Kobe’s been in the unique position where he’s worked at stations owned by a variety of radio groups including CBS Radio, Clear Channel, Entercom and Cox Media. You don’t spend time at highly successful outfits , such as those without gaining a wealth of experience, knowledge and wisdom along the way. The key is pulling it altogether and arriving at a point in your career where your confidence level is at its peak. It’s currently where Kobe is today.
By Fred Deane
Kobe
Kobe’s career path symbolizes dedication, hard work and determination. He’s led a well traveled radio career down a path that’s had its share of intriguing twists. From his early days at WPXY/Rochester being around the likes of Mike Danger, Clarke Ingram and Jeremy Rice, right up to his current days with Cox Media, it’s been a never-a-dull-moment journey for the passionate programmer.
Kobe’s been in the unique position where he’s worked at stations owned by a variety of radio groups including CBS Radio, Clear Channel, Entercom and Cox Media. You don’t spend time at highly successful outfits such as those without gaining a wealth of experience, knowledge and wisdom along the way. The key is pulling it altogether and arriving at a point in your career where your confidence level is at its peak. It’s currently where Kobe is today.
The voyage has not been without speed bumps. After making stops at Pop stations WPXY, WFBC, WIHB, WLDI and B94 (twice), during his second stint at B94/Pittsburgh (2007-10) he found himself on the beach after CBS flipped the CHR to a Sports/Talk station. In January of 2010 (and for the next six months), Kobe was out of work for the first time in his career. Along came Cox Media and in July of 2010 he joined the company, but the caveat was the PD position was for a cluster in Athens, Georgia. After working in much larger metros like Pittsburgh, West Palm Beach, Charleston and Rochester, he would be heading to the smallest metro market of his career.
Risky move for some, but not in Kobe’s eyes… He seized the opportunity to work for a radio group he long admired and was rewarded in short order time. He relates, “I literally interviewed for the WAPE PD job the week of my one year anniversary in Athens.” In July of 2011 Kobe started at The APE where he’s having the time of his career!
Your career has taken many twists and when you were on the beach after the B94 flip, you accepted the Athens, GA Cox gig after doing time in several other larger markets. How dicey of a move did you feel it was in going to such a small market?
Getting back into the game was such a priority, market size really didn’t matter. I always heard great things about Cox Media Group and how important promoting from within is to them, and I wanted to be a part of that. It wasn’t really a risk considering Cox Media Group’s great reputation.
It obviously played out well with Cox given the Jacksonville move a year later. What qualities do you find in Cox that you didn’t necessarily experience at other radio groups?
Every company has their own strengths and weaknesses. One of the most noticeable differences is how much Cox values their people. One of our core values is our biggest asset is our people. Other companies may say something similar, but with CMG it’s something you can feel throughout any CMG building whether it’s Jacksonville or Honolulu. We also do an excellent job in sharing best practices throughout the company. I talk with CHR format leader Jeremy Rice multiple times a week as well as my fellow CHR PD’s in the company all sharing our best ideas and tweaking them to fit our brands. CMG also has been the most promotionally active company I have ever worked for. We have an awesome promotions team here lead by Beth Gettys and Cody Black. They do a great job making WAPE look bigger than life at all our events.
What were your first instincts when you took the PD reigns at the legendary CHR?
Not to screw it up! All kidding aside, Tim Clarke did a fantastic job taking The BIG APE to the next level when he was here. It’s a major priority to keep going in that same direction. Having already worked at two other legendary brands (WPXY and B94) it was easy to understand the value behind working with a brand as valuable as WAPE. Our logo is one of the most familiar in Jacksonville, and you can’t put a price on that.
What pitfalls have you managed to avoid in not relying too much on heritage and keeping the station brand fresh in the Top 40 world?
You have to be careful of relying on that heritage too often and leaving yourself open for another brand to attack. McDonald’s, Coke, and Macy’s are all brands that have been around forever, yet they are all still relevant and cool. How do they do it? They are always ahead of the curve of what is coming, and they may be heritage brands but they don’t act like the heritage. We try to do the same thing on air and in social media. That is really where our industry is headed, and we’re leading the way!
How much does The APE brand mean to the JAX community?
WAPE’s involvement in the community is such a big part of what we do. It’s one of the reasons our brand is so recognizable. WAPE will be at the hottest concerts, crazy club nights, and throw parties on the beach, but we also get involved with local charities. In 2011 we teamed up with the American Heart Association for their annual Heart Walk, The American Cancer Society for their Put on Your Pink Bra event, and the Jacksonville Police Athletic League for a holiday toy drive. In 2012 we are working with the Ronald McDonald House of Jacksonville and we will continue doing the same charity events we did in 2011. We understand we have a responsibility to give back to the community.
How much of an emphasis do Cox and WAPE place on those ever so vital digital and social media platforms?
This is a huge priority for us. It’s not just the future of our industry, it’s also a big part of what our company is focused on. Our whole team locally does a fantastic job on our Facebook page. The level of interaction between Mark Kaye and Anna from the Big Ape Morning Mess with the listeners is amazing. They do a great job of taking on air content and continuing the conversation with our listeners. Chloe keeps it going on during the workday, and Sparxxx our night guy has a great knack of knowing what posts will get hundreds of likes and shares.
What have been the most effective forms of social media that has the station more engaged with its audience?
WAPE has pages on all the relevant social networks but Facebook is king by far. Our staff is focused on great customer service with our listeners. We show them that our Facebook page is more about them, not us.
Has PPM made for better more efficient radio or has it taken some of the sizzle out of the medium (in terms of production, contesting, stationality)?
