Colorado Media Newsroom
November 30th, 2022, 11:41 AM
From Radio Insight:
On Dec. 6, Emmis founder/CEO Jeff Smulyan publishes his memoir, Never Ride a Roller Coaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur (https://www.amazon.com/Never-Ride-Rollercoaster-Upside-Down/dp/1637742223/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PSVN8EKW2OD8&keywords=jeff+smulyan&qid=1669743736&sprefix=jeff+smulyan%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-1). The volume spans Emmis? beginnings in Indianapolis to the struggle to put broadcast radio on the cellphone via Next Radio, with legendary radio stations like KSHE St. Louis, KPWR Los Angeles, and WQHT New York in between. In this excerpt, Smulyan recalls the early days of all-sports at WFAN New York.
https://i0.wp.com/radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2022/11/smulyan.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1My favorite part of the WFAN launch was doing the top-of-the-hour highlights. Radio stations invariably try to have a catchy ID for their legally required identification at the top of every hour. For [WQHT] it was, ?From the top of the Empire State Building, Hot 103.5, New York City,? with the same booming voice of Chuck Riley that we had used for ?72,000 watts of music power, Power 106, Los Angeles.?*
For WFAN, we had a different idea. We would play a memorable moment in sports, and then use the tagline, ?For all of the great moments in sports, WFAN, New York.? We compiled audio from hundreds of great moments. Since I was in charge, we started the station with my favorite: Bobby Thomson?s home run to win the pennant for the New York Giants in 1951. Almost every sports fan alive gets chills when Russ Hodges screams, ?The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!? I loved the concept and it became an unforgettable identifier for the station. Of course, as [Emmis president of programming] Rick [Cummings] pointed out, when you run one of your hundred moments every hour, twenty-four hours a day, people can get tired of them rather quickly. Nevertheless, it became a tradition.*
The other thing Emmis did really well was television commercials. To this day, I think they?re some of the most creative projects I?ve ever been involved with. Our most notable started with a camera zooming in on the back of a car, clearly on a lover?s lane. The back window was fogged up, but the audio came on with a man and a woman going back and forth: ?I love it*.*.*. Ooh, it?s wonderful, more, please more. This type of dialogue continued for about ten seconds. Finally, the camera panned to the front of the car, where, instead of two teenagers locked in an embrace, an older man was sitting on one side of the front seat while his wife was sitting as far away as possible on the passenger side. Then the voice-over announced, ?Yankees 4, Orioles 2,? and the couple moaned; ?Mets 7, Dodgers 1,? more moaning; ?Cubs 2, Reds 1,? still more unbridled fervor. The voice-over continued, ?Finally, for those with a passion for sports, WFAN, the world?s first all-sports radio station.? After a few more scores, the couple returned to their moaning and groaning. I?ve always thought it was one of the most entertaining commercials I had ever seen.*
Some of our marketing was so edgy, we couldn?t use it. We shot one commercial that started with a creaking sound, then a cross rose slowly from the ground until it stood straight up. On the cross was a referee, obviously being crucified. Over that, a voice intoned: ?There are only two things a New York sports fan wants; the other is WFAN, the world?s first all-sports radio station.? After we previewed the spot, somebody commented that if we didn?t discuss it with the Archdiocese of New York, we were going to be in big trouble. We did, and they promised a widespread boycott if the commercial ever went on the air. It was brilliant, but we had pushed the envelope too far.*
Thereafter, we avoided the religious imagery and developed a commercial that became our all-time greatest envelope pusher. It started with a jockstrap on a black background. Then it slowly expanded with appropriate stretching noises. As the jockstrap reached its full length, the voiceover came up, ?Finally, expanded coverage for the New York sports fan, the world?s first all-sports radio station, WFAN.? We knew the spot could never run in prime time, but the cable companies were happy to take our money and run it on late-night cable. The spot became a cult classic, and two years later, while driving down a freeway in Dallas, I was astounded to see a fully erect jockstrap on a billboard, using our tagline: ?Expanded coverage for Dallas sports fans, KTCK, all-sports radio.? People were even stealing our erect jockstrap!*
