I don't think there's winging it anymore in radio. I feel like part of what I pride myself on as a human is reading the room. Very smart. I know when to shut the F up.
Brandwidth On Demand. Rebooting radio with a different take on all radio can be.
This is why I love radio still. And local radio. Like the world is looking for connection. Now more than ever. And I think that's why I'm excited to take the job in Long Island to build community again. To build those things I said I valued personally, community stability and growth. Those are my three big core values right now. And to be able to build that community is everything.
Now your guides through the mediamorphosis. David Martin and author of the book Brand With, media branding coach Kipper McGee.
With a dynamic career that has spanned some of country's top radio markets, this radio personality has carved out a remarkable place in country music broadcasting. She began by making a name for herself at Denver's KYGO FM, legendary station, where she became one of the most recognized voices in the format. That long standing success set the stage for New York City. where she helped launch the original Nash FM.
As a co host of the nationally syndicated America's Morning Show with Ty, Kelly, and Chuck, she quickly connected with a network audience and further solidified her reputation, bringing warmth, authenticity, and her engaging style coast to coast. Her talent and dedication has been recognized with multiple awards, including three Gracies, three CMAs, wait, an ACM, and the prestigious Marconi Award. And she's just getting started.
Today she continues to share her passion for country music as the host of the syndicated show Backstage Country and now Back to the New York Market. This afternoon host of The Wolf 103. 1 in Long Island, Bramwood On Demand proudly welcomes back theee Kelly Ford.
I want Dave to follow me around in the grocery and be my hype guy. Like, do you know who she is?
Happy to do it. So for starters, Cal, any adventures since Oh my
gosh, any adventures? Didn't I talk to you before I left Nashville, New York to do mornings?
Yeah, that
was the best adventure of my most growth experience in my whole life because I never hosted a show before. So to host a morning show and the biggest media market in the world was a blast and I learned a ton and. Both professionally and personally. And then the station went away. Flipped in almost three years to the date. And guys, it's been quite the ride since then. Yeah. I haven't been on a daily broadcast shows until now.
A real time of reflection and Looking at the business and I don't think I was gonna take another, uh, tough to get a job in Nashville, to be honest. Did a lot of different things and had time to think about, like, people would always say to me in the past year or so what's your dream job? And I go, you know what? I don't work that way anymore. And I'm not working on dream jobs.
Cause I think with three kids and trying to do all that all those years, I was like now I just want to look at what I value, right? What do I value? What do I want out of life? Now that the kids are mostly grown. Massive therapy with me being their mother, but they're mostly grown. But yeah, so I was like to slow down and be able to do that. I just feel really calm, calmer than I've ever felt and more informed to go in into this experience.
Like, yeah, I know what I love about this and I know what I don't love. And for people right now in broadcasting who have jobs in all of media, right? I'm in Nashville, tough to even get a label jobs for people, right? Labels, all of media, radio, television, all of media is changing so exponentially that to have a job. I remember saying this right before I left New York and I didn't even know what was coming. It's a business that most people are still doing because they love it.
And we were talking, I was saying, you know what, we don't have just one in a million jobs. We have like one in 10 million jobs at this point to be on the air and to find the gratitude about that, but also, take care of yourself, take care of your family. So I definitely come back to this with a more informed. opinion about what I want out of not just radio, but life.
So I know and love and understand the New York country listener and appreciate them because they are listeners who number one, I grew up in Kentucky, worked in Nashville, Colorado, very, very country. As you mentioned, KYGO was always. Top five, just a behemoth and when you grow up in areas where a country's part of the soundtrack up here, it's not. So they don't take it for granted and they most likely choose it and they then defend it like a New Yorker. Yeah. Yeah. I like luke Bryan.
So it's been fun. Like a bunch of artists called in last week to just acknowledge the station, acknowledge me, which was really cool. And what people say over and over again is that maybe Country listeners or radio people in the other parts of the country don't understand is that it is next level listener here of country that is Very passionate because again, they're choosing it and they're defending it.
