NEW NBC RADIO VP MICHAEL JOSEPH SETS NEW DIRECTION FOR UNSUCCESSFUL FLAGSHIP STATIONS AND OPERATIONS
NEW YORK — Six of the nation’s top radio markets will be in for increased competition in the near future as the NBC-owned radio stations prepare to make a bid for a healthier and more sizable share of audience in their respective cities.
MIKE JOSEPH 1963
The most significant move made thus far by NBC to become more competitive in this area has been the hiring of former independent station consultant Michael Joseph (Billboard December 28) to guide and develop each station’s operations and programming through the newly created post of vice-president, NBC-owned radio stations. Seasoned observers have noted that Joseph’s title carries with it the significance that Messrs. Sarnoff, Kintner and Welpot (executive vice-president of the NBC o.&o.’s) are not only aware of the serious decline of their owned radio outlets, but the vital need to do something about it now.
Joseph has been doing much about radio stations for more than 13 years. He began his executive career as program director in 1950. Since then Mike has served in the various capacities of program director, national program director, and program consultant for 36 stations representing virtually every type of format on the books.
Working almost exclusively (90 per cent) with net affiliates, Joseph’s list of credits includes several “blue chip” broadcasting groups. Among them are: Capital Cities —where he worked with “good music” outlet WROW MIN Albany, and as vice-president at the highly successful WPRO, Providence; the ABC owned-and-operated radio stations, where he was instrumental in the modernizing and reforming of WABC, New York, he also acted as consultant to KQV, Pittsburgh, and WXYZ, Detroit — as well as all-talker KABC, Los Angeles.
Great Rise
Prior to the switch in 1960 inaugurated by Joseph, WABC was 11th in Gotham. It has since moved into first place (experiencing softening ratings during the past year with the emergence of WMCA into the top slot).
Transcontinent’s WGR Buffalo, also came under the station doctor’s soundscope in 1962 and early 1963. His most recent firecracker is WKNR (formerly WKMH) Detroit, which reportedly (see Billboard January 11) represents one of the most dynamic rating turn around in re-cent radio history.
Other chapters in the success story are WTAC, Flint, Mich; Capital Cities’ WKBW, Buffalo; Corinthian’s WISH (now WIFE), Indianapolis; WKBN, Youngs-town, and “good music” WEW, St. Louis.
“We want to and are going to progress to a point where the six NBC o.&o. radio stations are again pace-setters and leaders in an industry where the parent company enjoys an outstanding reputation,” said Joseph.
The new NBC exec intends to accomplish this seemingly monumental task by completely surveying, monitoring and personally working on the spot with management at WNBC, New York; WMAQ, Chicago; WRCV, Philadelphia; KNBR, San Francisco; WRG, Washington, and WJAS, Pittsburgh. It will be a “good” guessing game to foresee just what programming each will decide on.
Community Service
“Among the things that may be needed,” says Joseph, “is a possible streamlining of operations, techniques, and approach to programming, whatever it may be at these stations in order to ensure greater profitability and utmost service to the community.
“We intend to keep pace with the times in the rapidly changing radio scene.
“We will continue to capitalize fully on the award-winning NBC News and public affairs programming,” Joseph emphasized.
Indeed NBC does have a proud heritage and a royal back-ground that well should be capitalized on by its stations. Among their many other assets (besides a hefty bankroll) is the location of the stations in the nation’s first 10 markets; four are 50,000 watters and two, 5,000 watters. In combination the six stations blanket the major population areas of the United States.
Few, Messrs. Sarnoff, Kintner, Welpot and Joseph included, expect such an important and enormous transformation to take place overnight. However, few can deny that the move forward is long overdue. Behold, the giant awakens! END
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Information and news source: Billboard; January 18, 1964
Before there was Bill Drake, Ron Jacobs, Paul Drew in the mid-1960s, in the beginning of Top 40 radio in the 1950s there was Mike Joseph. In essence, before the KHJ phenomenon was to hit the radio top 40 industry in 1965, Joseph was the perennial radio programmer who birthed the shortened ’30 hits playlist’ in Buffalo’s WKBW in 1957.
