SHow Starts December 18th.
https://news.****************/artic...ix-Names-Jackson-&-Davis-As-New-Morning-Hosts
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KMLE/Phoenix Names Jackson & Davis As New Morning Hosts
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
SHow Starts December 18th.
https://news.****************/artic...ix-Names-Jackson-&-Davis-As-New-Morning-Hosts
Some advice based on the recent history of KMLE morning shows: You might wanna rent for awhile. Don't buy a house just yet...
B
Billkex
Guest
So "Cheyenne" has a whole 1 year experience in radio. ...wow!
And?
I've seen "newbies" put on leading radio stations many times, and have done it myself a number of times. If a certain spark of talent is detected, a good PD (and sometimes a good co-host) can often work magic.
The PD in question is (IMO) attempting to catch lightning in a bottle again at a discount price. There's another show in that building that features an experienced host, and a few others who were for all intents and purposes plucked off the street. It was a gamble that paid off, but not exactly a solid formula for every station.
Don't get me wrong...I'm all for giving young, fresh talent a shot at the big leagues, but when you've got a large market heritage station that's been struggling to hold onto a morning show (let alone ratings) then maybe, just maybe, you don't want to hand it over to a fresh talent from a small market.
And I'm just going to take a wild guess and say that Entercom didn't exactly hand over a blank check to KMLE and say "fix this, we don't care how much it costs." The funny thing here is that the station across the street - owned by a notoriously cheap company - spent a decent amount of money to anchor their country station with some veteran talent. It seems to be working out pretty well for them.
I don't know what the PD may have seen.
I can only mention a similar experience. I was going to launch a new FM format in a top 15 market, and was short one jock. Our combo had a janitor who also had a band that played the usual weddings and parties; he played at a station event once and was so entertaining as he introduced the songs that I kept him in mind... with the new format, we put him on afternoons. It was the right choice; we taught him how to run the board and do contests and stuff, but the talent was natural. The station, his shift included, debuted at #1 in a market with over 30 stations.
So maybe the KMLE PD, faced with the limited budgets that are typical today, decided that spending time developing raw talent was the way to go.
Couldn't agree more. It just goes to say that talent can be found in many different settings, sometimes where you least expect it.
Key is, training and developing staff like you said. Unfortunately, some (read: most) PD's fail to realize that. In other words, your story indicates that rules can be broken when seeking potential talent. Great comments.
Key is, training and developing staff like you said. Unfortunately, some (read: most) PD's fail to realize that. In other words, your story indicates that rules can be broken when seeking potential talent. Great comments.
What is unfortunately being lost is the art of airchecking talent.
There are a number of ways to do good airchecks. My preferred method was to go through the last shift's skimmer (on the computer) and pick something really good and something not so good. That took more time than the aircheck session itself, which is why few PDs do it any more.
With the talent, it was important to show what they had done right and make sure they knew why it was good so that they set that kind of break as their standard and constantly reinforced it. Set the bar high, and then reward that performance with praise.
The not-so-good segment is important to present as "how could you have done this better" which allows the talent to self-criticize and does not set the PD up as "always so negative". This often gets into an interesting discussion of what can be done within the format... or it is just a simple, "I kinda' blew that one, didn't I?".
With voice tracking, and PDs in charge of multiple stations, it is hard to do such regular sessions. That in part explains why a lot of what we hear on the air now is mediocre. Just think of how a movie would turn out without a director?
Yakima Ratings
It always amazes me how these folks get hired in a large market when their ratings performance where they came from doesn't show any results. One can produce a decent sounding aircheck,, but I tend to look at past ratings results. The station these folks are coming from did a 4.3 share in Yakima. Jim Ingstads Country station in Yakima was over a 10 share in recent ratings (Despite not subscribing to Nielsen). This guy is the brand manager of KDBL as well? Doesn't impress me. My guess is the bean counter's got them cheap.
It always amazes me how these folks get hired in a large market when their ratings performance where they came from doesn't show any results. One can produce a decent sounding aircheck,, but I tend to look at past ratings results. The station these folks are coming from did a 4.3 share in Yakima. Jim Ingstads Country station in Yakima was over a 10 share in recent ratings (Despite not subscribing to Nielsen). This guy is the brand manager of KDBL as well? Doesn't impress me. My guess is the bean counter's got them cheap.
These days, if you're major market talent, you seek out specialized talent coaches. They work with morning teams and help develop a style that works. Unless the PD was born & raised in the market (and that's rare), there's no reason to expect a PD will train talent. Entercom is a big enough company to know who the best talent coaches are, and use those coaches to assist in hiring. I imagine that's how these two went from Yakima to Phoenix.
The problem with the talent coach approach is that it should be used to supplement regular airchecking, not as a substitute. The PD needs to pay attention to the break by break details and work with the talent based on the content and style guidance of the coach.
I've worked with several coaches, ranging from Valerie Geller to Randy Lane (both of whom are terrific!) and know that the PD's role is actually increased and enhanced with a coach.
