Remember that MBA read from the 1990's?
Here's a case study on change:
On March 1, 2011, three days before closing on a $1mm FM radio station in Vail our partnership learned that the Federal Communications Commission issued a rule change freezing what were commonly referred to as move ins, or in investment banking terms "technical + spectrum" arbitrage from one city of license to another.
Lots of tension, temper and emotion. Should we pull the deal? Face certain litigation from the seller?
Now what?
Gaining control of two adjacent FM channels took Chuck Lontine the better part of 36 months and countless resources. We bought the Eagle County radio station and an adjacent frequency in El Paso County with the intent to move one or the other into Boulder and Colorado Springs.
Open spectrum on 104.7 MHz at 100,000 watts secured within the scope of the rules at a fair market price and then, the rules change.
So, here we are. Silent signal, broken transmitter, no studio, no format, no name, no staff and no possible technical or financial arbitrage of any-kind with a $1mm investment threshold 100 miles from Boulder.
Again, lots of tension, temper and emotion that could have easily tipped into depositions and all the pivots you'd like to avoid in life.
The challenge was to create a radio station that would appeal not only to the Vail resorts, but ultimately create some real competition with an amazing listening experience online + on the radio.
In short, recalibrate and build a value radio + digital brand for the future.
The outcome? Well, it turned out to be one of the greatest sources of pride and admiration of the firms entire portfolio, even without the move to Boulder.
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| Vail Daily with Ski Logo Design |
First off, a little shout out about our team.
The Mile is the current winner of three first place awards (2013-2014) from the Colorado Broadcasters Association for its spoken word elements created specifically for the radio station by managing editors Jenny Griffin and Paul Reinertson. Jenny was awarded the top award for the second year in a row. Her boundless creativity is further enhanced by what is now considered the Mile sound.
The music format is a unique combination of pop based alternative, singer-songwriters and original collections from local artist aptly called Mile Covers and Original Miles, who performed weekly from our studios (read: Live + Local). And, our mobile app (shown below and developed by Marconi client LiquidCompass) was the single highest radio down-load the week it launched on i-Tunes.
After developing a unique preview audio stream of the new sound with a dangerously creative music team in Boulder, one of Marconi's European clients suggested a different look from the norm to go with the Mile sound. They had radio partners with a unique logo in Berlin and we blended it with similar font from the AMC series MadMen and a mash-up of sorts with The Beach Boys SMiLE cover art. Notice though, we articulated the M to long-gate a V for Vail, this allowed us to trademark the entire logo. Then, a remarkably creative art director at HillAevium further suggested putting it on a snow ski and descending a ski pole atop the call letters to represent the stations alpine roots. We later added a snowboard version too with the help of Sign Language in Denver.
This project was really starting to come together with the help of some very creative friends.
We then put this whole look on a cloud background online to represent the delivery technology we had built into the stations digital DNA.
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| Our ad in Vail Magazine announcing our digital + social media platform |
It wasn't long before the radio station was featured in the Vail Daily, Sneak Peak Weekly, The Denver Post and the Summit Daily.
Thanks to Mauna Towers, the Mile's signal covers a broad listening area from Glenwood Springs to Copper Mountain reaching over one million active in-car commuters per week.
The stations sound and local features capture the active Colorado lifestyle of the Vail Resorts. We are proud of our team that created the logo, format concept and core music + award winning spoken word content of the Mile.
Coming up with a name for the radio station was somewhat of a puzzle. Ultimately, we felt the Mile would feel right at home in Vail (in honor of the wildly popular ski/hike trail) and perhaps someday...
The studios of the Mile are state of the art, that include (SaaS) technologies that were designed to ultimately live in the cloud and programmed from virtually anywhere on the planet.
The sound gallery design studio (pictured below) featured a miking and acoustical station that could easily handle a four piece band or a chamber orchestra that was built for us by a Swedish designer we found in Mumbai.
We opted with a "main street" store front in the village of Minturn (literally on Main Street). Within weeks of signing on the air, the director at Masters Gallery in Vail was so moved by the design that the radio station ultimately featured master works from contemporary artists featuring the likes of Bono, Paul McCartney and BB King from Aspen artist Malcolm Farley. Most weekends, the artists themselves would drop in and create oil works while local singer-songwriters performed live on the air.
One last moment of Mile serendipity.
The Postmaster in Minturn proudly walked in with two shiny brass keys one afternoon and presented us with P.O. Box 1047. We thought that was a nice touch, so we included a post office date stamp icon on our website, which was dual designed to be both a digital splash page online but also a :10 second television ad for future use around the state.
If you look closely to the sites ascending-descending graphics, they were designed to interchange with both Vail and Boulder. Lastly, the ski pole was designed to interchange with other clever icons (bikes, snow flakes, maybe even a Christmas tree around the holidays).
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| The Mile studios were home to live + local performances every week |
Because of the dedication and determination of a remarkable team: led by Jayme Bregman, Jenny Griffin, Paul Reinertson, Bill Cochran and Stacey Donaldson...the Mile is our greatest master work.
Simply: a terrific team of broadcasters and a remarkable brand "That's my Mile" became a local catch phrase.
Simply: a terrific team of broadcasters and a remarkable brand "That's my Mile" became a local catch phrase.
KKVM Radio was sold to Cool Radio, LLC in 2015.
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