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10 Questions with ... Loyd Ford
July 14, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. Let's start at the simple: Listeners have more choices. A different time, energy, feel and the way people see the world has changed to a certain extent. But again, life changes, technology changes and people don't really change. The technology changes are actually exciting because they bring us closer to listeners than ever before. Behavior is still controlled by impulses and what people want. Our business is about finding out what people want and giving it to them. Also it is about communicating rapidly that you are giving them essential experiences they crave. If you can do that well, you are probably good to go
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Ford, who has an extensive radio programming background, joined SummitMedia Country WCYQ (Q100.3)/Knoxville as PD and afternoon host on April 15th after most recently operating Rainmaker Pathway Consulting, in Greenville, SC. Prior to that, he spent 13 years as manager of the radio division for Americalist Direct Marketing. Before that, he held radio programming and brand management jobs at Capstar, SFX, Clear Channel, Entercom and Amcom General stations.
He says of his radio background, "I have programmed in Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, North and South Carolina and New York. Stops of note include programming KRMD/Shreveport, when we had the joy of taking that station from a 5.1 to a 29.3 25-54. A similar story could be told about WSSL/Greenville, where I joined an amazing team already doing great things. We took WSSL from a 6.6 share to a 19.9 25-54 ... I don't like to appear as a person who does one thing or can only play in one area, so for five years I also launched and ran my own digital pure play, created and launched a podcast and placed it on two local FMs and CBS-TV in its home market, and worked on interesting projects in and out of the 'radio lane,' including helping a company create an app for the concert industry, consulting Country radio and consulting radio in general in digital and social content and revenue generation. I've had a good time learning and growing as I go. I value that at a high level."
1. How long had you been away from day-to-day radio programming, what made you want to get back in it, and what did you miss the most about being a PD?
This is an interesting question because I was away from actual in-house, day-to-day programming from 2004 until April 15, 2019. So, it was over 15 years. When people say, "Ah, that's not so big a deal," I say, "Tell me what you were doing 15 years ago today." They always say, "Oh."
In reality, I worked with almost every broadcast company you can name on a daily basis in PPM and diary markets for that 15-plus years in a variety of capacities, including ratings work and also digital. It was fun, exciting and I got regular opportunities to stretch my skills in both strategy and behavior. I also got to work with some great people all across the country in a variety of formats and situations.
[As for] what I missed most, when you are working with people on strategy as a form of consulting, you really don't get in the spirit, energy and thick of the passionate side of our amazing business. You miss that energy and you miss being directly connected to people, [both] listeners and radio people in the building. I get my energy from people and being a part of helping people achieve. In person, that's a whole different level of amazing.
2. What was it about the WCYQ job and about SummitMedia Corp. that appealed to you enough to accept the job?
[SummitMedia/Knoxville President] Chris Protzman is the singular top reason I took this job. If he wasn't here, I don't think I would have come to Knoxville. I interviewed in a pretty wide variety of places, but I felt very strongly that Protz had special gifts and is a special person I could learn a lot from. Those are things I value. I also love a challenge, and I love fundamentally using strategy and behavior to leverage a different result than what people might expect.
[My wife] Theresa and I knew we loved Knoxville, and we also really wanted to stay in the Southeast. Knoxville checks a lot of boxes for us, but we didn't think we would move here because there were no jobs like the ones I was looking into. Then, it just popped right up.
I'm very lucky to come back to my passion and do this. I've had 15 years out, and have a need to show my value. That's why I am here. Plus, if you come in contact with me, you know I am highly passionate and driven. Theresa has encouraged me for years to jump back in, but I had a commitment to meet before I could do that. Now, my commitment is met and times are different. Now, it's radio time. [Ed. note: Ford's youngest son is a leukemia survivor, and Ford had pledged that he would stay close to his son and not take a job somewhere else in the country until the boy graduated from high school.]
3. How have the first three months on the job been? Any surprises?
I don't find the fundamentals have changed in the ways everyone says. Not exactly. Of course there are differences. Technology changes, people don't change. Not really. I'm not a bystander, so there are always what you would call surprises, but that is the joy of this work. People think life always stays the same. In reality, the only thing life - and work - does do is change. So, you hope to roll with it and bring your experience and heart to what is happening for people and be a good influence.
4. What has changed the most about radio programming since the last time you worked on the station level?
Let's start at the simple: Listeners have more choices. A different time, energy, feel and the way people see the world has changed to a certain extent. But again, life changes, technology changes and people don't really change. The technology changes are actually exciting because they bring us closer to listeners than ever before. Behavior is still controlled by impulses and what people want. Our business is about finding out what people want and giving it to them. Also it is about communicating rapidly that you are giving them essential experiences they crave. If you can do that well, you are probably good to go.
5. Your programming philosophy is different than other PDs. Can you describe it?
I can't speak for others. There are many really good programmers in this format. I believe that I practice creative destruction. I only have a few gifts, so I have to use those and work for everyone on our team. I work with strategy and behavior. I don't focus on other radio stations and I do believe in the popular millennials' phrase, "You be you."
In this business, there is a lot of noise. I work to focus on the things that really matter, not the noise. I do tend to study situations and figure out what I call the vapor trail of consequences following any brand. Then, I try to do a great job of capturing the essence of what listeners want that truly matters and give that to local listeners. I work to be the truth. That's a fun job. There are a variety of ingredients that go into that. What is needed for the local recipe varies from market to market and different situations, but you can certainly guess what those things might be in different situations.
