Tom Calococci
Tom Calococci is one of a few veteran programmers who still lives, eats, and breathes radio. He’s programmed some pretty big stations for some big companies including KKBT/Los Angeles, KBXX/Houston, WERQ/Baltimore, WBOT/Boston, and KJMZ/Dallas. Calococci travels have since landed him in South Beach as Operations Manager at Beasley Broadcasting’s Rhythmic CHR WPOW (Power 96). Since his arrival, the heritage station is again surging in the ratings in one of the most competitive radio markets in the country.
Tom Calococci is one of a few veteran programmers who still lives, eats, and breathes radio. He’s programmed some pretty big stations for some big companies including KKBT/Los Angeles,KBXX/Houston, WERQ/Baltimore, WBOT/Boston, andKJMZ/Dallas. Calococci travels have since landed him in South Beach as Operations Manager at Beasley Broadcasting’s Rhythmic CHR WPOW (Power 96). Since his arrival, the heritage station is again surging in the ratings in one of the most competitive radio markets in the country.
eQB presents excerpts from the FMQB June Magazine Rhythm Cover Story featuring WPOW (Power 96)/Miami OM Tom Calococci
On how the opportunity came about to join Beasley… The opportunity came about after running into Bill Tanner a couple of times, and just having some good old radio conversations. In one of those conversations I happened to mention to Bill that I loved working with smart people, and would love the opportunity to maybe one day work with him down the road. A couple of days later I got a phone call asking me if I’d be interested in talking to Bill and Beasley about Power 96/Miami.
On the station’s rough patch ratings-wise and what happened… You had longtime Program Director, Kid Curry, leave after about nine years. That might have been part of it, plus the fact that the station probably dabbled a little too much in the Reggaetone format. A couple of years ago Reggaetone hit and it hit hard. You had stations flipping formats to all Reggaetone and with Miami being a very large Latin market, it made sense to go in that direction. But the format and the product dried up, and there were still a lot of Reggaetone titles being played on the station. After we conducted a perceptual study we realized that that was one of the things that was hurting the radio station. One of the first things that I did when I got here was put together the perceptual study. I began working with DJ LAZ and the morning show to actually develop more of a traditional morning show versus a music intensive – what I call afternoon drive show – in the mornings.
On having programmed an Urban format in some pretty big markets and how it helped in knowing what needed to be done against some pretty tough Urban competition in the market… Any experience that you have helps you. The main thing was that I knew that Power 96 had always been a very unique radio station, had always been a very Miami-centric radio station. My job here was to build on that, and that was part of finding out about the fact that, while Reggaetone has its place, it’s not necessarily a full-blown format and you have to be careful. It’s not enough to just take a song and make a Reggaetone mix on it. My job here when I got here was to learn the market, learn the station, learn the nuances, and learn about the history of Power 96 in order to be able to move forward so I could build on the heritage and tighten up the radio station.
On how Power 96 has evolved musically and moved away from its Dance music heritage…The station moved away from Dance music when they got a competitor, Party 93.1 (WPYM). Then Dance music kind of fell out of favor too. The great thing about Power 96 is that it’s rolled with the musical cycles. Right now, for example, Hip-Hop is not enjoying its day in the sun. Pop music has made a pretty respectable comeback with Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake. You’ve got some good R&B/Crossover Pop hits as well with Ne-Yo and Chris Brown. The reason Power 96 has maintained its success is that it’s maintain its relevancy. When it got a little bit away from that, like last year with the Reggaetone, the numbers suffered. The station right now is extremely focused to what we need to be playing and saying for Miami/Ft. Lauderdale.
On how a dance record like Bob Sinclair “World Hold On” found its way into rotation, and how the audience reacted… The audience reacted extremely positively to it. It kind of goes back to the traditional Top 40 days and Power 96 is playing the hottest 25-30 songs that are available to us right now, and Bob Sinclair happens to be one of them. One of the things that we’re not going to do is, because of the success with Bob Sinclair, it doesn’t mean that we’re all of a sudden going to be adding Dance music – unless we see a story or we feel that that will further our goal. That’s what happened with the Reggaetone thing. I’ve seen this happen with mix shows. You do a mix show at noon, it works great and then all of a sudden it’s, “let’s mix 24-hours in a day.” It doesn’t work that way. What I tell people is, “If Christmas were once a month, it wouldn’t mean anything in December.” You have to give people something and then rebuild the anticipation for it – whether it’s music, a feature, or a programming element.
On the Rhythmic/Hip-Hop format hitting a wall…There are no superstars out there right now. There are some great Hip-Hop artists, but there’s no 50 Cent right now. There’s no Eminem. TheJay-Z project, while much anticipated, didn’t really do what the label expected. Let’s face it, we need a whole new generation of Hip-Hop artists right now; we’re kind of in a lull. But do I think Hip-Hop is dead? Absolutely not! Music is cyclical. It will come back around.
On the biggest mistake a programmer makes when looking at music research… They misinterpret it. They interpret the research to mean what they want it to mean for them. They don’t install any gut with it.
On some cool things that the station has done recently to stay top of mind… We just conducted the First Annual DJ LAZ “MILF” Olympics over Mother’s Day weekend and it got a lot of attention. Basically we had very good looking moms, compete in the “Diaper Toss” and the “Stroller Derby” and things of that nature. It was very tongue-in-cheek. We had a great time with it, and it helped the radio station standout. I preach to my jocks the difference between crude and clever. We try to come up with “clever” promotions that aren’t necessarily crude. Crude would be some clever way of disrespecting young girls. We looked at things that we believe will be irreverent, non-offensive, and fun and tongue-in-cheek. We’re going to be relaunching the Power 96 Beach House. It’s a very Miami thing. The bottom line is to be aware of the lifestyle, what’s going on, what our listeners are talking about, and reflect that back.
On whether or not HD radio will save terrestrial radio… Not necessarily. The positive about HD radio has been that it has taken some of the spotlight off of satellite radio. When satellite radio first hit it was the hot new thing, and the satellite companies and their PR departments were really great at painting radio as “old fashioned media that nobody listens to anymore.” Reading all the press releases and stories, you’d swear that nobody listens to the radio anymore and that everybody had bought a satellite radio, and everybody was listening to Howard Stern. That’s just not the case! The HD radio thing, while I don’t necessarily think it will “save” radio, radio will be saved by producing great content, and not annoying our listeners with too many interruptions and clutter.
On how radio can ultimately better serve its listenership long term… Content. Make compelling radio. Give people a reason for listening. Give them a reason to want to come back. It’s just that simple.
** QB Content by Bob Burke **
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