Robin began her radio career at KGO San Francisco as a writer and producer and then executive producer. She was working under Jack Swanson, who taught her quite a bit. She was then hired at KOA Denver with Lee Larson. Later, former KFI LA PD David Hall was trying to get a job at Premiere in programming and needed to find a replacement at KFI. He found Robin. Since then, she’s kept the ratings high, helped steer KFI through a couple of snags, won some awards for ongoing commitment to public affairs, the community and education, and keeps the promise of “More stimulating talk radio.” Today, we ask Robin:
How do you program KFI and KTLK differently, so as not to cannibalize each other in the market?
I don’t worry about it one bit, it doesn’t concern me. Consumers have so many choices in the marketplace, I just try and program them both so they’re good and interested. They are kind of different, but the cannibalization is not what I’m worried about.
There are 13 million people in the market, so if you think about all of the talk stations, all of the news sources, all of the websites and all of the ways people can get engaged with information, I’m just trying to find was to reach audience.
So my focus is more on how do we tap into people that are interested in this kind of stuff and get them to listen.
What are the different audiences you are trying to reach with each station?
KFI is a 35-54-targeted station. We have a long heritage of being sort of the voice of Southern California. A great news image, a great talk image. I think because of Rush people might think we’re conservative, but that’s actually not true. Our shows are issue by issue, case by case. We talk about a lot of stuff that’s not politics. In fact, politics is probably one of the smaller things we do.
On KTLK, we’re really making a concerted effort to connect with different communities that maybe haven’t been as engaged in talk radio—more of a multicultural audience. So that’s been a real focus of ours and an exciting venture.
Are we talking about folks where English is their second language?
No, not necessarily. English may be their first language. Maybe for whatever reason they haven’t felt like there is a great talk station that speaks to them or for them. That’s the audience we’re trying to target.
What are you looking for most in national or local talk show hosts when considering adding them to the lineup of each station?
For us, the real power has been to be really local. That’s been a huge asset for us. We’re really fortunate to carry a lot of local programming, but having said that, there are some phenomenal national shows. Coast to Coast: What a unique, fantastic and scary program. When you’re listening at night, it can give you the willies. I love Leo Laporte, the tech guy.
I guess what I’m looking for are shows that will attract an audience, get ratings, speak to our audience. Compelling, entertaining, interesting, exciting.
Locally, I’m looking for the same thing—people that get the community that we live in, people that are in touch with the audience, people that are not political ideologues, but free-thinking, smart, and can figure things out.
Next week we ask Robin:
–What do you do with all of the talent demos and applications to be behind the mic? Do you have time to listen to all of them?
—How do you coach local talk hosts on the two stations? What are some of the top priorities and suggestions you discuss with them? Do you have to go over what not to say so as not to offend parts of the audience, a la John and Ken Show?
—What do you tell your hosts to help increase the number of call-ins or to get the audience enthused in general to increase ratings?