Our marketing was definitely getting buzz, but it wasn?t delivering improved ratings. As we had learned from experience, great marketing will just expose a bad product sooner, and that?s what seemed to be happening with WFAN. Jim Riggs, our research head, discovered that we were failing to attain one of our earliest goals: to become the place sports fans went for their information. Before WFAN, almost all New Yorkers were conditioned to get their sports updates at fifteen and forty-five minutes after the hour from the all-news stations, WCBS and WINS. After our first nine months of operation, Jim?s research indicated that most listeners were still going to WINS and WCBS for the latest news in sports. That was the behavior we had to change to have a shot at success. We needed to be New York?s sports authority.*
Near the end of 1987?less than six months after WFAN?s launch?we decided we?d have to rethink the entire approach of the station, and that meant replacing John Chanin with a program director capable of making WFAN more New York?centric and less constrained by constant sports updates. Once again, no one we talked to had all the requisite skills. We selected Mark Mason because he?d been a news programmer for WINS, so at least he knew how to program a station for a New York audience.*
Although WFAN was a mess, we were able to lure Mark for two reasons: most people in the industry loved the idea of coming to work at Emmis, and Mark realized he could be a hero if he figured out how to fix our station. Mark didn?t know me yet, but he was already following one of my favorite maxims for managers: ?Go somewhere where there?s a chance to fix something that?s broken. That?s how you become a hero quickly.? Or, in other words: ?You can?t commit suicide by jumping out of a basement window.? Since WFAN was in the sub-basement of the Kaufman Astoria (Movie) Studios in Queens, that statement was both literally and figuratively true! Mark understood that a complete focus on New York sports was essential, and that the information elements had to be scaled back to avoid impeding the flow of the talk shows. It didn?t take long for us to realize hiring Mark was a wise choice.*
In early 1988, just as we were beginning to revamp WFAN, a whole new wrinkle appeared: NBC?s radio stations suddenly became available. Randy Bongarten, president of NBC Radio, was handling the sale. Randy?s story was one of the most amazing in radio. As a wunderkind in the industry, he?d shot up through the ranks of General Electric Radio and by his early thirties was named its president.*
GE Radio wasn?t large but it owned a prestigious group of stations. Unfortunately for Randy, Jack Welch became CEO soon thereafter, and his mantra, ?If we?re not first or second in any business, get out of it,? applied to radio. So, as the newly named president of GE Radio, Randy was tasked with selling his stations. He completed the sale and, out of a job, headed to New York City, where he promptly landed at NBC. After a few years, Randy had again shot up through the ranks and was named president of NBC Radio. Just when you think lightning can never strike twice, you learn the next chapter of Randy?s story. Jack Welch led GE?s takeover of NBC, and shortly thereafter, Randy got the same speech, with the same result: sell the radio division. And that?s what brought Randy to us.*
For Emmis, the chance to buy the storied NBC radio stations within seven years of starting our company was the ultimate feather in a cap that was accumulating feathers quickly. With Morgan Stanley as our financial advisor, we quickly put together a $122 million deal, which brought us NBC stations in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, as well as the two New York flagships, WYNY-FM and WNBC-AM. If our success with our first stations hadn?t cemented our reputation, the NBC purchase clearly vaulted us to the top of the industry. And with the addition of the NBC stations, we became the largest privately held company in radio. Articles called us the next ?Cap Cities,? comparing us to the legendary radio/TV group that had recently bought ABC. Several noted that our people-first culture made it natural that NBC would choose us as a new home for their people.*
Now, I?ve been in countless bidding processes over the years, and it?s true, Emmis has a reputation that?s often helped us win bids. We like to kid that we?re usually the favorite to win a beauty contest because most sellers like our culture and reputation. However, I?ve cautioned my team that being a preferred bidder doesn?t get you very far. My maxim has been: ?If the other side likes you and wants to do a deal, you have a chance to win if your bid is slightly lower than other parties. For example, if you?re bidding ten times cash flow for a station and the other bidders are at 10.5 times, the seller may choose your slightly lower bid. However, if the other bidder is at eleven times cash flow, you?ll lose every time, even if the other bidder is Joseph Stalin!? For better or worse, popularity doesn?t count for much in buying businesses.*
