-
10 Questions with ... Michael Cross
October 10, 2017
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
1) What was your first job in radio and early influences?
I was almost 18 years old when I got my 3rd Class FCC license in July, 1979. I landed a gig at KJJR-A/Whitefish/Kalispell, MT. It was working overnights playing Top 40. The station was a whopping 250 watts at night - so you could hardly pick it up in Kalispell, 15 miles south of Whitefish. I didn't even care what it paid. I would have done it for free. Loved working at that station - with a view of Glacier National Park from the control room. I was also there getting ready for the overnight show on Monday night, December 8th, 1980, the night that John Lennon was killed. Not a fun show that night.
My influences were the jocks I had grown up with on AM radio in the 1970s: the late John Arthur at 1330 KWWL-A/Waterloo, the late Dic Youngs at KIOA/Des Moines, everyone at WLS/Chicago and Clyde Clifford at 1090 KAAY/Little Rock with his 'Beaker Street' program. Even my first PD in Whitefish taught me so much: Charlie Bear (real name: Dave Masters). Kudos to him and owner Benny Bee of Bee Broadcasting in Kalispell/Whitefish for giving me that first shot.
2) Was there a defining moment that led you to a career in radio?
I was pretty young -- like, eight years old -- when the radio bug bit me. I was (and still am) fascinated that people could talk on the radio and be heard by so many people in so many places. Of course, these days that feeling has been re-energized by technology that allows streaming worldwide and getting emails from all over the world. It's still wonderful to be on the air every day. After 37 years in radio, I'm still really not all that good at it, but I still love trying. ;-)
3) What makes KFMW (Rock 108) unique?
We've been owned by smaller companies over the years, which gave us the freedom to be more liberal with the music and not have such a cookie-cutter playlist. There really hasn't been someone living thousands of miles from here telling us what to play. Plus, we're pretty musically exclusive from anyone else on the FM dial here in eastern Iowa. When you want to hear a Rock station that plays new Marilyn Manson or NIN and vintage Metallica or Nirvana, people here know who delivers that.
We've had consultants who have helped us shape our sound and musical direction over the years (Thank you, Ken Anthony!) but all three of our music stations here (Rock 108, 105-7 KOKZ and KPTY-AM & FM "107-3 The Party") are all being programmed locally - and, I feel pretty blessed to have the opportunity to help guide these very successful radio stations.
Cross and Steven Tyler (1988)4) You have the dual role as PD and midday host. How do you balance your time so both roles are effective?
Thank God for voicetracking. I used to be very negative about doing that, but found ways to be able to track and make it sound exactly the same without anyone knowing the difference. That was key for me. That really helped giving me the time to be available for so many other responsibilities I needed to focus on. So, now I find it's easy to come in and track my show if I need to meet with clients, my staff, create a specialty weekend or work on scheduling music. I generally only track when absolutely necessary. I still love being on the air, although I still miss playing vinyl or CDs. It's simply TOO easy to let the computer do all the work.
5) You're also the OM for the station cluster. What are the other stations and formats in your cluster and how are they doing in the market?
I oversee the two FMs but we also have two AM stations and one of them now has a LPFM at 107.3. AM 1330 was programming ESPN Radio, but when NRG Media bought the stations a few years ago, we flipped it to Top 40 as "107-3 The Party" and the station sports new call letters too, KPTY-A/F. AM 1540 KXEL is our 50,000-watt clear channel news/talk station which can be heard in 17 states and three Canadian provinces at night. It's undergone a ton of great changes since NRG Media bought us. Overall, it's in the best shape it's been in since I've been in the building.
KFMW (Rock 108) is in great shape, too. We're blessed to have an 1,800-foot tower that gives us a city-grade signal in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo. The station's latest Nielsen ratings in the Cedar Rapids Spring 2017 book have us ranked #1 with M18-34, M18-49 and M25-54; #2 P18-34, T#2 P18-49 and #3 P25-54. We pull even bigger and better numbers in Waterloo/Cedar Falls.
KOKZ's mass-appeal Classic Hits format is really doing great, too, ranked #1 with 12+, #2 P25-54 and #1 35-64 in Waterloo/Cedar Falls. We run the classic American Top 40 shows from the '70s and '80s every weekend and they continue to rank #1 on the weekends. Again, a monster signal with 1,400+ feet and 100,000 watts. It's also a city-grade signal into both Cedar Rapids and Waterloo/Cedar Falls.
