Wes McCain
In 2001, Rich Davis hired a young kid fresh out of high school to do weekends at WRVW/Nashville. Wes McCain broke into the business with a real pro and then proceeded to embark on quite a career of his own. He took a position in Lexington, KY, at a Cumulus Country station before getting back on the CHR track. While in Lexington Wes returned to Clear Channel as PD of WLKT. After a year and a half he signed on with WDKF/Dayton, and in November of 2006 relocated to Columbia, South Carolina to oversee programming at Clear Channel combo WNOK/WXBT.
It was at WNOK that nationally syndicated host Dawson McAlister came calling on Wes. In January 2008, The Dawson McAllister Association, on the heels of the success of their Sunday night talk show (DMLive),enlisted Wes to create and produce a new five hour weeknight show for teens and young adults to include both talk and Top 40 music. Wes’ eyes grew big and he seized the opportunity.
How did this unique opportunity come about?
Dawson and I met when I put his show on in Dayton. I always believed in the show because teens and young adults have a limited number of places to turn to for help. If they’re unfortunate enough not to be born into a good family and have role models, they have no where to go and talk.
Also, as a programmer I’m always looking for good, solid content, and I believe Dawson’s show is compelling and very unique. As a PD I put the show on in both WDKF/Dayton andWNOK/Columbia, which is where I was working when Dawson phoned me out of the blue one day. He decided he wanted to air five nights a week and create a Top 40 oriented show with music and he said to me, ‘You’re my guy! I’m not talking to anyone else. You’re the guy I want to help build the show from scratch.’ My contract was up at NOK and I felt this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
Dawson McAllister
What is the content design of the show?
It’s real life on the radio. We position it as your life/your music. Listeners call in and talk about hard-hitting teen issues like relationships, drugs and alcohol. We have an entire national network of help organizations that we connect with for support and help for teens in need. If a listener calls from Nashville, and he’s in an abusive home with no where to go to, he can turn on WRVW every weeknight and hear Dawson McAllister on the air, call in and get immediate help. This is more than just a call in show, this is a show that literally can change people’s lives. With every call that comes in, we have hundreds of volunteers and staff members ready to do whatever we can do to help them, even if that means contacting authorities and getting them involved. From an on-air perspective, the show sounds like today’s CHR radio. We take five calls per hour and mix it in with at least eight songs. I hired Steve Sykes and Dave Kampel when I got here to give the show a cutting edge sound. I also have Jeremy Snell from Clear Channel Nashville producing some of the imaging as well. The show has a fast, forward momentum to it. And, most of it, this isn’t content that can be duplicated, or that came off of some prep service. This is literally real life developing on the radio where the listeners are the focus.
What is the prime demo target for the show and at what age bracket do you field most calls?
18-24 females is our target demo. We’ll specifically gear the calls to 16-25 year-olds, the cell that makes it on the air most of the time. We do talk to some 13-15 year-olds, but it’s more the exception.
Is there any artist involvement with the show?
We’re trying to reach out to record labels for artist involvement. It’s a great way for artists to connect with a young audience on real terms about real life issues. Recently we interviewedNatasha Bedingfield, Gavin Degraw and John Vesely (of Secondhand Serenade) about some important issues. I’m really trying to bring the artist power into the show to illustrate to these teenagers that they’re not alone and even their favorite stars deal with these issues. Natasha talked about a lot of things she’s been through and John talked about how “Fall For You” is about relationship issues. We spoke with Adam Gontier, the lead singer of Three Days Grace, and he talked about being in rehab and how some of his songs where born out of that experience.
What is your pitch to the label and artist communities?
