Comments on: Impact looks to live up to its name

By: Elliott

Elliott — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:44:52 +0000

Don,

Thanks for writing such a nice piece about Impact. Luckytohaveajob could not be more ON target when he mentions Darrell Calton our fearless leader. Darrell is the glue that is holding all of our team together. He is a great broadcaster and leader. Mikey Fuentes our Director of Programming has also taken our company to the next level. I could go on about the entire staff at Impact Radio and mention everyone by name and their contribution but that would fill thirty pages! I will take a moment to acknowledge DJ Complex our APD and Joe King our Promotions Director for their total 1000% effort to make it happen at Impact Radio. EVERYONE on the staff is making maximum effort toward our goal. I can’t thank them all enough for believeing in the dream. Together, we as a team keep making great hire decisions too. Our entire staff approaches radio a little differently than most companies do now. We are building the best on air product possible as our number ONE goal to serve the our listeners and community. Second, we are branding our stations uniquely and promoting brand awareness constantly and if we are successful at those two goals the revenue and profits will follow. The tail is not wagging the dog!

Again Don, thanks for publishing our little story!
Elliott Klein
Managing Partner, SrVP.
Impact Radio Group

By: luckytohaveajob

luckytohaveajob — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 05:19:01 +0000

One thing Klein failed to mention. This transformation began with one company’s loss and another company’s gain when Citadel lost Daryl Calton to Impact last year. While you can credit Klein and company with a good hire you have give credit where it is due. I heard more then once from inside it was a huge mistake to look past him. Our building now includes Impact in the threat sessions. That has never happened before. The real question: are the formats and signals competitive? Because as I see it the execution certainly is.

By: Dave Arthur

Dave Arthur — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:26:57 +0000

Nice article… I had the pleasure of hangin’ out with the Impact guys last month and I’m tellin’ ya, you can feel the evergy in that building. It reminded me of what it was like inside Magic 93.1 in 1992… we wanted to win, and win we did. You gotta have the attitude! They’re focused and all in it to win it! They’re going to make everyone else have to work harder which is a win for everybody especially the listeners.

I echo Jim… go get ‘em Elliot

By: Jim Smith

Jim Smith — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:30:38 +0000

I hope this works for Impact. I could see the potential in this group back to the pre “Horizon” days when I worked there. Nothing would be better than live and local programming and promotions by a local owner taking a significant piece of the pie. Avoiding the “pitfalls” or better said, “speedbumps” like Dave and Dan are key to the success. Ge get ‘em Elliot.

By: Rainshadow

Rainshadow — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:51:32 +0000

It seems Impact is “getting it”. Radio is show business. Its about creating and engaging an audience and giving them a reason to tune in and be involved not only with the station, but also with their community.

I’ve always believed that the station owners were simply a convenience to own the license and equipment. The station actually belongs to the audience and its the job of the owners to give the audience as many reasons to tune and get involved as possible. Clever, stupid, interesting and sometimes just ridiculous reasons.

Using automation to play the music, jingles and commercials is just a tool to let the local personalities do their jobs more effectively -entertain and engage the audience.

By: Pep Streebeck

Pep Streebeck — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 06:30:27 +0000

Finally, someone sees beyond the time period of today.

Boise is now a Top 100 market for Arbitron. Boise will be metered monthly with quarterly updates. Since the entire market is full of knee-jerk reactions when it comes to consistent and good radio programming, Impact coming out and saying “We’re putting out an effort to do radio right” is like promoting that they show up to work daily and do thier jobs.

“WOW! You mean real people show up at that building and do radio? NO WAY!”

If by saying…”Impact is trying to expand your awareness and any one stations online presence using “social media applications” means “we are using the most common and free means of communication online to market ourselves”, Hey, that’s fine. It’s what the big boys around the country have been doing with MySpace and Facebook for years. Thank you for paying attention to some more recent technological trends in the last 3 years. You might be a little behind the learning curve but still you’ve managed to jump on the band wagon. Good Job!

If by saying “While the stations are emphasizing new ideas, the approach is old-school – with people who focus on broadcasting first, with the hope that the business end will pencil out by doing radio right.” means “we are hiring local people to help produce local radio”, then more power to them.