If you’ve listened to New York City radio over the past dozen years, chances are you’ve heard Paul “Cubby” Bryant on the air. As a Z100 afternoon drive fixture for ten years, Cubby established a brand in radio’s #1 market that paid consistent dividends for the powerhouse CHR. In the summer of 2007, Cubby traded in afternoons and CHR for mornings with Whoopi Goldberg on WKTU.
A year and a half later Cubby took charge of his own morning show on KTU and is currently having the time of his life.
From his KRBE/Houston days to his Z100/New York days, Paul “Cubby” Bryant was connected at the hip to programming veteran Tom Poleman. A prominent tandem that played to much success over two decades, eventually they went their separate ways. Over a year and a half ago, after ten years as Z100’s afternoon drive guy/MD, Cubby was tapped to co-host the Wake Up with Whoopi morning show, anchored at Z100 sister outlet WKTU in New York. Recently Cubby assumed the controls of mornings at KTU and is now hosting the first morning show of his career.
When we last visited in print back in July 2006, you were just starting your morning career co-hosting theWake Up with Whoopi show. How quickly did you assimilate to the new lifestyle?
You never really do get adjusted. Initially I was asking (Z100 morning host) Elvis Duran for advice. He put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Cubby, you really never get used to the hours, but it will get better!” And it did get better. I am somewhat adjusted, but you never really completely get use to it. I was used to going out to dinner, staying up and watching Letterman and Leno and then going to bed. All of a sudden everything in my life was moved up four hours. It was quite a lifestyle change.
When you joined Whoopi, it was a major career move for you. What did you learn from that year and a half experience with Whoopi Goldberg?
It was an honor and thrill to work with a celebrity of her status. I woke up one morning and suddenly found myself live on the air with an Oscar/Tony/Grammy/Emmy award winner. It was an opportunity that many people don’t get to experience. I learned a lot from her in many different aspects. I also learned a lot working with Jim Ryan, who I had never worked as closely with before.
Most importantly, I learned the nuts and bolts of morning radio. The show had its ups and downs and in the end wasn’t the success we had all hoped it would be, but I did learn. It taught me what to do and a few things not to do. It felt like I got the foul balls out of the way for morning radio by seeing the hits and misses. Even though it was a national show with a prominent celebrity it felt like spring training for me in a new day part.
What were your initial observations with respect to connecting with a morning drive audience?
What I gained over that time was learning the subtle nuances of operating a morning show and being able to detect what moves the meter with the audience. We had good shows and we had shows that weren’t so good, but there were times when I saw a topic blow up on the phones. In my head I would keep track of what would spark a good on-air conversation and what wouldn’t. You learn how to motivate an audience effectively in that day-part. It’s all about timing and getting to the point. There were aspects of morning radio I had never experienced before. I filled in for Elvis before at Z100, but it’s nothing like being there every day for a year and a half.
Matt Bosso, Cindy, Cubby
Did you ever think that one day you’d be hosting your own morning show in the Big Apple?
Absolutely not! When you look at the current and past morning personalities in New York, I never saw myself in that league and still don’t. Every day I feel very lucky to be in the company I’m in, because I still feel like that 18 year-old kid running the board at WGH in Norfolk. I look at it as a gift. I may not be here forever but while I have control of that antenna for four hours, I might as well make the most of it.
What is the composition of your morning team and how much creative input do the other members have?
My co-host is Cindy Vero and our producer is Matt Bosso. Cindy is a New York radio veteran, who’s always been a traffic person and never had the chance to be in the forefront like she is now. I always thought she was a hidden secret and she’s just exploded. She’s the perfect co-host. We have great chemistry.
Matt is someone I was lucky enough to bring over from the Whoopi show. At 27 years-old, he knows more about radio than I do. He’s always teaching me things. He’s a great asset and one day he’s really going to be a star. He’s a great producer and although he says he wants to remain behind the scenes, he’s also a great jock. He also comes up with ideas, topics and bits. He’s a very valuable asset to the show.
How is the content presented on a daily basis? Do you have fixed or rotating features?
The clock pretty much stays the same every day. We play nine songs an hour and only stop to do a topic. We do have fixed features at certain times. When the current show is over, Matt starts gathering info for the next show. Cindy and I will get an email from Matt on various topics to hit and we’ll begin the planning process. I pick the topics we’re going to do or Cindy may pick one. The one rule is that we do topics we’re passionate about that will play well on the radio.
