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Willcox Radio Station Profiled

Hopefully someone reading that article sends in the $5K so they can repair the AC. How long is that equipment going to last in AZ without AC? Ponderous.
 
But it's a dry heat. :)

What the article misses is that the radio station is the canary in the coal mine. The economy of rural America has really changed in the last 20 years. If there's no money in a town, there can be no local radio station or newspaper. It's one thing to talk about corporate radio, but it completely ignores corporate retail and the collapse of local business. Without retail, there are no advertisers. No advertisers means no money to pay the bills.
 
It's a dry 110 degree heat! Hopefully measures to turn around some of the flyover country economy will be given a chance to yield results. But nothing's going to enable a lower powered AM and a translator in a small, seemingly over-radioed market to survive as a stand alone, a point the article (purposefully?) misses. And don't touch that 5,000-volt stick. :cool:
 
TheBigA said:
The Guardian is a British paper, so they may not understand the complexities of the situation they portrayed.
Click to expand...
Yes, and I wonder what The Guardian's motivation was to develop this story in the first place. I guess its playing to the futility of rural existence or something. It's certainly outside their reporter's area of expertise. Sadly, I don't think this is an uncommon occurrence for them.
 
JBraddock said:
It's a dry 110 degree heat!
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The average daily high temp in Willcox in the two hottest months of the year (July and August) is 96 and 93 but the overnight low temps in the 60's mean that the mean temp during those months is quite comfortable (as long as you don't have to work in the sun).
 
There much that is not covered in this article. I have communicated with Mark and he's a real nice guy. I have listened to the stations as well. The FM was interesting while the AM was still satellite delivered country then.

There's enough business in the community to support the station (I'm talking the moms and pops). The newspaper has plenty of local ads. Mark is likely bogged down doing so much he can't sell during much of the business day. And finding a decent salesperson is tough (the good ones you can't afford).

I suspect part of the issue might be a lack of local news,weather and such on the stations. Those are very desirable features for advertisers and the information helps to reinforce the stations as the local stations. Because he pretty much has to, the stations are jockless. A morning drive show would surely help. The music mix (that I applaud for it's diversity) might be a little to far from center for the bulk of listeners to the formats offered.

Mark is stuck, it seems, in a situation that likely will not end with the stations turning around.

At least until then, Mark is far from cookie cutter in formatting and seems very dedicated to his community. It's a rare find. I'm a fan.

As for the Guardian's article, it seems they got a few things wrong. For one, and this is something nobody wants to hear but consolidation actually helped radio. Many stations were losing money because they could not share employees (AM & FM combos not included). The size of companies forced the support community to work with radio. Automation would likely have ever moved forward as quickly without a big company ready to buy. It became more rare for your paycheck to bounce. You can hate consolidation but from a guy in this business over 40 years, without consolidation you wouldn't want to see what radio would have become without it. All those things you think the big boys should be doing would be entirely impossible years before.

And I question the station ownership and revenue claim. Most stations in this country are owned by small companies. Look up the big boys. Add up their stations and then compare it to the total number of stations the FCC reports as licensed. It's a small percentage the big boys own. As for the revenue, I'd like to see those figures. Naturally there are more ad dollars in the big cities but I suspect the big boys don't account for more than 20-25% of all radio revenue and that's only in markets of substantial size. iHeart likely has no clue where Willcox is and cares even less. If you want to know what hurts the stations in places like Willcox, it's Amazon and retailers like Dollar General that siphon off customers the mom and pop had. Why pop in at Joe's Grocery when Dollar General has it cheaper. Why special order it from Hometown Variety and wait a week or two when you can click to buy on Amazon and the Fed Ex truck is at your door the next day. That is what is killing small town radio.
 
The comment about sales people is absolutely correct. In a small market they are nearly impossible to find. Most sales people don't care what they sell and if the used car lot offers a dollar more an hour the sales person will typically leave the radio station in a heartbeat, often without notice.
That said, KHIL is totally a jukebox. Not even a live morning program. Not even a personality hundreds of miles away. The music is as old as the hills. I noticed one song by Uncle Dave Macon that was a hit in 1927. It's unlikely that anyone listening could remember when it came out. My station also programs some classic country and sometimes I listen to KHIL for ideas. Many of their songs never charted well and I'm not looking for an audience over 90. To the station's credit they do appear to program their own music rather than getting it from some syndicated service.
 
Wow, I had no idea KHIL was such an unusual mix. Uncle Dave Macon is really back there. I do know Mark said he tired of hearing the same songs at the same time each day on the satellite delivered country format KHIL once carried. The FM, when I passed through Willcox the first time was an exceptional mix of adult contemporary centering more on 1970s and 1980s hits with compatible more recent songs. I had not heard an oldies based AC that mixed so many decades of music so deftly and without sounding old. I was so impressed with the mix, I recorded about 3 hours on the minidisc recorder I had in my car back then. I was rather perplexed by the fact that all I heard aside from music was an ID on the hour and half hour and we're talking from about 7:30 to 9 pm and the next morning from about 8:15 to 9:45 am. The lack of commercials and any local info, even weather, was odd at least for the morning time frame. In fact, this lack of anything but music put KWCX on my radar. I had to know if it was working or at least why it was the way it was.

