When it comes to WiLD radio in Tampa one name is synonymous…Orlando! His passion for music and delivering the kind of radio that excites his audience always keeps him and his WiLD team on top of their game. His open and honest feedback has also made him one of the industry’s most respected programmers in Rhythm Radio today.
Orlando
Orlando Davis has made quite a name for himself in Tampa over the last ten years. Known to most simply as Orlando, or “O”, he’s always had great respect for the medium and the programmers that have come before him. He would always attend radio conventions and absorb every bit of knowledge possible and that has helped to make him a successful on-air programmer who oversees the programming at WLLD (WiLD 98.7). He’s aggressive, yet laid back. He’s outspoken, yet informed. But it’s his passion that is contagious and it’s what’s missing in a business that, more often than not, has become way too corporate. He is without question one of the Rhythm format’s top programming stars and no one has their finger on the pulse of the market and is plugged into their audience more than “O.” His forthright assessment of the radio business nowadays is honest and refreshing. “O” is not one to shy away from telling you how he really feels, and that alone makes him one of the industry’s most respected programmers today
eQB presents excerpts from the April FMQB magazine Rhythm Up Close: WLLD(WiLD 98.7)/Tampa PD Orlando
On the radio landscape in Tampa and where WiLD fits in the market…
The landscape of radio is different now because we didn’t expect deregulation to do what it did. Everybody was for themselves when we first started. It was WFLZ fighting against us; the AC station fighting against them. There was no Urban station. Everybody was just creating a brand where you were able to stand on your own two legs.
On the effects of deregulation…
With deregulation and everybody being able to go out and buy more properties, it began a process where more stations were created to flank one another rather than to win. It’s like you have a competitor and you can’t beat ’em, but now you’re going to create another station and try and take out their low end, and now everybody’s arm-in-arm working together as a team.
On how has the station’s sound evolved since the early days of WiLD…
It’s still reckless abandon behind the scenes but it’s become more polished. The station used to have really weird drops and crazy shouts from the listeners and it was different for the market because they weren’t used to that. Now ten years into it they expect it, so it’s not avant-garde as it used to be. Now we’ve really set the bar but we’ve always rooted the station in that we’re not dictating culture but reciprocating culture. Stations like Power 106/Los Angeles and Hot 97/New York tend to dictate culture. If they say you better like this new white guy rapping about college, then you better like it! Because they’re the people who set the trends.
On the Rhythm format’s health nowadays…
I don’t think it’s healthier. I think the audience has just become a little more aware of other formats, so it supplements it. Back in the day when we used to do perceptual research we would go down to the major record store or even a mom and pop, and we would watch kids run in and get the LL Cool J record, or run out and make sure they had to pick up the new big thing, whether it was Jermaine Stewart or something strange or just the new hot thing. But now you look at them and they’re picking up Linkin Park and they’re going over toTaylor Swift and they’re picking up Miley Cyrus and then they’re running back over and picking up Ray J or The Dream. Then they have to get Kanye West and Lil Wayne.
On the growth of the Hip-Hop format…
We’re satisfying everybody because we have a huge piece of the pie. The Hip-Hop/Rhythm format has grown so much that people are embracing it on every level. You have artists like Lady GaGawho’s in the mix now. So in essence our format is not as strong as it used to be because we were a self-standing format, but now, realistically, we’re Mainstream. Especially when Mountain Dew, Boost Mobile and Verizon are all incorporating artists like John Legend, Kanye West and Ludacris into major television ad campaigns. We’re now nationally recognized, mainstream popular music that includes the street essence stuff but we’ve just morphed it and made it more palatable and more marketable.
On if radio is doing a better job today winning the war against emerging technology…
Yes, especially now that everybody is embracing technology. But there was a time where we had tenured educated leaders, at least in our company, Mel Karmizin, who was like, “I don’t want to hear anything about the Internet. I don’t want to hear anything about streaming. I don’t want to hear anything about technology until we can monetize it.” And that put us behind the curve because it allowed a lot of kids and people in general to move ahead of us, because they were all aware of something that we weren’t immersed in. And then the digital initiative came! Now we’re charged with making sure the digital spots get on the air. That’s literally a 180 from where we were.
On what WiLD is doing technology-wise to lock in with its target audience…
We have a new Digital Sales Manger, Celeste Carter. We have a web guy, Deedler, who came off the air so he has a nickname, but he’s Marc Cerniglio. He understands it because he came from the side of being a jock, and even though he’s been our Web Director for six stations, he’s still on-the-air on the weekends; having somebody in that position who knows that side of it helps. We’re all over Twitter. I never thought I would join another social network in my life! We used to have to go on the air and say something and everybody hear it because you’re the hot station. Now you have to join Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, also do your air show, put cameras in the studio, have streaming and texting and a phone-line to achieve that goal.
On the arsenal of programming knowledge within CBS that’s just a phone call away…
It’s HUGE! We’ve always had Kevin Weatherly, Todd Cavanah and even back in the day,Oedipus. We’ve had some awesome programmers where you sat around in a room with guys likeJay Stevens and just listened and knew this is the place where you wanted to be. Now, with us beefin’ up our Top 40 ranks with Dom Theodore, who I battled with when he was at ’FLZ and even before then when I was in Tallahassee and he was in Panama City. He’s now in the company running our Top 40 station in New York and is VP of Top 40 formats around the country. I’m inspired by a lot of those guys.
On what radio can do to ensure that it remains the go-to media of choice…
Stay ahead of the curve. We have a lot of people making decisions in radio who haven’t been in a station in a long time, and it’s not a stone thrown at CBS. It’s really just the way the medium is right now. A lot of people who are stockholders or executives haven’t been around the radio station day-to-day are making decisions about radio, and whether it’s Cox, Clear Channel or whoever, if those people can be brought into the process, then you won’t do the Paula Abdul mentality of “three steps forward, two steps back.” Because every time some big decision is made, then somebody down in the field says, “Hey, this thing will work for XYZ.” Then something changes and they have to resend it and redo it. But if we were involved in the process, not just in our company but in every company, then I think it would be better for all involved.
** QB Content by Bob Burke **
