Small-Market Marconi Nominees Are Spot On

I didn’t set out to write about the ads on the NAB’s 2023 Marconi Nominees for Small Market Station of the Year. It was going to be a more typical First Listen article — music monitors punctuated with between-the-records content for color. But the local ads played a large part in making my listening experience more enjoyable than many others in the course of a week.

I write a lot about the quality of spots, the length of stopsets, and the streaming stopset experience, and I’ve probably never used the words “making my listening experience more enjoyable,” unless it was perhaps something that would have hypothetically improved what I actually heard. Often, I tape stations so I don’t have to listen to tax relief and injury attorney spots all the way through. It’s a matter of self-preservation.

But I’m looking back through my monitors of four stations now and I can find evidence of only one law-office spot — for a DUI attorney. There were very few obvious network spots and relatively few national advertisers. That alone made for a better listening experience. There were a few hard-sell car dealers — although not more than one per stopset. There were a few advertisers using their own kids in commercials. (One was a pro; one was struggling. I’m sure listeners said “aww” to both.) 

Mostly, though, the quality of commercials was actually higher overall. (That was helped, I’m sure, by being able to hear the actual spots and not web filler.) The spots contributed highly to the sense of place that I’m looking for from my out-of-market radio listening, but they were far from the only local moments on the four stations I heard. (REVISED: A fifth nominee, KROX Crookston, Minn., was in Twins Baseball as I was originally writing this article; I’ve listened since and added thoughts below.)

Here’s what I heard on the other four small-market Marconi nominees, both during the ad breaks and between the songs:

KDXY (104.9 the Fox) Jonesboro, Ark. – On Saga’s Country outlet, mostly recent, but with some titles going back to “I Like It, I Love It” and “Check Yes or No,” Country radio veteran Mitch Mahan (PD of sister KEGI) was filling in for PD Rob West. It was the day after the NAB announcement and the legal ID declared, “It’s 4 o’clock at your NAB Marconi Award-nominated radio station delivering radio excellence to Jonesboro, Paragould, Monette, and all of Fox Country.”

All the radio stations I heard sounded local, but The Fox was probably the most energetically so. Over the course of an hour there were two different sweepers built around local place shout-outs. The Fox was also “the official radio station of Northeast Arkansas’s most productive workplaces.” The weather was sponsored by a local shopping center, and Mahan pointed out that they were indoors and had air conditioning.

The first break I heard was Mahan plugging the cluster’s 870Deals.com webpage and the next day’s offering from Lorado Smokehouse & Grill; Mahan encouraged listeners to refresh their browsers immediately beforehand, as if they were buying concert tickets. (The deal, he says, went on to sell out in three minutes.) There was also an upcoming Stuff-the-Bus promotion timed for back-to-school and a tax-free shopping week. There were ads for both an upcoming local rodeo and the Cave City Watermelon Festival, featuring the Kentucky Headhunters.

The Fox was the only station I heard out of the four with a studio sponsorship. It was broadcasting from the Charles Sharp Roofing and Carpentry Foxhole and, happily, not from the attorney offices of 1-800-INJURED. 

KZPK (Wild Country 99) St. Cloud, Minn. – Rival WWJO is positioned as “Minnesota’s New Country.” Leighton-owned Wild Country 99 is more 2K-driven with such titles as Carrie Underwood’s “Wasted” and Miranda Lambert’s “White Liar” in the 4 p.m. hour. Afternoon host Brook Stephens had a bit about invasive cookie-based advertising that led to a recapped Kelly & Wood morning-show bit on the same topic. 

Stephens was also teasing giveaways to an upcoming Billy Currington show as well as a golf giveaway in conjunction with Lipton. It was Wednesday when I monitored the station, but there was also a text-to-win contest for Mexican Village restaurant (keyword “taco”). Advertisers included local gyms, bakeries, battery stores, plumbers, auto dealers, and H&S Air (for “happy and satisfied”).

WIKY Evansville, Indiana’s full-service Mainstream AC format made it a much-written-about outlier even a decade ago, and continued after the station’s sale to Midwest Communications. At 4 p.m., there was local news and ABC News. OM/PD/p.m. driver Aaron Santini talked with the station meteorologist (shared with a local TV station) about the current heatwave (the last 100-degree day in Evansville was last July) and did an interview spot with a local roofer. Trees were swaying outside the studio window, and Santini wondered if his patio tent was now in the neighbor’s yard.

WIKY morning team Dennis Jon Bailey & Diane Douglas, already Marconi winners, had tickets coming up for both Don McLean and a Led Zeppelin tribute band. WIKY is celebrating its 75^th anniversary by giving away a Bronco in conjunction with a local jewelry store. Listeners were actually being encouraged to text in (or go to the station website) just to see the names of the semi-finalists.

There was an ad for the Vanderburgh County Fair, taking place this week — this year’s theme: “Safety counts.” There was also an ad for ACE Construction, Roofing, and Plumbing congratulating WIKY on its anniversary, and talking almost as much about the station as the business. “WIKY is the dependable station to turn to … like ACE Roofing and Construction.”

WYKY (Somerset 106) Somerset, Ky. – A mainstream AC whose music was typified by a segue from Kim Wilde’s “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License.” (Gina, the afternoon host, mentioned having the Wilde cassette in her Walkman growing up.) She also urged listeners to subscribe to the station newsletter as a way of keeping up with station events, including the upcoming HollerGirl Music Festival, and promised to help them “climb over Wednesday, one song at a time.” There was also CBS News at 4 p.m.

Forcht’s Somerset 106 probably had more national/network advertising than the other stations — perhaps 25-30% of the spots. There were Kohl’s, Babbel, and Duracell, but no desperation advertising/cringeworthy sponsors. There was an ad featuring a Somerset police officer warning against impaired driving (“even the lack of sleep”) and another from the school district encouraging back-to-school vaccines. (On July 26, there were back-to-school ads everywhere I listened, but nothing yet for pumpkin spice.)

The best local-color spots were a tie between the University of the Cumberlands, where “our campus is beautiful beyond words,” with prospective students encouraged to “marvel at the clouds lingering above the brick buildings topped by white cupolas”; and Don Franklin Somerset auto group, located “between stoplights 10 & 11.”

There were ads like that one that leaned into the small-town aspect of their markets. Those are easy to gravitate to during audio tourism, but I’m looking for local color on any station I listen to (and often coming away without any). I was happy not to hear a lot of the clichés of local advertising. It was certainly possible that I heard spots written with the help of ChatGPT, but I didn’t hear anything obviously AI-voiced, including news and weather forecasts. 

UPDATE: I came back to KROX during their morning news/sports bloc on August 2. I did get my local slice of life story–the local public pool needs lifeguards. There were some network-sounding spots, including one for Business Debtors Anonymous, but also for local garden stores, a lawyer (also non-accident variety), banks (including an agency spot), plumbers, and the county board of health encouraging hydration.

About a decade ago, one of the paradigms of major- vs. small-market radio reversed, as large-market stations became the ones more likely to take chances on new music, a function of more senior staffers and greater autonomy. Now another reversal seems to have taken place. On the four stations I monitored, smaller-markets were the place where the advertising sounded better.