1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,880 This is the RBR TVBR Coronavirus In Focus podcast. 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:11,040 Here's your host, Radio and Television Business Report Editor-in-Chief, Adam R. Jacobson. 3 00:00:11,040 --> 00:00:15,840 Well, hello again and welcome to the RBR and TVBR Coronavirus In Focus podcast. 4 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:21,120 This limited podcast series shines a light on the local heroes of radio and TV who are working hard 5 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:25,600 to protect and serve their communities while also ensuring the safety of their news team. 6 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:31,360 Today we're talking to Bill Prescott. He's the General Manager of Lost Coast Communications 7 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:36,800 in beautiful Humboldt County, California. He oversees a group of radio stations that 8 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:43,200 includes a heritage adult alternative station, K-HUM. There's also Alternative K-SLUG. 9 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:50,640 There's The Point at 100.3 and 102.7 and something very unique, 94.1 The Lounge. 10 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:56,160 There's also The Lost Coast Outpost, which is an online news organization. And we'll talk a 11 00:00:56,160 --> 00:01:01,840 little bit about that later in the podcast. Welcome, Bill. Thank you, Adam. Good to be here. 12 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:08,640 You have a unique situation. You are in Humboldt County. And for those that aren't familiar with 13 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:14,800 the area, it's about a four hour drive north of San Francisco, about six hours south of Portland, 14 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:23,040 Oregon. It's very rural. It's very beautiful. And it's very much a forgotten area when it comes to 15 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:29,040 national advertisers and to some extent, people in California who don't really look at that area as 16 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:35,600 one of economic growth aside from some of the greener industries, if you will. 17 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:44,080 What can you say about where your group of stations were prior to the COVID-19 outbreak? 18 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:48,320 And a little shelter in place rules that were put in effect by Governor Newsom. And then we'll get 19 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:55,920 into just kind of where things are right now. Sure. We finished up 2019 with record year for sales, 20 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:04,400 just really holding strong. And then we started off pretty soft in 2020. And then once COVID hit, 21 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:11,280 it was just let's throw out the rule book. We got to pivot and adjust. Things are changing daily. 22 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:18,320 And it's been, I'll say it's been hard, but honestly, right now looking at here on May 1st, 23 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:22,640 we're happy with where we are, all things considered. 24 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:30,960 We did record this on Friday, May 1st, and it was roughly seven to eight weeks after the shelter in 25 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:37,680 place rules went to effect in California. Myself being on the central coast was witness to a lot of 26 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:45,760 rapid shutdowns. In the Arcata, Eureka, McKinleyville area, you're probably relying 27 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:52,480 a lot on local business for your advertising because A, you're not in a nationally recognized 28 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:58,880 market when it comes to radio. I don't see any Nielsen or Eastland ratings coming out of your area. 29 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:03,280 Yeah, we get some national money, but it is small. 30 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:08,080 So what does that mean when all of a sudden all of the local businesses that you rely on 31 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:12,160 are relatively stopped from doing what they normally do every day? 32 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:19,440 Well, that really, we took it right back to our sales reps and we went out and reached out to 33 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:24,240 everybody and said, hey, business owners, how are you changing? What are you doing? How can we help? 34 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:31,600 And we dug in like we found as an example of one of a classic business in old town Eureka in the 35 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:36,720 cute little part of town called Bell Star. They went from never not even knowing how to operate a 36 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:41,040 website. And within a couple of weeks, they built a website and are now selling their clothes online. 37 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:47,600 And so we were able to, their budget got a little smaller, but they also said, hey, we've just 38 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:54,000 transferred from being a retail store to an online store. We need to advertise. We need to let the 39 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:00,320 community know this. So a lot of people have maintained their advertising dollars because 40 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:04,320 they've changed their business model. They're changing, like our restaurant customers are now 41 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:10,400 doing curbside takeout. They need to let people know that. We did have some hard hits. Some of 42 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:16,800 the businesses that just closed down completely, like there's some casinos up here. They're good 43 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:23,200 dollars. And they said, hey, we have to close completely. Ironically though, they came back 44 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:27,520 and maybe they closed down at the beginning of March. But then they came back and