Going a Country Mile

The Country Music Assn. is hoping to reach closet country fans with a new ad campaign that says, “Country. Admit it. You love it.”

Whatever the results of the campaign, the group has already scored one surprise convert in Peter Tilden, a veteran of Los Angeles talk radio who has signed on as morning-drive host at country station KZLA-FM (93.9).

“For years country music was like an exclusive club--if somebody new came in, you wouldn’t get admittance,” says Tilden, who spent nine years at talk station KABC-AM (790) until format changes two years ago scattered most of that team to other stations or other lines of work.

“Now, so many people like country, but it’s still not so cool to admit it,” says the Philadelphia native. “But I know all sorts of chichi Westsiders who listen to country. I had Les Moonves, the president of CBS [Television], on the show and he said he listens to country, and I know lots of directors and talent [in Hollywood] who like country.”

Station officials hope Tilden’s energetic style--he was once described by a colleague as “Woody Allen on speed”--will help juice their ratings. The station typically finishes between 15th and 20th place in the hotly competitive Southland radio market, where the morning-drive war for audience share is fiercely waged by the likes of KKBT-FM’s Steve Harvey, KIIS-FM’s Rick Dees, KPWR-FM’s Big Boy, KLSX-FM’s Howard Stern and KROQ-FM’s Kevin & Bean.

“For us, it’s out-of-the-box thinking,” says KZLA operations director R.J. Curtis. “I think it’s a stretch on both our parts. But Peter has incredible skills as an interviewer, and he’s a compelling conversationalist. He brings a wit and sophistication and an intellectual level that is really good. . . . I think that in the long run this will be a good fit.”

Adds Tilden, “The country audience is pretty loyal and all-embracing, and once they like you, they really like you. . . . The phone response seems to be that people are embracing it. But I’m not one to be shy about putting negative calls on the air. Coming from talk radio, I know that negative calls can be as intriguing as positive ones. My job is taking that energy and turning it around.”

Tilden’s only previous experience on a music station was a year at KLSX-FM (97.1) in 1988. He’s also continuing with his other career as a TV comedy writer and is working on a pilot starring “Seinfeld’s” Jason Alexander for ABC. If the network orders the show for next season, Tilden says he’ll do his TV writing after he gets off from the morning show at KZLA.

The host’s adjustment to country radio has less to do with translating his talk-radio experience to a music station than winning over KZLA’s existing audience--and ideally bringing some of his old audience into that fold.

“I’m more free to talk about what I like now than when I was doing talk radio,” Tilden says. “The problem with AM radio is that everybody’s trying to skew younger, but it’s hard to get younger listeners to switch to an AM station.

“In talk radio,” he adds, “you’re trying to make the phones ring by being controversial. So now guys are playing conservative who have voted liberal their whole lives. It’s bogus--they’re false provocateurs. I wouldn’t want to do that for the next 20 years.”

Tilden does enjoy Steve Harvey, who has the top-rated English-language morning program in the L.A.-Orange County market.

“He’s really talented,” Tilden says. “I don’t get much chance to listen because I’m on the air when he is--and he probably doesn’t target me as a listener. But he’s really community-oriented, the opposite of the edgy stuff that’s all over morning radio. He’s very real, and down to earth.

“People always ask me what I think of this host or that one--I don’t knock any of them,” he says, “because it’s a tough gig. To be in L.A. radio for a long time is really hard.”

One task Tilden faces at the outset of his new job is a load of musical homework.

“I love country, and when I was at KABC I had Trisha Yearwood on 10 years ago, I had Marty Stuart on, Kenny Rogers was on about 20 times, and Dwight Yoakam is a friend,” Tilden says. “But I really have to get up to date on who’s doing what now. I didn’t know all the current artists” before starting at KZLA on March 19.

‘He’s a Fan of the Music’

“There’s a learning curve for him, there’s no doubt,” says Curtis, “and there’s going to be an adjustment period for everybody, including the listeners. But he’s not fighting it. He’s a fan of the music, he’s studying it and learning more about it all the time.”

Tilden first came in contact with KZLA when a friend, TV personality-musician John Tesh, did a guest stint there in January and invited Tilden along. Station management then offered Tilden a fill-in slot of his own on a Saturday afternoon and liked him so much that two weeks later he started as the morning-drive host.

Curtis insists that Tilden’s arrival is meant only to boost the ratings of the station’s country format and does not foreshadow a broader format change. Such a shift has been rumored since KZLA was bought last year by Indiana-based Emmis Communications, which also lists Power 106 (KPWR-FM 105.9) among its two dozen stations nationwide.

“In the 20-plus years KZLA has been a country radio station,” Curtis says, “for the most part we’ve been music-intensive in the morning. That has resulted in a finish in the L.A. radio wars of about 15th or 20th place. The thing I’ve told listeners, whatever business they are in, if you consistently finish 15th or worse, at some point the boss says, ‘Is there a way you can do better?’

“Now that we’ve mastered the art of finishing 15th,” Curtis says, “we want to try to master the art of finishing 10th or better.”