November 26, 1978 -Victor Stredicke / You make your reputation fast in the radio business.
John Katz, new corporate director of programming for KIXI, Inc., is so new most of his competitors have never even heard his name. Yet he has spearheaded some provocative changes at KIXI-AM-FM in the past two months. Katz (pronounced Kate’s) was knighted by Wally Nelskog, KIXI general manager, to transform the station into a format now promoted as “KIXI-Light.”
If you were grasping for a handy format title, KIXI-Light done poorly might be called chicken rock. Katz dismisses any format description.“It’s KIXI-Light,” he said coolly.
KATZ DUMPED Ferrante & Teischer in favor of England Dan & John Ford Coley. John Denver instead of Perry Como.He has also transformed a staff of stuffy, mellifluous announcers into what he hopes are perceived as friendly companions.He has introduced new voices, such as Rod Iwano, from Pasco and San Diego, Debbie Kelley, from the Tri Cities, and, in the 8:30 to 11 a.m. slot, Katz himself.
KIXI is no longer a “beautiful music” station.“We’ll leave that to stations like KSEA and KEZX,” Katz said bluntly. “They have the assets to do it better anyway.”Katz, instead is aiming at the volatile 25-to-49 age group, a group he frankly admits will be hard to capture. “What’s happening is that MOR radio, middle-of-the-road radio, is getting younger and younger.“
Nelskog pulled plug on the automated automation equipment that had long held the nasty KIXI classics. Making an title-by-title playlist for the announcers was the first task for Katz. The job was so urgent he stayed on in a hotel room after what was supposed to be only an initial survey of the station, leaving his family in Kansas to take care of such worldly tasks as selling the house.
Supposedly, after the basic job interview, Nelskog, a radio programmer of national note, gave his new program director only a few simple instructions.“I told him I wanted to keep the tempo one beat faster than the heartbeat,” Nelskog recalled.
“That may sound like something from a pop-psychology text, but it’s based on truth,” Katz said. “It’s pacing that makes top-40 radio the most popular format in every town. It’s the beat that makes disco dancing so exciting. And it’s slow-beat material that would choose to calm you down at the dentist’s office or to fall asleep with.
“You won’t fall asleep listening to KIXI-Light.”
KATZ WAS OUTRIGHT reverent when he described his boss as “a programming genius.”“He wants a radio station that is competitive in the marketplace. Wally is astute at determining a listener’s tastes. That’s why KIXI was successful originally. Wally found a gap that other radio stations weren’t serving. Now he’s done it again.”
Katz is calm. He expected the station’s ratings to fall as long-time listeners rejected the new music, the vocal selections. “But our listeners have stayed with us,” he said confidently. In another context, Dean Smith, morning newsman and KIXI sales manager, said of Katz: “If the world were coming to an end, I’d like Katz to tell it to me. He stays so calm.”
Well, the end of the world isn’t here. It’s just Peter Frampton, Elton John, Gordon Lightfoot on KIXI.