Mike Joseph also transcended the short playlist concept here in Detroit when WKMH hired the legendary programmer in 1963. Under Mike Joseph, WKMH became the former on October 31, 1963 — becoming the new WKNR Radio 13 — short playlist and all — and the rest is Detroit radio history.
In the early 1980s, Mike Joseph would return back to Detroit. WJR and station owner Capital Cities Communications hired Joseph for program consultancy for its adult, easy-listening WJR-FM — turning it instead into a new and successful Top 40 powerhouse in the Motor City in 1982 with his ‘Hot Hits’ formula — the new FM WHYT 96.3.
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A MCRFB NOTE: This page/article was taken from a R&R (Radio & Records) special edition published in 1996. The magazine, ‘Bill Gavin’s Top 40’, was published twenty-three years ago in recognition of the 40th anniversary, birth of top 40 radio, 1956.
NEW YORK — Because of a generation gap — a big one that’s highly evident in music today — the major problem in Top 40 radio could be in pinpointing the audience and programming accordingly, said Michael Joseph, one of the nation’s leading programming consultant and an authority in audience flow characteristics of various markets. Joseph spoke on “Trends in Contemporary Music Programming — The need To Know Your Audience.”
Pointing out that among the 40 radio stations he has reprogrammed were 18 Top 40 stations, 7 easy listening stations, variety stations, talk and news, he said there cannot be a ‘Mike Joseph’ format because “every market is different. So are the people. So is the competition. Each sound has to be custom-tailored, its population, to its music, news and information needs and wants, and counter-programmed against every competitor and according to the audience flow in the area.” Even his 18 rockers, he said has a different approach, format and sound.
Between 1952-55, Joseph said he was program director of a highly-rated CBS station . . . and those were the days when every CBS affiliate was No. 1 at least 45 per cent of the audience. Joseph said he saw the handwriting on the wall and went into Top 40, as former radio giants were being sliced up by Storz Broadcasting and McClendon owned-affiliated Top 40 stations. The old affiliated stations were living on its laurels, living in the past, still convinced they were No. 1 when it was no longer true, he said.
Some Trouble
“Today, the contemporary and middle-of-the-road stations are in the same situation as these network stations were 15 years ago,” Joseph said. “You talk to the owners, management, and program people of these stations which had a third to a half of their market’s share 10 years ago, and you will find most of them are traditional in their thinking, living with their old glories and are ignorant of what’s happening in their markets, with their competitors, and especially with the music,” while their share of their audience has dwindled away. Just as Top 40 took away their audiences of the traditional stations, their own audiences are being eroded with all-talk, all-news, country music and soul music stations. Music stations are in trouble, he said, but “as a consultant, I learned never to give a criticism without a cure.”
He recommended surveying the market extensively, knowing the audience, programming the station according to the audience flow and against all the competitors, not just the “guys in your particular bag.”
Going into a city to work on a particular radio station, Joseph said he holes up in a hotel armed with all of the ratings available and transistor radios, then spends anywhere from two to six weeks listening and keeping a log on each station. Next, he visits the Chamber of Commerce and meets with business men to find out the makeup of the market and gather data precisely when people are at work. He said he has “found out, that in most markets there is no such thing as prime time or drive time, as agencies would lead us to believe.” When he was revamping (then WKMH) WKNR in Detroit in 1963, he discovered that the four major automobile plants alone had 170 different work shifts and he remembered another that has as many workers at home or in their cars at 10 a.m. as it had in 5 p.m.