It’s much more efficient than it was before and it’s given us the ability to put the focus back on the music. Before, in our roles as programmers, we were trying to be really creative to a point where every time you were running sweepers or promos you’d have these creative ideas, and you would add more creative energy to the idea, and the more creative it got the more layers you were adding. In essence, the more layers you added it the more it took away from the music. We can still be creative, but now we can be so much more direct. One thing we’ve gained from PPM is that people don’t care about zaps and zings and all the hype that may in the past have been great imaging pieces. We have to directly tell them the message.
Another thing that’s changed is you don’t have to say your dial position eight times a sweeper. It’s alright to say your station’s nickname. People understand what that means. We know they’re listening because their meters are tuned in. The need to hammer your dial position and call letters isn’t as important as it was in the past. Now it’s not about how many times you say it, it’s how you say it. In the past we were all guilty of hyping listeners to death.
What have you learned most about PPM that has made you a better programmer?
With PPM you also have the ability to see what your strongest content is, and if we’re providing better content and giving listeners what they want and there’s factual research to back that up, then I believe we’re all better programmers. For instance, The Big APE Morning Mess with Mark Kaye and Anna have the most popular benchmark in Jacksonville with “To Catch A Cheater,” and PPM gives us the ability to see just how engaged our listeners are with this feature…they LOVE it!
What do you think of the current Top 40 music cycle?
This is a great time for CHR radio. I love the house music influence Pop has had for the past two years. Even though Dance is slowly phasing out, I think it will have a long lasting role at Pop. You have a slew of new hits that are pure Pop like One Direction,Carly Rae Jepsen and Justin Bieber.
Do you see a persistent growth of the “boy band” resurgence that’s occurring right now?
I think there will be a resurgence of the boy band sound coming very soon. You have two boy bands from London making it big. The Wanted’s “Glad You Came” was a #1 record, and you have One Direction which is a phenomenon. Things happen in threes so expect another boy band to hit very soon.
I’ve always admired your music acuity. Do you foresee any other music trends at Pop on the horizon?
We were talking about this in the building the other day. I think there will be a comeback of Alternative at Pop, but it’s not traditional Alternative. Foster The People led the way last summer with “Pumped Up Kicks” and now Goyte and FUN both have massive hits. Alternative is going through a phase where there is more tempo and a Pop style beat to some of their biggest hits. The GROUPLOVE is another song that can be big at Pop. These beat-driven, up-tempo Alternative records are very Pop friendly. Also look for Hip-Hop to make a comeback. Not the Dance sounding Hip-Hop, but the traditional Hip-Hop like Jay-Z and Lil Wayne. Alternative and Hip-Hop are both extremes and extremes usually make a comeback around election time.
How much of a role does research play in your music decisions and when does “gut feel” come into play?
Research is just one of the many tools we use. The trick is using them all selectively and not putting too much faith in one more than the other. The time to use your gut is when you don’t have a record in research, but you know your station needs to be on it. There are event records which you have to get on as soon as you can or records/artists that are showing incredible consumer/audience response prior to radio airplay.
In the recent past, there have been a few records that fell into that category. No one had any research on the Maroon 5 or Justin Bieber records yet they were two of the most added records upon release. They’re both event records. Programmers were playing the Bieber at midnight when it came out. You know you want to be a part of these records because there’s something bigger to it. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to put in event records. You couldn’t deny the pre-radio buzz on One Direction or the tidal wave of momentum that the FUN record carried with it.
Your rotations are fairly heavy in just about all of your rotation categories. When do you feel justified to be fully committed to a record once it’s on the air?
As a rule, we don’t have a spike category nor do we have an overnight category. I’m a big believer of when you add record it should be played all day for the most part. That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions. But the majority of the time when we add a record our hope is to fully commit to it in all dayparts and to give it as much support as we can. If it does well nationally and in our research, obviously the rotation will continue to increase.
There could be records on the chart that are done but the records are still calling out and that’s another area where you need to make a gut call. A record may still call-out with slight burn, but you know in your gut that it has more burn than the callout is letting you know and sometimes you have to cut the chord on that record. I believe if you burn out an ‘A’ to the point where it’s burnt to a crisp, then is it really going to be an effective power-recurrent? Or does it just become a burnt power-recurrent instead of a strong power-recurrent?
Given the depth of programming experience you have from several key CHRs, how have you grown as a PD and how have your priorities changed over the years?
Bill Hendrich my GM and Todd Shannon my OM are great teachers and leaders here in Jacksonville. They know part of their job is to lead the way for their managers under them, and to present them with learning opportunities and most importantly to let you discover the answer for yourself.
The same can also be said for Director of Radio Programming Steve Smith, and CHR Format Leader Jeremy Rice. They both lend their experience and advice but we make the decisions ourselves.
As far as the staff of WAPE, it’s a priority to be the best communicator as possible. In an era where everyone is doing more than just one job, you have to remember to communicate with your team as much as possible.
What areas have you felt you’ve developed the most in?
My leadership and management skills have developed while at Cox. I am now dealing with budgets, managing a full air staff, a promotions staff and learning how to balance them all. We also work closely with our sales department because we’re all in the business of revenue and ratings.
Every one of my employees has a different background and has a different situation. I respect everyone and the unique talents they possess and use to benefit WAPE.
What are the most important lessons you’ve learned over the years given the variety of programming positions and radio groups you’ve experienced?
To take the emotion out of it and really think before you act. Once you set something in motion it’s so hard to get it back. It is important not to over think things. Sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves to come up with the next big thing, when the best thing for your station may be staring you in the face.
You can never lose sight of the importance of your people and understanding that the team needs to be led as a group, as well as managed individually. That is key in any leadership position.
[eQB Content by Fred Deane]
