In late August, Jesse and Jenna from Jump 106.9 in Ottawa were restructured out of their jobs. That's probably not news as it is a regular occurrence in radio. However, their replacements were a syndicated U.S. show out of Seattle. The ensuing online and media outrage was heavier than in other cities where layoffs happen. Jenna Mosher was kind enough to spend some time talking about her career which started in hometown Vancouver and moved to North Bay, Niagara, and then to Ottawa in 2014 when ro...
Oct 16, 2018•32 min•Ep. 120
I really love Thanksgiving. In Canada we celebrate it as a tribute to the bountiful harvest. There are a lot of people who enjoy it more than Christmas which gets lost in a sea of wrapping paper and Amazon deliveries. So in my turkey comatose, I offer up a word of thanks to those who support the show every week; and that ranges to anyone from a listener, to a sponsor, to simply sharing or following the social media accounts. I also provide insight into what it takes to make this podcast run ever...
Oct 09, 2018•14 min•Ep. 119
Graham Mosimann does evenings at Calgary's alternative X92.9. I hired Graham back in 2014 to work at Power 97 in Winnipeg and decided to call him up and see how he was doing. It has been neat listening to his progress as a performer, and equally amazing watching his personal journey as he drops weight and makes life changes as he goes. As Graham tells me, he was a mess, became a bigger mess after he was fired from Power 97, and slowly began to get his life together shortly after. It's an honest ...
Oct 02, 2018•34 min•Ep. 118
Fred Jacobs was a guest on Episode 53 in a preview to the Broadcasters Meet Podcasters sessions at Podcast Movement in 2017. I have always wanted to do an episode where we looked back at the evolution of his company and a tweet on the 35th anniversary of the company's creation reminded me that it's a good time to have that chat. We cover the creation of classic rock, his transition from the WRIF in Detroit to Jacobs Media, and his relationship to Buffalo where had a great success, a small failur...
Sep 25, 2018•49 min•Ep. 117
Larry Gifford has Parkinson's. On his Radio Stuff Podcast last April, Larry announced that he had Parkison's Disease. If you get the chance, please give that episode a listen . Larry is known to many through his time at ESPN in Bristol, 710 ESPN in LA, KIRO in Seattle, or from his most recent home at CKNW in Vancouver. We spent our time talking about Corus' foray into the podcast space and how radio and podcast are beginning to intersect. He also gave us an inside look into how the show is put t...
Sep 19, 2018•23 min•Ep. 116
Jason Barrett celebrated the third anniversary of Barrett Sports Media last week, and we have an annual podcast chat to talk about the state of Sports Radio. After three years of doing anything, you have entrenched yourself into the landscape well enough to speak reflectively, so I asked him about the trials and tribulations of shifting from programming radio to partnering with radio. He blogs, podcasts, works with sports radio brands across America, and I have admired his work and always apprec...
Sep 11, 2018•44 min•Ep. 115
Matt Sutton comes from Australia. There was a time when having people with funny accents was novelty. Then it became common place. With the advent of Youtube, Facebook and people consuming their media globally, it's not a thing anymore. In 2012, I had the delight of bringing Matt to Canada as we launched Fresh-FM in Winnipeg. The best part was bringing him over from Brisbane's B105 and introducing him to Canada... in February. There were subsequent promotions like "Make Matt a Winnipegger" and h...
Sep 05, 2018•29 min•Ep. 114
James Cridland is a radio futurologist. He will tell you he got that name because he printed it on his business cards, but he does possess a keen eye to where radio is headed. He is the man behind Podnews, a daily e-news letter and companion 2 minute podcast delivered daily. He also heads up the Next Radio Conference which will be taking place in London on September 17. In this episode, James and I talked about the accelerated pace the podcast industry is moving at, Google's impact getting into ...
Aug 28, 2018•37 min•Ep. 113
Jonathan West is a passionate about a few things, including two of our favourites, hockey and radio. We eliminated all the hockey talk from the podcast but I will bring him back at some point on "The Other" podcast to chat it up in February when the playoff races take hold. It was good to catch up with Jonathan at the Conclave, and he mentioned he was going to be at Morning Show Bootcamp, so he promised me an update on that and I would pass along my Podcast Movement notes to him. Aside from bein...
Aug 21, 2018•52 min•Ep. 112
Logan Anderson is the host of the Say the Damn Score Podcast. He loves being a sports broadcaster and found out that podcast was a great way to network and meet new people in his field. Guests have largely been the familiar voices that call games for places like Fresno State, South Dakota, Ball State, and Bradley. But there's also the Milwaukee Brewers and National icons like Bob Costas and Ian Eagle. It's more than just a podcast; his blog features lots of great insight and information like cal...