said, hey, 45 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,640 we want to support the community. We want to let the community know that we're here for them. So 46 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:37,200 they actually put in buys that were decent to let the community know, hey, we're still here, 47 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:40,720 even though we're closed right now, we want to support the community and we're supporting our 48 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:44,800 first responders and all our medical people and all that sort of thing. So it's been pretty, 49 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:49,760 pretty cool that people have come back after being taken a couple of weeks off and they're 50 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:55,440 adjusting what their business is. And we've been very flexible as far as 51 00:04:55,440 --> 00:05:01,040 how we can support the essential businesses going. Like say your hardware stores, they're still 52 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:05,520 doing a pretty good clip because everybody's stuck at home gardening like never before. 53 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:12,240 And so some of them have come in big saying, hey, we're doing good. We're going to keep going. So 54 00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:19,360 it's encouraging. Another part is we are a small community. Everybody kind of knows each other in 55 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:26,320 that sense. And so it's really been a powerful part of radio because right when this started 56 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:31,520 happening, the phones are just ringing off the hook on the four stations. The DJs were like 57 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:37,360 exhausted from talking because so many people were calling because people, they couldn't get this 58 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:41,760 experience on Spotify. They can't get this on YouTube. I mean, they were listening to the radio 59 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:49,280 to hear what's going on in their town. And even with our sales plummeting, we were able to get 60 00:05:49,280 --> 00:05:55,040 that experience. And so as a community organization, we're just, I felt like we're just crushing it. 61 00:05:55,040 --> 00:06:02,000 We were really doing the real work. Hearing that is awesome. And you did mention two key words, 62 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:09,280 pivot and adjust. But at the same time, there could be a real difficult financial situation. 63 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:15,680 And while you're serving the community, you still have to keep the lights on and pay your employees. 64 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:22,480 Have you looked into the PPP? Are you getting any government assistance? Or are you at a comfortable 65 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:28,720 position where against an NBC affiliate that's very strong in the marketplace, against the local 66 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:34,400 newspaper and against other radio stations serving at least the Eureka Arcata area, 67 00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:38,640 are you doing well? Are you doing better than you thought when this first started in March? 68 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:44,720 I definitely think we're doing better than we thought we'd be doing. That said, we have applied 69 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:52,400 for a PPP loan. No word yet. I'm not thinking like we would have to do layoffs or anything. 70 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:58,320 And then the other part that spikes to the Lost Coast Outpost part of our business plan, 71 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:02,560 which is the online news source. And that's got enormous traffic right now. And we can go to 72 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:08,000 anybody who's open, who wants to be open, who wants to keep their face out there and say, 73 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:13,600 the traffic on this website will knock your socks off. So I think we're really diverse. And the 74 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:19,520 offerings, we can walk into a business or someone and offer them. So that's, I think, really keeping 75 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:25,600 us, you know, it's keeping the money flowing in. I'm looking at some server statistics that you 76 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:31,600 had shared with me. I'm just blown away. I mean, we're looking at local sessions and the numbers of 77 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:38,000 300,000, 400,000 during the period where people were pretty much in a lockdown shelter at home 78 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:44,000 position. I think that speaks volumes for what you can do aside from what you do on the air. 79 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:49,840 And I'm wondering if this is a great opportunity for others in some of the smaller, unrated markets 80 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:54,720 to pretty much tap into. Yeah. I mean, the traffic is built organically over the last, 81 00:07:54,720 --> 00:08:01,120 that web site or the Lost Coast Outpost has been in existence nine years. And, you know, it just 82 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:05,920 has become, it's got five full-time journalists, and it's become the most trusted news source, 83 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:10,160 you know, like many small communities, we've had a lot of media consolidation, a lot of corporate 84 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:16,000 big guys coming in, buying up the TV stations, your newspapers, this and that. So this independent 85 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:22,640 website is the most trusted news source in the community. And the traffic, I mean, we only have 86 00:08:22,640 --> 00:08:29,600 an all-Pumble County way of 135,000 people. But we're seeing, you know, this huge amount of 87 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:35,040 page views of unique users are to the roof. And we're even pulling, you know, people from Sacramento 88 