L.A. radio titan offers a peek inside his business

Never ride a roller coaster upside down.

That’s good advice and also the title of a new book by Emmis Broadcasting founder and CEO Jeff Smulyan: “Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside

Down: The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur.”

The subtitle perhaps better describes the technical content, but the roller coaster imagery is fitting, as I am sure many entrepreneurs will attest. It’s certainly not always smooth sailing. (And I have some personal experience with the author and his company, which I’ll get to below.)

This is not a radio book in the traditional sense, nor is it a book on broadcasting. It definitely stays true to its title and focuses on the trials and tribulations experienced by Smulyan as he built his radio empire, branched into professional athletics team ownership, and in many ways tried to help keep an industry he loves on track and profitable … unfortunately, to no avail.

In its pages, the book explores all aspects of his multifaceted career and at times is brutally honest toward himself and others. He gives accolades when appropriate and derision when necessary. And while it is not a tough read — it’s long solely due to the details presented and the passion behind his words.

Not that I always agree fully with him. As you know, I have long held that AM station owners and programmers pushed listeners to FM through bad programming and other decisions. Yes, FM can sound better, but doesn’t have to, and had programmers presented something people value, they would have stayed with the band. Smulyan actually proves my point with the initial failure of WFAN — a formerly successful country music station before he changed it to allsports, which took years to catch on and, like conservative talk radio, became a popular format to present — if not listen to — on the AM band, ultimately to the band’s demise.

Also demonstrated by Smulyan, the current decline of FM is due to the same type of forces: content not appealing to listeners, and a commercial load approaching 25 minutes per hour on some stations. But I digress.

Reading the book, you get a feeling that you are there. In my case during one example, I was there: I was an intern at Magic 106 (now Power 106, 105.9 FM), working with on-air personalities such as Sonny Melendrez, Brian Roberts, Laurie Allen and the great

Robert W. Morgan.

Emmis had spent a lot of money on Magic, but it was never the force they had hoped for, mainly due, in my opinion (and something I sensed even as a college intern), to a music mix that was too limiting. Magic never wanted to break songs, and instead relied on KIIS-FM (102.7) to do so, to its ultimate decline.

Smulyan and his executives, including Rick Cummings, who I believe at the time oversaw programming for the entire company, let me listen in and even take part in some of their evening strategy meetings, which was a tremendous opportunity for a radio nut like me. I never forgot the experience, and it helped me not only understand the inner workings of radio but develop a peripheral understanding of Emmis itself.

Indeed, my experience with Emmis matches what Smulyan describes as the corporate attitude within the company — a company that values people; they treated me, an unpaid intern radio nut, as a valuable employee. No wonder the same executives I sat with in the mid-1980s are for the most part still with the company.

So I was there when the decision to drop the adult contemporary music and move to a rhythmic Top 40/dance format was announced. At the time, I remember thinking that it would be a tough move; KIIS-FM was firmly entrenched as the top-rated music station in the United States, setting records for listenership and revenue. Emmis executives came up with a format designed to appeal to young, hip listeners cutting across cultural barriers (sound familiar? Chuck Martin did the same at KHJ 930 AM). Ultimately, Power was the only station ever able to knock unstoppable KIIS-FM out of the top spot, at least for a while.

Smulyan later describes the purchase of the Seattle Mariners — what went right and what went terribly wrong, including a reflective analysis of how he totally misread the market for professional baseball in Seattle. That chapter in the book may change a few opinions on Smulyan being a “terrible owner” of the team, even though that is not the intent.

He speaks of his competitors both good and bad, talks about initiatives he was part of that may have indeed helped extend the reach of radio, and discusses the problems — including in particular one short-sighted competitor — that led to Emmis ultimately becoming less of a “radio” company and more of a media company … a move that you correctly sense makes him somewhat sad. Smulyan is, indeed, a radio guy, and it is his first love.

As I mentioned, one thing I found interesting in the book was that the attitude of Smulyan and the corporate culture he says he encouraged at Emmis match that of my limited experience way back in my intern days, which were only a few years after Emmis was founded. Over time, I watched the company’s successes and declines and was impressed when — unlike so many others — Emmis actually worked to pay down debt by selling stations, including one that

Smulyan loved, Power 106.

As I said, it’s not truly a radio book, but well worth the read for radio fans as well as anyone interested in starting a business. Smulyan imparts knowledge that successful business owners learn by experience; perhaps his experience will help others avoid mistakes … or at least help others understand what entrepreneurs often go through.