By Roger Yale
For Weekly Surge

The low-slung building on Ocala Street in Myrtle Beach would otherwise be considered nondescript - an L-shaped structure in a semi-industrial area off Mr. Joe White Avenue which could have been a doctor's office or a trucking company - if it weren't for the giant broadcast tower on the property. This is the Grand Strand home of NextMedia and its cluster of radio stations: WKZQ FM, WMYB (Star 92.1), WRNN (AM 1450 Sports/FM 99.5 News & Talk) and WYAV (WAVE 104.1).

 

Inside the studio, WAVE 104.1 radio personality Scott Mann ("Scott Mann's Headshop," "The Blues Hangover," "Work Release Program") is a living, breathing definition of the word multitasking, and we saw him working on voice scripts, recording and digitally editing a new spot for a client and programming music (he is also assistant program director for WAVE 104.1) - deftly combing through the music library to bring a sense of balance and continuity to the classic rock hits listeners have come to expect. We followed him into the broadcast booth, watching Mann broadcasting to afternoon classic rock listeners. We were introduced to the personalities broadcasting from neighboring booths for the other NextMedia stations: Jersey (WKZQ), MJ (STAR 92.1) and veteran Myrtle Beach broadcaster Dave Priest (WRNN).

All of these live and local personalities doing their thing in this beehive of activity gave us a whole lot of radio in a very short time.

But the FM radio landscape in Myrtle Beach has morphed recently, having undergone a flurry of format changes to the extent that some of the stations we have come to know have vanished or changed names or moved to other locations on the dail: What was K-Country on dial position 103.1 has moved to 106.5 under a new name, "The Coyote." Stalwart oldies station Sunny 106.5 has moved into the 103.1 slot and has undergone a slight format facelift, calling itself "The True Oldies Channel" on air, but using the slogan, "The Grand Strand's Greatest Hits" on its new Web site.

107.1 "The Sound" ("It's all about the music") dropped its deep cut, classic rock format in an attempt to compete with the arrival of variety franchise powerhouse BOB FM 104.9, but somehow that gamble didn't quite pan out, and 107.1 WQSD has now flipped to urban adult contemporary has emerged as Q107.1 , "Today's R&B and Old School." A compelling twist is the fact that WQSD owner Qantum Communications has since purchased BOB FM 104.9 from Coastline Communications of Carolina.

Grand Strand visitors and local listeners with loyalties to various personalities, genres and formats seem to be lost - trying to get a grip on just what has happened.

In order to help local listeners roll with these changes, Weekly Surge has spoken to local radio executives, programmers and personalities as well as a national expert in an attempt to make sense of these changes. We have also taken a trip up and down the FM dial and created a local radio guide (see pages 16 and 17) for readers to clip and keep for quick reference.

ROLLING WITH THE CHANGES

The primary issue here is to understand what is driving radio format changes, not just in Myrtle Beach, but on a national level. The Grand Strand is certainly not unique in this respect.

 

"Format changes usually start more on the local level with an owner who sees a particular opportunity or opening in the market," says Sean Ross, Vice President of Music and Programming at research and opinion giant Edison Media Research and former editor-in-chief of Billboard Magazine's radio programming publication, Airplay Monitor. He adds that changes may come about as a result of a purchase and two similar stations in the same market wind up in the same portfolio, for instance a company that has two country stations and can only use one of them.

"To the extent that anything is driving them nationally, sometimes owners see a format working in other markets and want to be the first one to try it in their own, or see formats starting to wither in other places (e.g., smooth jazz). Sometimes it's also a function of available national talent (e.g., 'we can get Steve Harvey or John Boy & Billy and build a new station that goes with the morning show.')."

Ron Roberts, program director and radio personality for WWXM Mix 97.7 chalks up format changes to consolidation and demographics. "A lot of times there have to be adjustments in format because companies want to try to get ideal demographic numbers in order to sell [advertising] to their clients." As with any other business, the bottom line seems to prevail.

Roberts cites the purchase of 104.9 BOB FM by Qantum Communications. "That brings a different demographic to our building. This meant that 107.1 WQSD - a direct competitor of BOB FM but not doing as well - had to change formats there and go for a different demographic that we weren't already targeting in our building," he says.

