This holiday season listeners of Energy 92.7 FM may believethe radio station has relocated from i... A gay home on the radio di

This holiday season listeners of Energy 92.7 FM may believethe radio station has relocated from its Rincon Hill headquarters to the heartof the Castro. Beginning the day after Thanksgiving up until a week beforeChristmas the station will plug the Castro as a holiday shopping destinationand has extended to area businesses a special discount for 20-secondcommercials.

The station's morning show hosts will be on hand for thebusiness district's annual tree lighting ceremony Monday, November 28 andreturn on the morning of December 16 to broadcast their show live from the gayneighborhood.

All the promotional activity is much more than the stationplaying Santa to gay-owned and gay-marketed businesses. It is in keeping withthe station's unique strategy of being a home on the dial for the Bay Area'sLGBT community.

Launched one year ago on October 2 under the call lettersKNGY, the station embarked on an otherwise untested business model in the BayArea when it switched its play list from hip-hop and rap to dance music. Theonly independently owned station in the San Francisco market had pinned itssurvival on the listening habits of mainly gay men.

Himself a straight married man, Bayliss's ability to gaugewhat gay men want to hear on the radio is admittedly limited. Nonetheless, hedecided that the success of his first foray as a radio station owner would bedependent on pursuing the LGBT community.

Bayliss approached radio consultant Don Parker, an out gayman, to help him determine what audience should be the primary focus for hisstation. A resident of Los Angeles and Palm Springs, where he and his partner,Todd Creel, recently opened a restaurant, Parker frequently visited the BayArea to see his mom who lived in Alameda.

"I always felt the gay population was so great here andthat there was an opportunity to target that audience and make it a largefabric of a radio station," said Parker, who has been acting as Energy'sprogram director since July. "If you looked at the entire metro audiencethis format might not look as positive as it does for us. But we said it looksto us like this is a no-brainer."

A year later the decision appears to be paying off, withEnergy exceeding its owner's expectations, turning a profit and gaining on itscompetitors in the ratings race. Among commercial radio stations in SanFrancisco, Energy is placing either at number one or in the top five amongadults and men. The total number of people who tune in during a given week hasclimbed to 150,000 and station executives are pushing to reach 250,000 by theend of 2006.

Compared to the top stations in the market – KMEL has718,000 listeners and WILD 94.9 pulls in 638,000 a week – Energy is nopowerhouse. The station is hampered by its weak signal reach; unlike the otherstations it does not break into most parts of Santa Clara County, the BayArea's most populous region.

But when broken down by demographic share, Energy is noinfant either. Among the 18 to 34 demographic coveted by advertisers the stationis up to a 2.6 share and expects to be at or near a 3 share when the nextrankings come out in January. If indeed it does climb that high, Energy wouldrank similarly with Alice 97.3, which already has a 3 share, and outrank Star101, which has the most powerful signal in the Bay Area and garners a 2.8share.

The station is limited in how much it can increase its signal.Other stations in outlying areas use the same frequency, so the only way toexpand its coverage area would be to purchase other stations, a solutioneconomically out of reach. But Energy does stream its broadcasts online and inOctober went live on Comcast's digital FM service at channel 964.

"The station has got a ton of potential. There arestill a lot of people who don't know about us," said Bayliss, who insistedthe station is not for sale despite receiving inquiries from prospectivebuyers. "We are just at the beginning of what we can do."

Beyond the station's own success, Energy is succeeding ingiving voice to the LGBT community outside the liberal bastions of SanFrancisco and Berkeley. In more conservative cities like Concord, Fremont, andPleasanton residents can set their radio dials to a station with an all-gaymorning show crew, including gay sportscaster Greg Sherrell, and an out andproud gay host, Fernando Ventura, something local radio historians say is afirst for the Bay Area.

Along with employing out on-air talent, the stationbroadcasts everything from interviews with gay icons like porn producer Chi ChiLaRue and actor and comedian Bruce Vilanch to a special Coming Out Day morningshow produced live from San Francisco City Hall with Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Parker did allow, though, that "we make it clear toanybody listening you aren't going to hear something antigay. If they are ahomophobe, they probably aren't going to feel welcome."

ters, but afterlistening to 92.7 for any length of time it is impossible not to note thestation's lavender sensibilities. In fact, Bay Area radio listeners would behard pressed to find another station with such strong ties to the LGBTcommunity.

