Station’s switch angers its audience

Friday, Oct. 7, 2005 | 7:11 a.m.

Fans reeled and heads rolled after the Beasley Broadcast Group changed the format of KJUL 104.3-FM from adult standards to country without warning at noon Monday.

Dozens of enraged listeners called and e-mailed the Sun after its story ran Thursday morning about the format switch, expressing anger and sadness over the loss of their music and the firing of two popular on-air personalities.

Beasley owns two other stations in this market, KSTJ 102.7-FM, which plays music from the '80s, and KKLZ 96.3-FM, which plays classic rock 'n' roll.

With the new country format, 104.3 ("The Coyote") will go head to head with the only other country station in town, KWNR 95.5-FM.

"I'm really pissed," said 75-year-old Ruth Charles, who had listened to KJUL since moving to Las Vegas 10 years ago. "The music they had was great. I like country, but I loved KJUL.

"I found out about it when I got in my car and turned the radio on and there was this country music. I started pushing buttons -- I had to put on my glasses to make sure I was seeing correctly."

Callers threatened to picket; to go to the mayor; to boycott advertisers.

In an e-mail, Nadine Watkins wrote, "I feel as though I should send a sympathy card for the sudden, violent and untimely death of a truly great radio station -- past tense.

"When we moved here a little over three years ago, we were delighted to find a station that catered to people of our age category -- and as a matter of fact, a wide range of ages ... Now I must go searching for someting else since the death of KJUL ... I still have a very hard time trying to figure out why it was EXECUTED."

"What are they trying to do, jazz everything up with yodeling?" one caller said.

Another said, "Their whole format was fantastic. Why did Beasley do away with KJUL for that crappy cowboy music?"

Margaret Boscoe says she would fall asleep at night listening to KJUL.

"It's not great to fall asleep by loud country music," she said.

Dave Riccio wrote that he is a big fan of country music.

"But there is no need of another station broadcasting that type of music," his e-mail said. "Beasley has slapped the many thousands of senior retirees in the Las Vegas/Henderson area in the face with this change.

"For the city of Las Vegas not to have a station devoted to Sinatra and the standards is truly unbelievable."

Hanna Moore, 77, said she turned her radio on Monday and got the shock of her life.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, what happened,' " she said.

"I was really disappointed with what KJUL did to the employees," Peggy Zoroya said. "I won't be listening to that cowoby music."

Morning DJ Scott O'Neil, afternoon DJ Duke Morgan and late-night DJ Beth Lano were let go without any advance notice.

Lano's KJUL program, "Romance Through the Night," was canceled, but she continues to co-host "Mike O'Brian and Beth Lano in the Morning" on KSTJ, which also is the new home of John Tesh's syndicated show.

Dennis Bono's weekly, hourlong radio program "Las Vegas Now" will air on KUNV 91.5-FM, beginning at 7 p.m. Oct. 14.

O'Neil and Morgan were surprised, but not surprised.

"I was absolutely, totally taken by surprise, but, unfortunately, changes without warning are the norm in broadcasting," said O'Neil, who continues to be the announcer on Bono's show.

"I understand that change happens. I've been in the industry over 30 years -- this is the first time I was ever fired, but things change. I embrace the change."

O'Neil, with KJUL for seven years, is weighing a number of offers, including becoming a spokesman for a couple of advertisers and possibly joining another radio station.

"I've gotten a couple of calls."

Morgan also is weighing his options.

He says he would work for another station if the situation were right for him, but for now he's concentrating on a business he has been operating out of his home for several years.

"I have a recording studio," Morgan said. "A lot of ad agencies use me, so now I will have the opportunity to ratchet that up a little higher."

Morgan said he had an inkling that changes were in the wind when he received a call at 7:30 a.m. telling him to come in for a meeting with the general manager at 9 a.m.

"I knew it wasn't for a commendation," he said. "I suspected something was up, but I thought it was something personal. I had no idea the whole station was being decimated."

At first he was shocked, but then Morgan said sadness set in.

"This was obviously planned for a long time," said Morgan, a veteran of 30 years in broadcasting. "They already have 'Coyote' toys that they're giving away.

"They kept the lid on it because they didn't want to alert KWNR it was coming -- this business is like war."

He said in a way he understands why they did it, "But I think a lot of times they are wrong. The decision makers don't live in this city. They don't have a conception of people who live here. Their facts and figures are skewed."

Morgan says the rating surveys are way off base.

"I don't think they give an accurate report of what people are listening to," he said. "In this case, they really blew it."

Allan Shaw doesn't think so.

Shaw, who lives in Winston-Salem, N.C., is on Beasley Broadcasting's board of directors. He also owned KJUL from 1997 until he sold it to Beasley in 2001.

Until about two weeks ago, he continued to be involved in the station's programming.

"It's my favorite format," the 62-year-old Shaw said. "Changing it to country was a group decision made by upper management."

He says on the level of the heart, he didn't like the decision, but from a business standpoint it made sense.

Shaw said most advertisers are after the 25-to-54-year-old consumers, "for whatever reason, they have little interest in the 55-plus audience."

The reason, he explained, is that the younger demographics are starting families, buying homes and having babies and consuming a lot of the products that are being advertised.

"The older demographics, although they control the vast majority of the finances, don't spend as much on the kinds of products the younger people buy -- furniture, cars, DVDs," Shaw said.

He said country music is the hottest format among the 25-to-54 group.

"It was big in the '80s and then faded a bit in the '90s," Shaw said. "But currently it is in a national resurgence in popularity -- a big resurgence."

He noted that KWNR is consistently rated the No. 1 or No. 2 station in this market.

Shaw said the reason the switch was made with so much secrecy was so as not to alert the competition.

"We regretted having to do it that way," he said. "But we were aware a couple of other stations in the market were thinking of going country, just as we were.

"If word leaked out, someone else might have tried to pre-empt us -- we would have loved to have been able to announce what we we were doing, but because of competitive reasons we couldn't."

The possibility of switching had been discussed for about six months. The decision was made about two months ago.

"There is a large audience for the (KJUL) format," Shaw said. "But it's just not as lucrative in terms of advertising revenue as country."

He expressed confidence that some other station will pick up the adult standards format.

"There are several radio stations in Vegas not doing that well," Shaw said. "I would think they would look at the format and jump on it -- it's a great audience, and it was profitable for the station.

"I never lost money with the format."

Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or jerry@lasvegassun.com.