Phoenix stations with no commercials or interruptions?
Obviously just waiting for buyers, Desert West Air Ranchers principal Ted Tucker was just interviewed by the Arizona Republic on his two Phoenix metro stations that have no commercials and no interruptions. Excerpts:
"Ted Tucker doesn't want to be photographed, and he doesn't want to talk much about his personal life, even how he made the money that allows him to run his unique radio station. "I want to make this about the music," he said over the phone from Tucson. That fits his radio station, which is nothing but music. No commercials. No DJ patter. All that breaks the flow is the legally required station ID: "103.1 KCDX, Florence, Phoenix, and 95.1 KFMR, Sun City West, Phoenix."
Tucker started up KCDX in spring 2003. Previously, it had been a Spanish-language station, but when that failed, he decided to program it himself, for himself.
"I kind of picked things I liked," Tucker said. With no advertisers to please or audience to attract, getting the proper mix of music "wasn't really that important." Essentially, Tucker stuck his record collection on the station's computer system and set it to play continuously. Over the months, the station somehow found an audience. Maybe it was the mix of music, mostly rock classics from the 1960s and 1970s. Maybe it was the allure of a mystery station, seemingly run by a ghost. Either way, word spread.
The KCDX signal, broadcasting out of Florence, hits most of the East Valley, as well as southern Arizona, including Tucson. A few months ago, Tucker took another of dormant stations, KFMR, and simulcast the music, blanketing the West Valley.
"It's always cool to hear it somewhere. You go into a business and hear it," he said, "(or) drive by a car and you'll hear it. It's the fun of radio."
But radio is also a business. That's why Tucker's eclectic mix of commercial-free music is rare. It doesn't make any money.
The non-stop music format is similar to satellite radio. "Except nobody sends me a check every month," Tucker said with a chuckle. "I'd take it. Just give an account number and they can direct-deposit it."
Tucker might have some takers on that offer. He recently launched a website, www.kcdxfm.com and called the e-mail feedback "tremendous."
"It's so satisfying just to hear people be thankful, saying I haven't heard that song in 30 years," Tucker said.
Tucker doesn't play the expected classic rock that populates the radio dial. These are the songs that haven't become commercial jingles. You'll hear Led Zeppelin. But instead of Stairway to Heaven or Rock and Roll, it's the acoustic Black Mountain Side. It's George Harrison's Vatican Blues rather than My Sweet Lord.
He also digs out obscure songs by artists who hardly ever get radio play, like Todd Rundgren or the Jim Carroll Band. The website includes a list of recently played songs, a response to the e-mails from frustrated listeners trying to find a title.
Tucker talks lovingly about a nine-minute Pablo Cruise song called Ocean Breeze. He's tickled that, as we talk, his station is playing a 1971 song by the Buoys called Timothy. "It's the only song about cannibalism I know of," he said.
Tucker said he and his son, also named Ted, go on hunts for songs, either online or in used record stores. When they find a song on vinyl, they transfer it to a digital format and try to take out all the clicks and pops. "We're just digging up stuff and trying to find forgotten music," Tucker said. "It's music that's been bypassed by everybody else because it isn't profitable."
Tucker said he's not sure if his free-form format would be profitable out in the free market. He knows that the songs he plays aren't everybody's cup of tea. But he also knows listeners tell him they'll tolerate something they don't like because they're waiting for the next one. Tucker said he saw a homemade bumper sticker that said, "KCDX. What's next?"
Tucker won't say what it costs to operate the station, except to say it's much less than his other properties because he has no on-air talent and no advertising representatives. Maybe the cost is better measured in the potential of the signal, what Tucker could make if he started running ads with the same frequency of other stations. Tucker is in the middle of selling the Sun City West frequency, KFMR-FM. The reported price tag is more than 18 million.
Tucker and his wife constitute Desert West Air Ranchers, also owns radio stations in Nogales, Sierra Vista and Douglas. Those all have traditional formats: Mexican music, oldies and AC."
RBR observation:
(we hear from a Phoenix-area broadcaster) "At one time, he would run these stations for like two weeks a year. And I think the Commission looked on that unkindly. So then he started running them maybe a month a year. And finally he ponied up and bought an automation system that's sitting in a little trailer in Globe, AZ, which feeds KCDX, which then feeds the other station. I'll tell you - - he's really gotten a following because he's playing a lot of unpredictable Classic Rock that people are finding refreshing. Some of the other local broadcasters are not too happy.
Ted's an interesting guy. He's made money in some other communications ventures several years ago and now he kind of plays and trades radio stations like real estate. I don't he really runs anything anymore. He has a few stations he keeps around as sort of hobby stations. I think his daughter is involved in one of them."
We think Classic Rock stations can find plenty of good adds to amp-up their stale 400-song playlists, as Tucker may be doing. Check, for example the huge playlist here: http://www.techwebsound.com (see left side of page)
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
