, a broadcaster, and a member of this community I'm ashamed. 

I don't regularly listen to stations other than KTAR-FM or KTAR-AM, but my guess is no other talk shows in this valley have even talked about this case.

Welcome to corporate controlled radio. 

The reason this situation has developed is not because talented people are absent from other media outlets on the radio.  It's because many stations now have corporations dictating how much they can talk about issues in their communities and issues that don't involve politics.

Listen to the talk stations on AM.  They now do NOTHING but politics.  How many people do you know whose lives revolve around NOTHING but politics?  Not many.  These stations know that, but the mandate has been given. 

No talk about the sexual predator lurking in the east valley attacking our kids.  No discussion of two 16-year-old monsters who killed an innocent girl in Queen Creek.  Back when the serial killers were hiding on our streets hunting victims, they didn't bother to discuss that story either.

Radio is about communities. 

Well, at least this station is.

Radio Shoots Itself, Again

Radio needs another bandage tonight.

At 5 pm in Phoenix today the radio industry sent another several hundred, or maybe thousand, listeners packing.  No doubt they're swearing at their radios as they double click their iTunes icon and download some more songs.

How can this industry be so dumb?

101.5 Free FM, or KZON, told hundreds of thousands of listeners their loyalty for more than 18 months meant nothing as they flipped a switch and began one of those wonderful stunts that will lead to new programming.

Can you imagine Google doing something like this?  Imagine, tomorrow, they decide being a search engine sucks so they turn their site into a gambling destination.  Forget Google.  What about Ping?  Instead of making drivers what if they started producing auto accessories. 

This industry is so blind when it comes to loyalty.  We could care less about our consumers.  We change, but never bother to explain the change.  It's incredibly short-sided.  As consumers face increasing choices we certainly aren't giving them many reasons to stick with traditional choices, like the medium of radio.

Full disclosure here, I'm not blameless in this area.  I've been a part of killing some formats at other radio stations in other cities.  I never bothered to put someone, or something, on the air explaining why the change was made.  In retrospect that was cowardly.  And, unfortunately, chances are I'll be part of something like that again during my career. 

I've just been thinking, since being informed about the changes at 101.5 Free FM today, that it's a wonder we still have so many people listening to radio with the way our industry has treated our consumers.  It's a good thing millions of people every day are trapped in their cars in traffic for hours.  Otherwise, radio would be in really bad shape.

So, while part of me is pleased to see a radio station that damaged our culture each day by dredging through the gutter of society dead, another part of me is disappointed that that station's loyal listeners have no idea what happened or why.  No, an explanation would not have satisfied them, but it would have at least acknowledged the listeners' loyalty. 

Typically when companies, or businesses, piss off their consumers they suffer enormously.  Make the consumers mad enough, and it could be fatal.

Why do we ignore that fact in the radio industry? 

Perhaps because we know most of you will be stuck in gridlock the next time you get in your car.   

Thank you, I-17, 202,  I-10, 101, etc.

(And by the way, this whole issue is one of the reasons I maintain this lame blog.  It gives me space to explain decisions and direction concerning what is broadcast on KTAR.  And, it gives you the opportunity to very publicly criticize or question.)

News, Without the Static

I've received quite a bit of email this week from listeners commenting on some of the new imaging they're hearing on KTAR-FM.

I'm sure some of you have noticed it, while others haven't.  We designed it that way.  This is a gradual updating of the pieces of production we use to open our newscasts, go into and come out of commercial breaks, and promote various aspects of the station.  We will be rolling out various pieces of the production over the coming weeks.

Part of this routine updating is our new usage of the phrase, "News, without the static."  Usage of the phrase is based on research that shows listeners of news/talk stations overwhelmingly notice and prefer the sound of spoken-word stations on FM.  Our updated imaging focuses on what the research shows and what listeners are telling us in markets where our company, Bonneville, has moved news/talk stations to FM.

Many of you have also noticed, and commented to me in emails, about some adjustments in the music we're using to open newscasts and promote the station.  The change is part of our continued effort to adjust to our historic move to a new band, FM.  The move means more than a change of address, as I've blogged about here before.  The move also demands we reflect the different audience trends we notice being on FM.

For instance, most news/talk stations in Phoenix maintain audiences that are, on average, 80% male.  Before our switch to FM, we were in that ballpark, with roughly 70% male and 30% female listeners.  In our first four months on FM, we've noticed a dramatic, and expected, shift in audience trends.  KTAR-FM is approximately 51% male and 49% female. 

The changes don't end there.  Some of the other early indicators show a difference in average age of the KTAR-FM listener.  The median age of our listeners is now several years younger than that of our highest-rated competitor in news/talk.