At 6:30 a.m. we do a brain-buster. It’s a question that will elicit a variety of responses. We get a bunch of wrong answers for 15-20 minutes and then someone gets the right answer. It’s a benchmark feature with an emphasis on TSL. Listeners expect it and there’s a prize involved. We do a topic at 7:30 and 8:08 and then we go commercial free at 8:30 for one hour. It’s when I get to be the afternoon jock again and just play songs. The show’s all about quality not quantity. We’re not loading it up with filler. We’re only talking about the top three topics at the water cooler each day. Every topic is like a power. We don’t do re-currents, sub-powers or mediums.
Content-wise, what aspects from your many successful years doing afternoons at Z100 apply to mornings at KTU?
I try to keep the show very topical and very lifestyle oriented much like my Z100 show, but more at an adult level. I’m not as silly as I was at Z, but we still have fun. When it gets down to me stopping the music and talking about a topic, it’s absolutely Pop culture. We target an older audience than Z, but it doesn’t mean they don’t care about American Idol and Pop culture. We’re definitely all about that. I learned at Z how to be entertaining within fifteen seconds and how to keep the music flowing. At KTU, when you play nine songs an hour, it’s the same vibe.
One of the important things I learned from listening to the Elvis show so often at Z was setting a comfortable tone for the show. You want to invite listening. If I’m a listener I want to feel like a friend is talking to me on the radio not at me. It’s something I’ve really worked on.
Your adept interview skills as a host precede you. Are you doing many celebrity interviews?
Most interviews we do, including the bigger Pop stars, we typically record for our website and drive people there. One of the things we found from People Meter research is that listeners will tune out when they hear an interview. Since PPM started we noticed that anytime we interviewed someone on the air we saw the numbers tank every time.
But with KTU being more of a gold-based Rhythmic station, we don’t have a ton of opportunities for current artists anyway. We do interviews with Hollywood stars about new film and TV projects, but our goal is to drive people to the website. The web is really important to the company and if there’s a really compelling interview we’ll run a clip on our morning show and promote the full interview on our site.
What else are you doing differently now that you’re communicating in a PPM market?
The biggest thing I had to change was the small talk I’d engage in with my co-host before getting into a topic. You really can’t do that anymore. You have to get right to the meat immediately after the song ends or else people are going to tune out. I try to really dive into the topic almost right out of the song: time, temp, topic. Everyone has ADD now and it’s easy to be distracted. You have to suck them in the moment you can.
Do you have any other strategic advice for personalities to further their insights into the PPM world?
Although we’re finding that people listen in shorter spurts, you don’t want to throw TSL out the window. You still want to do TSL oriented features. That said, you have to be more time efficient and get to your point as quickly as you can. Take advantage of every second you have because it truly does matter. We’re a little bit different of a morning show than most because our music load is about as maximum as you get with nine songs an hour. We’re already tight on time and we have to make the most of every second in between the music. But if you’re not already there it’s not be a bad habit to acquire. Listener patterns don’t differ too much market to market. Give the listeners what they want when they want it and don’t waste time around it.
How did you feel initially when you discovered you were going be playing nine songs an hour?
I wasn’t a huge believer of nine songs an hour at first, but I’ve been proven wrong. I didn’t want to play as few as two songs an hour, but I didn’t think it would be as many as nine. But I really was blown away by how it can be executed if you just plan ahead, make every second count and knock it out of the park with content. The Z Morning Zoo is a whole different ball game. That brand is so strong they can get away with playing four songs an hour. Heck, some of the bits they do probably test better than the songs.
Did the brand you established at Z100 help you at KTU?
I was at Z100 for ten years and Tom Poleman told me the minute I took the morning job that there were going to be KTU listeners who grew up listening to me at Z100. They’re 33 years-old now and they remember listening to me in afternoons at Z. I didn’t realize how much he was going to right. I really do get a great reaction from former Z listeners whether it’s phone calls, text messages, on Facebook or on MySpace. Ten years at Z was definitely a good amount of time to develop a core following.
What are the most effective methods you find to help spread the word and increase the brand of the morning show?
