ROD PHILLIPS Rock Station Lets Social Media Drive the Weekend Listening at Insideradio.Com

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015

Work For Weekends Pays Off For Stations. When the five o’clock whistle blows Friday afternoon, the heavy lifting is often just beginning for many a radio programmer. To drive listeners to their stations on weekends, when lifestyles and media habits are clearly different than during the week, programmers must often invent excuses to tune in, often in the form of special/themed weekends. “We call it event programming,” Bonneville classic rock “The Sound” KSWD, Los Angeles (100.3) program director Dave Beasing tells Inside Radio. “Not unlike a big sports event or the finale of ‘American Idol,’ the goal is to create a can’t-miss shared experience. We target the same audience, but we try to be a little stickier. If they push the car radio buttons fewer times, that’s a win. If they put us on outside at the pool, that’s a huge win.” Weekend listening works like a bell curve—with people waking up later and much less commuting, listening peaks at noon, according to Nielsen. That makes setting the table for weekend listening at the right time, and with the right content, a necessity. As for the value of special weekends, “If they cause good weekend PPM, great,” Beasing says. “But even if we’re just flat, these events cause buzz, and build the brand.” For Bill Weston, who programs Greater Media-Philadelphia’s rock WMMR and classic rock WMGK, tapping into local events is a no- brainer. With 1.5 million expected to descend on the city for Pope Francis’ visit on Sept. 26-27, WMMR came up with a “Special Dispensation Weekend,” dispensing cases of beer and lawn darts and badminton sets. “The message being no one is going anywhere with all the traffic tie-ups that weekend, so stay home, drink, play out in the yard and listen to the radio,” Weston says.

Non-Stop Party Is Hard Work For Radio. Weekend programming plans always take a bunch of work, given that listening is less predictable than during the week. Pio Ferro, program director of “Hot 97” WQHT, New York, says that through Labor Day weekend, the Emmis rhythmic CHR is airing Hot Summer Mix Weekends. It’s working. “We schedule live mixing for over 48 hours,” Ferro says. “We kick it off on Fridays at noon and go all the way to Sunday night. Every couple of hours we have a new mixer to keep the weekend party going.” According to Nielsen, weekend listening attracts about 70% of what radio gets during the week. To help raise the numbers, stations often offer contests and themed programming. Keeping the party going is no mean feat but the payoff can be a good one if it catches on. “The audience response has been great,” says Ferro of the event programming that benefits from some of the top mixers in New York, such as Funk Flex, DJ Enuff and DJ Khaled. For the Fourth of July holiday, classic rock WMGK, Philadelphia (102.9) hosted a “Did You Hear What They’re Playing On MGK This Weekend” event, featuring former AM radio classics not heard elsewhere in the market, such as Count Five’s “Psychotic Reaction,” The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City” and Tommy James’ “Draggin’ the Line.” “Not oldies, NEWS INSIDE >> but cool songs like ‘One Toke Over the Line’ by Brewer & Shipley,” WMGK PD Bill Weston tells Inside Radio. “These were mixed in with our standard library with great imaging to set them 5 QUESTIONS WITH... up. We were very pleased with the results.” To Live and Try In L.A.—Read how one classic ROD PHILLIPS rock station lets social media drive the weekend listening at InsideRadio.com.

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How Radio’s Bro-Mance Brought ‘Em In. While there’s debate over whether the “Bro Country” phenomenon has peaked at radio, country programmers certainly concur that the genre boosted the format’s younger male audience. Deemed by New York magazine two years ago as “music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude,” its sound, pervasive at country radio, is beginning to wane. In a Billboard story, veteran writer Phyllis Stark surmised, “For country radio and record labels, there’s no denying the positive impact that style of music had on the format. Radio programmers say it introduced more people to country music, and as an added bonus those people tended to be the coveted younger demos. Win-win.” Entercom “106.5 The Wolf” WDAF, Kansas City PD Wes Poe said in the piece, “Bro country was very good for the format. It infused an 18-34 audience that we really needed at the time. The non-hipster millennials needed music to connect with. Rock wasn’t providing it, and most of the writing was very good, relatable and targeted young, so there were a lot of positives to take away.” All of this has also helped amp up the country radio format’s music sales and concert revenues. “Listeners don’t really think it’s over,” said BBR Music Group president/CEO Benny Brown. “You wouldn’t see the bro country artists still filling arenas and stadiums if it was, and you wouldn’t see the albums and singles from them continue to lead in the sales and streams.”

