Radio’s most prestigious night returns to New York on Tuesday, October 20th, and WSB Director of Operations, Branding and Programming Ken Charles feels honored that he and the team are nominated for News/Talk Station of the Year.
“The Marconis are the only awards that reflect the entire brand. It reflects your content, community service, and news commitment for spoken word stations. It reflects your sales. And it reflects your ability to generate ratings.”
Charles added, “It is the only award that I know on a big level that takes everything that a station is and does into account and then runs it by a committee of our peers and a number of others to determine not only the nominees, but the winners. So it’s a really important award because everybody’s involved.” But there is much work for the team to do before they can celebrate the honor.
Over the weekend, the WSB team was preparing to be hammered by Hurricane Isaias. “So while we were watching the storm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we kind of knew that it was going to strengthen and it was going to have some impact on the state. So we started holding daily meetings, looking at the storm,” Charles noted.
Coverage Without Over-Dramatization
As Isaias grew closer, the team had its meteorologists watch out not only for the community but also for the local events the station hosts — like University of Georgia football games. “So we know we’re going to be here. We’ve got digital set up. We’ve got a reporter, too, ready to go. And we’ve got our meteorologist ready to go. Then on Friday we had a plan set.” Charles went on to say, “As the storm progressed through Friday, it changed a little because the storm sped up. So now we kind of have a little bit of an idea, but it still kept jogging back and forth. So we were ready for anything.”
Fortunately, Isaias landed 50-60 miles east of Atlanta. While the team faced blustering winds of 20-30 miles per hour, they prepared the community for the worst and got the best. What they don’t do with their storm coverage is overdo it. “I think what separates WSB from a lot of our brethren in TV and radio is you’ve got to cover it, but you shouldn’t hype it,” Charles affirmed.
Storm coverage for the team also means being honest with listeners. “You shouldn’t make it sound more cataclysmic or more dramatic than it is because all you do is frighten people. And you do tend to tarnish the credibility of the radio station.” Charles added, “So we cover it, we cover it urgently, but we don’t over-dramatize.”
Trust as a Long-Term Strategy
According to Charles, cutting out media drama is something WSB carries over to every part of the station: “The way we cover those storms, the way we cover politics, the way we cover major breaking stories, both locally and nationally, the way we do it sets it apart and enhances the credibility, which enhances the trust of the radio station.”
Charles added, “The trust of your audience is crucial not only to long-term success but to being a long-term part of the community and a long-term part of their habits, so that when things happen, they go to the place they trust. And we want to be the place they trust the most.”
This community trust is how WSB has built incredible sponsorships like Dog of the Month and Carathon for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Getting Involved in the Community with Sponsors
There are many ways stations can get involved in their communities, but 95.5 WSB has two very unique ones. Dog of the Month is one of their newer initiatives. “It was a great opportunity and partnership to come along. It was something we wanted to do, and it all fell into place perfectly. We found the right partner, which is Paws Atlanta, and then Finley Roofing, which is a longtime partner whose mascot is Rufus, was just the perfect sponsor,” Charles said excitedly of the initiative.
“If one of our Dogs of the Month is adopted, the adoption fee is paid for by Finley Roofing. So not only does it help us, it helps Paws Atlanta, it’s a great partnership with Finley, but it also helps the people who are adopting dogs.” Now, instead of paying adoption fees, adopters can buy more food and toys.
The second major partnership WSB has with the community is Carathon for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. This year, the station raised $2.3 million in a 36-hour broadcast alone (almost $64,000 an hour). It’s a year-round commitment that also includes a comedy night with Jeff Foxworthy and a once-a-month show called “The Children of Children,” which tells the stories of the families and children the audience meets during the 36 hours of Carathon. “The show is hosted by Lex Stolle, a survivor of childhood cancer who is now in remission.”
Service Beyond the Airwaves
In addition, the WSB team hosts a holiday food drive and a toy drive, each with its own partnerships. “I think those kinds of emotional touchstones throughout the radio station give WSB its larger-than-life image inside the community,” Charles maintained. “Because we’re not just here to entertain and inform, but we’re here to serve. And we’re here to be a part, and we’re here to make a difference.”
No station is complete without a strong social media team — and for Charles, the integration is essential. With Hurricane Isaias, Charles said the WSB team started with videos from its meteorologist. “Our meteorologist, Christina Edwards, was doing videos of here’s what we think is going to happen with really cool graphics, showing where we think the storm is going to go and what’s going to happen to Atlanta. It didn’t only go up on the place you would think it would go up for news, Facebook; it was on Twitter, it was on Instagram. And yes, it was on TikTok.”
News alerts go beyond storms to include major roadway shutdowns. “Over the last two months, [there have been a number] of huge shutdowns of the 285 major freeway on the east side of town here in Atlanta, starting at 7 pm on Friday and closing it down through 5 am Sunday morning.”
The WSB digital team saw this as another opportunity to serve the community beyond the airwaves. “Our guys in the traffic team did some great videos showing the maps and not only where these things were going on, but ways to get around them,” Charles recalled.
Chasing the Radio Triple Crown
It’s a service Charles sees as an expansion of the brand, even if it doesn’t bring people to radio right away. “Time and time of being there for them on social media, they may just become a listener. But if they don’t, it’s okay, because they’re engaging with your brand, which makes and keeps us relevant,” he stated.
Staying relevant, reliable, and steadfast with the community is essential not only to content, community service, and news commitment, but it also helps with sales and ratings. Having won several awards this year, Charles and the team are hoping for a “radio triple crown” by winning this year’s Marconi for News/Talk Station of the Year.
“This year, we won a Crystal and a Service to America award for Carathon,” he said. “So I would really, really, really love the triple crown of winning a Marconi too.”
The honor of being nominated for a Marconi is not lost on Charles or the WSB team. Given the dedication they all put toward their community, it becomes easy to see why they are a top contender this award season.
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