“Roadrunner, roadrunner, 50,000 watts of power I’m in love with the modern world . . . I’ve got my radio on.”
Jonathan Richman wrote his song “Roadrunner” as an anthem to youth and the seductions of radio. And anyone who has ever listened to the little box next to the bed, in a car or at the beach knows how hypnotic a song on the radio can be.
But these days, the songs remain the same in radio stations from Manhattan to Mundelein. Like TV network programming or coffeehouses, radio stations have become increasingly homogenized, with a few conglomerates owning dozens of stations programmed identically. They purchase the same news bites from the same pool: CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC. Even the deejays are required to spin the same songs in an order that some corporate network thousands of miles away decided they should be played.
Shock jocks offer one alternative to this tightly formatted programming. But the latest trend is local radio, where station employees focus on the community, discuss its teams, support local events and churn out a locally tailored version of radio’s holy trinity: news, traffic and weather.
Whether it’s a 30-something-watt signal connecting students to one another at the College of Lake County cafeteria or WIIL’s 50,000 watts (as powerful as an AM station gets; FM goes to 100,000) that reach listeners from Wisconsin and Illinois, regional radio stations are customizing their content to Chicago’s northern suburbs.
In Waukegan, for instance, stations WKRS (1220 AM) and WXLC (102.3 FM) were recently bought by Washington, D.C.-based Spring Broadcasting. Their “mission”? To beef up Lake County coverage.
“We look at Lake County as a market unto itself, ” said station manager Robert Owen, who moved with his family from Houston to Round Lake Beach in mid-January to join WKRS/WXLC. Pointing out that Lake County has about the same population as Wichita, Kan., Owen said, “Here, between Milwaukee and Chicago, we have an incredibly affluent area with neat stores, big business, the military. All this stuff. Where and how are the people being served?”
Jeff Borden, associate editor for media of Crain Communications, said the market for local radio stations versus big Chicago stations simply is different. “They’re chasing different dollars,” he said. “There may be some overlap, but for the most part, why should businesses like a garage, doctors and dentists located in Lake County advertise in Beverly? And more than likely, Chicago stations charge much more. These stations are like a small weekly that focuses on the region. They’re fertile training grounds and vital to the communities they serve, especially for new talent just breaking in.”
The 1,000-watt WKRS offers a locally produced talk show “Midday” from noon to 2 p.m. and two rush-hour news blocs weekdays from 6-9 a.m. and the drive home from 4-6 p.m. “The coverage is unique in that the community is self-sustaining. Like Orange or Marin Counties (in California), it’s like a big town with lots of little communities in it,” Owen said.
Owen is convinced that people living and working in Lake County can be persuaded to tune in to a local station, especially one that includes government reports, road construction detours, thunderstorm warnings and high school sports scores.
With news staffs everywhere downsizing, “stations in Chicago aren’t going to send someone here to cover a house fire or a court case `live,’ ” Owen said, “but I am. We will go to the Gurnee Plan Commission meetings, to council meetings. We look at arts, issues, school board referendums in Waukegan, Mundelein, North Chicago, Lake Villa, for example, a new club opening in Antioch, a Waukegan baseball game, a new restaurant in Mundelein, festivals, fairs. If we want financial analysis, we’ll ask someone at a brokerage firm in Vernon Hills.”
Sister station WXLC, which plays adult Top 40 music, has “fewer restrictions than the big boys downtown,” said Nick Farella, program director at the 3,000-watt station. “We’ll play (Zion’s) The Shoes. And we helped break Richard Marx’s new record. When he moved back (from L.A.) to Lake County, our morning (6-10 a.m.) guys Jimmy Novak and Michael Chew had an idea to start up a stalker watch. They wanted to get Marx into the studio. Listeners would find him in a local Walgreen’s or something and say, `Hey, Richard, that radio station in Waukegan wants you to call them.’ And it worked.”
Trying to reach the same audience is WZSR-FM (STAR 105.5), an adult contemporary station based in Crystal Lake that along with its AM counterpart, WAIT (850 AM), recently increased its 3,000-watt signal (encompassing McHenry, northern Kane and western Lake Counties) to 6,000 watts. It can now be heard throughout Lake County.
Although the music features national names–Hootie and the Blowfish, Madonna, Bryan Adams–the talk focuses on local news, traffic, weather and sports.
“The traffic is different here, even the weather is different,” said Gary Castaldo, 24, promotions manager at STAR 105.5. “Our core audience is 25-54. They own their own home and have one or two kids. We have a high school football game of the week, our public service announcements cover the communities we serve, we feature local news every half-hour. We want to (increase) our profile with our Internet home page and with the STAR Card that can be used at participating area businesses for discounts and free stuff. As our budget grows, we hope to sponsor concerts and bring bands to the county.”
Less mainstream choices are also available to Lake County residents, at least those who spend time on the College of Lake County campus, where WCLC broadcasts. The station is typical of college radio stations, which have grown in popularity in recent years because they are more adventurous than commercial stations. They’re likely to pick Johnny Cash from Column A, Miles Davis from Column B and Toad the Wet Sprocket from Column C on the play list or feature local acts, independent releases or music developed on the principle of driving parents nuts.
You can’t hear WCLC radio in the car or for that matter beyond the walls of the College of Lake County at all. Started 25 years ago in the activity director’s office, the station has helped to create at least a little cohesiveness at this two-year commuter school.
Station director Paul Lee, whose father had his own TV show in South Korea, lives in Grayslake with his brother.
“The students like to listen to alternative music, especially the songs that use a lot of hip-hop or sampling,” he said. “And Americana (country) is getting out to more generations, and we have retro jocks who play the music their parents grew up with.”
This eclectic musical menu reflects the diverse student population, which ranges in age mostly from the 20s to early 30s and which includes a large Asian and African-American contingent. The station accepts advertising from local businesses and corporations and has a mobile deejay crew that performs at parties, concerts and clubs.
The 50,000-watt, Kenosha-based WIIL (an acronym for Wisconsin and Illinois) at 95.1 FM devotes its air time to classic rock from the Beatles to U2 and includes Lake County as an integral part of its “neighborhood.” It sponsors area concerts, fairs and events, including upcoming remote broadcasts at the Lake County Fair and the motorcycle races at the fairgrounds, The Miller Rockin’ Road Show (from an old beer truck) at Taste of Antioch, deejay music at Zion Nostalgia Days and a Doobie Brothers soundstage at the Country Thunder festival in Twin Lakes Wis.
The station’s aggressive cheerleading for various community events and residents is an intangible that is intended to keep listeners tuned in. And the traffic reports don’t hurt either. “A lot of people commute out of Kenosha into Lake County and from the county to Kenosha,” explained station manager Kira Lafond. “Local area traffic reports are a big draw for us.”
Crystal Lake-based Pride Communications owns WIIL, STAR, WAIT (which plays the “nostalgia” music of Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney) along with two additional stations in Kenosha.
In Highland Park, 3,000-watt WVVX-FM has just been acquired by New York-based Odyssey Communications for $10.6 million. The deal also included WJDK in Morris. The marketing manager for the company, Joel Steinberg, says Odyssey, which “trimulcasts” three suburban country stations on the East Coast and three modern rock stations in the L.A. area, has yet to determine what style of music its new acquisitions will play. “I can only assume,” Steinberg said, “that we’ll make a lot of noise when we decide. Radio likes to make a lot of noise. And we will super-serve the communities we’re in.”
