 Ed Scarborough,
Operations Manager,
KLTR-FM, Houston, TX |
The
Heavy
Hitter of
Lite Radio |
 |
Q Ed Scarborough
came to KLTR-Lite-the CBS owned FM station in Houston in June from programming KKHR, Los
Angeles which, upon Ed's exit, became KNX-FM with a classic rock bent. You came into town,
Ed, almost six months ago. Aside from unpack the U-Haul and find a house, what was the
first thing you did at the radio station?
A The
very first thing that happened to me here at K-Lite was that our VP/General Manager Bob
Sexton called a general staff meeting to welcome me to the radio station and introduce me
to all the personnel. A little background here, my predecessor as PD, Steve Matt, had
taken over as PD about the time CBS took over the station, and he felt that he'd taken the
station about as far as he could and offered to step down. In a really generous gesture,
he said he'd like to remove himself from the programming position and turn that over to
somebody who could take the station the rest of the way and would like to continue staying
at K-Lite and do his morning show. That's what created the opening here for me.
Q You
and Bill Minkler put together the format that switched KKHR to KNX-FM in Los Angeles, but
if this situation hadn't beckoned here in Houston, would you have stayed in Los Angeles
and run KNX-FM?
A
Yes. The decision was mine to come here if that's where you're going with that. Thinking
about my needs and the needs of my family, I thought this was a good opportunity and a
good time to move on.
Q You converted two CBS-FM stations –
St. Louis and Los Angeles – to CHR. Have you thought of doing the same thing there?
A
That was the big buzz – that lookout K-Lite – here we go rock and roll. Of
course, that was never the intention not is it. Look at all the CHR – there’s a
new entry in the market just this month.
Q
What’s it like programming a Lite, mellower station? Do you have a playlist of
currents?
|
A Sure, we play about 20 currents. But it’s so wonderful
not to have the intensive of having to run for a brand new record when it comes out. But
sure, we have a playlist and we rotate a portion of our current playlist more often than
another portion – we program in tiers just like any radio station.
Q Do
you pick and program your music based on charts or research or what?
A We
look at all the charts to be aware of the records that are being released and records that
are being worked.
Q You say
"worked" –I’ll be the first thing you found when you got out of LA and
out of CHR was that the record people found you virtually invisible.
A You've got
that right. When you're as spoiled as I was by the excellent record service in Los
Angeles, you really can't understand when nobody does handstands down here. In all
fairness to the labels, I assume our format isn't as important to them as CHR either.
There are several labels who do service us well, and there are several who I've never seen
or heard from or received product from since I've been in town. I called them, too. I
would have expected, though, that the record community would make it their business to
visit and find out about any new PD coming into their territory. True, before I came here,
K-Lite didn't play a lot of current and new music, but I do and I really hope to see and
here from record people what the priorities are. It isn't that we're not worth it
either-we went out of the box on Human League, Ric Ocasek, Toto and a number of other
tunes that went on to be big hits.
Q What
percentage of your sound is hit as opposed to oldies or whatever you'd call them? |