July Aside, Ad Tracker Yearly Rise Continues. The U.S advertising market continued its seasonal decline in July, hitting its lowest mark since January, according to U.S. Ad Market Tracker trends reported by Mediapost. But the index grew 11 points compared to one year ago and is up 68 points from July 2009. The expected July downturn is part of a normal seasonal decline that occurs in the summer months, when there’s less demand among many advertising categories. The index fell from 193 in June to 165 in July. The downtrend is expected to continue in August before ramping back up in September as fall advertising picks up heading into the holiday shopping season. The index tracks actual spending from the major U.S. agency holding companies. Consistent with the overall ad market, digital fell to 501 in July from 556 in June, but is up 110 index points from July 2014 and up 373 points since July 2009. Year-over-year U.S. Ad Market Tracker trends are positive. The index has been climbing consistently during the past six years, according to Mediapost.

Radio Looks For Holiday Ad Jingle To Register. Back to school shopping isn’t close to over, but local broadcasters and advertisers are already looking ahead to the holiday season. November and December typically account for one-fifth of annual retail ad spend, and for local radio, it’s often the gift that keeps on giving. A new report from Kantar Media expects retail holiday ad spending to be down from 2% to 4%. Even so, the holiday season is a major boon for radio ad revenue. In 2014, retailers spent $4.32 billion on holiday season advertising, about one-quarter of the total $18.5 billion spent that year. In 2013, retailers allocated slightly more money to holiday ($4.42 billion) but overall, annual spending was slightly less at $18.1 billion. This year, Kantar predicts holiday advertising will start earlier, and brands will shift efforts to social media and increase digital ad spending. Facing greater competition from online sellers, retailers are pressed to find ways to get customers into their stores. Local radio is well positioned for retailers looking to get shoppers into brick-and-mortar because radio ads are frequently heard near the point of purchase, when shoppers are in the car. In 2014, radio received 6.2% of holiday ad spending, compared to 11.7% for spot TV, 22% for digital and 17.3% for newspapers. National TV commanded the largest share, with 34.1%. As consumer media consumption shifts, radio may be in a position to steal away more business, with advertisers moving away from newspaper and some TV advertising. But digital presents stiff competition. In 2015, Kantar expects digital advertising will account for 25% of retailers’ holiday ad spending. In 2014, top retail spenders included WalMart ($262 million), Macys ($257 million), Target ($199 million), Best Buy ($104 million) and JC Penney ($103 million). Online retailer Amazon spent $73 million on holiday advertising.

Wheeler Gets Earful From NAB Over Old Rules. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler took a bow last week for efforts to modernize some of the agency’s media rules. But the chairman’s blog post failed to mention what the FCC is doing to update its decades-old broadcast ownership rules, an omission that caught the ever-watchful eye of the National Association of Broadcasters. In a blog post, NAB senior VP of legal & regulatory affairs Jerianne Timmerman chided the chairman for leaving in place “the disco era” ban on common ownership of a newspaper and a single radio or TV station in the same market and the “World War II era” rule that prohibits common ownership of two TV stations in most markets. “Despite Congress expressly requiring the FCC to regularly

[email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015 update its ownership rules, the Commission has repeatedly—even serially—failed to modernize those restrictions,” Timmerman writes. In a sharp-tongued post, Timmerman says the Commission has “cavalierly disregarded its obligation” under the Telecom Act to complete the 2010 quadrennial ownership review. She suggests the reason why is because it’s unable to defend keeping them on today’s competitive landscape. “In irresponsibly delaying reform of its ownership rules, the Commission has had to deny the existence of competition to TV and radio stations and newspapers,” she writes. For example, the FCC has largely denied competition to broadcast TV from pay-TV and streaming services, Timmerman says, and brushed off online competitors to newspapers based on the ground that the Internet is not available to all Americans. “The Commission must stop willfully and blatantly ignoring its statutory duty to, borrowing a phrase from chairman Wheeler, promote the ‘public interest’ and ‘help ensure the continued viability’ of free, over-the-air broadcast service,” she concludes.

