As
many ponder the growing possibility of syndication for their shows, the fact
remains, not everyone’s act fits this model equally. Getting advice on
the subject is even harder. Unless of course, you talk to the right person.
Perhaps no one knows syndication better than Kraig Kitchin. He’s the President/COO
of Premiere Radio Networks. With the help of more than 100 radio programs and
services to more than 7,800 radio affiliates, along with personalities such
as Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Jim Rome, Rick Dees, Casey Kasem,
Bob & Tom, Phil Hendrie, Leeza Gibbons, Michael Reagan, Art Bell, Carson
Daly, Jim Cramer, Glenn Beck, Suze Orman, Kidd Kraddick and others, Premiere
is able to reach 180 million listeners weekly. Suffice to say, Kraig is someone
you can talk to about syndication and expect reliable information. Recently,
we did just that.
1) Where does a show have to be
before it can safely consider syndication? Is there a check list?
Yes, there is a checklist. Your radio program should typically be 40 percent
ahead of the rest of the station, in terms of share performance--total persons
12+ is even more helpful. The programs that have made it in syndication, starting
back with John Boy and Billy, Bob & Tom, Tom Joyner, and all the way to
Mark & Brian, and Mancow, the one thing that was indicative of their programs
is they all exceeded 40 percent of their stations’ performance.
2) What do you say to the station
manager who fears their local ratings are going to suffer once their top personality
starts broadcasting beyond the market?
For instance, if Kidd Kraddick at KISS 106 in Dallas stops being so Dallas-centric
and becomes more regional-centric? There is obviously a fear out there. And
the fear is that all of a sudden the contents of his conversation automatically
assumes that the majority of the listeners don’t have the history of why
Kelly and Al of the morning show might be arguing over a particular topic, even
though all of Dallas is well aware of that issue. I would tell you, our answer
is that we try not to take into account that our new listeners from other markets
don’t know it and need a history lesson. We continue on as if they are
joining us in progress. Seinfeld was on the air for four years with great character
development and advancement, that was before the U.S. started watching Jerry
Seinfeld. None of us got the history lesson to go back to the first four years
on the dynamic between Michael Richards’ character, Kramer, and George
Castanza. We just picked up where they were. We use the exact same philosophy.
We identify to the market manager in Dallas, for instance, this is going to
be the mentality and the advice of the network to the personality.
3) How realistic is it for personalities
to believe that they will maintain creative control once they are syndicated?
Totally realistic. It’s even more realistic and in demand than before.
Given that a good broadcaster understands what the rules are when they take
those intelligent risks in introducing material, I believe that creative control
in the mind and in the formality of a contract are absolutely crucial. The larger
the investment, the more empowerment that air personality has to have to know
that they are in control. It’s their risk and reward. Understand, our network
can walk away from a failure and go find another individual for a try.They may
not have as many options. They could have four or five other networks willing
to take a second bet, maybe four or five. I might have a hundred personalities
who have their hands raised and think they deserve a shot. So, if we are going
to make that a balanced relationship, they have to have the creative control;
as long as they have proven that they have respect for the FCC license and understand
that we are living in a capitalistic society, where greed is good, meaning they
are financially motivated to succeed, then we have a successful partnership.
4) Often, syndication starts at
the other end. That is, a local show is contacted by someone in another market
who’s interested in carrying their show. The problem is no one there really
knows much about syndication. How would you suggest they get started? And would
it be cash or barter?
I would tell them that the greatest success they are going to have in determining
morning drive syndication is going to be from regional markets, before they
go further out. The success they will have is within a 250 mile radius before
it is within a 2500 mile radius. If they are approached with the idea and they
truly have the aspirations to be syndicated nationally, they will have the greatest
success close to home and they should encourage that. It should be done on a
cash basis, as opposed to a cash and barter basis, because it is very hard to
find a barter economy amongst three or four radio stations that can actually
support that dynamic. Cash is ultimately the greatest measurement of compensation
for everybody. It makes it far more simple and eliminates the bad conversation
of, ‘We are not able to move the barter commercials for you and as result,
50 percent of the value we wanted to give you, we can’t give you’.
