Turning it off. Kane always jokes that one day he wants to work in a job like construction where you can't bring work home with you. My girlfriend would agree with that statement. It's hard for all of us to turn it off especially when social media is a big part of the job.
The other side of that is when I meet people in public at a non-work event, they're surprised that I'm not as annoying as I am on the air. It wasn't a promotion, but it was the coolest experience of my career.
Last April a teacher sent me a direct message on Twitter. This student happened to have Down Syndrome, so Adam and Maroon 5 were always used as rewards in the classroom for him. If Christopher finished his work, he was able to listen to Maroon 5. The band was coming to DC, and she was wondering if we could get him tickets.
I sent an e-mail to our PD, Tommy Chuck, to see if we could do anything. Tommy went above and beyond and got Chris to a meet-and-greets with Adam. When the meet-and-greet started, Chris was a little nervous and laid on the floor. Without hesitation, Adam laid down next to him, the photo of all of us on the floor went viral. It's one of my favorite memories because it shows radio still matters, and it allows us to do very cool things like that. That's really hard.
I would say Big D. Big D is one of the funniest people I know, and listeners love him, so I listen and try to learn from how he interacts with listeners. I also do some jock work still, so I like to listen to how he gets in and out of breaks. I've been so lucky to have so many mentors at every step of my journey. In Minneapolis it was the entire Dave Ryan Show.
Dave is an absolute legend, and him taking me under his wing was an absolute honor. Dave has dominated Minneapolis airwaves for 20 years, and learning from him was amazing. Steve and Bethany also acted like my big siblings during that time.
They would both spend hours listening to my stuff and that really, really helped. Greg is one of the most brilliant programming minds I've ever met.
I learned a lot just from watching Greg and seeing how much he puts into it. I've also learned a tremendous amount from Kane. I looked up to Kane even before I started on the show.
Working with him now, I really appreciate his genius. One thing that everyone knows about Kane is that he preps for the show constantly, literally a hundred pages of ideas, and it has made me step my game up. Dave Ryan once told me that you always need to work hard. He said there are so many lazy people, but if you work hard, you will be rewarded. I can honestly say in my career I've found that to be very true. I literally started out making copies and coffee, I did the stuff no one else wanted to do, and now I've been blessed with being able to do this for a living.
Be a sponge. Do everything, even things you're not asked or expected to do. Do the things you think that no one notices. Even if they DON'T notice, it will make you better. Also, you need to listen to your peers. I would constantly bug other jocks about how they do things and ask them to listen to my audio. No one is going to hand you anything. You need to make yourself better. Darrin Marshall does our imaging in DC, and the man is an absolute genius.
Breaking into a new market. Granted, KISS is only the second station I've worked at, but definitely breaking into a new market. It's like being the new kid in school running for student council, except the school has a couple hundred thousand people in it. There's definitely that awkward phase of trying to figure out what works and what doesn't from market to market, but I think having to adapt will only make you better. Right now, my biggest challenge is beating Kane's ratings record for my time slot.
I guess he had a I think I had a 36 in the last book, so I have a ways to go! Everybody listens to it. I went to a few of the concerts when I was younger and thought it was the coolest thing ever to actually be able to see the DJs I listened to every day.
Jingle Ball is an amazing event because it reminds us why we do what we do. Taking pictures with listeners and hearing them say how they love the station is one of the most rewarding experiences ever. I also like the event because it's one of the few times that the entire air staff of the station is in the same place without there being a company-wide conference call. It doesn't hurt that we've had some great lineups, and hat's off to Rob Morris and Lucas for that.
The past five years we've had Lady Gaga, Rihanna, T. This last one was really special too, because it was the last Jingle Ball for Rob Morris, and it was an honor to be able to have been a part of that.
I think of my age as a benefit, though; for one thing I'll be in the demographic for a while. I also look at it as a benefit because I think it will help me be more well-rounded; a year from now I want to say that I'm 23 years old with five years of morning show experience, four years of jock experience, a year of programming experience, and my degree in marketing. Chance reminds me a lot of Rob Morris. He's very passionate about the channel and will fight to keep the integrity of the channel.
Chance is my PD as well as our afternoon guy, and he's also the OM of the cluster. He's a great guy to work for and he somehow managed to teach me Selector in less than a week. Like many stations, everyone here has more than just one set job. CJ is our local producer for Elvis Duran, and he also assists in our promotions and internship program. He's very much the seasoned vet whose ability to help in any situation is a great asset to our team. Jason is a college kid who I'm making my own pet project.
He reminds me a lot of me when I first started in the business. One of the most important lessons I've taught him is to always wear your radio headphones into a club because it makes it easier to pick up girls at it's worked for him!
I've also made Jason the stunt guy of my show. He's brought my dog to a tattoo parlor to try to get him tattooed, tried on underwear at Victoria Secret, and so on. Amber and Karsten round out the rest of our air staff. Both are very valuable to the brand as they can both do nearly every task at the station, from board-opping, to on-air work, to filling out promotions letters.
At KDWB, of course we have the morning show. Outside of that, Lucas is our MD and afternoon jock. Like I said, I owe him a lot for giving me a shot and spending countless hours listening to my airchecks. Wazz is our promotions assistant and night jock. When I fist started, Wazz would let me shadow him at remotes.
I learned a lot about setting up for a broadcast, as well as doing a remote. Big D is our late-night guy and handles weekend duties. I like to think of D as the unsung hero of the station. He's always on the air at least six days a week. Last but not least is Barb, our promotions director.
Barb does an amazing job of making the station look good at events, and hopefully me mentioning her in here will get me front row Taylor Swift tickets :. Dave's morning show is an iconic show in the Twin Cities, and should really be syndicated for how good it is. Everyone in the Twin Cities knows Dave, and it was a true honor to have been a part of his show as long as I was. I consider Dave a mentor of mine, and I learned a lot from him.
I think one of the most important things I learned was from watching his work ethic.
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