About Local … and Sense of Place

One of the first things we can do when discussing “live and local” is to unhook the two terms. Over the past 25 years, some broadcasters have cited any interest in any content that is not either local (any winning syndicated show) or live (any podcast enjoyed on-demand) as a double-jeopardy way of rebutting both. Often, they are doing so on behalf of content that is neither live nor local.

I’ve been thinking a lot about both issues lately, spurred by a recent presentation to FWD: The Western Canada Media Conference held June 3-4 in Kelowna, B.C. “Beyond Live and Local” looked to extend the discussion of “local” to whether stations had a sense of place and whether “live” radio sounded like it was in the moment. Moments after the first draft of this article was finished, the “local” half of the discussion took on further currency as a new round of consolidation and layoffs began at iHeart Radio on Tuesday.

There’s been a test case for the value of “local” in Canada over the last two years, following Bell Media’s spinoff of 45 stations to smaller regional groups, but here as well, now that Connoisseur Media has started doing the same, when it can find a taker. Connoisseur is also a syndicator of morning shows, but it has taken several of its stations local in mornings. A few days ago, it brought market legend Lady Vee back to Adult R&B WKXI Jackson, Miss. Recently, KRML Carmel, Calif., found what a lot of stations would like now, a buyer from the tech world committed to keeping the station local.

In one single example of a former Bell Media outlet, MBC’s Hot AC CFLY Kingston, Ontario, you see how multi-dimensional the discussion is. That station is inherently more local for having brought back its legacy “Fly 98.3” branding. MBC now touts “local news that’s ahead of the rest” on its partner website, and added the syndicated Liveline to nights, a move that I don’t regard as in any way contradictory. That might also stem from my own radio history.

Throughout a lifetime of radio listening, I’ve often been looking beyond “local.” Washington, D.C., had great radio and I did listen to WPGC, WMZQ, WKYS, and R&B WOL growing up, but nights belonged to the 50,000-watt AMs, particularly CKLW Windsor/Detroit, a direct spur in an eventual career heavily based around Canadian radio and music. Even then, I was looking for “sense of place” — audio tourism to somewhere other than my backyard. 

Initially, much of that sense of place came from the music at a time when those decisions were local, too, especially CKLW’s unusual combination of being early on R&B and Canadian pop. Those stations helped shape my eventual checklist for any good radio listening experience — did I hear a great new song or “oh wow” oldie that I wouldn’t have heard locally? Eventually, the list also included whether I learned something about the market or smiled at least once.

When streaming radio came along, Top 40 and WHTZ (Z100) New York were in full comeback mode, but I also spent a lot of time with the UK’s Capital FM and CKZZ (Z95.3) Vancouver, B.C. Often the first station to stream in a territory was in an unlikely market, and that was how I became a mystery-oldie winner on Adult CHR CHSU (Sun FM) Kelowna, another brand that has been brought back because of the spinoffs.

If I’ve become a champion of “local” in the last 25 years, it may be a matter of rooting for the underdog. From Howard Stern barging into Philadelphia to Ryan Seacrest as America’s CHR midday host, detractors have seized on any example of successful national content, and it’s hard to know whether they’re true believers in voicetracking and syndication or just doing what they have to do with available resources.

Sometimes undermining “local” has been an inside job. I’ve seen “live and local” on a mic flag in an empty control room of an AM station that ran mostly syndicated talk. I’ve heard it on the local bumpers of a station running a national morning show. I’ve even heard it on a station running a jockless syndicated format. Those stations put the “lie” in “live and local.”

Even when it’s true, we expect a liner to do a lot. Delivering on any positioner is an hour-long commitment in a time of nine-minute listening spans. Without the means to spread the message beyond our own air, we’re not necessarily reaching the SiriusXM or Spotify listeners who might like to know about our free app.  Don’t blame “live and local” if it’s not a magic bullet; no positioner is.

If you’re seizing on the moments when syndication works, you also have to acknowledge when it’s not the best choice. A few years ago, CKNO (Now 102.3) Edmonton’s Crash & Mars, a great morning show, ended a simulcast experiment in Calgary. Their affiliates’ music was never quite compatible, but the two cities’ rivalry couldn’t have helped either.

There’s been a big victory for local lately in Australia, where Sydney’s Kyle & Jackie-O, the most-publicized morning team in the world, set off to conquer Melbourne and broke up on the air instead. One of the teams that beat them was Nova 100’s Jase, Lauren & Clint, whom K & JO had displaced, then actually trolled. As heard at the time, the team’s content was not the sort of “lost dog” local that detractors go after, but there was still no doubt about whom the show was for.

The current test case is Christian O’Connell, who is now being syndicated from Gold 104.3 Melbourne to a newly rebranded sister station in Sydney, whose former morning team is now heard nationally in afternoons. So far, there’s been a down first book and a sharply up second survey. In Melbourne, O’Connell has been down for both surveys. 

O’Connell built one of the great morning shows at Gold 104.3 after a career in UK radio. He is coming to a “big box” radio station that already has a viable format franchise. His expansion to a national show (on DAB in other markets) already has a great promotion attached; the show is paying to rehab local pubs around the country. But if O’Connell succeeds where Kyle & Jackie-O did not, it will only prove that the “local vs. syndicated” discussion contains multitudes.

I’ve said before that local vs. syndicated doesn’t have to be an “either or” discussion. But I am looking for both choices to be their best selves. I’d be happy if every market had several stations that were consistently local — even if emergencies take place after 6 p.m. or on weekends — and regional or national stations that create bigger shared experiences. But making that happen is challenging now, so a lot of what we get is middling.

Radio suffers now from a lot of content that is “faux local” — white-labeled breaks with no local feel and no national swagger. Several years ago, I cited SiriusXM personalities sharing their location (Edmonton, Florida, “South Texas”) as a way seven stations with one local personality could unite to share both economies of scale and “sense of place” all day. That will be harder if iHeart and other consolidations leave major-market stations without a single local airshift. And one of the most prominently affected stations this week, KBCO Denver, is a station I would imagine as a national export because of its sense of place, not an importer of talent.

I haven’t yet spent time with the former Connoisseur outlets. In general, the Canadian stations I heard did tell me something about their cities. I heard CFMC (C95) Saskatoon’s “Teacher of the Year” competition. It was Kentucky Derby Day in Kelowna, which seemed to come after the actual Derby. It was Turtle Awareness Day in Kingston. Detractors love to pit exactly those kinds of topics against big national stories, but when they’re brush strokes, not the main business of a station, they make a difference in the experience and further a bond with the listener.

Finally, there is guidance for all formats in the study that Strategic Solutions Research unveiled at Country Radio Seminar in March. “Personalities broadcasting live” was a top 10 need (66%), followed closely by “keeps you connected locally” (65%). Both were significantly ahead of “hosts live and broadcast from your area” (still a majority with 58%), suggesting that in an era of remote work that listeners can still want sense of place without being hung up on physical location.

It’s also worth noting that “helps you discover new music,” a selling point that radio has mostly cheerfully abdicated, is still a top-five need for Country radio listeners. If radio were inclined to do so again, it could also be one of the places where stations show themselves to be local. More about that, and looking beyond “live” to “vital,” next week.