Mike "OD" O'Donnell
The year was 1981. That was the year that I decided what I wanted to do in life…RADIO! I was living in Massachusetts as a 12 year old kid. My parents gave me a small clock radio and the local DJs on the air fascinated me as I listened. Great radio stations like Kiss 108 in Boston and 92 Pro-FM in Providence. I knew without a doubt I wanted to play music and make people smile for a career. By 1986, I was in college and was made PD of my college radio station at Mt. Wachusett Community College in Gardner, MA. The student DJs all hated me because I made a playlist! That was my first taste of what it was like to be a brand manager as we call it today and I loved it! This is the first photo of me taken at Mt. Wachusett on the air. I loved those space age headphones and cue burned 45’s!
My first fulltime gig! In Cape Cod, MA at WRZE. I was part of the original startup team and we launched a new Top 40 station in 1993. Tough time for the format in the early 90s. We hung on and I was eventually upped to PD and PM Drive. There is something about your first real gig that always stays with you. We were locally owned by Makkay Group and everything we did was grassroots and local. It was an exciting time for CHR by the late 90’s and our ratings exploded. Fun fact, I programmed WRZE, WERZ, and WKRZ respectively over the years. I screwed those up a few times on air.
Shout out to a lifelong industry friend Rock Cooper. After WRZE became a R&R reporter, we suddenly got a lot of friends to help promote music. Rick was with McClusky & Associates in 1998. This was our station birthday show and Freedom Williams was one of our acts that night. (L-R) Rick Cooper, Kevin Matthews-MD, Freedom Williams of C&C Music Factory, Me, and Kevin Collins.
I’ve blessed to have spent my thirty-four years in radio at a handful of great radio stations! My current home is a 98.5 KRZ, Froggy 101, and Max 102 in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as OM for the last fourteen years. These are great Entercom brands with local iconic shows such as Rocky & Lissa in the Morning, Jeff Walker and Amanda, and The Doc Show with Jessie. Our success of WKRZ as #1 in every major demo as long as I can remember is humbling and an endorsement from our loyal listeners. Here’s a fun pic of some of our team members during a live broadcast with Jordan Knight and Danny Wood from NKOTB. (L-R) Jill Wydra-Promotions, Me, Jordan Knight, Kelly K-APD/MD, Amanda Greene-PM Drive, Danny Wood, and Jeff Walker-PM Drive.
To be in radio, you have to be a bit of a clown at times. It keeps us sane! It’s the same for the O’Donnell clan. They will never admit they got it from me. This is a typical holiday offering from us. In this case it was Easter, hence the egg in my mouth.
Look who it is, Deane Media Solutions’ Bob Burke. We spent some time in New Orleans back in 2019 for a George Ezra showcase. That’s Fishboy-WKRZ APD/MD on the left. I think we got lost in the French Quarter in the middle of the night. Thank goodness for Jammer at WEZB…we made it home alive!
Everybody has a favorite story from one of their label reps. I’m honoring the iconic Bobbi Silver from Interscope Records. Lady Gaga was playing the Monster Ball in Camden, NJ and WKRZ APD/MD Kelly K and I were invited to attend and meet Lady Gaga after the show. It’s a two hour drive for us. The show was awesome and ended late. There were about 100 people for the M&G which didn’t begin until an hour after the show. It’s now about 1a.m. They took the fan club people first. Next were the VIP guests, and Kelly and I were at the end of the line. That was until Bobbi stepped in despite pleads that we are OK waiting. “Hey, these people need to go next. They drove in from far away!” as she pulled us to the front of the line. It was so funny, but that was why we still love Bobbi!
Ed Sheeran hangs with my daughters and me at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
One of the things I love about music and radio is how we are able to be part what’s happening in Pop Culture. Songs come and go. But the memories are still fun! Hulk Hogan’s Daughter Brooke had a Top 40 single in 2006. Her Dad made the rounds to help promote it at the WERZ Radio Show. By the way, I’m 5’ 10” in this photo. Extra points if you know the song title.
Lionel Richie is a great guy and he loves people. My wife, Ivett and I got to meet him during a showcase in Boston. As we chatted, he noticed my wife was about eight months pregnant and began rubbing her stomach saying “I love pregnant women!” Now, my wife was slightly stunned by this. I still tell her today that was her brush with greatness!
Some fun at Kelly Clarkson’s home in Nashville.
Every radio person has a guilty pleasure artist. This will be the only time I will admit this. Barry Manilow. If you need me to blame somebody, it rests on my Mom who played “Can’t Smile Without You” twenty times a day when it came out in the 70’s when I was an impressionable kid.
98.5 KRZ’s Jeff Walker & Amanda were up for Best Show at the NAB Radio Show in Indianapolis in 2015. They work so hard for their fans and make my job easy. They didn’t get it, but there’s always next year!
Remember the Gavin conventions? I found an old badge while I was hunting for pics for this article. I thought this was a great blast from the past!
April of 2008 at the FMQB 40th Anniversary industry event. This was taken after the Think-Tank symposium. That's me, WLAN PD Jeff Hurley, Fred Deane (our gracious host), Kelly K-WKRZ APD/MD, and WSTW APD Mike Rossi.
I saved this photo for last. In 2018, I made my fist missions trip to Haiti. I help support an orphanage/ school that raises about 50 children. In 2018, I was part of a group who helped build a new kitchen and large eating area for these kids. I many cases, these children ended up in an orphanage because their parents died from sickness, the earthquake in 2011, or the parents were so poor, they felt their kids had a better shot at life in a different place. It was one week that changed my life. I challenge anybody reading this to do something like this at least once in your life. We are so blessed to have careers that we chose on our own and are able to live our lives well. Most of the World can’t do that. I guarantee you will never wake up with a bad attitude about your life again. This is a photo of one of the boys at the orphanage who has been given hope by people who care.
