From her early years, Jeannine knew she had the radio bug. She had always been “that girl” that called into the station to request songs or talk to the DJ’s. While in college at Penn State, she landed a gig on the radio station and eventually became PD. From there it was on to her first “real” radio job at WIKN/Port Matilda. A few more stops along the road including a programming post at WRSX/Ocean City paved the way to KVUU/Colorado Springs, before her return to the east coast at WTIC-FM where she has earned her way into the programming chair.
Is your first major market programming job everything you expected it to be?
No, it’s actually more than I thought it was going to be, especially with the advent of Web site programming, streaming, HD and HD2, and all those extra things. When I first started in radio those things didn’t even exist. So it’s more than I thought it was going to be, but it’s tons of fun. Seriously, when I first started, all I ever thought I’d get to do would be program one radio station and then I would be happy. Now I get to program several radio stations, all from the same desk. There’s online content and then there’s HD1 and HD2 content, and we have additional channels we stream on our Web site so it’s all good. I’m never bored. And yeah, I have a lot of help.
How well did working alongside your former PD, Steve Salhany, prepare you for this?
He’s our Operations Manager and he’s also VP of Hot AC for CBS. He is the best at what he does of anybody I’ve ever met. I’d work for him everyday, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my boss. I’ve learned a ton. Sometimes he pisses me off and sometimes that’s how I learn, and sometimes he inspires me to look at things a different way and that’s how I learn. He’s definitely a large part of the reasons that I got to where I’m at. One of the lessons he taught me was “We play the hits, we don’t break the hits.” Now, part of the reason I got into radio was because I love music, and I thought wouldn’t it be great if I could expose people to the new cool music I like. But, as we all know, we don’t get to make every artist that we love into the next big superstar. That was a hard lesson I had to learn.
What are some of the challenges you face today as a programmer?
More than anything it’s budgets. It doesn’t ever seem like there’s enough money to do everything we want to do. There are promotions and marketing that we’d like to do, or upgrades to the technology we use to do production, or additional staff members that we’d like to hire, or whatever. We can’t do that stuff because we don’t have the funds to do everything, so we have to pick and chose what’s most important.
You are also co-hosting afternoons with Damon Scott. What are some of your tips on time management and managing your airstaff?
(laugh) Well, I am addicted to my Treo. I put everything in there, as far as reminding me to do stuff or block out time to do different things, because if I don’t have it in there, it doesn’t happen. I have to have something in writing someplace for me to remember to do everything. Basically, I just do the next job that’s in front of me and, honestly, I’m not that great at managing my time which is why I work as many hours as I do. I multi-task a lot. I wish I could say that when I’m in the studio I’m only worried about doing the stuff that’s on the air. But there’s always a sales person who needs an answer or a record person who wants to work out details on a promotion, or something that needs my attention. I’m getting e-mails and fielding IM’s while I’m on the air as well. The joy of having the co-host (Damon Scott) that I do, is that he’s brilliant. If he needed to, he could handle the show by himself and sometimes I have to let him.
What key elements come into play when you are considering new music?
First and foremost, it must sound like ’TIC. By that I mean, if it sounds like a song that somebody my age would like to listen to. Would my friends and I want to hear this song on the radio as we’re driving to work, as we’re driving to go out for the night, as we’re driving our nieces and nephews around? Is this something that would be a good addition to the soundtrack of my life? Then it has to fit in the balance of everything else we do. Can we play another Rock record if we have seventeen Nickelback tracks on? Or, can we play another Pop record if I’m playing a bunch of other Pop already? Or, is it okay to play Taylor Swift because I’m already playing Carrie Underwood, and does that tip us too much into Country? It’s a matter of finding balance.
Is name value of artists still a factor?
I think it’s a lot less important than it used to be. There are songs that we definitely look at that we wouldn’t have because of the names that are attached to them. There’s been some pretty big marquee artists for the format that have had pretty lame hits lately, or lack thereof. Unfortunately, I think it gets them a look when maybe, if the song was written by somebody else, it wouldn’t. I think a song still has to prove itself. It still has to research, it still has to get requests, it still has to resonate with our listeners, and being a superstar doesn’t necessarily get that for you.
How much do you value research when making music decisions?
Pretty high. Unfortunately, I don’t get to talk to all of my listeners everyday, to ask them their feedback. I’m very blessed that a lot of them will e-mail me directly because it’s gotten out that I’m the person in charge of making the music decisions. Because I’m not able to talk to them as often as I’d like and get their feedback, callout is the way I get that. We do two different kinds of callout: traditional on the phone regular callout and also online music research. Between the two, we get a good balance of what people think. The people that are online seem to be our more active consumers, and the people on the phone seem to be our more laid back, passive users. Between the two of them we find a good balance of the music we should be playing.
Talk about your big Spring book promotion?
We’re giving away money! We’ve done this a couple of times now. We do it with our morning show, Craig and Company and it’s called the Craig and Company Credit Card. We have people submit their bills through our Web site, which is awesome because then they have to go to our Web site and they also have to join our database in order to get their bills considered. Then, three times a day, with appointment listening, we’re paying stuff off for them. At the end of the ten weeks that we’re doing it, somebody gets $10,000 to pay off their bills for the rest of the year. It does not suck to give away money!
Who would you consider to be your mentors?
Obviously, Steve Salhany. Guy Zapoleon, Greg Strassell, Jeff Cushman, Kevin Callahan,Charese Fruge. I’m very lucky in the fact that my company is full of brilliant programmers.
What concerns you most about the format?
That’s a tricky question. I love our format. I think it’s a really viable one. We share music with Top 40, Country and Rock, so we don’t have a lot of music that is just ours. So, it’s our job as programmers to find ways to brand the music as ours…even if we do have to share it with other stations in the market. It’s a concern, but one that can easily be alleviated with good programming and branding.
Your Acoustic Café performances are always special. Who do you have coming up?
They’re very fun and one of my favorite things that we do. We’re working on having Colbie Caillatat the end of this month. And then honestly, I’m not sure. A lot of it is decided within a couple weeks of when they happen because it’s usually “somebody’s coming to town and doing a show,” so we usually try to coordinate with them already being in town.
What advice would you offer to other aspiring programmers?
Get out now! No, I’m kidding. I think I would say “be open-minded.” Being a radio programmer is probably not at all what you thought it was going to be. I got into radio because I didn’t want a desk job and because I didn’t want things to be the same everyday. I spend ninety-nine percent of my time at this point behind a computer. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just different than I thought it was going to be, especially with the way technology is evolving and companies are sliming down. Everybody is being asked to do more different tasks everyday, in the same amount of time that we did the tasks ten years ago. You have to be open-minded that things are not always going to stay exactly the same, and new technology and new ideas are going to be presenting themselves everyday.
** QB Content by Mark LaSpina **
