FMQB 07.08.05
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John Rozz has been in radio for nearly 23 years, starting right out of college at an AM station in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and has never looked back. While football and sports were at the forefront of his mind, he was bitten by the injury bug (knee) and immediately gravitated toward broadcasting, where the radio bug bit him even harder.
We caught up with Rozz for this week's FMQB Up Close interview and got up-to-speed with the ins-and-outs of broadcasting in a surprisingly crowded and competitive radio market. Here's a taste of what transpired...
On WJBX being a "Red State" Modern Rock station... The state of Florida, in general, is pretty much a Rock state. I hate to categorically say that, but if you look at the Alternatives around the state, for the most part they're a little crunchier than maybe other parts of the country. Rock works down here; Rock rules. And there is a midwestern blue-collar mentality in Ft. Myers. ... If I'm to make a generalization about the entire state of Florida, we Rock a little more than most Alternatives, yes. On skinny tie and Garage Rock... Unfortunately, bands like that really have to fight hard to make it on the WJBX playlist. I have tried The Killers. I have tried bands like Modest Mouse and Franz Ferdinand. I have tried poppier and more Emo-sounding Alternative bands, and there is a list of a good 25. Ninety-nine percent of that does not make it to power and/or recurrent.
On HD Radio... This is an opportunity now to offer much of what satellite radio offers. You can find your niche. I can offer the more poppy Alternative sound of 'JBX on one channel, and an extreme side of 'JBX on another. And, of course, I can have the mother ship, 99X, being a mix of both and drive it down the middle. Now I'm encompassing all 99X Alternative listeners by having various levels of the station.
On constantly super-serving the target demo... You need to super-serve your audience. Satellite has the opportunity because it's not purely about ratings and revenue. Inevitably it's about revenue, yes. Every business is about revenue, but you don't have to worry about trying to sell that 8.8 share because they have a niche of a niche of a niche. And that's what all the satellite channels can offer because you're paying for one, giant, homogenous service and then you can break it down to what you want and never change the damn channel. In terrestrial radio, you really can't hone in and super-niche yourself or else you're going to niche yourself right out of business.
On the Jack format... Honestly, Jack is a great weekend, but I don't know if it's a format. Much like the majority of the '80s stations, it's a good fix for some, but being a mile wide and an inch deep is against the majority of all radio principles. ... I believe this too shall be a fad, and two years from now they're going to be flipping to something else - if it even lasts two years.