Yeah,
that's my life
Well between your local and national assignments, you've dealt with a lot of high profile guests. I mean just talking about them How do you prepare for that? What's your secret to preparing for celebrities? and The care and feeding of those folks, and does it differ from your local and network shows at all?
I think, and not to be Pollyanna, but my approach to all of radio has always been the same and even more strong now that I've always done this job. I probably mentioned this to you guys last time we talked, because it's about relationships, like the fact that you guys called me back and that we're part of this broadcasting family, like that's what fuels me in this job. So. That's part of the answer to your question. The other part is the backstage country. We tape in one sitting per artist.
And it's really a cool show because it's like you get an A list artist. Here's me plugging, like I'm selling it or something, but I'm just the talent JTT, but it's kind of cool cause the artist is the host. So I feel like for me, I've always been more of a personality than a jock and a host. So it's always been my job to make other people shine, right?
And with that though, like, I'm going back to, I'll be going back from Forth to Nashville, I'm going back Wednesday and Thursday to interview Lainey Wilson and Keith Urban. And they will be, hey, it's Lainey Wilson, your host this week on Backstage Country. We 45 minutes to an hour to get 20, 20, basically 20 hours of content.
That's So, obviously it's not full 20 hours, but in that case, I write a script and I try to get inside the head of the person for all of our intros, all of our show opens, all of our show, because we have to be really efficient. And then we also have to get really great content, though. I don't think there's winging it anymore in radio. I think you do have to be wildly prepared and then you have to read just like you guys prepared for this. You have to read the personality.
You kind of get to know. And the beauty of still doing local radio, too, is you meet them as they're coming up. And when you meet them as they're coming up, they never forget you, right? So, artists are really different. I'm not going to do some goofy game. Like, I'm not going to put them in that position. I feel like part of my, what I pride myself on as a human is reading the room. Very smart. I know when to shut the F up and I know, you know what I mean?
And I know when to be like, and it's partially because I wanna be respectful and I hope people are of me. Like I don't wanna come in hot if somebody's got social anxiety. And a great example is I just interviewed Jelly Roll. Like we had a blast. I only met him one other time, but he's one of those megastar because I think he does the same thing. We laughed, he gave me endless grief, which I love but, you know, he just kept saying, Are you gonna let me host this show? I go, please.
Are you, do you think they're first man who's ever said that to me? Um, but yeah. So I think it's reading people and listening, right? Because it's through listening that you get to get a better secondary question, or you get to play off something that does create magic, but a lot of broadcasters listening to this, you can't rely on winging it to find magic. What you want is great content no matter what, and then if you're prepared it leaves you much more room for the success of magic.
But if you don't get it, well that's okay because you got decent, good content that you know you have. But if you're listening and you find a way to go, Oh my gosh, did he just say he still plays Pokemon Go? Oh, we're going to talk about that. Are you going to try to still catch them all? I think they've all been caught, dude.
Well, speaking of that, I guess that leads to the question, how do you stay relevant and fresh in an industry that's changing constantly with formats, stations, technology, and particularly for you. Balancing the demands of a syndicated show, local show, and your podcasts and everything else. How do you do it? I
don't think no matter what your age, you have room to say you won't do something. And for anybody listening who's not on board with socials I don't know why I've always loved socials. Cause I do think it's a way to let audience and people see you in a different way, in a more real way, just like the artists are using it. Right. We're all our own brands and we have to get people to root for us. We have to just be ourselves. And so I don't know about that. I will edit. I love reels.
I love that, but it just there's no room for saying you're not going to do something. There's a room for saying I'm not that great at that. That might not be the best use of my bandwidth, but I'll do it.
What strategies do you use to create a connection with listeners?
Um, dude, I don't know. I just be me. And because what I have found is be kind, like this is why I love radio still and local radio, like the world's looking for connection now more than ever. And I think that's what I am excited to take the job in long Island to build community again, to build like those things I said, I valued personally, community, stability and growth. Those are my three. Big core values right now. And to be able to build that community is everything.