The music Energy plays is just the start of how the stationis cultivating gay listeners. The station has teamed up with numerous localLGBT nonprofit and community groups over the last 12 months to plug theirevents and causes. The list ranges from the gay rodeo and Halloween in theCastro to New Leaf: Services for Our Community and the GLBT Historical Society.

"We have done more events, fundraisers, and awarenesscampaigns in the gay community in the last 13 months than every radio stationin this market has done in the last 20 years," boasted Bayliss.

Officials at various LGBT nonprofits hail not only thestation's desire to partner with them but the amount of help Energy staff offerto promote their events over the airwaves. AIDS Walk San Francisco director SerafinaPalandech applauded the station for its commitment to her event in July, whichshe said far exceeded her expectations. The station played more ads andannouncements for the AIDS Walk than was called for in its contract and themorning show sent a go-go boy to the Castro one morning to promote the eventand raise funds for the station's own team in the walk.

"My experience from working in this field for manyyears is that most major outlets have reduced support over the years. For aradio station to go over and beyond what was agreed to in their sponsorshipagreement is very unusual," said Palandech. "They were just soenthusiastically supportive. Our event raised $300,000 more than the prioryear; having a strong radio station being really behind the event is integralto the success of our campaign."

Horizons Foundation also utilized the station to focusattention on its groundbreaking nonprofit work within the LGBT community as itcelebrated its 25th anniversary this year. Energy ads and on-air talentpromoted not only the foundation's birthday party this fall but its newQgiving.org Web portal and campaign to foster more financial contributions forHorizons. Although the nonprofit can't specify the impact the station'spromotions had on the event itself, the partnership clearly led to a boost forthe agency, said Henry Pacheco, the foundation's development and philanthropicservices associate.

"What it did mostly was create awareness for HorizonsFoundation. It is sort of hard to measure the effect on attendance, however, itwas our biggest annual event ever. I think what they did had something to dowith it," said Pacheco.

Prior to working with Energy, Horizons hardly used radio topromote itself, said Pacheco, because the nonprofit found the cost ofadvertising prohibitive. Besides an occasional news piece on public radio,Pacheco said one would rarely hear Horizons mentioned on-air.

"We would have been able to afford to do it but on amuch smaller scale. It was not just the things they did in the morning, whichwere really key, but with them helping us with our budget we were able to do alot more than just the morning advertisements," he said. "They were reallygreat at working with us and working with our budget."

After his experience, Pacheco recommended other nonprofitsutilize Energy to reach not just LGBT people but also the station's straightlisteners.

"I think it would be a great idea just for thevisibility alone. For the nonprofits it is invaluable to have maybe people whoaren't in our community hear about the work we do," he said. "Ilisten to the radio station all the time and it is great to hear all theseorganizations get some air time."

The station's outreach to gay groups has not gone unnoticed.This year the Golden Gate Business Association, a group for LGBT businessowners, nominated Bayliss for its Business Advocate of the Year Award. WhileBayliss did not win, it is a sign that at least LGBT listeners are hearing andpaying attention to his station's marketing efforts.

"Having a radio station that really focuses on the gaycommunity is going to bring more opportunities and status to the businesscommunity because of the people who choose to advertise on the station,"said GGBA president Jerry Becerra, an insurance broker with Pemmbrook InsuranceServices. "It's not that other stations haven't been supportive; it's adifferent kind of support. It seems to be coming from the community instead ofjust responding to the community. It's got a different flavor to it."

GGBA has also approached Energy on developing a partnershipsince many of the group's members are also focused on tapping into gayconsumers. By targeting that audience, Becerra said the station's success inits first year isn't all that surprising.

"For them on the surface is was just a very goodbusiness decision. They didn�t need to create a market. The market is here andnobody was tapping into it," he said. "Because it hasn't really beenaggressively explored before there is a lot of opportunity. We will see whathappens. I know the station is growing fantastically well."

Local businesses are not the only ones taking note ofEnergy. National advertisers are also using the station to promote themselvesand target gay consumers.

"When they realize we are talking about gay people andthe potential for reaching gay consumers, for a lot of people the light bulbgoes on," Bayliss said when asked about advertisers' reaction to hearinghis sales pitch.

