Radio Stations, Promoters Rock Hand in Hand : Music: A cozy alliance dictates which groups appear, how tickets are distributed.

SAN DIEGO —  XTRA-FM (91X) recently told its listeners that Tin Machine, the new rock band fronted by David Bowie, sold out a concert at the 1,400-seat Spreckels Theatre in 18 minutes.

It would have been more accurate to say that there were no longer seats for sale, because obviously plenty of tickets still were available, considering that 91X was giving away dozens of tickets on the air.

As it turned out, the promoters added another show, so plenty of tickets were available for sale a few days later.

Music fans who wonder about this type of chain of events--how a concert sells out in 18 minutes, why certain acts come to town, and how stations often have seemingly unlimited tickets to give away even though a concert was listed as a sellout weeks earlier--often need look no further than the local radio stations. It’s not unusual for radio stations to attempt to turn concerts into their own private events, stockpiling tickets and doing everything possible to persuade listeners that the group is only coming to town because of the largess of the station.

In some cases, that’s not far off.

Though few involved like to talk about it, behind the scenes, radio stations are major players in the concert industry, working hand in hand with the promoters on almost every aspect of the business, from advertising and promotions to the number of tickets held back from public sale. Music fans hear the station promotions and see the station logos attached to concert advertisements, but few may realize to what extent radio participates in the concert process.

Without support from a radio station, some acts won’t be brought to town.

“If (KIFM program director) Bob O’Connor or (91X program director) Mike Halloran doesn’t have interest in a show, it doesn’t make sense to produce it,” said promoter Scott Pedersen.

This symbiotic relationship between radio and promoters is not new, but it has taken on new weight because of the economic problems in the concert business. Across the country, the last two years have been the worst in recent memory for promoters. Gross receipts were down as much as 30% in some markets, according to the North American Concert Promoters Assn. Even big names didn’t guarantee ticket sales. A list of the biggest money-losing concert tours of 1991 released by the NAPA included Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis and Diana Ross.

These days, there are “very few instances” when an act can sell tickets without strong support from radio, according to David Swift, the local representative for Avalon Attractions. “You can look at Jimmy Buffett, and he doesn’t get a lot of radio play or sell a lot of albums, and you know he’ll do well, but there are not a lot of acts like that.”

At the same time, San Diego radio, which has also been struck by hard times, has grown more conservative. Stations have narrowed their focus, attempting to ensure that they capture a certain listening niche. Few new artists or adventuresome musical styles make it onto playlists.

“The way we work with radio hasn’t changed dramatically, but the way radio works has changed,” promoter Bill Silva said.

The desire to target specific musical niches makes radio even more valuable as an advertising vehicle for concerts. A station that plays the music of a performer coming to town provides promoters with the most cost-effective means to target fans. Silva says he finds television to be useful for many concerts these days, such as rocker Rod Stewart, but still promotes through radio on the vast number of his shows.

John Brice, the head of a small public relations firm that represented Silva for many years--though no longer does--said, “Radio is the marketing tool for concerts. Print is a poor, distant second.”

Stations with specific audience niches are able to exert a tremendous influence on which acts come to San Diego.

“I don’t book by my own tastes anymore,” said Kenny Weissberg, who books acts for the annual Humphrey’s series. Almost half of the Humphrey’s shows are promoted by KIFM, which has the mellow jazz market pretty much to itself.

“I sit down with Bob O’Connor and (disc jockey) Art Good and we go over the concerts, and I get suggestions,” Weissberg said. “A lot of times they are absolutely right.”

KIFM won’t tell a promoter not to bring an act to town, but they can advise him which bands will be featured on KIFM in the near future.

“We are more conservative (about which concerts to support) because in the contemporary jazz genre, we don’t have another station going against us,” said Bruce Walton, KIFM’s general manager. He notes that his station usually doesn’t have a competing station looking to promote the same shows. “But in the case of (top 40 stations) XHTZ (Z90) and KKLQ (Q106), if they are asked to do a concert that’s on the fence, they might say, ‘Bring it in and we want it.’ ”

New music station XTRA-FM (91X) is the only station that regularly features Public Image Limited, and they were involved with every aspect of the group’s recent appearance at Iguana’s in Tijuana, a rare small club concert set up for an MTV video shoot. The station even sold tickets in its parking lot.

In an effort to make concerts its own promotional events, 91X has been more aggressive than most stations. Two years ago, 91X brought the Who to San Diego and attempted to control the tickets, unsuccessfully trying to prevent other stations from giving away any while they gave away hundreds. But that was an extreme and may not happen again in soon.

“We found we can do the same thing without owning the show,” said 91X program director Kevin Stapleford. “Promoters are making the money, they’re the ones who should be investing in it.”

Listeners can gauge a radio station’s involvement from its on-air rhetoric. Usually, if a station says it “presents” a concert, it has an exclusive to promote it; “welcomes” means a station is simply working with the promoter to a small degree, or maybe it is trying to horn in on another station’s exclusive.

