Ratings ‘war’ goes on
Eugene awaits two
‘new’ FM stations
By KEVIN HARDEN
Of the Emerald
Listeners who turn their radio
dials to two Eugene FM stations
next year may be surprised by
what they hear. Some may not
notice the difference, but two
KZEL, which went on the air 16
years ago as KWFS-FM, was sold
to California businessman Rob
Skinner, who purchased KBDF
earliei this year.
Skinner, a former radio an
nouncer who bought both stations
for Jayar Communications, Inc., is
hurt it, he says. With the help of
KBDF and the corporation, KZEL
listeners shouldn’t notice a drastic
change in musical format.
“The changes we should make
are called natural evolution,’’ Gar
rett says.
Competition within the FM radio
“new” FM stations soon will be on
the air.
Those stations, KZEL, a
progressive-rock station at FM 96
and KFMY, a similar station at FM
98, are being taken over by two
AM radio stations and officially will
*^in operating under new own
‘C /"P sometime before the end of
Tile year.
Although a final decision on the
purchases has yet to be made by
the Federal Communications
Commission, KZEL and KFMY
probably will change hands this
month. The FCC decision is due
by the end of August.
also doubling as general manager
of KBDF.
After the FCC approves the sale
of KZEL, it may keep the same
format of music.
But there may be one slight
change, says Stan Garrett, KZEL
program director. The station, with
the help of the Jayar Communica
tions corporation, will be able to
specialize its musical format in
stead of trying to please a large
variety of people, Garrett says.
The financial stability available
from a large corporation will im
prove the station’s operation, not
market in the Eugene-Springfield
area has increased dramatically
over the past few years. Individual
FM stations, trying to operate on
small advertising budgets, usually
went bankrupt. An AM-FM combi
nation can reach a larger audi
ence and bring in more advertis
ing dollars, Garrett says.
“The (radio market) pie remains
the same size, just the number of
people going after it are de
creased by two.”
Although there is a fear that FM
stations owned by AM stations will
compromise their musical for
mats, Garrett thinks that KZEL
won’t be caught in the competition
squeeze.
“Just the opposite,” he says.
"We ll be in a much more stable
position than we've ever been in.
In fact, there will be a little bit of a
cushion, so we can go for a
specific type of audience. Before
we were trying to be all things to all
people.”
But the competition for top rank
ing by Arbitron has been almost
minimal in the FM market since
radio station KSND, FM 93, began
playing Top-40 songs on an FM
musical format.
KSND, which is also owned by
KASH-AM, has been the top-rated
FM station in the Eugene area for
the last rating period. And, accord
ing to Bill Dudley, a radio an
nouncer and program direction for
KASH, that ranking will be hard to
beat.
The advent of two "new” FM
stations with more money to up
grade their formats won't hurt
KSND at all, Dudley predicts.
KBDF, which was the top-ranked
AM station last year, has slipped
in the Arbitron ratings and will
probably fall behind KASH on the
AM side. KZEL will also be far be
hind KSND on the FM side, he
says.
“All that is important is trends,"
Dudley explains. “And right now
the trends for KASH and KSND
are going way up while the trends
for KBDF and KZEL are going way
down.”
Whatever happens, KASH and
KSND will be ranked higher than
KBDF and KZEL, even if the two
merge, Dudley predicts. And,
even with four communications
companies vying for a top spot in
the Eugene FM radio market,
KSND might be the only station
that won’t have to change its for
mat.
“Why should KSND change?
It’s doing what it does best without
any competition right now.”
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