Sometimes the best radio moves aren’t born inside a conference room.
Nobody needs a giant nationwide talent search.
Nobody needs seventeen Zoom calls.
Nobody needs a consultant flying into town with a PowerPoint presentation explaining “morning-show synergy.”
Sometimes somebody slides into an empty chair, turns on the microphone and a few months later everyone looks around and realizes:
Wait Why Are We Still Calling This Interim
That’s essentially the story at Woodward Community Media’s 95.9 Kiss-FM WKSZ and 92.9 WKZY in Northeast Wisconsin.
After spending the past several months filling the opening alongside Katie Schurk and Nick Vitrano, Edgar “Eddie” Ybarra is officially staying.
And the show now has the name that makes it pretty darn clear this experiment is over:
Eddie Katie and Nick.
Eddie Got The Longest Audition Possible
Ybarra stepped into the morning-show mix following the April departure of Otis Day.
At first, Eddie was the fill-in.
The temporary solution.
The guy helping keep everything moving while Kiss-FM figured out what came next.
Except something happened while everybody was figuring out what came next.
THE SHOW KEPT HAPPENING.
Eddie worked with Katie.
Eddie worked with Nick.
They developed rhythm.
Listeners got accustomed to hearing the three of them together.
And instead of disrupting whatever chemistry had developed by dropping somebody completely new into the room…
Kiss-FM made the most obvious move available.
Keep Eddie.
There is something refreshingly sensible about that.
Because Morning Chemistry Is Weird
You can’t manufacture it.
Radio has tried.
Oh, radio has REALLY tried.
Take Personality A.
Add Personality B.
Throw in Producer C.
Give everybody a list of benchmarks.
Tell them to become best friends by Monday.
GO.
And sometimes absolutely nothing happens.
Three individually talented people can sit around the same studio table and create all the excitement of a dentist’s waiting room.
Then another combination gets together and within ten minutes you hear it.
Timing.
Comfort.
Tension.
Laughter.
Different points of view.
Somebody knows exactly when to interrupt.
Somebody else knows when to sit there quietly because the other person is about to drive directly into a conversational ditch.
That’s chemistry.
And when you’ve had several months to test it with the actual audience…
you’ve already conducted the research that matters most.
Eddie Wasnt Exactly Some Random Guy Wandering Past The Studio
This wasn’t a situation where somebody from accounting accidentally walked into Studio A and became the morning co-host.
Ybarra has been with WKSZ since May 2022.
He originally arrived as Music Director and midday personality before moving up the programming ladder and becoming an Assistant Program Director within the Woodward operation.
And before Kiss-FM?
This guy had already accumulated one wonderfully radio-looking resume.
Country.
Classic Rock.
CHR.
Programming.
Music Director.
Assistant Program Director.
On-air.
Voice tracking.
Creative support.
EDDIE HAS BEEN AROUND SOME RADIO.
Green Bay Already Knows Him Too
That’s another advantage.
Before his current run with Kiss-FM, Ybarra had already programmed in Green Bay, including time overseeing 104.9 WPCK and 106.7 WKRU during his Cumulus Media tenure.
So we’re not introducing somebody to Northeast Wisconsin who needs six months to figure out what makes the market tick.
There’s history here.
There’s familiarity.
There’s market knowledge.
And in local morning radio, that stuff matters.
A LOT.
Because the morning show shouldn’t sound like it could originate from any random studio in America.
Green Bay and Appleton have their own personalities.
Their own rhythms.
Their own obsessions.
Their own arguments.
Their own traditions.
And yes…
THEIR OWN VERY PARTICULAR RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOTBALL.
Good luck attempting to fake your way through that one.
And His Resume Gets Even More Interesting
Ybarra’s career has taken him well beyond one format and one market.
He has programmed Country B93.7 WBFM in Sheboygan.
He spent time as APD and Music Director at 93.7 WXAL in Burlington, Vermont.
He’s been on the air at CHR 97.5 WZOK in Rockford.
He’s handled remote morning duties for WIQQ in Greenville, Mississippi.
He’s also worked in a support capacity with VCreative.
That’s a lot of different radio muscles.
And now all of those experiences funnel into the most personality-dependent daypart in the building.
MORNINGS.
This Is Also A Pretty Good Example Of Internal Development
Radio talks constantly about finding talent.
Maybe we should spend a little more time noticing the talent that’s already walking through the building every day.
Eddie joined Kiss-FM doing middays and music.
Then came additional programming responsibility.
Then afternoons.
Then an opening appeared in mornings.
He stepped in.
He demonstrated that he could handle it.
And now the job is his permanently.
THAT’S DEVELOPMENT.
Not every promotion needs to involve somebody arriving from 900 miles away.
Sometimes the next morning personality is already down the hallway.
Give people opportunities to stretch.
Let them fail occasionally.
Let them discover something they’re unexpectedly good at.
And when it works?
MOVE THEM UP.
That’s how you build broadcasters instead of constantly shopping for replacements.
Now Comes The Hard Part
Getting the job permanently is the celebration.
Building the next version of the show is the assignment.
Because now Eddie Katie and Nick gets to stop feeling temporary.
That’s an important psychological change for both the personalities and the audience.
You can build recurring bits.
Develop longer-running stories.
Create listener characters.
Take chances.
Build events around the entire show.
Let individual personalities become more clearly defined.
And most importantly…
MAKE NORTHEAST WISCONSIN PART OF THE SHOW.
The three names in the title shouldn’t be the only three characters listeners know.
Great local morning shows create a whole universe.
Regular callers.
Local businesses.
Teachers.
Bartenders.
Parents.
Coaches.
People with absolutely insane neighborhood stories.
The listener who calls every Wednesday with something nobody understands.
That’s the stuff that eventually turns a collection of personalities into a community.
An On The Dial Perspective
This is exactly the kind of personnel decision radio should make more often.
An opening happens.
An existing employee gets an opportunity.
The station doesn’t immediately assume the solution must come from somewhere else.
Instead, somebody already inside the operation gets a chance to prove himself.
And apparently Eddie did.
GOOD.
Because internal promotion sends a message beyond the person receiving the promotion.
Everybody else in the building sees it too.
The weekend personality sees it.
The producer sees it.
The promotions assistant sees it.
The young employee wondering whether radio actually offers a career path sees it.
Work hard.
Learn multiple parts of the business.
Take the weird shift.
Accept the additional responsibility.
Get better.
And maybe when the chair opens…
YOU GET THE CHAIR.
Radio desperately needs that message right now.
Eddie Katie And Nick Has A Chance To Become Something
Not because there are three names in the title.
Not because the station issued an announcement.
And certainly not because somebody changed the morning-show logo.
It has a chance because the relationship has already been developing in public.
The audience has essentially been watching the audition since April.
Now the word interim disappears.
The chair belongs to Eddie.
The show belongs to Eddie, Katie and Nick.
And now comes the fun part:
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT?
Be local.
Be unpredictable.
Talk to Northeast Wisconsin instead of at Northeast Wisconsin.
Let the personalities be different.
Let them disagree.
Let them laugh when something genuinely goes off the rails.
Don’t sand down every rough edge until three interesting humans sound like one generic radio voice.
Because nobody wakes up early specifically hoping to hear three perfectly formatted content delivery specialists.
They want people.
And Kiss-FM apparently believes it has found the right three.
So congratulations, Eddie.
You spent several months keeping the seat warm.
Turns out…
IT WAS YOUR SEAT.
Now pull the microphone closer and make some noise.
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