I can't resist this one, so here we go.
First off, Ron and Ron were sporting a TWENTY share in their heyday. My former boss Greg Mull knew that attacking them was suicide (remember Smith and Barber?) So he brought in Seabass to do a music intensive morning show (he had respectable #'s I might add) The goal was to submarine YNF after 10 AM. And we did the one thing you do when attacking an established winner...attack their P1's.... and their Primary listeners were 18-34, thus the harder edge with music selection. After Ron and Ron took their act to syndication with Ross Reback... CBS's heritage mainstream rocker's days were numbered. The Pig did the same thing to the Q...attacked their core.
Our music library in the first year of 98..90-91 had about 150 Cd's and about 450 songs... mostly the afore mentioned bands. After 'Teen Spirit' hit the airwaves... the hairbands days were numbered. Bottom line after you establish one identity you have to constantly weigh the 'new' against the established . But when a HUGE shift in music happens, you either get out in front of that wave...or have it bury you while you sit still. So there was a transition from 93-95.
Then Jacor/CC wrote a check and purchased us, handed Greg his playlist of government approved tunes and Greg resigned. Later when Brad Hardin started to fine tune the station to the cluster, he brought the white board to a meeting wrote 8 different call letters on the top.And started to talk about a group synergy. At that point we were no longer a duo (98 and Thunder) we were all "protecting each others flanks", and on top of that, the era of music belonging to a certain station evolved. We left certain songs for Star 95.7 to play, or 'that song is better suited for XTB' and so on. The old days where every other station was the enemy, was over.
As far as the air talent between 95 and 98 is concerned Russ, Charlie, Scotty and Capone were all money...lets not leave out Robert Reed, and great part timers like Amy Newman and Marla Stone, who both eventually became full timers in this Market. BUT........ Ted Kamakazi used to draw hundreds to his liquid lunches, Austin Keys tore up 6-10PM and Kristi Storm and Kelly Casey were velvety smooth at 10p-2A... Later BIG RIG (who's done every daypart except overnights)And Medlin went from pitmaster to full timer, we were as solid, or better than YNF.
In 97, after Bubba's transition to mornings from FLZ, Brad Decided to bring more edge to the station's other dayparts and brought in Max to replace me, and Ricker to replace Big Rig. Max and Ricker are still working full time in this biz because they are talented. XTB has always been committed to putting the right Jock into a daypart.
The day we started playing Allanis, and Primitive Radio Gods, the hair identity started to wither...Radio is what I call Fluid Change...a constantly morphing presentation. We went from edgy... to ALT/Rock then Back to edgy. 98 changed back when they fired up Thunder's Stick and they started to seg back to a harder image. We used to say "Pure Rock and Roll" but research showed that moniker sounded old so it was shortened to just "Pure Rock"
Bottom line, you evolve or die. XTB has lasted 18 years...so far. That's a wee bit longer than YNF did. AHHHHH The good ole days.
Ledge
First off, Ron and Ron were sporting a TWENTY share in their heyday. My former boss Greg Mull knew that attacking them was suicide (remember Smith and Barber?) So he brought in Seabass to do a music intensive morning show (he had respectable #'s I might add) The goal was to submarine YNF after 10 AM. And we did the one thing you do when attacking an established winner...attack their P1's.... and their Primary listeners were 18-34, thus the harder edge with music selection. After Ron and Ron took their act to syndication with Ross Reback... CBS's heritage mainstream rocker's days were numbered. The Pig did the same thing to the Q...attacked their core.
Our music library in the first year of 98..90-91 had about 150 Cd's and about 450 songs... mostly the afore mentioned bands. After 'Teen Spirit' hit the airwaves... the hairbands days were numbered. Bottom line after you establish one identity you have to constantly weigh the 'new' against the established . But when a HUGE shift in music happens, you either get out in front of that wave...or have it bury you while you sit still. So there was a transition from 93-95.
Then Jacor/CC wrote a check and purchased us, handed Greg his playlist of government approved tunes and Greg resigned. Later when Brad Hardin started to fine tune the station to the cluster, he brought the white board to a meeting wrote 8 different call letters on the top.And started to talk about a group synergy. At that point we were no longer a duo (98 and Thunder) we were all "protecting each others flanks", and on top of that, the era of music belonging to a certain station evolved. We left certain songs for Star 95.7 to play, or 'that song is better suited for XTB' and so on. The old days where every other station was the enemy, was over.
As far as the air talent between 95 and 98 is concerned Russ, Charlie, Scotty and Capone were all money...lets not leave out Robert Reed, and great part timers like Amy Newman and Marla Stone, who both eventually became full timers in this Market. BUT........ Ted Kamakazi used to draw hundreds to his liquid lunches, Austin Keys tore up 6-10PM and Kristi Storm and Kelly Casey were velvety smooth at 10p-2A... Later BIG RIG (who's done every daypart except overnights)And Medlin went from pitmaster to full timer, we were as solid, or better than YNF.
In 97, after Bubba's transition to mornings from FLZ, Brad Decided to bring more edge to the station's other dayparts and brought in Max to replace me, and Ricker to replace Big Rig. Max and Ricker are still working full time in this biz because they are talented. XTB has always been committed to putting the right Jock into a daypart.
The day we started playing Allanis, and Primitive Radio Gods, the hair identity started to wither...Radio is what I call Fluid Change...a constantly morphing presentation. We went from edgy... to ALT/Rock then Back to edgy. 98 changed back when they fired up Thunder's Stick and they started to seg back to a harder image. We used to say "Pure Rock and Roll" but research showed that moniker sounded old so it was shortened to just "Pure Rock"
Bottom line, you evolve or die. XTB has lasted 18 years...so far. That's a wee bit longer than YNF did. AHHHHH The good ole days.
Ledge
