thursday, October 5, 1978
page 2
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Stations flex muscles in airwave battle
By Peg Sheldrick
After years of playing "elevator music,"
an FM radio station abandoned its old for
mat and even its call letters to play rock
music for a whole new audience.
That may sound like the pilot for
WKRP in Cincinati, but it also describes re
cent history for KFOR-FM in Lincoln,
KEZO in Omaha, and for that matter,
stations all across the country. The area
stations have switched from playing music
of the forties to music of the top forty.
The trend has been noticeable in many
large cities within recent years, but it is
relatively new to the airways cf eastern Ne-
KFMQ and Omaha's KGOR have been
providing FM rock since the early 70s but
with two new converts within two months,
and-see attitude about all this competition.
KFMQ has "good" ratings according to
Wheeler, and Poison feels the feedback on
X103 has been favorable, but both expect
the competition to affect where they stand
in the ratings when they come out.
Poison said he feels the competition he
needs to worry about is here in Lincoln.
His station isn't after the Omaha market
and he doesn't think the Omaha stations
are after the Lincoln market, so he doesn't
concern himself much with Z-92. His
philosophy is that it's "okay" if listeners in
other cities tune them in, but his primary
interest is local. Even so, "You always
worry about the competition," he said.
Competing for attention
What they're all competing for is the
attention of the 1$ to 34-year-old crowd.
Marketing studies have shown this age
it seems FM rock is taking the area by
storm. The recent rush isn't all that sur
prising to some.
"I guess when it rains, it pours," said
Bruce Wheeler, program director for
KFMQ. "I've kind of been expecting other
people to get into FM rock for awhile . . .
just not so many at once. It is kind of an
interesting change."
Dave Poison, station manager at XI 03
(formerly known as KFOR-FM) said,
'The market was ready for it and the pro
duct was here." Some displeasure was ex
pressed during the first week or so of the
new format, but the "appetite" for FM
rock is whetted, according to Poison.
Jim Eddens, vice president and general
jnanager of what was once KEZO in
Omaha, has heard plenty of complaints
about the shift to Z-92 rock. But he stands
behind the decision to go from Montovani
to Mangione.
"It's kind of a complicated marketing
thing," he said. "For years we've known
the share of audience was changing. We had
to be able to grow. We had to be able to
serve a larger audience and we will with FM
rock."
What seems to be shaping up is a battle
of the radio bands. Locally, XI 03 will be
doing its best to cut into KFMQ's
audience.
"I like to see it as a positive thing. I like
to think it will bring out the best in every
body," said Wheeler. "I think it's good,
really -not that it's not nice to virtually
have things to yourself for awhile, either."
KFMQ had no FM competitors in the
Lincoln area until recently, KLIN has
moved into that kind of enviable position,
since locally it is the last bastion of
"beautiful music." Their following is in
creasing as disgruntled easy-listening fans
turn to KLIN for what they can't find else
where. The station has had calls and letters
from Omaha and even southwest Iowa that
indicate there are still quite a few lovers of
"beautiful music." Tom Range, station
manager, said the new FM formats are in
tended by the stations involved to speak to
a younger audience. "Some of them are
doing a good job." he said, "but no, I
don't see us changing."
It's too soon for ratings, so the rock
stations are adopting an optimistic wait-
group to be the one stations should go
after.
"Adult contemporary" is one name for
the target market, and catering to its taste
means abandoning the Ray Coniff Singers
for the Bee Gees.
"The audience of a 'beautiful music'
station is classical 35 and above," explain
ed Poison. "Well, we've got people (that
age) who grew up on rock. You don't
find the younger people listening to
'beautiful music' by choice." He gives the
example of a young person in business who
would sit patiently through the Muzak at
the office all day but turn on rock as soon
as possible after work. "Beautiful music"
may have its own merits, but it lacks what
Poison calls "mass appeal."
KFMQ caught on a little more quickly
than most stations to the possibilities of
the rock approach. Ten years ago it was a
classical station. With a new owner came a
new format featuring rock at night. Rock
has now taken over twenty-four hours a
day. Wheeler said the headstart came be
cause, "the owners just saw it as a coming
thing and made a smart decision."
Eddens of Z-92 said the FM rock format
has been around for years in larger
markets, with 70 percent of the listening
public tuned in to such stations on the
coast. Poison, too, said FM has been more
diversified in the big dties for some time
now. "People categorize FM as just music
. . .(but) you can run any format you
want," he said.
