John Reynolds, VP of Music & Entertainment for Beasley,
OM of Charlotte cluster, PD of WNKS & WSOC
July 26, 2021
by Fred Deane
John Reynolds
“Radio is my life” certainly applies to veteran programmer John Reynolds. He launched his interest (and career) while in his teens in the eighties, and in 1990 he hit the big time at Z100/NYC as a promotions assistant while doing weekend shifts.
He had a productive APD/on-air talent stretch which included stops at Z104/Madison, WKTI/Milwaukee, and KHKS/Dallas.
His career hit a high note in 2000 when he expertly landed in Charlotte as PD of WNKS, a place he’s been for the past 21 years.
What has been your progression of roles since your arrival in Charlotte in 2000?
CBS Radio brought me in as PD of WNKS, then I eventually assumed the programming helm of our HAC station. I was upped to Operations Manager in 2003, which allowed for great exposure to multiple formats.
In 2014, CBS Radio traded the Charlotte and Tampa markets to Beasley Media Group in exchange for Beasley stations in Miami and Philadelphia, and that’s when my romance with the Beasley Media Group began.
In December of 2020 I was promoted to VP of Music & Entertainment, the position I hold today, while retaining my programming cluster oversight of the Charlotte market.
Upon your most recent promotion, you assumed a very unique job title. Can you elaborate on the programming task force that was simultaneously created at the time?
Our Chief Content Officer Justin Chase designed a unique and very effective corporate structure within our programming ranks which addressed five key areas of our operations.
As VP of Music & Entertainment, I serve as the corporate liaison between Beasley and the record labels with the goal of developing and executing multi-market artist events and initiatives across all formats.
Other concurrent appointments made at the time were Bill Weston as VP of Talent Development, Cadillac Jack as VP of Strategy & Analytics, Scot Jameson as VP of national Content, and Tee Gentry as VP of Brand Strategy.
How do the different areas overlap and what synergy exists among the five programming VP’s?
In essence, the structure was formed to provide major support to our local programmers and local markets in these five key areas. There is ongoing synergy that exists among us leading to several collaborative opportunities regarding ideas and strategies that affect all departments.
We have our exclusive department domains, but we all work synergistically as a team. The collection of talent at this level is a very stimulating and rewarding experience for us as a group and as a company.
Given the existing programming roles of each of the members, where does this leave your programming responsibilities in the balance?
Each of us also continues to operate in our respective markets as programming managers of our station clusters. We’ve retained our programmer day-to-day responsibilities.
In my case in Charlotte, I continue as the Operations Manager of the cluster of all our formats while directly programming WNKS/Kiss95.1 and WSOC/Country 103.7.
Essentially Justin Chase has provided the company with an innovative level of programming serving as an executive national support team for local markets.
Our primary goal in each of these departments is to provide continuity of support to all of our formats on an as-needed basis. Our national initiatives span all formats and are all-inclusive relative to each of our departments. Our approach is to address the specific needs (at any given time) of all formats with mutual efforts. So, the specific type or brand of the initiative will direct us to the appropriate format.
It’s another aspect of this position that enhances my enthusiasm. The opportunity to work with all format genres and all of our great programmers.
It’s really refreshing and exciting and you get a lot more depth out of each of these departments because we’re each focusing on different areas that we have experience in versus having to spread yourself so thin covering so many different areas in programming and content.
Can you address how this reinforces one of the crucial programming tenets of Beasley which is localization?
It absolutely does. One of the biggest beliefs the company has is localization and local programming autonomy, and the idea of the model Justin created definitely enables those concepts.
It will always be about local programming at this company. Listeners look to our stations for more than the core music content. We have lifestyle references and apps in each market about the hottest things to do during specific weekends, the best new restaurants, general entertainment and sports activities, etc.
Anything about your city gets a huge number of hits, so localism is essential and still connects with the audience in very meaningful ways.
You report directly to Justin, can you address the working synergy between the two of you, as well as the support he provides his executive programming staff?
Justin and I both worked at CBS Radio a while back. We didn’t work directly together, but we would engage each other at corporate meetings and other company events. It wasn’t until our Charlotte cluster transferred from CBS Radio to Beasley back in 2014 that I got the opportunity to work directly with him.
I’ve learned so many positive qualities about him since. He’s such a great programmer and creative person to work with and it makes it so much fun to collaborate with him.
He’s such a radio guy, and totally gets it. He fully understands what we do as programmers and lends tremendous support at all levels and in all areas. He’s truly hyper-focused on all the things that enhance our profession and make this field we work in so stimulating and exciting with his valuable input and contributions to our efforts.
