Scott Statham, Production Director, WMXL-FM/WLAP-AM/WWYC-FM, Lexington, KY
by Jerry Vigil
This month's interview takes us to one of America's small markets, Lexington, Kentucky, where we get a glimpse of an AM/FM combo that recently acquired another FM station. Production Director Scott Statham talks about the major task of producing for three stations, shares some of his solutions to problems that arise in such situations, and he discusses something that all production people in Lexington deal with (something that people in medium and major markets might find hard to believe). It seems Lexington's entire production population -- Production Directors, jocks, copywriters, voice talents, and their studios, too -- is up for grabs...free of charge...to any client...any agency...anytime.
R.A.P.: How did you get into radio, and how did you wind up in Lexington?
Scott: Well, I started out planning to be in TV. My high school had a television station, and we'd broadcast the news to all the students every year. Then I went to college in Ohio. I found radio there. I was on the air doing the farm report at the college station three weeks after I got there. About a year and a half later, I got a part-time job doing weekends at an AM full-service station, WMAN in Mansfield, Ohio. I left school into my second year and got a job as a janitor at the college. I later went back to school and got free tuition because I was a full-time employee. Then I became the Program Director, Assistant Music Director, and PSA Director at my college station. I was the PD at the same time I was working full-time for the school and also a full-time student at the school. I was pretty determined to get my degree.
Two weeks after I took my last final exam I had my first full-time job. That was in Hyannis, Massachusetts, at WPXC. It was a brand new station. When I got there, there was no equipment in the studio, so I got to help build the studio for the most part, catalog all the music, and do everything that goes with the start-up. I was there for a little over a year as the Production Director. I was Music Director there for a little while, too.
Then I got married, had a child, and quit radio for about two years. I later lucked into a job where I had worked in college, at WMAN in Mansfield. They found out I was back in Ohio, called me, and I was there for about a year and a half.
I got a couple of offers and I realized I didn't need to be in Mansfield, Ohio making not very much money. When I saw the ad for the station here in Lexington, Kentucky, I called Barry Fox, who was then the Program Director. Over the course of two weeks, I sent him about four tapes. They didn't offer me the job at first. They offered it to someone else, and the guy turned it down. Then they offered it to me, and I said no because the money wasn't good enough. Eventually, they decided maybe they ought to increase the money a little, and here I am.
The day before I drove down, Barry told me that when I got down there, he wouldn't be the Program Director. "I'm stepping down, and you're going to have a new Program Director," he said. That kind of shook me up at first, but it has all worked out. We went from being Power 94.5 to MIX 94.5 five months after I arrived. We went from CHR to bright AC.
R.A.P.: When did the company buy the third station?
Scott: About six months after I arrived, we were told that we were acquiring a third radio station. No one would tell us what the format would be, but the rumors persisted and we all pretty much knew. Young Country went on the air February 18th of this year. Then, on April 1st, our AM station, which had always been an oldies satellite station, went business/talk. They got a whole bunch of new equipment, too. So things changed a lot in a matter of about a year and a half here.
R.A.P.: What are your responsibilities now at all three stations?
Scott: For several weeks, I thought all I was here to do was to fix things. I guess you could say I'm also an assistant to the Chief Engineer. There are a lot of interesting events that happen with computerized studios, and I spend a lot of time on that equipment when there's a problem. People often come to me and say, "Tell me about this. Explain why this has happened." There are a lot of times when it's just human error, and I'm the one who has to end up fixing it.
The commercials, promos, all the recorded stuff, except for the music on our stations, are played from three different formats. On our AM station, they're recorded onto a hard disk on a computer. On MIX 94.5, it's carts, and on Young Country it's on Bernoulli disks, for the DigiCarts. So we've got triple the work. Even if the spot is running on AM only with the hard disk system, we still have to cart them up first before we transfer to disk. If they're running on Young Country and AM, then we have to cart them and put them on a Bernoulli disk. You can double up and press two or three buttons at a time, but it slows you down quite a bit.
I write all the commercials. Commercials that come in written, I usually edit or at least review, then make changes and send them back for approval. Client copy is sometimes lacking. I spend a lot of time in the production studio doing spots. Recently, I've tried to push most of the spots off on everyone else so I can concentrate on doing station promos, liners, and sweepers. I have a continuity person now who is just learning how to do many things. I'm still watching over her, trying to give her some direction and show her how to get things out of the salespeople that are sometimes difficult to get from them.
R.A.P.: When Young Country WWYC was purchased, were there any production or continuity people kept?
