COMMENTS
Randy Kabrich: George Johns, I have a question for you that I’ve always wanted an answer to but really had no one that I could ask.
Up until 1986, KVIL ran upwards of 15 minutes of spots per hour, but it never ran more than two spots in a row – and one going into the News with another in the newscast.
Having never visited Boston or Philly when Fairbanks owned them, I have no reference for WIBG or F105, but I’m pretty sure WNAP clustered the spots in the 78-79 time frame.
Pretty sure Chuck Knapp clustered at KSTP-FM as well.
When you put on the CLASS stations, you clustered the spots as well, unlike KVIL.
As KVIL was challenged (and often beaten in key demos) from 1980 on by Terry Dorsey and Continuous Country Favorites at KSCS, why weren’t the spots clustered at KVIL under Fairbanks/Hilliard?
Obviously, you made the decision to cluster at the Class stations. Why was KVIL stuck, never airing more than two spots in a row?
Geo: Great question, Randy. When we launched KVIL in 1973, we weren’t a “much more music” station; we were a “much more personality and promotion” driven station.”
Most of the air staff at Kay-Ville were morning men, and the reason we only ran two spots each was to create more opportunities for them to shine.
They needed to shine because one of my many demands was that they do something special every show that was worthy of becoming a promo.
Oh, and we were also doing a lot of stunting and big promotions that I wanted them to talk about so the two-spot rule provided them with many places to do so.
In those days, Randy, I was studying with the man Walt Disney hired to be the Dean of his University.
His name was Mike Vance, and he provided me with a ton of insights about how things worked backstage at Disney in story form.
I’ll never forget the day he told me the story of Walt’s desire to make Disneyland more beautiful; which became the cornerstone of programming at Fairbanks and also later at “Class.”
Mike said that Walt’s brother, Roy, came to Walt one day and said, “We’ve got to put some small fences around the flowers; the people are trampling them, and it’s costing us a lot of money to replace them every day.”
Walt looked at him for a moment before saying, “No, Roy, we need to make the park more beautiful.
If we succeed, more people will visit, and if more people visit us, we’ll easily be able to replace the flowers. Fences won’t accomplish that.”
What does this have to do with radio, you may ask? Well, when Fairbanks Broadcasting took over KVIL, I had to sit down with Ron Chapman and explain to him how things worked.
“Ron,” I said, “You’re now the keeper of the park; your job is to make sure the park is beautiful at all times, and the way you do it is by ripping all the bad shit off the air.
No sexist talk, no loud music, and especially no terrible-sounding commercials.
From this moment on, you have the power to take any commercial you deem ugly, off the air.
The only people who can override you on this are Jim Hilliard and me, oh, and I suppose Mr. Fairbanks, too. However, Mt F doesn’t know about any of this; if he did, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Randy, when I left Fairbanks and moved to California to hang up my consulting shingle, I no longer had the Fairbanks resources.
I couldn’t hire morning types for all the air shifts, nor did we have any promotion money, but because I had no idea how you do radio without great talent and big promotions, we had to figure it out.
The first thing we did was put any money we did have into the morning show.
Next, we clustered the spots, which gave the rest of the air staff fewer opportunities to screw up.
Then, we cleverly worked the clients into our promotions without them sounding like sales promotions.
One of the prime examples was the Prize Catalog, which not only got great ratings it also contained several money-making opportunities for the sales department.
Randy, I could go on and on and on and on about surge hour programming, making the TV news, appointment tune-in, and using data-based marketing to target the folks who tend to not only vote but also fill out forms.
Hopefully, though, somewhere in here, I answered your question.
GEO’S LIFE-LINERS
Is it just me, or do the folks from India, when speaking English, sound like they’re not using punctuation?
If you’re able to explain your goals to your staff, most times, they can come up with a better way of getting there than you can.
As an amateur, it’s 90% physical, but when you go pro, it becomes 90% mental.
The basic instinct of a man is to take care of his family; if he doesn’t, he ain’t no man.
Does anybody know if any Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, or Gay people were aboard the SS Ark when it started raining?
Is it possible to find one person in America who will stand up and support Mr. Field’s claim that Audicy did good radio?
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Religion without sacrifice.
Politics without principles.
I know several sinners; how ’bout you?
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