Music

Radio's Bob has a way with the ladies (and the men)

Bob, Jack, Max ... guys with monosyllabic names are suddenly a hot entity in radio -- or so it would seem with the growing prevalence of stations adopting formats with these monikers.

What they've got in common is their claim to not have a format at all. The stations all use some variation of the slogan, "We play anything" -- anything meaning hits of '70s, '80s, '90s and beyond, with concentration on the '80s and '90s. Some pundits describe the sound as a "train wreck" -- a collision of seemingly clashing musical styles that might bump Billy Joel against Talking Heads against AC/DC against Tim McGraw.

If reading that last sentence made you go "ouch," chances are you're not listening to KBPA-FM 103.5, Austin's BOB-FM. But plenty of people are. According to Scott Gillmore, vice president and market manager of BOB-FM owner Emmis Austin Radio, the station ranked No. 1 among adults 25 to 54 in the most recent Arbitron ratings book, which measured winter listenership. The station's share of listeners in that age range climbed from 7.7 in the fall book to 8.1 in the winter book, and moved from No. 2 to No. 1 in listenership among adults ages 18 to 49. Among adults ages 18 to 34, it tied for fourth. Overall, BOB-FM ranks No. 2 in Austin with a 6.2 share, behind country station KASE-FM, which has a 7.2 share.

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The station launched without any air talent, but now features Crash Kelly middays and Evan during afternoon drive.

"We think it's important to have live jocks and be local," says Gillmore, if only to tell listeners about overturned 18-wheelers or where to go for happy hour. He's not sure when more talent will be added, though it's likely the next slot to be filled will be morning drive. He doesn't expect to go the typical route and hire a morning show team, however -- at least, not initially. With the Bob format, emphasis is on the music -- a direct response to radio's recent hemorrhage of listeners, attributed to too many commercials and too little music.

"I think that there's no question that Bob is a reaction to the fact that, partly because of consolidation and partly because of trends in researching playlists, playlists became too predictable," says Gillmore. "There was definitely a perception that stations had too much repetition, (and) DJs were too into talking about their weekend instead of being into the music."

Emmis owns KBPA in partnership with Sinclair Communications, and it just so happens a real Bob -- Bob Sinclair -- was involved with creating the Sinclair formula.

"He was sort of pushing (the concept)," says Gillmore. "He also pretty well fits the mold of someone who felt that playlists had gotten too tight. When we do the imaging ... we have Bob in mind. Bob to a certain extent is another personality at the station."

When one visits KBPA's Web site, a voice helping to create that image explains that Bob plays "what he likes." "We listen to Bob. We have to. It's his station," the voice says. (Sinclair also has BOB-FM's in Norfolk, Va., and Santa Rosa, Calif.)

Warren Kurtzman of Coleman Research in Raleigh, N.C., estimates there are now about 40 similarly formatted stations in the U.S., though more are flipping every day. The main difference between those using the Jack name and those going with Bob are that the latter mix in hits by current artists.

Gillmore says Jack stations also tend more toward rock and Bob is more self-deprecating, less "in-your-face."

"We try to make it really broad and we make it a surprise," he says. "We play hits, but we look for new hits. We just play a huge variety of hits, across different genres. ... To be honest, it's been more successful than we thought it would be."

As for the format's lifespan, Kurtzman says, "That depends entirely on the station, the competitive situation on the market. I think some of these stations could be very successful for a long time. I will say the majority of them will fail because the people that are doing them don't know how to do them. They're just jumping into it because they think it's the flavor of the month without really understanding what makes the format work and not work."

He's convinced the lemming effect will bring the format to several markets where it won't succeed, but he adds, "The people that are doing it there in Austin (who are clients of his) understand it, they're not the people who are just jumping on the bandwagon. ... I think the Bob station in Austin has a much greater chance of long-term success than most of the other Bob or Jack kind of stations that have popped up around the country."

It'll take a while to see if he's right, but for now, Austin's lovin' Bob.

You can reach radio column writer Lynne Margolis at popscribe@aol.com.