Made you look…
That’s how the game is played in print journalism. Take a rock solid, if bland, news story, mount a sexy headline above it and – presto! – wait for the reader fish to bite. Which brings us to a recent Kansas City Star story about KKFI 90.1 FM.
The $64 million question: what, if anything, was wrong with the Star’s story?
“Nothing was wrong with that Star story,” says Warren Maus, KKFI’s marketing director.
KKFI honcho Bill Clause has another take…
“The headline wasn’t wrong, but (for) those who didn’t read the whole thing in detail – a lot of people thought it sounded like KKFI was going to go down the tubes any minute,” he says. “Which is not true because KKFI will do whatever it takes to survive. But if the people who are prone to support us think we’re going to crash, they’re less likely to put their money here.”
Translation: think of KKFI as an un-killable radio cockroach with a mission to inform, entertain, do good and above all survive.
“I call it nobody boards a sinking ship,” Maus says. “We’re a small not-for-profit and you can get in a cash crunch very easily if the economy turns.”
So instead of pimp slapping KKFI with a sensational headline and using the band Dire Straits to characterize its current financial state, Maus would have preferred – what?
“We prefer Suzanne Somers, We Will Survive,” he quips. Make that Donna Summer, Maus corrects himself.
Third time’s the charm: make it
kjh
So, what was the headline in question? Did I miss it, or a link to the story?
arjay
“Money Woes Threaten KKFI”
The economy IS bad, folks, but dig this:
On April 24, Your Friday Morning Buzz broke a show record with $1800 of on air donations, and the following Friday a Sustaining Member donation of $500 came in during the first hour, another first.
We may be down, but we’re a long way from out. Thanks to everyone who has supported KKFI through the years. The best is yet to come.