Keith Hastings is the program director for Cox Media Group’s KISS and KTKX in San Antonio. He is also the Rock format leader for the company. With 40 years in the business, Hastings started in radio at age 16 and is now in his 32nd year of programming radio stations. He’s also one of Radio Ink’s Best Programmers of 2018. It’s nice when you believe you’re one of the best, it’s even cooler when the people you work with thiink you’re the best. Here’s what we’re talking about…
Market Manager Ben Reed calls Hastings one of the best PDs he’s ever worked with. He says Keith has terrific creative skills, great program instincts, and he’s a good coach and trainer to a high-powered talent. “Keith also is a great resource to me and our sales talent. He looks for ways to make great radio come through the speakers each day, and works exceptionally well with others in the building.”
Listen to what D.O.S. Mary Rogers has to say about Keith Hastings. “Sales and programming have different ‘customers.’ My customer is the client who doesn’t care how much music is played on the radio station, they just want commercials at the lowest price possible. Keith’s customer is the listener who only wants to hear music and certainly doesn’t want to hear client commercials. These two major differences can cause strife, discord, and friction. However, when you have a PD that is understanding of the roles the two very important customers play, then you can create synergy and innovation through ideas and communication, which is what happens here at CMG San Antonio between Keith and myself. Keith sees both sides and looks closely at what the client(s) needs and wants are in order to help the cluster as a whole. He also works hard to bring synergy and relationships to both teams from top down, starting with us and working down to everyone including part-timers. His dedication to teamwork and solidarity is really amazing and second to none. I am so grateful I have him in my corner, helping me overcome client objections and working towards commonality that eventually helps all parties involved. That is absolutely rare in this business and that is why I consider Keith Hasting The Best PD in America.”
CMG GSM Jim Dyer says Keith is the role model all PDs should follow. “His knowledge of the industry, formats, and winning attitude is by far superior. Keith has built KISS and KTKX to hit and maintain top four or five in market 25-54, and top three 18-49 position for KISS for over four years. Keith’s ability to work with sales and programming is a breath of fresh air as he has a way of ‘making it work’ and does it with conviction and a smile.”
Here’s our extended interview with Keith Hastings, one of Radio Ink’s Best Programmers of 2018.
Radio Ink: What is your biggest station accomplishment, outside of ratings, over the past year?
Keith Hastings: It wasn’t our participation in Texas’s largest rock festival, Rockfest. Not our sixth anniversary listener bash for the Billy Madison Show. Not even our annual “Back to School Expo” that positively impacts the lives of hundreds of less fortunate students. It was a storm that never hit.
Even though San Antonio is three hours inland from the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Harvey was predicted to slam us. Preparing for that eventuality was a great reminder of the unique power of radio. During my time on Long Island, during superstorm Sandy, I was reminded that a great number of things we take for granted in our modern lives, like cell phone service and batteries, gasoline supplies, drinking water, and a dry place to sleep are easily disrupted in times like these. It was great preparation for last year, but as it turned out, the storm only grazed San Antonio and we were spared disaster. Nevertheless, this exercise was a good look in the mirror for our operation. We came away with ways to improve these methods in the future; the response from the audience who were thankful that we set aside regular programming and partnered with them on surviving was also inspiring. It also allowed us to direct a lot of resources to our sister stations in Houston, whose audiences were so horribly impacted by the disaster.
Radio Ink: Who are your mentors in this business and why?
Keith Hastings: Forty years is a long time, so you’re going to get a long list here. Let’s start with Jim Robertson, of WOGK/Ocala, Florida. Back in 1978, a skinny teenage farm boy walked into Jim’s studio at WDIF/Marion, Ohio and asked for a job. “JR” saw something in me and put me on the air part-time. When fulltime overnights became available, he agreed to hire me in the summer if, and only if, I promised him I would go to college and graduate. His experience and ability to make what came out of the speakers sound larger than life still drive my best efforts almost daily.
I learned so much from the brilliant mind of Lee Abrams during my early days of rock at WIOT and WQFM. He’s the first person that ever explained to me the delicate balance of art and science that leads to amazing radio, and from him I learned the value of show business, compelling imaging, and “seeing audio in technicolor.”
In my many years working for Saga, I could not help but learn much during my time with Steve Goldstein. His methods and ways of thinking always brought a successful structure to great ideas by supporting them with great execution. My GM at WLZR/WHQG, Tom Joerres, taught me that a great manager works for the talent as much and more than the talent works for the manager, and that’s been a powerful lesson. He is a man who stands up for what is right, regardless of consequence, and I learned strength from that.