Aug 14, 2018•29 min•Ep. 111
Jonny Staub got his big break when James Stewart offered him a job at Calgary's top rated Power 107 shortly after we all calmed down from the Y2K problem. Jonny had some an incredible start to his career with big ratings at an early age at big radio stations in big markets. Then came a personal reality check. Which was later followed be the stresses of coming out publicly, and coping with the competitive nature of his work, and the support he gets from work. In this episode, you'll hear how Jonn...
Aug 07, 2018•46 min•Ep. 110
Ryan Wrecker hosts Overnight America on 1120AM KMOX in St. Louis. It has been the radio home of the St. Louis Cardinals since the mid 50's when Jack Buck became synonymous with both the team, and radio station across North America. Remember, the signal would carry for miles from Canada to Mexico, extolling the exemplary play of Bob Gibson, Ozzie Smith, Dizzy Dean an Stan Musial. I wanted to ask Ryan questions about what it is like to work after 10pm in a radio station. Is the coffee still awful ...
Jul 31, 2018•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 109
Sarah Burke has been the new girl at Sirius XM for about 18 months. After a decade at London, Ontario's heritage rock brand FM96, Sarah moved back to Toronto to work at Sirius XM's the Verge and later take on weekend duties at Indie 88. If you pay attention closely to this interview, you'll note that every time Sarah made a career shift, it was because she had mastered what she set out to. Sarah has one more to hill to climb in radio - I won't spoil what she says but let this podcast description...
Jul 24, 2018•25 min•Ep. 108
Dave Beasing is known for many things including a ten year run as program director at 100.3 the Sound in Los Angeles, (R.I.P.) as a broadcast consultant at Jacobs Media, and most recently as a part of the team that created the highly successful Inside Trader Joe's podcast. His company Sound That Brands has taken a lead role in creating branded content and I wanted to ask him about the branding behind audio; whether its a unique station like 100.3 the Sound, or a podcast about Trader Joe's. Of no...
Jul 17, 2018•39 min•Ep. 107
Melz on the MIC is the Assistant Program Director and midday host (12p-3p) at 103.1 Kiss FM in Killeen, Texas. Melz posted a picture of a newspaper article with the headline, "Local Man Gives Up Career to Pursue Job as a Radio DJ". After doing some listening, it was apparent that Melz had a lot more going on than just a local radio show. It is a multi-platform engagement online and on-air deployment in the community. And there's a whole lot more to the story including a tour in Iraq in 2003. His...
Jul 10, 2018•35 min•Ep. 106
Gruff Gushnowski has been living life openly and honestly for the last three and a half years. If you following him on social media, he can be uncomfortably candid about his postings, and he revealed in this week's show about how helpful it has been. We explored his radio career which has been set in Alberta for 25 years outside of a brief stint programming CHEZ 106 in Ottawa. There are other heritage rockers in their too like K97 in Edmonton and The Goat in Lloydminster, Alberta. (Given all the...
Jul 03, 2018•43 min•Ep. 105
Jaclyn Irwin from Kiss 92.5 Toronto and Kiss 91.7 in Edmonton. She joins me to talk about her early influences in radio and growing up Dartmouth. Yes, we both agree that Dartmouth, N.S. gets a bad wrap for no apparent reason. We talked about what inspired her to go into radio, what it takes to be relevant in a market that houses 4 CHR radio stations, and how she has expanded her brand using social media. Jax recently went to London to cover the Royal Wedding for the Kiss branded stations and tel...
Jun 26, 2018•19 min•Ep. 104
Will Sterrett is the founder and owner of Rockcastle Media. The Kansas based network launched its first offering Think Fast! in May 2016 on just a handful of affiliates, including KWIX/Moberly, MO, where Sterrett was first heard twenty years prior. Think Fast! quickly grew as did the opportunities for Rockcastle Media Networks, with the following month’s syndication launch of Neon Beat with John Christopher. Since then, the network has grown to the point where it has offerings for every format i...
Jun 19, 2018•35 min•Ep. 103
Ruby Carr from Z95.3 in Vancouver is the winner of the Allan Waters Young Broadcaster of the Year in memory of Steve Young. Runners up were Lauren Hunter 102.9 Sonic Edmonton, and Jax from Kiss 92.5 Toronto. Ruby's name came up briefly back in episode 74 where Dave Bannerman was talking about some of the great talent who had flowed through Nova Scotia Community College over the years. (Which also included Jax) We talked about Ruby's love for performing and found out her brother is also in Vancou...
Jun 12, 2018•22 min•Ep. 102
Julie Adam is the Senior VP of Radio at Rogers. Often I will receive suggestions about who they want on the podcast and her name comes up often. This episode was recorded on a morning when radio ratings for the diary markets were released so we talked methodology and ratings returns, Radioplayer Canada, Making mistakes, and how radio and podcast can coexist. I had a half hour of questions scheduled but we carried the conversation on to cover talent, why Julie asked me a few questions about podca...
