The Santa Fe Reporter from Santa Fe, New Mexico • Page 40

Radio Wars By Michael Winkelhorst If you don't like what you're hearing on Santa Fe commercial radio stations, wait a month. Nine months ago there was no Wave. Five months ago there was "The International House of Wax." Four months ago there was no such thing as Rebel Rock. Three months ago there was Spanish contemporary music. Today, the Wave and Rebel Rock are here, and the contemporary Spanish sound and "The House of Wax" are gone.

And those are only some of the changes in the last year. Radio, like much else in Santa Fe, is hot. Industry people say that a decade-long trend of federal deregulation coupled with Santa Fe's mystique and the potential for big profits lie at the heart of the recent turmoil in the local commercial radio market. That turmoil includes changes in ownership, format and on-air personalities. "Santa Fe is a unique community, and a lot of people want to own businesses here," said Bill Hanrahan, general manager at KBAC-FM, which went on the air last November with a blend of "new age" and adult contemporary music.

"This station had about a half-million dollars invested in it. The day it signed on the air, you could have sold it for $1.2 million. That's a pretty good turnaround for an investor." For the radio station owner, that means potentially big profits even though few locally licensed stations are making money today and potentially big losses. KNYN-FM, a popular country music station in Santa Fe, is in receivership after its previous owners couldn't pay the bills. (See accompanying story.) For the that means relatively low rates but also the constant uncertainty about who is listening to what.

For the radio listener, it means The Stakes Can Be High Ask, Fred Sena how trie New complex deal stakes can get in commercial of about $2 million included an radios exchange debtl Radio New Sena has worked in radio and Mexico, trouble paying its New and'defaulted, 4 He and now in ie- the licenses are ainjd fie bougrfitSirm out to Radio Fe, the 1981,1 Vi from whfch Sena bought Three later, he tibught stations. KYSF went pff the cpuntry' music last, fallhkod its 1 transmitter that Santa Fe radio offers a wider variety of sounds and formats than ever existed here as well as the possibility that anybody's favorite sound could disappear overnight in the battle for better ratings. And more and more stations licensed in northern New Mexico are looking to Albuquerque forthose ratings. Witness the last six months: KBAC, licensed in Las Vegas, N.M. and owned by a Denver businessman, signed on at 98.1 FM last Nov.

10 with music from the Satellite Music Network in Dallas. Many believe it could cut into the Santa Fe listenership of KLSK-FM, which is licensed here. KBAC's attempt to obtain an Albuquerque translator has been challenged by KLSK. In March, KKBR in White Rock, owned by a Salt Lake City communications company, changed its call letters to KRBL and its format from oldies to what it calls Rebel Rock at 98.5. It is beaming a signal to Albuquerque.

A month later, the Los Alamos-licensed KBOM at 106.7 FM dropped its contemporary Spanish programming and seized the oldies format, buying something called "Kool Gold" from Satellite Music Network. Managers of the station, owned by an out-of-state limited partnership, say response to their on-air contests indicate that their watt signal is attracting listeners in the Duke City. KLSK, 104.1 FM, was sold by its founder, Santa Fe radio veteran Bill Sims, to a Southern California partnership on Feb. 1. The new management has modified the "new age" sound of the station and eliminated the eclectic "International House of Wax" program created by former employee Jack Kolkmeyer.

Critics, Kolkmeyer among them, say the station has lost its distinctive "Santa Fe sound" in its drive to attract a metropolitan audience. (See accompa- its 1 trammittei: we should When you buy fytuje anything' million and In meantime, Sena re. figure outiyour mains Fe and f' JPC, JiVe 1.13, sold both 'to a company called Radio Bill Hanrahan at KBAC-FM, which signed on the air last November nying article.) Most of the changes have taken place at stations on the FM band, which- now attracts 75 to 80 percent of listeners nationwide. Across the spectrum, those stations are constantly trying to find the niche that will bring them the "right" listeners and thus more advertising dollars. The battle will only grow more intense, for increasingly, Santa Fe and Albuquerque are perceived as a dual market that the watt stations can sell to advertisers.