“Presents” is the most prestigious designation, as stations covet the opportunity to call an event their own. Besides the lion’s share of complimentary tickets, the stations usually get to attach their logos to marketing the concert, banners at the event and a station disc jockey introducing the band.

In the rock genre, there are fewer “presents” awarded, simply because KGB-FM (101.5) doesn’t dominate the scene as it did a few years ago. There is more competition, and it’s more important to the promoters to cultivate multiple relationships and reach the different audiences represented through the various stations than to focus just on KGB.

The most common enticement promoters can use to soothe relationships with stations is to provide free tickets, which the stations can give to listeners.

The number of tickets given to stations vary considerably from event to event, and often depends on the relationship of the promoter to the station. For a big Sports Arena show, it might be anywhere from 40 to 100 seats. For a concert at Sound FX, the roughly 500-seat Clairemont club formerly known as the Bacchanal, a promoter may hold back 10% of the seats, according to sources.

Promoters say they only give stations more tickets when a show is not a sellout, since they don’t need the extra promotion when a show is sold out. Only when they miscalculate the popularity of an act do they give stations a substantial number of tickets for a sold-out show.

The number of tickets given to a radio station for a large Sports Arena show will usually have little impact on ticket sales. However, when for some concerts in small venues, tickets can become scarce. Remember, Tin Machine reportedly sold out the 1,400-seat Spreckels in 18 minutes.

For each concert, seats are held back for the band and record companies. And ticket brokers manage to buy up large blocks of tickets, which they resell, despite efforts by promoters to limit their activities. Tack on a hundred tickets to a radio station, and the public often seems to have little opportunity to buy tickets. Tickets for the Public Image Limited MTV video shoot at the 1,000-capacity Iguana’s sold out in 35 minutes, according to an on-air announcement, although 91X spent several days giving away tickets.

There are more than 2 dozen ticket outlets around the county, so promoters say that it easy for shows like Tin Machine to sell out quickly. But promoters won’t say how many tickets actually go on sale, leaving the music fan to wonder just how much of an opportunity the general public has to buy tickets.

“What I do with tickets is my business,” said a clearly irritated Silva.

The seats kept in reserve by promoters for radio stations, bands, record company executives and the media are usually some of the best seats in the house because promoters don’t want to give such important supporters seats in nosebleed territory. In addition, Silva said that acts such as INXS, Rod Stewart and Michael Bolton often ask the promoter to hold back tickets in the first two rows, so the seats can be given to the most enthusiastic fans on the night of the concert, ensuring that the first few rows will be filled with screaming bodies.

The seats that stations give to listeners and advertisers are usually not that good, but they’re not bad. At the Sports Arena, for example, the seats are almost always just off the floor, off to the side of the stage.

The result is that some concerts turn into Super Bowl-like events, where only people with connections appear to get the best tickets.

“We get our tickets just like anybody else,” said Stapleford of 91X. “We pay with on-air mentions. Every time we talk about an act, that is $150 we usually get from a client.”

For the music fan uninterested in participating in radio station contests, the ticket-buying experience can be disappointing--if the station’s announcements about quick sellouts are to be believed--especially considering that some acts only come to town, at the most, once a year.

“So what?” Silva said, when told some fans may find it frustrating when they can’t buy tickets for a concert, even though a station is giving away tickets. “What is more frustrating is when a show doesn’t sell out, and I lose $25,000.”

Radio contests give concert-goers a “second chance” at tickets, Silva said. “It’s not that I don’t care about the customer,” but ticket deals with stations are a part of the business that doesn’t hurt anybody, he said.

For promoters, who budget $2 to $3 a ticket for marketing, the relationship with a station is a cost-effective way to promote a show. That, in turn, keeps ticket prices down, they say.

“A deejay rapping about my show is sometimes better than paid advertising,” Avalon’s Swift said. “I have to do certain things to sell a show.”

Promoters such as Swift and Silva don’t mind giving out tickets to stations, even when a concert sells out, because they want to keep stations happy.

“We’re talking long-term relationships,” said one radio promotions director. “We’re there for them, and we want them there for us when a show sells out.”

Record companies intent on getting maximum exposure and radio play further complicate the process. The close nature of the relationship between promoters, record companies and radio stations has often led to investigations of “payola”--individuals being paid off to play a record or support an act.

“Favors run back and forth off the air,” said KIFM’s Walton, adding that he buys his own tickets because he doesn’t want to get into “an I.O.U. situation.”

Often the competition between stations to tie in with a concert becomes fierce, especially when an act is played on more than one station. The promoters are able to cut exceptional deals for advertising and promotional help without giving away exclusive presenter status or many tickets.

“The real battles arise when there are two (contemporary) stations or two oldies stations, and the stations have to deal with the different packages that are available,” Walton said.

The promoters and station executives say that San Diego music lovers benefit from those battles.

“Hopefully (promoters and stations) can get together and get all the bands to come to town,” Stapleford said. “A lot of these bands wouldn’t come here if we weren’t here.”

Music fans share the same hope.