I have a somewhat opposite opinion of KBCT in its early days. I really enjoyed the smooth jazz format, thinking it was better executed than any other station I had heard in the format. The opinion changed once they started voice tracking everything.
Of special interest to me was the lack of slamming the listener with liners between every song. I liked the lack of IDs. Let's get real, how many times do you need to tell the person who listens to your station at work that they should listen at work because they play the best music? Isn't that why they're listening? Waco's Spot For Jazz, KBCT used to ID themselves about 4 times an hour.
Another feature I liked was their sponsored music hours where the client got a few 10 second mentions in the hour without any additional talk. What a great feature for listeners, especially for workplace listening.
Sales had to be really tough with the big boys owning everything on the dial. It's really tough commanding your price in an over-radioed market when the big stations own every slice of the pie but you. Sales had to be the big factor.
The switch to country was dumber than dirt. Maybe if they opted for Red Dirt or a Texas Americana format! Now talk?!? At least that's cheaper but how do you compete when the top shows are elsewhere or you're always threatened with losing a prime show? Reminds me of the small market station that hit Evansville, Indiana. They lined up the best talkers, sold the little guys and started pulling ratings only to have the big boys take their best shows for their stations (as a syndicator what do you do when a company that runs a show on 100 of their stations says they want the show that's on that little small market station...you drop the little guy like a hot potato).
As for the guy thinking it would be cool to own a radio station, that describes everybody I ever worked for. I'd hate to work for somebody that didn't want a station. My former boss never knew radio but wanted a station. He liked not tossing his money out the window so he turned everything over to people that knew radio. And he made money and reveled in the reality that people in radio have a passion for the business that exceeds virtually every profession. He told me once he loved coming in because radio people loved what they do so much.
Can KBCT be a sales winner? Not likely. Can they be a ratings leader? Not likely. Their format choice must be one the big boys won't try to steal and the big boys must never see them as a threat to their ad dollars. The solution, go after small businesses that cannot afford the big boys. In one market I worked, there was a station that specifically sold cheap spots to clients that were too small to buy a meaningful advertising campaign with our stations. They had plenty of takers and they did okay while making a little money. As far as we were concerned, they didn't matter, but for that station, they found their place in the market, owned it and flourished.
I'm sure the position of KBCT, the market underdog, at the bottom of the heap, was and likely still is a joke. My station is but we laugh all the way to the bank...and the teller at the bank even chuckles. Hope the big boys aren't reading...I know nooothinng!!!!
