Keith Allen, PD, WQEN, Birmingham

What’s the most challenging aspect of balancing your duties among three stations you program on a daily basis?
It certainly requires a lot of work in the time management area. The most important thing is identifying the vital issues at any one moment and acknowledging what is really going to generate ratings and revenue. There are a lot of things that happen among three different stations and not all them generate ratings and revenue, and some aren’t as important as others. So while there may be things to do on one station, you have to prioritize and apply your focus to the right station at the right time.

What’s your perspective on programming three widely different formats?
In a lot of ways they are completely different, and I love that. It’s a huge bonus because I have The Beat which targets an African American, The Vulcan which targets males and The Q which targets females. So when an advertiser comes here and wants to reach a certain sector, I have the perfect kind of radio station to fit their needs, because not every promotion or product is going to be suitable on one or two of the stations. But the fact that I can offer a clients exactly what they’re looking for that really attracts their target and makes sense for my target listener, is a great position to be in.

How aggressive is the cluster regarding local marketing efforts?
We’re doing marketing in non-traditional ways these days. We’re obviously extremely active through our Facebook sites, The Q and Vulcan especially. We’re in the process of building The Beat more in this area and it’s progressing really well. There are real good marketing opportunities there.
We have a joint partnership with one of our local TV stations, Fox 6, and we get cut-ins during their morning show, allowing our morning hosts for The Vulcan and The Q the opportunity to further their exposure. We’ve also at times, especially when we launched The Vulcan and The Beat, used sign twirlers, which is very cost effective. Along with the launches, at the start of books we use part-timers (and sometimes all of us) and go out to the key hot zips and we’ll sign twirl during drive times. We definitely work the market, plus we try to partner with other organizations to get our logo out. We did a summer concert with The Beat with a local promoter and as part of the agreement we got our logo on the commercial and the billboards, same thing with the annual Crawfish Bowl where their logo is all over TV and local newspapers.

How competitive is the market?
It’s extremely competitive. We have four owners, three majors in Cox, Cumulus and Clear Channel. Many of the stations have heritage signals like our own AC Magic (on since the eighties), my station The Q has been on for close to thirty years, the two Urban Cox stations have been on 10+ years, Cox also has a Country station with a big-budgeted morning show…there’s a lot of that here which truly makes for a very competitive market. Revenue wise, the market is productive and does well and everybody is trying to get a piece of the pie so you really have to focus, pay attention and be on your toes every day and really service your listeners or you’re going to have problems.

Who’s your direct CHR competitor versus The Q?
It’s definitely 99.5 The Vibe, a newly formed Cumulus station that signed on January 1st and essentially, apart from being jockless (with the exception of Perez at night), the two stations are musically 95% the same. In fact I had someone evaluate the music on both stations and to a listener there is no discernable difference between the two stations.

How do you distinguish The Q to draw some uniqueness to it?
Given our heritage we have the running advantage, and it’s just not on the younger end. There are a lot of people that grew up with this station when they were in high school who are now in their late 20’s, 30’s or even 40’s, and that’s why we’ve seen a huge improvement over the last six years on the upper end of our demos (25-54’s).
Basically it all comes down to what’s in between the music. We are able to have more of a local feel because we have talent on the air. We have an established morning show with Ace & TJ who are really entertaining with a little bit of a southern flair. At times you can argue that the The Vibe is a MP3 player with liners, and that’s not us. They play good music and so do we, the difference is at The Q there’s feeling and emotion and our station has a heartbeat. We’re in touch with the community and more able to readily get into the community and get involved with the its needs. The Vibe’s a perfectly well programmed radio station but because of the fact that it’s just liner/song, liner/song, liner/song, it lacks some of that heart and feeling.

CHR has been in a very strong music cycle the past two years with a steady stream of hit artists and hit records from all genres. How long does the streak sustain?
Tough to say how long it lasts. It depends what your goals are, the kind of market you’re in and what your competitive situation is. The format is leaning to the Pop/Alternative side and there’s a hole in the Pop/Rhythmic area to some extent. For most stations it’s not a big deal, there are still a lot of good testing records. For stations that have more of a Rhythmic lean it can be more of a problem. There’s always going to be good records, and always going to be bad records. When the music cycle is “bad,” we most likely did it to ourselves. We got behind the wrong records and we let other records that could potentially have been hits go south.
Throughout the entire time I’ve been programming music, there’s always been one thing absent from the format and the most dangerous component (if it’s missing) is Rhythmic records because we lose the ability to cross shares with Rhythmic CHR’s, which is not true in all situations. If you’re in Raleigh or Columbus it might not be such a big deal. However in those cases the absence of Rock and Pop/Rock product could be devastating. The danger though for the entire format is when we venture into the extremes, which can at times causes an entire make-over of your music mix. We have to be very careful of extremes.

