It’s rare nowadays that you spend your entire radio career in and around one market but Rob Miller, a radio veteran of 20 years did just that. Most of that time was in Long Island at WALK-FM where #1 ratings were the norm, but earned. Nowadays Miller oversees WKTU in radio’s #1 market and he still lives, eats and breath the business he loves.
Rob Miller
Rob Miller is truly one of the good guys in radio today. He made quite a name for himself during his 16 years at Clear Channel Mainstream AC WALK-FM. He began as a station intern and in 1994 launched his on-air career doing nights and swing shifts. He switched to the management side in 1996 and was promoted to APD, and in 2001 was named PD. WALK dominates the Long Island radio market consistently ranking #1 in ratings.
Miller’s success didn’t go unnoticed by CC execs who saw his potential and enlisted him to take over the programming duties at WKTU, The Beat of New York, in 2006. A fan of the station since it first launched in 1996, Miller now captains the KTU ship that is sounding better than ever and is not only focused on winning, but having fun in doing so. Rob Miller gets it…and he’s become one of the industry’s top programming minds in radio today.
How would you characterize the development of KTU since the time you arrived in 2006?
When I joined as PD in October of that year, KTU was in a battle with Mix 102.7, which had eroded a lot of our 35-44 year old listeners with their emphasis on 70’s and 80’s classics. KTU was playing more current Dance titles than it ever had before in its history, which allowed Mix to come in and cater to the older end of our audience who became alienated by our focus on catering to the niche “club” audience. We adjusted the music on KTU more gold based to get those listeners back and within two months, CBS blew up Mix to debut the “Fresh” format. We had a lot of work ahead of us to grab the cume we had lost and prove to them that once again they could hear their favorite songs on KTU.
The next year was spent rebuilding our audience, tightening the station up to perform in a PPM world and consistently meeting the listener’s expectation of our brand. KTU had many hours of the day where it had block specialty programming that performed well in a diary ratings world, but at times it blurred what our current day brand is and we had to eliminate most of it. In 2008, the station evolved again to become more current/recurrent based and our ratings continued to grow.
What was the transition like for you moving down the Long Island Expressway and programming in the AC world and then shifting to Manhattan to a more Rhythmic based station?
Having spent 16 years at WALK on Long Island where I started as an intern, I was very fortunate to learn how to program a larger than life mainstream AC station that was full service, delivering music and information when our listeners needed it in a market that competed with many New York City based stations. We were consistently #1 at WALK because we catered to Long Island, and even though the station was very involved in the local community it had the presentation and foreground sound of a New York City station. I had always listened to KTU in the late 90’s when I was in my 20’s and loved the music. I knew all of the music and hoped that one day I would be able to program in a Top 5 market. I never knew that the station would be KTU. Since I knew all of the music and had been a fan, I was ready to jump right in when Tom Poleman offered me the gig in 2006. You can apply the basic principles of programming to any format, so I wasn’t worried about the change in format. I think having lived in this market all my life and being exposed to KTU in its heyday was critical in helping me design the plan for the future of the radio station.
How satisfied are you with how KTU is performing and are you see some consistency in PPM?
I’m thrilled with KTU’s performance in PPM. In our last diary book, the station was ranked 9th with Adults 25-54. In the May PPM ratings that were released last week, KTU ranked 4th in that demo and 4th with P 18-34. With Women 18-34, we’re 2nd to Z100. Plus the most amazing thing was watching the cume grow from over a million in a diary world to close to 5 million in PPM. Our 6+ cume is 3rd in the market behind WLTW and Z100. Our cluster in New York is just on fire. We have stations one through four Adults 25-54, and three of the top 5 stations with P 18-34.
What’s the one thing that most surprised you in analyzing PPM data?
I would say seeing the direct cause and effect of what we do on-air. Setting appointment listening times for benchmarks or contesting and watching the ratings increase at those times. You can look and see what is working and what is not working on the station. One of the early things we noticed was that long form talk breaks from the jocks and interviews with non A-list celebrities would really tank our ratings for that hour.
Are you convinced this is the right system for audience measurement in radio?
The diary measurement system was all about recall. If you were the station that stayed top of mind to listeners, you were a big winner. PPM measures “exposure” of your station. I believe KTU was hurt in the diary ratings because of several factors. Our audience is very active and chances are if they were asked to fill out a diary for a week, they wouldn’t. Plus, because in the past few years we were catering to a small portion of the total audience available with our current Dance format, we weren’t exactly the “top of mind” station. The diary system wasn’t perfect and PPM isn’t either. However, I believe PPM is a more accurate measurement of the overall reach of KTU.
The station has been classified by many as a retro Dance station that leaned heavily on gold which really isn’t the case, especially nowadays. The station has been playing more current music of late. Is that by design?
KTU is constantly evolving. It’s critical for our success. Our audience wants to hear all the biggest hits of today, mixed in with songs they grew up with from the late 80’s and 90’s. The current music cycle has been really friendly to us the past few years, with lots of great Pop and Rhythmic hits and new releases from Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Pink, Kanye, Britney, Beyonce and Lady Gaga.