Riots Show
And last month’s Cambodia riots pointed out the difference between college students and New York’s construction workers . . . this type of friction carries over into music, too. “When I programmed a station in Toledo last year, the rockers were low in ratings. I found out why immediately; there was a tremendous white backlash against rhythm and blues. The rockers were sounding like soul stations. I went in without a single soul record and the station skyrocketed from ninth to second within five days.” The reason, Joseph said, is that most of Toledo’s white work force came out of the South 20 or more years ago, while the Negro population was only 9 per cent. But when reprogramming WKNR in Detroit, he played a lot of soul. “Keener was the first white rocker to go Motown,” he said, because Detroit is 50 per cent Negro. His Philadelphia study showed the city to be conservative, so he programmed WFIL with a clean, well balanced adult-sound with little emphasis on soul because Philadelphia is well integrated. “Detroit Negroes think black, Philly Negroes think white,” he said.
‘Rapped Programmers’
He criticized Top 40 radio stations that program teen features and acid rock, hop promos, teen spots and contests mid-mornings when every student is in school. Teen-influenced programmers have taken over and, because they do hops and talk to the kids all of the time, they live and work in a teeny world. “Start communicating with the adults again,” he suggested. “You’ve lost them, and since we do play the numbers game, we must remember that the adults are still the majority.”
The radio industry also needs “basic rock” back in music. “The simple beats and simple lyrics need to return,” he said. “Top 40 music has become too experimental and too technical and lost the majority. You are catering to a majority, and as a result, it has become a minority appeal sound.” He pointed out the popularity of oldies and that the rock ‘n’ roll revivals were no fluke . . . the kids are going to the root of it all.”
He also felt that the teen of today was much smarter and more sophisticated and more involved than 10 years ago and they had to be treated as equals by on-the-air personalities.
In the flood of eager questions which followed his speech on “Trends in Contemporary Music Programming,” Michael Joseph said the “drive time” was growing in its importance to radio programmers. Joseph said that in many cities, because of staggered hours and a multitude of other factors, the drive time market has developed into a virtual 24-hour market.
He noted too that middle-of-the-road radio is undergoing a gradual but definite change and urged both program directors and station managers to work toward halting the erosion in the format.
In answer to a question from the audience, Joseph said that the record sales percentages used in making up his station’s playlist were culled in it’s entirety from record stores and one stops. END
(Information and news source: Billboard; July 11, 1970).
MCRFB NOTE: For previous Mike Joseph entries linked to Motor City Radio Flashbacks, you may go HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Consultant Joseph Working Top 40 Success Over 20 Years In Business (including Detroit’s WKNR 1963)
— First of two parts —
(see also: Mike Joseph; WJR-FM Seeks New Calls — WHYT-FMJuly 3, 1982)
M I K E J O S E P H sits in San Francisco putting the finishing touches on KITS. When the station hits the air this month, the Bay Area will become the fourth market in less than two years to experience Joseph’s new “Hot Hits” format.
“New?” chuckles Joseph. The basics for this concept goes back to 1956. This particular variation on a theme I’ve been evolving and perfecting over a 10-year period since 1972.” The name “Hot Hits” first emerged in 1979 on WFBL, Syracuse,” Joseph recalls, “and it was a co-name. The station was called ‘Fire 14’ and the slogan was ‘Hot Hits.’ The difference between 1956 and today is the fact that the music is 100% contemporary, as it was in 1956. The jocks are using the street language of today, as they did in 1956, and everything else that is on the radio station is ‘today.’ ‘Hot Hits’ does not look back to the past, but as far as the basics and philosophy is concerned, there is no difference between now and 1956.”
Defining that philosophy, Joseph, whose own taste runs the musical gamut but leans toward classical (“I probably have the largest privately owned collection of classical music in the country: 33,000 LP’s, every single classical record that has been manufactured since 1956”), says, “Hot Hits” is playing the most popular records, the most popular artists, the sounds that are contemporary, today’s music on a radio station. That’s the way its defined musically. As a format its a little more besides the music. It’s the energy, the excitement, the unpredictability, the charisma, the personality, the flow, the fun, the general good, exciting radio station that everybody stays glued to. You know there’s something new, different and exciting happening every single minute.”
