Who's In The Control Booth? -- Radio Stations Tune Out Personalities In Heat Of Competition

Robin Erickson never wants to hear "Shattered" by the Rolling Stones again.

She claims she's played the song at least a thousand times in her 18-year career as a rock-'n'-roll disc jockey.

And the powers that be at album-oriented rock station KXRX say she'll be playing it at least one more time. It's her third day on the morning shift, and she's been awake since 4 a.m. Clutching a commercial cartridge in one hand and adjusting her headphones with the other, Erickson somehow manages to cue up "Shattered" and keep up her mile-a-minute on-the-air chatter.

"It's harder to appreciate music because you play it all the time," she said.

What you hear on the radio these days is no longer the DJ's individual choice. In order to succeed in a fragmented, cutthroat-competitive market, program directors and general managers rely on software programs, playlists, listener surveys and research consultants to create the perfect "stationality."

That stationality is key to a radio station's success. But sometimes the DJ is lost in the shuffle. They once were considered the referees of rock music, introducing new artists to listeners and creating loyal followings for both the musicians and themselves.

Today, DJs are team players, sacrificing their musical tastes and individual personalities to fit their station's format. The DJ merely provides a human counterpoint to a computerized playlist.

Seattle is the 13th largest radio market in the U.S., according to the Arbitron company. Radio experts say that's not bad for a city of barely a half-million people which supports nearly 40 stations. That total includes five major FM rock stations locked in a tight ratings race.

The Arbitron ratings for January through March, released last week, showed more roller-coaster dips for the rock stations that aim their programming toward the 18-to-34 age crowd. KISW (99.9) ranked No. 1, while KNDD (107.7) moved up to second place. KXRX (96.5) had a disappointing dip in market share but still placed fourth. KZOK (102.5) ranked seventh, and KMTT (103.7) placed eighth.

"There's no consistency from book to book," said KXRX general manager Steve West. "We've made some changes and we're working toward the future. These figures are now past history."

KZOK's Steve Slaton remembers the days when ratings didn't exist.

"There used to be mom-'n'-pop radio stations run by a bunch of hippies with little regard to attract an audience and keep it," he said. "Today, so many things have snowballed. The '80s corporate takeovers made big changes. Nonradio people bought stations as property, hoping the values would go up. Frequencies are now worth millions."

But what are DJs worth today? Many fear the demise of a warm body behind the mike, with the advent of the cable radio network, Digital Music Express, which provides a wealth of musical formats - from reggae to show tunes - available at the touch of a remote control device. Who needs a DJ when a song's title and performer are displayed on the remote itself?

"We're not threatened by cable radio because Seattle is a personality-driven market," said West. "People who grew up here are used to it. The listeners will not allow that to go away. It's become a habit, a part of their routine."

For example, KXRX's "Robin & Maynard Show" balances Erickson's love of music with John Maynard's preference for character voices. But the music clearly has taken a back seat to the comedy.

"We use music as a building block to prepare for the next set," said Maynard. "Our audience tunes in for interaction and humor."

But for some, like KZOK's Slaton, the music still comes first.

The smooth-voiced, easygoing Slaton built his career playing his favorite music at KISW, but as the market grew and more rock stations emerged, ratings became more important. The ax fell last fall: Slaton became another casualty of the ratings war, dismissed after 19 1/2 years of service.

Though he's now contentedly spinning "classic rock" on KZOK, Slaton criticizes the national trend toward radio geared at increasingly narrow musical niches. The trend already appears to have dealt a death blow to Top 40 radio, the longtime leading format.

Slaton said the Seattle market has become "superfragmented and too formatted." Too formatted? KISW, "Seattle's Best Rock," swears by its "More pure rock, no useless talk" motto. KZOK only plays "Classic Rock." KNDD claims it's the "C-c-cutting Edge" of rock.

"It does get kind of murky as to what is what," said Slaton.

Erickson worries that that very murkiness and dependency on market research will lead to disc jockeys with poor musical knowledge. Not familiar with a song on the playlist? No problem. Just call up the band's biography in the computer system, and voila! Instant education.

"In the past, you became an audiophile," explained Erickson. "You'd learn to distinguish different producers' sounds and stay on top of new music. That is neglected nowadays. Research killed that. I never had a playlist until 1984. Research can cut your hands off. You become a mouthpiece."

Lindsey Cipcic, assistant program director at KXRX, maintains that the DJ still has the freedom and flexibility to program his or her own music. She describes the Selector software program, which her station uses, as an accessible electronic music library.

"(T)he computer is not in control. We give it guidelines," she said. "Plus, we have such knowledgeable jocks who are so attuned to the audience that we trust their judgment. They're human, not jukeboxes."

And unlike jukeboxes, humans can get cranky. Or just plain overwhelmed. Erickson is slowly readjusting her body clock to keep up with her new a.m. schedule.

"The morning drive is so busy, I don't have time to listen to the music," she said, her hands flying across the control panel. "Shattered" fades, and she plays a commercial. Then she gets ready to cue up a new song by Van Halen.

"I don't care if I never hear `Shattered' again. I've heard it a million times."

She accidentally cues up the Stones instead of Van Halen.

"Sh-sh-shattered, SHATTERED . . ."

Make that a million and one.