Eric Powers is a fixture in the Seattle radio scene. For nearly 20 years he’s been a part of the programming team at Rhythmic powerhouse KUBE. Nowadays, he’s also oversees programming at sister CHR KBKS. His passion for the business is a breath of fresh air and his vision on the importance of radio’s role in people’s lives has become the voice of a new generation of forward thinking programming minds.
Eric Powers
By Bob Burke
It’s not that often that one gets a chance to not only be on-the-air in their hometown but also ends up overseeing the programming of the station they grew up listening to while in college. Eric Powers such the case…now going on 20 years! Not only has Powers overseen the programming of one of the premiere Rhythmic radio stations in the country, Clear Channel’s KUBE in Seattle, but he is also directing the ship at sister Mainstream CHR KBKS. Powers has developed into one of the great programming minds today. His knowledge in understanding the proper mix of both the science of radio and its music presentation is second to none! Eric Powers’ forward thinking mind should serve as an inspiration to a whole new generation of programmers to think outside the box while adapting to the listener needs of today.
KUBE has long been considered one of the premiere Rhythmic CHRs in the country. What’s it been like overseeing such a heritage station that you basically grew up on?
I have to say it’s been a dream come true overseeing a station and brand that I have always respected…it’s truly something special. You never think you’re going to start your career in your hometown market and continue for almost 20 years. I also feel our Market Manager Michele Grosenick and DOS Alison Hesse have created a culture through honesty, integrity and leadership that make their employees want to stay.
You also oversee sister CHR KBKS. What are the biggest points of differentiation you try to maintain between the two successful brands?
Our strategy is making sure we have clear and defined musical lanes for both stations to uniquely meet listener expectations. As you can see and hear KBKS and KUBE’s “Center Musical Lane’s” are very different – KBKS being more Pop-Rock and KUBE being truly Rhythmic.
We (Karen Wild MD/APD for KUBE, Tyler MD & Bender APD for KBKS) play strong offense and make sure both brands play and do what is right for our specific P1’s. We make sure we don’t give our loyal listeners a reason to find a substitute brand. I call this “Strategic awareness” – when a listener not only recognizes your brands but also understands the distinctive quality that makes it better then the competition. This is where a listener makes a decision that your brand is superior to others for some reason or a combination of reasons, and choosing your station over competing brands. Seattle-Tacoma is becoming MORE competitive then ever before which is why the strength of our brands is so important.
Given the added responsibilities that come along with programming today, how has your programming philosophy changed over the years and what have you discovered about yourself through the process?
My programming philosophy has changed in the sense where I used to see radio as a media that felt we needed to hold on to what we had and just get them to listen longer. No business would ever agree with this philosophy. Any smart business would say grow your actual audience PERIOD. We (radio) need to work harder on finding where our audience is daily. The “If you build it they will come” mentality does not work. We need to make sure we have the right platforms to find new customers and deliver the right marketing and advertising to them and then pull them back into our brands, like casting a line and actually bringing them back in. With this we also need to increase our “engagement” and then leverage the consumer/listener across our platforms. We can then track the end-user behavior and experience.
I also believe I have evolved in making sure I articulate and motivate the overall strategy with all team members that are involved with the brands.
What area of development of each brand has advanced the most in the past couple of years?
For KUBE’s area it’s been the sound code adjusting, promotional tweaks and narrowcasting to the PPM world including creating a new morning show after 14 years. Change is inevitable, growth is optional. KUBE had to grow because change was happening around us quickly. We transitioned our morning show from an edgy, in your face no-holds-bar program (The T-Man) to a younger more music-driven, very Pop culture program (Eddie & Karen). We went from a morning show that NEVER did any interviews to a show that talks to the biggest artists in the business. This truly tested my programming abilities as I had always programmed the same morning show since 1998.
I was very excited to program a heritage station like KBKS that came into the building at the exact same DAY as PPM started. At first I needed to understand the strengths and weakness of the brand so I sat down with Bender and Tyler and went over what was and wasn’t working. Then my goals became very clear.
– Create a solid game plan and filter words to help grow and protect our brand that everyone could understand.
– Set new PPM/ratings goals that we all agreed we could achieve.
– Create a consistent program department that truly supports and helps grow the brand.
– Truly work on a better online experience and help grow the KBKS online and mobile users.
– Support and help grow The Jackie and Bender brand.
– Work one-on-one with Tyler (MD/Afternoons), Doormatt (Nights).
– I also made sure we had strong behind the scenes people to evolve the brand including seasoned vet Valerie Koch (Promotion Director), Wael Abou-Zaki (Imaging) and David Noble (Web Master).
