By Adam R Jacobson
RBR + TVBR
KAHULUI, HI — Chuck Bergson lives and works in “paradise.”
Since 1990, he has served as an owner and manager of Pacific Media Group, a Maui-based media company that owns radio stations on both the Valley Isle and on the Big Island of Hawaii.
His stations reach some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and lush, tropical locales such as the I’ao Valley.
Two of the stations are unique, and offer local programming that speaks to the native Hawaiian population, as well as the “total market” Hawaiian who enjoys a little island reggae in their life.
What’s also unique is how Pacific Media Group is growing as a company. This growth isn’t coming from the acquisition of additional radio stations. Bergson and his partners had that opportunity. Rather, the growth is happening digitally – and all from a nondescript building with no clearly visible signage on a side street behind Maui’s largest shopping mall.
On a recent visit to Pacific Media Group’s Kahului-based headquarters, home to its Maui media operations, Bergson looked the part of a Hawaiian business professional, clad in a light blue, flowered Hawaiian dress shirt and slacks. On his desk sits copies of Hawaiian Business and Radio INK.
His Maui radio stations were in the midst of the annual summer ratings survey, conducted by Eastlan. Sista Val, the midday host at top-rated KPOA-FM 93.5, the traditional Hawaiian music and information station, was in the studio.
With the latest ratings not set for release for a few more weeks, only summer 2015 data was available for guidance. That being said, the success of the Pacific Media Group stations goes far beyond the annual ratings report’s findings.
“We are about relationships, and results,” Bergson says.
When it comes to revenue, national and regional advertising, in the form of buys made in Honolulu, are an important ingredient. “National accounts for 10% of our advertising, while regional accounts for about 30%,” he notes. “Local dollars are usually anywhere from 55%-60% of our advertising.”
Big categories include automotive, and grocery. These are regional buys, with Bank of Hawaii, Foodland supermarkets, Nissan North America and McDonald’s some of the larger clients. National advertisers active with the PMG stations include Safeway.
MAUI, MARYLAND, OR MONTANA: THE STRUGGLE IS THE SAME
Bergson is proud of how his group of radio stations have captured audience share, and ad dollars.
However, there are challenges that have been likely echoed across much of the U.S. mainland. PMG’s four FM stations – Island Reggae KLHI-FM “Native 92.5,” CHR KJMD-FM “98.3 DA JAM,” AC KJKS-FM “99.9 Kiss FM” and the aforementioned KPOA – are all strong performers.
“We have good programming, and good sales,” Bergson says.
Then there are the AMs – ESPN Radio and Bloomberg Radio.
“The AMs are a challenge … still,” he laments.
Signal coverage is one drawback. The other is the simple fact that when it comes to listening to the “radio,” the FM band is the primary selection.
On the FM band, localism is in abundance. Scan from station to station, and you will hear locally originating programming on each of PMG’s FMs. KAOI Inc.’s competitors, including flagship Adult Alternative KAOI-FM 95.1 and Classic Hits KHEI-FM 107.5 “The Buzz,” feature local hosts and playlists tailored to Maui residents. Satellite-fed programming is present on the local Country station, and Hawai’i Public Radio has a strong presence.
While there’s a lot more local air personalities on the air than in some top 15 markets on the mainland, Bergson says attracting, and keeping, talent is not an easy task for his company or for his competitors. That also goes for finding good sales talent, and station management.
“Most of the people on the air we’ve developed ourselves,” Bergson says. “They may be performers, or in a band, or a host at a luau. That is where most of our talent comes from.”
While there’s probably no luau in Salisbury, Md., or Mizzoula, Md., the point is simple: Finding great talent can come from places right in your own backyard you may have not even considered.
On the sales side, longevity has proven to be the hallmark of PMG’s vitality. But, that’s not necessarily a positive. Bergson says, “The good news is we have had stability. The bad news is we’re all getting older.”
A “youth movement” is part of Bergson’s bigger plan, one that is also tied in to the company’s growth plan.
“Our digital business is doing really well,” he says.