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:40,240 are keeping an eye on what's happening in Humboldt through the Lost Coast Outpost. So, you know, it's 89 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:47,760 really been a great resource for sales and for our community. I want to talk a little bit about the 90 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:54,080 four on-air brands, because you did mention Spotify. And one of the arguments that I've been very 91 00:08:54,080 --> 00:09:02,640 vocal in making is that while my audio use is certainly up when it comes to my listening to 92 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:10,560 whatever I choose because I'm home, it's not necessarily to a radio station on my radio, 93 00:09:10,560 --> 00:09:15,840 which I actually have on my home office desk or through the Alexa device in the living room and 94 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:24,480 kitchen area. It could be Spotify, but there's a certain limit to what you would get from that. 95 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:31,760 And I liken it to replacing a five CD changer or, you know, a jukebox of your favorite record albums. 96 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:37,680 Radio does something different, and you certainly do something unique and different that speaks to 97 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:44,320 your communities across Humboldt County in your four brands. How would you define your 98 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:51,280 stations and why they're a unique draw and why even in this time of urgency, in this COVID-19 99 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:55,200 period, they stand out like no other stations in your marketplace? 100 00:09:57,040 --> 00:10:04,720 Well, a big picture, you know, kind of all of them together are, you know, we are live and local DJs, 101 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:09,680 you know, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Well, not the weekends, but Monday through Friday. 102 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:15,280 And even, you know, the other no one else really does that around here. They have a morning DJ till 10, 103 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:20,000 and then they just put it on, you know, on the computer. So and stuff is happening in our community 104 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:25,840 in the afternoon, you know, people are still calling in. And, you know, there's the opportunity 105 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:32,240 to share knowledge again, you know, it's a small community. So like in the last two weeks, we've had, 106 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:39,360 we interviewed the head of community development for the town of Arcata, and they were very 107 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:44,000 excited about that. And so we've had a lot of interviews with the city of Arcata. We've interviewed 108 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:48,480 the head of the Chamber of Commerce for the city of Eureka. Just yesterday, we had our county 109 00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:54,880 supervisor, Rex Bone, interviewed, I mean, like long, like a 35 minute interview that you're not 110 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:58,160 going to get that anywhere else, you know, they're going to put out a press release, they're going to 111 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:04,000 put a little sound bite on the Channel 3 news. But nobody's going to sit down with this guy and just 112 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:10,880 think all our stations are capable of bringing to the community. You have some unique programming 113 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:17,360 and one of these stations 94.1 the lounge. I don't think I've seen anything like it in any market, 114 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:25,920 you know, alone in part of rural California. What exactly is that? And if it's such a unique 115 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:31,840 station, well, in a normal economy, would it be difficult to sell and try to bring advertising 116 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:37,200 in let alone now? Right. It's actually kind of the brainchild of our he used to be our K-Hum, 117 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:45,120 which is like an adult contemporary station kind of hippied out. And but he was the afternoon DJ, 118 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:50,160 he was getting burned out, wanted to do something different. And he loved kind of swing music, 119 00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:54,080 the music you'd hear in like an old school lounge in the 50s, you know, like your crooners like 120 00:11:54,080 --> 00:12:00,400 Sinatra, Dean Martin, and then the female vocalists of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. But then he 121 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:07,200 took that kind of genre, but then mixed it with more modern music, like I say, TV corporation, 122 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:11,360 or even more stuff like Diana Carl and things that have a, you know, they have like, it's like old 123 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:17,120 style music, but it has a techno beat behind it. And it is just unique. And it's so funny as I go 124 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:20,720 to, you know, I go to chamber mixers or whatever, and I'm like, who here listens to the lounge, 125 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:27,200 and you're always surprised that all these people love the station. However, it's so hard to sell, 126 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:32,000 because I can walk into another business say this is a station, the point I can say this is a classic 127 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:36,400 rock station, they say I love classic rock, here's, here's my ad, you know, so trying to 128 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:40,960 explain it. And the only way to do it is just to say, Hey, man, put this when you're driving 129 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:46,640 home from work, but I've been 94.1. And give me a call, what do you think, you know, and it's really 130 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:50,960 interesting. The demographic is there's lots of parents who listen to it. There's like, I have 131 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:56,320 little kids, they love to listen to this old kind of, you know, kind of funky music compared to 132 00:12:56,320 --> 00:13:01,360 they're like, Oh, no, I don't need to hear AC DC ever again, dad, you know, so it's really, it's 133 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:05,760 just a fun eclectic thing. And that's what Humboldt's about is people, people who live in Humboldt 134 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:11,840 generally don't fit in most other places, you know, so we kind of how it goes, you know, 135 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:17,840 but you know, we can talk for hours about what life behind the Redwood curtain is all about. 