That description fits the top 40 stations of the mid-’50s and the high energy FMs of the early ’70s. Joseph, like several other respected programmers, see this period as ripe for the re-emergence of energy, “because it has so many things going for it today that all the other competitive sounds do not have.
Most radio stations today are dull, boring, bland, and have a degree of sameness. Everyone has gone 25-to-54. Jocks are laid back, non-personalities. Jingles have been deleted. Contests and promotions have been underplayed. Irritations have been taken off the air, and sameness has been dictated.”
Joseph concedes that this is not entirely the case in San Francisco. Going up against KFRC will be a challenge, he says. ” It’s definitely one of the great radio stations in America, and I think that too might be one of the key reasons I decided on San Francisco. It’s always been a tremendous challenge for me to go up against a big one.”
In Joseph’s favor, KFRC is on the AM band, but KITS — at 105.3, with a single he considers “equal to any of the best in this market” — is an unknown entity, having been Spanish-formatted KBRG for several years. Joseph, however, s not one to overlook any detail. He hand-picked the San Francisco market “because in analyzing to top 10 markets and looking at the stations competitively, it seemed San Francisco was a prime target for ‘Hot Hits.’ It was the most desirable market with the best vulnerability.”
Unlike most consultants, Joseph handles only one station at a time, and his involvement with a station varies “depending on the market, the competition, the particular sound. I will spend between three and six months on the scene, although I have spent as long as a year at a AM-FM combination. Normally I will spend two to four weeks jelling and perfecting the sound, working with the jocks, the program director and the entire staff after the sound hits, and when I see and hear that there is no more that I can do, I take off within 24 to 48 hours. I’m then retained for a 52-week period after my leaving the station.”
With the announcement of its air staff, KITS debut is eminent and Joseph’s work is coming to a close. As with most of his stations, many of his jocks are now unknown entities, but Joseph is confident some will emerge as major personalities. “Personality is extremely important to the format. Going over the last 26 years, if you think about the stations I’ve programmed, all had a very strong format, but they developed some of the greatest radio personalities (including Dick Biondi, Bruce Bradley, Scott Muni, Dan Ingram, Bruce Morrow and Gary Stevens). The same thing is happening today. The same thing is happening today. There are important superstars coming out of ‘Hot Hits.’ Fortunately, I’ve always known how to find them. It is time consuming. You have to go through a lot of work to find out who they are and where they are. But they are there, and I’m still able to find them in the small and medium markets. to bring into the majors. They’re just as good as they were 25 years ago.
“I look for potential. Sometimes that personality has to be molded and developed over a long period of time. There is no such thing as an instant personality, but there are some basics that I look for in a personality. You look for the basic good, strong, projected voice that knows how to express, ad lib, communicate. You look for charisma, that spark, that brightness that gives you a lift. You look for a person who is concerned and has friendliness and love in his voice and in his personality. And you look for a someone who knows how to talk to a listener on a one-on-one basis.”
Joseph has been successful reorganizing these qualities for the better part of three decades. Like most legendary radio figures, his love for the business came early on. “My family was in the nightclub and tavern business, and I was a musician myself — a percussionist. In high school, I guess I was one of the first radio groupies. I was always hanging around the local stations and soaking up all I could.”
From his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, Joseph moved to Cleveland, where he studied pre-law at Western Reserve. “Halfway through college I knew it wasn’t going to be law, but I graduated with a pre-law degree in 1949. Actually, the great education I got turned out to be perfect for a radio career.”
That career started in 1950 in Cochocton, Ohio, where Joseph became program director of WTNS, “one of the most memorable excursions of my life, because that’s where I met my wife.” (Joseph’s wife Eva, had emigrated from East Berlin after World War II). A year later he found himself with Fetzer Broadcasting in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he spent four years as program director of WJEF, a CBS affiliate.