Times are tough right now and there aren’t many companies who are doing the big billboard and TV campaigns, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other effective ways to get the word out. The company incorporates me in direct mail pieces whenever we have a station promotion. Cindy, Matt and I are doing a lot of things on our own on the Internet by utilizing social network platforms like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Anyone who gets pissed at me for updating my status every thirty minutes…lay off because it’s one of the few things I have to use. I have 3,000 friends on Facebook and if one of them has a People Meter and I can remind them that I’m on the air then it works.
Cindy Vero, Cubby, Rihanna, Rob Miller
Anything surprise you along the lines of new media platforms in terms effectiveness with the audience?
It’s amazing how many people text message. A topic may not blow up on the phones, and I’m thinking we’re sucking, and then Matt will say. “Look at all the texts we’re getting!” And the response is impressive. Facebook actually helps me with topics. I know the night before what we’re going to talk about based on feedback and info I get on my Facebook page. There are so many ways to reach the people and you have to take advantage of all of these platforms. Technology has enabled us to personalize our relationship with our audience.
Have you felt a resurgence at KTU in the months that you’ve been there?
KTU sounds really good. We’re definitely back! The station is happening right now. We’re ranked sixth overall in cume in People Meter. (PD) Rob Miller and (MD) Bartel have it tight and it sounds great.
Rob is so right about these Rhythmic/AC stations. In order for these gold based formats to work you need to play a handful of currents to keep it fresh. The problem with the Jammin’ format was there was no new music to freshen it up. If you play Lady GaGanext to Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love,” it sounds good. It’s all about hitting the right songs at the right time and waiting on the hits. Four out of the nine songs per hour on my show are currents.
Given the current financial state of radio, Clear Channel is on record with its stance regarding talent and programming distribution among its properties. Do you envision developing a network of stations for your show on like-targeted CC formats?
It hasn’t happened yet, but if the opportunity was there, I think our show would easily fit in other markets because a lot of the topics we do are very evergreen. They can easily run at the same time in other markets. We get local when the time is right, but most of the time the topics are right down the middle, mainstream topics. I can definitely see the phones lighting up in other markets.
How many stations are you voicetracking?
I’m voicetracking WMIA/Miami 6a.m. to noon. It’s a very music intensive show with a few lifestyle breaks. I’m basically doing my Z100 afternoon show for that station. It’s a lot of fun. It’s about an hour’s worth of work. Everyday I get off the air here and put my mind to it and do the next day’s show for Miami. It’s all about branding the radio station because it’s a new station. The format is Rhythmic AC. like KTU but a little bit older.
With respect to air talent and the trend toward talent importation and voicetracking, it feels like we’re at the end of an era of fundamentals and at the dawn of a new paradigm for the medium. How do personalities continue to maintain relevance in radio going forward?
We’ve been heading in that direction more and more this decade and I think we’re already inside the new model. It’s a bitter/sweet proposition for me because whether it was through the syndicated show with Whoopi or the voicetracking I’m currently doing, it’s given me opportunities that I might not have gotten under other circumstances. The opportunities I‘ve had presented to me have been a real plus for my career. However on the flip side, I can’t help but wonder what’s happening to the next generation of jocks who may not be getting the opportunities early in their careers that many of us got years ago when we were first started out. I do feel bad for the young jock at 16 years-old, like I was at one time, who’s trying to break into the radio business. It’s very hard to get that foot in the door right now but unfortunately that’s just the way it is. It’s a money thing.
One upside is there are options that exist now that didn’t exist when I was coming up. Back in the eighties if you were in love with radio and you couldn’t get in, well that was it, case-closed. There were no other opportunities. Today there’s online/Internet radio, satellite radio and other radio oriented opportunities where you could get your foot in the door in this tough time that we’re in right now.
What excites you the most about the future of radio in the lives of consumers?
Streaming in cars, which could be a year or two away, is going to be pivotal where you can be driving in your car anywhere in the country and listen to your hometown radio station. It’s almost like that already with iheart radio and iPhone. I know it’s been a few years now but I hope HD radio takes off. This provides great options for listeners. There is some exciting stuff going on with HD radio and it’s all for the benefit of the listener. I don’t think the consumer realizes what is being done with HD radio. I’m surprised it’s taken so long, but I really think HD radio is a glimmer of hope. It’s not taking off as quickly as I thought it would but I’m a big fan. It can also provide opportunities for jocks.
**QB Content By Fred Deane**
