KGB Manages to Spin Gold From Contest Ruined by Ohio Station’s Cheating

SAN DIEGO —  When KGB-FM (101.5) promotions director Scott Chatfield learned in late January that the San Diego album-rocker had won the 1987 Rolling Stone magazine readers poll in the “Best Radio Station/Small Market” category, he was elated.

“It was a real busy day,” Chatfield recalled, “and I remember thinking, ‘This is great. I’ve got to remind myself to get a thank-you announcement on the air so our jocks can thank our listeners for their support.’ ”

The sweet smell of victory did not last long, however. Two weeks ago, an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper questioned the validity of the national survey results.

Headlined “Rolling Stone poll is rigged by WMMS,” the article reported that the management of Cleveland station WMMS-FM, the winner in the “Best Radio Station/Large Market” category, had purchased 800 copies of the Rolling Stone issue containing the poll in a successful attempt to stuff the ballot box. (The total number of votes cast for WMMS was slightly more than 1,000.)

The next day, Rolling Stone told Chatfield that because of the ensuing controversy, the awards ceremony--which was to take place during the Radio and Records convention in Dallas the first weekend in March--had been canceled.

Furthermore, the entire radio category would be eliminated from future polls. Published annually since 1979, the surveys ask Rolling Stone readers to send in their top choices in 46 different pop music-related categories, including radio stations, albums, singles, and artists.

Chatfield immediately cried foul.

“It’s a shame because it taints the other radio stations, like KGB, that won by legitimate means,” Chatfield said. “I’m a Rolling Stone subscriber myself, and it never occurred to me to even mail in my own ballot.

“The whole thing reminds me of elementary school, when one kid would screw up and the whole class would have to stay after.”

As a result, Chatfield said, he’s drafting a letter to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, urging him to reconsider.

“I think Rolling Stone is over-reacting by canceling the entire radio category because it makes it appear there’s a much bigger brouhaha than there really is,” Chatfield said. “Besides, why selectively discriminate against radio when it’s possible to stuff the ballot box in every other category as well?

“A record company, for example, could just as easily buy a bunch of issues and stuff the ballot box on behalf of one artist.”

Stu Jaffey, Rolling Stone’s radio promotions manager, admits the decision to cancel the awards ceremony and drop the radio category from future polls “might be unfair to the other radio stations that won legitimately.

“But to go ahead and act like nothing happened,” Jaffey said, “would make it seem that we condone the action of stuffing ballots. It’s a shame this whole thing got screwed up, both for the magazine and for the hundreds of radio stations around the country that are losing a chance to get some national recognition.”

In the 1986 Rolling Stone readers poll, KGB finished third in the radio category. In the 1987 survey, the radio category was divided into three sub-categories--large, medium, and small markets--and KGB was one of three first-place winners, beating out nearly 100 competitors in such other “small markets” as San Jose and Hempstead, N.Y.

KGB program director Ted Edwards is making the best of a bad situation. Edwards said the station’s scheduled celebration will go on as scheduled today at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center in Balboa Park.

Three hundred KGB listeners have been invited to attend free premiere screening of “Laser Rockin’ San Diego” and will be given T-shirts commemorating the station’s triumph in the Rolling Stone poll, Edwards said.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Edwards said, “we won the award fair and square, and we’re very proud that our listeners sent in enough ballots to make this win possible.”