Can Independent FM Make It?
FM JUST CELEBRATED its 25th birthday, but it's an anniversary marked with mixed emotion. Many FM broadcasters still "cry the blues," but FCC financial reports indicate that an increasing number are switching from red ink to black. And that Harvard study, which predicted FM receiver sales eventually outpacing AM, is proving a bit conservative: (More FM receivers were sold last year than predicted by the university researchers.) But spiraling set sales alone offer little comfort to the broadcaster who has lived with FM's lean years. What's the magic formula for success?
To find out, we went to one of the nation's most prosperous and fastest-growing independent FM stations, WTFM, which serves the New York metropolitan area. Although it operates in a vast market centered in an area of over 20 million people, there's a debit side, too; the region also contains some 45 active broadcast frequencies plus 7 major TV outlets. It's a perilous market which can offer the best—but also demands the best. WTFM's economic One of two control rooms. Wall-mounted speakers permit monitoring of left-right stereo channels. White gloves are no joke, must be worn by everyone who handles records, which are played no more than 10 times.
WTFM Personnel
40 people—count 'em—are on
the payroll!
10—on-the-air personalities, including Peabody Award
winning Program Director,
Don Russell, who does
special shows.
7—news reporters, including
two who report from West
Berlin and Paris.
2—General Manager and
Chairman of the Board.
7—on sales force, including
Sales Manager Fred Beck.
2—in engineering, Chief Warren Wilson and his assistant.
10—in secretarial, bookkeeping,
traffic, public relations and
advertising
.
2—for building maintenance.
prowess in this area, built up over
a scant 3-year period, suggests
some instructive insights, even for
the smaller FM operator.
WTFM personifies independent
FM. It is not bolstered by the
familiar interchange of engineering, announcing and plant facilities of the combined AM-FM station. Neither does it simulcast
programming of another station.
Forty staff employees (an impressive number, even for an AM
station) devote their efforts solely
to WTFM. The station operates
on 103.5 mc with a 20-kw signal
that reaches out for some 60 miles.
Not only is the operation strictly
FM, but completely stereo, 24
hours a day every day.
Few would dispute the station's
sign of success; it is said to bill
more than all other independent
FM stations in New York—combined! Moreover, it is the only
FM station in the area to have
appeared on Hooper ratings consistently for nearly two years.
Engineering T Facilities
On the surface it would appear
that technical manpower is WTFM's weak point. Not so, however—part of the secret is
that the transmitter is remotely
controlled from WGLI Babylon,
some 40 miles away. Thus, Chief
Engineer Warren Wilson and his
assistant are able to spend most
of their time attending to audio
signal quality and preventive
maintenance.
Although no standby transmitter is used at present, the RCA
Type BTF5D installed new when
the station went on the air has
given excellent service. New facilities are planned, however, and
the present equipment will be used
for standby operations.
We spent several hours with
WTFM's Vice-President and General Manager, David H. Polinger,
whose knowledge of broadcasting
is encyclopedic. He is presently
on the Board of Directors of the
National Association of FM
Broadcasters. (Many readers may
remember him as guest speaker at
the 1963 NAB convention.) Polinger's experience slices across nearly every major segment of broadcasting acrnunt executive at
ABC; general manager of S'f A
Spot Sales, one-time free-lance
producer, and president of his own
advertising agency. He speaks four
languages, plays LaCrosse, sparkles when he talks of FM, and has
yet to reach his 40th birthday. We
asked him, "What is responsible
for WTFM's success?"
Before Polinger spelled out his
particular brand of broadcasting,
he verbally sketched in two humorous caricatures of, "traditional" FM broadcasters. One is the engineer, typified by individuals wile
thrill at superb sound, expansive
frequency response, and equipment of sky-high fi. Success
measured by a given number of
cycles per second. Then there is
the operator who sees FM solely
as the music lover's medium. He
believes success is inevitable if he
bestows culture—usually a heavy
diet of Mozart and Beethoven.