Scott: There was nobody brought over from the other station. They were all let go. They added an air staff to get us started, and the Program Director didn't arrive until two weeks before the station went on the air. So there was a lot done before he got here. My continuity person is the sales assistant. She writes all the proposals and such, but she's new to the production side of radio. She's my only support person, besides the jocks who cut commercials.
R.A.P.: How long had you been handling all the work before your assistant began to help?
Scott: Up until about a week and a half ago. She'd been trying to help me a little bit, but I had a really difficult time letting go. I wanted to make sure it was all done right, so I'd do it myself. I learned that the more important word in my title is Director. I delegate much more now. I sat down with my General Manager and said, "What is the potential of my getting some assistance?" He said, "In the way of another body, don't count on it. There's been a lot of investments made by our company in the past year with this new station, so you just have to figure out what you don't need to be doing."
So I went home and took out a piece of paper and I said, "Okay, I do this and I do this." I made a list and said, "Okay. What don't I have to do?" Then I came in the next morning and said, "You get to do that. Hey you, come here. You get to do this. When there's a problem and it's your production time, you do this." I just started shuffling it off because I needed time to do the things I do best.
It has just been a week that I've been doing that, maybe a few more days than that, but I can already see the time saved. I've written about three pages of promos for the three stations, and I'm getting that time to be able to do the stuff that I haven't been able to do for so long. We were getting some stuff pre-produced and sent to us, and the PD was producing some. I just didn't have the time. I was committed totally to the sales requirements. Young Country was a big success, much bigger than they expected it to be. It's sold out all the time now, and we haven't gotten our first book back.
R.A.P.: Three radio stations...are they in two buildings or one?
Scott: One building, but it's expanding. Right now there are 32 full-time employees here, I think. We have six salespeople in one office, which is pretty large. They all have cubicles, but they're about to move into what I call the sales gymnasium. It's about four times the size of what they've got now.
R.A.P.: How many production studios for these three stations?
Scott: There is one. It's got a Harrison Pro-7 board, a Sony 4-track which loses its tracking all the time because it takes the tape down between the pinch roller and the capstan. There are two Studer 2-tracks. We've got the DigiCart in there, Denon disk player and a Studer disk player that is as old as they get. For effects we've got the Lexicon PCM70, and a bunch of other cart decks -- nothing all that spectacular beyond that.
But there's a new production studio coming. After the president of the company was here today, I think it won't be very long before we get it. Right now the Young Country studio is in what used to be the second production studio, so we added more work in the production department but took away one of the studios. Young Country is expected to be in their new studio within three weeks. After that will come our studio. I'd say late September or October.
R.A.P.: Do you know how the new production studio is going to be equipped?
Scott: We're working on it. We've got to order within two weeks. Digitally, we've talked about a whole bunch of stuff. Every time I get RAP magazine, I look and say, "Oh, that's interesting." I call the number, and they send me literature. Then it's this one has this much better than that, this one's that much cheaper, the Track*Star 8 is six grand and, boy, I'd like to have four of those, but then the Pacific Recorders digital workstation sounds as good as you can get. One of our stations under Trumper Communications has that system. Our Chief Engineer was going to call them today and get the word on it. We've got another station in our group that has the Studer Dyaxis and another one that's got the AKG system. We're far from narrowing it down, but it's going to be digital. However, we're not going to go with DAT. I just keep thinking that DAT's going to die because of recordable CDs. I think people will just like them so much better.
We're going to get another Denon deck and another DigiCart so we can transfer everything into the Young Country studios. That's about as far as we've gone, actually. We've got money allocated, and it's just a matter of figuring out how to spend it. It all came up quickly. We didn't expect it to be coming this soon, and then the president showed up today and said, "I think we need to move a little faster." That's fine by me.
R.A.P.: How are your stations doing in the market?
Scott: MIX is in the top five. The book's not in yet but we have Accu-ratings. I think we're running third and fourth, somewhere in there, depending on the demo. Young Country, like I said, has really surprised a lot of people. I've been out to some of their remotes, and the reaction to this new station is just incredible. There's this huge country station in town that has a lot of years behind it, and their AM-FM combo is about 40% of the market. So we all knew we were going country before anybody told us we were going country, because anything else would be insane. That's a big piece of pie to chew on. You get a little bit of that and you're doing all right. They're hoping for fifth or sixth place in this book. As far as the AM station goes, right now we just switched it over to this business/talk format, the BRN network. We haven't been promoting it because we have been concerned with Young Country, the building and everything else that's been going on. The AM has really been on the back burner, but I think with a little time and some promotion, it could be a money maker for this company, and it hasn't been for some time.