But by 1956, things have changed. “I saw what was happening with network radio. There was a tremendous upsurge in independent broadcasting, and it was the beginning of the Top 40 takeover.
“I felt about top 40 the same way I had felt four years earlier about CBS radio. I did see the writing on the wall, and I did get in on the ground floor at WTAC in Flint, Michigan, which was one of the first top 40 stations in America.
“I went in as program director in December, 1955 and took it top 40 in early 1956. It became one of the highest-rated, most fabled medium-market top 40 stations in America. And that turnaround was so successful that I was made national program director by this particular corporation, Founders, and they gave me their stations in Syracuse, New Orleans and Honolulu. So that was the beginning of my travel era, and I’ve been traveling ever since.”
After two years in that position, Joseph made a bold move. In January, 1958, he decided to go it alone. “That was the first consultancy. In fact, I was trying to figure out what to call myself, and I figured there were management consultants, engineering consultants, why can’t there be a program consultant? So I invented the term.”
Joseph’s first two clients were WMAX Grand Rapids and WROK Rockford, Illinois. “And then I affiliated myself with Avery-Knodel and worked out a deal to consult and program there represented stations,” among which was “the real stepping stone to the big time and a major consultancy for me, the legendary WKBW Buffalo. And that staff I still say is one of the greatest rock staff in the history of rock and roll, including the greatest rock jock ever, Dick Biondi.
“And that was was one of the original “Hot Hits” station. Contrary to what people think today, that the original tight playlist came along in ’65 or ’66, ‘KB’ had 20 records, but it was one of the biggest of that era and is still growing.
“WKBW and then WPRO started my association with Capitol Cities. WPRO Providence was another legendary with another legendary personality, Salty Brine, one of the greatest morning men ever. That was a top 30 station and an immediate turnaround as ‘KB’ was, so I would say that those two stations, more than any other, made me. They created the situation where the entry to WABC became relatively easy.”END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; February 19, 1983)
Joseph Also Recalls Radio History In Detroit 20 Years Ago — WKNR ‘Keener 13’
Second of two articles profiling consultant Mike Joseph, the man behind the “Hot Hits” format.
NEW YORK — In March, 1960, WABC was not a factor in New York radio. “They had tried Top 40 two years earlier in 1958,” recalls Mike Joseph. Their night man was Alan Freed. But it didn’t take. It wasn’t believable against WINS, WMGM and WMCA, so they went middle of the road opposite WNEW. That didn’t work either, so they had gone right out of the book.
“I went in and started working with Hal Neal, who had just come in from WXYZ in Detroit. From March on, he and I used to spend our weekends together, coming up with our promotion, marketing and sales brochure, our format, techniques, contests, jingles, staff connections. When I finally got into the station, we put everything together and hit with that sound on December 7.”
The original WABC lineup included Herb Oscar Anderson from WMCA doing mornings, WAKR Akron’s Charlie Greer and WHK Cleveland’s Farrell Smith in mid-days, St. Louis legend Jack Carney in afternoons, Chuck Dunaway in early evenings, and Scott Muni doing nights.
“Six months later there were three very important changes. Sam Holman came in a mid-morning man he became the first program director — there had been no program director when I was on the scene. And in afternoon drive and early-evening, two legends. Dan Ingram and Cousin Brucie.”
Joseph’s WABC success led to his consulting the rest of the ABC chain, which became one of his greatest challenges. “It was extremely difficult for an ABC owned station to do top 40 at that time because of all the network commitments you had, bringing you one inconsistency right after the other, like ‘Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club’ for an hour every morning, or an hour’s news block at night between six and seven. It was really contrary to top 40. And the ABC-owned stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles not only had the ABC national network, they also had ABC West. The Western network was completely different from the rest of the country, and they had to carry them both.
So there was no way that either KGO of KABC could make it as a legit 100% music operation. They found this out both in top 40 and in middle of the road. And so the Ben Hoberman decision to go talk turned out to be extremely smart, and of course you see where KABC is today.”
