Dan Mason knows a good challenge when he sees one and when CBS Radio presented him the opportunity to launch a new Top 40 station in the highly competitive Boston market, he lunged at the prospect. Coming off a complete turnaround in Sacramento where he left KDND (The End) #1 in several key demos, he was primed to tackle a market with well-seasoned and finely tuned contemporary music competitors. One year into the launch and building process finds Amp Radio already making progress in Beantown.
Dan Mason
Dan Mason’s quest to go from west to east was satisfied last October when CBS Radio afforded him the opportunity to tackle the programming chores at the newly minted Amp Radio (WODS) in Boston. It was CBS Radio’s fourth Top 40 foray into a major market with an existing/well-tenured competitor. In this case Mason and his staff are battling two Clear Channel players that have long established themselves as successful brands in the market. Both WXKS and WJMN present formidable competition to any newcomer playing contemporary hit music and since Mason’s arrival, much of the market radio dynamics have changed offering listeners more variety among there favorite hit music stations.
Mason comes battle tested and prepared for the challenges in front of him. His first major market gig was launching WAKS in Cleveland with CC in 1999. At the time it was a 3,000 watt class A signal and, as Mason relates, “When I got there I couldn’t even pick it up in the parking garage of the building. They just weren’t going to spend a lot of money and hire a bunch of seasoned radio veterans. So I was hired there with the understanding that the station wouldn’t probably last more than a year. They figured someone with a major stick would come in and launch a Top 40 to fill the void in the market and we’d get obliterated and then they would just move me somewhere else. We had this small, limited station that wasn’t supposed to break more than a one share and we wound up with a 3.5 share. That’s when CC moved us on to the 96.5 frequency and it became a full market stick, as it exists today.”
After six years in Cleveland Mason shifted to WHYI/Y100 in Miami. It was a quick stay there when Mason got the call from Entercom to head to Sacramento to program Top 40 KDND/The End, where he also launched (HAC) KBZC/Star 106.5. Mason completely turned The End around, placing #1 in every demo upon his exit. He was there just shy of 6 years. Mason arrived in Boston in October of 2012, for yet another launch.
You recently celebrated your one year anniversary with CBS in Boston. How have the radio dynamics of the market changed since your arrival?
It’s not so much that the Boston market hasn’t gone through changes over the last 20 years, it’s just that it had not gone through any changes in the contemporary music landscape. (WXKS) Kiss 108 and (WJMN) Jamn’ 94.5 are brands with a combined 50+ years of heritage that absolutely ran the table with the female demos. The stations combined for a 30 share with women 18-49 at their peak, so of course it was a tall order to come in here and launch Amp last year. As it turns out, Amp’s launch was just the beginning of many changes. At the end of 2012, Clear Channel signed on the country’s first EDM station on WEDX, and then Greater Media launched Hot 96.9 a couple of weeks after that. So in a matter of six months, the entire market was turned upside down and I think we are just now seeing the dust settle and getting an idea of how things are shaking out. But we are seeing great growth on Amp and feel like we are positioned well as we head into 2014.
Being one of the relative newcomers to the landscape you have been a big part of the change. What have learned about listener loyalty regarding the incumbent stations?
The 2012 election was a great example of how tough it is to defeat an incumbent. It’s not like Obama‘s approval ratings were all that great. Neither were George W Bush‘s before him. Yet, at the end of the day, it’s hard to get people to go to the voting booth and vote to make a change after four years. Now translate that to the radio landscape, where Kiss has been a powerhouse in this market for three decades. It’s a well branded station with a heritage morning show. But there has never really been an alternative until Amp came into the market. We knew when we signed this on that it would take time to convince people to change a thirty year habit. So being patient has been key, which is difficult for an impatient person like me. I would point to the LA market as an example. Kevin Weatherly has done a tremendous job with KAMP and now they are #3 12+ in the market. But it was a four year process to build that relationship with listeners.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve encountered in attempting to establish your brand in a market as provincial as Boston?
Just getting listeners to give the station a shot. This is a city that is very loyal to all things Boston. They are loyal to their sports teams. They are loyal to their favorite local bars and restaurants. And they are certainly loyal to their radio stations they have grown up with. Look at the morning drive ratings in this market and the heritage shows all sit at the top. We knew that when we launched. It’s not like there was perceptual data that told us there was a high level of dissatisfaction with the existing brands here, yet we know that we have offered a great alternative. When we talk to listeners who are early adopters to the Amp brand, they confirm that to us. We were fortunate enough to run a TV campaign over the summer and I compared it to being our Groupon offer to the city. It was a way just to build awareness for the fact that we are here and to get people to sample us. Once we got them in the door, we felt they will like what they hear and will keep coming back.
Are you satisfied with the progress you’re making among your competitors, and what indicators are telling you you’re headed in the right direction?