NextRadio Doubles Traditional Radio TSL. Average station listening sessions on the NextRadio smartphone app have grown to 20 minutes, nearly double that of traditional over-the-air listening, according to new data from NextRadio developer Emmis Communications. That compares to the average traditional FM radio listening session of 10.3 minutes, according to Nielsen, and 8.9 minutes in streaming music apps, per Appfigures. The new metric comes as the app that wakes up FM receivers on smartphones is gaining momentum among carriers. Within weeks of one another, both T-Mobile and AT&T agreed to activate FM chips on their handsets. There are currently 25 million NextRadio-enabled phones in the marketplace, according to Emmis, about 70% of which are sold by early adopter Sprint with 30% being offered by other carriers. Bringing AT&T and T-Mobile on board, the nation’s No. 2 and No. 3 carriers, respectively, is expected to exponentially increase the number of FM-capable smartphones in the market. Average NextRadio station listening sessions go as high as 21 minutes during weekdays, Emmis said. Emmis emphasized two other data points that it said proves “FM in smartphones is the future of radio listening.” Namely, Nielsen data that shows 36% of consumers in the U.S. listen to music through their smartphone, and research showing music apps are the third-fastest growing app category. “Double the listening in NextRadio provides broadcasters with a great message to share with advertisers on the value of offering an enhanced ad on NextRadio,” company president Paul Brenner said in a statement. “They now have a platform that engages consumers longer, provides next-day reporting and delivers above-average interactivity rates.”

Listeners Want Personal Touch In Emails. Want to keep your loyal listener emails from going straight into the trash? Try sending personalized emails—and fewer of them. That’s the latest takeaway from a new eMarketer survey about email marketing that asked what companies could do to keep recipients from unsubscribing to their message. Email newsletters have been part of the audience engagement fabric of many radio stations, used to share information about news, programming, contests, appearances and topics relevant to the audience. According to the May 2015 report, 40.6% of respondents said they would like the option of receiving emails less frequently, while 16.7% said they’d like messages tailored to their interests and preferences. Another 16.1% said they want personalized and relevant content, and 14.1% want to “snooze” their subscriptions. Some people, however, just want to opt out—40.7% of respondents say they’ll unsubscribe no matter what marketers do. Radio stations frequently build their lists based on users’ activity on their websites, or on opt-ins for specific interests. According to eMarketer, email recipients expect marketers to use their personal data to craft targeted messages. Among the types of information, 74.8% of respondents said they expect companies to use purchase history to personalize emails, while 70.6% cited interests they expressed in profiles to be used, and 57.4% expected their birthdays to be used. About half of respondents said they expected their gender and offline purchases made at a store to factor into email messaging they receive.

After Giving It Old College Try, KUHA Back On Sale Block. Four years after acquiring the station in a deal that caused an uproar among the city’s university students, Houston Public Media says it plans to sell “Classical 91.7” KUHA, Houston and relocate its classical music format to an HD Radio multicast channel while continuing to stream online. The University of Houston acquired the former KTRU from Rice University for $9.5 million in 2010, triggering a wave of protests from students and fans of the free-form college station, some of whom filed a petition with the FCC to block the sale. Now KUHA general manager Lisa

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Shumate has told University of Houston officials she wants to sell the station. Houston Public Media will try to keep “Classical 91.7” fans happy by exporting Bach and Brahms over to the HD-2 channel of news/talk sister KUHF (88.7) and streaming online at Houstonpublicmedia.org, and on free apps such as iHeartRadio and TuneIn. “We are making this change in recognition of the growing popularity, superior broadcast quality and greater efficiency of digital broadcasting,” Shumate said in a statement. “Placing our focus on HD Radio and digital streaming for our classical music programming enables us to make the best use of technology and resources to continue providing the music and arts and culture content that our listeners enjoy.” After buying the station in 2010, the school moved most of the classical music and arts programming from KUHF to its new sister station, along with live broadcasts of the Houston Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera and local performing artists and groups. KUHF then adopted a news/talk format. In 2013, KUHA eliminated eight full-time positions, including four local hosts.

Deace Gives An Iowa Nod To Cruz. The Presidential Election may be 14 long months away, but it’s never too early for official endorsements. Syndicated conservative Iowa radio host Steve Deace offered a thumbs-up to Republican candidate Ted Cruz on his show Wednesday. The testimonial by the USA Radio Networks-syndicated host came two days ahead of an appearance by the candidate at the Iowa State Fair. Deace’s approval is significant because of the clout the Christian host carries among conservative evangelicals in Iowa. His months of on-air promotion of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in 2007 and ‘08 is credited with helping Huckabee win the Iowa caucuses. Now Deace has pledged to use his on-air muscle to help Cruz win the Iowa Republican Caucus, which is six months away. His show is carried on 56 stations around the country. “Ted Cruz presents exactly what we’ve been waiting for, an end to the Washington Cartel’s false choice between our principles and electability,” Deace wrote in a statement to Politico. He also heralded Cruz’s “ability to coalesce the conservative base,” his strong views regarding “religious freedom” and the candidate’s fundraising capabilities. According to Politico, that currently amounts to $14 million in contributions and Super PACs, “making him the second-best funded GOP candidate, after Jeb Bush.” Deace also penned a lengthy piece for the conservative-leaning Washington Times on Wednesday, where he postured, “The 2016 election will likely determine whether we ever return to the God-given liberty that made this the greatest nation on Earth.” Deace’s thumbs-up is, of course, particularly impactful for the Iowa caucuses, where Cruz trails Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Scott Walker. The radio host is also a frequent talking head on NPR, MSNBC and The Hill.

