Radio has a lot of problems right now, but if you can be the answer to any one of them, you have to realize you're not there to get a job, you're there to do a job. And so when you are in that interview, you have to be entertaining whoever is in front of you and showing them you're, again, the answer to their problem, you're entertaining, you are the person that they need to hire.
Welcome to BRANDwidth On Demand, your guide to rebooting radio.
Radio is not going to be replaced by AI necessarily, but the people who use AI are going to replace the people who don't.
BRANDwidth On Demand,. Rebooting radio with a different take on all radio can be. Now your guides through the mediamorphosis, David Martin, and author of the book, BRANDwidth, Media Branding Coach, Kipper McGee.
Our guest was born in the Motor City, raised in the Emerald City, and flown her way around the world in search of interesting people, good times, and great things to share. She spent the last two decades at stations like Tampa Bay's 101. 5 The Point, News Talk 970 WFLA, and Mix 100. 7, where she doubled the ratings in just over a year. She's amazing. Along with hosting radio. And voiceover work, she also squeezed in time for occasional appearances, including selling cool tech gadgets on HSN. Ha!
In Atlanta, she co hosted mornings for legendary Kix1015 and seeing them through the station's transition to New Country1015. Now, a long time after her early days at KZOK Seattle, she's back home on the left coast.
Her personal motto is never turn down an adventure and she's always working hard on the next big thing She just got through hosting the first ever annual women's brunch at the morning show boot camp in Dallas It was a smash BRANDwidth On Demand, is proud to welcome the morning host of 100. 7 big FM in San Diego the one and only Corey Dylan.
Thank you guys. Thank you
We are so glad to have you So thinking about your life in media, if you were to pick the one thing that really gets you going, what would it be?
Gets me going like, I don't know. I just really love this business and it, it just fires me up to see people losing jobs or losing love for our business too. Um, just in this ever changing time. Right. I really want to try to, I don't know, encourage people and get them excited about radio again. And I mean, everybody, because I think what a rising tide lifts all boats, right? So if, if I succeed, I mean, there's hope for somebody else.
And if they succeed, hopefully there's, you know, a future for me too. Well, Corey, you've
done so much and accomplished a whole bunch, both on the air and in your communities. And you know, one thing that really sets you apart is how you embrace local charities and causes while creating exposure for your personal brand. Can you tell us about how you
do that? Well, I, you know, I just offer up myself for free to help people because I think that's honestly the way I was raised. I was raised in Catholic parochial schools. My parents are both devout Catholics and it was always about giving back to your community. And so I think that's one part about radio that has been a little bit lost in all the, you know, consolidation and buying and selling and bankruptcies and things like that. It's like, what was the goal really to inform?
Embrace and, you know, give back to your community. That's
right. A little reference about serving in the public interest is not always as full as it should be for many, but beyond the community events and on location stuff, what's your philosophy on creating the brand Corey Dillon, both on air and online, and how do you keep that
fresh? You know, I think, I think it was Dolly Parton who said, figure out who you are and then do it on purpose. Right? I mean, you really have to know who you are and You know, I struggled with that idea of a, what is my brand for a long time? And I think it was, uh, Gary Vee. I don't even know, Gary Vee is kind of a brand guru, I think, for millennials and beyond. He said, your brand is your reputation, right? And so that kind of crystallized it for me.
I thought, well, okay, I'm just going to kind of be me on purpose. And I think when you're in the right job. And the right situation, they embrace you back, right? And just let you go and let you be who you are because I've been this way for a really long time and not much is going to change. I think that's the same for all of us. So I just, I just do things that I naturally want to do. And I probably, as far as reinforcing the brand, I really just.
I do them publicly, you know, whether it's during the pandemic, I started a cocktail and then a cooking show too, in part because I was trapped in my apartment alone, you know, you couldn't go anywhere, you couldn't see anyone, you couldn't do anything and I still wanted that connection with people and so I just started doing things on Facebook live and it's something that I'm still doing now.
Well, Corey, being back on the West Coast in America's finest city, what opportunities are you finding to connect with your audience and perhaps help them see the market through the eyes of a visitor?