6) What's your take on current Rock music and the Active Rock format as a whole?
I'm still amazed with the diversity at the format - bands like Greta Van Fleet can land a #1 song with this Zeppelin-like track, yet here's Highly Suspect, Nothing More, In This Moment, Starset - all these fairly new bands at the format putting out some great music and yet the 'old' veterans like NIN, Marilyn Manson, Korn, Foo Fighters, Papa Roach and so many others still generating great music and hit songs. It's a good thing that the format has embraced so many of these newer bands and they are working. I never thought anybody would "get" 'Go To War' from Nothing More, yet here it is as a legit Top 5 smash for the band. The future for the format seems healthy and it's refreshing to look at the stats from Shazam and see rock artists in our market being 'shazammed' to see what they are. Theory Of A Deadman's "Rx" showed up at #3 in Cedar Rapids last week. That says something.
Cross and the late Chris Cornell7) I know you're a passionate music guy. What is your process for listening to new music and approximately how important by percentage is gut, research, sales, video play, and chart position when determining the status of a record?
I don't do things on gut reaction too often these days, so it's really much more about seeing what other stations are playing and chart position to some degree. If I see 93X/Minneapolis has something in Heavy and I'm not even playing it, you can bet I'll go listen to see what I missed. ;-)
I follow stations I respect to see what they're up to. I also like looking at stats from Spotify and Shazam to see what people are downloading or interested in. I still tend to follow the P1 listeners who will react to something. If our requests are fairly 'normal' and then I start playing something and we're suddenly getting big reaction on the phones - that still says something to me.
8) What is the ratio on Rock 108 between current and library music and why?
We're not nearly as musically aggressive as we used to be. In the past, I'd be very aggressive with new music and we might be one of a few radio stations playing a band and that either worked really well for us, or it was a waste of airtime if the record flopped. That's part of the risk. Overall, right now I'd say we're probably 65-70% Gold-based. There's still plenty of Volbeat, Disturbed, Shinedown and other established artists in-between the vintage AC/DC or Guns N Roses tracks on the station.
9) How much does Rock 108 use social media like Facebook and Twitter to help enhance the KFMW experience with its listeners?
It's become almost as important as what is on the air than what's on the stations' social media sites to reach our listeners. We sent our PM-driver Ned to 'Northern Invasion' in Somerset, WI for three days where he blogged, did over 50 posts on Facebook, interviewed bands, YouTube videos, etc. Our Facebook has nearly 20,000 friends. Twitter is big for us, Snapchat and Instagram, too, and we've started our own YouTube site and we're getting quite a number of views. Ned also does a bi-weekly Facebook event called "Sunday Streaming," where he plays classic video games and interacts with listeners who watch live. It's got a sponsor and we're making a little scratch on it and interacting with our listeners in a completely different way.
There's no question that social media is a very important second transmitter for radio stations. The more locally based content, the better. Rather than just share posts, we try and generate our own posts to include the stories we read about on other sites so that way that traffic rolls thru our sites before going to theirs.
Slash and Cross10) Finally, last month you celebrated your 20th anniversary working at Rock 108. That's quite an accomplishment. What are some of the key highlights for you these past 20 years, and how do you plan to celebrate this feat?
It's incredible. I never thought I'd be here this long; it certainly wasn't my plan. I got here after leaving Lazer 103.3/Des Moines in 1997 and told the GM here when I was hired that I would commit for one year, but after that I expected to get back to finding work in larger markets again. We can see how that worked out. Honestly, it's been pretty great. I've survived three owners and three GMs. So, I've been blessed.
My highlights are more of the feelings of satisfaction when bringing in freshly graduated students from places like Columbia College/Chicago and seeing them blossom and land gigs in larger markets after leaving. It's like kids leaving the nest. Mike Hansen with KQWB (Q98)/Fargo is one of them. He's been successfully programming the station for quite a few years now. So, its things like that which are highlights for me. It's satisfaction of working with talent and seeing them do well in the industry they are passionate about.
I didn't really do much on the air about my 20th; mentioned it a few times and that was about it. I'm not really about the spotlight, so that was okay with me. I'm just trying to make it to Year 21 with another successful book. Fortunately, I have two really great radio stations with some terrific air talent that helps to do that.
-
-