Just a Short Hop From Hip

There probably aren’t many people who are avid listeners to both hip-hop station KPWR-FM (105.9) and country outlet KZLA-FM (93.9)--formats that sit pretty much at opposite ends of the pop music and cultural axis.

“There’d be one of us,” suggests Val Maki.

She’s not just the member of an exclusive cross-cultural fan club. She’s the person who runs both stations. For the past two years, Maki has been general manager of KPWR, overseeing the solidifying of its spot as L.A.’s top urban music station. Now, with Indianapolis-based parent company Emmis Communications having bought KZLA, she’s been made regional general manager.

It’s an odd alliance. KPWR (known as Power 106) has thrived during Maki’s reign, currently standing at No. 5 overall and second only to pop titan KIIS-FM (102.7) in cumulative audience size. Keys to the success are morning man Big Boy (who was near firing when Maki arrived) and the afternoon teaming of the Goodfellas; both are leading the station to particularly strong ratings with an audience largely between ages 12 and 24 and nearly two-thirds Latino.

KZLA targets a totally different audience. Recent station-commissioned research identifies the typical KZLA listener as a 43-year-old owner of a house worth more than $300,000 with a management job and an eye on buying a $30,000 car this year. It’s not fared nearly as well as its new sister, though, hanging in at No. 22 in the spring quarter Arbitron rankings.

Given that divide and KZLA’s stagnant ratings, many in the radio business assumed that Emmis would dump country in favor of another music format that would be a better complement to Power’s audience, allowing the two stations’ listeners to be sold to advertisers in package deals, and allowing for a cost-saving consolidation of sales staffs.

But Maki says no, that won’t be the case. For the foreseeable future, at least, she’ll--professionally speaking--be wearing two hats: a backward baseball cap and a wide-brimmed Stetson.

If anything, Maki, 38, looks closer to the part of a country fan. With her Nordic features and ready smile, it’s easy to guess that she grew up in a small, rural northern Minnesota town. She started working in radio sales for Emmis at a Minneapolis station 16 years ago and held various jobs both at individual stations in Chicago and New York and in the corporate system before being placed at Power as one of few women to be running a top major-market station--let alone two.

But in her time at KPWR, she’s become a knowledgeable aficionado of hip-hop, able to discuss trends and stars in detail with enthusiasm. Now she’s proving a quick study at KZLA, already immersing herself in country culture with gusto.

“There’s just so much exciting stuff,” she says of the latter, citing such current breakthrough artists as the Dixie Chicks, Faith Hill and SheDaisy, in addition to such established stars as Garth Brooks, George Strait and Shania Twain.

It’s the subject of teasing from the staffs of each station, as she shuttles not just between KPWR’s Burbank offices and KZLA’s Hollywood headquarters, but between different sets of jargon and aesthetics. And she herself laughs at the soon-to-come prospect of these two worlds co-existing in the same building, with KZLA likely to move to Burbank in the near future.

“The idea of them both being in the same building, sharing a kitchen--that’s a sitcom!” she says with a laugh, sitting in her office at KZLA. “I can’t wait for the day when we have Garth Brooks and Snoop Dogg come in at the same time. Something beautiful will come of that.”

But for all the surface differences between her two charges, Maki sees more significant similarities.

“People do compare the formats,” she says. “People who are into country talk about how it’s about real things. And in hip-hop, the music also reflects the community, speaks for the people.”

As far as her duties are concerned, there’s another important similarity.

“Both stations own their format in the market,” she says.

Indeed, KZLA is the only country station in the area, while KPWR’s only real competitor, KKBT-FM (which recently moved to 100.3 from 92.3), is moving away from hip-hop to feature more R&B; and draw an audience a bit older and more female than KPWR.

The key, Maki says, is to maximize KZLA’s bond with its target listeners as much as KPWR has. Any hip-hop fan in the area--and even many people who don’t like that music--are aware of the Power 106 brand name. But Maki says that her company’s research shows that even among country music fans in the region, as many as 50% don’t even know about KZLA. Though L.A. is the biggest country music market in the U.S. as far as CD and tape sales are concerned, country radio has made little impact here.

“You could ask a 50-year-old white guy what the hip-hop station is here and he’ll know it’s Power,” she says. “The equivalent’s not true with KZLA.”

Part of the problem has been instability, with six different owners for KZLA in the past nine years and such failed experiments as trying to mix such country-influenced classic-rock acts as Jimmy Buffett and the Eagles into the programming. The result was a dilution of the country identification of the brand.

To that end, Maki’s gearing up the station for an aggressive promotion campaign in the fall, with strong billboard and TV advertising presence emphasizing the stars of country music. She’s also looking to tie in country’s increasing presence in Hollywood, noting the number of stars getting into movies and signing with Hollywood agents and managers. And R.J. Curtis, who oversaw the station’s peak time circa 1994, has returned for his third stint as program director.

“Here’s how exciting country is,” she says with the enthusiasm of a committed new convert. “That’s what we will convey.”