Scott Hutton had run the Albuquerque cluster for American Journal Media, when in 2006, he saw an opportunity to buy up two stations in Santa Fe , in 2006, KQBA (Outlaw Country) and the local ESPN outlet. He then became the spearhead for his family to band together and create a local radio company committed to the community, adding two Triple A’s (KBAC and KVSF, known as Project101.5), Progressive Talk KTRC-AM, and Jazz and World, Rhythm and Chill KLBU (Blu102). The company – which does not subscribe to Arbitron and sells its inventory strictly on a qualitative basis – has also been successful branding its outlets as Santa Fe’s radio.
In this e-QB interview, Hutton talks about the decision to buy when everyone else was selling, as well as the decision to grow the company as a Santa Fe enterprise, rather than a regional or national one.
Scott Hutton
by Jack Barton
When you go to the website of Santa Fe’s Hutton Broadcasting, you find a lot of names with the title “owner” next to them. That’s because when 15-year broadcasting veteran and company head Scott Hutton, who had run the Albuquerque cluster for American Journal Media, saw an opportunity to buy up two stations in Santa Fe, he spearheaded a move for his family to band together and create a local radio company committed to the community.
Since Hutton first put the company together with just KQBA (Outlaw Country) and the local ESPNoutlet, the company has grown to include two Triple A’s (KBAC and KVSF, known as Project101.5), Progressive Talk KTRC-AM, and Jazz, World, Rhythm and Chill KLBU (Blu102). The company, which does not subscribe to Arbitron and sells its inventory strictly on a qualitative basis, has also been successful branding its outlets as Santa Fe’s radio.
In this e-QB interview, Hutton talks about the decision to buy when everyone else was selling, as well as the decision to grow the company as a Santa Fe enterprise, rather than a regional or national one. He also has some credit to give to everyone in the building.
Talk about the formation of Hutton Broadcasting.
About a year-and-a-half ago I saw a bunch of independent stations for sale in Santa Fe and realized we could put together a group. That’s when I called my dad and asked him if wanted to get us in the radio business…and he said no. So then I asked him if I could come and present it and he agreed, and that’s when we became partners. He saw that it would be a good business opportunity, and now my wife works here, my sister works here, and my dad does all the payables and the books, so it’s a real family business.
That’s a very interesting time to have decided to start an independent family-owned radio company. What made you think that would work?
I just know that, Number One, small markets are performing better than the larger markets. Number Two, when you have an owner/operator in the market, you know the business owners. People like to do business with people they know. So I knew this would be a terrific opportunity for us if we lived and worked in the market.
There’s a theory in business that there are no longer “local” buys, only national, agency buys. Have you found that to be true?
You know, we deal mostly direct with local businesses. Santa Fe is a real different market, and we deal with mostly mom-and-pops, that’s what our business is. Now Santa Fe’s fortunate to have a good deal of casino and car dealer business, which also makes up a lot of our business. But we’ve found it to be exactly the opposite. We deal with more mom-and-pop than probably most people in town.
What are some of the advantages of being an independent operator in today’s market?
Obviously, we can make decisions on the fly and one of our staples is that we’re creating event marketing opportunities throughout the year. We’re doing a big Country concert with the rodeo; we’re doing a festival called The Fire And Ice Festival in the Fall which is going to have 30 local restaurants, 10 microbreweries, and a big act, with a carnival at the same time. So we’re able to decide on those kinds of events and put budgets towards them, whereas the bigger corporations probably wouldn’t allow you to do that. So, we’re able to market the stations through these events and tie-in local businesses to them. They’re a great way to market and make revenue.
Do you have multiple programming platforms to use as vehicles for your promotions?
We hope to, but not right now. That’s one of the reasons we have two Triple A’s. We’re able to really cross promote our events on both the stations.
At this stage I don’t think that multiple platforms give you a competitive advantage. The HD products really need to get developed and the consumer needs to know more about them. The difference between the groups we compete against and us is that we’re based in Santa Fe. They’re all based in Albuquerque, so they really don’t have a local presence in Santa Fe. Everything that you hear on our competitors’ stations is about Albuquerque: Albuquerque traffic, Albuquerque businesses, Albuquerque promotions. Everything you hear on our stations is Santa Fe, and there is no other local group in Santa Fe besides us.
Talk about the acquisition process.
What happened is that the company was started in January 2006, and my wife ran Outlaw Country and ESPN for about a year-and-a-half, while I was running another radio group in Albuquerque. At that same time, Blue 102, Project 101.5, which was KVSF, and KBAC were all for sale. We made a deal to buy Blue; we made a deal to buy 101.5, and then I called Ira Gordon up and asked how the process was coming along with him and Lisa Clark taking over that radio station. He told me that his financing had fallen through, and that’s when I asked him if he’d like to team up with us and join our group. That was March to May of 2007.
Are you selling the cluster separately or are you selling them as a package?
We sell them together. But a lot of times we’ll have a customer who prefers to be on Project as they’re more of an outdoor mountain shop and they feel that’s their audience. And then, KBAC is really our flagship station and pretty much everybody buys that station.
What has been the secret to being successful as a private, locally owned group?
The people. (KBAC PD) Ira Gordon really is the Godfather of Triple A. He is, from my perspective, one of the founders of the format. He’s so respected in the community by advertisers and by listeners; something like I’ve never ever seen before.
Now when you talk about (KVSF PD) Scott Matthews, he’s one of those PD’s that really gets down deep inside the sound of the radio station between the songs. He has a great understanding of the overall sound of a station from the promotional commercials to the imaging to the marketing. He’s a real chemist of programming.
Everybody in the building contributes. We’ve got a terrific team all the way around. Joann Orner is probably one of the biggest stars of the radio stations because she’s the Director of Promotions & Community Affairs. We were very fortunate in this small market to have someone of her skill step into that role. That’s what’s great about Santa Fe, we don’t have trouble finding talent because people like to live here.
In a small market like Santa Fe, how do you retain that quality staff?
We’re very lucky. We actually have four previous GM’s on staff. We have Ira, myself, and my wife, Jen Hutton, who worked at KNAX/Phoenix and has been in the business since ’92. Then there’s Vera Hayduk who is our Director of Marketing and also is in sales. She’s been in the business since ’79.
We basically were able to take all the top tier talent in town and put them all under one roof. So, when you look at the Sales Department we have Tasha Curtis, who’s been selling in Santa Fe since 1992. We have Jen, Vera and Lisa Clark, who was the Sales Manager at KBAC, is our National Sales Manager. My sister is the only newbie, who came from New York City selling insurance, and she’s been now in radio for only six months. We counted one time, and it was 350-years of radio experience in the building, 50-years of experience in sales alone.
People stay just because people love Santa Fe and it’s a family owned business. They love working here. It’s pretty lax. We wear jeans to work and crack a beer on Friday.
**QB Content By Jack Barton**