What’s been the biggest challenge in overseeing two well-focused station brands in an ultra-competitive market like Seattle?
Always play offense. It’s human nature to want to talk about the competition. It’s not very natural to spend all of your time on your brand. Many people worry about everything but their brand. They rearview mirror the radio game and take their eye off their product. The question you need to be asking is – Are we creating interesting, compelling, content for our listeners today? Creativity is the real music of radio – without a clear mission, even the best run stations have no chance for unity of purpose.
In my opinion great stations/brands are not built on fads they’re built on trends, which is why you have to truly understand your brand and protect it as best you can.
Can you assess the state of Rhythm CHR vs. CHR today?
In the past 12 months I have felt the Rhythmic format is very healthy with huge releases including Eminem, Drake, Trey Songzand Nicki Minag plus more opportunity for exclusivity as well. Rhythmic has more strength in 2011 with Lil’Wayne, Dr Dre and more coming. When a format is growing new talent that deliver deep album cuts (Drake & Nicki) and having new found success with the top selling artist of the decade (Eminem) then you know your format is healthy.
I love programming CHR because I have so many more styles of music to choose from. As the format has its ebbs and flows I feel our cycle is as strong as it has been in years from new Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and new Lady Gagacoming in February we should be just fine in 2011. KBKS is in such a different lane then most CHR’s but it still feels solid.
You predicted years ago that technology would play a big part in KUBE’s success and longevity. How has the station evolved on the tech front and did you implement those same systems and strategies at KBKS?
First let me say that mobile is truly my biggest competitor. Think about this…you don’t leave your house without your wallet/purse, keys and CELL PHONE. If I ever leave my house without my phone I will turn around and go back. After talking one-on-one and doing research with our listeners they spend over 30% of their time on their phone in their car. Laws won’t stop phone addiction – people HAVE to check their phone. They are addicted to being connected. Like a hockey puck we need to stay with them on the ice. We need to engage even more through our mobile-clubs, iHeart radio apps and truly create the right messaging to bring our audience back to our products daily.
We live in a PPM world now. What’s been the biggest teaching point to the staff along the way about how the audience is consuming radio from the data you view on an ongoing basis?
Use all of our filters to make sure what we are putting on the air next is truly in-line with the expectations of our consumers. These days you can do mini test groups through social networking and almost pre-test content to test interest levels before you hit the airwaves.
I always say you can test the music but you can’t truly test what the jock is about to say on the air and whether their content will drive traffic and keep interest levels in the PPM World?
I truly believe in transparency with my talent on all levels of PPM. I show them how listeners reacted to a bit and or content that they did and we talk about all sides of what happened. Done correctly this can be a very unbiased conversation of truth and honesty on how the listener is truly using their show and can help better prepare for next time.
How important is it to have the right team of people in place to delegate and execute?
It is truly vital to have talent on and off the air that can have your vision, the company’s best interest and be able to make decisions and navigate quickly. I have learned to delegate and trust the people I hire.
You’ve been lucky in developing some great talent and personalities. What advice would you give to those seeking to advance their careers to that next level of management?
Sit down with each department and listen. This is “show – business” …learn about the business side of things as well. You can have the best ratings in the world but if your sales staff is not hitting budget then it’s a sinking ship. You have to be on the frontline and help them with the two-minute elevator speak (our KBKS GSM Renee Wegner has drilled that in my brain) on your radio station for the sales team to talk to the clients and agencies that don’t have much time.
Spend time with your respective GM, GSM and controller. Ask questions and get into the weeds. You truly need to work on being a leader, problem-solver, trustworthy and accountable on many levels.
What do you view as radio’s biggest challenge and where do you see the medium’s biggest growth potential?
Our biggest challenge is and always will be creating unique content daily throughout all of our platforms. Most programmers will tell you it’s Pandora or a new App but truly we have the pipeline and we have as many users as Pandora monthly. Just like Comcast is buying NBC…not for bandwidth but for content. Many creative ideas that catch fire on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are created by traditional media i.e. SNL.
What’s the one key thing radio should stay focused on to remain the leading media of choice?
Being where our audience is daily and stop looking at this as we are competing against ourselves. We are competing for the best ideas in the room, which is truly “idea diffusion”. Lots of new ideas fail. Many of them are great ideas, and they’ve been proven to solve an important problem, yet they still fail. Why? Because in addition to having a great idea, and making it work, if we are innovating we also have to get the idea to spread.
The best, most creative ideas will truly help our brands and our industry prevail to new heights. I love the fact that Clear Channel has the national reach with the local execution, which is what a lot of companies are trying to provide in today’s world for our consumers and clients.
[eQB Content by Bob Burke]
