Jim Ryan, Audacy’s SVP/Programming and PD of NEW 102.7 will step down at the end of April. Ryan will concentrate on his consultancy, which includes nationally syndicated nighttime radio host Delilah.
Ryan has been programming in New York since 1996, so I asked him why he is stepping away now?
“As a day-to-day program director, I’ve achieved everything that I’ve hoped, wanted, and dreamed to achieve. We had all those number one rating books at WLTW when I worked across the street. We’ve taken CBS FM to number one. It didn’t stay, but we got it there. We relaunched WNEW as a Hot AC in 2017, and the station is hugely successful. It’s the biggest Hot AC station in America. We’ve got a morning show that’s killing it.”
Ryan enjoys the talent coaching part of the job.
“The other aspect of the job involves working with other radio stations. When I was at Clear Channel, before they became iHeart, I worked with all the AC and Hot AC radio stations. When I came to CBS, I started working with all the other ACs, worked with the Classic Hits stations for a while, and then went back to doing AC.”
“Then they had me do some morning show coaching. Rather than doing music logs and worrying about which weekender I will have on and how I will come up with a sales promotion to get this client. I think I can teach others how to be better, score better in PPM, and have better personalities. And that’s what I really want to do.”
Knowing that one size doesn’t fit all, I asked Ryan to share some talent coaching techniques.
“There are certain basic things that need to be done to be successful in PPM. But you have to see how far they’re willing to go. The audience needs to feel that they know you. It’s sometimes hard to get people to open up about their lives and be real and be honest on the air. But if you look at Howard Stern, nobody was more honest and open about his life, including his penis size, for God’s sake. That really resonated with people. They bonded with Howard. I think Howard is probably the best interviewer in the media.”
“It’s not something everyone can do. If we’re going to keep making appointments and getting people to tune in every day, we have to have that kind of talent that people tune in because they think they’re going to miss something.”
“Oh, my God, I have to hear what this show is going to do tomorrow. And we’ve done that with the show in New York. They’ve done a lot of things to stand out. Yes, we have our benchmark features and all that. But, when we did a charity drive for toys in the fall, one of the guys on the show had a fear of heights. So, we put him on a Ferris Wheel and said he wasn’t going to come down until we got a certain number of toys.”
I mentioned that one of the shows I admired, along the lines of sharing, was Audacy’s “Karson & Kennedy” at Mix 104.1 in Boston.
“They are phenomenal and I’ve enjoyed watching the growth of that show. Kennedy just went through breast cancer. Right? I was on the edge of my seat. How is she doing? It’s so great to see their success. They are far and away the biggest female show in Boston. I know that the guys at the sports do well, but that’s more male-leaning. They’re consistently doing double-digit female numbers. It’s really exciting to see.”
It’s no secret that Ryan stayed three months longer than he originally intended. He waited to see the initial impact of Nielsen’s three-minute qualifier. So, did he see anything?
“I am seeing younger stations do better. I think the reason you see it in contemporary is that the songs are so short nowadays. At one time I was programming the music for CBS FM and WNEW at the same time. The number of songs each station played in the hour was so different because you got Hotel California, Born in the USA, and your average song is over four minutes long.
“Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter is 2:51. That’s a three-minute occasion. That makes sense. If you’re playing Espresso and following it with, say, Lady Gaga, and you’ve got a listener who goes, I don’t like that Lady Gaga song. Then they tune out and come back in the next quarter hour, and the next quarter hour you’re playing APT, which is 2:41 then you get it for another three minutes.”
Aside from technology and consolidation, I wondered what the biggest change that had impacted the business since 1996 was.
“We sort of peaked in revenue as a business in probably 2006, 2007 in that time frame. And revenue has certainly declined. Covid obviously hurt that as well. But I think it comes down to the fact that digital marketing companies are very, very aggressive. If you owned a couple of car dealers in the New York metropolitan area, it may make more sense for you to use Google or Meta to get people to come to your car dealer. Whereas in 1996, there was no social media.”
“Digital was not a factor. People bought commercials on the radio. I do think for the big national brands radio still makes a lot of sense. Brand reinforcement is key to people using your product. But I think we lost that part of our revenue stream.”
“And sadly, there was a great deal of overpaying for radio stations. So they got choked by the debt. I was there at Clear Channel in 2008 when the venture capital firms and the banks did a deal to buy the company for twenty-one billion dollars. And the market started falling apart, and Lowery Mays actually had to sue to get the deal done so that he could take his twenty-one billion dollars.”
“iHeart has still not worked out of it. They’ve been through bankruptcy, but they still haven’t worked their way out of the debt. Audacy bought the CBS radio stations. When they bought the CBS radio stations, the stock for what was then called Entercom was trading at sixteen dollars a share. Well, it’s no secret we just went through bankruptcy because the stock is worthless. So, you might say that they overpaid a little bit.”
I asked what Ryan would tell a young programmer starting out in an unrated market that aspired to one day have a long run in New York.
“I’m not the smartest guy in the room. I’ve never been the smartest guy in the room, but I think I’ve always worked harder than anybody else. I sort of threw myself into it seven days a week to learn as much as I could possibly learn”
“If you’re in a small, unrated market, you can really connect with your listeners. Be out there as much as you possibly can. Shake as many hands as you can with your air staff. I live in the summer in Traverse City, Michigan, and the stations there did a campaign to “Visit A Store With A Door.”
“They were very aggressive about that. And it really created a great sense of community. Do I have Sirius in the car? Sure. But did I ever listen to it? No, because I was engaged with their local campaign and their talent being around the city. Just go out and touch as many people as you can within the law.”
I asked Ryan if there was anything he wanted to add or anyone to shout out?
“If anybody I want to shout out, it’s Chris Oliviero. I worked for Bob Pitman very early in my radio career. I was very young when he hired me when he was a program director. He’s always sort of been a mentor of mine.”
“I was consulting briefly between Clear Channel and CBS, and when CBS made me the offer, I had lunch with Bob and said, ‘Bob, what should I do? Bob said, ‘oh, my God, leave your consultancy and go to CBS’. Spend three years there, and then you will have CBS on your resume as a consultant, which will make you much more valuable.”
“Well, three years turned into 15 because of Chris Oliviero. He was the head of programming at CBS and then he came back as the New York market president. I have so much respect for him. I can’t even put it into words.”
“He cares about people, and I consider him a friend. And I truly love working with him. It hurts leaving now, but I’m very excited about my replacement who is going to be announced next week, who I’ve known for many, many years. I think I’m leaving the station in great hands. And Chris will really love working with my friend who’s coming next week.”
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Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
