KKEG Retaps its Format

Grunge icon Kurt Cobain’s mega-hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit”reverberated through the Ozark foothills in 1991.

The Nirvana song became the culture-shifting anthem of “Generation X” and a cash cow for rock radio. It must have played a million more times during the next half decade on legendary Fayetteville station KKEG-FM.

But what “The Keg” should have smelled was trouble.

Joe Conway, Cumulus Broadcasting Inc.’s new market manager in Fayetteville, said KKEG lost its way during the late 1990s. It was trying to be all things to all listeners, and the resulting mix of classic rock and grunge diluted its format and demographic. Sales slumped, and so did the station’s ratings.

KKEG, at its late 1990s pinnacle, enjoyed a 12-share Arbitron rating for listeners ages 18-49 — once its target demo. The Keg’s numbers for male listeners in the same age group were even double. That put the station second only to KKIX-FM (now owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc.) in the market’s most lucrative demo.

But recent Arbitron books show a slide that culminated with a 48.6 percent drop from a 7 share in spring 2001 to a 3.6 share last spring. The next ratings are due out in February.

What happened is former Clear Channel Market Manager Dale Daniels, who’s now over the chain’s Little Rock market, made it his mission in life to dethrone KKEG. Daniels switched 1950s “big band” station KJEM-FM “The Eagle” (Now KIGL-FM) to classic rock.

By fall 1997, Daniels was pulling stunts like playing 10,000 songs in a row. Then he scored a coup in what’s referred to as “The Three Ms of Radio” — mornings, marketing and music. Daniels stole KKEG’s hit morning show personalities Jon Williams and Zach Arns.

“Dale called me and said, ‘We’re going to beat them one way or another,'” Williams said. “He said, ‘We’ll either do it with you there, or you can come and join us.'”

Daniels sweetened the pot with a unique syndication package, and within a month the KKEG morning show’s “Loyal Royal Army” was tuned to a new kingdom. KKEG got creamed in the next ratings book.

Conway, who replaced Cumulus market manger Dennis Jones in September, said KKEG is now “going to war for the Dickson Street crowd,” referring to Fayetteville’s rowdy entertainment district and its college clientele. On Nov. 22, Conway changed 33-year-old KKEG’s format for the first time in decades. “The Zone,” as it’s now nicknamed, plays a steady alternative music diet of Three Doors Down and Dave Matthews. The genre super serves the age 18-24 male demo.

Conway, who Cumulus recruited from Clear Channel’s Phoenix, Ariz., group, said “sometimes you just have to reinvent yourself.”

“Classic Rock several years ago attracted the 25-34 crowd,” Conway said. “Now it’s 35-44 and even 54. We saw a hole in the 18-34 market for alternative. There’s some format competition from [KXNA] “The X,” but they have some signal challenges.”

Cumulus recently invested $75,000 to upgrade KKEG’s engineering and generator equipment. Jay Phillips has taken over as operations manager, and hip morning disc jockey “Dodge” is giving listeners 45 minutes of music every hour.

Conway said the station’s sales team will hit its January sales goal, and that the first quarter looks good. They’re overcoming the perception, he said, that alternative music caters to “slacker-type” skateboarders and teenagers.

David Adams Jewelers, an upscale shop on the downtown Fayetteville square, signed a one-year advertising contract with KKEG shortly after the format change.

“I don’t know what the median income for 18- to 25-year-olds is,” Adams said. “But when we have young men coming in and writing checks for $2,500 to $3,500 for engagement rings, I wouldn’t call that slacking.”

Adams said his Christmas sales were up 50 percent, year over year, and that most of his clientele appear to be in “The Zone.”