From: guidotti@durable.ICD.Teradyne.COM (Mark Guidotti)
Subject: Re: We're building a station! Need STL advice.
Originator: wdp@gagme
Organization: Teradyne, Inc. San Jose CA
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 07:43:16 GMT


In article <1992Dec12.090831.5684@gagme.chi.il.us>
Rodney_Fafara@3mail.3com.com writes:

>Dear readers of the Internet Radio Journal,
>
>My wife and I have just been granted a construction permit for a new class 
>A FM, 99.5 on the dial, to service a small town (pop. 5,042) on Oregon's 
>central coast, of which we plan to move to and become a part of the 
>community.  
>
>[Moderator's Note:  I can't speak for the rest of the readers, but I, for
>one would  love to har your story ....Just don't run satellite music network
:-).]  

_____________________________________________________________________________

Rodney,

I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago.  I purchased a Class A
CP in Northern California and proceeded to engineer, construct, fund (fully),
staff, manage, sell, etc etc.  It was a staggering amount of work but one of
the most satisfying projects I've ever done.

First my comment on your STL.  I haven't read the classifieds in Radio World
lately, however when we searched for an STL for my station, the pickings were
slim.  The FCC recently (within past 2-3 years) modified the technical 
requirements for STL's.  There were many substandard units on the market.
Tempting but not legal.  Since this is your lifeline to the transmitter, I
would be careful about pinching pennies here.  You need a reliable unit.
(Sorry, I don't have one!)

As for Bill's comment about SMN, as it turns out, we used SMN at KKCY (Pure
Gold format) and did quite well with it.  There are two sides to the local/
satellite discussion.  I lived with both and, if you don't mind, would like
elaborate on some of our experiences.  Our station had one format change, 
which occurred simultaneously with a major signal improvement and a call
letter change.  When the signal grew, we went from live to satellite.

But first things first.  My original sentiments for my station were much the
same as yours.  We were the second station in a community of 4,100.  The
first station ran an automated CHR format on a Class B signal that covered
a much larger city to the north.  They had a much larger revenue base, were
there 3 years ahead of us and were well known in the community.  But, they
programmed to their revenue base, which was 40 miles to the north and gave
only cursory service locally.  Ours was Class A and covered only our
community.  So, we became *the* community station.

The format was live; the announcers were hired from within the community and 
we talked quite a bit about the community on the air.  Opening day was dubbed
"Playday."  It was publicized in the newspaper and consisted of local town 
officials (the mayor, business and civic leaders) as DJ's.  They ran the 
station's music (Bonneville light AC/BM) but did their own schtick.  It was a
big hit, gave us instant recognition and scored the station high marks out of
the chute.  (By the way it was one of the first "desktop radio" setups, using
CD players driven by a PC.  Our Playday DJ's marvelled about it all day on
the air.  ("feels like we're in a spaceship, etc")  The audio off those CD's 
was terrific.

We ran local sports.  That year, the high school basketball team won the
division championship.  We broadcast every game, including the final game
live from the Oakland Coliseum.  It was great (for awhile).  But it was also
a struggle.

The downside was this.  Although we were local, the talent, although well-
intentioned, was rough.  We were within the range of most Sacramento signals
and some San Francisco signals.  What you make up for in "local," you lose in
polish.  While I may get serious disagreement on this, there is only so much
you can do while people are developing their on-air skill, but you still have
to make money to survive.  What I found was that I spent a lot of energy
trying to keep the air sound polished at the expense of marketing and sales.
(remember, I was an owner-operator).

When we moved the transmitter to 2000' AMSL (still a Class A), we couldn't
keep the locals on the air any longer, so we went satellite using SMN's Pure
Gold.  To be truthful, I was sad to see the live operation go.  It was fun to
do -- I enjoyed being on the air once in awhile.  But the satellite gave us
one tremendous advantage - it allowed us to concentrate on promotions, sales,
NEWS while letting the satellite service do, for less than one minimum wage
person per month, all the music programming with the polish of pro announcers
(i.e. the stuff a small station could never hope to do as well for 5x the
money) while we concentrated on those things which made money.  Now before
I'm flamed :-) for being a miserly (former) owner, let me state that more
than one client remarked, without prompting, that the format change was *far*
better than  what we had before.  You may argue about how well we managed our
local sound, that we could have done it better, etc etc, but the fact remains
that we got  a better product with far less work using satellite than we ever
could have  hoped for with a live operation.  It was a brutal truth for me,
because I was initially repulsed by satellite.  (so much so that I rejected
it in favor of a live format to begin with)

What I found was that you can do a very good job localizing a satellite format
if you carefully tailor the breaks, station i.d.'s, promos, news and weather
AND execute the technical aspects of the format with precision.  By this I
mean insuring that breaks are tight - satellite/local/satellite joins are
smooth - no dead air - and that levels are matched.  These things are actually
easy to do but are among the most important factors in quality execution.

Most people do not notice whether or not it's done locally.  To my surprise,
I found that clients and listeners were more interested in the quality of the
product rather than whether or not it was done here.  In fact, we heard many
negative comments about the other, locally programmed, stations in town.
One client, who found out we used satellite, remarked that we were better 
because by being on satellite, we were "big time."  Honest.

We also did lots of remotes, gave away prizes, covered local news, did
promotions, contests, etc and were every bit a part of the community as
when we were local, but with a polished presentation.  To boot, we were
able to do a better job on the outside activities (*sales included!) because
we had a great product that helped sell itself with far less effort than
the other guys in town.

Well, for all the words, it boils down this.  There's nothing wrong with a
satellite format if you tailor it to your community.  SMN was always pushing
for their affiliates to localize and made it easy to accomplish.  In my own 
experience, satellite gave us a degree flexibility and quality that would
have 
been unattainable had we continued the live format.  The audience loved it, 
advertisers loved it, and after finally getting comfortable with it, I loved
it too.  Under the same set of cirumstances and knowing what I do today, I 
would have done satellite way back at the beginning.

I believe our moderator's comment was aimed at the operator who throws on
the bird and expects his format to be done.  If you do that, you might as
well deliver milk door to door than run a radio station.  While satellite
may not be for everyone, if you do it right, it will help you compete in
in a hostile marketplace.  The last time I checked, radio's market was
hostile.
When it's hostile, your survival depends on how well you deliver your best
product given the lowest possible internal cost structure, at at competitive 
market rates - all with a smile.  You can't smile if you're losing money and
you can't serve your community if you don't exist.  While it wasn't a panacea,
satellite programming really did make a difference for us.

Well, that's my 2 cents.  Best of luck to you both.  Despite the staggering
workload, Oldies 103 holds some of the best memories of my working career.
You will love it.

regards,
mark

-- 
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Mark Guidotti, P.E. c/o Teradyne, Inc. (Teradyne/Attain) (408) 434-0822
guidotti@icd.teradyne.com
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Newsgroups: rec.radio.broadcasting