The October ratings period was our biggest cume milestone to date. We crossed the 1 million mark and are now the #3 cume station in Boston. The next step for us is to convert that base to core, and you do that by building a brand, which takes time.
You’ve worked in various regions of the country, what makes Boston unique among the other markets you’ve experienced?
Every fall, you have a half million new residents that move to the city when the colleges are back in session. There are amazing schools with some of the brightest kids in the country, and these kids are some of the tastemakers when it comes to finding new music. Unfortunately, because PPM methodology makes it difficult for those kids in dorm rooms to get into the sample, they are a bit of a fallacy when it comes to contributing to ratings. I give Clear Channel a lot of credit for taking a chance on an EDM format, and I don’t doubt that there aren’t a lot of kids in dorms that love Steve Aoki and Martin Garrix. But given the realities of panel recruitment, it makes it hard for a format like that to be more than a one share in a market like this.
On an unrelated note, Boston is the biggest partying city I’ve ever lived in. People here can drink. A lot. I can’t keep up with them.
Building a new brand is a process. What have you discovered to be the most successful methods of building and keeping your brands compelling and competitive?
It sounds like such a cliché, but being hyper focused on the community. Obviously, the city just went through a huge celebration with the Red Sox winning the World Series last week. I don’t know how many panelists were actually using radio that night when the game was on TV, but I know my night jock was on the air celebrating with the city while our main competitor was running out of market voicetracks from a jock in California. Our morning show, despite not being natives of the city, worked so hard during the Boston Marathon bombing, acknowledging the police and first responders with some brilliantly produced tribute montages. While our competitors charge hundreds of dollars for their summer concerts, we did a free event at City Hall plaza headlined by Selena Gomez that drew 50,000 people and was a great event for the community. At the end of the day, there is no silver bullet that will take an upstart brand and rocket us to #1. But we believe that doing all of the right things on a daily basis, will add up over time and put this brand over the top.
You speak very highly of your local team at Amp. What do the various players bring to the table and what are their biggest assets?
We hired TJ Taormina and Loren Raye from the Elvis Duran Show to anchor the morning show. They are exceptional talents and human beings. They learned so much being part of the biggest morning show in America and learning from the best in the industry. So they have just been phenomenal since we launched the show in April. I have never seen a morning show that is still in the building at 3pm working on the next day’s show, but that is the work ethic they bring to the table. It’s truly been a joy to work with those guys on a daily basis. We hired Vanessa Hale to do middays. She’s another young, hungry talent who spent years working as a producer at Clear Channel in LA and learning from people like John Ivey and Julie Pilat. So despite this being her first major market, on-air gig, you would never know it. She sounds like she has lived in Boston her whole life.
Joe Breezy does afternoons and is my MD. I worked with him at KDND in Sacramento and immediately knew I wanted to get him on the team here. Every radio station needs the “vibe” guy who can bring a positive attitude to the hallways and be out in the clubs telling the story about the station. Breezy is that guy for us. We hired our night guy, Slater, from Las Vegas when he was doing Alternative. He has seamlessly made the transition to CHR and is a great imaging director as well. He is really been great in helping us find and build identity with the imaging. I couldn’t be happier with the team that is in place.
Given what’s happening with the new car dashes coming out, do you feel radio in general will be competing at a whole new level?
Every year, we hear about new technologies and new audio sources that pose a threat to radio. Whether it was satellite radio, the iPod, and now the new dashboard. Yet, in every bit of research, radio is the #1 destination for listeners and music consumers. Like I mentioned earlier, radio will continue to compete by doing what we do best, which is utilizing the power of the microphone. Your iPod can’t connect with the community and relay information when your city is under attack like we were during the marathon bombing. Pandora can’t wrap its arms around the city and celebrate a World Series championship. The best radio stations in America are the ones that can take a city with a population of 10 million, and make it feel like a local town. We can’t hope to stay important and relevant solely by playing the new Katy Perry track every 75 minutes. There are other outlets for listeners to hear it. We will continue to thrive by connecting with the community in the ways that are important to them.
What should radio be doing these days regarding this new level of digital competition as it attempts to continue to be an integral part of its listener’s entertainment milieu?
Everyone talks about the competition with digital vs. radio, but the digital outlets have more competition than ever on their side. iTunes begat Pandora, which begat iHeartRadio, which begat Spotify and iTunes radio, and there will be dozens more options like that in the future because there is absolutely no barrier to entry. You don’t need a license, you just need money. And the more options there are in that space, the harder it will be for those business models to stay relevant within their competitive landscape. I believe our mission in radio is similar to playing poker in that we have to play OUR hand and not play based on what we think the other guys have. There are two different battles here—the “iHeartRadio battle” for digital music streaming and the “WeHeartTheCommunity battle” to engage the audience on a local level. Radio has always been most successful when it focuses on the latter.
Given the number of uniques that major digital destinations like YouTube, AOL, Amazon and Yahoo boast, how necessary is it for radio as an industry to collectively combat this phenomenon?