Randy later teased me that, ?Yes, we liked you and your culture, but we also knew you were paying near the top for stations, and you had your financing in place, and we liked both of those a lot better than your stellar personality!? With that crisp assessment, Randy proved he would fit right into our culture. So, it was no surprise that after we acquired the NBC stations, Randy joined our growing group as a senior vice president. He was a terrific leader, especially in helping us to absorb all his former stations.*
In those days, the Federal Communications Commission didn?t allow a company to keep more than one AM or one FM in any market; it was a no-brainer for us to sell our current FM 103.5 and AM 1050 frequencies and move our stations to NBC?s better signals. WQHT?s switch from 103.5 to the NBC?s 97.1 frequency boosted the new ?Hot 97? to even greater success. To market the switch, Stuart Layne, now running WAPP, decided to hire Vanna White to flip the numbers on the station from 103.5 to 97.1?the event garnered impressive publicity. For WFAN, the switch was even more of a boon. The WNBC frequency, 660, was a clear-channel signal, meaning you could hear WNBC thousands of miles away, and in the New York metropolitan area, the station had a near-perfect AM signal. WFAN?s signal on 1050 was just as powerful as WNBC?s on 660 (both 50,000 watts), but WFAN encountered interference at night so it had to cut its power to 10,000 watts, which reduced its coverage significantly. *
Excerpted from*Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down:*The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur (https://www.amazon.com/Never-Ride-Rollercoaster-Upside-Down/dp/1637742223/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PSVN8EKW2OD8&keywords=jeff+smulyan&qid=1669743736&sprefix=jeff+smulyan%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-1)*copyright ? 2022 by Jeff Smulyan. Reprinted with permission from Matt Holt Books, an imprint of BenBella Books, Inc. All rights reserved.
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/245576/excerpt-jeff-smulyan-on-the-early-days-of-wfan/)
On Dec. 6, Emmis founder/CEO Jeff Smulyan publishes his memoir, Never Ride a Roller Coaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur (https://www.amazon.com/Never-Ride-Rollercoaster-Upside-Down/dp/1637742223/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PSVN8EKW2OD8&keywords=jeff+smulyan&qid=1669743736&sprefix=jeff+smulyan%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-1). The volume spans Emmis? beginnings in Indianapolis to the struggle to put broadcast radio on the cellphone via Next Radio, with legendary radio stations like KSHE St. Louis, KPWR Los Angeles, and WQHT New York in between. In this excerpt, Smulyan recalls the early days of all-sports at WFAN New York.
https://i0.wp.com/radioinsight.com/wp-content/images/2022/11/smulyan.jpg?resize=200%2C200&ssl=1My favorite part of the WFAN launch was doing the top-of-the-hour highlights. Radio stations invariably try to have a catchy ID for their legally required identification at the top of every hour. For [WQHT] it was, ?From the top of the Empire State Building, Hot 103.5, New York City,? with the same booming voice of Chuck Riley that we had used for ?72,000 watts of music power, Power 106, Los Angeles.?*
For WFAN, we had a different idea. We would play a memorable moment in sports, and then use the tagline, ?For all of the great moments in sports, WFAN, New York.? We compiled audio from hundreds of great moments. Since I was in charge, we started the station with my favorite: Bobby Thomson?s home run to win the pennant for the New York Giants in 1951. Almost every sports fan alive gets chills when Russ Hodges screams, ?The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!? I loved the concept and it became an unforgettable identifier for the station. Of course, as [Emmis president of programming] Rick [Cummings] pointed out, when you run one of your hundred moments every hour, twenty-four hours a day, people can get tired of them rather quickly. Nevertheless, it became a tradition.*