You know, I mean, that's, that's all about just getting out there and exploring again, right. You know, vacationing in your own hometown, which is, it's so easy to do in Southern California because the weather is 99 percent of the time.
And, um, and the way that I think that you can grow your brand when you're trying to do it in a new city or a city new to you is to show them how you can sort of, um, I don't know, show the world what you're doing and where you're doing it, you know, whether that's on social media, when we have things like a tropical storm or hurricane coming to Southern California, which was the first in forever.
I actually played it safe, but I did make a video because I've got lots of experience living in Florida for 17 years of how to throw a hurricane party. So I made a video for Tik TOK and Instagram and Facebook and just showed people, here's the do's and don'ts about having a hurricane party. It's just kind of taking what you know.
And then if I was to be out there, I had a neighbor who did go out to the water and he's like, Oh, I saw a couple of people out here, but they were chased off the beach by. The, uh, lifeguards and coast guard and things like that, because we weren't supposed to be out on the beach. But if I'd gotten any video, if I'd gone with him, I probably would have tried to sell it. People are doing that, you know, because it's Gosh, I heard about some guy that this is like his full time job.
He, and it might be actually a group of people, they get video of things in different communities before the news reporters get there, before the police get there. They just listen to scanners. And they take video and they sell it back to the TV stations who may or may not, you know, I need to remember what that website is because I want to check that out. And
speaking of all things digital and beyond just radio with change happening faster and faster. I mean, Meta's got threads, Twitter becomes X and all sorts of ways now to get audio and visual content. Yeah. How does already a person like you keep up? What kind of things do you want to learn now to be ready to be a leading personality in? The media world of the
future. Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. There are days I hope that it all implodes. You know, whether it's TikTok, the Chinese owning it, operating it, despite what they say. You know, it's just like, Oh God, another platform. And frankly, who knows how long. Any of them is going to be around, because like you said, things change so quickly. At first, Threads was the fastest growing social platform, and now the engagement is terrible. I go on infrequently, like anybody, if at all.
But one thing I tell people, and there is a lot of fight and pushback, is you have to learn to make AI your friend, right? And it's, the threshold is so, I think the bar is so low right now, because it's new to everybody. Even though, predictive AI has been around for at least 10 years or more with Google working on it. Now, everybody's in on the game, right? And, generative AI is the catchphrase, even though, again, people are fighting it like it's brand new. It's, it's not brand new.
It's just that it's learning to think for itself, you know, with all the information that you feed it. So, I just think, unless you are, Going to embrace this as the new technology. I mean, you would sound like an old fart, like, Oh, I'm not playing CDs. I'm not going to play music videos. You know, everything is just so negative. And I, I just think. The best thing that you could do is take any of these free courses. I mean, LinkedIn, Coursera, edX.
There are so many free courses that will just sort of introduce you to the basic concepts. And from there, you can actually get certified, a certification. Like I actually bought one for 45. I didn't buy one. I bought the class that I could get certified in for 40 on edX. I have not yet taken the class. I've just been listening to a LinkedIn free course kind of in my free time or on long drives. Um, I'm just trying to learn how I could use it rather than have it use me.
And as other people have said before me on different radio groups, like radio peeps and whatnot, radio is not going to be replaced by AI necessarily. But the people who use AI are going to replace the people who don't. So I intend to be one of those people that sticks around because. I'm not gonna just pooh pooh it and turn my back on something that, frankly, none of us really has a huge grasp on, so.
That's a great line about using it rather than letting it use
you. Yeah. I mean, that's what's gonna happen. We don't know with Ashley AI because there hasn't been total transparency about that. Like, has she compensated extra?
She said that she could tell them to stop using it when she wanted to, but I, we don't know the actual facts contractually or otherwise, but I know that in the voiceover world, there is already an uproar to, I mean, and this is why the actor's strike and the writer's strike, particularly for us right now, the actor's strike is so important because That's one thing that they are standing their ground on is the use of AI with their likeness and their voice and performance and deep fakes.
