Across a variety of formats, timeslots, and cities, New York City’s WCBS-FM host Jesse Addy has a pretty simple goal while on the air – leave listeners in a better mood than you found them. And while his professional career arguably started with college radio as a student, Addy’s connection to broadcasting runs much deeper than that.
“I actually was born in Dallas, Texas because of radio,” Addy explains. “My dad worked at a rock station, KZEW, which is no longer around.”
“So I was always around radio stations, radio people, radio events. I would go with my dad to the radio station softball games. They were in a league with all of the other DJs and stuff,” he recalls of his early broadcasting connections. “But I never really, at that point, thought I was going to do radio. It was just something that my dad did.”
His father’s radio career aside, a familial history of coaches, teachers, and healthcare workers left Addy unclear at first where his professional life would take him. “Obviously, when you’re a freshman in high school, and the seniors all know your dad as a DJ, that was cool,” he says. “But at the same time, my grandfather had been the former athletic director at the high school. The football stadium’s named after him.”
Addy attended Michigan State University, thinking a degree in geography would lead him down the path of teaching high schoolers and coaching the football team. But his involvement with the school’s radio station steered him closer to his journey in broadcasting.
“I would say about halfway through college…I started to realize I was the first one into the station and the last one to leave. It’s what I thought about in my free time, not so much teaching or lesson plans or being a coach,” he says. “I just had to be honest with myself – I had kind of fallen in love with this thing called radio.”
Upon graduating college, Addy thought, “Why don’t I give this radio thing a try for a year or two? And here I am in 2024 still giving it a try.” He’s now worked with music genres spanning Alternative, Top 40, Country, and Classic Hits in cities like Detroit, Atlanta, and now, New York.
Addy’s early immersion into the radio business through his family gave him a leg-up initial understanding of what he was up against, but it was really the music that had him hooked. “It was definitely music-driven,” he says. “I worked in the alternative format; that was my first commercial job. And so that was kind of the passion.”
What ultimately kept Addy in the broadcasting space was a found interest in some of the behind-the-scenes workings of a music station. “As I got more into the career, the science of being an on-air talent and what went into deciding what songs get on and just the industry part of it started to really grab me as well – the art and the science.”
“I love pretty much every aspect of radio,” he explains.
With a career that has already touched many genres of music, Addy reflects on what it’s like shepherding listeners to the tracks he plays. He’s sure to level with the audiences he serves, regardless of how the music is categorized. Ultimately, Addy finds ways to organically connect with the folks tuning in.
“I think that we all have different variations of ourselves,” he says, “you’re certainly different if you’re talking to a niece versus a grandmother, but it’s still all you. I think the filter is that it’s really about the audience and who I am when I’m around those people. So for a long time whether it was in Top 40 or Hot AC or even Country, I’ve talked to people increasingly younger than me. And this is the first time in a long time I’ve talked to people my age.”
He says of his current afternoon drive slot with the classic hits on 101.1, “It’s almost like there’s less filters…I don’t think it’s a big difference for me, just really thinking about who I’m talking to.”
While Addy’s current role hasn’t taken him physically back to Dallas, Texas or his time in Detroit, there’s an element of what he does now that feels like home. “CBS-FM is kind of a dream format in a way,” he explains. “So many of the songs, I’m back in my mom’s backseat.”
Having experienced a number of highs in his career so far, Addy still holds a special place for some of the larger, passion-filled initiatives he’s had a hand in, starting with his time on what was New York’s Country 94.7. “One of the things that was really cool about being at the epicenter of an entire format…is obviously the opportunity and the access to the artists and being there in New York,” he says.
“One moment for me was we did a 30-minute live broadcast with Luke Bryan to all of the Cumulus country stations, the country fleet at that point. I did that with Katie Neal, who is a superstar in the company as well,” he says of his colleague and host of country music show Katie & Company. “It was sort of an ‘every tool in my belt’ moment. It took everything I had to pull that off and was really gratifying,” he recalls.
He also fondly remembers a Jonas Brothers event he hosted in Detroit, due to the sheer ardor of the listeners. He says of the event, “It reinvigorated me, I think, in terms of where I was in my radio career, to tap into that. I still, to this day, think back to that kind of excitement. That’s what we’re trying to give to people on the radio.”
When it comes to the recipe for a good show, Addy highlights the importance of familiarity, human connection, and having some knowledge to share. “That balance of consistency with surprise with comfort with learning something new – to me it should feel like you walked in to hang out with a friend you haven’t seen in a couple months, and you’re catching up,” he says.
At the end of the day, Addy believes the special sauce of being a music radio broadcaster lies in the opportunity to brighten the days of your audience – that’s the ultimate goal when he heads into work every day. “Somebody gets in their car, and they had a so-so day; their mood’s about a 6, and I’m trying to get them to an 8 or 9. And that’s what my job is,” he explains.
“There’s a million different ways to do that, and there’s an incredible amount of talent in our industry. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter the air shift or format – you’re a mood enhancer. However you do that, that’s magic.”
Jacquie Cadorette is a music features reporter for Barrett Media with over 10 years of experience crafting and managing digital editorial content in the broadcast media space. Her radio career began at Philadelphia’s 102.9 WMGK where she assisted with crafting copy for promotional materials before moving on to blogging for Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, writing prep copy for iHeart, and ultimately becoming a senior editorial content producer on Audacy’s central team, where her work was syndicated to over 250 station sites nationwide. After bringing the company’s podcast editorial brand to life as the Head of Content, Jacquie dove into freelance editorial work alongside her other endeavors.
A PA native, Jacquie spent 9 years in New York City and then a few years in Portland, OR to continue her writing career and indulge in great coffee on the west coast. She now lives in South Philly and can be found enjoying live music, looking at the world through her Canon camera, or diving into a project she’s never tried before with unfounded confidence. Jacquie can be reached at jacquiecad.media@gmail.com.
