KQLZ’s Low Ratings Make Pirate Radio Walk the Plank

Pirate Radio, which swashbuckled onto the Southern California scene nearly two years ago amid much hoopla, high expectations and a $54-million price tag, sinks today.

KQLZ-FM(100.3) was scheduled to switch formats at 6 this morning. The reason for the change was attributed to steadily plunging ratings.

“We had a great debut and a lot of people were interested, and then a lot of people tuned out,” said Norm Pattiz, chairman and chief executive officer of Westwood One Inc., the company that owns KQLZ and is the nation’s largest supplier of syndicated radio programming. “It was the logical move. . . . Over the last 12 months we’ve seen the numbers moving in the wrong direction, so it became time to do something about it.”

The move away from a mixture of hard rock, Top 40 and dance music (dubbed “free-form Top 40”) to album-oriented rock also includes the ouster of the station’s mastermind and morning personality, Scott Shannon, vice president of programming at Westwood One.

Shannon sounded shaken after his last show Wednesday morning, though his five-year contract with Westwood One--estimated at a $15 million salary-plus-compensation package--still has three years to run.

“You’re never surprised in this business,” Shannon said just minutes after his last show. “Still, I take things like this very seriously. I feel we had a plan and we were going to do it and they pulled the rug out at the last minute.”

His final broadcast was filled with allusions to the station’s switch, but no outright announcement was made.

“Just about every disc jockey that starts out in the business dreams of opening the microphone and speaking to Los Angeles, California,” he said near the end of his morning show. “When you get there it’s a dream come true. And it has been a dream.”

Shannon said that he had no immediate plans but will continue to host his syndicated countdown show for Westwood One.

Despite the format alteration, KQLZ will not change its call letters or its self-annointed Pirate Radio nickname, Pattiz said. The Pirate Radio concept was taken from the renegade broadcast tradition dating back more than 20 years, when ships in the North Sea transmitted rock ‘n’ roll into the British Isles from international waters where the British government had no jurisdiction over what could be broadcast.

A program director and on-air personalities have not yet been hired, Pattiz said. But he has hired Santa Monica-based radio consultant Jeff Pollack, who has worked with KLOS-FM and KKBT-FM.

Pirate Radio debuted March 17, 1989, from the ashes of easy-listening station KIQQ-FM. Westwood One’s purchase of KIQQ had been regarded as a $54-million gamble, but generally a good bet, considering Shannon’s proven track record as morning deejay at top-rated WHTZ in New York.

When it came on the air, it captivated listeners with its combination of a rough ‘n’ tough “pirate” image, an eclectic mix of songs and an absence of commercials.

“It was one of the most compelling launches of a format,” said Steve Butler, executive editor of Inside Radio, an industry publication. “There was so much build-up about it. The industry was on the edge of their chairs when Shannon came on. . . . It was kind of this primal radio that turned a lot of radio people on.”

The mandate for Shannon, a radio golden boy who had successfully programmed eight other stations around the country, was to bring the station to No. 1. At first, it appeared he might just pull it off. KQLZ quickly soared to the No. 5 spot in the Arbitron ratings.

But instead of going up after its dramatic debut, the station began to slip, slowly at first, then more swiftly, going from a 5.5% share of the audience in the summer of 1989 to a 2.7% share of the audience in the most recent ratings survey. The last Arbitron ratings ranked Shannon’s morning show at No. 16 in the market.

“It really is the first failing experience he’s had,” said Butler. “He’s had the Midas Touch everywhere he’s been, until now.”

Pattiz said that Shannon’s ouster was based on financial considerations. The morning show, Pattiz said, was the most costly aspect of the station and it attracted the least listeners.

“The mandate was to build a morning show that led the rest of the radio station, and that mandate was backed up by a pretty sizeable financial commitment,” Pattiz said. “It’s clear that what the market liked about Pirate Radio was not necessarily the morning show. What Scott was really successful at doing was putting on a straight-ahead Top 40 station, (but) Pirate became a hybrid that was unlike any other radio station in America. We gave (Shannon) complete control. Now we believe we have to go in a different direction.”

Shannon speculated that his eclectic formula may not have gone over because it didn’t fit with the varied ethnic make-up of Los Angeles.

Analysts suggested that it may have simply been too much of a musical hybrid.