In some cases in the larger markets, the
FM stations have just as many commercials
and just as much chatter as the AM stat
ions. There are no intrinsic limits on the
FM format. According to Poison, FM went
to more music and fewer commercials in an
attempt to grab AM listeners by offering
something different. FM rock is another
aspect of the same attempt.
Competition
Rock stations new and old, AM and FM,
are more competitive than ever. "The con
temporary music listener isn't faithful to
one station. They're button-pushers." said
Poison. Strategies for holding the interest
of the fickle market differ from station to
station.
Cheryl Simmons, one member of the
listening public, said she thought the new
FM stations sound a lot like the old AM
stations. 'They're playing top forty stuff
all the time," she said. "If you listen to the
radio, once an hour you hear 'Baker
Street,' There's a lot of good people you
never get to hear."
Poison admits they do play the familiar
tunes rather than the less well-known
material.
"But all stations play top forty. All
stations play 'em and why shouldn't they?
They're the top hits of today," he said.
"We're not a top forty station, but we do
play top forty. People are uncomfortable
with unfamiliar music- that's a fact."
He said that if a person likes James
Taylor, he or she will buy the album and
play it, and that the station should concern
itself with appealing to as broad an audi
ence as possible. A station can play jazz
and unfamiliar cuts, but "they (the listen
ers) won't knew what they're listening to"
and will be likely to switch stations.
Eddens of Z-92 concurs that to hold the
market they're after, they have to play the
hits.
At KFMQ, the orientation is a little
different, perhaps because in the process of
evolving into a rock station it went through
a phase of playing entire albums (as
opposed to just singles). Program director
Wheeler said he doesn't hesitate to play un
familiar tracks. "We hope to play the best
cuts from the best popular albums," he
said. 'This is a pretty good period for
radio. People are moving away from the
lowest common demoninator kind of pro
gramming to the highest common
denominator . . . (looking fr) the best
cuts, the most palatable commercials, the
best announcers. It forces everybody to be
better."
'Positive force'
Wheeler also points out that the music is
not the only thing a station has to disting
uish itself in to be successful. KFMQ tries
to be a "positive force here in Lincoln" by
supporting non-profit groups and making
consumer information public. They also
sponsor r-dnight movies that are popular
and relatively inexpensive. "Those are the
kinds of things that surround the music,
that make one station different from
another," said Wheeler.
Poison feels XI 03 will succeed by offer
ing something between the "extremes" of
KLMS and KFMQ. In addition to the wide
appeal of its music, the station prides it
self on good news and sports coverage.
They chose a unique name ("nobody has
an X") and are using ads in other media to
give the station more of an identity in the
listeners' mind. Signal strength is another
of X103's attractions. Poison indicates
they don't think they'll put KFMQ out of
business, but they hope to get people who
formerly listened to KFMQ four hours out
of the day to give two of those hours to
X103.
All this competition seems to be very
good for radio on the whole, although the
emphasis on diversified FM format could
mean the death of AM. Some sources feel
that AM's only hope for survival is to get
FCC approval to broadcast in stereo.
Eddens said he felt that "the listener
awareness of FM stations" is high and that
radio in general is "stronger than ever be
fore, far more competitive." Poison is also
pleased with the state of the art. "It's never
been better- the quality has never been
better," he said. "That's a personal judge
ment." The lines of demarcation between AM
and FM, between types of music are
getting hazier all the time. "Even country
music has full orchestration," said Poison.
But there's still quite a gap between Tony
Bennett and Billy Joel. At KLIN, the feel
ing is that there will always be a market for
what they play.
" 'Beautiful music' is here to stay," said
Tom Range, "and I wouldn't be surprised
if some of the Omaha stations switched
back." Bruce Wheeler is optimistic about
the station. "I think what the community
needs will determine what kind of music it
will have. I think there's room for every
body." Time will tell just how many of the new
stations will survive. Of course, it should be
remembered that some of what is consider
ed easy listening today was the degenerate
pop of another generation, the rock of ages
past. As Simmons points out, "When we
get older, well dance to rock and maybe
disco, and the kids will laugh." So maybe
in the year 2000, KLIN-FM will be playing
"Baker Street" to an appreciative audience.