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Show The Daily Utah Chronicle. Openings 1977 jockeys. From a business standpoint and the people who ow n the radio station they tan buy that equipment, they can pay about as much for the equipment as tlwy would pay disc jockeys in one year, and plus they get depreciated over a ixiiod of several years. It's a good investment that way. if they can produce the end tesuli, and that is bruce baird Disc jockey Gary Woldron explains metamorphosis ofStereo-Xto99-F- M what they're playing, and we still have, a pretty gxxi libraiv . Chronicle: But, is there going to Ix a lot more Kiss and top 1(1? Waldron: If Kiss is fjoputar we're going When I first tame to ihe University in the winter of 1973 there were no detent radio stations. Suddenly a new station came on and the first thing 1 heard w as an entire side of Mountain. For the next four ears my FM dial staed tin Stereo X. 9S.7. I dutifully followed the Sunda Segue s and the King Biscuit Hours. I listened every night to the ramblings of Skip Ward and lately eveiy month Stereo morning to Bob Adams. X suddenly metamorphosed into 09- - FM. Intent on finding out what haptxned, would take, I and the direction that 99-Farranged to talk with Gary Waldron. Waldron, known on AM as "Wtxiley" has for been the program director of KCTX-Fa number of years ami is the man directly responsible for both the creation and demise of Steteo-X- . Chronicle: How did Steieo-- gel stalled? to play it. Chronicle: Mav!e we can go hat k and get a bit of the citation of Steieo X. How did that txtur? Waldron: We were playing a format of music much like all FM radio did in and we were not making any money. And worse than that we were putting on some bad radio. I here was no need for that radio. Theie was KI.l'B and KSL all putting out the same music , and so what we were doing was useless. So, I told them that we should Ik a rxk station since our AM was ttx k. we are in the rex business, so we should be a rxk station on FM. That's how the idea came about. One of the unfortunate things was that they had just bought a very exxnsivc automation system to run this, and and we have had to use that all of these sears. So, we were saddled with running an automation system which became very outdated quic kly. In othei words, the state of the art has changed and the machine we were using in there wasn't putting out the finality prcxiutt that radio stations are now capable of with automation. So, with this new th.inge we have a total new automation system oi dried, which should lw on tin ail in Novi'tnlwi. "lx-autifu- I5 X Were you it? Waldron: Our original intention was to put a station on the air that would play the most wpular albums Ixiause no one was doing it. We did that for a couple of months and a first rating was very gcxxl. Chronicle: When exactly did that statl? Waldron: March '73. Our first rating was our lest one, and then we went downhill and we got thinking alxnit it and looked at the "ARB's" (rating book ) and the station showed no growth, it was stutk in a rut. There is a lot of growth in FM radio light now but we weren't expetienc ing it, and so we examined what had hapxned and found we got off the tratk and we were playing a list of sometimes as high as a hundred new albums all at one time, whit It means that the way the radio station is set that up with only being alive part-timheaid of the things got some every two is ridiculous. So we're weeks, which moving the musir into a higher rotation, we're routing less songs more often. Chronicle: So, do you think you're going to attract a much larger audienec now? Waldron: There's no question alxiut it. Comeback when thetv s' latingconiesout, and we'll do a story on (hat. Chronicle: What age group do youexjxc t to pull? Waldron: We were very big in 18 to 21 males, but that's a pretty small group. We know by whv we are doing that we ate going to attrat a lot of teens that are a:id possibly our listening to KRSP-Fown AM that are unhappv with hearing things like the Bay Citv Rollers and w ant to t hear all album' stuff. We logo up in foi ISto'Jl. but mainly weareaiming teens, Chronicle: So. there is going to be more top His. it gouig to Ix a KRSPwiiho.il the Shawn Cassidy? Waldron: I wouldn't say that. We have a current play list that's about three times ( "Miitl: Uii.i.r u i ilu !vi Waul show? Waldron:M Chronicle: Was the Bob Adams show just another attempt to increase the ratings? Waldron: Yes, we put him on in the mornings because that's where we needed help. You see we are limited by w hat kind of rotation we can have musically on the automation system and so by hav ing a live guy there we thought we could make the piojx r changes and find out if th.it format was going to work. Chronicle: Do you think disc jtxkeys is the way to go on FM? Waldron: Well, I'm a disc jtx key, so what do you expect tne to say? Chronicle: Then w hy is the new 99 going to be totally automated? Waldron: It's a matter ol economics. It's cheajxr to make the initial investment on the automation than continually pay disc 1 mm Monday Friday Sept. Sept. Mon.-Fr- i. Oct. Sat.