R.A.P.: With three stations and three formats, do you find yourself having to cut three different commercials for the same client?
Scott: There have been cases where we're cutting different commercials for different formats, but usually it's just two different commercials. The AM is attached to one or the other. We rarely write commercials that are strictly for the AM. For Young Country and MIX, we do cut different commercials on occasion. Right now, all three stations are sold by a single sales team. The sales team is going to split on August 1st, and one team will sell Young Country and the other team MIX and WLAP, I think at that point, when they're both calling on the same client and coming back with different information, that we're going to be writing and producing two commercials for the same client.
R.A.P.: Are they going to add more salespeople?
Scott: Yes, they are.
R.A.P.: What plans do you have to take care of the extra load that is bound to occur with extra salespeople?
Scott: One thing we're looking into is the Tapscan Continuity Director software package. There's going to be more work, but if I can get my Continuity Director up to speed, and she's coming along very fast, I don't think there's going to be a real problem. At that point, what I intend to be doing is nothing but writing. Then I'll work on specs. Then finally, I'll work on station promos and leave all the commercial production to everyone else, because we have about twelve different people who can cut spots besides myself.
R.A.P.: You do have a rather large air staff.
Scott: Yeah. It's nice to have that much variety. We're doing a car dealer promotion, the Great Red Mile Car Sale. The Red Mile is a race track here. The Great Red Mile Car Sale is nine different car dealers all at this one race track for three days. It's our exclusive promotion, and had it been done a year ago, we'd have the same voice running on two different car dealers because we didn't have nine voices. Now, every single car dealer who's running spots for the Red Mile Car Sale has a different voice on their spots.
R.A.P.: How many commercials would you say you and the jocks are writing and producing in a week?
Scott: I want to say twenty or thirty. I know it's quite a few. It keeps me busy. I write at home a lot. Then, I write promos on top of that. I was going hot and heavy up until the time that Young Country went on the air, then I just fell flat on my face when it came to promos and sweepers. The salespeople give you a deadline, and the programming staff doesn't. The salespeople would say, "I have to have this done by this time," and so that has to come first.
R.A.P.: Describe a typical day for you.
Scott: I'm here by nine o'clock, although probably twice a week I'm here by seven o'clock. I come in, I check for missing spots, which is a constant it seems like. I never had that problem until we had three radio stations. My arms just aren't quite long enough. I check for missing materials, carts that have gone bad, sometimes the DigiCart system locks up and won't play anything, other issues like that. I write until 11 or 11:30, and then I go to lunch if I can. Other times it's an opportunity to get into the studio because nobody else is using it, and I'll skip lunch to take the studio time. I produce until two, then follow up on my Continuity Director and help her out and give her some direction on what she needs to do. Then I make that search at the end of the day for whatever is missing that's supposed to start the next day.
I'm interrupted a lot -- that's my biggest problem. I wish I had two hours of nobody interrupting me, of no one coming into my office. That would be quite a blessing.
R.A.P.: There are some Production Directors who take the time, who hold calls and lock doors for one or two hours a day. Maybe it's something you can work in down the road.
Scott: Well, the new deadlines I'm introducing are really going to help. Like I said, we've not had deadlines here, ever, and they all know they're coming. I've hinted at what they're going to be. If it's a dub we're needing, we have to know where and when it's going to be ready no later than three o'clock, or it's not going out until sometime mid-morning the following day. We're not going to have a midnight start. I think more than anything else, that will just wake some people up, and they'll say, "Oh, I've got to get on the ball a little bit."
R.A.P.: If you're producing for three stations, you're probably going to run into clients who want to use your spot on other stations as well. Are you finding this to be the case?
Scott: Yeah, we're doing a lot more dubs than we have done in the past.
R.A.P.: This has to help your freelance income out a bit, doesn't it?
Scott: Well, actually, this market doesn't have a rate for dubs. Everything is done free because we're "buddies" with the other radio stations, I guess. If a client wants a dub, we just make the dub, and it goes over to the other stations at no cost. All the other radio stations do the same for us.
R.A.P.: The entire market is this way? And we're talking about spots that are written and voiced by you and people on your air staff?
Scott: Both. There were some spots I did last year that were completely from my head, unasked for. It was one of those times when I just said, "I've got an idea. I'm going to try it." I had the time at that point, and I put the spot together. The AE played it for the client and he just went off. He made a couple of changes, and we had a series of five or six different commercials running for this client. He took them and put them on this station, put them on that station, put them all over the place. I put a lot of time into that, and it was just.... Oh well, it was free to go across town, no matter how much work or effort I put into it.
