Same Time, Different Station for ‘Dave & Bob’
The billboard between Oxnard and Ventura isn’t fancy, but it is eye-catching. In bold letters, it teases:
Where are Dave and Bob?
For 14 years, morning radio listeners in Ventura County would have answered that question: KVEN-AM (1450). But this morning, many of them will be asking where the popular drive-time duo, Dave Ciniero and Bob Adams, have gone.
On Friday, the pair, who accounted for about 60% of the station’s weekly ratings, left KVEN. But they will return to the air Feb. 22 on the newly christened KVTA-AM (1520).
Also missing--temporarily--will be nearly all the familiar voices in the KVEN newsroom. News director Rich Gualano and reporters Doug Drigot and Alex Wilson, along with meteorologist Eric Wright, will follow Ciniero and Adams up the dial next week.
In the high-turnover world of broadcasting, normally a station switch wouldn’t merit much mention. But this move involves a group with a total of more than 80 years’ experience--nearly all of it at one station.
The fact that this group is moving up the dial but staying within the same market is something of a head-scratcher.
“We’re not leaving because we were treated badly,” Adams said. “We’re leaving because we think it’s a better opportunity for us.”
And because the six men have worked so closely at KVEN to produce the morning show and the news, they decided to make the jump together, he said.
There is more money for the six at their new home, but not much more, they say. According to sources familiar with the Ventura County market, a top morning host’s salary hovers below $50,000 a year. Experienced news broadcasters earn between $30,000 and $40,000. The former KVEN staff have all signed multiyear contracts with KVTA, which they did not have at their old station.
Ownership Change May Be a Factor
Aside from more money, KVTA, known as KTRO until next week, offers more power--10,000 watts versus KVEN’s 1,000--and can reach farther into eastern Ventura County.
The departing broadcasters won’t say it directly--and it’s not the only reason--but the changeover in KVEN’s ownership appears to have contributed to their decision to leave. In 1996, longtime owners Robert Fox and David Loe sold KVEN and its country sister, KHAY-FM (100.7), to Alabama-based McDonald Investment Co. for more than $12 million.
Since then, working for an out-of-town corporation instead of local owners has changed the atmosphere at KVEN, sources familiar with the station say. The station is on its third imported general manager in two years, and less attention has been given to the news operation.
For the departing group, working for a local company had appeal. KVTA is owned by Gold Coast Broadcasting, based in Ventura.
“I like being able to shake the hand of the guy I work for,” Drigot said.
Still, Gualano said, “If you’re going to leave someplace because you have a gripe with management, you’re never going to have a place to work.”
Even with new management, the potential for a larger audience and a new station and studio, the “Dave & Bob” mix of news and entertainment won’t change much, Adams said, and the news breaks throughout the day won’t sound different on KVTA.
The biggest changes will probably come at KVEN. The 50-year-old AM mainstay boasts more than 50 Golden Mike awards. But with all three of the station’s full-time newsmen--who helped earn those awards--moving up the dial, KVEN will be left with what those in journalism might call a news hole.
KVEN program director Steve Day said last week that the station will continue to promote its news credentials now that its veteran newscasters are gone, but he would not elaborate. For now, sources at the station say, weekend newscaster Brian Wilson will shoulder most of the news responsibilities.
But the larger void for KVEN is in the profitable morning slot. With an estimated 20,000 listeners each weekday, Ciniero and Adams’ show consistently ranks at or near the top of the important morning-commute ratings. And the baritone voices and regular-guy names of the two anchors have helped raise thousands of dollars for local charities.
Amicable Split From Station
Their show is most popular among western Ventura County listeners 35 and over, and they’re fourth--the top AM show--in the overall ratings.
Day would not say how KVEN will replace its morning team of 14 years, but others at the station said he will probably fill the slot--at least temporarily--with himself and former “Dave & Bob” producer A. J. Morgan. Both broadcasters have substituted in the past for Ciniero and Adams, and Day is currently one-third of KVEN’s “Steve, Cyndy and Steve” afternoon team.
Despite the shake-up at KVEN, those involved say it has been unusually amicable. Most surprising, especially in the competitive and volatile radio business, all the personalities remained at the station for two weeks after telling management they were leaving.
In turn, Adams said, KVEN’s management has also been gracious.
“I would have bet you my paycheck that the day that I turned in my notice, I would have been gone,” he said. “I was shocked that they had us stay.”
Not leaving their longtime employer in the lurch was important to the departing team, Drigot said.
“We didn’t want to do any walking-out situation,” he said. “We’ve been pretty professional about it, and they have too.”
Meanwhile, KVTA--the station that “stole” KVEN’s talent, Day sniffed--is eagerly awaiting the team’s arrival and the listeners and sponsors they will bring with them. As KTRO, the station has consistently rated dead last.
“It’s going to take off instantly,” said Chip Ehrhardt, general manager for Gold Coast Broadcasting, which also owns five other stations in Ventura County. “Just from the feedback I’m getting from listeners and sponsors, everybody is ecstatic.”
KTRO, a former Spanish-language station, switched to news talk after Gold Coast bought it in 1996. The station will remain at 1520 but change its call letters to reflect its audience and new format.
Adams is confident he and Ciniero, who will be program director, can maintain their hold on the county’s morning listeners, he said. KTRO’s current morning host, Tom Spence, will join them on the air and produce the show.
“Most of our audience, I think, will come across and switch right over to us,” Adams said. “The rest of the day will be a challenge because you’re building a whole new radio station.”
After “Dave & Bob” from 6 to 10 a.m., KVTA will feature syndicated talk-station fare, including financial advice, psychology and Watergate convict turned talk-show host G. Gordon Liddy. Sex advice from “Loveline” and gossip from Joan Rivers will fill the late-night slots.
Carl Haeberle, who has continued his public affairs show at KTRO since KVEN fired him almost a year ago, will fill the afternoon-drive slot. Haeberle, one of several former KVEN employees now at Gold Coast, said he is looking forward to working with his old colleagues.
“I think it’s going to be a nice reunion,” he said.
As for the competition emerging between the two news-talk stations, Haeberle said, “To the victor go the spoils. Somebody is going to have to do a very good job.
“The advantage is: We’ve got a lot of people that people recognize. And in an even fight, that’s what it’s about.”
Though his 20-year-employer-now-competitor retains its newsy tagline, Drigot said, “We’re going to work hard so that when people hear ‘news excellence,’ they’re going to think of us.”
One big change the move brings, Drigot said, is breaking the habit of saying “K-V-E-N” in favor of “K-V-T-A.”
“I’m sure there will be a few slips,” he said.
And for Gualano, who will continue as news director for KVTA and Gold Coast’s other county stations, launching a station poses challenges for even the most experienced radio news team in the county.
“A station can call itself anything,” he said, “but ultimately, to prove that is a thing that happens every day. You go out and you do things and you maintain that position, or you lose things based on what you do every day.”
Hiring away a top morning team from within the county was a smart move by Gold Coast and the fastest way to draw ratings and ad dollars for its upstart talk station, former KVEN owner Fox said.
“Moving a new team into a new market means that team has to become very familiar with the market and familiar with their listeners,” he said. “It takes many months, and probably years, for a team like that to become huge audience-grabbers.”
Fox’s former partner, Loe, said Adams and Ciniero could have moved to bigger markets for more money, but their attachment to Ventura County has kept them here.
“I was just so relieved that they care this much about our community that they chose to stay here,” Loe said. “The public bonds with radio personalities over a period of time, and there’s nothing that can really replace that.”