Zee Ferrufino knew the Arbitron ratings wouldn’t look so good for his station, KBNO 1280-AM, after his syndicated morning show host Eduardo “Piolín” Sotelo jumped to rival KXPK, 96.5-FM.
In the fall of 2004, his station, known as Que Bueno, was No. 1 among adults 18 to 44, during the morning weekday rush.
Now the honor belongs to KXPK, also known as La Tricolor. It’s a shock that a Spanish-language station could be so popular in a state where only about 1 percent of the population speaks solely Spanish.
The statistic speaks to the loyalty of Mexican immigrant listeners – they love Piolín (English translation: Tweety Bird) – but those numbers actually say a lot more about the current state of radio wars.
Corporate radio groups have the luxury of slicing listeners into little niche groups, hoping to capture the “young urban demographic” with one station while trying to lure “career women” with another.
It’s a piecemeal approach that allows them to use Arbitron ratings to market themselves as No. 1 among specific groups that advertisers want instead of paying more money to reach a wider audience that may not buy their product. Corporate radio can also offer package deals to advertisers: Clear Channel does it with its eight Denver stations.
Even Entravision, the entity that owns La Tricolor, does it. It’s got one other FM station in Denver, 92.1-FM, which plays a mix of Rock en Español, Latin pop and ballads, and a Denver AM station, 1090-AM, with its “José format” – like “Jack FM” except it’s a mix of music in Spanish.
Ferrufino says knows he can beat them, even with his lower-power AM station. He believes he can win back listeners with more local content. It might be the only way to compete with better-sounding FM stations.
As an independent radio owner, he can’t afford an FM station. A spot on the FM dial starts at about $30 million.
“I wouldn’t want to get into that kind of debt,” he told me. “At that amount, you’re only paying interest.”
Stations used to be more affordable, but the Telecommunications Act of 1996 expanded the number of stations an owner can own in the same market from two to eight, and sent media companies on a shopping spree.
Prices shot up, and the result over the past decade has been 35 percent fewer station owners. Clear Channel went from owning 43 radio stations to owning more than 1,300, for example.
But in about two years, AM radio will go digital and with that kind of improvement in sound Ferrufino’s station will be in a better position to compete.
Ferrufino owns Que Bueno and two other stations in Pueblo and Colorado Springs outright. Because he doesn’t have to worry about paying a note, he says he has more flexibility to try new things.
His plan to get that station back to the top spot is to go against the tide of the radio conglomerates. There will be no more syndicated programs. His plan: Keep it local. It’s the antidote to the formulaic approach of corporate radio.
Ferrufino’s looking for a radio host for the morning program. When he finds someone good, that person will get a healthy salary and will be marketed throughout Denver.
“It works in other markets. They have local hosts that beat Piolín. I have always believed that local programming is better than national.”
Not to mention his station offers local news, advocacy programs, and a unique show called Cambalache, where people trade wares and look for jobs over the airwaves. It helps bond an emerging community that often feels linguistically and culturally isolated. He plans to offer more local news, too – something that listeners of all backgrounds crave.
If the conglomerates understood the importance of keeping news and programming local, we, the listeners, would feel a lot more connected.
Cindy Rodríguez’s column appears Tuesdays and Sundays. Read Cindy’s blog at denverpostbloghouse.com/rodriguez