136 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:24,480 But this is a good point to conclude this podcast. So before I do, I just wanted to ask in terms of 137 00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:31,840 just the overall state of affairs, as we are in the first week of May, most people may be familiar 138 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:36,960 with some of the microbrews that come out of Humboldt County, they might be familiar with 139 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:43,920 Humboldt State University, what can you say about life today and where things are going in the next 140 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:50,560 month and how Los Coast communication has really intertwined itself as being a community member 141 00:13:50,560 --> 00:13:55,760 that cares about his community and is also delivering the things that they need to move forward? 142 00:13:56,480 --> 00:14:02,000 Well, you know, first and foremost, we are a rural and resilient community, you know, people are up 143 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:05,840 here are tough as nails. You know, if you're if you ever come here in the winter, I hope you like 144 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:13,040 rain like it just pours. It never gets hot. You know, if we ever see 80 degrees, that's like a 145 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:17,760 miracle, but it also never freezes. So it's just a unique place. And the people who've made this 146 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:23,360 their home are really here to help each other. And, you know, like right now, we're running all this, 147 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:27,520 you know, obviously, the food bank has taken a big hit because there's a lot of people out of work. 148 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:30,800 So we I literally called up the head of the food bank and say, what can we do? How can we 149 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:35,520 run some PSA's for you guys? Like, we're just going to we got an inventory, right? Let's promote 150 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:40,160 you guys and get some get some help, you know, and I think that's what everyone's doing across the 151 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:45,280 board and the people who have resources are sharing them. Actually, Humboldt State University 152 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:50,560 mentioned they they're doing a big kind of COVID health awareness thing and they're they're buying 153 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:58,080 ads, you know, and you're like, OK, this is good. So we're it's I think we're actually really well 154 00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:04,800 positioned so far. We've had 51 cases confirmed out of 135,000 people, which we're thinking is 155 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:10,560 pretty darn good. We're fairly isolated. And yeah, like up here, people are pretty hippied out. 156 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:15,680 People have gardens. They have kind of we're used to having power outages. We're used to having 157 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:21,840 earthquakes. So people have supplies and stuff. So, you know, I think like overall, we're pretty 158 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:28,880 well positioned as a community to to kind of get through this. And, you know, I think it's all just 159 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:34,160 like when people are getting their their checks from the government, their the stimulus checks, 160 00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:39,680 there's a huge push like don't just take that money and, you know, go to a national big box store 161 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:43,600 and spend it. No, go to these local businesses that are open, the restaurants that you love, 162 00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:48,480 go there. You know, the people at the local hardware store, go spend the money with those guys. 163 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:53,200 And that kind of idea is so strong here, you know, so I think we're going to be OK. 164 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,000 Well, I'm really glad to have spoken with you. Why don't you take a drive and go to beautiful 165 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:03,440 Humboldt County, California, tune to one of the four Lost Coast Communications radio stations 166 00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:07,040 while you're there. Thank you very much, Bill Prescott, General Manager. 167 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:10,880 Well, thank you very much, Adam. I appreciate it. And I got to say, all four stations are streaming, 168 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:15,120 so you can you can listen anytime. Take a little bit of Humboldt home with you. 169 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:20,880 And thanks. Thanks to you for listening to the RBR and TV VR Coronavirus and Focus podcast. 170 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:26,080 We invite you to visit the Radio and Television Business Report at RBR.com each business day 171 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:30,960 for the freshest media news from Washington to Wall Street and your street. I'm Adam R. 172 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:37,360 Jacobson in Delray Beach, Florida. Have a great day and stay safe.