WIQB FM: Format Stirs Controversy At WNRZ's Successor

In its first three months ofoperation, radio station W1QB-FM has been plagued by a succession of 3 air-staff firings and one resignation. The staff conflicts appear to stem primarily from the IQB management 's musical format and playlist. Former station members are chargeing that IQB-FM is failing to attract much of an audience or advertising revenue due to its overall approach.

"W-103 Quadrock," as the station is being promoted, came on the air around March 1 st of this year under new ownership and management. This was almost 2 years after the staff of WNRZ-FM, the station's predecessor, were kicked off the air by owner Thomas Boodell. Thus ended what is generally regarded as the most interesting chapter so far in the history of local ccmmunity radio. The new owner, is "Community Music Service, Inc.," a Rochester, New York-based Corporation under the direction of President Jim Trayhern. Trayhern is also part-owner of WCMF-FM in Rochester, New York, a fairly respected progressive fm station.

The SUN interviewed several former station members, as well as some of the IQB ownership and management. The following is our report on recent events at Ann Arbor's only locally-based commercial fm rock station.

"TOO PROGRESSIVE"?

The major complaint of sampled listeners and former staff members concerns the format at IQB, a set of rules which absolutely govern what music can or cannot be played on the station. Apparently the format is highly restrictive of anything beyond narrow mainstream of musical programming.

"Bill Champion, the station's Program Director, told me he wanted a 75% AM radio sound," explains ex-IQB disc jockey and long-time local radio personality Jim Dulzo. "He didn't want anything further out than the Moody Blues, that was the outer limit. We were basically supposed to play only completely proven, national hits, in the Bowie, Carly Simon, Chicago, Led Zeppelin range."

Dulzo recently quit the station over what he termed the "crushing boredom" of working from the rigid format. "The sound they wanted you could describe as post-Sergeant Pepper, not to be any funkier at night or lighter during the day," Dulzo explained. "We weren't allowed to play any blues or jazz. I remember one night I played one Little Richard tune, a Coaster's tune and one by Otis Redding, all during a 4 or 5 hour show, and Champion said that was 'too funky.' They didn't want more than one r and b hit an hour-you could get away with two if the second was basically not less familiar or hit-bound than the O'Jays."

"When I started at the station," Dulzo continued, "General Manager Stu Goldberg said there would be no blues, jazz or r and b on the station to start, but that we would broaden out rapidly from there. But we never did broaden out, it only got tighter in terms of what we could play. I argued against that. I explained to them that people around here had been exposed to more varied music on the radio at NRZ, ABX, KNR, CBN, the early days of WRIF etc, and at the Blues and Jazz Festivals which were broadcast live. They argued that r and b and jazz were for a black audience only, and that Ann Arbor only has a 3 per cent black population."

Dulzo quit. Two other jocks, Mark Allen and Bob Crowley, were fired, largely for protesting the musical range.

"Mark Allen was a Motown man and deep into jazz," Dulzo explained. "After he was fired, I could see things weren't going to change. Then they started pulling records from the library so the jocks couldn't play them. They pulled all the John McLaughlin and Weather Report albums because they were "too progressive". I tried to show them how McLaughlin was popular around this area, how he pulled a large crowd to Crisler Arena even with the students out of town. But they said no, the music wasn't 'familiar' enough. They refused for some time to program the Columbia lp by Sky King of Ann Arbor, saying they had to wait until the band had a national hit."

"When I first started working at the station I was happy about it," fired jock Bob Crowley told the SUN. "But after 3 months I was much more progressive-music oriented than the management. I couldn't even program old hits by the Rascals." Crowley echoed Dulzo in stating there was to be no blues or jazz aired, and also that he was originally promised the station would play familiar music at first and then broaden out." Instead," he offered, "the station is going in the reverse."

Crowley attempted to get Program Director Champion to add more varied music, but to no avail. "Then I went to Stu Goldberg, his superior, only after a long while, and pleaded again. But nothing changed. I was alarmed that the station was going to fall apart. So then I called owner Trayhern in New York. His answer was something like employees don't have to know about management policy, or something like that though not exactly. Anyway, a couple of days after going over Stu's head, I was fired. And I hadn't even violated the format."

"If I had known it would turn out this way I never would have come to WIQB," fired jock Mark Allen told the SUN. "I was originally told I was being hired to work at a progressive rock station which wanted knowledgeable jocks to play some role in doing their shows. When they fired me they said it was due to a "philosophical difference' over the music. I didn't think they had enough background to run the station well."

TALK IS A "TURN-OFF"

Our investigation determined that this is how the WIQB format works. These are two major categories, "gold" and new music. The new music category is divided into three sub-groups, labelled A, B, and C. Jocks are instructed to play an A, then a gold, then a B, then a gold, then C then gold and on and on. According to Dulzo, "there were maybe 35 albums in the new category, heavy sellers, only. Only an average of two cuts are allowed on the air per album, these are marked. The oldies are only solid, acceptable, post-1967 stuff, mostly white in origination."

