for safety issues i edited out the owners name and sumone elses. replaced with * and inclosed in ()

Posted on Fri, Jun. 04, 2004

A local alternative, offered up on air

Fly 92.7's owner doesn't tolerate corporate noise well. He runs his station for people 18-34 who feel the same way.

BY DEB GRUVER

The Wichita Eagle


(Dan *****) says he lurks in the shadows.

Owner of Wichita radio station KANR--more popularly known as Fly 92.7-FM--(*****) isn't your typical businessman. But his business isn't typical, either.

He runs an independent radio station -- with an alternative music format -- in an industry increasingly dominated by big corporations.

(*****) doesn't hide his disdain for corporate radio. Most stations, he says, are "cookie cutter."

(*****) is involved in all aspects of the station, but he's never on the air.

Ask what his title is, and he says "owner, general manager, sales manager, tower climber and maintenance man."

On a recent weekend, he was out at the transmitter site north of the Wellington airport at 5 a.m. making repairs. Later that weekend, while running some errands, he noticed the station was off the air, so he drove out to the site to determine whether it was a power problem. He watched the weather rolling in.

"When you're self-insured with a 500-foot tower with an F3 (tornado) coming at you, it's not a good thing," he said.

A former antiques store owner who spends his free time restoring an older home in Wichita's Sleepy Hollow neighborhood, (*****) says Fly 92.7 keeps him young.

(*****), 47, married and a father, was going to Wichita's Presidents College School of Law before it closed last summer. He jokes that he's now "half a lawyer, which is handy to keep people from beating up on you."

KANR started out in 1996 with an all-news satellite format.

"It didn't require people or much effort," (*****) said. "Unfortunately, it didn't catch on."

He later decided to go all-talk, "a hotter version geared to a more youthful audience."

Competition was tough, but the station was making some progress, he said.

He changed direction in 2000, though, when Violet Communications, for whom (*****) formerly worked, sold to Entercom. His associates at Violet were like family to him, he said, so he switched to a music format "so these people would still have a job."

At first, the music was "overly broad," he said, blending rhythmic dance music, techno and alternative. In 2002, KANR moved to an alternative/modern rock format. KANR's target audience is 18 to 34.

One way Fly 92.7 sets itself apart is by playing local music, (*****) said.

"I know how difficult it is for those guys to get any love," he said.

Fly 92.7 is popular with the club crowd, (*****) said. The station does six remote broadcasts a week at several Wichita nightspots.

(*****) has spent most of his career in radio, although this is the first station he's owned.

He graduated from the University of Missouri, where he studied journalism, and came to Wichita to work for local station owner Violet Communications.

He acquired the construction permit for KANR from Violet in 1995 to satisfy a debt it owed him, he said, and he built the station from scratch.

KANR first went on the air in mid-1996.

Its studio, which (*****) built himself (he calls himself a big do-it-yourselfer), is nestled in Brittany Center at 21st and Woodlawn.

(*****) doesn't have an executive office. He sits at a desk right inside the door.

He answers the phone.

(Joe *****), program director for Fly 92.7, calls (*****) a "good boss who's very free-flowing."

"He's very easy to deal with, sometimes to a fault," Roach said.

(*****)'s business cards feature a pen-and-ink drawing of a fly.

Why a fly for the station's moniker?

"It has meaning on many levels," (*****) quips. "It's small, pesky, loaded with filth. Strong way beyond its size. We're the Air Capital. 'Fly' means 'super-cool.' So it's got a deep meaning."

Jackie Wise, vice president and general manager of Entercom Wichita, which owns several stations, agrees that KANR offers an "exclusive format as an alternative station."

"It serves a niche not being served by anyone else," Wise said.