What if Disneyland went out of business? Would you be disappointed?
Well, a significant part of "Disney" is in serious jeopardy of disappearing from Utah, and its fate will be decided during the next 10 months.
"Radio Disney" (KBEE, AM-860), locally, is a popular radio station — especially for children ages 2-11. But it's struggling economically in Salt Lake City, and most other markets. Though the Walt Disney Co. remains stable, Radio Disney has been a hard sell to advertisers.
Eric Hauenstein, vice president and general manager of Citadel Communications in Salt Lake City, which operates Radio Disney and six other local stations, said this situation is not unlike challenges faced by commercial classical-music stations. Many have gone dark from similar economic woes, though their deaths generated considerable publicity and outcry.
The Radio Disney situation is also not unlike that of a former occupant of the AM-860 frequency in Utah during the 1980s. KUTR, an LDS-music station, was also unable to make it financially; that station and several descendants have long since disappeared from the dial.
Hauenstein confirmed that Citadel had considered dropping the Radio Disney format earlier this year. "We chose to re-commit ourselves for another one year," he said, explaining that Radio Disney doesn't currently make any money for Citadel — and has generally lost money.
"It's been very difficult to make any money with it," he said. "Citadel has been underwriting Radio Disney for going on six years." So Citadel has now decided on a year-to-year contract renewal, instead of the previous multiyear contract with the Radio Disney network.
"Radio Disney has been a labor of love for many of us," he said.
It's not that Radio Disney isn't popular. During remote broadcasts, the response usually outdoes that of sister stations KUBL, KENZ and KBER. "We know there's an immense audience," Hauenstein said. "On the other hand, there are no ratings."
Arbitron, the powerful rating-estimates company, doesn't measure any listeners under age 12. And even if it did, what methodology would it use? Children under 12 probably wouldn't do well at filling out an Arbitron listening diary.
Disney's core radio audience is 6-11, though it has tried recently to expand that to an age-14 audience. "We want Radio Disney to survive here," Hauenstein said. "It provides a real value."
Besides advertisers being reluctant to buy a format without the usual rating statistics, Radio Disney has also been playing more rap music recently. This has upset some parents who don't like the rap music style, and it even raises questions of whether it is appropriate for young audiences. "Radio Disney continues to play music that kids want to hear — including some pop-rap within the boundaries parents set," said Ginger Buchanan, director of marketing for Citadel of Salt Lake. "We monitor kids' preferences and parents' limits through ongoing research."
Buchanan said, however, that the station plays positive music that parents and families can trust.
Robin Jones, senior director of operations and program director for Radio Disney headquarters in Dallas, said the network plays music based on kids' requests and also on standards.
"Parents told us they wanted us to play rap, because it would meet their lyric standards," Jones said.
Their approach was that kids were going to listen to rap music anyway, and so they might as well get it from Disney — where it meets their standards on violence and profanity — rather than from uncensored sources. "We will have to continue to monitor it," Jones said.
"Black Suits Coming to You," by Will Smith, and "Take Ya Home," by Lil' Bow Wow, are examples of two pop-rap songs that are sixth and 10th respectively on Radio Disney's current top-30 song list. ("Get a Clue," by Simon & Milo, is No. 1.)
Radio Disney in Salt Lake City has to power down from 10,000 to 200 watts at sunset, in accordance with FCC regulations, to avoid interference with Denver's KOA (AM-850). That limitation means it essentially signs off the air at dusk, except in the Salt Lake Valley.
However, when school is out in the summer and the days are longer, the station has extended hours, even reaching into southern Idaho.
The Wasatch Front may contain one of the nation's highest concentrations of young people in the nation, but that factor hasn't been enough by itself to support Radio Disney. Hauenstein is hoping that an appeal to parents and advertisers to better support the station, plus parental understanding of Disney playing the cleanest of rap music, will lead to financial success of the network locally.
The new contract with Radio Disney expires in July 2003.
RADIO DISNEY is currently in 51 other U.S. radio markets. It premiered in the fall of 1996 in Salt Lake City and three other test markets. Disney estimates it has a total of 2.9 million kids listening each week.
The network receives an average of 500,000 telephones calls each week and 11,000 of those are from Utah.
Disney uses live DJs, either broadcasting from Disneyland, Disney World or Dallas.
Radio Disney is still playing Disney movie music and the cute songs too, but those are aired during daytime blocks, as during the 10 a.m.-noon "Playhouse Disney" program.
E-MAIL: lynn@desnews.com