-We- Oct. d. Friday Friday Wednesday Wednesday Oct. Oct. Oct. Oct. 26 Classes begin 30 Last day to pay fees without Late Fee S10 Late Fee charged with ALL Tuition 8-1- 7 2 7 7 12 12 Waldron: Yesterday afternoon it was running every four bonis on the rotation of the "hottest" mateiial. Now that's a hot stack that i 13 songs. With the present system this can't be set exat tly. Chronicle: So every four hours those same IS songs will be batk and then ihe computer pulls out older songs to fill in the sjiaces. Waldron: Fxat tly. and we've got a library full of mateiial that is only icpeaiing every four to five days, like everything from the Fleetwtxxi Mac album. Chronicle: How do you make decisions of what songs sou put on the tut rent reel? Waldron: There are two c uncut reels. One of them has the most popular stings which rotate alxiut every four hours, and there aren't a hell of a lot of jxople who listen to radio four hours consecutively. The other reel is a balance of all the rest of the current stuff. So we have a veiy large play list. Chronicle: Do you go off the Billlx).ud list for the decision of your 13 songs or do you make that decision yourself? Waldron: It's a subjective decision to make. Deciding what aie the best songs to play in the highest rotation on your station Waldron: Yes, that's the purpose of it, wr have to stay in business. We have to attract new listeners, and Stereo X was just not that good a radio station. Chronicle: Is there going to be more or less advertising? Waldron: Less. There isn't any yet, but this is in the future plans. Chronicle: Any closing ideas? Waldron: We're in a business, we're here to t reate monies for the people on the radio station, and my job is to attract new listenets and that's why we're making the change. It's not that we're abandoning the audience, the audience just isn't that big. Payments $20 Late Fee charged with ALL Tuition Payments LAST DAY to withdraw from classes LAST DAY to turn in CRNC cards Last day to ADD classes for the Quarter NO new classes ADDED, NO new Registrations or Reinstatements beyond this date. We're new here, tool We hope to be here to serve you for a long time to come. 0 PAPER BACKS OSTUDENT AIDS SPECIAL ORDERS If You Need a Booh, Function Data 3-- now? cost wise. ih Mot-rif- t jx-opl- Stereo X. Waldron: Yes. sometimes an entire libraiv reel would play through in the middle of the night and that just blow s your format, there is no music being played. Chronicle: Aie the Segues and the King Bist uit hour gone? Waldron: Yes, we did away with everything that had to do with Stereo X. Chronicle: Are you going to have any contest on the new station? Waldron: Right now it is my idea to attract listeners with the quality of the product. Contests are basically a prtxluct of lop 10 radio and basically designed for disc jockeys' egos. Ihe guy is in there with something to do, he is talking to people alxiut an exciting event. Surveys have proven that only six jx reent of the listeners ever juttit ijute in any contest. But it adds some flair because it's that kind of radio. This radio station dtKsn'i need it. Chronicle: You think you w ill gel to be an awful lot more poweiful station in regards to rating? idea. The Skip Waul show was unfoi innately not capable of prtxlucing any better ratings than the automation system. It was like twodifferent radio stations, too much of a contrast. To keep the automation tunning probably would have Ixen a better idea than to keep his show tin. I he Ix'st idea would have been to have disc jot keys but it was prohibited e, Day of WMk listeners and income. Chronicle: It's so much easier to say Stereo X. vou had people hooked on that. Waldron: We're using 99 FM. The reason for that is you gotta tell ixople sour address, where to find you. 'Ilie identity of this station was one major change that had to be made because we wanted to attract new listeners. If you have the old identity we wouldn't attract new listeners and we want to attract new listeners. As far as the rotation of singles, which I've never explained yet, they're all album cuts. And we wouldn't ever play Shawn Cassidy, we don't warn to gooff the deep end. But weare plaving what you hear a opular singles; however, they are alburn tuts, they aie the most xpu)ar cuts from the most jxipulat albums that is why they are singles. We are still plaving an all album foimat here. Rotation has Ix en c hanged to make it moie familiar to more Chronicle: How often does it rotate Page Thirty-fiv- e an important decision to make. Invariably there are going to be a couple of songs in there that will drive you nuts. You try and draw the line w ith what your goals are. On our AM station we route the top 10 songs every two hours. Over 21 hours most of the records are going to get played II to 12 limes a day. So we are only ding half that with this new FM format. Chronicle: How long is the minimum that you will stick with this format? Waldron: Probably through two ratings. See. we're not yet able to refine it to what it's going to be. We are going to transfer all of our music to cartridges in the new system, now we are stuck with big old reels. With cartridges you can pick and choose any number of songs instead of having them follow one another. Chronicle: That clears a lot of the technical foul-up- s that used to haptien on is Any Book, See Us About It. 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