6. What programming changes have you made since your arrival at Q100.3?
I really haven't made any changes, actually. Not in my book. It may seem that way to an outsider, but that's not what has actually taken place. All we have done so far is highlight great things and get back to basics. We did add "Country Countdown USA," but we did that because we had a need, and it was what we felt was the exceptional countdown product in the U.S. In any market you approach, you must have respect for what has developed before you and prepare before you make real moves. I respect the past here, but I don't live in it. Listeners don't live in the past either, so this is about the future.
7. How do you view your competitive situation, and the differences between Q and WIVK?
The other guys have been here a long time. There is a laundry list of great people who have worked on that station across decades. The history of their past story is admirable, and they are still benefiting right now from all of the work that was done in the past. Everyone in Country radio does a pretty good job, and I am certain there are people working on their current station that have the best intentions.
I don't get much into thinking about them and us. This job isn't about them, actually. Our focus is really on listeners first, and on our own radio station quality as reflecting what local listeners value here. We will spend our time in the areas of quality, talent, talent coaching and what I will call opportunities to create a special place for listeners in East Tennessee to listen to Country music. Our task is to make that a special and unique daily opportunity for Country listeners. If we do that well, there is really no reason to compare differences. We will be different.
8. How important is chart reporting status to your overall goals, and what are your plans to re-attain it?
Anyone, I think, wants to contribute to the community. Look at what an amazing community there is in Nashville and how different it is from other formats. A lot of people depend on decisions made by individual programmers and the influence that brings. We are no different. Our radio station has a signal that influences five states and two time zones. It's a lot of responsibility. We want to be an excellent partner for Nashville and for people applying themselves to the industry of Country music.
Everyone always talks about the power of what happens when Country stars thank radio when they win awards. Well, we certainly recognize the privilege of being involved with the Nashville music community and being a good evangelist of Country music here. We will share our story across time, and this radio station has powerful community engagement, we play balanced music and have a high focus on current Country music. The community involvement, and the way we engage Country artists, labels and the industry, is critical and important to us. We are involved in the production of positive images and actual promotion of music important to Nashville and to our audience.
9. Your wife, Theresa, does Southeast promotion for Black River Records. What are the challenges of being in a radio/records relationship, especially when you're programming a station in her region?
I'm fortunate with Theresa. She is very smart, amazing and a wonderful person ... I see how hard she works and how much she cares about people. It's aspirational. We are practical people and believe in each other. When I say I understand every single record person and the struggles and difficulties of their job, I mean I truly understand. It's part of my life, not just something I say. My education has become deep, and I've grown across time as a person. This doesn't mean we won't ever face challenges, but we care about people and we see the hard work that goes into both sides of the business. We have a firm understanding of the people factor here. We don't go crazy with the business. We are even, thoughtful people who care about what we are doing. If anything, we help each other understand and value contributions happening on both sides of this business.
10. Explain the job you did all those years at Americalist Media Marketing?
In that job, I had the privilege of using my programming experience to understand and help local radio in markets all across the U.S. However, I really would work with program directors, market managers, marketing directors, regional and corporate radio people and teams on individual stations, clusters and other special projects to expose opportunities. [It was about] strategy. I was the chief ratings strategist that built programs using telemarketing, strategic direct mail, social media and viral email to boost ratings. We all call that "stealth" marketing.
I wasn't able to brag about all our successes, and that's okay. It wasn't about me. I worked to be your secret weapon to destabilize your competitor while creating incremental changes in "our" ratings. That business is about data, it is about connecting with gatekeepers and drilling down into a market to expose the pivotal and critical opportunities to improve ratings. Believe me, that's fun, too. It gave me a ton of PPM experience as well as [a] depth of experience in a wide variety of problems that individual radio stations and clusters have all the time in our business. It added so much to what I know and can leverage in the business I love.
Bonus Questions
1. How are you liking Knoxville so far? What have you discovered about the city that you didn't know?
I have never actually moved somewhere that I have so immediately loved more than I have loved Knoxville so far. We knew Knoxville for years. One of Theresa's favorite places is Cades Cove. When my son graduated high school I became free of a promise I had made him to stay close until that time. We started looking and didn't know where we would end up. I was surprised at the wide variety of markets we began to think we might move to, including some of the largest markets in the U.S. and smaller markets. We value different things than market size and wanted certain things. Theresa and I bought a house in a ridiculous area of the market and I love the people here, the people in our building at work and the market so much. It's just more than you can imagine by visiting and you can't really describe it in a few words: beautiful, great people, lots of choices and opportunity to be involved in unique things. It's really great.
2. Describe the challenges of being a one "L" Loyd in a two "L" world.
This is funny. I hate my name. Not only is my name Loyd Ford with one L (say that five times really fast), but know this: I'm a junior, so I have all the bad things you can have in a name. My dad used to do this thing in his working years where someone would misspell his name with two Ls and he would begin to call them B-Bob from then on. I used to say to him, "Dad, the whole world spells Lloyd with two Ls. You can't blame them," but you can't change an old dude. Interestingly, Theresa just calls me L. I like that.
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