Born in San Francisco, Bayliss didn't stay in town long. Hemoved to various cities in the West and Midwest as his father bounced aroundfrom one radio station to another.

At 18 he started his own career in the business, working insales at the adult contemporary station K101 in San Diego. He later worked as abroker selling and buying radio stations for clients. In the early 1980s afterhis father died, Bayliss joined his brothers in running several AM and FMstations on the central coast near Santa Maria that his dad had acquired.

He then left his family's company and went to work for SteveDinetz at Chancellor Broadcasting. In 1997 he landed back in San Franciscoworking at Kiss FM, which was then acquired by Clear Channel. Feelingdisenfranchised by the radio industry's penchant for mergers and identicalformats on stations in different cities, Bayliss took a two-year sabbatical.

Then he joined Infinity Broadcasting as its vice presidentfor sales in San Jose and San Francisco. The job led him to reconnect withDinetz. With financial backing from Dinetz and three private equity firms,Bayliss formed Flying Bear Media, named after his father, and bought Energy onSeptember 27, 2004 for $33 million. The station just marked its firstprofitable month in October.

According to a history of Bay Area radio by industryhistorian Alex Cosper, 92.7 had been a simulcast frequency for Clear Channel'sKSJO, allowing the San Jose station a foothold in San Francisco. The stationthen became KPTI "The Party" in 2002 and played dance music but hadno on-air talent. It then went hip-hop for six months in 2004 as "Power92.7" under the ownership of Three Point Media. On September 22 Baylissswitched off the hip-hop and played various sound effects nonstop throughOctober 2, when the new station formally announced its existence.

The reason, said Bayliss, was because "we wanted topurge" the station of its past formats. It also gave the new owners somedistance between the sudden death of the hip-hop station. At the time, thestation's offices were in Oakland, and the sale by Three Point and Bayliss'sdecision to change the format back to dance music caused a minor uproar amongOakland's hip-hop community.

This summer the station physically removed itself from itspast, relocating to San Francisco only blocks from the new Mission Baydevelopment. In addition to new digs, the station boosted its signal byfinalizing placement of its antenna on Sutro Tower, thus increasing its marketreach by 500,000 in population. Energy can now be heard as far north as SanRaphael and Vallejo, south to Sunnyvale and Fremont and as far east as parts ofLivermore.

The research also pointed out to Bayliss and his investorsthat the Bay Area boasts the two areas in the country with the highestconcentration of same-sex couple households: San Francisco and Oakland. Brokendown by Zip codes, three of the top 10 neighborhoods gay couples call home inAmerica are in San Francisco: the Castro, Twin Peaks and Haight Ashbury.

However, Bayliss said if the station were to go after thegay market, he knew in order for the strategy to work it would take more thanjust playing house music.

Therefore, gay men make up 80 percent of the station'sresearch on what music makes it on its play list. Up to 200 people, mostly gaymen, are routinely brought in to listen to 600 songs at a time to see whichones will be heard by Energy listeners.

In the last 13 months, Bayliss has spent $250,000 onresearch and he expects to spend $100,000 a year to stay tuned to whatlisteners want to hear played on the air. It is all part of his commitment toensuring the station is seen as a true partner to its listeners and not as agreedy corporation blindly pursuing the "gay dollar."

"We are not going to show up to Pride once a year andthen disappear. If we are going to be part of this community we have to bethere 365 days a year, seven days a week," said Bayliss.

In order to fund what the station gives back to thecommunity – Bayliss said he doesn't have an actual tally but puts theamount in the six-figure range – Energy purposely forgoes doing stationcontests, which can be quite costly.

"We do very little of it. We believe our audience isslightly more sophisticated than the average bear. So part of that money goesto our grassroots, community work," he said. "Any radio station canduplicate our play list, but they can't duplicate the kind of things we do forthe community."

The station is throwing an anniversary party next month tocelebrate its first year. Expected to perform are Deborah Cox, Amber, Stonebridge,DHT, Lola, Lucas Prada, and Judy Torres. The event starts at 8 p.m. December 3,at the Regency Center, 1300 Van Ness Avenue (at Sutter Street) in SanFrancisco. Tickets cost $35 and can be purchased at www.Ticketmaster.com.

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