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10 Questions with ... Myron Fears
September 12, 2017
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
KPRS, Adjunct Media Professor at Penn Valley Community College and Owner of KC Pro Jocks Mobile DJ Service.
1) Where was your first job in radio and how it did shape your thinking?
My career is like a grown kid who never left home and is still living at his parents' house. My career started as an intern at KPRS and I'm still here. In terms of KPRS, knowing that David always has a chance to beat Goliath.
2) What tools do you use to make music decisions?
I'm firm believer in using a mixture of tools, one of my favorites is Shazam. As a matter of fact, I use the explorer tool within Shazam to see the Top 10 songs of every city within the Kansas City area. There are about 20 municipalities I look at. Within a week, I can see the impact of our station. There are cities in the area which reflect a high percentage of the KPRS playlist. It shows that what we play has an impact on the people searching for music in those areas. It's a handy tool.
3) How do you consistently keep high in the ratings with an African population of only 13.6% in Kansas City?
- Our owner, Mike Carter, believes in having a local team and giving us the necessary tools to win.
- We have mix of veterans and younger air personalities who are passionate about the station and the city.
- Studying and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of our competition.
- Utilizing our research weapons like PD Advantage, Research Director, Media Monitors, Kelly Research, BDS Radio and Mediabase, helps us make intelligent decisions about our brand and position, music categories, changes, implementation, and overall performance.
4) Who are some of the people that have influenced your career?
The late Mr. Neil Poindexter, a family friend, former KPRS jock, and later a news reporter at KMBZ-A. Mr. Poindexter used to encourage and discuss with me the radio business.
The recently retired Freddie Bell, longtime veteran announcer for KPRT-A/Kansas City. Freddie was the ultimate politician. Every young air personality could have learned a thing or two by watching him work a crowd. He had been in the game since "Moses crossed the Red Sea," but seriously, right up to his last day before retirement, he was passionate about his profession.
Sam Weaver, former OM/PD at KPRS. Weaver's strengths are talent coaching, interpreting ratings and publicity. He allowed me to grow as a MD and programmer.
Andre Carson, former OM at KPRS. Andre refined my programming skills. He was very detailed and organized, passionate about research and taught me that radio is a lifestyle.
Tony Gray and the late Jerry Boulding have impacted my decisions for the past seven years.
5) What's your take on music rotations in general and new music?
Since KPRS is in a PPM market, balancing callout research and Mscores are very important. Programmers have to understand that the people who are responding to the callout may not be carrying a meter and Mscores are based on the actual panelists.
With PPM, we found out that we can hold hit records a lot longer than once believed.
In terms of new music, I'm a firm believer that if a song sounds great, room can be made to implement the song into rotation whether it's in regular, Quiet storm, or Mix show rotation.
6) How do you view PPM?
It's the method that I have to use for ratings. Personally, I love it! I love receiving and analyzing information on a weekly and monthly basis. It gives me an opportunity to view our station's strengths and weaknesses more rapidly. There are some areas that need to improve in terms of sample size. An insight questionnaire should be provided to each exiting panelist and should be distributed to each subscribing station.
7) What's your advice for programmers in putting together a music playlist and is streaming an important piece to the puzzle?
The sound of the station is the brand. The key to successful programming is to know your market and the taste of your listeners. Programmers must use every bit of music information like music charts, streaming data (You Tube/Spotify/Pandora/Shazam), Mscore, callout research, iItunes, and local club play, to help with their music decisions. I always communicate with our air staff and interns about music. I believe a station should reflect its market. By the way, I can't stress enough the importance of streaming information. I think BDS.com is ahead of the pack in terms of how the information is broken down. A report came out last year indicating that for the first time in the history of recorded music and radio, consumers did not discover their new music first on radio; YouTube holds that honor. You've got to stay up on listener lifestyle music habits.
8) Is the future of the Urban format a bright one?
The urban format is a viable format. It reaches an audience that has a lot of spending power. The Urban format goes beyond ethnic lines. In the near future, I see Urban formats breaking down this way; Urban Oldies 45-54, Urban AC 35-44, Urban Mainstream 25-34 (Mixture of Hip-Hop and R&B), and Hip-Hop 6-24 (All Hip-Hop).
9) Do you have any advice for air-personalities who want to program one day?
If a talent has the ambition to program a station, they must develop a relationship with a person who's programming a station. Ask plenty of questions, get involved with the promotions, programming and sales departments, add your input to help make decisions and read as much information about programming, ratings, marketing and sales.
10) Looking back over your career ... any missed opportunities or regrets?
Because I'm older and wiser, I understand now that my career has been developed and shaped the way that God wanted it to be. I have no regrets about my career. I think that if I was jumping station to station, I would not have my wife and son. I probably would have baby momma drama and 20 kids running around asking for daddy (just joking). I used to think that moving out of the market was the best solution but who's moving now?
Bonus Questions
What would people who think they know you, be surprised to learn about you?
I love sports, basketball, baseball, football, golf, fishing and bowling (195 average). I love military and political history. I look at programming as a war game and managing as a political arena.
What frustrates you the most about radio and the music industry?
Radio needs to inject itself with newer talent. It needs to become the sexy medium with the younger generation. A lot of talent grooming used to come out of the various market sizes. Consolidation, voicetracking and syndication has hindered talent growth opportunities.
In terms of Hip-Hop songs, provide better clean radio edits. Stop being lazy by adding brake effects and just re-record a clean version.
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