October 14, 2013 – Motor City Radio Flashbacks

MIKE JOSEPH KEEPS GETTING HOTTER WITH HIS ‘HOT HITS’ FORMAT . . . FEBRUARY 19, 1983

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1983

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-FM July 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)

MIKE JOSEPH MAKES ‘HOT HITS’ HOT! . . . FEBRUARY 26, 1983

From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 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.”

Mike Joseph 'Hot Hits' article, first installment, as first appeared in Billboard, February 19, 1983. — 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)