Napa Radio Moving Online Into Next Generation

Napa's radio landscape is about to get a major upgrade for the new iPad and iPhone generation -- if local radio veteran Jeff Schechtman has anything to say about it.

"The idea of traditional radio is getting more stale all the time," said Schechtman, former general manager of Napa radio stations KVON and KVYN. "It needs to be structured in a way that is more modern, more the way people listen to radio."


For Schechtman, the answer is www.Napabroadcasting.com or www.napavalleybroadcasting.com or www.radionapavalley.com, a new online station he will launch this fall. 

Three channels will run on the Internet station:

--Local Programming: talk, music, community, information
--Just Good Music: KVYN's former eclectic mix of music from a non-corporate playlist
--Wine, Food, Hospitality and Health: Sponsored programming that defines the Napa Valley and appeals to the world.

Already on board in the "Local Programming" channel is former KVON/KVYN morning show host Kellie Fuller, who is expected to recreate her popular talk show featuring local celebrities and organizations.

Fuller hosted the Napa Valley show for six years, simulcast on both stations, featuring humor, interviews and music.

Schechtman said he will also bring back his often controversial afternoon politics and topical commentary program, "Jeff Schechtman's Afternoon Edition."

Other programming will include local sports reports and "Lunchtime in the Napa Valley," a gossipy who's who show that is "Napa's answer to a three-dot column..," referring to the enormously popular San Francisco Chronicle column by the late Herb Caen.

"There's not enough local on the radio these days," Schechtman said. "We need more local -- that's what people want."

In the "Just Good Music" channel, Schechtman said he will have DJ Rotten Robbie, who programmed a successful eclectic music format for 10 years on KVYN.

Schechtman also is developing and marketing a syndicated two-hour Napa Valley food and wine radio talk show, as a separate project from the new Internet radio station.

The food and wine show, called "Flavor!," is expected to broadcast live on Saturday afternoons from the new City Winery -- a hot spot that will be opening this fall inside the Napa Valley Opera House.

"My biggest challenge now is finding just the right host," Schechtman said this week.

According to a brochure on "Flavor!," the show "will allow the audience to get up close and personal with Napa Valley's celebrated chefs and sommeliers as they host special wine tastings, cooking demonstrations and one-of-a-kind culinary experiences in their own community."

Meanwhile, RadioNapaValley, the Internet radio station, will be geared to attract both old and young people who are turned off to traditional radio -- one reason being the long set of ads most radio stations run.

RadionNapaValley will air limited advertising -- such as one or two brief spots in the middle of long music sets à la Pandora.

Also, it will follow the social media, Facebook model of being available for streaming through iPhones  -- including those hooked into car Bluetooth systems -- and iPads. Listeners may also access the station on their laptop or desktop computers.

"We will have the shows on podcast, so if you miss it live, you can listen to it later," Schechtman said. "We won't just have the shows once a day, and that's it."

According to a brochure for RadioNapaValley, "Kellie in the Morning" is expected to air first from 6 to 8 a.m., and then will reprise from 9 to 11 a.m.

"Lunchtime in the Wine Country" will air from 12 to 1 p.m., and will reprise from 2 to 3 p.m.

Counter to most thinking about the Internet's "inexhaustible" global reach, Schectman says it also has huge potential as a local asset.

"The Internet is perhaps the ideal way to program local radio," he said.

As to music, Schechtman pointed to the popularity of Pandora, which has music from all over the world, but the ads are local.

"Increasingly, we're learning that listeners don't care about the underlying station, but rather the content they broadcast," he said in the brochure. "Pandora, lheartradio, other apps and just plain streaming have removed the geographic station from the music experience."

According to the RadioNapaValley brochure, Internet radio ad revenues are forecast to hit $1.31 billion by 2016, up from an expected $970 million currently.

By contrast, the brochure says, "total radio revenues are down $5 billion in the past five years," it states. "They will be down 1 to 4 percent this year versus last year."

Schechtman was general manager of KVON and KVYN for 10 years. He left both stations at the end of 2012.