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Author:	Jerry Williams
Published:	May, 2000

 

Legend has it that Elvis loved them. Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, and Jennifer Tilly have all been reported in their company. When they first arrived in Los Angeles people drove more than 50 miles to stand in line for them. They are Krispy Kreme doughnuts. A 1998 study named Krispy Kreme doughnuts the best buy in New York City for a dollar. The doughnuts showed up at #3 on Men's Journal list of the top 100 foods in the U.S., the only mass produced item to make the list. In a recent article (Fast Company, October 1999) the secret behind Krispy Kreme's success was revealed. No, the heavily guarded original recipe wasn't printed, but the secret of the philosophy of Krispy Kreme was the subject of the article. How does a doughnut company that's been in business for some 53 years make it into a magazine devoted to the new economy and "net time"? And what does any of this have to do with radio in the year 2000? It's not so much the final product that has application for those of us in radio (though there is certainly interest in consuming those delectable, melt-in-your-mouth pastries among radio pros) as it is the zealousness with which each doughnut is crafted to taste exactly like the doughnut before it and after it. Carver Rudolph, son of Krispy Kreme founder Vernon Rudolph, says the doughnuts today are virtually identical to the doughnuts his father made. And that's where the application for radio is, in that mix of art and science that has led to the legendary consistency of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The Science At face value, the science that goes into Krispy Kreme doughnuts is pretty simple. You mix certain amounts of flour, sugar, water, and shortening, fashion them into round pastries, bake, and viola, doughnuts. But there is more to it than simply following a recipe. Each ingredient is subjected to a grueling series of tests, before it gets into the building. If the four-foot-long core sample of flour, which is taken from every truckload of flour, doesn't fit within predetermined parameters for moisture content, protein, and ash, the entire truckload, all 25 tons of it, is sent back. And every ingredient is put through similar tests. Once the raw ingredients have been approved they're blended into 2,500-pound batches of doughnut mix. Then sisters Dorothy Chilton and Betty Anders make doughnuts from each and every batch of mix, to ensure that each batch has been blended correctly. So not only is every raw ingredient tested by itself, but once the ingredients have been mixed together they're tested again, as a unit, the doughnut mix. The Art Wheat crops vary, the doughnuts can not. And even though each ingredient and the mix as a whole is tested, the final product, the taste of the doughnut is the test that finally and ultimately matters. "The recipe has to change for the doughnuts to stay the same," says Mike Cecil, Krispy Kreme's "Minister of Culture". The Application For radio the obvious correlation is that of research. That's the science part for us. Of course music research is most effective on songs that have been aired long enough to gain some familiarity. So just as each raw ingredient must pass Krispy Kreme's rigorous tests, each song we play must fit within stringently adhered to parameters for both music and lyrics before it gets on the air. Not just music, but every on air element must be subjected to predetermined parameters to make certain they're appropriate for our P1. Not only does each individual element need to fit within certain parameters, but the mix of those elements must also work, just as the combined flour, water, sugar, and shortening, once blended together to make the doughnut mix, are tested. And we must be willing to adjust the recipe to maintain a consistent sound, or in the case of Krispy Kreme, taste. That's the art. That's the hard part, making sure that, in the words of Mike Cecil, "the product never tricks you."

 

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