KXT/Dallas PD Mark Abuzzahab has worked for legendary stations that include Minneapolis’ REV105, WNCS/Burlington, VT, KBCO/Denver-Boulder, and most recently KGSR/Austin, before surprising the Triple A format and industry at large when he accepted the PD post at two-year old non-comm Triple A KXT/Dallas. After a few months to settle into his new market, station and job, Abuzzahab sat down with FMQB to talk about the move to the non-comm side, the lessons he has learned along the way, and the challenges he looks forward to tackling as he works to continue KXT’s growth cycle.
Mark Abuzzahab
By Jack Barton
With a career that started at one of the most adventurous stations in radio history, Minneapolis’ REV105, Mark Abuzzahab was perfect fit for Triple A when he landed atWNCS/Burlington, VT a decade ago, where he ended up in his first PD job. Abuzzahab then parlayed a successful stint programming that legendary New England station into the MD job at KBCO/Denver-Boulder, before eventually ending up in the same position at the equally respected KGSR/Austin in 2010. Which made it quite unexpected when Abuzzahab announced earlier this year that he was moving across Texas – and to the other end of the dial – to accept the PD post at two-year old non-comm Triple AKXT/Dallas.
After a few months to settle into his new market, station and job, Abuzzahab sat down with FMQB to talk about the move to the non-comm side, the lessons he has learned along the way, and the challenges he looks forward to tackling as he works to continue KXT’s growth cycle.
You spent most of your career on the commercial side, what interested you about non-comm when the opportunity to join KXT came up?
It is true that all the stations I’ve worked at have been commercial, but I’ve been lucky enough to work at some really adventurous stations, like REV105 in Minneapolis,WOXY/Cincinnati and more recently, KBCO and KGSR; all of those stations don’t conform to traditional radio rules. So I don’t think my programming philosophy has changed. Commercial radio has changed and moved in a more conservative direction, which makes me fit non-comm.
Are you strictly involved in programming or do you have a role in development strategy?
For the most part I am mostly in programming. We’re owned by North Texas Public Broadcasting, so in our building we haveKERA-TV, a PBS affiliate celebrating their fiftieth anniversary this year. KERA-TV was the first station in the country to air Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and also gave Jim Lehrer his first job in TV. Also, there is KERA-FM, an NPR affiliate and Art & Seek, an Arts, Music and Culture website. So we have very good, established Membership and Development departments.
A lot of people have a perception of non-comm as having no business priorities, only answering to programming priorities. Can you confirm or dispel that rumor?
Those are the people that have never worked for a non-commercial station. We don’t have to answer to a corporate office in another state, but we want to grow as an organization. North Texas Public Media made a significant investment in KXT almost two years ago so they could grow and better serve their mission statement.
Tell us what the mission statement is and what that means to you as a programmer.
The mission is to serve the citizens of North Texas by excelling in production, presentation and distribution of public television and radio programming and other multimedia resources and activities that educate, inspire, enrich, inform and entertain.
You execute it by delivering quality programming, listening to your audience and not being afraid to try new things. Like I said earlier, I’ve worked at some really great stations, and I’m proud of all the places I’ve worked. All of these stations have built a name for themselves and built communities. One of the great things about Triple A stations is the loyalty of the audience, how engaged they are, and that we can play new records if we like them. But it often means going beyond just doing music. It means being involved in the community and being involved in cultural things because, as we know, people aren’t one dimensional. They don’t just want to hear the same songs over and over again. They don’t even want to just hear music. They want to be entertained and know what’s going on in their communities.
How do programming opportunities on the non-comm side differ from the commercial side?
There is a lot more room for growth on the non-commercial side. Consolidation isn’t good for any industry. Over the past couple of years, the biggest growth in Triple A has been on the non-commercial side with both KCSN/Los Angeles and KXT have signing on in Top Five markets, and KCMP/Minneapolis seeing great ratings growth.
I want to make it clear that I’m not picking on commercial radio. All media is going through a lot of change. Look at TV: 15-years ago network TV (CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox) produced all the great original programming and cable TV ran reruns or whatever programming they could get without investing a lot of money. Now all my favorite shows, like The Wire or Mad Men, come from cable and I can’t remember the last time I was excited to see a series on one of the major networks. The broadcast networks have been scared for a long time. They’ve cut costs and focused on shows that are cheaper to produce like Dancing With The Stars, rather than taking risks on developing new series that may or may not work. Cable networks are more willing to take risks not only because they reach a smaller audience, but because they have two sources of revenue, advertising and cable fees. They also focused on quality instead of quantity when they made a season of cable shows 13 episodes instead of the 24 episodes on a broadcast network.
In a way, Triple A radio is going through a network versus cable situation right now. Most commercial stations are cutting costs and playing it safe by trimming back their libraries and only playing a small library of well-research songs. That leaves a void for new artists and programming, and to a large extent, non-commercial stations are stepping up to fill that gap. You can also see that in the record industry. The majors are cutting costs and trimming acts and the indie labels are picking up the artist development void and taking risks with the Bon Ivers and Arcade Fires of the world.
In essence, non-commercial is looking at the long term while commercial radio is looking quarter to quarter.
What did you learn on the commercial side that you find yourself applying to the non-comm paradigm?
Most commercial stations are operating from the same PPM handbook. It helps to know how commercial stations are structuring their clocks so you can move in a different direction.
Starting your career in the final days before the Internet and social media explosion, you must have an interesting perspective on radio’s relationship with emerging media.
Radio tends to approach social media in the same way they approach their on-air product, which is in a linear fashion. If the website, Facebook and Twitter are only there to promote the on-air content, then they aren’t being used to their full potential. Radio needs to use these platforms to interact and engage their audience, and do things that it can’t do on the air because of time or technical restraints.
Where do the opportunities for radio flourish again lie?
No industry grows by taking less risk or by diminishing their product. Business books are filled with success stories of companies or products that were launched during a recession. If radio becomes all music and no personality it will never survive, there is far too much competition for music delivery; just look at Spotify, Amazon’s Cloud music storage or any one of the other countless music services that get started every day. Radio needs to develop new programming and be ready to adapt to listeners’ changing needs. The only constant in life is change and radio needs to be ready for it.
[eQB Content by Jack Barton]