There are other trends, but none of these deserve too much attention at this stage.  Our move to 92.3 FM was never designed with June 2007 in mind.  This is the result of long-term strategic planning.  We did it for the outcome it will produce for years to come.

So, the updating of station production elements you may have noticed are designed with all of this in mind.  No more voice of God opening our newscasts.  No more trumpets blaring the beginning of a segment.  Those are the trademarks of a traditional station in our format on AM. 

We have moved on.

Paris IS News, Now More Than Ever

I used to agree with you.  Now, I don't.

This morning some of you called the KTAR newsroom to complain about the fact we were leading the news with a story about Paris.  Paris Hilton. 

One of you even emailed me a link to our good friend, Bill Goodykoontz's blog on his newspaper's website.  I actually read it.  And disagreed.  Bill (the republic's tv/entertainment/etc writer) says the media is misguided in its coverage of Paris in jail.

Don't get me wrong. There's too much coverage of Paris, usually.  But, today's story is HUGE.  It's so much bigger than Paris.  It goes to the core of our justice system.  Do any of you think you would have gotten the same treatment Paris did in a correctional institution?  Of course not. 

The fact is our justice system is as biased, not blind. 

If you're black expect a harsher sentence. 

If you're a woman you're likely going to get off easier.

If you're rich you've got a greater shot of being found innocent.

And, if you're an illegal alien, expect to not be asked about your citizenship.  Oops, that one slipped. 

Today's Paris Hilton story is a great news story because it reveals part of the problem with our law enforcement and justice systems. 

A star-struck sheriff in California can abuse his authority and let an inmate out way too early. 

Just like a judge in Maricopa County  wooed by immigrant rights groups can abuse her power by illegally granting illegal aliens bail. 

Broadcasters Win, Parents Lose

If you read the stories, I'm supposed to be hanging streamers and renting a karaoke machine tonight.  You've heard the news, right?  The Federal Appeals Court in New York City handed broadcasters a "major victory" today by striking down the FCC's decision that the words "F***" and "Sh**" are indecent for primetime television.

So, broadcasters have won a major victory, huh? 

Well, I'm a broadcaster and this ain't no victory.

You see, I'm also a parent.  And, I am desperate for an ally.

Full disclosure here?  I believe in limited government and self regulation.  I really don't think elected egomaniacs should be running my life.  I can make my own decisions, thank you.

But, government does serve some purposes, and one of them should be keeping greedy, soul-less media sharks from allowing filth on the most-viewed television networks during the hours of the night when children are typically watching TV. 

So, now it's okay for Cher to drop the F-bomb at 7pm? 

Are these New York judges nuts?  This isn't exactly abuse of the law by the FCC.  Frankly, I'm speechless at the decision. 

Some people will argue, it's okay, the networks will self police themselves and won't allow the F-bomb on primetime shows.  I'm not buying that load of crap.  Networks thrive on word of mouth marketing.  What is sexier promotion in today's world than an "explosive" episode of "fill-in-the-blank" show where Lori drops a huge f-bomb after locking lips with another girl at a "Girls Gone Wild" party? 

I've got three kids. 

The good news is at their ages they're most interested in networks like Noggin and Disney. 

The bad news is they'll be watching the major channels in primetime in a few years. 

Who knows what the courts will allow to be shown by then?

Can't a hard-working parent who is trying to raise good kids find a freakin' ally?

Apparently not one who wears a black robe.

Changing the way we deliver news

I've blogged in the past about the text messaging service that we were building and preparing to launch.  As you may have read on KTAR.com, we are now officially launching that service.

This is a dramatic move for KTAR for numerous reasons.  First, at our moment of launch we immediately offer the highest quality text messaging alert service in Arizona.  It was critical to us that we not just be "another" service, but "THE" service. 

Currently there is only one other news organization offering text message alerts for news and sports in this state.  No broadcasters, on television or radio, are yet in this arena.  And, as I said, our service is already the best as we routinely beat our one competitor in this space by an average of 18 minutes with breaking news alerts to cell phones. 

Our text messaging investment is just that, an investment in the one medium that is experiencing dramatic growth: mobile devices.  Our research shows that when breaking news happens (news, weather, traffic, or sports) people turn on 620 AM or 92.3 FM in huge droves.  Now, we are able to grow that dominance more by not waiting until someone hears from a friend that something major is happening and that they need to turn on KTAR-AM or KTAR-FM.  We can now reach them on cell phones whether they're sitting in a meeting or chatting on the phone. 

I encourage you, if you haven't already, to subscribe to the KTAR.com text message alerts.  It's absolutely free of charge.  You can choose to get whatever alerts you want: breaking news, news updates, the weather forecast sent TO you, specific teams' game updates, etc.

It's another way KTAR is leading the way.