Rock radio has had no greater, nor consistent friend over the years than Fred Jacobs, and I am proud to have worked with and learned from him many times. There really is no one else that has given over their entire business life the way he has to drive innovation and change to Rock radio. He has driven the format through many phases and many eras of success and challenge. He has taught and inspired me many times in my career and I am better for it.
When I first met Kim Guthrie and Steve Smith of CMG five years ago, I found them to be as compassionate about their people as they are passionate about this business. It took me less than 10 minutes with the two of them to know that. I realized that to accept the opportunity to be a part of Cox Media Group would change my career and my life in rich ways that one rarely comes across. The teams the two of them built are comprised of amazing individual members — Bill Hendrich, Tim Clarke, Ben Reed, Dan Lawrie, and all of the CMG GMs have strongly backed me in my quest to do everything I can to support and empower all of my teams.
No one gets this far without incredible support from individuals like these. I’m committed to paying them all back by paying their lessons forward to future torch bearers.
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Radio Ink: What do PDs have to do this year and over the next five years to have a successful career in programming that leads to their advancement?
Keith Hastings: My GM Ben Reed says it best — be a Swiss Army Knife. Know something about everything in your organization, and learn more every year about how to do it better. Be able to do multiple things well and consistently.
I once worked for a GM that didn’t want me in sales meetings because I was in “programming.” That never made sense to me and I’m glad to see that “silo” thinking inside radio stations is becoming a thing of the past. Sure, specialize in what you’re great at, but if you rest on that, sooner or later it won’t be enough. Ask questions. Be curious. There are very few people in radio who won’t take the time to roll up their sleeves and teach you more about what they do best. Get busy helping create the future, or get busy planning your exit. There is no in-between.
Radio Ink: What is radio’s biggest programming challenge moving forward?
Keith Hastings: In-car listening is radio’s last “cocoon” and it’s getting challenged as never before. The challenge of more choices is not exactly a new thing — 8-tracks and cassettes and CDs were supposed to make us irrelevant. They didn’t, but they did change how we view our mission. It’s going to take similar thinking to deal with a world where Internet-based platforms re-shape our content delivery in the car, but that thinking is going to have to be much quicker, smarter, and reactionary. Brand relevance is key, as is the need for unique content. If you fear change, this is probably not a good career choice for you. And if you don’t realize there are entire industries ready to fight for share of mind while inside the car, you’re already way behind.
Radio Ink: Why are consumers listening to Pandora and Spotify and not radio?
Keith Hastings: Choice and convenience. More choice is always a huge driver in consumer decision-making. And simple delivery platforms make them very easy to consume.
Audio content choices are expanding even more quickly than in the past. But for every million podcasts, only a handful ever achieve a level of saturation that make them profitable. Said another way, everyone can do a podcast. But not everyone can do a great podcast that will build a large audience.
It’s similar for music based audio options. Pandora and Spotify were first on the scene in the pure-play world, with advantages like no or fewer/shorter interruptions and the ability to skip songs. They struck upon consumer desires that conventional radio could not immediately respond to, thus consumers who appreciate these advantages are naturally going to spend time with them. Like all other product categories in the information age, there are more pure-plays all the time, which will cloud the future of Pandora and Spotify past the short term.
Pure plays can play any station’s music. But they can’t warn me if a hurricane is coming. They can’t make me laugh the way the Billy Madison Show can. They can’t keep me from avoiding a traffic jam at a major local intersection. They can’t express the pride I have in my city. They don’t know when Metallica is playing the Alamodome. They don’t care if the Spurs are in the playoffs. They don’t know how awesome Hatch Chili season is. They can’t relate to the cold pull of a Shiner Bock, and the fact that it snowed here for the first time in 30 years means nothing to them.
Look, if hearing a bunch of songs with no interruptions and being able to skip some of them is the most important thing to someone, it’s doubtful I’ll pull them away from a pure-play. But what’s the value of that type of consumer to my clients?
I believe we must respect that listeners have many choices. We must respect that they can easily tune us out if boring, condescending, and not relevant. We must define our mission well and commit to meaningful engagement as part of our music packaging. We can meaningfully engage with community members who are likely to listen to, embrace, and respond to expressions of love and appreciation of our city. This doesn’t mean we can ignore the need for brevity, creativity, and to be meaningful. It’s a hell of an opportunity as I see it. The increased competition can make us better still!
Forty years in, our best years are still yet to come. Who’s with me?
Reach out to congratulate Keith on being one of Radio’s Best Programmers at [email protected] and subscribe to Radio Ink in time to receive our Best Programmers issue HERE.
