KPPF Monument AM 1040 (Colorado Springs area)

[RF101]

A note in the regional state press.
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Colorado Springs Gazette

Longtime radio executive planning to resurrect Colorado Springs station

Ted Robertson, radio industry veteran and general manager of Power Media Group, talks about plans to convert KPPF 1040 AM, 98.5 FM and 95.7 FM by year’s end into a local news and talk format. KPPF has featured many formats ranging from Christian music and preaching to comedy and hip-hop, but its...

gazette.com

"Longtime radio executive planning to resurrect Colorado Springs station" 15 Feb 2021

By Wayne Heilman [email protected]


KPPF has featured many formats ranging from Christian music and preaching to comedy and hip-hop, but its new owners will try a format that is rare in today's radio industry — all-local news and talk.

Ted Robertson, general manager of Power Media Group, said he and the station's staff of nine hope to begin phasing in the new format soon on weekends with adult contemporary music on weekdays. The radio industry veteran want to complete the shift to all news and talk by year's end, featuring frequent local newscasts and shows on lifestyle, business, real estate, technology and other subjects targeted at listeners in their mid-30s and older.

A limited liability company affiliated with Power Media bought KPPF, which includes 1040 AM in Monument and translator stations 95.7 and 98.5 FM, for $185,000 in December from SGMK Communications Partners, a company headed by Michael Knar, according to Federal Communications Commission records. The station broadcasts at 15,000 watts from an antenna near Valley Hi Golf Course during daytime hours and reduces to 2,000 watts at night under its FCC license.

"Our ownership group approached me about what would be a long-lasting and permanent format. We thought that the local news and talk format would be the most sustainable," said Robertson, who worked for KRDO-AM and FM before joining Power Media Group. "As somebody who has been in radio as long as I have, when I got the call from the organization in mid-December, it was the adventure of a lifetime and I couldn't pass up the offer to build this station from the ground up."

Power Media Group's new format will feature Robertson offering newscasts in the afternoon and a yet-to-be-hired anchor for morning newscasts, he said. The weekend talk shows will feature hosts who are "top performers in their industry and bring a different approach to what they do — that is what makes them successful." Hosts will pay the station for the time during which their shows are broadcast, a common practice in the radio industry where hosts use their shows to build name recognition, find clients and increase their market share, Robertson said.

Power Media Group is building out a studio complex at its offices, 2020 N. Academy Blvd., that will include a room with audio and video equipment that can be rented to produce podcasts, Robertson said. The company also has hired radio industry programming veteran Al Vasquez as production manager and Andrew Woehle, who had headed Perry Sanders' 365 Grand Properties, as general sales manager.

Robertson said he isn't worried about the threat online broadcasting poses to the radio industry, which has forced several large radio ownership groups into financial trouble.

"We believe radio has a future because it gives listeners another way to get information, which has been beneficial during the (COVID-19) pandemic," Robertson said. "We also plan to distribute our programming on podcasts to give listeners the option to listen at any time. The reception from the contacts of our team to our plans has been enthusiastic."

Robertson said Power Media is a social impact business with a mission to "support military, veterans and their families; first responders; the minority community; business; nonprofits; social enterprise and more who solve community problems." Social impact businesses are profit-making firms that also have a charitable or social purpose.

The station was started in 1986 as KKRE under a Christian adult contemporary music format and was acquired two years later to be the flagship station of the Colorado Springs-based Business Radio Network under the call letters KCBR. The station returned to the Christian music format, adding talk and remained with that format under several owners until Knar's group bought the station in 2012.

Knar's group shifted to a variety of local and syndicated talk hosts for two years before switching to hit music and cycling through oldies, hip-hop with some programming focused on cannabis, a hybrid of comedy and hits from the 1990s and back to hip-hop. The station also featured the Radio Shopping Show, where listeners could call in and get coupons and other special deals from local businesses.

 

[Gregg.]

Here are the key sentences:

>>>>Hosts will pay the station for the time during which their shows are broadcast, a common practice in the radio industry where hosts use their shows to build name recognition, find clients and increase their market share, Robertson said.<<<<

This will be a brokered time station. It is NOT a common practice in the radio industry to have hosts PAY for their time. It will mean any storefront preacher, kook or snake-oil doctor will buy the time and use it to push whatever they think they can sell to the unsophisticated public.

At the beginning of the article, the writer says this is a rare format in today's modern radio, all local news and talk. That's still true. But that's not what this station will be.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Here are the key sentences:

>>>>Hosts will pay the station for the time during which their shows are broadcast, a common practice in the radio industry where hosts use their shows to build name recognition, find clients and increase their market share, Robertson said.<<<<

This will be a brokered time station. It is NOT a common practice in the radio industry to have hosts PAY for their time. It will mean any storefront preacher, kook or snake-oil doctor will buy the time and use it to push whatever they think they can sell to the unsophisticated public.

At the beginning of the article, the writer says this is a rare format in today's modern radio, all local news and talk. That's still true. But that's not what this station will be.

It's more common then you think for hosts to pay for their time. Not super common, but I think.. it happens more than people think.

all local news and talk is what this station will be to the average listener and thats who this article was written for, not radio people

 

[b-turner]

You can charge hosts and still hold them to a certain level of integrity and criteria. In fact, those folks are not quite as hard to find but you've usually talking building them from the ground up by teaching them how to do a show. If the station is smart, they reserve a couple of minutes for their advertisers.

Those that legitimately buy time fore a show on their expertise typically have reps that are eager to kick in some dollars to help pay for it (through co-op, etc.).

I knew of one guy that bought afternoon drive on an AM, all 4 hours weekdays. He had a good number of advertisers and a select twenty or more each got to be a guest on an hour of his show weekly (ie: an attorney, auto mechanic, home improvement, etc.). Each guest fielded calls from listeners. The auto mechanic knew other mechanics in town and depending on where the caller was, he's suggest they see a certain auto repair shop. If he was stumped, he'd call an expert (it wasn't frequent but he'd refer to a specialist when he wasn't certain).

 

[Gregg.]

Well, I'm glad to hear this. But too often, paid hosts are what I described. At first, I'm sure the intensions are good and the standards are high.

But eventually, when the host is paying you and you need that money to run the station, you will lower your standards to keep the money they bring. Or if they slot is vacant, you'll do what you have to, in order to replace the money you're no longer getting.

 

[b-turner]

You have a point there but there is also a demand on you to maintain the quality you hold your other clients to. Let one client sip on that quality and your billing is going south quickly. I get what you are saying. When you need the billing, it's really hard to say no to somebody waving cash on your face.

I think they'd be smarter to do a magazine format where paid 'programmers' get, say a 3 minute feature each weekday, airing every 2 or 3 hours filling in between news.