The next drive through Willcox the FM seemed to include some dance (ie: club mixes) and some rock (not classic) with the usual AC mix. I was not as impressed with the mix on my second listen.

You are right about salespeople, especially in small markets.They typically don't understand radio advertising sales and get no training. The issue is the pay is usually just commission and you can't make a decent salary. The problem is even more complex when the same advertiser has to be resold every month. The only way to increase the pay is when the client will buy month after month because you have the time to cultivate new business. It's hard to hang on to a person that wants what we all want, a steady paycheck that pays the bills, but month after month never quite does. But maybe in a year it will if you will use your savings to get you over the hump. There's nothing like being broke and a few bigger clients buy a different media next month instead of your station. You have to try to resell them knowing the paycheck will be lower than last month and all that time and work you invested is for nothing. It's not easy to stay motivated. It ain't nothing like the salesman stereotype. Sales really makes you wonder where your next meal will come from.

I am a salesperson. Everybody classes us as the used car sort. Some are. I sell by actually visiting businesses versus email and phone unless they prefer. I talk to the owner to learn about the business. Then I learn what they want to happen and a dollar amount they feel comfortable with and make it happen. About 20% will work with you but it takes 5 to 8 visits because the owner needs to trust and know you and you need to understand them. I don't sell packages. Everything is customized for the business because every business is different. By the way, all my expenses are on me...gas, auto repairs, note pads computer and such plus you have to dress professionally.

At least in a small town, you can offer a low dollar 'event' package like graduation greetings and get a huge number of businesses to buy instantly, especially those too small to be regular advertisers or businesses that never advertise. If Mark just did that, I bet he'd have plenty of takers. One station I know picks up about $2,000 in billing for such things and never exceeds a spot an hour that contains 5 sponsor mentions.

Considering the above info, you see it is hard to find the right salesperson. The successful are making money and paid the price of starting anew at some station. All you can hope for is a teacher or nurse or civil servant that has the mental strength, moral character and human behavior knowledge to handle the hard road to a paycheck that actually pays the bills and is willing to try sales.

The situation in sales is on a small scale compared to a typical small town radio station owner that invests and has a commercial free station day one. After years of hard work and savings spent they have to find the dollars to pay the bills before going broke. It's daunting. Those with the inner strength to stay focused on the future sometimes make it. Many times by the time you meet them they have a successful operation but ask about how they started. You might criticize them for the low pay but chances are they survived thanks to a few trade-outs because they had too it to survive (like the couple that lived in the back of the station and traded meals at a cafe for the first year hoping the car wouldn't break down or that they wouldn't get sick and praying the station doesn't take a lightning strike).
 
TheBigA said:
The Guardian is a British paper, so they may not understand the complexities of the situation they portrayed.
Click to expand...

"This article was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and the Puffin Foundation."

The aim of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project (EHRP) is to change the national conversation around poverty and economic insecurity. The journalism we commission—from narrative features and photo essays to documentary films—puts a human face on financial instability.

The Puffin Foundation Ltd. has sought to open the doors of artistic expression by providing grants to artists and art organizations who are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy.
 
kwthom said:
"This article was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and the Puffin Foundation."
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with any of that, but the article oversimplifies a very complex problem that goes beyond radio.

In the process of telling their story, it would have been helpful to examine the financial base of the community, and if the real problem resides in a declining local economy. That declining local economy means a declining revenue source for services such as local radio.
 
I don't know Radio Bill. I remember stopping by KHIL in 1975 and they didn't even have a lock on the door. They were buzzin' with an old Collins transmitter and the dj on duty was playing records on some old garrard record players stacked with scratchy lps. Somehow they have managed to stay on the air after all these years. Used to like the Willcox truck stop though. lol.
 
TheBigA said:
In the process of telling their story, it would have been helpful to examine the financial base of the community, and if the real problem resides in a declining local economy. That declining local economy means a declining revenue source for services such as local radio.
Click to expand...
Emphatically agree.
 
What a cool image of small town radio. In most small town stations I worked, the station was never locked. It could be locked, though. Best I heard of was an AM owner in the South forced to take an FM license, I'm thinking in the early to mid-1960s (the FCC did this at license renewal time for AMs at one point). They had a live microphone behind the secretary's desk where it was pointed to the speaker of a record player that would hold 6 albums, playing a side at a time. The secretary had to do an hourly ID and read a few spots each day. I was told very faintly in the background you could hear voices and typewriters.
 
I cannot recall exactly but I looked at service and retail industry sales, eliminating national chains and those types that never buy radio. It seems to me, if my memory is right, it was a base of about $75 million. At that rate, the stations would never be cash cows but I figure they should be pretty close to what the newspaper sells which was likely about $7,500 a month based on their rate card. I am guessing that KHIL and KWCX were billing about $3,000 to $5,000 a month, maximum. I was told at that time more folks advertised on the AM than the FM. That was about a decade ago.
 
This story popped up on the AZ daily Star's web page over the weekend.
 
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