MEDIA / KEVIN BRASS : System of Fair Play Upsets Some Special Interests

The process by which radio stations are chosen to promote individual grandstand shows during the Del Mar Fair is only a little less complicated than Pythagorean geometry.

Called a “weighted preference” system, each station lists, in order, the acts it wants to promote during the two-week run of the fair, which starts Friday. For its first choice, the station gets to put five slips of paper in a bowl, from which the host station’s name for that particular act will be chosen. Four slips of paper representing the station go into the bin for its second choice; three for its third choice.

Then, in what one radio promotions director described as “an antiseptic little ceremony,” the station names are drawn from the drums for each act.

The sole intent of this very serious-sounding procedure is to be as fair as possible to all the radio stations. The system was implemented last year, after years of complaints about certain stations always getting to promote the best shows.

The result of this massive attempt at fairness is remarkably similar to the result of the old system--a group of upset promotions directors.

“I guess it’s about as fair as it possibly can be, but it’s certainly not working,” KSON Promotions Director Steve Sapp said.

Beyond simply not getting the acts they wanted to promote, some promotions directors are irritated that stations were given acts that are in no way related to their on-air formats.

The news-talk format of XTRA-AM (690) will be promoting the “Dukes of Dixieland” show. KSDO, which also features a news-talk format, is the proud sponsor of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and the “30th Anniversary of Rock ‘n’ Roll” shows.

None of this pleased the folks at KCBQ (Eagle 105), which plays oldies rock ‘n’ roll. Through the luck of the draw, the only show Eagle 105 will be able to promote is a 2 p.m. staging of the “30th Anniversary of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

“I understand that Berkman & Daniels (the Fair’s public relations agency) is going to extraordinary lengths to be fair,” Eagle 105 Promotions Director Leslie O’Neal said. “But I think they should take into account that an act shouldn’t be promoted by a station that doesn’t have the act in its rotation.”

Fair officials say their only goal was to come up with a system that is equitable to all the stations.

“To take the pressure off, we’ve developed what is actually a very simple system,” said Berkman & Daniel’s Shawn Riley, broadcast media coordinator for the fair. “We feel like we’ve always had it under control. We feel we’ve dealt with everybody as fairly as we can.”

Although no one doubts the intent to be fair, some wonder what purpose it serves to have KSDO sponsor oldies rock acts. Or to have lowly-rated KOW promote Waylon Jennings instead of KSON.

“They’re being very equitable, and I know they’re really trying to be fair,” KFMB Promotions Director Joan Hiser said. “But, by being so fair, I think they’re doing themselves an injustice as well as the radio stations.”

Compounding the frustration of some promotions directors, some stations arranged to promote acts by simply contacting the group’s management directly. KGB-FM (101.5), for example, bypassed the whole lottery affair and arranged to promote the “Guitar Legends” shows. KKLQ (Q106) did the same with Milli Vanilli, although XHRM also arranged to participate in the show.

The ever-evolving System may be changed next year to disallow stations to contact acts directly, Riley said.

“We want to refine the process a little further,” she said.

There’s irony here, in that this long and complicated process is designed for a relatively minor promotion, something the promotions directors don’t really care that much about. They don’t get anything out of it, beyond 40 fair tickets to give away on the air and a chance to have one of their announcers introduce the act. They can’t even put up a banner on stage.

“It shouldn’t be that big a deal,” O’Neal said. “But each year we go through a process that causes stations to get up in arms.”

The Arbitron ratings advances released last week show KFMB-TV (Channel 8) and KGTV (Channel 10) virtually neck and neck in the 5 p.m. news sweepstakes. Channel 8 had a 12 rating and 28 share, followed by Channel 10 with an 11 rating and 27 share. (A rating is the percentage of households tuned to the show; a share represents the percentage of households with the television actually on during the time period.) KNSD-TV (Channel 39), which tried desperately to make a ratings splash in the last sweeps period with a long-running news series on seniors, posted a weak 4 rating and 10 share. At 11 p.m., where Channel 39 is usually competitive, the NBC affiliate posted a surprisingly low 4 rating and 15 share. Channel 10 led at 11 p.m. with an 8 rating and 29 share, followed by Channel 8 with a 7 and 24. The Nielsen book, which often tells a slightly different story, is due out next week. . . .

Despite the debacle of the Tyson-Spinks fight, for which people paid as much as $50 for 90 seconds of Tyson pounding Spinks into a mound of very well-paid Jell-O, Cox Cable spokesman Marty Youngman reports pay-per-view orders for tonight’s Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns fight are on pace with past big fights. Late last week, there had been about 9,000 orders countywide for the well-hyped “War,” Youngman said. Since most orders are placed at the last minute, Youngman still expects about 20,000-25,000 orders before fight time. Of course, last minute callers pay the price. The fee for day-of-the-fight orders jumps from $34.95 to $39.95. . . .

Channel 8’s commercials attempting to build a persona for anchor Stan Miller are hilarious. In one shot he is sitting next to a fireplace, earnestly reading a book. They apparently resisted the urge to dress him in a smoking jacket, with a pipe in his mouth. . . . XTRA-AM (690) waited until after the San Diego Padres’ announcement that they would keep their radio contract with KFMB-AM (760) before XTRA announced its decision to give ex-Padre Steve Garvey a morning talk show. Perhaps XTRA wasn’t sure Garvey’s name would be helpful with the Padres, since Garvey’s announced plans to try to buy the club a few years ago may have strained his relationship with the club. XTRA chief John Lynch said the announcement of Garvey’s hiring was based strictly on the timing of Garvey signing a contract, although Lynch alluded to Garvey’s hiring the day of the Padres’ announcement. XTRA discussed a “Bob Costas-type morning show” with the Padres, Lynch said, but didn’t bring up Garvey because he hadn’t signed a contract. “From a baseball standpoint, a more sports-oriented show could have been a positive,” Lynch said. “The fact that Mrs. Kroc may have a nose-bleed over Garvey because of the attempt to purchase the club, may have been a negative, I don’t know.” Garvey’s 5:30 to 9:00 a.m. show begins June 26. . . .

The Escondido-based daily Times-Advocate is dropping its long-running Thursday tabloid section, North County Magazine, in favor of a new standard-size weekly entitled “Go.” The section, which premiers Thursday, will be event- and calendar-oriented. The name, the result of an in-house contest, is an abbreviation of “going out.”. . .

The La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Written by Raymond Chandler” series continues at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday with “The Blue Dahlia,” for which Chandler received an Oscar nomination. Beyond his classic style, Chandler is a perfect choice for a La Jolla series--he lived there in the 1940s and 50s.