These are all worldwide brands. People around the world are going to YouTube to create their own content and push it out, or to consume content. I’ve always believed that radio’s at its best when it’s serving its audience locally. To some degree it’s unreasonable to expect radio to compete with these digital outlets that reach globally. Yes they are all big destinations for people, and we need to continue to create compelling content across various platforms both digitally and over the airwaves to drive traffic and get people to engage with us on a perpetual basis.
It’s all a matter of perspective. At the end of the day the way this company operates is we are a collection of radio stations serving our local communities. YouTube has a worldwide reach. We have a huge reach in a lot of great radio markets. We also have TV stations where we can cross promote across those platforms in many major markets as well. CBS is actively pursuing and embarking on aggregate issues and initiatives with our Amplify program and there will always be ways to explore and expand that program and get as many media and digital outlets involved as we collectively can on the right opportunities. CBS at its core is very much a great broadcasting company and we will continue to promote across multiple platforms to achieve larger scope and depth of audience reach.
Are you seeing the trending of more collaboration among radio groups on initiatives as a favorable competitive weapon in radio’s arsenal as it positions itself with more medium strength and reach?
I do believe companies are working more collaboratively than ever before and it’s important for this trend to continue where and when it makes sense. If there’s an opportunity to get involved with universal initiatives that are beneficial to the industry at large, sure it’s worth it. CBS Radio is very involved with promoting our Radio.com app and with Tune-In. Those are our big initiatives right now. CBS and Cumulus are working collaboratively on the spoken word side with the CBS Radio Sports Network. All of this is beneficial to the industry as a whole and will provide added value to local listeners of our brands. That will always be the paramount issue at hand, again super-serving our local communities.
Artist branding has been a major issue with contemporary music stations and the labels now more than ever. How much do you value this component at Amp?
I believe it should be of great value to everybody in radio particularly when we’re in an age where there’s more artist duplication across formats than ever before. If you look at what’s happening with PPM, everyone has sort of drifted to the middle. For the most part, at least in the contemporary music landscape, everyone’s chasing women 18-49. Hot AC stations that were kind of these singer/songwriter, coffee house guitar types of stations have all slide over and are playing a lot of Pop music now. The soft AC that was playing REO Speedwagon “Take It On The Run” has now moved over and is playing Katy Perry and Lady Gaga. In many instances the Urban station that was the Hip-Hop outlet in the market has slide over and now they’re playing Robin Thicke“Blurred Lines.” The biggest thing to come out of PPM is you have seven radio stations all playing Katy Perry and Robin Thicke at the same time!
So of course everybody wants to brand these stars and artists with their stations and in a market like Boston where you have Kiss 108 doing two major concerts a year and we have our birthday bash, everybody’s wrestling for their piece of the artist.
As music consumption grows more as a streaming experience with listeners and consumers, do you feel listeners still value ownership of music and will continue to purchase downloads and CD’s?
I’m not sure the younger consumer still values the ownership of the music as much as they do the access to music. When I was growing up, the music was as much about the experience of going to the record store, looking at the CD cover art, reading the liner notes, and so on. We have a new generation of consumer that has never really experienced that. I have no research data to back this up, but my perception is that many younger people just seem content to pay a subscription fee to Spotify to listen to music when they feel like it. I have younger step siblings who are high school/college aged who don’t even ask for iTunes cards as gifts anymore. It’s just not as necessary for them to download and own their favorite CD’s anymore.
The CBS executive programming brain trust has always been impressive. Who are you working with closely inside the company and what do you value most about what they’ve already imparted to you?
One of my favorite things about coming to CBS has been the ability to work under Michael Martin. I’ve been a fan of his for many years. When I was working for Entercom in Sacramento, I loved listening to his stations when driving through the Bay area. He has been a huge supporter and a great sounding board over the last year. Michael respects research, but doesn’t live and die by it. He really preaches balancing the art with commerce. He’s encouraged all of the PD’s to watch the other indicators like iTunes and Shazam to see in real time how the audience is consuming music. It’s so easy to get caught up in looking at our weekly callout scores, that we miss the sweet spot on certain records. Amp was the station that led the charge on Avicii nationally. Yet, if I looked at the first 3-4 weeks of callout, I probably would have pulled that record back, or off the air entirely. Clearly, it’s turned out to be one the biggest tracks of the year, and it took callout a second to catch up to how big it truly was.
Who do feel are today’s industry leaders trumpeting radio’s overall value and importance in the lives of consumers?
Hey, I’m going to give you the biased answer here. But as far back as I can remember, my father has been on the front lines, advocating the power of terrestrial radio. While other companies have moved to more national platforms, where a few people are making national music decisions for the company, he still believes in the power of local decision makers programming for their individual stations and markets. I think that’s why the programmers within CBS are generally among the happiest that you talk to. We are empowered to make the decisions we think will positively impact our brands.
[eQB Content By Fred Deane]