I disagree with the "born and raised" statement. In one personal example, I created a morning show for Z-101 in the Dominican Republic in 1986, and spent time training them myself on frequent visits to Santo Domingo. The two-person team was made from a casting call of recently fired or unemployed "rebels" from local radio, and they needed to be guided with a cattle prod initially. But they have been #1 nationally for the last 24 years. To prepare for the show myself, I hired a sociology professor from the university to give me a two-day intensive briefing on "the Dominican character" so we could focus on the real issues people cared about. In another market, I spent several days with a parish priest discussing the needs and concerns of the parish and, thus, the market.
I've always tried to hire good people from bad radio stations. They arrive motivated, and they are usually very open to coaching.
In fact, on many occasions I'd talk to the PD at the leading station and ask if there was anyone at the competition they wanted to see leave the market. A competitive PD would not want me to hire someone mediocre; they always wanted to help move someone who might be costing them numbers.
Oh I don't doubt that the budgetary concerns are real, and I'm not saying that hiring young talent and turning them into something better is a bad idea. We all got to where we are because someone took a chance on some kid from a smaller market, and in the history of KMLE itself there have been examples of young, fresh talent from smaller markets coming in and standing toe to toe with or even beating market veterans.
If I remember my KMLE history correctly, Tim & Willy were once the untested young guys that wound up being the giant-killers. Their successors (Ben and Brian came from a small market) wound up beating Tim & Willy when they returned from Chicago.
Yet this situation is different than those. In the former, KMLE was still the upstart trying to tackle the heritage station and had nothing to lose. In the latter, KMLE was coming off the wild success of Tim & Willy and could afford to take a chance. Today, KMLE is on their...frankly I've almost lost count of the revolving door of shows. Under (IIRC) the most recent PD they've been through Steve & Nina, Chris & Nina, Niko and Nina, the "Breakfast Buzz" with Niko & Alana, Chad & Maria, and now this new team. That's six.
By comparison, since 93 there was (IIRC) Tim & Willy, Ben & Brian, TJ and Tooker, Dave Pratt, and Tim & Willy again. There was a solo guy in there I think after T&W came back, but I forget his name. Five or six shows depending on how you slice it, across multiple Program Directors over a couple of decades. The latest PD? An equal number of shows in a much shorter period, and still not exactly setting the world on fire.
Maybe the problem is not the budget. Maybe the problem is the PD is not a guy who can pluck raw talent out of a smaller market and develop them into a successful show.
I'm more than happy to be proven wrong. Maybe this new team has the magic, and will be the one that breaks through. If they did, they'd buck the trend.
Brad Booker, followed by Steve & Nina, etc.
Entercom is in full throttle cost cutting mode right now. The promotions director is now also KMLE's music director. The KMLE midday guy doubles as the digital director for the cluster after the old digital guy was cut after 10+ years. Lots of cutbacks and folks doing multiple jobs over there. I doubt that a lot of $ is being invested in this new morning show.
Wait...what?
I mean, on some level I kinda understand their need to cut back a bit. Acquiring an entire radio group the size of CBS is going to lead to some changes and cuts, but...the promotions director becoming the music director? That makes sense in a small market, but in Phoenix?
What the hell is going on over there?
I think it's an interesting idea. I don't know her, but I see she's worked at some powerhouse country stations. I've known marketing & promo directors who've been promoted to PD. The marketing & promo people are in touch with record labels for those listener appreciation shows the stations do. The marketing & promo people staff the remotes the stations do. They interact with listeners and labels. That's kind of what the music director does too. Obviously they're getting guidance in music scheduling from consultants and their own country format captain, so she's not going to be doing this without any help. We've already seen the results from the previous staffing. Let's see what happens this time.
I'm not against promoting people. I mean, if this person (and I don't know her either) has put in her time and has good relationships with labels, etc. then sure...make her MD.
That's a promotion. That's a good thing. If she rises to PD, then good for her. Yet what seems to be at work here is not promotion, but tacking on extra job duties. Congratulations, you're Marketing and Promotions Director and also Music Director. Let's say she gets promoted to PD. So now she's Marketing, Promotions, Music, and Program Director?
What's next? "Entercom announces that (fill in the blank) has been promoted to PD, MD, Promotion Director, Marketing Director, Morning Show Host - and will also be tracking mid-day shifts on multiple stations in her spare time." Said (fill in the blank), "I'm so proud to be given this opportunity. I can't wait to tackle all my new duties! Plus I hope to meet our listeners when I'm driving Uber on nights and weekends to make ends meet! I'm excited for the future!"
Where does it end?
That's not a question anyone in the audience cares about. People don't base their listening decision on the staffing levels at a station. If the station has an aggressive go getter who wants to do a lot, and is able to handle a lot of responsibility, so what? As I said, we know how full staffing has worked for them. Maybe it's time to try something else.
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