(Even these music masters are
played sparingly on WTFM since
they have become "popular.")
Polinger recognizes the great value of engineering and esthetic
talent at an FM station. Yet, he
questions whether either talent
alone will make an FM operation
profitable.
Success can't be achieved
through any single technique.
WTFM's success, Polinger explained, is fashioned from a web
of factors operating in unison.
They comprise no push-button
formula, and won't apply directly
to all stations. Yet, they offer
a model example of the kind of professionalism Polinger believes
must prevail in broadcasting.
WTFM's on-the-air image is
significantly molded by personality and atmosphere. Such professionalism is the work of veteran
broadcasters like Program Director Don Russell, who has an impressive list of credits, and host
Tom Mercein, a well known and
authoritative radio voice. The
music itself is not notably different from that of many other FM
stations: light-music programming during the day leaning toward the classical format in the
evening, including jazz and folkmusic shows.
But listen, for example, to the
daily segment from 10 in the
morning to 2 in the afternoon.
There's no mistaking WTFM
among the welter of stations on
the band. The reason, in this case,
is Charles Duval, the announcer
—or "host"—for the show. Duval
has a french accent—not the mild
Charles Boyer variety, but one
you'd expect to hear, say, on the
Riviera. It's no secret that male
reaction to Duval's voice hovers David H. Polinger, WTFM V-P
& Gen. Mgr., has what it takes to
make FM station operation profitable.
between mild uneasiness to militant rejectiOn. But Duval's potent
air personality wows the housewives, who, of course, comprise
the listening audience during
these midday hours. In fact, the
station even stimulates "controversy" over the issue. One promotional piece frankly asks: "Why
do so many men hate Charles Duval ?" Listed are questions which
cleverly suggest the answers, e.g.,
"Is it because women love the
sound of his voice—his continental
charm?"
As Polinger explains it, listening to WTFM helps the drudgeryridden housewife "fantasy away
her day." This continental, exotic
atmosphere is infused throughout
the station's programming and announcing. It identifies WTFM
with a distinct, unmistakable
image, an image similarly sustained for impact on the client.
For example, during my conversation with Polinger his phone rang.
Minutes later he told me it was
an advertiser who remarked how
pleased he was that even the station's telephone operator fitted
the cosmopolitan WTFM image.
The point, of course, is that
WTFM works at preserving its
individuality.
But the station's face to the
world is just one technique. Another key factor is an unceasing
campaign to educate the prospective client to WTFM's value as
a selling medium. Advertising
agencies have tended to regard
FM as a "new thing," its pulling
power still open to question, its
audience numerically uncertain.
Polinger calculates that he spends
about as much time with a client
as with the client's agency.
Consider a campaign devised for
Zenith. The client wished to
achieve three specific objectives:
excite immediate interest, develop
strong remembrance of the slogan
"Zenith Quality," and motivate
listener response. The station decided to run a contest in which
the listener was to make up as
many words as possible using the
letters in "Zenith Quality." Prizes
included Zenith FM receivers and
a color TV.
Nothing startling,
until the results and their implications are examined. The responses numbered some 4,000.
With this figure as a base, it was
calculated that contestants spent
a total of more than 81.000 hours
at the word-game—and, of course,
in gazing at the words "Zenith
Quality." The successful campaign
didn't stop there. Using the data,
WTFM printed a promotional brochure of convincing impact—another selling tool to fill the void,
to impress the prospective advertiser that FM is a medium of proven effectiveness.
WTFM continuously explores new ways to promote its name and reputation,
from use of hi-fi show booths to
broadcasting live from the New
York World's Fair. It has even
applied for the chance to originate
the first FM stereo broadcast
around the world via Telstar.
Another stratagem employed by
the station is a single-channel reciever, fixed-tuned to WTFM.
Again, it is an approach designed
to generate convincing evidence
for the prospective FM advertiser.
The special receiver, called the
WTFM Auditron, is sold over the
air at $19.95.