One of the most respected, iconic stations in the history of FM Rock radio celebrates its 40th birthday this year and is pulling out all the stops. We recently caught up with current WRIF PD Mark Pennington and discussed some of the magic in the elixir that has made the station such a stalwart and touchstone in FM radio since its inception.
Mark Pennington
By Mike Bacon
One of the most respected, iconic stations in the history of FM Rock radio celebrates its 40thbirthday this year and is pulling out all the stops. This year, WRIF/Detroit will welcome in a fifth decade of Rock with flashbacks, concert celebrations and a healthy dose of what has made them so successful over the years: strong, listener-focused local programming.
Way back in 1971, it was widely believed that then owners, ABC, made a clerical error when applying for the WRIF calls. They had intended the WRIF calls for their 94.7 in Chicago, while 101.1 in Detroit was supposed to have been WDAI (Detroit Auto Industry). If not for that guffaw, well, we may be celebrating something very different this year.
The fact is that ‘RIF has endured and triumphed, much the way veteran Greater Media company-mate WMMR/Philly has, and has made a major multi-generational impact on the region.
We recently caught up with current WRIF PD Mark Pennington and discussed some of the magic in the elixir that has made the station such a stalwart and touchstone in FM radio since its inception.
So many stations have come and gone in the format and in Detroit, what’s been the secret to WRIF’s long-lasting success?
Our people, that’s what it comes down to. Our company invests money and time really grooming jocks. They understand what the station’s about. They understand radio. We’re live 24-7 which is important, especially in a blue collar city like Detroit with so many third shifters. All of our jocks have been around for awhile and understand the city, understand the music, understand everything that goes on in Detroit. Just being local and being part of the community is our biggest asset. The other major component is being owned by a great company that understands broadcasting like Greater Media. Having brilliant radio minds like Peter Smyth, Buzz Knight, Fred Jacobs, Heidi Raphael and many others being just a phone call away is a luxury I never take for granted.
How has the station been able to embrace new sounds and evolve through the years?
This is a Rock town. We can take some chances on things that sound right for Detroit. The good thing about this station is that over the years they expect us to take some chances. A calculated risk is really what I like to call them, and over the years we’ve broken a lot of acts, before my time even, and that gives us a little bit of credibility to be able to take those risks. I will never forget talking about a new song with Arthur Penhallow years ago. I was concerned it sounded too heavy for afternoon drive. He turned to me and said with that huge booming voice “we are a Rock station, right? Don’t over think it, just play it!”
What are some of the main things that the station does today that helps keep it connected to listeners in the market?
Being in touch with what’s going on around us. One of the worst economies in the U.S. was right here in Detroit, and being sympathetic to that and trying to do some charity work, and give back to the community and try to do free concerts and low dough concerts, Free nights out, etc., that was a big thing for all involved. We also attach ourselves to the Red Wings and all the things that are going on in Detroit. We’ve got some great sports teams here and some that struggle, and there’s a loyalty to anything Detroit. We’re very much part of that fabric, which is very rare. And you can see that extended in the Rock & Roll community too. Some of the artists that are from Detroit reflect very much what Detroit the city is about. Kid Rock and Bob Seger are very relatable, blue collar, and hard working. Kid Rock is a great example. He gives back a ton. He’s always doing things, but he does a lot of things that people don’t even know about too. He bought over $50k worth of Thanksgiving meals for people last year. He doesn’t get the credit a lot of times that he deserves on that front. But, at the same time the guy will sellout four or five nights here in a row, runs his own clothing line, beer company and yet still took the time to cut Riff a 40th anniversary version of his song “Freakin Forty!” People know he’s a Detroiter; that he’s given back, and he hasn’t lost track of where he’s from. That’s true with the radio station, too. There’s a sense of loyalty where they know we’ve been here for 40 years and we have never really flipped formats, and we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
I moved here nine years ago and one of the first things I realized was the people don’t usually leave here to go on vacation, they go north. I never quite understood that concept until I traveled forty-five-minutes past Detroit and saw that it is nothing but wilderness and every recreational thing you can imagine, from the Great Lakes to skiing to hunting and snowmobiling. Everybody has cottages and everybody just goes north instead of going wherever on vacation. Let’s just get in the car and drive, which is unique and again, you don’t realize that unless you live here. A lot of times when you think Michigan you think Detroit or metropolitan, but there are some bigger things here than that.
How has PPM affected the station?
I don’t think anybody has completely figured it out yet. It’s still trial and error. PPM has been very good to us thus far, knock on wood. Our morning show has dominated, which they did in diary as well, so that hasn’t changed. It’s been a good thing in the sense that it has forced us to really think a little bit differently. I try to think like a listener and really program that way now a little more than I did, because if it sounds too long to me when I’m saying it or writing it, it is too long and they’re tuning out. We’re trying less to hype things because in reality it doesn’t work. Shortening breaks, imaging, a lot of those things, but I’m trying to do it without really impacting the message or hurting the brand. If we go too far with it and shorten every break down to the point where there’s no personality left, we’re hurting the brand, so I’m not going to do that. But it has helped us kind of streamline the station better overall. You can see an impact pretty quickly on things that do work and really zero in on them, and that’s a big positive. It’s about knowing the market and knowing what the hot buttons are.
How is WRIF celebrating its 40th Anniversary?