From there, Joseph dealt with beautiful music in St. Louis, top 40 in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, and then he met the challenge at WLAV Grand Rapids, which led to his success at WKNR ‘Keener 13’ in Detroit.
“It was the worst signal in the market, literally, an AM at 1310 down the dial, station was situated in suburb, Dearborn, 12 miles from downtown Detroit,” Joseph recalls. “You couldn’t hear the station in downtown Detroit. There were three major rockers at that time, all owned by major corporations, and here was this little company owned by Mrs. Nellie Knorr, this little tin can going up against these three giants.”
Joseph describes his WKNR game plan in two words: “Hot Hits.” “Young, ambitious jocks, another legendary team. It was the freshness, the vibrancy, the promotion, 31 hits over and over again. Strong countdowns at the right times. That’s a very important part of this thing: where I place the countdowns. At that particular time I did a top 30 countdown opposite the breakfast club, I did countdowns whenever CKLW was in a long newscast, and at that time they had half-hour news blocks because of their Canadian commitments.
“Detroit was at that time into the same disease that is afflicting the broadcast industry today: a lot of laid-back radio. They were afraid to play black music, they were very cluttered, uncontrolled, everybody doing his own thing. One of the key things I emphasize in my formatics is discipline. That’s one of the reasons that this sound takes over. It’s extremely disciplined and structured, and with everybody doing what they’re suppose to do, when they’re suppose to do it, it works. And that was the case in Detroit. We we were all on target, everything was right, and the station was unbeatable for seven years.”
Beating the unbeatable is one of Joseph’s specialties. Case in point: WFIL Philadelphia, where Joseph put together another legendary staff which instantly succeeded. “Jim Hillard was my first program director and I believe we won because WIBG got trapped in their own ego. They used to tell me they couldn’t be beaten. Whenever that happens they turn out to be their own worst enemies.”
From there Joseph went to all-news in Denver, all-talk in Minneapolis and Spanish “Hot Hits” in Puerto Rico. “Musically, the elements are the same. Going back to the ingredients and success of ‘Hot Hits,’ the two things you must have are the constant beat and the melody.” Then came mellow rock in Sioux Falls, and, in 1972, “the beginning of the current phase of ‘Hot Hits’ on FM, which started with ‘Super Hits’ on the Malrite station in Milwaukee, WZUU.
“WZUU was really the station that broke the hold of WOKY and WRIT, and I feel the same things that are beating our competitors today are the things that beat those two stations back then. They were all deep in all the no-no’s at that time. George Wilson was program director and Jack McCoy was involved in Bartell radio, which was totally into gold research, and the young maverick, WZUU came along and knocked them off.”
“WZUU was strictly current, 29 currents. The only mistake was running with such a tight playlist and still dayparting with 30 records. My playlists are much more loose and bring in a lot more new material and turn over much faster than ten years ago.”
One element that has not changed is Joseph’s strong belief in dayparting. “It’s very important. And this is a knack that’s very difficult to master, because you got to know the audience flow and the comings and goings of every single person in that territory. You’ve got to know the start and end times of all the schools and the factories. You’ve got to know the lunch breaks, the traffic patterns, and the exact age of who is where at what time.
“The audience flow changes from hour to hour, market to market, and I’ve got not one clock for a station, I’ve got 24 clocks, and it takes me one week to figure out the clocks for a market. And every market is different, but they all add up and determine the energy of the sound, the music, what I play when, combined with the counter-programming I do from my monitor sheets, monitoring each major station for 20 hours a day.”
A Mike Joseph ‘Hot Hits’ (Billboard) two-part article. First published in Billboard, weeks February 19 – 26, 1983.
