WFNX has come to town. Sort of.
The station, at 103.7 FM, formerly WWRX, is one of five radio stations owned
by Phoenix Media/Communications Group (PMCG), which can be heard from Portland,
Maine to New London, Connecticut. According to PMCG Chairman Stephen Mindich,
the largest markets include the Portland, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire
region, greater Boston, and now Southern New England.
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Although two of the four personalities who host the morning program, Jaxon and
the Pharmacist are broadcast from the new Rhode Island studio in Providence,
and long-time Providence Phoenix contributor Rudy Cheeks has joined the afternoon
team, a majority of the programming comes from the headquarters station in Lynn,
Massachusetts.
FNX Promotions Director Ed Garcia doesn’t see this as a problem for the Rhode
Island listeners.
"I think that the general feel of the network is somewhat seamless,"
he said. "You could broadcast from anywhere, and it wouldn’t matter, because
we’re talking about things that are going on all throughout New England."
"At any given time, you can listen when we’re talking about an event or
giving away tickets to something that’s in Providence, in Boston, or in Portland,"
he said, "So that it’s trying to make it seem like a New England community,
where it’s somewhat seamless to do the broadcasting from anywhere."
Network General Manager Andy Kingston said he thinks nationwide syndication
is difficult to pull off, so for now the FNX Network is just focusing on New
England.
"We haven’t focused on anything beyond New England," he said. "If
you look at our company, we’re pretty much New England-based. Our vision was
to have an alternative newspaper, and a radio station in each of the key markets
in New England."
"The way our network is set up," he said, "there’s certainly
commonalties between the cities like the Red Sox and the Patriots."
Still, Kingston said, commercials and other brief features are also localized.
"With online syndication we can localize everything," he said, "like
local news and traffic and local features. Being local is very important to
us."
One of the most significant ways the network is trying to establish a local
presence is through its advertising campaign.
Garcia calls their initiative guerrilla marketing.
"We actually decided to do a guerrilla marketing campaign instead of doing
a big media television blitz or anything," he said.
In addition to the hundreds of flyers pasted up, 65 bus shelters that bare their
image, and the print ads consistently running in the Phoenix, the group is doing
other promotions. They are giving away free FNX cards, which function as a calling
card and a coupon in selected stores, and doing what they call "sticker
hits", where they select parking lots throughout the state to give out
bumper stickers, and when any of their Nissan (FN)Xterras are on the road they
look for cars with the stickers, pull them over and allow them to choose a prize.
The winners of such stoppings are entered into a drawing to win their own Nissan.
The manager of the station, Joseph Lembo said the station’s marketing techniques
reflect their entire approach to radio.
"Basically we said we have got to get out and hit them right in the face,"
he said about the network’s approach to potential listeners.
"That’s where the guerrilla marketing concept came up," he said, "We
spend the money to get vehicles, spend the money to give away one of those vehicles,
and take the money and strategically hit the community where the people are."
Lembo said this radical approach meant most of the advertising budget was spent
on research rather than media.
"Basically we had a hefty marketing and promotional budget well into six
figures," he said, "but we did some research and it was probably,
in all my years, the first time I saw a radio group spend a lot of money on
research to try to do the right thing."