Regarding the music cycle, do you have any concerns about curves in the road ahead?
I do have some concerns. On the Rhythmic side we have Chris Brown, Usher and Flo rida, they’re the same Rhythmic artists we had 2-4 years ago and to some extent 5-7 years ago. We’re really not developing new artists from that genre to project forward. The only Rhythm we’re getting right now is from heritage acts. There’s nothing new developing with any long term prospects.
There are always curves in the road. There are always going to be hits and there are always going to be stiffs. If you’re going to be a solid programmer you have to be forward thinking enough to have an idea of where you’re going to be in three months. The music you’re adding now, you’re going to have to rely on three months from now because you’re going to need a certain number of those to convert to powers; so you’re fate really lies in your own hands. There are certain times in the music cycle, like two years ago, where I can pull down the chart and throw a dart and it wouldn’t matter what I added, everything would be fine. The music cycle is strong right now but not as strong as it was back then. It really comes down to how you manage it.
Don’t get me wrong, Top 40 is doing well. The Q is doing really well. Even with a direct competitor we’re #3 25-54, that’s the highest we’ve ever finished. We’re #1 non-Urban in like twenty-nine categories. But that aside, Birmingham is 30% African-American, and my African-American component went for 15% to 7% and the reason for this is the rise of music from artists like Gotye, FUN and Jason Mraz, plus the overall lack of Rhythmic product.

How has the lack of Rhythmic music, and the fact that Hip-Hop isn’t the dominant genre it once was, affected your Urban outlet The Beat?
There’s not a terrible deficiency in the Urban world. Where I think everything kind of dried up is on the Rhythmic/CHR side. I believe we’re seen a recent decline in the ratings and the cumes of Pop/Rhythms stations. They have been forced to go one way or another. Either you have to lean more Urban and add the Gucci Mane and some of those heavier records, or they’ve been forced to play LMFAO and the Dance mix of Gotye because there’s just not enough quality product right now that’s in its center. It’s resulted in a lot of Pop/Rhythm’s seeing a decline in ratings, and a push toward the mainstream and become more mainstream Top 40’s.

What do you think of the blurring of the formats and the fine lines between CHR and Hot AC, and CHR and Rhythmic?
It’s a challenge. Hot AC and CHR are musically the same station right now. Even CHR and Rhythmic stations are close because Rhythmic stations are playing a lot more CHR music these days. It’s something we have to be aware of because now instead of just the Top 40 playingKaty Perry, all of a sudden, there are four stations in a market playing Katy Perry. It definitely impacts how quickly some records can burn and it absolutely makes you have to focus on what’s in between the records. You’re going to have to do a better job with imaging and promotions and your jocks are going to have to do a better job of connecting because listeners can find the same music in virtually five different places.

What do see as the most important aspects of a successful radio/label relationship?
The most important factor of a successful relationship is an understanding on both sides. Labels need to understand what the priorities and goals of your station are and they need to know the specifics of your markets. In turn you need to be aware of where their coming from. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re always going to add the record because you have to do what’s right for your station, but a mutual understanding of each other’s needs goes along way.
I believe every record rep should have a one-sheet for every station they call that tells them a little bit about the PD and market they’re calling because the one size fits all days are over. The needs of Birmingham are not the needs of Chattanooga, and if reps don’t realize that they won’t have much success market to market. It’s important to know that a style in one market doesn’t necessarily translate to the same style in another market even if both stations are in the same format. You have to treat everybody differently.

How would you rate your relationships with labels?
I get along with the labels, but I think from time to time, every PD on the planet has speed bumps with some labels. As a rule my relationships are very good and productive. Sometimes the projects they have don’t make sense for me so there’s not as much interaction all the time, depending on what their projects are and what makes sense for us to play. The days of making labels hate you and fighting and screaming are in the past. However, I am not a fan of high pressure, aggressive tactics and it seems that some labels use these tactics more often than others, and that’s when issues can arise. Certainly my number one priority is my station, but I do try to find a way to work with labels and be a good partner with each of them.

What are the most enjoyable facets of your job?
I love the strategic aspects and looking at the chess board and seeing how the pieces move around. I really like the competitiveness of it, because I’m an ultra-competitive kind of guy (I hate to lose) and love the adrenaline that goes along with it. I guess I’m a gamer. I really like the game of radio and the creativity of programming and cluster management.
I also really enjoy coaching and working with young PD’s. You often hear the comment that there are so many young PD’s and jocks that have the talent but continue to make the same mistakes. That’s because they don’t know what they don’t know. All you have to do is take the time to teach what they don’t know and you can see the talent blossom. Nothing makes me more excited than seeing someone like a Deelo, who I worked with for a little while get bumped up to a Savannah market. It’s fun to teach the strategy and the abc’s of the business to somebody who’s really passionate about it. I’m also a big music fan so I enjoy putting the music mix together and creating the identity of the station that way. I love what I do and the industry I’m in. If I wasn’t in radio, it would be my hobby!

