Anatomy of a Format Change: Station Movin On

A year after a format change that saw Los Angeles lose its only remaining country music radio station, KMVN 93.9 has made modest gains in reaching its new female audience. Executives with the Burbank-based station said they are still in the earlier stages of getting word out about its Movin 93.9 brand and the return to the airwaves of radio host Rick Dees all the while going up against formidable competition. With the rhythmic hot adult contemporary format, KMVN has attracted just about the same number of listeners as in the waning days of KZLA-FM, the country music station it replaced last year – in the range of 500,000. The most recent Arbitron numbers for spring 2007 had KMVN with a 1.2 percent share, an improvement over the 0.9 percent share for winter 2007 and the 0.7 share for fall of 2006. Station executives are pleased with the numbers, pointing out that the format change was so drastic they all but started from scratch. “When you launch a station like this your goal is to secure enough (listeners) away from the competition to be your core audience and over time you build them up and you’re their favorite because they most identify with you,” said KMVN General Manager Val Maki. KMVN is owned by Emmis Communications, whose other Los Angeles station is KPWR-FM, Power 106. (The country format returned to the market on independently-owned KKGO.) In looking at the marketplace, Emmis did what many radio station operators do in looking at opportunities in new formats and finding ways to maximize a format change. Very few if any KZLA listeners were expected to make the transition when Emmis cut the Nashville cord, so to speak, and replaced it with dance music and R & B; artists. ‘Over-radioed’ The decision, however, was not one taken lightly by station management Jimmy Steal, vice president for programming for Emmis who is based in Los Angeles, said the market is “over-radioed” and that research wouldn’t show gaping holes in formats. Still, in the discussions and debates over making the switch there came a realization that an audience of women in the 25 to 54 year old range was not being served. Both Steal and Maki used the word “disenfranchised” to describe the audience the new station was going after; women who don’t consider themselves old and fall between music styles that are not too soft and not too hard. “We wanted to position this station for the future,” Steal said. “The geo-demography in LA and Orange County long term is probably more user friendly for a Latina targeted radio station.” As a station with new call letters and a new format, Movin 93.9 needed to give itself a big presence in the crowded radio market and did that by bringing on veteran air personality Rick Dees. When he started as Movin 93.9 morning host in September 2006, Dees had not been heard on local airwaves for more than two years, ever since leaving his morning show at Clear Channel-owned KIIS-FM, the main competitor to his new employer. As personality-driven radio shows can take time to attract and grow an audience, KMVN kickstarted that process by hiring a well known name in the Los Angeles market. And who has a bigger name in this market than Dees, asked Maki. “That was a huge advantage for us to launch with a known name and never would have done that had he not matched the music,” Maki said. Yet, despite his 25 years in the area and those billboards and television commercials focused on Dee’s dance steps and enlarged, uh, gluteus maximus – Maki admits the station still hears comments from people unaware that Dees had returned to radio. Getting the word out That, in a nutshell, describes the biggest challenge KMVN faces getting its brand out before an audience in a large, competitive market with splintering tastes. In some regard, Maki said, it’s easier to launch a new station for teens and young adults because they want to be in on the newest music and artist. But with adults, a new station has to lure them away from familiar habits be it the time they get up or the radio station they listen to, Maki said. In addition, marketing battles in the radio industry are drawn out affairs, and a snapshot of a station at a one year mark or five year mark may not give the full picture. “Great radio stations are usually the result of doing a lot of things right over a long period of time,” Maki said. “If you can keep giving the audience what they want over a long period of time and make adjustments when necessary that is what builds a great radio brand.”