Where a station is licensed to broadcast is becoming less important, allowing programmers to target listeners on the fringes of their niches. "No person listens to only one radio station exclusively," said Russ Rountree, 33, program director at KBOM-FM, "unless they have a radio that doesn't have a knob. There is shared listening going on all over." Adds Lance Armer, 33, the station's general manager, "If you "play exclusively Lithuanian punk rock, you would still share a lot of listeners, because people have different moods as the day goes along or as their life goes along." Out there to satisfy those moods are contemporary adult music on KMtK-AM and KRSN-AM, music on KTRC-AM, oldies on KBOM, country on KNYN-FM, hard rock on KRBL, "new adult contemporary" on KBAC, "new age" on KSLK and traditional Spanish programming on KDCE in Espafiola.And those are just the stations licensed in the Santa Fe-Los Alamos-Espanola- Las Vegas area. How well each is doing is, open to guesswork. Only one station in the area, KLSK, buys the major ratings services, and the annual Arbitron ratings, due out in July, could already be out of date.

As KMIK owner Bill Sims put it, "The new numbers won't mean much with all the damn changes that took place this year." For example, last year at this time, average quarter-hour share ratings for the highly prized 25-54 age group were dominated by what was then KKBR in Los Alamos, broadcasting oldies. To- day, the station is KRBL and offers "Rebel Rock." Amid all the changes, there is one constant. Everybody agrees that Santa Fe radio offers more variety than ever. There is general consensus that deregulation of radio in the 1980s is at the root of the recent turmoil. In 1981, the Federal Communications Commission dropped its longstanding rule that stations be owned for at least three years before being resold.

"It became a situation almost like real estate, as an investment," said Fred Sena, general manager at KMIK and a veteran of 30 years in Santa Fe radio. "That drove the prices up, which makes it difficult to service debt." Ken Willard, general manager at KTRC, explains the process this way. "One guy buys a station for $600,000. He can't make it, so he sells for a million. The next people think the past owner was incompetent, so they pay the million and they come in 'and can't make it work.

So they sell it for a million six-hundred thousand. At some point there are a bunch of investors going to be left holding the bag for 50 cents on the dollar." Not only are stations more valuable, but there are more of them. In the last decade, the FCC allowed hundreds of new FM stations onto the air nationwide, including in Santa Fe, and allowed them to broadcast at 100,000 watts. With that power, a station like KBOM reaches listeners from Questa in the north to Belen and beyond in the south. Twenty years ago, three AM stations KTRC, KVSF and KAFE served Santa Fe.

Today, KVSF is off the air. KTRC continues to broadcast, and KAFE has become KMIK, and both compete for listeners and ad dollars with a dozen other stations in northern New Mexico and dozens more licensed in Albuquerque. "My feeling always was that there were too many stations for them to be truly competitive and make money," said Sena. "The same is true for Albuquerque. I'm not sure there is an economy to support that many." June 3, Fred Sena off KMIK That, plus the number of print publications in the region one estimate puts it at 43 has kept ad rates relatively low here.

With one exception, the range is roughly to $20, depending on length, time and frequency. "Hiawatha, Kansas, 1970, a town of 3,200 people," said Armer at KBOM, "had rates of 18. There was only one station, and'the owner said 'Radio costs $18 a so people bought it. With one exception, nobody gets that here. So why does this town of 65,000 people have lower rates in 1990 than Hiawatha, Kansas in 1970?" That exception is KLSK, which charges $40 to $50 and expects to raise its rates next month.

Manager Sebastian says two things justify his.rates: the good demographics that his station delivers and the fact that it runs fewer commercials. "For the advertiser, that makes their commercial really stand out," he said. And without being specific, he maintains that KLSK shows "flexibility" with smaller Santa Fe businesses. The instability has a second effect, according to Jerry King of Hayduk-King Advertising in Santa Fe. "You have trouble developing lasting business relations.

You have new general managers coming in every six months, and sales personnel change over even more frequently. "The turmoil has kept rates low, but in the long run, it's not beneficial. Stability builds better business relationships, and the medium can work harder for the client." Despite the fierce competition for ad dollars, the Santa Fe market has gained investors' attention Continued on Page 12 1990 SANTA FE REPORTER 11.