It would be nice to have at least one Seattle radio station aimed at people who aren't retarded. OK, now that I've sunk to the level of commercial talk radio - indulge me for a few examples of what might work to attract the large number of apparently educated, worldly-wise Seattleites who don't really have much that speak to them. And what some of you might try to do differently with the way you present your programming.
KWJZ plays commercials and promos right out of songs. Stop it. Play more music with emotional impact and lyrics worth paying attention to, and ditch the muzak and fuzak. Have a straight ahead plain spoken announcer backsell the music before you go into commercials. KKSF in its heyday of the Brown Broadcasting years had it down pat.
Fine-tuning a short playlist is only one issue to address at KWJZ or any other station that thinks it can reach, and serve, people with a college education, and perhaps who grew up in another city or country but call the Seattle area home now -- and can't find even one music station to stick with for more than ten minutes.
I'm listening to Fresh Air's tribute to Blossom Dearie as I write this on KXOT. She was a distinctive jazz-cabaret singer who died over the weekend, if you've forgotten her. A truly classy station with a broad playlist could play a tribute number to her, as well as feature music from Jackson Browne, Joan Armatrading, acoustic Johnny Cash, Angelique Kidjo, Manu Chao, Robbie Robertson, Miles Davis and Sting-Before-That-Damned-Lute. Give us some "chill-out" music, with some complimentary stuff from other genres, too. Remember what Radio and Records used to call "New Adult Contemporary," and what others call an adult-skewing AAA format? There's still a lot of it being produced out there. You just don't get to hear much of it on the local radio stations. KEXP is too into garage bands to do this, since I'm talking about an older demographic.
It seems to work to attract and maintain an audience on many of the adult-skewing AAAs in the non-comm and commerical worlds. Just don't make them have to be in the top 5 Arbitron 12+ numbers to "succeed." Tho' in Seattle, you actually might, since there's little competition that isn't rap, country, or "classic rock hits." There really are other formats you could try. I suppose KWJZ and KMTT are the closest things to adult music stations that aren't all "sugar and spice," but they really don't seem to display much imagination and seem to underestimate their listeners - as least to my ears. "Jazz for the country western listener." Album rock without playing anyting you haven't already heard a hundred times. Kinda disappointing, actually.
Besides content that features a lot of new music, album cuts from stuff you used to have on LP, and something that goes beyond what we've always heard on the endless stale "classic rock" stations that dominate the Seattle dial, presentation is important, too. Ever heard of a "tune-out"? Those silly positioning statments and liners that run over and over and over, as if there's that one listener out there somewhere who can't repeat it by heart after ten minutes, may have as much to do with low ratings as the music itself. Five minute or longer commercial sets sound like clutter and interrupt the flow of programming and the mood of the music. (I know you need to sell spots, just make it fit the format!), May I suggest the Clear Channel style "phone echo" promos are an instant tune-out for a lot of people who are unimpressed by announcers who sound like they're hosting an "extreme sports" event. If it works at a monster truck rally, it probably doesnt' belong on an adult-oriented station!
Note to The Mountain - forget what Bill Virgin suggested last year - go ahead and be just like KINK in Portland. We could really use a station like KINK, or what it was, with album cuts, medium tempo music, relaxed announcers who use their natural voice, no screamers, and clear audio processing that doesn't pump up the bass like a rap station. You could be that station, if you would distinguish youself and give your listeners a little credit for having a brain and discriminating taste. Forget about pleasing sleaze merchants like Pierre Motors and Tulalip Casino "Fun! Fun! FUN!!" and be a station people can listen to all day without getting pissed off or mentally tuning out all the crap. And turn down the bass! Who wants to listen to that much processing on an expensive sound system?
And if they don't do it, can KWJZ pull it off?
Otherwise, I suspect you who are among the commercial decision makers in this market might actually be charged with trying to drive us all away from the radio dial into satellite radio, internet radio, and creating our own mixes. Because there's scant little that sounds like the kind of station the people I know would want to spend time with.
Are you programming the kind of station you'd actually listen to all day if you weren't in the biz? Why not? Seriously, why not?
Just a few suggestions,
Goldilocks