I mean, it can be done very easily these days. So what protection do we have? And I mean, the best way to learn how to protect yourself is to learn a little bit about it. Otherwise you don't know what questions to ask. Great
point. Our guest is Corey Dillon from Big 100. 7 San Diego. Hey, somebody you'd love to hear from, we'd love to hear your suggestions. Email us show at brandwithondemand. com or reach out to us on social. Brandwith Plus on Insta, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X. Wherever you look, it's brandwithplus. com. Plus P L U S brand with plus,
and if you haven't, feel free to check out our back catalog of previous guests. We got top media thought leaders, PDs, managers, and big air talent. Like twin city, like twin cities, legend KVWB is Dave Ryan, Andy Summers from 92, five XTU in Philly, Seattle legends. BJ and Megs from KISW and so many, many more all in the feed.
Coming up, Corey Dillon shares some advice you don't want to miss.
Musicmaster, less stress, more yes. Hey, this is Dave Tyler. And maybe it's just me, but I love uptempo songs coming out of the legal ID at the top of the hour, as well as out of my stop sets.
It's kind of like saying, all right, we're done with business. Let's get back to the party. To do this, I use clock filters in these. Positions that only choose medium up or uptempo songs. Sounds great every time. And it's easy to set up. If you have any questions, just shoot me an email at Dave at musicmaster. com. Musicmaster. Music scheduling the way it should be.
Hey there Kipper here and ready or not, holidays are here. So one way you can help out your listeners and your bottom line is with. Radio Swag Shop. You just give them some cool holiday artwork, pick your items, they do the rest. They'll do the sales website, they handle the fulfillment, the transaction. All your station has to do is sit back and reap the reward. Radio Swag Shop. Easy! Just follow the link in the show notes or go to radioswagshop.com and be sure to use the coupon code KIPPER.
That's RadioSwagShop, coupon KIPPER. Your listeners and your station's holiday budget. Will, thank you.
Exploring media evolution in real time. BRANDwidth On Demand,
we're with Corey Dylan, the star of Big 100. 7 in San Diego. Corey, what's the best advice you were ever given?
Save your money. You work in radio.
And conversely, if you could give one piece of advice to others in the industry, what would that advice be?
You know, there's a couple of different quotes, actually. One was from George Clooney and one was from the other actor, Brian Cranston. And when I was unemployed for two years and seven months, these quotes both helped me just kind of overcome adversity and just reframe my perspective, right? The one from George Clooney was. You're as far as auditions went, which for us would be an interview. Right. And he said, I had to stop going to auditions thinking, gee, I hope they like me.
And I had to go in thinking I was the answer to their problem. I mean, radio has a lot of problems right now, but if you can be the answer to any one of them and help them figure out how to get ratings, how to. Draw an audience, whether that's using your social media or whatever, that's what they're desperate for. And the other one was from Brian Cranston from Breaking Bad. And he said, it's a subtle difference, but he said 35 years ago or so, this really helped the trajectory of his career.
He said, when going to an audition, you have to realize you're not there to get a job. You're there to do a job. And so when you are in that interview. You have to be entertaining whoever is in front of you and showing them you're, again, the answer to their problem, you're entertaining, you are the person that they need to hire because you've got The knowledge and the skills and you're entertaining, you know, to be on the radio.
It's great advice.
Yeah.
Thank you. Great advice. Wish I'd heard it myself 20 years ago.
The star of San Diego radio, Corey Dylan from B 100. 7. We have links to her complete bio, her social links and more all in the show notes. Just scroll down on your phone
As always. We want to thank our exec producer, Cindy Huber, and associate producer, Hannah B, for booking. And boy, has she been busy. Coming up, a top rated multi award winning morning host, a look at the year in music trends past and what's ahead for 24, and an expert on linear sound. How to grow your TSL, whether on -air, online or on-demand. That's all coming up.
That's a wrap. Kipper. Holidays. Yeah, they're important. We think about a lot and that's what we'll be thinking about in the next One Minute Martinizing. Find it in the show notes at BRANDwidthOnDemand,.com. I'm Dave Martin.
And I'm Kipper McGee. May all your BRANDwidth be wide.