In fact, it was KTU that led the way and broke the Kristinia DeBarge record. How did you find that record and what made you want to play it before anyone else?
Erik Olesen and Nicki Farag from IDJMG dropped by and told me they had a great song for KTU. We all listened to it and agreed that it would be a total sing-a-long anthem for women in relationships that had gone bad. Kristinia comes from a talented family and I knew this would be one of the hottest songs of the summer. We popped it in that night and it just blew up from there.
Being in such a competitive market, are their more opportunities for gut picks versus a record that may be proven in research?
I’ve always used research as one of the tools to making sure I’m playing the right songs. But it’s not a substitution for actually listening to music and selecting what you feel is right for your station. There are plenty of songs that do great in research and don’t fit KTU’s music position. Plus, there are songs that out of the gate look bad in research and need more exposure before they turn the corner and test like a power. You still have to use your gut in programming and take the right chances.
Talent is important especially in a market like New York. Tell us about the transition and development of the KTU Morning Show?
A few months before I took over as PD, KTU had just launched a syndicated morning show with Whoopi Goldberg and Paul “Cubby” Bryant. Whoopi is one of the funniest and most recognizable comedians with a ton of fans. Cubby is an incredible jock with a quick wit that women had loved for years on Z100. The show was on stations with different formats, from Mainstream AC to Smooth Jazz, and at times the content seemed to skew much older and alienated the 25-34 cell that is an important part of KTU’s success. Although it might have been the perfect morning show for a Mainstream AC, it didn’t fit on KTU.
I have always loved Cubby and when we decided to make a morning show change, I knew he would be great to lead our next show. Cindy Vero has worked for us for many years as both a morning show co-host and traffic reporter and I wanted to give her the opportunity to grow into more of a forefront role. We teamed her up with Cubby and they had incredible chemistry from the start. Matt Bosso, who was a great producer for the Wake Up With Whoopi morning show joined us in that role for KTU’s new show. Our show is music intensive, playing 10-11 songs an hour and Pop-culture oriented. It’s fun with a lot of energy and listeners have bonded with Cubby and Cindy. We knew it was going to take some time to rebuild and we’re starting to see the fruits of our labor in the ratings a year and a half later.
We have an incredible staff at KTU. Diane Prior has been with the station since it re-launched in 1996 and keeps the at-work audience movin’ to the beat in midday’s. Hollywood Hamilton and Goumba Johnny were here in the beginning as well and reunited three years ago to do afternoons. Their show helps commuters keep their sense of humor on the way home and is a ratings killer. You never know what crazy listener is going to call in and their “War Of The Roses” feature is our biggest benchmark. I hired Jagger from KC 101 in New Haven to do nights when I started and he’s keeping the city entertained with great music and interactive games all night long. He has been an MD and has a great music instinct.
Everyone is doing more with less. What is the key to keeping people motivated and on their game and how important is it to delegate in today’s consolidated model?
You have to spend time with your staff and get to know them. Each person needs to be managed differently. You need to understand what motivates them and what their goals are. I’ve tried in the past three years to help everyone on my team achieve the next level of their professional goal. From the beginning, I’ve told them we are all a team and we’d work together to bring KTU back to the ratings heydays of the late 90’s when it relaunched. We are winning because they understand what we need to deliver on a daily basis.
Delegation is so important and critical to my day. My APD/MD Bartelhas been a PD in several other markets and we’re on the same page. His work ethic is incredible like mine and I can easily have him step in at any given moment to take care of pressing issues that need attention.
Your responsibilities have also been increased in overseeing “KTU” brands in Miami and Albuquerque. Do you see opportunities in those markets for success?
One of the milestones in my career came this past Christmas when we launched a new Rhythmic AC in Miami, “93.9 MIA.” This was the first time I was ever involved in a new station launch and it was so exciting. I will always remember designing the music database and the countless hours spent with market manager Brian Olson, Rod Phillips and Rich McMillan in preparation for the debut of a station that took Miami by storm. Within a month, we had designed the new station and put it on the air. Although it’s a more gold based format than the current day KTU, MIA is perfect for the vibe of that market. It was a real family affair, we tapped the resources of Cubby and Jagger to do mornings and afternoons, Bartel is one of the station’s imaging voices and imaging directors from both clusters, Rick Gangi and Brian Mack worked together on the imaging production. In May PPM pre-currency, the station ranks 4th with Adults 25-54 and is the strongest performing station in our seven station Miami cluster. In February, we expanded the format to KSYU in Albuquerque and it’s getting a great reaction there as well. The format is fun, upbeat and full of energy with a big imprint on the at-work audience.
How excited are you about new technology? Is it the shot in the arm radio needed to extend and expose its reach to more audience?
It’s an awesome time to be a part of Clear Channel. Our company has been a trendsetter in new technology. Between “Iheartradio” and the incredible on-demand content we have available on our websites, we are at the forefront of growing with our listeners. The radio industry won’t survive by doing things the way we always have. We need to communicate to our listeners in a whole new way. That includes texting, Twitter and interaction with them through social networking and our websites, making their experience with our brands a memorable one. Evolution on all levels is the key to remaining relevant and forefront in their world.
***QB Content By Bob Burke***
