>From Sunday's Tennessean:
RADIO
Rock radio institution KDF goes country this week
By Brad Schmitt / Tennessean Staff Writer
The owners of WKDF already have bet $5 million on Carl P. Mayfield, and now
they're adding the station's 30-year rock heritage to the mix.
On Thursday, KDF goes country.
The dramatic move by Nashville's bastion of rock 'n' roll is the clearest
signal yet that Dick Broadcasting Company is tying the future of its Nashville
stations to longtime hometown radio superstar Mayfield.
Mayfield's last stint was as afternoon personality on country giant
WSIX-FM, and
since Dick Broadcasting lured Mayfield away last year, he has said he wants
to work
at a country station.
Last week, with a $5 million, five-year deal already in hand, Mayfield got
his wish.
Music City 103.3 will broadcast country, with songs from country legends,
such as
George Jones and Johnny Cash, mixed with the offerings of such current stars as
Martina McBride and Diamond Rio during Mayfield's morning shift.
The format change sets up an exciting battle of Nashville radio titans,
pitting Mayfield
against longtime ratings champion Gerry House of WSIX. The two will
compete in the
high-profile 6-10 morning shift in similar formats -- a match many radio
observers will
relish.
The KDF format change also leaves Nashville modern rock fans without their
own radio
station, meaning it'll be tougher to hear acts like Metallica, Tom Petty,
The Black
Crowes,Hole, the Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day and even Nashville's Bare Jr.
"You've got to be kidding!" bartender Bobbie Moreland, 29, said after
hearing the news.
"KDF was the station for real music. I can't think of anything comparable."
Technical school student Shelly Lynch, 24, summed up many KDF listeners'
feelings:
"Country music sucks."
The format change adds a fifth country station in Nashville at a time when
country radio listenership here is waning. The current country stations, in
order of ratings, are WSIX
(97.9-FM), WSM-FM (95.5), WSM-AM (650) and Power Country 102.9 (FM).
Competing Nashville radio stations were quick to criticize KDF's move.
"There is only a 20 share (20%) of country listeners in town," said Dick
Williams, general
manager of SEASTAR Communications, a group of five Nashville stations that
includes WSIX.
"You want to divide that five ways? That's their business plan. It
wouldn't be mine."
And non-country stations were doubtful KDF and Mayfield could make country fly.
"I am skeptical that the research would show room for another country
station, especially
when country listening is down 39% in the past year," said Steve Edwards,
radio division
president for South Central Communications, which owns Mix 92.9 and Oldies 96.3.
Still, the choice to abandon rock wasn't a tough one for KDF owners. In the
past six years,
the station went from consistently being a top-5 station to dropping out of
the top 10.
"It's obviously a wise business decision," Mayfield said of KDF, "because
they have no
business. The station is ranked 13th."
On the business end, Mayfield is already something of a success for Dick
Broadcasting, his
radio home for some 20 years before he went to WSIX to do afternoons. He
was a top-rated
rock jock at KDF in the '80s.
Mayfield has been off the air for a year because of a no-compete clause in
his WSIX
contract,a year he has spent having two back surgeries and planning for his
KDF launch.
Music City 103.3 already has generated some $1 million in sales in Mayfield
live commercials, virtually selling out Mayfield's first year of live spots
on the air -- without telling
advertisers what format or at what frequency Mayfield would be on the air.
And that's not cheap: The spots cost $400 each with another $50 talent fee
going directly to Mayfield. That's more than twice what the average morning
radio spot costs here.
Steve Dickert, general manager for Dick Broadcasting, dismisses talk that
KDF can't compete
in the country market, saying he thinks the two leading stations -- WSIX
and WSM-FM -- are vulnerable.
Dickert said on-air personalities, more than the music, will make a country
station fly.
He said WSM-FM has always been music-intensive, and he thinks WSIX is left
with only one
personality stallion.
"Since Carl left, there's Gerry ... and who?" Dickert said.
"We think we can do it better," he said. "We've got Carl P."
Dickert also has hired a North Carolina personality to do nights and a
couple of Nashville
radio veterans, WSM-FM's Gina Donegan and ex-KDF jock Shannon, to fill
other air slots.
At least one radio consultant, New York-based Keith Hill, agrees that
on-air personalities
will be country radio's saviors.
"Fun is the issue, not the music," Hill said.
"Gerry House? I don't find that show is as fun as it used to be. I would
certainly think
with Carl, that's a significant volley in the war.
"They'll start the day right with Carl P., and if they replicate that the
rest of the day,
they'll be successful," he said.
Mayfield said he hoped adding two songs an hour from country legends would
make his show
different from country competitors.
"I'm most excited about being able to champion legendary artists," he said.
"They won't
have to wreck the car or die to be heard on the radio."
Consultants and radio execs say they know of no other station regularly
mixing today's
country hits with songs from country legends.
Longtime Mayfield fans can expect lots of the same bits and characters,
including
beer-swilling trailer park resident Bubba Skynyrd, Homeless Jimmy, huckster
Brother Jonah,
Cleon the cab driver and the redneck imbecile Roommates.
Jokes Mayfield: "More bits, less hits."
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