The other thing Emmis did really well was television commercials. To this day, I think they?re some of the most creative projects I?ve ever been involved with. Our most notable started with a camera zooming in on the back of a car, clearly on a lover?s lane. The back window was fogged up, but the audio came on with a man and a woman going back and forth: ?I love it*.*.*. Ooh, it?s wonderful, more, please more. This type of dialogue continued for about ten seconds. Finally, the camera panned to the front of the car, where, instead of two teenagers locked in an embrace, an older man was sitting on one side of the front seat while his wife was sitting as far away as possible on the passenger side. Then the voice-over announced, ?Yankees 4, Orioles 2,? and the couple moaned; ?Mets 7, Dodgers 1,? more moaning; ?Cubs 2, Reds 1,? still more unbridled fervor. The voice-over continued, ?Finally, for those with a passion for sports, WFAN, the world?s first all-sports radio station.? After a few more scores, the couple returned to their moaning and groaning. I?ve always thought it was one of the most entertaining commercials I had ever seen.*
Some of our marketing was so edgy, we couldn?t use it. We shot one commercial that started with a creaking sound, then a cross rose slowly from the ground until it stood straight up. On the cross was a referee, obviously being crucified. Over that, a voice intoned: ?There are only two things a New York sports fan wants; the other is WFAN, the world?s first all-sports radio station.? After we previewed the spot, somebody commented that if we didn?t discuss it with the Archdiocese of New York, we were going to be in big trouble. We did, and they promised a widespread boycott if the commercial ever went on the air. It was brilliant, but we had pushed the envelope too far.*
Thereafter, we avoided the religious imagery and developed a commercial that became our all-time greatest envelope pusher. It started with a jockstrap on a black background. Then it slowly expanded with appropriate stretching noises. As the jockstrap reached its full length, the voiceover came up, ?Finally, expanded coverage for the New York sports fan, the world?s first all-sports radio station, WFAN.? We knew the spot could never run in prime time, but the cable companies were happy to take our money and run it on late-night cable. The spot became a cult classic, and two years later, while driving down a freeway in Dallas, I was astounded to see a fully erect jockstrap on a billboard, using our tagline: ?Expanded coverage for Dallas sports fans, KTCK, all-sports radio.? People were even stealing our erect jockstrap!*
Our marketing was definitely getting buzz, but it wasn?t delivering improved ratings. As we had learned from experience, great marketing will just expose a bad product sooner, and that?s what seemed to be happening with WFAN. Jim Riggs, our research head, discovered that we were failing to attain one of our earliest goals: to become the place sports fans went for their information. Before WFAN, almost all New Yorkers were conditioned to get their sports updates at fifteen and forty-five minutes after the hour from the all-news stations, WCBS and WINS. After our first nine months of operation, Jim?s research indicated that most listeners were still going to WINS and WCBS for the latest news in sports. That was the behavior we had to change to have a shot at success. We needed to be New York?s sports authority.*
Near the end of 1987?less than six months after WFAN?s launch?we decided we?d have to rethink the entire approach of the station, and that meant replacing John Chanin with a program director capable of making WFAN more New York?centric and less constrained by constant sports updates. Once again, no one we talked to had all the requisite skills. We selected Mark Mason because he?d been a news programmer for WINS, so at least he knew how to program a station for a New York audience.*
Although WFAN was a mess, we were able to lure Mark for two reasons: most people in the industry loved the idea of coming to work at Emmis, and Mark realized he could be a hero if he figured out how to fix our station. Mark didn?t know me yet, but he was already following one of my favorite maxims for managers: ?Go somewhere where there?s a chance to fix something that?s broken. That?s how you become a hero quickly.? Or, in other words: ?You can?t commit suicide by jumping out of a basement window.? Since WFAN was in the sub-basement of the Kaufman Astoria (Movie) Studios in Queens, that statement was both literally and figuratively true! Mark understood that a complete focus on New York sports was essential, and that the information elements had to be scaled back to avoid impeding the flow of the talk shows. It didn?t take long for us to realize hiring Mark was a wise choice.*
In early 1988, just as we were beginning to revamp WFAN, a whole new wrinkle appeared: NBC?s radio stations suddenly became available. Randy Bongarten, president of NBC Radio, was handling the sale. Randy?s story was one of the most amazing in radio. As a wunderkind in the industry, he?d shot up through the ranks of General Electric Radio and by his early thirties was named its president.*
