Mark Anderson
Mark Anderson spent the first part of his career cycling around his native Michigan working as an air personality at WIOG/Saginaw, WKFR/Kalamazoo, and WHYT, WPLT and WDRQ/Detroit. He had a passion for programming and moved way up north to become PD at WYSS/Sault Ste. Marie where I-75 ends along the US/Canada border. He would then later return to his first radio home, WIOG as Program Director under Citadel, later recruited by Clear Channel to program WKST (96.1 Kiss)/Pittsburgh. Under Citadel and Clear Channel Anderson had also consulted many sister stations and had wanted to try it full-time, so he walked away from the daily grind of day-to-day programming and joined Audience Development Group as Director of Contemporary Formats and later became partner in the firm.
Anderson then decided he missed being on the front lines too much and returned to CC when an opportunity was offered for him to oversee Mainstream Top 40 WKFS/Cincinnati. Now Anderson is back loving life while producing some great radio in “The Queen City!”
e-QB presents excerpts from the July FMQB magazine CHR Up Close with WKFS/Cincinnati PD Mark Anderson
On returning to day-to-day programming…
A number of people I worked with at WKST/Pittsburgh attended my wedding in the fall of 2006 and, being around them again, I realized how much I missed having a “home team.” Consulting is something I had always wanted to do full-time, and I would not trade the experiences I had doing it, but as a consultant you have to secede the victories to the local teams which you aren’t really a part of. That having been said, spending a year not reporting to work at the same radio station every single day was probably one of the best things I could have done. It gave me a whole new perspective and allowed me to see a little bit more of real life.
On programmers’ biggest mistakes when making music or programming decisions…
I know the one I most frequently made was trying to be too cool for school. I remember we hit quite a rough patch at WIOG/Saginaw around 2000 when we collectively started believing we were as good as the ratings were suggesting. Thing is, in most markets and for most stations, when we really dive in and digest the listener experience, it has so much less to do with the MTV prime time lineup than a lot of us are comfortable admitting.
On remaining relevant and staying top-of-mind with the audience…
It still seems as though most of the things that make the best connection with our listeners and make our stations “sticky” to our customers don’t come with big price tags, but are rather based on a simple, great idea that comes from understanding the user base. I’m not a fan of consultants (because I used to be one), but I don’t mind mentioning that Paige Neinaber is probably the best professor and practitioner of this in our industry.
On where the station is right now…
We’re still growing into our pants, but I think we have a lot to be proud of so far. We recruited a new morning show, despite the fact that they previously applied to work with me back at WIOG by sending a package in a pizza box (they “delivered”, I guess) and, as a rookie morning show, asked for a giant salary and company cars. They didn’t get that job, but years later, Tim and “My Mom Calls Me George”, popped a #1 P18-34 trend in their first ten months on the air in Cincinnati. Previously morning drive on Kiss 107 was a lower priority and usually was in 5th, 6th, or 7th place P18-34, so that’s a great accomplishment for them.
Michelle Taylor in middays produces a great show that’s relevant to Cincinnati listeners. It’s fun to note that, even though she performs the show from a location outside the market, she does such a good job of covering Topic A for Cincinnati and having meaningful conversations with local listeners that she beats several competing shows that are based here, #1 P18-34 for several months and she has the most listeners total audience of any FM station in the market.
WKFS Music Director Jordan recently moved into afternoons and is catching stride as the highest-cuming FM show in PM Drive, and Hurley (Jeff Hurley from WLAN/Lancaster) provides us with the highest-cuming night show in Cincinnati. Collectively, Kiss is the most-listened to FM station in Cincinnati, so there’s been good audience development, but we’d like to do even better over the rest of this year.
How is the station positioned on the technology front?
Technical Director Chris Zerafa has built us one of the best physical plants in America, so the good news is that we can spend our time on experimentation instead of dealing with heritage challenges. We use entirely new technology solutions for our dozen or more hours of on-location activities each week. It actually sounds so good, we’ve had to go back in and junk the audio up by allowing more crowd noise, room noise, outdoor noise, etc. through so it doesn’t sound like we’re just standing in the studio faking.
On new technology…
Direct to mobile-device content delivery. Mobile has already changed so much in the way people get things done and it’s only shaving at skin level right now. In the not so distant future, our in-car audience will also have access to technology where they will be able to bark “Three Doors Down” at their windshield and “It’s Not My Time” will start playing a couple of seconds later; say “Older” and “When I’m Gone” will start playing, and maybe even say “Live Version” and the live version of that song will start playing. And that’s what we’ll have to compete against. Which can be really scary, unless we start looking at each of these new platforms as just another way for great content providers to make a strong connection with an even wider audience base. Then it’s pretty thrilling!
On advice for up and coming talent who have a desire to join the programming ranks…
We really need some innovators to help us stay relevant. I would challenge them to try to cook up new and more interesting ways to make a meaningful connection, but warn them they will have to come up with ways to do so in an industry that is very rarely supportive or welcoming to agents of positive change.
On the biggest or most challenging issue facing radio today…
I talk to people who are working in “new media” and they seem to have more characters working around them. I think we might be a little light on amazingly unique, dynamic, truly interesting people.
On the most important thing that radio needs to do to ensure it remains the go-to media of choice…
Be more consistently unique and entertaining. Sometimes we get stuck in ruts where we start behaving like a mirror medium, and with the reach of radio, we don’t have to limit ourselves that way.
** QB Content by Bob Burke **
Also in the July Issue:
Q&A: Chris Reed, MD, KSMB/Lafayette
”Too often we are quick to be envious of one’s success, but in my case I admire the success of all the people in this industry.”
Hot Shots
Lesley Roy’s radio promo tour, Ne-Yo, Prima J
