Bill Virgin's Radio Beat August 3, 2006

Includes archive of Bill Virgin's columns fromJ une 2006 - March 2009

Postby radiofan » Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:40 pm

Thursday, August 3, 2006

On Radio: Radio Disney is in a happy place for its 10th birthday

By BILL VIRGIN
P-I REPORTER

At first glance, Radio Disney and its Seattle outlet, KKDZ-AM (1250), wouldn't seem to qualify as more than fringe elements on the radio scene. Its core target audience of 10-year-olds doesn't even fit in Arbitron's radio measurements of listeners 12 and older, never mind the radio industry's preference for such demographic groups as 18-34 and 25-54.

But those 10-year-olds really constitute the less important half of Radio Disney's audience. The other half: those 10-year-olds' moms.

"From the get-go we always listened to the audience, what it wanted to hear -- and what parents think is appropriate," said Radio Disney program director Robin Jones.

Thanks in no small part to the marketing power of the Disney brand and its reputation with parents as a safe media channel for their kids, Radio Disney marks its 10th birthday this year with a broad listener base -- more than 2 million phone calls attempted in a week to its request line -- and a broad array of distribution channels, including more than 50 stations, a Web site (featuring streaming as well as iTune and podcast downloads), channels on both XM and Sirius satellite services, international ventures and a video-on-demand cable TV channel.

Traditional broadcasters tend to view alternative delivery channels with a mixture of puzzlement, skepticism and fear of their competitive potential; Radio Disney happily embraces all of them and is looking for more. It has signed deals to distribute content to cell phones.

"We understand people will be using these different platforms," said Jean-Paul Colaco, Radio Disney's president and general manager. The more Radio Disney is available on those platforms, the more opportunities there are to build listener loyalty to that brand.

Radio Disney isn't a type of distribution medium, Colaco added, but "a strong music brand," and the challenge has been "how to build a brand that can sit on all these platforms. Hopefully we've developed a model using the Disney brand."

The Disney name was an important starting point for Radio Disney. Parents trusted it to do the screening of objectionable material, and the connection with the media giant provided lots of content and cross-promotion opportunities.

"When we did our early research, people wanted us to remain true to Disney but they did not want us to be a 24-hour commercial for Disney," Colaco said. (While most of the programming is produced nationally, about 5 1/2 minutes an hour is set aside for local content, such as event promotion.)



Over its 10-year life, Radio Disney's sound has evolved. At its start the music was younger sounding, often featuring tunes from cartoons.

But with so many other music outlets available, "We've had to change with the times," he said, citing the pop-culture maxim that "kids are growing older younger."

Thus, the playlist includes such novelty tunes as "Hamsterdance Song" or "Crazy Frog." Said Jones, "When you're a kid, it's still OK to be silly."

But it also includes tunes from such known rock groups as Weezer and Green Day, pop acts including Ashlee Simpson and Kelly Clarkson, (hip-hop that's acceptable to parents is "few and far between, but we're starting to find more," Jones said), Disney tie-ins such as "High School Musical," even the occasional classic-rock song such as Queen's "We Will Rock You."

Kids "want to listen to a broader array of music," Colaco said. "What we are is a new kind of Disney -- hip, relevant to kids."

Having made it this far, is Radio Disney sustainable for 10 more years? Jones answers with a question of her own: "Will there still be families in 10 years?"

In other radio notes:


The nationally syndicated money advice program hosted by Dave Ramsey is pulling its shows from all Salem Communications stations as of Aug. 10. In Seattle that means KKOL-AM (1300), where Ramsey's show airs noon-3 p.m. weekdays. Ramsey's show says it is looking for other options in the Seattle market, and that it dropped the Salem stations when the company began asking for payments for air time. KKOL plans to begin running the nationally syndicated Jerry Doyle show in that time slot.


Another Salem station in the market, KTFH-AM (1680), which features Spanish-language programming, is now KDOW-AM.


KKMO-AM (1360) now features El Cucuy, described by Salem general manager Joe Gonzalez as the "Rick Dees of Spanish radio," 4-11 a.m. weekdays. Jaime Mendez, who had been hosting a morning show, will continue to do local news and traffic updates and will now host a morning show, "Voice of Washington," 11 a.m.-noon Tuesday through Friday, featuring news, local interviews and listener calls.


Eric Tyler has been named afternoon drive-time host and music director for KBKS-FM (106.1), following the appointment of Marcus Najera as the station's program director.


Longtime Seattle civic leader Jim Ellis is the guest on "Weekday" at 10 a.m. today on KUOW-FM (94.9).


Scott Conner's "Gardening in the Northwest" is now back on the air, at 10 a.m. Saturdays on KPTK-AM (1090).


The bands Mon Frere and Fleet Foxes perform live on "Audioasis" at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on KEXP-FM (90.3).


Lizz Sommars' guests on "Conversations" at 6 a.m. Sunday on KISW-FM (99.9), KBSG-FM (97.3) and KKWF-FM (100.7) include Robert Fuller, author of "All Rise," a book on "rankism" as a form of discrimination.


Kimi Kline's guests on "Northwest Access" at 7 a.m. Sunday on KJAQ-FM (96.5) include Vivian McPeak, director of Seattle Hempfest.

P-I reporter Bill Virgin can be reached at 206-448-8319 or billvirgin@seattlepi.com.

Bill Virgin's Radio Beat in the Seattle P-I
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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