"Those changes have precipitated other changes throughout the market via a ripple effect," Roberts says. "When you have companies consolidating and stations congealing into different clusters, you're going to have that sort of adjustment from time to time."

Ross has a similar take: "One format change in a market often creates a chain reaction as the niche that didn't look so good to one owner becomes attractive to another, but format changes mean walking away from existing revenue and new start-up costs and not everybody is eager to do that in this environment."

Matt Sedota, General Manager of WEZV/Easy 105.9 (aka radio personality Scott Richards) is not lost on the fact that format changes are driven by a certain corporate mentality. "It's not so much a question of what might be important to listeners. When you have multiple radio stations, you start playing the game of 'how do we maximize our [market] position?'"

Sedota says he doesn't think the decision making process is as local as it once was or should be.

"Format changes take place based on different companies seeing a viable place (or hole) in the market to develop a bigger audience," says Barry Brown, Regional Vice President /Operating Division at NextMedia, which, interestingly enough has not made any major format changes in its radio cluster since the company purchased the stations here eight years ago.

"It all comes down to ratings and revenue - as far as what's a viable mass-appeal format in the market. In some cases you have places like NYC (New York City) that people come into and find viable holes in the market. It's like anything else - a competitive game - a competitive media. People try to find ways to develop new revenue streams by changing formats."

FRAGMENTATION AND NEW MEDIA

With listeners fragmenting at an ever-increasing rate and more music than ever available on the Web and deliverable to iPods, cellular phones and other portable media devices - to say nothing of satellite radio providers XM and Sirius, finding the best bet for a format that can potentially draw the most listeners is as abstract as getting 10 people to agree on what movie to see. And while new media is a concern for conventional radio, people still tune in the old fashioned way.

Says Edison Media Research's Ross: "Not every owner still wants to do Oldies these days, but even with aging demographics, some owners might think it's better than being one of four Adult Contemporary stations. That said, I don't think there is any format that radio has had to relinquish because of new media competition. The majority of listeners still want to hear mass-appeal music, whether it's Country, Top 40, Classic Rock, Urban, etc., on the radio and don't want to go hunting for it on the Web. Even on Satellite radio, it's the big box formats (Country, Top 40, etc.) that tend to do best."

Mix 97.7's Roberts would like to think that contemporary radio would draw the most audience. "We try to be as mass-appeal as possible," he says. "Anything that's a hit - whether it comes from a country, rap, rock - or a polka artist - it it's a hit, we're going to play it."

Subjectivity factors into the equation when one considers the scope of viable markets and formats to choose from.

"Although it may sound self-serving," says WEZV's Sedota, "I think Easy 105.9's format will draw traditional radio listeners. A softer format is the sort of music that you don't find elsewhere - and it's also the type of listeners - Baby Boomers that grew up with radio, liked radio and respected radio."

"The younger the format, the more fragmented it becomes. The older the format," Sedota adds, "the less fragmented it becomes.

Almost everyone in radio is targeting a younger audience - 18-34-year-olds, 18-49-year-olds, or 25-54-year-olds - with almost all programming decisions geared towards those younger than 40. There are few radio stations (or other media) that realize people older than 50 are the strongest portion of our community with more disposable income and sizeable in numbers to more than equal those younger audiences."

Edison Media Research's Ross seems to be elaborating on Sedota's point by commenting that there is also some concern about the viability of youth-oriented formats. "Are some 16-year-olds not listening because they don't like radio, or do they not like radio because radio doesn't target enough formats to them?"

NextMedia's Brown used the term "beachfront formats" when referring to the big gun formats such as classic rock, country and urban. "These have been the favorite formats for many years. They generally draw the biggest audience and vis-à-vis the largest revenues in radio."

It makes sense that the biggest audience potentially has the biggest revenue base, and radio clients (read advertisers) want to reach that audience.

THE FREQUENCY SWAP

Meanwhile, another change on the local F.M. dial is on the horizon. NextMedia's WKZQ is set to swap frequencies with Charleston's WAVF 96.1 Chuck FM, formerly rock station 96WAVE. We asked NextMedia's Brown to clarify this for us.