How important is his leadership during these challenging times for radio, given the burst of disrupters that now exist versus the medium?
He’s an effective leader in every sense of the word. Excellent leaders provide great vision for a company and he does exhibit great vision as he helps pioneer the company through this new era of radio.
The idea energy that allows us to grow as a company and as individuals never stops. Nothing gets left behind. As all of the current digital tools have become available, he’s been in the forefront of putting them in play with Beasley and, with new ones constantly surfacing, we’re assured to be a continuous part of the digital evolution and growth. It allows us to expand and think ahead and move forward with confidence.
Strong leaders encourage brainstorming and each of us loves our sessions with Justin. Everything’s out there and from every idea there’s a piece we can take and apply to our business model. As a group, we genuinely love what we do and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else at any other company.
What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges the medium faces in the expanding digital world your listeners live in?
One of the major challenges is growing our product in innovative ways in the fast-changing digital world. We know that’s where our audience lives. They’re consuming it every day and new things are presented in front of them constantly, new products and new options.
This is where our medium has the strength because we’ve always been in the content and entertainment business. We need to take advantage of our branding in these areas and continue to explore new platforms and methods of remaining a priority in our listeners’ lives. We have to be in those places where they’re consuming their entertainment. It’s imperative that we remain in the mix on the dashboard along with the other menu of options.
Every new car is equipped with an entertainment center including all of the digital options and we need to remain a significant part of that.
In essence, are you stating that radio has the content and the struggle might be with distribution and the priority of choices?
There was a time when radio had a corner on the audio entertainment market. That time has long passed. Our content is still strong and we have to ensure that our channels of distribution are equally as strong.
We have always been the most used product in this broad media landscape. Our reach and scope have been an integral feature of our success. Radio is still relevant and it’s up to us to continue to maintain and grow our relevance.
What might you suggest?
The best way has, and always will be, through the utilization of local personalities who communicate well to the local markets. Listeners will always relate to air talent talking about everything that’s relevant to a market including special events, community initiatives, charitable drives, etc. It’s all about the hometown. We bring them local experiences that only radio provides through local connections and engagements that affect their lives. But you have to be there to take full advantage…it’s our biggest advantage!
We also need to remain an intuitive option for listeners. We have to do a much better job of this and I think we’re working toward that end. We need to be right there in front of them and part of their lives.
We still have the biggest platform for critical mass which is our clusters of stations. This is not a threat to us, it’s a challenge and a big opportunity for us to take advantage of in every way we can.
Shifting to music, how sensitive to social media trends regarding music do programmers need to be these days?
We need to pay attention to all of them and use other tools to measure them as well. Is it blowing up on just one platform like TikTok? Is it starting to spread across other platforms? Are there patterns we can clearly detect?
These are constantly changing variables and not unlike mood swings. You have to be smart about your approach and not jump on everything that’s trending on one platform until you’re sure.
TikTok is the hottest thing right now for music discovery, so we definitely have to pay keen attention to the Pop culture trends and music trends coming from that direction.
We need to be perceptive about how we make our choices and which ones to value on a case-to-case basis. Every TikTok record is not going to be a radio hit. Here’s when verification and validation come in via other platforms to help determine what music trend is right for your station and format.
Is the industry overwhelming itself with an overreliance on research analytics at the expense of pure gut, instincts and logical local risk-taking?
We should never undervalue our gut and experience levels in making decisions. It will always be productive to have all the research available in the decision-making process. It’s the ideal blend of research and experience that will help guide us to the right decisions more often than not.
You certainly don’t want to overly rely on research to the extent of preventing you from making an experience-informed call. The data is there and it’s useful, but again, it’s the validate and verify method that balances decision-making.
Successful programming in any era has led us to absorbing every piece of data we can and then making informed decisions based on our product and knowledge of our audience.
The methodology hasn’t changed, but the amount of data has, giving us more insight, and that’s not a bad thing.
How would you characterize the Beasley family in terms of vision path for the company and the overall culture they provide their employees?
Speaking personally, working with the Beasley family has been a wonderful experience. They have dedicated their whole lives to this profession (which I could relate to because so have I) and they have a ton of wisdom about how they approach their business models.
Their vision, the way they run their business, the entire operation, it’s just amazing, and they’ve created this very rewarding company culture to be a part of.
It’s truly a content entertainment company in every sense, and they stay focused on that concept. They know where they’re at and where they’re heading.
They are all accessible. We talk anytime we need to talk, and that’s so important knowing they are right in this with us and stand by us so firmly. We’re here, if you need anything, anytime reach out to us. It’s been a great experience for me in limitless ways.