We just did 40th Anniversary Flashback Weekend. We have a lot of the former jocks cutting memories and stories about the station. We went through the archives (which are extensive) and found old video footage, old interviews and pictures, and have compiled a really cool interactive Web site (click here to view http://www.wrif.com/wrif40/index.aspx).
Our anniversary was a very special day, everyone from Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Gene Simmons, Chad Kroeger, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and countless others called in and relived some Detroit Rock City memories! We have now kicked off a year-long celebration with the announcement of our WRIF 40th Anniversary Show – Stone Temple Pilots at the Fillmore Detroit on Wednesday April 20th.
Your current airstaff is motoring along real well, starting with of course, Drew & Mike in the morning.
They are in my opinion the best Rock morning show in the country. They’ve been on top for a long, long time. They pump out great shows. They’ve got a connection with this city that is like no other. It really starts with those guys. They drive the station. They drive the big numbers in the morning and my job is to make sure that those people stay around for the rest of the day. Luckily we’ve been pretty successful on that front. Drew, Mike, Trudi Daniels and the whole team are incredible at what they do, I can’t say enough about them. They know the market. They know the hot issues to talk about, sporting events and things going on in Detroit. It’s become the place to go to almost hear news about all things Detroit, in a strange way, for close to 20 years.
Riff has had some incredible players on the station the over years, and as you’ve said, moved in incredible replacements as the station has grown.
Within the last two years we’ve pretty much shaken up the entire staff. We’ve been able to replace some key people with heritage people: Ann Carlini who has been on-the-air in Detroit for 25 years. Meltdown who replaced Arthur P., has been here 15 years.Screamin’ Scott, who is now doing nights, has been here at Riff 15 years as well. They’ve really done an excellent job of bridging that gap and adapting to ’PPM, which is not always an easy thing to do for a heritage jock.
With our part-time staff, one of the great things about the station is that we’re live 24-7 so we still have that breeding ground of overnights and weekends to help groom new talent who will eventually take over from the people who are on-the-air now.
In programming, Suzy Cole is my APD and she is the latest in a long line of APD’s at Riff that will soon be a great PD somewhere. She’s really in tune with the local scene and what’s going on in the city. WRIF’s marketing Director Ken Wasilewskiis the general on the streets; he and his team dominate every event, concert, and promotion we do, We have a great support staff too, which is again another key. I’m very fortunate to work with such great pros.
Arthur P. obviously was such a huge part of the radio station for 39 years. His impact on this market is just amazing. He’d go to different places and people would yell “Baby!” As soon as they saw you out with your WRIF t-shirt they knew Art and always asked for him. He’s still an iconic figure in this city and a lot of the success of the radio station goes back to him.
Can you mention the importance, to you and the station, of some of your predecessors?
A lot of people came after ’RIF over the years, and a lot of those attacks happened under Doug Podell’s watch and he and squashed everyone of them, so he was definitely a major part of the success of the radio station, and he’s the reason I’m here. He hired me as APD/MD, and I learned a lot of what I know from Doug. It’s great to have him in the building and as a sounding board for ideas because I know how he thinks. There have been a number of great radio minds that have steered this ship over the years:Fred Jacobs, Tom Bender, who heads up our Interactive department for the company, Doug of course, and Greg Ausham. They all understood the radio station and the market as well as anybody so it’s quite a luxury to have some of them available to consult.
How has the focus of brand distribution changed for radio in general given the advent of opportunities like smartphone apps and side channels?
The position has changed for all of us. We’re now like an interactive media company. I’m sitting in on meetings about iPhones, apps and databases. There’s a lot more technology than there has ever been, and we continue to grow that way, which is great. It’s another way for our product to get out there.
It’s interesting that we’re racing now to catch up with the interactive part of it, when really we were the first interactive media. You think about it, we were the first ones that when people wanted to reach out and request a song or get concert information, they were calling up the radio station. Now we’re scrambling to make sure we’re still interactive, which is an interesting concept. Again, it goes back to if you don’t have jocks 24-7 you make yourself less relevant and interactive. It has to be about the brand. It has to fit the brand. We have to make sure that we’re not bastardizing our brand on any platform and stay true to who we are.
After all of these years, what is the significance of your iconic logo/bumper sticker never changing?
We’ve been lucky that the logo hasn’t really been changed except for once, and they changed it back because there was such an outcry. It is so recognizable too. It goes back to the beginnings of the radio station. They did one sticker and it kind of took off. Then from there we started to put bands on them. When bands come through, we’ll do a sticker for it. People will come out just to get those stickers. They create them online. There’s quite a demand for them, and there’s thousands of them. You don’t realize how many you have until you start digging through the archives, and say like, ‘Oh my gosh! We did a Richard Marx sticker? (That’s something we don’t talk about much). But then there are probably ten different Bob Seger stickers and 13 different Kid Rock stickers. The RIFF sticker is very simple. It’s just the band and an oval, but people know what it is.
What are your thoughts about radio in general?
I think radio’s healthy. We have to be very cautious about how we handle PPM as an industry, because if we cater to the instant measuring system that is PPM, we’ll lose track of our brands, we’ll lose track of our product, and we’ll lose track of our audience. We’ll do more harm than good. PPM is how we make our money, but the brand is how we ensure our long term survival. We’re going to have to concentrate on that. You can see a lot of stations now that are just jukeboxes with imaging. They may be doing okay here and there, but what about the long term success of the station if they don’t stand for anything? Having personalities and still doing promotions and doing all the things we do are the keys to long term survival.
[eQB Content by Mike Bacon]