Jun 05, 2018•51 min•Ep. 101
This is Episode 100. My years in radio taught me to celebrate the milestones and accomplishments. No more so than the time I spent at 100.3 the Bear in Edmonton. Some background on why I decided to do this show. Back in January when I was planning out the shows for the next few months, I wanted to have Greg Brown aka Jake Daniels on. He and I worked together on 100.3 the Bear in Edmonton from 1994 to 2002, working on the afternoon show for close to 5 years. I never had more fun on the air than I...
May 29, 2018•3 hr 19 min•Ep. 100
Randi Chase epitomizes the lyric in the WKRP theme song, "Town to Town; Up and Down the Dial." The lyric conjures up images of jocks, successful or fired, who shuffle on to the next gig with a new town and call letters. Randi worked in 6 of Canada's top 10 markets before turning 30. After taking a year off to find out what happens when you take the radio out of Randi, she is back on air and having fun with in her favourite province with Vinnie Taylor on Newcap's Real Country 95.5. I had the chan...
May 22, 2018•40 min•Ep. 99
The Humboldt bus accident that claimed the lives' of 16 people on April 6, 2018 led to a worldwide outpouring of grief and support. In the hours after the crash, the lives of players, coaches, team support staff like a statistician and therapist were also lost; as well as Tyler Bieber who was the play-by-play host and worked at 107.5 Bolt-FM in Humboldt. Brian Munz grew up in Humboldt. I spent some time with him to talk about what calling Junior hockey is like and to find out more about the clos...
May 15, 2018•38 min•Ep. 98
When Gerry Forbes announced his retirement, you can forgive CJAY 92's competitors for letting out a silent cheer. For over 25 years in Calgary, Gerry's morning show has been in the top three in a market that is sharply country. In preparing this episode, I reached out to some of the people who had worked with and against Gerry. People like Bob Harris who was his program director throughout the 90's; Terry Dimonte who went up against him from 2008-2012; and Gerry's brother Marty who spent his car...
May 08, 2018•31 min•Ep. 97
When Scott Howard made the change from on air to sales, he will be the first to tell you that he didn't get it right away. His first opportunity came at WMUZ in Detroit where he freely admitted that he made a lot of mistakes. Over time, he became more engrained in the sales world and started sharing his wisdom on a blog http://sclohonet.blogspot.ca/ and then in time on a podcast. Most episodes clocking in under 10 minutes. Scott currently works at one of America's oldest and most reknowned radio...
May 01, 2018•25 min•Ep. 96
Lauryn Schaffner is a writer, blogger, YouTuber, and overall lover of Rock music. On this week's show we ask how her passion for rock music took her down this path, and find out what role radio played in getting her there. Not surprisingly, radio did play a role. But not surprisingly, it was her parents who listened to the radio - not her. She is living her rock and roll dreams by writing for alternativenation.net, and she recently started vlogging on her YouTube channel. As we found out during ...
Apr 24, 2018•29 min•Ep. 95
A few more thoughts about Podcasting and its relationship with radio. Recorded in Spain as I tour the country side eating tapas and watching football. As well, I call up Bob Willette at Rock 94.9 in Oshawa and we nerd out of the branding history of Edge 102. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
Apr 17, 2018•16 min•Ep. 94
Gary Begin is the owner of Sound Advantage Media. His company works with radio stations across America is get their branding strategy in order. One of the things I like about Gary is how is business is always working the social media space to promote the latest. At one time that was a book called Radio Programming and Branding: The Ultimate Podcasting and Radio Branding Guide. Gary is going to be adding to that book shortly, with 7 more parts added to it involving podcast. We spoke about what ma...
Apr 10, 2018•14 min•Ep. 93
Lori Lewis knows how to deal with change, which makes her ideal to lead the way when it comes to navigating the murky waters of Facebook. From its changing algorithm to the overextension of selling your data to third party sources, Lori offers up her tips and expertise to great posting and audience engagement. We also touched on some best practices for Facebook Live which still remains a challenge for talent. Lori is also the chairperson of the long standing Radio Summer Learning Conference The ...
Apr 03, 2018•25 min•Ep. 92
We are off to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia and catching up with Mark Burley. (SUN-FM, AM 1150 & 101.5 EZ Rock) During the 12 years as Group PD and PD of the local cluster, he enjoyed enjoying 8 years with Sun at #1 A25-54 in Kelowna and garnered industry recognition with 6 consecutive Program Director of the Year Awards and Station of the Year for Sun FM on 5 occasions. Mark went through 3 different owners during his time including Standard, Astral and then Bell. He speaks about w...
Mar 27, 2018•25 min•Ep. 91