In fact, the biggest expansion effort for PMG right now involves MauiNow.com. Prior to its launch, Maui residents largely received their news from television stations based on neighboring Oahu, or via The Maui News, a print-focused operation with a website designed to drive newspaper subscriptions.
“As you know, the media world changed … and has continued to change,” Bergson says. “Newspapers, the Yellow Pages, TV – a lot of them here didn’t change. We sat and thought, ‘Why not become the new newspaper, via a digital app?’”
Thus was the genesis of MauiNow, which offers regularly updated news stories and select video news reports every day. At the front of PMG’s building sits what will soon be MauiNow’s main studio and anchor desk, as it prepares for a daily newscast delivered exclusively via the internet.
“Because we are not Honolulu, can we fill a news reporting void? I think we can,” Bergson says.
This also includes strong weather coverage, given the unpredictable nature of Maui’s climate. Malika Dudley, who has experience working at Honolulu television stations, is MauiNow’s weather anchor; her reports are promoted throughout the day across PMG’s radio stations.
‘WE TRY THINGS’
As RBR + TVBR recently reported, the concept of a local digitally based solution to filling a news gap isn’t unique. Saga Communications’ Clarksville, Tenn. station group is home to ClarksvilleNow.com.
But Bergson and his PMG team have taken things a step further in their quest to capture advertising dollars.
“We have a plan to replace the visitor restaurant guides and magazines with a Maui dining app,” Bergson says. “We try things. We even tried a real estate-focused digital product, but the realtors were tied to their old-school mentality that things needed to be published. So, we publish a real estate magazine. Then, we cut the magazine since it was losing money every month.”
Moving forward, Bergson is hot on video.
“People get their video differently now,” he says. “They go onto their phone, and tablet, to access it via YouTube and a website. This can be cross-promoted, and drive traffic across all of our properties.”
For PMG, that’s essential to the bottom line: Keeping the radio stations healthy, and profitable.
“Radio is our core,” Bergson says. “It’s our foundation. But our objective is to become a full media company, including video. Radio still drives this market, and it’s the people that really make it happen.”
Just ask Jim Falk.
“We created a household name,” Bergson says of the prominent auto dealership owner whose name today is ubiquitous across Maui. “You can’t go anywhere without hearing his name, so why not leverage that? This is thanks only to radio.”
There’s also the good-old radio station contest, and PMG’s stations are no slouches when it comes to rewarding its listeners. On Native 92.5, the big summer promotion was a fly-away trip to New York, complete with tickets to a WWE event at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center. Kiss was awarding $1,000 to a lucky listener. While these promotions were occurring during an Eastlan ratings period, Bergson says his stations offer promotions year-round.
“When we do well in the ratings, it helps us with the national and regional ad buys,” Bergson says. “It helps us get audience, which helps us get customers.”
Some 26 years after relocating to Maui from California’s Monterey Bay, and some three decades after starting his career in affiliate relations at ABC Radio Networks, Bergson is pleased with PMG’s accomplishments – including finding a tower site for KLHI and KPOA, greatly expanding each station’s coverage area, and then in 2013 selling the towers above Ulupalakula Ranch in Upcountry Maui to American Tower.
What’s next for PMG? “We are launching video walls in all neighbor-island airports,” Bergson says, giving him entry into the out-of-home category in every Hawaiian island except Oahu.
With 10 sales people in Maui and 7 on the Big Island, and Bergson, too – “I sell … that’s what I love to do.” – PMG is ready for new business. The digital business presently accounts for 20% of the company’s revenue. Where does Bergson see PMG in 2021?
“I want us to be the dominant media companies in the markets we are in,” Bergson says. “At one time we thought about buying stations in the other Hawaiian islands. Now, we are not building horizontally but building vertically.”
When walking around the PMG building, you could easily forget you were in Hawaii. Older equipment and a closet converted into a tiny two-person Kiss FM studio could remind you of that small-market radio station in an unrated market you began your career in.
Yet, as many a radio industry executive has said throughout the years, it’s what comes out of the speakers that matters.
For PMG, it’s also what people see online that matters.
With Bergson in place and an aloha vibe, perhaps he and his staff really are working in paradise.
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