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The Program Director: KFI-AM 640s Reason for Success
Christopher Meyer (801-18-5778)
RTVF 385 Rob Van Riel
October 29th, 2008
In the radio world, the program director is the person responsible for everything that goes over the air (Keith, 2007). Since a radio stations success is completely dependent on what it broadcasts over the air, one could argue that a radio program director is the single most important person for a radio stations success. A program director single handedly holds the power to bring a radio station to monetary victory or to drive it into failure. For this reason, it is no surprise that one of radios biggest stations, Los Angeles based KFI-AM 640, would hire some of the best program directors available to bring the station to the level of success it has now: Los Angeless number one listened to English speaking radio station.
Although second in command to a general manager, a program director has ultimate control over a radio station. A program director must use whatever method he or her chooses to establish a station format and develop programming (Keith, 2007). In the case of KFI-AM 640, its current station format was created by program director David G. Hall in the mid 1970s. Hall spent over a decade with KFI shifting the stations focus from music programming to spoken-word. Pat Duffy, vice president and market manager of Infinity news stations KNX/1070 AM and KFWB/980 AM calls David Hall, "the best spoken-word programmer in the country" (Lycan, 2003). Hall is responsible for establishing KFI as a flagship for such talk hosts as Dr. Laura Schlessigner and Phil Hendrie (Hilliker, 2004). If local radio had a wunderkind, [David] Hall would be a prime candidate (Lycan, 2003). The new and creative station format of spoken-word mixed with well stabilized programming was vital for KFIs success in the 1980s, but there are many other elements besides station format and programming that a program director must be good at as well.
A program director must oversee every department in a radio station. This means they must act as a boss and liaison to the stations sales team, the production employees, the office workers, the technicians, announcers, and anyone else who might be necessary for a station to operate. One way KFIs current program director Robin Bertolucci has overhauled a particular department into a vital part of KFIs success, is by further developing and integrating KFIs news team into KFIs programming, another prime example of a program director exercising power over her station. Bertolucci hired news director Chris Little and created a KFI news team that currently employs sixteen members. By focusing integrated news as a main ingredient of KFI programming, Bertolucci has turned a successful station into a powerhouse (Bachman, 2004). Furthermore, unlike most other stations that simply insert syndicated news segments before and after their programming lineup, KFI's news reporters and anchors are encouraged under Bertoluccis rules to regularly interact with KFI hosts, developing on-air personas as familiar as those of the hosts; They become the story--we use them as experts, says Bertolucci (Bachman, 2004). Bertolucci also implemented station policy that helped KFI better relate to audiences, suggesting that reporters use language that is down to earth and more understandable to the average Joe (Bachman, 2004). For example, on most stations, listeners are likely to hear: Authorities apprehended the subject after a brief pursuit. On KFI, listeners hear: Cops arrested the guy after a short chase. KFI reporters don't say vehicle, they say car or truck. (Bachman, 2004) The way Bertolucci manages her news division makes Southern Californians genuinely interested in tuning to KFI, and is an excellent example of a program director going out of her way to help the radio station.
Also ultimately responsible for marketing her station, Bertolucci has spent a large amount of advertising money on promoting KFIs advertising gimmick More stimulating talk radio. In 2004, Bertolucci launched a billboard campaign around Southern California which can still undoubtedly be seen by traversing on any popular Los Angeles county freeway (Bachman, 2004). Bertolucci claims [w]eve defined clearly who we are and marketed ourselves consistently to reinforce our image (Bachman, 2004). Shes definitely correct, as KFI was the seventh-largest-billing station in the nation in 2004, and in the Fall of 2003 KFI, with a weekly cume audience of 11.2 million, surpassed ABC Radio's WABC-AM in New York to claim bragging rights as the most listened-to talk station in the nation" (Bachman, 2004). Furthermore, in the Spring of 2006, KFI vaulted into a tie for first place in the local radio ratings -- marking the first time in almost two decades an AM station has claimed No. 1 (Miller, 2006). Bertolucci says Being No. 1 is great and I'm very proud of it. But I'm even prouder that we are consistently the dominant information station for talk, news and entertainment in Southern California" (Miller, 2006).
Without good program directors like David Hall and Robin Bertolucci, KFI could not have raised to the level of success it holds today. This proves that a program director must very carefully research and employ strategies for his or her radio station to keep afloat in a sea of competition. As proven with KFIs program directors, overseeing departments, hiring department heads, and developing and implementing programming and programming strategies are just a few of the responsibilities a program director does to ensure success to the radio station. But still, besides these few examples, ultimately, the program director is the person responsible for everything that goes over the air (Keith, 2007).
References
Bachman, K. (2004). KFI heard by speaking plainly. MediaWeek, 14(14), 12.
Hilliker, J. (2004). KFI. Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Radio 2004, 2, 815-817.
Keith, M. (2007). The radio station: Broadcast, satellite & internet (7th Ed.). Focal Press, Burlington, MA.
Lycan, G. (2003, September 28). Architect of KFI is back in town. Orange County Register, pp. R.
Lycan, G. (2007, October 7). Embracing the internet, Handel takes his news show online. Orange County Register, pp. R.
Miller, M. (2006, July 19). Radio rarity: am's KFI ties for top spot. Los Angeles Times, pp. E1.
Miller, M. (2006, October 21). Pushing buttons with no apologies; Bill Handel knows why he's the nation's top local talk show host. And he's got the hate mail to prove it. Los Angeles Times, pp. E1.
Program Director PAGE 1
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