Chris ”Hollywood” Mann arrived at WERO in July of 2002, and after five years of holding down just about every job in the building, he decided it was time to take the big chair in programming and for the past two years he’s been successfully guiding BOB 93.3 and taking it to new heights. Hollywood and BOB do an admirable job of serving three distinctive markets in Greenville, New Bern and Jacksonville, a metro area that is the second largest geographic Arbitron market in the country.
Chris “Hollywood” Mann
Chris “Hollywood” Mann caught the radio bug at a very early age. In fact he knew what he wanted to do when he was five years old! Hollywood relates, “When I was a kid I grew up listening to K92/Roanoke to people like Chris Taylor, David Lee Michaels, Eddie Haskell and Cat Thomas. I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do.” In due time, Hollywood found himself working at the station he idolized and in 1995 he landed his first Top 40 gig at K92/Roanoke. He stayed in his home southern region and in 1997 shifted to WAEZ/Johnson City where he was part of a new Top 40 launch, Electric 94.9. At WAEZ he did nights, mornings and afternoons, and eventually his APD/MD stripes turned into his first PD opportunity. Next stop was WERO where in July of 2002 he started as the APD/MD/mid-day guy. Five years and four PDs later, Hollywood seized the moment at a station and market he became very accustomed to and was awarded the PD gig.
eQB presents excerpts from the August FMQB magazine CHR Up Close with Chris “Hollywood” Mann, PD WERO/BOB 93.3, Greenville, NC
“We were having a lot of turnover at the PD position with people coming in from outside the area. All the programmers who came through were great in their own way with good ideas, but they had never been in a market like this before.”
“I knew the area, the people and the dichotomy of each town we served. I had been at the station long enough and felt I had developed the leadership skills that could lead a team to success. The bottom line is I wanted the PD job and felt ready for it. I was at the point where I felt I should have gone for it a couple of years prior.”
“I believe that when you go to a new situation you have to seek to understand and then be understood. In this area, there are things that are culturally important to the audience and you need to understand that when making decisions.”
“This area’s a bit slower than the rest of the country with certain types of music especially Urban and Rhythmic, but Rock music translates very quickly here. Everything else takes so long for people to become familiar with, so a record could be over nationally while it’s really just getting started here.”
“We utilize our web based platforms and initiatives which are vital to get the listeners engaged. No matter where they’re from, that 18-34 audience is going to be engaged in the Internet. I know the goal is to get them to listen longer, but if they’re not listening to BOB but are engaged in our web platforms with the creative tools we use and different experiences we offer, they have BOB on the mind.”
“My main rule is that you don’t sacrifice anything when it comes to the integrity of your music. One has to insure that in every rotation category, you’re absolutely playing the best songs and super-serving the listeners in the process. There’s simply no sacrifice there.”
“I know when I get pitched by the record reps it’s great when a record’s doing well at Z100 or KIIS, but those stations and markets have nothing in common with us. The regional stations I look at do. I try to make it very clear with the label reps how the station works.”
“Programmers, MD’s and record labels all have different timetables as to when a station should be playing a new song, and that’s fine. I understand that label reps are getting paid to get their records played and their job is to convince me to play them. However, we’re not on the same page a lot of the times and I believe it takes a give and take on both sides to appreciate our respective goals.”
“We are here to help break new artists. We understand the importance of the secondary markets these days, especially the ones that have the ability to make local decisions. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to play it so safe and only play the hits. If there are new artists that make sense for the station that I feel will work here, we’ll absolutely support that artist when we can.”
“We’re in very tough times and media companies are doing what they have to do to keep the lights on. However I don’t know that finance people running stations is really the best thing for the product. When you have owners who know nothing about a business controlling what happens in the business, especially when times are tough, it’s a recipe for disaster.”
“The most important thing for me is not what I accomplish. It’s having the experience, regardless of market size, of a sense of team and camaraderie with your staff. My goals are to work closely with great people so we can all accomplish really cool things, have a successful station and have fun doing it. My job is to experience success with my staff and I feel I’ve really come into my own in understanding what leadership is.”
** QB Content by Fred Deane **