Beyond the music, the former jocks also criticize the manner in which the format muzzles the disc jockeys. "The vocal breaks are confined to a very brief back-announce of the music, with minimal or no commentary on the music, the artists or their history," Dulzo explained. "Then you're to play a commercial, read your public service announcement, the weather, station ID and that's it. Be very tight and brief, no serious talk, no comment whatsoever. It's basically being an am jock, just not as hyper." Some of the air staff are in fact using phony radio names that supposedly "sound better," in the tradition of AM'

When the SUN interviewed Manager Stuart Goldberg last November he told us that the advent of WIQB would mean that "good progressive radio will return to Ann Arbor on a local basis-and it won't be a rip-off." Goldberg is the former General Manager of non-commercial student WCBNFM, from which he drew rnuch of the WIQB staff. Goldberg also promised the SUN that the station would make room for community access programming-live band broadcasts, shows for gay people, women, and alternative organizations.

In practice, the station's public affairs programming has been minimal, although Jim Trayhern and Bill Champion both told the SUN this week that the situation is about to change-reportedly a talk show, mini-news documentarles and a black oriented talk show are in the works for the near future. What public service messages IQB has been running have been largely copied from the files of WCBN-FM on campus. The only national news has been the Mutual "Progressive" News, which consists of one-liners on daily national events with no in-depth reporting or perspective, and includes breaks for ads for hemorrhoid preparations and the Ladies Home Journal. The station is doing some decent local news under the direction of Greg Bowman, but the scope is confined only to traditional sources like City Council, the courts, etc, with little or no reporting on local community organizations or activities outside the traditional "news" sphere.

"I don't think the station's approach is right for Ann Arbor," explained Crowley. "People here would appreciate something new and creative in radio. Ann Arbor is one of the more intelligent, musically and otherwise, places in the nation. It needs something like what WABX in Detroit was when it started out in the late sixties, and the emotion that station stirred up. If they did that, the salespeople would just have to sit at their desks and receive calls, because the station would be popular."

"I put a lot of effort into convincing the ownership and management that Ann Arbor isn't Akron, Ohio," Dulzo told us, "that radio here needs to be special. Around here people feel saturated with the traditional hits, which you shouldn't ignore, but also shouldn't limit yourself to. There are already plenty of stations on the dial with a current hit and gold format that do it better. IQB should stand out if it wants to succeed. I think personally that WCBN is much more listened to."

IS IT WORKING?

"There's got to be a program philosophy

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change," Mark Allen explained. "They won't succeed by trying to duplicate WRIF'S format in this area. ABX, IOT and W4 all play more varied music than WIQB. People in Ann Arbor will listen to blues, Motown and a variety of good music." 

From what we were able to uncover, it appears that a key indicator of audience success, and the pivotal economic factor in a station's survival, advertising revenue, has been lagging at WIQB.

"When we started off the station was doing fine, spot-wise," explained Crowley. "But a lot of that was on a trade-out basis for records and equipment, not really paid ads. Then it narrowed down, and some days there'd be very few commercials, especially in my last days. There was a very large changeover in the sales staff." Crowley speculated that the changeover could have been due to the salespeople's inability to make enough money because spots were difficult to sell, but the SUN was not able to verify this. Dulzo confirmed the dwindling advertising, as will a few hours listening to the station.

The SUN attempted to verify the testimonies of Dulzo, Crowley and Allen with General Manager Stuart Goldberg. But Goldberg simply refused to comment when contacted on any matters relating to the radio station, and promised that no one else at the station would talk with us either.

Owner Jim Trayhern at first refused to comment as well, explaining that "I don't think its anybody's business what we're doing but our own. I don't think we have to comment to any other media. People can draw their own conclusions by tuning in the station." However, Trayhern later explained that he was "completely satisfied" with the orientation and performance of the station management, but stressed that he was open to criticism from anyone concerned. He declined to comment on the specifics of musical programming and economic progress.

Program Director Bill Champion was most cooperative, proclaiming that "the station is working out very well." He refused to comment on any specifics due to the "high competitiveness" of the radio business. Champion pointed out that "any station has a large turnover of staff when starting out" when questioned about the firings and resignation.

Both Dulzo and Crowley charged that Champion, in his selection of music, practically ignored local record sale figures, which are one indicator of a community's taste. In fact, major local record stores attest that Ann Arborites buy a high proportion of rhythm and blues, blues and jazz music. Champion answered that local sales figures were checked "to some degree." The two former employees said that Champion picks the format from the industry "Top 100" charts. This week those charts show Grover Washington's "Mister Magic" album, a funky jazz/r and b saxophone synthesis, as number 11, right up there near Paul McCartney. But Grover Washington cannot be aired over 1QB because it's "jazz."

Crowley's, Dulzo's and Allen's experiences not withstanding, Champion claimed that the staff helps choose the music.

All this controversy is a great disappointment, because Ann Arbor has greatly needed a commercial community-minded music station ever since the WNRZ staff was locked out of the studio building by an absentee owner out of touch with local needs. In the next issue of the SUN we will take a look at the history of WNRZ and IQB, and what conclusions can be reached from that experience on how a local rock station could be successfully programmed, both culturally and economically.

David Fenton