When considering Leslie Scott’s depth of experiences on both the programming and digital sides of the industry, it might be apt to refer to her as “the Reese’s Cup of radio.” Two great tastes that taste great together, especially as things hurtle toward the convergence of on-air and online, right?
First, let’s take a quick look at Scott’s credentials and resume: She started her industry career as an intern at Clear Channel’s St. Louis cluster. “That was back when Clear Channel was still Clear Channel and when people could still be in high school and work in radio,” she says, laughing. Scott’s next stop was at WPGU/Champaign, IL, where she worked in programming, promotion, and sales.
After college, her radio career took her to the MD/nights post at WMAD/Madison, then to WFXH/Savannah, GA as APD/MD/midday jock. In February 2012, she moved to Seattle and became the Brand Coordinator for Entercom Triple A KMTT (103.7 The Mountain). Scott was upped to Digital Program Director of the cluster, and she also became PD of storied Alternative KNDD (107.7 The End) in 2015. “Some of my career highlights include consistently generating The End’s best ratings over several years in the PPM era, many sold-out events, building an incredible staff, and transforming The End’s brand for the modern era of radio,” Scott says. “It was really a special time.”
While there, the initial sparks of her digital side came out. “I was one of the first people in radio to come up with strategies for using social media and how to coach people on those strategies,” she says. “I helped people who were not social media-savvy understand its importance.” Recognizing that people all have different creativity and comfort levels with social media, Scott was able to coach to talents who are naturally good at social media alongside some who needed to learn how to use it effectively, commenting, “I’m very proud I was able to do that for Entercom/Seattle since all radio people need to realize why social media is important.”
Entercom and CBS Radio combined like Voltron, and, in the midst of the pandemic, Leslie rose to Regional VP of Programming for a bunch of the company’s West Coast Alternative stations, overseeing not just The End but also KNRK/Portland, OR; KKDO (Alt 94.7)/Sacramento; KITS (Live 105)/San Francisco; and KROQ/Los Angeles. “In 2020 – at a point where there wasn’t even a COVID vaccine yet, so we were still firmly in lockdown – Entercom took a really big swing and innovated the way they were doing Alternative radio,” she explains. Scott was in that role for about a year.
The enlarged Entercom put on a new outfit and began calling itself Audacy, and the new company doubled down on its digital presence. “Because of my digital and programming background, I segued into a position with the Digital Content team,” Scott says, relating how she started out as Lead Curator for Audacy’s exclusive digital music stations, then grew into overseeing more specialized content.
“In addition to the usual digital music stations and podcasts, we tried some more innovative app offerings and worked across the local programming teams and corporate teams,” she says. “During my 2 1/2 years there, we tried a lot of things and really took the motto of ‘fail fast.’” This means acting quickly on learnings to grow what worked and discontinue what didn’t work.
Scott fully leaned into her role as Audacy’s VP of Digital Audio Content, especially working to emphasize the importance of promoting the company’s mobile app and platform. “How people approach and find content and listen to things is changing,” she says. “I talked to various parts of the company about why it’s very important for stations to talk about and promote our app and how listeners can use it.” Scott feels a lot of pride about being able to speak to all these different communities in radio about why it’s essential the industry chart an intentional and thoughtful digital path.
Sadly, in April 2024, her Audacy odyssey came to an end as a result of layoffs. Since then, Scott has been on the hunt for her next adventure, and she’s had some free time to reflect more holistically about what challenges radio faces, as well as best steps forward.
One of the bigger issues she sees is a lack of time to devote to executing longer-term strategies, especially where developing a dedicated brand strategy is concerned. “We know there are bottom lines to meet, and developing a brand takes time,” Scott says. “You have to be willing to take that time to consistently show your audience who you are. That’s what it comes down to,” she comments, likening the repetition – and positive outcome – to building muscle by doing reps at the gym over multiple visits. “One of the challenges is that radio brands often don’t have the time in this day and age to prove themselves.”
Another path to success Scott believes in involves truly understanding your audience and be focused on who that audience is. For example, she brings up stations who say they target a specific gender or age group and asks whether they understand what targeting that demographic really means.
“It’s easy for someone at a high level to say, ‘we’re going after women 25-54, they’re married and have kids and own a house and drive a carpool,’ but that age group of women is not a monolith,” Scott says. “Who are they, how are they living their lives, what are they excited about, what are they scared about, what help do they need, and how can you connect with them about all of these things on a consistent basis? It’s important for a station to understand the different types of people – women, men, people, whoever – who are using your station, why their differences need to be recognized, what about your station draws them in, and how you can identify them in a bigger and broader way.”
Speaking about her principles, Scott refers to herself as someone who believes strongly in consistency – of brand, of humans, as a leader, as a manager, and as a friend. “That comes through in how I build my strategies,” she says. “You can have all the time in the
world, but if you’re not consistently showing up for your people – your audience and your staff – then it doesn’t matter.”
She sees being able to work with the unbelievably creative personalities in radio as a privilege and takes that very seriously. “To build a relationship with a creative person, you have to earn their trust,” Scott says, relating things back to consistency again. “I want to see what motivates them creatively. To coach someone on the air, you have to find what motivates and excites them about their job and makes them want to come to work every day, along with what success looks like for them.”
Scott recognizes that our industry values ratings and revenue as success but calls out that not everyone is personally motivated by those metrics. “Your morning show isn’t waking up and saying, ‘We’re going to do the best live read possible in order to drive revenue!’ You have to find out why someone does what they do every day and how you can coach to those motivations.”
Finally, Scott believes in the power of building a community but cautions that it means different things to different people. “Community took on a new meaning in the pandemic,” she reflects. “Just because a personality is out at a show of an up-and-coming band, it doesn’t fulfill all definitions of community. There are plenty of communities that are national and global. Being online makes that possible,” Scott says, tying those digital and on-air elements together again.
Leslie Scott is available now for full-time and project-based work and can be reached at imlesliescott@gmail.com.
CLARIFICATION NOTE: In my column last week refuting some of the claims made by Westwood One Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard in his analysis of Edison Research’s “Share of Ear” study, I questioned the listing of SiriusXM’s ad-supported listening as being 5% back in 2017 and in Q2 2024 based on the August 2024 introduction of the company’s “Free Access” plan.
Thanks to Edison Research’s Larry Rosin, who clarified with me that 5% figure indicates listening credited to the satcaster’s ad-supported Talk channels. It is worth noting that those ad-supported Talk channels are currently only accessible via a paid SiriusXM subscription package that also includes its music channels.
Personally, I dispute Bouvard’s comparison of only Talk-formatted SiriusXM listening to all ad-supported over-the-air AM/FM stations across both Talk and music-based formats because it is not a 1:1 correlation. And since Bouvard also compared those numbers to Spotify and Pandora audiences, I will mention that Spotify’s own research department has done studies showing Spotify users who listen to podcasts tend to engage longer with that platform because they add the Talk-based listening to their consumption rather than at the expense of music listening.
A former air personality and industry journalist, Keith Berman worked at the late Radio & Records for several years, where he held a number of positions before being promoted to format editor. While at R&R, he also served as a writer and reporter, covering breaking news; authoring weekly columns, format roundups and features; and contributing heavily to Street Talk Daily. When R&R folded, he co-founded RAMP (Radio and Music Pros) and spent 3 years covering radio and record labels before taking a hiatus from the industry. His experiences also include time on-air at stations in Connecticut, Boston and Southern California. He can be reached at KeithBerman@gmail.com.