The cost of syndication through ISDN lines or by buying satellite time has been
drastically reduced. So that can be a fairly clean economic model and it should
be the risk of the broadcasters or the partnership of the morning personality
and the broadcaster. That is when the morning man has to become a business man,
and say, “OK, I may be able to go from Kansas City to Wichita. I know that
our product is only going to earn $30,000 in Wichita in syndication and it is
going to cost me $20,000 to get there with the satellite time or the line, but
it is also a template to give me a good regional success story.”
5) How many markets will a show
have to be in before they can expect to see substantial earnings?
Substantial earnings to me is after 40 markets or more.
6) Is it harder doing a syndicated
show compared to local?
It is a lot more work for a couple reasons. For one, I think the on air personality
has to have an increased sensitivity of the other market audiences and so there
is the accumulation of information about that. Obviously, the easiest way to
handle this is by going online and reading up on another city. It’s becoming
a sales person to a certain extent when you are talking to the General Manager
of the radio station that has just hired you. It’s the knowledge that there
are now 12 Program Directors of 12 affiliates that all have their perspective
of your show. There is the fact that when you go into the market as a syndication
vehicle, the existing talent are going to aim their sights firmly at you. You
have to measure that. You can’t react to that, because you have a balancing
act. You have 15 plates that are spinning. That other personality might have
one. You can’t let the decisions of one market control the other 14. I
have a good example. Last July I had a phone conversation with Kidd Kraddick,
who was about to put himself in front of 80,000 people at Texas Stadium to welcome
N’Sync. All 80,000 people were hanging on to his every word, his daughter
was on the sidelines with a lot of pride watching her father talk to the audience.
The next morning when he got off the air, he was talking to a radio station,
between market 200 and 225 in the rankings, that was just berating him on the
contents of the show. You have to breathe deeply, and remember that this man
hasn’t had the benefit of 10 years of Kidd Kraddick and what it can do
for his radio station.
7) Given the state of radio, is
it fair to say that within the next few years most top morning shows, talk hosts,
etc. in larger markets , will be heard in more than one market?
Yes. I do think that the opportunity to be on more than one market will become
a real opportunity for a personality. Just like there are 600 fewer General
Managers in radio today than there were one year ago, which means there are
600 existing General Managers that now manage more than one radio station. The
job descriptions of a lot of people in radio industry will change. There will
be morning personalities whose responsibility it will be to entertain audiences
in multiple cities.
8) Where do you see AM Talk beyond
Rush and Dr. Laura? Is it inevitable that you will see more Talk, specifically
more non-politically-based Talk shows on FM?
Yes, I do think you will see more spoken word personalities on the FM dial.
Like everything else, I think it takes a little time for people to acclimate
to that.
9) If someone wants to become
Premiere’s next superstar, how do they get your attention?
They get my attention by presenting that they have a good ratings track record
in the market they are in, regardless of the market size. And that they have
a great work ethic and the ability to separate what goes on the air and what
goes off the air. A good work ethic to me doesn’t mean you have to work
16 hours a day, it means you have to be really focused when you are on the air
and you have to be really good at charging your batteries for the next day’s
performance. For some people it means playing golf 16 hours out of the day,
because that is when they think of the next joke. For another personality it
means reading 15 magazines and being very well versed on any topic.
10) So you’re saying that
the right people can catch your attention without them having to approach you?
I’ll give you an example of an air personality that I think the world of,
that doesn’t work for us. Drex in San Antonio, he has never asked me to
syndicate his morning show and I have never offered to syndicate his morning
show, but several years ago he introduced himself to me. He said, ‘I wanted
you to know who I am and what I do in San Antonio. I know your corporate headquarters
are in that city, please listen to my show, because I would like you to t tell
me what you think.’ You know, sometime the conversation may come about
when we have the opportunity to be in business with him. That’s a perfect
example.
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