GE Radio wasn?t large but it owned a prestigious group of stations. Unfortunately for Randy, Jack Welch became CEO soon thereafter, and his mantra, ?If we?re not first or second in any business, get out of it,? applied to radio. So, as the newly named president of GE Radio, Randy was tasked with selling his stations. He completed the sale and, out of a job, headed to New York City, where he promptly landed at NBC. After a few years, Randy had again shot up through the ranks and was named president of NBC Radio. Just when you think lightning can never strike twice, you learn the next chapter of Randy?s story. Jack Welch led GE?s takeover of NBC, and shortly thereafter, Randy got the same speech, with the same result: sell the radio division. And that?s what brought Randy to us.*
For Emmis, the chance to buy the storied NBC radio stations within seven years of starting our company was the ultimate feather in a cap that was accumulating feathers quickly. With Morgan Stanley as our financial advisor, we quickly put together a $122 million deal, which brought us NBC stations in Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, as well as the two New York flagships, WYNY-FM and WNBC-AM. If our success with our first stations hadn?t cemented our reputation, the NBC purchase clearly vaulted us to the top of the industry. And with the addition of the NBC stations, we became the largest privately held company in radio. Articles called us the next ?Cap Cities,? comparing us to the legendary radio/TV group that had recently bought ABC. Several noted that our people-first culture made it natural that NBC would choose us as a new home for their people.*
Now, I?ve been in countless bidding processes over the years, and it?s true, Emmis has a reputation that?s often helped us win bids. We like to kid that we?re usually the favorite to win a beauty contest because most sellers like our culture and reputation. However, I?ve cautioned my team that being a preferred bidder doesn?t get you very far. My maxim has been: ?If the other side likes you and wants to do a deal, you have a chance to win if your bid is slightly lower than other parties. For example, if you?re bidding ten times cash flow for a station and the other bidders are at 10.5 times, the seller may choose your slightly lower bid. However, if the other bidder is at eleven times cash flow, you?ll lose every time, even if the other bidder is Joseph Stalin!? For better or worse, popularity doesn?t count for much in buying businesses.*
Randy later teased me that, ?Yes, we liked you and your culture, but we also knew you were paying near the top for stations, and you had your financing in place, and we liked both of those a lot better than your stellar personality!? With that crisp assessment, Randy proved he would fit right into our culture. So, it was no surprise that after we acquired the NBC stations, Randy joined our growing group as a senior vice president. He was a terrific leader, especially in helping us to absorb all his former stations.*
In those days, the Federal Communications Commission didn?t allow a company to keep more than one AM or one FM in any market; it was a no-brainer for us to sell our current FM 103.5 and AM 1050 frequencies and move our stations to NBC?s better signals. WQHT?s switch from 103.5 to the NBC?s 97.1 frequency boosted the new ?Hot 97? to even greater success. To market the switch, Stuart Layne, now running WAPP, decided to hire Vanna White to flip the numbers on the station from 103.5 to 97.1?the event garnered impressive publicity. For WFAN, the switch was even more of a boon. The WNBC frequency, 660, was a clear-channel signal, meaning you could hear WNBC thousands of miles away, and in the New York metropolitan area, the station had a near-perfect AM signal. WFAN?s signal on 1050 was just as powerful as WNBC?s on 660 (both 50,000 watts), but WFAN encountered interference at night so it had to cut its power to 10,000 watts, which reduced its coverage significantly. *
Excerpted from*Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down:*The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur (https://www.amazon.com/Never-Ride-Rollercoaster-Upside-Down/dp/1637742223/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PSVN8EKW2OD8&keywords=jeff+smulyan&qid=1669743736&sprefix=jeff+smulyan%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-1)*copyright ? 2022 by Jeff Smulyan. Reprinted with permission from Matt Holt Books, an imprint of BenBella Books, Inc. All rights reserved.
more (https://radioinsight.com/blogs/245576/excerpt-jeff-smulyan-on-the-early-days-of-wfan/)