R.A.P.: You basically created a full blown campaign for this client, from concept to writing to talent to production, with no compensation.
Scott: Yeah, it was a campaign.
R.A.P.: Have you talked with any of the other production people in town about charging talent fees?
Scott: I've brought it up with a couple of people. Their general response was, "You're right, but it'll never happen." I spoke with my General Manager about it, and he pretty much said, "The market won't support it."
Charging for dubs has never been done here, and I'm not sure what it takes to get it done. I think our market rank is 126. Maybe there's a cutoff point where it stops happening. Most of the people I talk with are in larger markets, and they charge talent fees. I know we didn't do it in Mansfield, Ohio, but I was told by some people that we should be doing it there. Then I thought, "Well, when I come down here to Lexington, we'll definitely be charging because it's a jump of 100 markets." But it doesn't happen here either.
R.A.P.: And you've never been given any reason other than "the market won't support it?"
Scott: That was the statement made.
R.A.P.: Do you know exactly what that means?
Scott: Really, I don't. I've talked to a lot of people about it. I've talked to salespeople about it who have been selling for quite some time, and they're all saying, "Look. If we charge for production, they're going to go across town and get somebody else to do it." And I say, "Yeah, but if we get every station in the market, or at least the three powerhouses in town to do it, then we can force everyone else to do it."
There are basically three stations who make all the dubs in this town -- ourselves, the rock station, and the huge country station. They make dubs, we make dubs, and we trade back and forth. The other stations get them, and once in awhile the other stations will send one to us. But, for the most part, it's us three stations doing the dubs. I've talked to the production people at the other two stations, and they say, "You're right, but it will never happen."
Most of the people who are really surprised by this are people who have come from other places. Our Program Directors here are a little bit surprised. The new Sales Manager was a little bit surprised. We had a situation here where I produced a spot for a strip joint, and the GM decided that we weren't going to run a spot for a strip joint. That pissed the client off to begin with. Then another station called and said, "I need a dub of that Diversion spot." Without even asking, I said, "Okay, but that's going to be 35 bucks because that's what I charge when I send stuff out on my own." And she says, "What?" I said, "It's going to be 35 dollars," and I thought I could certainly charge that in this instance because we are not running the spot. This is something I've done that the station is not making money on. The client said to the other station's salesperson, "Well, to hell with them. You guys produce the spot." So, the spot I cut is sitting on my shelf collecting dust. It was a pretty good commercial, but it's never going to air anywhere.
I don't really know how to get it started. I've talked to some of the people, like I said, and they just say, "You're right, but it will never happen." That's the statement that's always been made.
R.A.P.: This is a situation we've never discussed in the pages of RAP, and this is a good opportunity to throw this out there and ask the readers if anyone has some ideas on how to get things turned around in Lexington and other markets where this occurs, if there are that many other markets. In every market where fees are charged, it had to start at some point. The fees didn't just appear one day. Maybe someone out there has some ideas.
Scott: Yeah, I agree. We as a group of Production Directors would almost have to meet with the Lexington Ad Club and say, "Hey, we as a group feel like this is something that should be done," and let them mull it over because, essentially, they're the decision makers of the market. We have a Truth in Advertising plan in Lexington now. It's just a few months old, but it was developed by them as a group, and everyone is cooperating. Everyone is running spots -- every TV and radio station, even the newspapers -- talking about our attempt as the media to be honest. I really don't know what the response has been, but as a group, they made that decision and they went forward with it. So, if they could do something like that, I think we could certainly work something out to where we could get compensated for our efforts.
I feel that station managers should make this decision and go with it because it gives their people the opportunity to make money from the clients. It's not money that's going to come out of the station's pocket. So, you're keeping your people happy without giving them any more money yourself. You know what I'm saying?
R.A.P.: Yes. There are a lot of GMs who are very happy to tell their production people, "Yes, you may use the studio after hours for freelance work," because they know that's money the production people won't be asking them for.
Scott: Right. It's more money in their pocket and more satisfied workers. That's always been my opinion.
R.A.P.: Well, what would happen if your station just told the client to have the other station produce the spot themselves? I mean, that's what they don't say, right?
Scott: That's what they don't and won't say. Their opinion is that -- and I agree with this -- if you can control the production of a client, you have more control of the client overall. You're going to get a majority of their money. So, their feeling is that if you start charging them for dubs, they're going to go to somebody else for production which means I'm not going to have the control I did. But the fact is, I'm the one who's helping them have control of that client, and this is my opportunity to be rewarded for that.