While Joseph admits “Hot Hits” is primarily targeting ages 12 to 24, he maintains it is truly a 12-plus format. ” ‘Hot Hits’ appeals to everybody. It’s the mix, and obviously the more mass appeal an artist is, the better I like it and the higher my ratings are going to be. Give me the Diana Rosses and the Kenny Rogerses and the Dionne Warwicks and I’ll put them on a fast rotation any time of the day or night. But I will not put a Joan Jett on a fast rotation because I know that she appeals to a narrow age group.”
Unlike most broadcasters today, Joseph is quite vocal about that narrow age group. “One of the worst things that has happened to the future of our industry is the withdrawal of ages 12 to 24 from the radio dial. Reps, agencies, owners, research people are dictating that the only buys out there are 25 to 54. They see 12 to 24 listeners in radio as absolutely useless. If the movie industry would say the same thing, there would be no movie business today.
“Take away the teenagers from television, what would happen to your all your nighttime sitcoms, your afternoon drive shows, your weekend programming? Let’s put up a rule in the baseball parks that nobody 12 to 24 is to see the Los Angeles Dodgers or the San Francisco Giants. Where would they be?
“How many millions are we throwing away because we’ve outlawed youth programming on radio? No other business would do this. And they are our future. You have got to constantly bring in the growth population.
“So what I do with ‘Hot Hits’ is to keep recycling the teenagers into those stations year after year, and at the same time, we keep the adults. It’s no different than it was 25 years ago. The audience will always be there. The only ‘Hot Hits’ type stations that has disappeared over the years gave their audience away. They threw off their teens, and as a result, they gave their future to someone else.”END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; February 26, 1983)
NEW NBC RADIO VICE PRESIDENT POST WILL BE TOUGH ASSIGNMENT FOR MIKE JOSEPH
NEW YORK — Broadcasters did double-takes last week upon hearing of the appointment of Mike Joseph, former program consultant, to the newly-created post of vice-president, NBC-owned radio stations.
Joseph, long-associated with what is usually called swingin’ pop-music formatted stations, will be taking over the reins of one of the nation’s richest and most unsuccessful group of radio station operations owned by the network.
NBC RADIO and television operations are centered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City [Billboard; 1963 photo](Click on image then click original size 900 x 587 2x for larger detailed view).Joseph is fresh from Michigan where he doctored Dearborn’s WKNR (formerly WKMH) — where he instituted an up-to-the-minute pop music and news format. Prior to the WKNR assignment, he “modernized” WGR, Buffalo, New York, with a similar format. He also served as program director at WJEF, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and national program director for the Founders’ stations; WTAC, Flint, Michigan; WSBL, Syracuse, New York; WSMD. New Orleans, and KPOA, Honolulu.
At this juncture Joseph’s duties have not been spelled out. No matter what his duties, he will have his work cut out for him.
The six NBC-owned radio stations are perhaps — as a group — one of the best examples of a low audience appeal approach to broadcasting.
Bottom Of Heap
A thumbnail analysis of each station’s market position reveals the following:
WNBC, New York (50,000 watts): 10th place. One service gives it sixth position 7 a.m. to noon, and 11th, noon to 6 p.m.
WMAQ, Chicago (50,000 watts): Tied for fifth place, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. From 6 p.m. to midnight, ninth. Another service is much kinder, rating the station third in the morning and fourth in the afternoon.
KNBR, San Francisco (50,000 watts): Tied for fifth place in the morning and seventh in the afternoon. Another service rates it sixth in the a.m. and eighth in the p.m.
WRC, Washington D. C. (5,000 watts): Eighth place out of nine stations listed.
WRC, Washington D. C. (5,000 watts): Fourth in mornings and sixth in the afternoon and evening. This outlet tops all others in the NBC chain achieving first place in the morning and third in the afternoon on one rating service.
WJAS, Pittsburgh (5,000 watts): Tied for last place morning and night; last place in afternoons.
It is highly unlikely that four of the six stations could stand on their own financially without being carried by mother flagship network NBC.
