Rod Phillips
Rod Phillips has found success throughout his career which started in the late eighties. After a dues-paying run of gigs in Lexington, Paducah, Green Bay, Wausau and Louisville, Phillips advanced to the majors with his first assignment of installing a new CHR format in Cincinnati with the creation of WKFS. After liking what they saw, Clear Channel next turned the keys of WKSC/Chicago over to Rod, seven months into its KISS format. By the time Phillips arrived at Y100/Miami, he was more than ready to tackle the task at hand…resurrecting a giant.
Rod Phillips has experienced multiple success stories throughout his career. In 1999, Clear Channel offered him his first major assignment, building WKFS/Cincinnati from the ground up. The station nearly tripled its ratings inside the first year. After a two year run in Cincy, KISS/Chicago was next with a new mission, getting a blossoming station established in a competitive market. WKSC eventually reached the cume summit of the FM band in Chi-town. After five years in the Windy City, Rod chose to thaw out in South Florida and landed at Y100/Miami earlier this year. As of the Spring Book, Y100 is ranked #2 females 18-34, #3 persons 18-34 (with a 3 share increase), and vaulted 2.9-3.8 12+, placing the CHR back in the Top 10.
eQB presents excerpts from the FMQB September Magazine CHR Up Close featuring Y100/MIAMI OM Rod Phillips
On lessons learned when turning a station around or building it from scratch…
I’ve learned that whether you have a brand new station or a failing heritage station, mentally blow up everything. Nothing is a sacred cow. If you have a successful morning show but the rest of the station is failing, then everything after 10am gets blown up. Put everything on the table for assessment.
On assessing the competitive Miami radio market upon his arrival…
With several Urbans, a Rhythm, a Rock, and a Reggeaton (former Mega), Y100 was up against almost every niche format for 18-34. My assessment was that Y should simply be a very focused mainstream station…not too Rhythmic, not too Rock. To date, that is the plan and it’s working.
On the success of the (piped-in) Elvis Duran Y Morning show…
Not only is the show perfect for young adult women as well as very palatable for men, but the competitive landscape left Women 18-34 for the taking. Win in mornings…win all day. And in less than a year, Elvis is #1 Women 18-34.
On the market helping him chart a vision path…
From the outside looking in, people think of Miami as this sexy place with yachts, celebrities, world-renowned night clubs…and it is all of that. But you don’t get that vibe when you listen to South Florida radio. In that sense, we definitely wanted to get a little sexier, be a fun station and combine that with the correct music list. We have a long way to go with some of this, but we have made moves in the right direction.
On his immediate goals for course correction at Y100…
Everything was on the table. Any song could be added or dropped. Any promotion currently on the calendar could be amended or cancelled. We started over on Jan. 1st. I told the staff on day one, we will be a better station in 30 days. The Super Bowl was about a month away, so we picked that as a target to hear a noticeable difference in everything we do. The next goal was to sound better 30 days after that.
On the influence of the South Florida Hispanic culture on programming Y100…
Half of our audience is Hispanic. Less than half of our audience is white/other. If you don’t pay attention to the cultural differences, you will lose. In South Florida it’s important to know that “Hispanic” could mean Cuban, Columbian, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, Dominican, to name a few, and there are significant differences with each.
On his decision tree in selecting new music…
There is no secret recipe here. Typically we have a lot of information on a song before we add it to rotation. By the time we have room on the list, we typically have seen research from stations that took a chance and went early. This isn’t to say we don’t ever go “early.” Even my ears know when to play a new Justin song. When we realize a record’s not a hit, we lead the league in how fast we can drop a record.
On cross-pollinating on-air and on-line initiatives and promotions…
We try to have an online element to everything we do. We don’t necessarily want web exclusive promotions, because you can’t get online every time you are listening. But having part of the promotion accessible via the web is important. We are doing a lot right now to make the site about the listeners and making our listeners the promotion.
On the best way for the music industry to promote Rod Phillips….
STRIP CLUBS, VODKA, GOLF TRIPS, NUDITY, BROWN PAPER BAGS…are all things you shouldn’t do. I much prefer meetings in person. Sorry that Miami is on the way to nowhere, although I hear Key West is crazy sweaty hot this time of year. Most people think I’m a complete ass (only because I don’t call back) but only 40% of the people that meet me in person think that.
On promoting via emails…
Emails aren’t a bad thing. It’s an easy way to communicate. Just don’t send ads with fifteen call letters on it. Send ME an email. When you have an email that‘s going to fifty PDs at once, it’s probably not relevant to my market or my station. It looks like spam to me and is very impersonal.
On the misconceptions label reps have about his job as a programmer…
That part of my job is to take music calls. If you could find a list of job responsibilities for a Program Director, it won’t include taking music calls. That’s not to say we don’t have business relationships with record companies and their representatives, and at times our priorities meet in the middle. Just know that it’s absolutely true that PD’s job responsibilities have doubled in the last few years. We simply don’t have 30 minutes to be “worked” on a song; and if it’s a hit, it probably doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to hear it.
On offering the music industry advice on how to be the optimal marketing partner with Y100…
If we could have 90% of our conversations based on the major projects and 10% on work records, we could more easily meet in the middle. I heard that 95% of signed bands don’t sell more than 5000 records. It is so unlikely that a major market station can step out and take a chance with a brand new artist with a “different” sound. Some reps continue to laundry list call letters and everyone is claiming they have the most downloads or the most ringtones EVER. There is nothing unique about any of those marketing techniques. It’s a tough job, no doubt about it. Be real, be honest, your best bet is to develop a relationship so the programmer doesn’t feel like you are working them, rather that you are working with them.
** QB Content by Fred Deane **
| Also in the September Issue: |
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Q&A: WRVW/Nashville MD Butter Hot Shots |