"It's not a format change, and we're not losing a radio station [WKZQ]. It's simply that we are switching frequencies around September or October with another entity in Charleston. This swap will give us the opportunity to have

a signal that will be a better signal in Georgetown County than we've had in the past and still have a great signal in Horry County." Brown adds that NextMedia's full radio market covers both Horry and Georgetown Counties.

LIVE AND LOCAL

In the Myrtle Beach market, we have seen popular deejays and announcers come and go. Will these stalwarts of conventional radio continue to add the human element to broadcasting - or do they risk becoming expendable in favor of profitability? Syndicated shows and voice tracking seem to have become de rigueur in the industry. Can there be a balance?

"If I have anything to do with it, we'll be around for an awful long time," says WAVE 104's Mann. "The bottom line is this. In order to be a part of the community and serve the community (something that everybody's broadcast license says) - you need local people. If you don't have a local connection, how can your audience relate to you?"

But Mann also admits that syndicated programming has its place. "I love our morning show ["Free Beer & Hot Wings"] - a lot of people love it and we're proud to have them on the radio, but we are also very proud of the connection our local people have with our listeners."

Mix 97.7's Roberts says the live, local talent issue is a concern. "You see it becoming more and more difficult for people to break into the business on the 'on-air' side."

But that's not all: "In the past 5-10 years the big movement in particular with Clear Channel Communications (not in this market but in many major markets) has been for them to use the Prophet system (a computer system that allows them to network with other stations). While you might be listening to a Clear Channel top 40 station in Columbia, - the midday DJ would actually be in Orlando, Fla. taping those breaks beforehand. The same Columbia station's night show is voice-tracked out of one of the Charlotte, N.C. top 40 station's afternoon guy."

Certainly this is not appealing for local on-air personalities, but taken from a company standpoint, this is construed as good business, especially to the bean counters entrusted with protecting any company's bottom line. "They pay those jocks like an extra thousand dollars a month to voice track an extra station. That might cost a company $12,000, but if you have to salary out a staff position locally, it's going to be upwards of $25,000 - $30,000." The savings speak for themselves when the process is duplicated across the country.

But localism is paramount in conventional radio according to Mark McKinney, Operations Manager for NextMedia: "This is what separates local radio from other media that people have a choice to use - the fact that you've got a local person giving you local information and entertainment in addition to the main source of entertainment you are delivering."

When Ross was a program director in 1994 at WGCI-AM Chicago, he says he convinced his owner to let him put a live person in overnights, which had been voice-tracked until then. "It's hard to imagine that happening now, but there will continue to be personalities as long as owners are smart enough to recognize their value. But not every format lends itself to live and local personalities and not all personality is live and local. Nobody seems to care if John Boy and Billy are not in their market."

But John Boy and Billy can't be everywhere at all times without the magic of syndication, and the two got their start hosting a local morning show in Charlotte, N.C. Even juggernaut syndicated programs have their genesis on the local level.

Radio's local element is not going away, according to NextMedia's Brown: "I think that personality radio and the personalities and localism of radio is what drives radio. It has since its inception and continues to do so. If anything, what we try to do is enhance our presentation to set us apart from what else might be out there as in the case of iPods and satellite radio."

WEZV's Sedota contends that the local, human element is going to last as long as broadcasting does. "It goes up and down, but the live, local presence is what is going to make or break radio and always has. We've gone through a period where maybe people are starting to see that, and I hope we're at the bottom of the swing of the pendulum. The only way radio is going to survive is by being local, and to a certain extent, live."

Do format changes, frequency swaps and station buyouts signal the demise of terrestrial radio?

Mann, always a staunch defender of the medium, sums it up nicely:

"The death of radio has been predicted time and time again every time a new technology has come around. Radio is not going to die because people like to hear somebody else picking the music. People like to hear somebody else playing music for them while they still have input. People like to come out and meet the personalities at remote broadcasts, and they like the contests - the fun of it. Radio's death has been predicted so many times that there's no point in predicting it anymore."

 

 

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