How much networking do you do with other PD’s?
I talk with some veterans like Stan Priest and Romeo, and I also talk to up and comers like Derrick Cole and Deelo. It’s always great to talk with the other established programmers and get ideas be it Michael Bryan or Tommy Chuck. Of course I still stay in touch with some of mentors, especially Jerry Noble who got me into this business to begin with. I love passing on knowledge to the young guys and love even more gaining knowledge from some of the other guys who are a little more experienced than me.

Given all the digital entertainment options for listeners these days, how much more important is it today to stay more in touch with your audience’s lifestyle habits?
That’s always been the key, whether it’s today or ten years ago. If you’re not in touch with your audience and not aware of their preferences, how they use technology and how they’re using you, then you’re going to fail. There’s no way you can succeed if you’re not delivering the product your audience wants in a fashion they want it. Streams and digital are the future. It’s where this is all going to end up eventually. Terrestrial radio isn’t a delivery system. It’s about providing content and lifestyle and entertainment information to our people. It doesn’t matter whether we’re doing that on a stream, a podcast or in person in some cases. What we do is the key. How it’s distributed is up to our listeners and how they want to get it. We’ll distribute it anyway they want it.

What do you see as the biggest threats to radio partisanship these days?
There’s no disguising that digital platforms and social media are vital portions of our business. I’m not one of these alarmists that say that streaming and Pandora and the other digital music options are going to eventually kill us. It doesn’t have to kill us, but it has to be a big part of our overall strategy in positioning the content and the brand. Years ago record companies, instead of trying to embrace technology, the burning of CD’s and sharing of digital files, tried to fight it in court. They stuck their heads in the sand and pretended like they could kill it. Where did that get them? Not very far, in fact it hurt them. We need to embrace these technologies. As I mentioned earlier, the future of radio is in digital, it’s in Internet radio, but it’s not (like Pandora would lead you to believe) in two-three years. It’s further down the road, but make no question about it, it’s coming and it doesn’t mean that radio can’t be a huge portion of that. We can be wildly successful.

Clear Channel has been a leader among radio groups with its iHeart Radio initiative and the powerful device it has become for the industry in general. How advantageous is it working for such an aggressive/forward thinking company in many of the digital areas?
It’s a lot of fun because we’re constantly trying things and sometimes it works and hits a homerun, and other times it needs some tweaking. iHeart radio is the first of its kind and is an important app, and it’s a steady work in progress as the company continues to upgrade the service. We upgraded it recently to have Pandora-like functionality and we’ll continue to grow that app.
It’s exciting because CC is looking toward the future and realizing what we’re going to have to do in radio to survive. To be part of that pioneering process is no different than back in the day when people started embracing FM radio and figuring out how to use FM while others stood around and said, “AM’s where it’s at and things will never change.” Well it did change and it continues to change. So being with a company that acknowledges that and goes out of its way by spending resources, time and money looking toward the future as opposed to just looking at the “now” is refreshing. It gives me hope that the industry is going to survive and that this is something I am going to be able to do until the day I retire.

Who do you feel are the current leaders of the radio industry and what do they represent for the medium going forward?
It’s easy enough to start calling off the heads of all the major companies because they are certainly in the leadership roles and in a position to stimulate the changes and evolve the medium on an ongoing basis. They have a great deal of influence, but there just the tip of the iceberg. There are also so many people out there in various companies that I’ve never met nor heard of that are having a huge impact on the industry in one way, shape or form as well. There are many people that need to be responsible if the medium is going to move forward. If it’s not a group effort by an awful lot of people, the medium’s not going to move forward.

What’s your opinion of the newfound synergy among many of the radio groups joining the iHeart radio initiative?
The thing I find interesting, and we talked earlier about the competitiveness of this market, is that everyday I try to go out and do everything I can to hold on to everyone of my listeners and fight tooth and nail with Cox, Cumulus and Crawford. But for a group of companies that don’t seem to ever agree on anything, and don’t typically want to help each other on anything, it was exciting to see them recognize the importance of iHeart Radio for the future of our entire industry. They all probably wish that they created it, but look how many companies of all sizes came on board to create this massive scale and scope of radio stations available to listeners. So while iHeart Radio is becoming a clearing house for a large portion of radio stations across the country, other devices like Slacker radio are all segmented…they all have a couple here and there. We’re becoming the biggest thing and it’s great to see all these companies have the vision to say, ‘okay it’s not ours and we can’t all put out our own app because then we’ll be fragmented like all these other devices in the industry, but if we don’t do this and make this bigger than the rest it would really be shortsighted.’ It puts them right in the game in a big way. If we all don’t get behind one service, then we’re all going to pay the penalty.