FLO ROGERS RESIGNS AS CEO OF NEVADA PUBLIC RADIO AMID QUESTIONS ABOUT EXPANSION EXPENSES

Flo Rogers

Last Friday afternoon (9/6) Nevada Public Radio (KNPR) announced that Florence (Flo) Rogers had resigned as CEO of the organization. 

The change is apparently related to the cost of operating stations in Reno and St. George, Utah.

KNPR’s Board of Directors said in prepared statement that the organization plans to deeply cut operating costs. 

Simultaneously, the Board announced that KVNV   in Reno had let go all four on-air staffers including PD Malayna Joy. KVNV temporarily is now simulcasting KNPR’s New/Talk format.

Rogers had been CEO of KNPR since 2007, when she succeeded founder Lamar Marchese as General Manager. Former KNPR Board Chairman Jerry Nadal will become interim CEO. The change came as a surprise to most observers because ratings and revenue has flourished under Roger’s leadership. There have been no comments from Rogers or anyone on the KNPR Board.

BETTING ON EXPANSION IN RENO

KNPR entered the Reno market in April 2017 when they purchased KVNV, licensed to suburban Sun Valley, for $550,000. K

VNV carried a 24/7 AAA format and branded itself NV89, a “Music Discovery” source.

The station began with great fanfare. 

Willobee Carlan

At the start, NV89’s PD and manager was Willobee Carlan, who has deep radio roots in Reno. 

Carlan was a successful commercial radio programmer in New York City, Austin, Santa Barbara and Phoenix. 

Earlier in 2019, Carlan left NV89 and became PD of Indie 102.3, Colorado Public Radio’s AAA station in Denver.

But NV89’s performed far below expectations. In Nielsen’s Fall 2018 ratings, NV89 had a .8 AQH share and 4,400 estimated weekly listeners. 

Member and underwriting support was “modest” according the KNPR Board statement.

Nevada Public Radio said it plans on selling KVNV and far-flung KSGU in St. George, Utah, which has a population around 80,000 people. KSGU did not originate local programming and served as a repeater of KNPR’s News/Talk format.

KEN SAYS: Nobody will know if NV89 could have been successful if it had more time to establish itself. Perhaps KNPR misjudged the market’s potential for noncom AAA.  Reno also has a heritage commercial AAA station, KTHX, owned by Lotus Communications. Reno has a growing population of over 600,000 people.

KNPR IS THE TOP RADIO NEWS SOURCE ACCORDING TO AUGUST NIELSEN PPM RATINGS

Despite the internal problems, KNPR continues to be the number one radio news source in Las Vegas. KNPR’s AQH share is more than double the AQH share for Entercom’s KXNT.

Also in Las Vegas, we have changed the format designation for KUNV from full-time Jazz to Oldies & Jazz. About half of KUNV’s playlist now consists of Adult Contemporary oldies from artists such as Bruno Mars and Carly Simon. KUNV mixes pop songs with Smooth Jazz tunes.

Since KUNV made the change in 2018, its number of estimated weekly listeners has doubled. But their AQH is less than half of what it was when the station aired a more traditional Jazz format.