KSSK Shows How Not To Do Radio – Again

“We must be doing something right” is the standard response from Clear Channel, the mega-broadcasting company that owns hundreds of radio stations across the nation, including several in Hawaii.

Clear Channel’s ratings winner is KSSK, and they're mighty proud of it, although the late Cec Heftel was more responsible for the station’s current success than anything the mainland owner has done.

Heftel’s KGMB-AM, later marketed as K59, surged to number one with Aku at the microphone, and the station has never dipped to number two since.

It isn’t KSSK’s performance during emergencies that explains why so many people tune in. It’s from habit – a habit that could use breaking when we’re in a crisis.

We’ve made this point repeatedly since the 2006 Big Island earthquakes and resulting major power outage on Oahu. KSSK’s celebrity team of Perry and Price performs differently than any broadcasters we’ve ever heard during an emergency, and we’ve heard more than a few.

That’s Entertainment

KSSK simply moves its weekday morning entertainment format into the emergency period. It wasn’t long after the tsunami warning was issued late Thursday night that the P-and-P show began doing in the early hours on Friday what they do six times a week.

The show's formula is to entertain by taking calls from listeners. It doesn’t matter what a call’s about; they’ll take it. The station’s coverage of an emergency amounts to an endless stream of phone calls from listeners who have a burning desire to share their personal experience.

KSSK fills its air with first-person reports from non-reporters. To most broadcasters, that would be crazy, but it’s successful for KSSK because it follows the old entertainment advice: “Give them what they want.”

The biggest segment of Honolulu’s radio listening audience apparently wants all Perrry and Price, all the time. But is it what we need?

We’re sticking with the argument we started in 2006 the blackout, continued after the December 2008 blackout and have continued in the CHORE blog several times over the past five years: The public does not need a stream of essentially meaningless phone calls during an emergency. We need information, not entertainment, and you could find it on other stations in Friday’s early hours.

The Cox-owned stations, for example, and Hawaii Public Radio had completely different on-air sounds to them. Station personnel were reporting information gathered from official sources – Civil Defense, the Governor, the Mayor, emergency responders, etc. It was news you could actually use, and it was a huge contrast to KSSK’s on-air content.

But will Clear Channel ever change how Perry and Price conduct themselves during emergencies?

Not on your life, because ratings rule. Just don’t bet your life on what you hear on KSSK during a true crisis. It could turn out to be a bet you can't afford to lose.