So you just try to be you without making it all about you and just make people feel like they're part of something. Cause if you think about us, even individually, like we all want to be part of something, right? We like being part of the broadcasting community. So I hope that answers the question, I don't know...
No, it does. Yeah. Yeah, it does.
Absolutely. So flipping the script just a little bit, being back on top, you're in Long Island, New York DMA, and you got a network show, but thinking back to when you were first dreaming about getting into the business and your first couple of jobs, now, today, what do you think young broadcasters really should be focusing on skill-wise to be a viable candidate in a business like you said, that's got a one in 10 million chance of getting a current job, now?
Well, I think you need to make peace with you're more than a broadcaster, right? You are building your brand. And so to be. It's so easy. I remember when I was younger, people say, Oh, just be yourself. And that seems like the easiest thing in the world but it's not. So like figuring out what you value and who you are early on is pretty great. And I meet so many young people that have that down, which is amazing.
And remember at the end of the day, no matter what we're doing, creatives in radio, television, your online presence, It's all about the art of storytelling. And so if I had one big piece of advice besides hanging in there and being tenacious and finding allies and finding supporters. That was all the same thing in that one thing. It's the importance of storytelling and learning how to be a good storyteller. And I think finding the people you admire to watch as far as storytelling.
And back when I very first started out, this was back in the good old days when they had news people on morning shows. And I was a news person and I always wanted to tell stories with audio. I'm sitting here editing as we speak, Dan and Shay. Our first Jones Beach concert was last weekend or Saturday and it's Monday. And I'm editing sound from listeners. And I'm just saying why they love Dan and Shay, getting them to sing along to a Dan and Shay song. People want to hear themselves on the air.
So that's, to me, there's no better storytelling than people, letting people tell their story. And that, coincidentally, also builds community, also builds all the things we've been talking about. So, I think storytelling and tenacity. And finding allies, those would be the top three for me as far as like, no matter what you're doing, because again, no one's just doing radio anymore. No one's just doing television. No one's just doing online.
It's all part of being a tour de force as far as your presence and knowing who you are. That was a lot of extra things. Sorry. That wasn't very good storytelling.
You did great.
We are with the award winning afternoon star and network co hosts. Let me some backstage country. The Kelly Ford knows someone who'd be perfect for this show or have a topic you'd like to suggest. Well, let us know, email your suggestions to show. At Brandwidth On Demand. Com or hit us up on socials brand with plus on Instagram, Facebook, and X that's brand with P L U S brand with plus.
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coming up, theee Kelly Ford shares her thoughts on mentors and. Taking advice.
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We're with thee Kelly Ford, afternoon host at The Wolf 101. 3 Long Island. And the nationally syndicated backstage country. Kelly, what role did mentorship play in your career and what's the best advice that you've ever gotten?
Oh, wow. You know what? I've asked that question and I hate it. Why are you talking about that? What? What's the best advice? Never take advice. No. I would say, uh, but I do know so many people along the way have given me advice.
And probably the kind of amalgamation of that is some of the advice I've given out today, like, learn how to pivot, be adaptable be tenacious, don't take anything personally I think those are all things that play into who I am and probably and I want to thank anyone who has given me advice along the way because I know they have and they're probably like, why doesn't she remember that? That would be the advice one of you needs to give me. Write this stuff down
For your book Kelly for your book,
yeah Our thanks to an original Kipper. She is amazing. Thee Kelly Ford. We have links to her shows, podcasts, socials, and more all in the show notes. Just scroll down on your phone.
With a country star only fitting, our cowboy hats are off to exec producer Cindy Huber. For putting everything together and our associate producer Hannah B for booking, the voices we all learn from.
That's a wrap, kipper all the hard work really don't mean a lot unless you're consistent. Consistency is the subject of the new one minute mark nuts. Find it in the show notes at Bran with on demand.com. I'm Dave Martin.
And I'm Kipper McGee. May all your BRANDwidth be wide.