Seeing Red And It's Good!

Seeing red doesn't usually evoke thoughts of anything good except if Red is a radio station--a radio station that just received it's Spring 09 Arbitron ratings.

I want to congratulate my client, Opus Broadcasting's Red 104.3 (KEZP) in Alexandria, LA for a job well done and another stellar ratings performance!

Usually I don't blog about ratings--generally, it's not what this blog is all about. However, in this case I have made an exception. Why? Three reasons:

• Red is a station that successfully programs Alternative Rock at a time when the format has experienced its fair share of difficulties.
• Red is an Alternative station that is not dependent on its gold library. We are 70% current/recurrent!
• Red/KEZP management had the guts one year ago to launch a radio station that most management teams wouldn't have the guts to even think about, let alone do it.

Let me share the numbers with you.

As a reader of this blog you know I do not make it a practice to turn my posts into bold-faced pitches for my services. For today, I am doing just that. I designed, built, and implemented this format on behalf of my client. Now, one year later and two rating periods under our belt there is a great story to tell and I am proud to tell it.

If you have an under-performing station and are thinking about a change give me a call [952.401.9067], send me an email [harve@harvealan.com] and let's talk about how Red could work for you.

Happy 1st anniversary Red 104.3!!

Seeing Red

An idea for [alternative] rock radio...

CURRENTS and lots of them.

Am I crazy? I don't think so. [You, of course, are free to think what you want.]

How many currents? How does 70% of the clock sound? WHAT?!? Yup, 70% current/recurrent. Why not? It's way more than most than most Alternative stations play but still less than a typical CHR would offer. This station is all about today's alternative music. Don't like today's music, that's OK, but this station is probably not for you.

And the Gold? Nothing older than 1992-1993 and usually no more than 4 titles per hour.

This is an idea I have been talking about for quite a while, but as you might imagine it is not an easy sell. No need to go through all of the reasons--you already know what they are.

Last spring I was having a conversation with a friend and client about this very subject. I laid out my vision for the format and outlined why I thought it could work. To my [pleasant] surprise, we started really talking about it. By the beginning of August we were on the air.

The market is an unlikely place--Alexandria, LA. A market of around 162,000 people and devoid of rock currents.

Nearly everything about the way this station was put together challenges convention. Starting with the logo--it's hard to read, there's no positioning statement, and one could argue it doesn't really look like a radio station logo. Exactly! Kudo's to the local station folks for creating such a distinctive non-traditional look. We tested this logo with the locals and the response was off the map. I came up with the name "RED" and it does have a local connection--the Red River runs through the city. But ultimately we believed it spoke to the hip and cool image we were trying to create.

What else did we do to prepare for launch? Sure, we did the normal music scheduling set up, prepared an imaging package, and lined up LOCAL air talent (that's an entire post for another time). While those are vital pieces of the puzzle there were two other elements that I felt were mission critical: 1. We had to stream on day one. 2. We had to be connected to our potential listeners on multiple social network sites on day one. The station is active on My Space, Twitter, and Facebook.

The social networking strategy has been a big success. Despite the fact that this is a very small market the station has amassed over 900 friends with more than 21,000 page views in a very short time on My Space alone.

The station launched with a simple splash page website that included the logo, an email address, streaming link, and links to the aforementioned social networking sites. Today, the stations full website is up and running...see it here.

By now you are probably asking yourself...this sounds kinda interesting but how's it doing? Glad you asked. The fall ratings were released the other day and Red 104.3 is off to a tremendous start. Here you can see some of the highlights compared to the last book of the previous format (classic rock):
Source: Arbitron Maximiser sp08/fa08

Needless to say everyone involved is quite pleased with the results of the stations first book. Now the hard part begins...continuing to grow the stations fan base and build a local franchise.

Formats like this take courage and guts--largely missing from most "conference room" format discussions today. It's not easy to test. It will most likely never show up as a "most desirable" format. Heck, many format finder studies are designed with the format left out completely.

As radio struggles on so many levels today, the timing is right to rethink everything. It might be time to at least consider the concept that there might be a market for newer rock music played without the older rock safety shield.

Having Fun!

I really enjoy launching new radio stations--and that's exactly what I got to do this week in Alexandria, LA. RED 104.3 was born yesterday at around 3PM central time. Having launched a lot of radio stations I can tell you this one was a little different.

We not only needed to worry about the normal "old skool" stuff like music, jocks, clocks, production, and spots but it was imperative that our on-line launch would coincide with on-air. While the homepage is a temporary one, it includes links to our stream, our myspace, facebook, and twitter pages. Listeners can also email us. Wow, that is starting to sound archaic--emailing.

I also thought it was important to launch with jocks. After all, we are a radio station and not a jukebox, right? Yes, the research will always tell you to shut up and play the music. I've never seen a study that didn't. [I bet you could ask a talk audience that question and they too would want to hear music! Just kidding.] I say, so what! Go against the research. Fight the temptation to put on a non-stop music machine. Use the music format you choose to play as a catalyst to entertain people. Who owns the storyteller position in your market?

There's still fun, a lot of fun, to be had in this business if we would just allow ourselves the freedom to have that fun. I hope you had some fun this week too.

Thanks to Sean Ross at Edison Media Research, who writes the Infinite Dial blog, for the nice write up today:

First Listen: Red 104.3

Written Aug. 1, 2008

Got a chance to listen to an early stretch of Harve Alan's new project, Opus Media's KEZP Alexandria, La., which just flipped from Classic Rock to a very hit-driven Alternative as Red 104.3 -- a good name for a radio station even outside the state of Louisiana. Besides doing a good job of cherry-picking the poppiest of today's modern rock, Red also gets liner of the week awards for this end-of-the-stopset sweeper: "Going back to the music beats going back to jail!"

Here's Red 104.3 at 10:45 this morning:

Muse, "Starlight"
Ludo, "Love Me Dead"
Shinedown, "Save Me"
Beck, "Where It's At"
Beastie Boys, "Sabotage"
Carolina Liar, "I'm Not Over"
Nirvana, "Dumb"
Trapt, "Who's Going Home With You Tonight"
Three Days Grace, "Never Too Late"
311, "Come Original"
Foo Fighters, "Let It Die"
Linkin Park, "What I've Become"
Staind, "Right Here"