Industry observers attribute the sorrowful rating picture of the NBC-owned radio stations mainly due to the fact that they are satellites for the financially successful NBC radio network. The family stations must carry all of the network’s programming, including the full load of “Monitor” Saturdays and Sundays no matter the effect on rating. Affiliates have a choice of scheduling and percentage of net shows carried.
What little there is left for the beleaguered six stations to program on their own is dictated from the sixth floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza where the attitude had been: close down before playing rock and roll, no editorializing, no promotion, etc. The top echelon of NBC has persuaded itself that it is more in the public interest to sacrifice popularity and listeners for image. Apparently the image is fading as quickly as the listener audience in general, translating in poor ratings overall.
In sharp contrast to the NBC operation is the highly successful, aggressive, and modern, ABC-owned radio stations headed by Harold Neil. Each of the ABC stations are for the most part, operated independently with local management calling the shots as to how best serve their immediate communities. ABC places few taboos on their stations.
ABC advertising and promotion in behalf of its owned radio stations has been brilliant and outstanding. CBS has also followed a course of promoting their stations through ads in the consumer and trade press. Although there is a proliferation of other NBC advertising, promotion of its owned radio stations is a rarity.
Speculation has it that no vice-president — however talented and capable as Mike Joseph is successfully known for his brilliant approach in various radio consultations and changes he implemented during the course of this year alone — will be able to solve the dilemma of the NBC-owned radio stations without a complete change of thinking and approach by the two men who are presently calling the shots for NBC radio, Robert Kintner and Robert Sarnoff.END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; December 28, 1963)
NEW CALL LETTERS SOUGHT: WJR-FM Getting Joseph, ‘Hot Hits’
NEW YORK — When consultant Mike Joseph arrives in Detroit the first week in July, he’ll be taking his “Hot Hits” format to WJR-FM, which petitioned the FCC for a call-letter change to WHYT-FM on June 8.
Joseph confirmed Thursday that he would “monitor and research” the Motor City market for WJR, but it’s premature for him to commit to a new station sound. The Capitol Cities property is now a beautiful music outlet in the Detroit market.
WHYT-FM studios situated on the 21st floor of the Fisher Building in 1986.(Click on image for larger view; photo courtesy Gary Berkowitz).
Joseph normally lives in the market he’s consulting for a six-month period. But he says the length of his stay in Detroit will be “open ended.” The consultant last worked on the city scene in 1963, when he engineered a one-book turnaround for WKNR-FM, which simulcast the Top 40 sound he instituted for WKNR-AM during that time.
WJR-FM general manager Roger J. Longwell was in Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio on Wednesday, and was unavailable for comments on Joseph’s hiring. But WJR-FM sales manager Roger G. Sisson confirmed that the station had petitioned the FCC for new call letters and that other Motor City stations have been notified.
WHYT airstaff in 1986: Capt. Rick Jagger; Mark Jackson; Mike Benson; Jennifer Stevens; Bob Shuman; Dirk Hunt; Bobby Mitchell; J.J. Walker; Michael Waite and Bob Stuart. Kneeling: Hal Buttermore and Gary Berkowitz. (Click on image for larger view; photo courtesy Gary Berkowitz).
Joseph’s arrival “proves again that Detroit is the most volatile market in the country,” according to Elaine R. Baker, vice-president and general manager of WOMC-FM (104.3), an adult contemporary Metromedia outlet in Detroit. “I suspect the stations in the market will take a wait-and-see attitude.”
Baker says she doesn’t anticipate a format change at WOMC at present, although she notes that “aggressive management always look at new possibilities. But we’re adult contemporary and that’s where we are today.” Asked about any possibility for change “tomorrow” at WOMC-FM, the station executive replied, “I don’t have a crystal ball.” END
(Information and news source: Billboard; July 3, 1982).
NEW NBC RADIO VP MICHAEL JOSEPH SETS NEW DIRECTION FOR UNSUCCESSFUL FLAGSHIP STATIONS AND OPERATIONS 