R.A.P.: And the station figures they are rewarding you with a salary.
Scott: Yes. And that's exactly the salesperson's statement. And I've explained that I work for this station and not for the other station.
R.A.P.: Correct. And if you hand the other station a tape, their Production Director does not have to produce for that client, but that Production Director is still "getting rewarded" with his salary. That's why the salary comment from the salesperson doesn't hold water.
Scott: Right. Oh, if I could have dubs all day...I'd be bored to tears.
We have a radio station in town that's been blackballed by another station. They won't make dubs for this station, and they won't accept dubs from this station. They want nothing to do with the other radio station. If a client brings them a dub from that station, they tell their clients, "We'll produce it ourselves, or get someone else to produce it and we'll run it." The agency for this client came out here and said, "Can you make these dubs for me because so and so cut the spot, but this station won't run it since it came from that other station. Can you just make the dubs for me?" I made the dubs for him...no problem...no charge.
R.A.P.: Well, it sounds like a situation where the clients are taking advantage of the radio stations. They can get a spot cut from any of half a dozen radio stations they may be buying, in fact, by all six stations, and then they pick the station that has the best commercial and say, "I want that one on all the other stations." Is that basically what's happening?
Scott: Yeah, that's basically it. Some of them are regular, though. I get dubs from the same station for the same client every week. Once the client realizes who does the best production for them, then they just keep going to that station. But, in the beginning, the client probably fishes around and determines who has the best production for his needs. There were a couple of clients who were going between us and someone else for months, and then they finally stopped. Now we do just about all their production and send out the dubs.
I've asked a lot of people about this. Other stations that are owned by our company, Trumper Communications, are charging for dubs. Some are charging pretty good bucks, and I've brought that up. But it's still..."this market won't support it."
R.A.P.: Are you pretty happy there in Lexington?
Scott: I really like it here. I like the town, and I like the sunsets. I like living here, and you've got to live before you can work. There have been some openings at other stations here in Lexington, and I don't care how ugly I get because I'm overworked and overstressed, there's no other place in this market that I'd like to go to. However, I would consider Australia. I also have aspirations to do things on my own -- freelance. I'm finding those articles about freelancing from John Dodge very interesting. They've all hit the copy machine and have been highlighted and scribbled on. I've got a lot of ideas in my head. It's just a matter of coming up with the money and the clients. There are a couple, I think, who would probably hire me if I were to do something on my own, and that's the direction I want to go.
R.A.P.: Do you think it would be hard to make freelance money in a market where all the clients are used to getting everything for free?
Scott: That's a very good point.
R.A.P.: What would you say your forte in the business is? Is it writing or producing or voice-over?
Scott: Producing. I would give a portion of my anatomy to have no other responsibilities but to sit in the studio and produce all day long. I think I'm getting pretty good at writing. But if I could sit in there and have my voices stand in a line and cut their stuff then put it together, that would make me very happy.
R.A.P.: Are there any tips you would like to share with other Production Directors who are over-loaded with work in the smaller markets?
Scott: Use the people that you have on staff to help you get your work done. Don't do it all yourself. That's what I've learned, only recently. Delegate. You're a Production Director. Be a director, not just the production person. I've been told by my GM that I'm a little too much of a perfectionist, but he says that's okay. That was my whole problem with not wanting to give up some of the responsibilities that I gave up. I'm sure that it will be done right if I do it myself. But that's not helping anybody, because if I don't depend on somebody else to do something that maybe they're not sure of, then they're never going to be sure of it. You give it to them, even if they have to call you twice in the evening and ask, "Now, how do you do this again?" The next time they won't have to call you because they'll know how to do it. Then you don't have to do it anymore, and you can do more important things.
R.A.P.: Any advice for a Production Director about to have a second or third station added to their duties?
Scott: Know what you're getting into. Know that it's going to be an awful lot of work. If I had known how much work it was going to be back then, I would have forced myself to give some things up right from the beginning, and I would have been on top of things a lot earlier. But just because you know it's going to be a lot of work, that doesn't mean you want to give up everything. I took on some additional responsibilities. The General Manager told me I would be the person training the air staff in the new studio because I jumped in there and said, "Hey, I want to know how to do this." If there's something new coming in, and you can be a part of it, be a part of it. If you can do four or five different things when before you could only do one, then you're that much more of an asset to the station. That's kind of what put me into this position of being overworked, but things are better now. Be prepared for what you're going to get and you'll come out of it a lot better.