Scott Less
When some people think of Sonoma County in Northern California, they may think of wine country, or perhaps the Dead Head, hippie culture for which the area was once known. But Sonoma County also has its share of down and dirty hard rockers, which is the audience that KXFX/Santa Rosa is hoping to super serve with its new formula of spiking in old school Iron Maiden, Anthrax and Danzig songs while also embracing new, heavier bands like Mastodon and Bullet For My Valentine. The charge is being led by PD Scott Less and FMQB recently caught up with him about the station’s new, heavier direction.
eQB presents excerpts from the April FMQB magazine Rock Up Close with KXFX/Santa Rosa PD Scott Less
On the roots of the recent shift in music programming… The goal was to make this an Active Rock station with Mainstream appeal, so that we would be able to play Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, and still be able to embrace new Rock from core artists, likeTool, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Godsmack. We did that for a solid year, and noticed that we started to lose some of our Time Spent Listening from our P1s while our cume stayed strong… and maybe we just weren’t reaching and connecting to our true P1s enough. And our true P1s, after going back and looking at previous books, are guys that like to Rock a little bit heavier than Mainstream Rock. So maybe being too safe was being too predictable, and that started to send our P1s elsewhere.
On defining the heavier direction of the station… When I say slightly heavier direction, it’s a heavier focus to our P1. What we did is, by allowing our Classic Rock sister station full ownership of those Classic Rock artists, it automatically raises the level of the Rock on our radio station, because it becomes a little bit more active and a little more aggressive. Then, on our other side, we have another sister station which is a Hot AC station. They have done a phenomenal job of embracing those really Pop, Mainstream Rock artists like Three Doors Down, Nickelback and Hinder. So we’ve allowed them to take ownership of those artists. By alleviating some of that sound, the entire sound quality of the radio station rises to a heavier sound.
On the younger demo and classic music… Our younger demo is always going to be appreciative of Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and AC/DC. You can go to Walmart and K-Mart and find their t-shirts in the teen section, because those bands have defined Rock in today’s Rock music world. I think if we can embrace those artists and still be a great source for new Rock in this market, we can still capture the excitement from our younger audience while staying true to some of those classic artists.
On the core bands that The Fox still lives and dies with… The #1 rule from this radio station is that we have to stay true to the core artist. Whether the song fits the new heavier direction, it’s not really about that when it comes to the core artist. Of course, Tool is always going to find its way onto this radio station. But I think the Red Hot Chili Peppers is a perfect example of a huge band that this station has to play. Breaking Benjamin and Chevelle and Three Days Grace are three perfect bands for Active Rock that we will always be on. Our audience expects that as an Active Rock station, without an Alternative station in the market to be a competitor, that we’re always going to be the one that’s going to play those artists.
On looking for new music and baby bands… It goes back to the music meeting – if I can’t even get a song on two or three times in a music meeting to get my staff excited about it, then I don’t feel that my audience is going to be there for it either. I really have to get that vibe from my airstaff. If there’s none of that passion, we’re going to move right off of it.
On where The Fox should be at this time next year… I’m hoping that we have some good growth in our P1s and Time Spent Listening and still have a strong, consistent cume base. Even if we’re just competing with ourselves, then we want to grow ourselves.
On new technology as a big threat to terrestrial radio… If you can offer the best-sounding, most compelling product and it’s free all the time, then you shouldn’t have to worry about what satellite radio is doing. In the minds of Sonoma County, as long as you can sound great and sound local, give them something that they can’t get anywhere else, and give them an opportunity to get it anywhere they are through Internet streaming, then you should be able to consistently keep them listening.
On radio lessons learned… Realizing that people listen to a lot more radio stations than you may think they do. As you look at Arbitron diaries and see where they are at a certain time, they are all over the dial and are in so many different formats. They are not as cut-and-dry into Rock or Country or Classic Rock, or whatever it may be, as you may think in your mind.
** QB Content by Mandy Feingold **
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