It’s another opportunity for artists to gain exposure. But more importantly it’s connecting with the listeners in a very real way. It shows the listeners that they’re real people too. I like for the interviews to be more than just a typical morning show interview though. We aren’t concerned about “who they’re dating.” We like for artists to talk about their own real life issues. Some of the labels are nervous because many of the artists don’t want to open up. They’re afraid Dawson is going to quiz them about things they don’t want to talk about. Well, that’s not our goal. As I’ve stated, our goal is to allow the artists the opportunity to connect with listeners in real terms. These teens are looking for role models. They already look up to so many of these artists. If we can get them to provide positive encouragement to listeners, then it’s a win-win for everyone. It’s one on one real life stuff. It puts the artists on the same level as the listeners and it really does help these teens.
How is the show being packaged and offered?
We offer a stripped version where stations play their own music, and we also provide a satellite version where we supply the show in its entirety. Some of the larger markets likeWIHT/Washington, DC are doing the stripped version.WRVW/Nashville and KZHT/Salt Lake City are taking the fully produced version. It typically airs midnight to 5 a.m., but some stations start it at 10 or 11 p.m., and some run it 7 to midnight.
What kind of response are you getting from the programmers?
Huge ratings! Q102/Philly is airing two hours of our show on Sunday nights and jumped to #2 18-34 persons. Rick Vaughn was obviously excited about it. If some stations are worried about putting on a straight talk show, because that’s been a concern with DM Live, here’s an opportunity to get the best of DM Live. The calls can go on 6-8 minutes, however I mandated from the start that no call lasts longer than two and a half minutes; in and out, straight into the music. One thing about the late night show (the programmers have said) is it keeps you on the edge on your seat. It’s the same thing that reality TV does. It’s reality radio and it’s content that can’t be duplicated because it’s real listeners lives.
Are the stations fulfilling public service needs as well with this program?
It absolutely fulfills their FCC requirements. It’s a chance, from a PR community perspective, to say ‘we’re doing good in the hood’ (as Dawson likes to say). It’s a chance to make a powerful statement in your community and say we care about you. It’s really cool when we have success stories.
For example, Todd Shannon airs Dawson on WFKS/Jacksonville and the show literally saved a person’s life. A young guy was listening to KISS and was driving down to the river in Jacksonville with a gun in his car ready to commit suicide. He had decided once the song currently playing ended, he was going to pull the trigger. When the song ended, our show began. He heardDawson saying ‘Hey, I’m here. You need to talk? You have something going on? Call me.’ The guy had never heard the show before. He called into the Hopeline and talked to Dawson and is living today because of it. He actually called in and said that. It proves the show works. In that case, we are saving peoples’ lives.
What are the biggest challenges your position presents?
Creating something from scratch is always challenging. This position is especially challenging because there are no rules. I literally have been given an empty book, and Dawson is counting on me to write a #1 best-seller. When Dawson hired me, he literally told me his management style will be to leave me alone. He constantly encourages me and believes in me, but leaves the development of the product and programming exclusively to me. When I entered my previous markets and took over the stations, I would always look to see where the stations have been, what worked and what didn’t, then formulated my plan. With this opportunity, what is both most challenging and exciting, is that we are chartering territory that’s never been explored before. There are other syndicated shows out there, but none doing exactly what we’re trying to accomplish. One thing specifically that is challenging is coming up with creative ways to lighten the mood of the show. So many of the calls can be downers, so I want to make sure we balance it out with lighter content.
What do you miss most about CHR programming?
It’s having a station 24/7 and all the programming that accompanies that. Because DM Late Nights is a pre-produced show, I miss having the opportunity to be able to react to something that’s just happened in Pop culture and interact with live callers. I also miss the opportunity to do crazy and funny promotions, especially the ones after a celeb does something really stupid. Don’t get me wrong, I’m having fun here, it’s just a completely different, much more serious environment. You don’t have all of the crazy personalities of a radio station roaming the halls every day. I never thought I’d miss that!
But this is still a very unique and special opportunity for me. It’s an awesome feeling at the end of the day to know this show is changing the lives of listeners, literally. I am looking forward to where I’m headed with the development of this show and watching it grow. Eleven affiliates on board, including major markets, after only five months on the air is very exciting and tells me we are definitely on to something here!
** QB Content by Fred Deane **