Locals Partners Save Beloved KY Station. After word got out that WPKY (1580) in the small western Kentucky market of Princeton would be forced to shut down if a new owner couldn’t be found, a group of local business owners pulled together to buy it and its sister FM. Tiger Media has filed with the FCC to purchase WAVJ (104.9) and WPKY in Princeton from Steve Newberry’s Commonwealth Broadcasting. Both stations have been simulcasting the sounds of country sister “Howdy 97.7” WWKY, in Providence, KY. Tiger Media is a local investor group that includes Dan and Jaye Lynn Hughes, and Lucinda Hughes Gray, who own the local Chevrolet-Buick dealership, and Joe and Kathy McEnaney, who own the local McDonald’s restaurants. WAVJ and WPKY will relaunch with a simulcast branded as “The Tiger” with current station manager Caroline Garcia remaining in place and Shirley Boyd Gray as general sales manager. The group says it plans to bring back local programming favorites such as “Saturday Swapper” and to broadcast all Princeton Tiger football games. “After reflecting on how instrumental the station was during the ice storm, blizzards, tornadoes and other natural disasters we decided that we must try to save our local radio station,” Garcia said in a press release. “We know that having a local radio station broadcasting during emergencies can save lives and we must do everything in our power to make that happen.” Tiger Media also plans to launch what Garcia called an “aggressive” advertising campaign along with other initiatives that will help the station “operate in a positive and productive manner on a month-to-month basis.” The sale follows Commonwealth’s announcement in July that it would sell WPKY while it planned to relocate WAVJ’s signal elsewhere. — Get more news, people moves and insider extras @ www.insideradio.com. —

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Five Questions With…Rod Phillips In early August, longtime programmer Rod Phillips cashed his ticket to Music City, with a promotion to head of iHeartMedia’s country radio division. The 14-year company vet now supervises a team of four country brand coordinators and presides over 140 stations, including country powerhouses like KEEY, Minneapolis; WMZQ, Washington, DC; and “The Bull” WUBL, Atlanta. Inside Radio caught up with Phillips to chat about the state of the format, fragmentation and the dearth of female artists.

IR: Despite the criticism of “bro country” and the lack of female artists on the charts, country music is doing well and 18-34 year-olds are coming back to the format. What’s driving that? Put simply, it’s cool to be country. The format continues to produce a sound that is mass consumable and we heavily support the format across our iHeartCountry radio, digital, social and live event platforms. We’re also set up to have more female artists on your favorite country station in the back half of the year so it should be a great fall for the format. Rod Phillips IR: Country has broad appeal from millennials to boomers. Can one version of the format continue to be all things to all people, or do you expect the format to splinter? RP: There is always the option to lean younger or older through sonic branding via your personalities and station imaging, but the music already crosses most generations. It’s a unique and positive position for the format where most age groups can agree to listen to the same radio station.

IR: You helped develop the “Bobby Bones Show,” now heard on 70 iHeart stations. What do the listeners and advertisers have to say about the show? RP: The listeners are truly in love with the show. The feedback we see shows extremely high passion levels from those who have tried it. It seems that once you listen, you are hooked. For advertisers this morning show is on an amazing trajectory. Two-and-a-half years ago, many people didn’t know what to think of the radio guy behind the black-rim glasses, but advertisers are clearly seeing a return on their investment via such a loyal audience.

IR: You have a multi-format background that includes country, top 40 and other formats. What did you learn from other formats that can be applied to country? RP: There have been a lot of great sounding country stations for years but we feel strongly that the quality of content has improved by loosening the belt so to speak, and simply having more fun. There is a CHR influence in country more than ever that has raised the bar for how we can brand our stations, particularly with the younger audience. Social media is a big piece here as well, where artists can share personal experiences more fully with listeners. And clearly the country community of artists knows how to have fun!

IR: Do you see any female artists that might break the male domination on the charts in the next few months? RP: Our focus has to remain on playing great music for our listeners, no matter the artists’ gender, but we are seeing female artists shine in the format. Kelsey Ballerini just celebrated her first No. 1 hit and we know of other female superstars from our format coming with new music very soon. The rest of 2015 looks very exciting.

Knee Deep in the Genre: Find out which band Phillips would love to follow on tour, and why he thinks social media is necessary for success, only at InsideRadio.com.

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