Today, the final day of the BNM News Summit, we will hear from a number of brand management heads including Steve Moore, Operations Manager for Audacy St. Louis and Brand Manager for KMOX AM and KFTK FM. “I haven’t been to many radio conferences in a long time, so reconnecting with a lot of peers to me is great,” Moore said.
“It’s kind of reinvigorating and you get to share ideas, and you get to hear what other people are doing. KMOX is a very unique radio station in St. Louis and local really matters. So, talking to people that are not necessarily doing political, they’re doing things that are a little bit out of the box, trying to hear new ideas. To me, that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
Growing up in St. Louis, Moore developed a love of radio from an early age thanks to his dad. “I grew up with a dad who was in the car business. You had to listen to what he listened to and as a fan of sports you listened to a lot of St. Louis Cardinals baseball. So, I always imagined that I was going to one day be broadcasting right next to Jack Buck, and I would be doing Cardinal baseball on KMOX radio. So that’s the beginning of the dream of where radio comes from. I pursued it right out of high school into college.”
Moore graduated from Central Missouri State University and said, “I ended up with a degree in broadcast and film with a minor in coaching and physical education. So, they all kind of tied together. That’s really what I do as a brand manager or program director. You’re working with talent and you’re coaching them. So, I feel like it all kind of aligned very well.”
Moore called coaching an art and noted how important of a skill it is to broadcasting. “The ability to relate with different personalities, to get them to work together, to work on technique, to develop a strategy that ultimately will get you to find success. Some personalities are more demanding. Some personalities are more laid back. Some need a pat on the back, some need a kick in the rear.”
Not only does the talent needs coaching but so does everyone who is looking to make a better product for the station. “It’s just about finding a way to be collaborative and get the most out of them, and for them to get the most out of their experience in a team environment,” Moore said. “So, it’s very much the same. Doesn’t matter if it’s an individual show or we’re working with producers. Everybody needs to understand what their role is in how they play a part in the overall success of the team.”
Another way Moore is looking to ensure the success of his team is getting prepared for digital-audio converging. “Clearly radio and digital are going to intersect and trying to see how those two things align in a time like this is really interesting. Every year that goes by, we can see that they’re intersecting more and more. I’ve been fascinated to watch how digital and the use of video and writing and audio are all coming together on the platforms to deepen the experience with the user. Not just the listener, but the user.”
What is important for him (and his team) is to keep their station local. “Personally, for me, local is really important,” he said. “That’s something that’s significant about this particular market and my particular radio station, local really matters. Then, how we take everything that we’re doing, and we provide a more immersive experience for the user, whether that is in the written form for those that are seeking it, a video form for those that are seeking it or just audio.”
Moore never thought he’d be at the same station for 25 years, but he is grateful. “You figure that you would jump around. But I still love it. I mean, I like radio, I love KOMX. I have a great deal of passion about this. I have a great deal passion about our cluster. I work very closely with 97.1 KFTK, which is our sister station. I oversee that brand as well. So now I have two stations.”
While two stations might seem like a lot, the veteran brand manager loves what he does. “I deal with a more narrowly targeted conservative radio station [at KTFK] and [KMOX is] the broader station. I like the diversity of our product. I like the diversity of our cluster. I work with the sports team. So, my experience is negotiating the contracts with the St. Louis Cardinals or St. Louis City Soccer Club or the St. Louis Blues, whatever we’re dealing with, I’m in the middle of that. There’s no two days that are alike for me, that’s fun for a job, that’s a lot more fun.”
For those looking to follow in Moore’s footsteps he advises to pay attention to the changes happening around us. “It is clear technology is changing the way that we’re going to go about delivering information that we’re going to go about entertaining, that we’re going to go about communicating,” he said. “There’s going to be a pivot from towers to a digital platform of some sort. In the end, it’s still going to be about connectivity and community and local and so don’t lose sight of that.”
Moore also noted to be sure to remember the community you are serving. “Never lose sight of who your audience is,” he said. “What is your community talking about? Make sure that you are an interesting person and that you find people that are interesting to put on the radio and online. Because people follow people that are interesting. People don’t want to be bored. They want to be entertained, and they want to find people that bring information that they don’t normally have. So, it’s really community focus and I think that local is a big part of where we go.”
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
