Look at the Nielsen radio ratings in a given market, and you’ll likely see some success stories for news/talk radio brands. But in few markets will you see opinion-driven talk stations as high as 550 KFYI in Phoenix.
In the market, the station recently finished November tied for sixth place in the Persons 12+ ratings with a 4.2 share. That’s down from finishing the prior month in third place with a 4.7 share.
So, despite being geared to an older demographic, there sure are a lot of folks listening to 550 KFYI.
And Program Director Aaron Trimmer believes that success starts with the local talent assembled on the station, like morning host James T. Harris and afternoon host Garret Lewis.
“They’re the end product, and they’re who the listeners you know want to engage with, so that’s the foundational piece,” Trimmer said. “You have to have great talent that you know you can trust to drive listenership to the show.
“I think it’s also about knowing your brand and knowing who and what you are and what you stand for,” Trimmed added, “and super serving that brand identity, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that when people turn on to the radio station, they know what they’re getting.”
In addition to airing on 550 KFYI, The Conservative Circus with James T. Harris and The Afternoon Addiction with Garret Lewis also air on iHeartMedia news/talk sister station 790 KNST in Tucson.
But those are the only two local weekday shows on the station. The remainder of the lineup is filled with nationally syndicated hosts, like Bill O’Reilly, The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, among others.
Trimmer shared that he thinks the ratings success of the station shows how impactful and important the national shows still are.
“I think Clay and Buck, in particular, do a very good job of taking the foundation that Rush Limbaugh laid and building their own unique style and approach. As far as the national talent, I’m not picking up the phone and calling Clay Travis and saying, ‘Hey, here’s what you need to talk about today,'” Trimmer said with a laugh. “But we do try to integrate and promote those shows. It’s constant promotion. If we get an alert … we make a big deal about it and act like they’re part of the radio station because — from a listener’s standpoint — they’re part of the same brand.”
Weather is often a hot topic on news/talk radio stations. That isn’t exactly the case in Phoenix, where it’s hot in the summer, and slightly less warm in the spring, fall, and winter.
But that lack of attention paid to one of the tentpoles of the format allows 550 KFYI to focus its attention on other avenues, and owning its chosen lane.
“It’s not that big of an impact to our listeners on a day-to-day basis,” Trimmer said of weather coverage. We know what we do well, and that’s we’re an opinion-driven talk station. Our competition is the news station in town. And we understand that when there’s a breaking news story, we probably are going to lose cume to them, because that’s just what they do. And they do a good job with it.
“But our place is to be the opinion talk station. So that is what we image. That is what we build on. Our approach is, realistically, how many big breaking news stories are there during the year versus how many days are people tuning into us to hear us talk about what’s going on day to day, whether that’s locally or nationally.”
“This is an old, outdated analogy, but if you look at it like a newspaper, we are the opinion columnist,” Trimmer later added. “We’re not the news brand of the newspaper. When I was growing up, people remembered the opinion columnists and reacted to them way more than they did the news aspect of the news. That’s what we’ve done is we really put our brand identity into being opinion commentators.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
