Michelle Rutkowski is the VP of Programming and Operations for Milwaukee Radio Alliance’s four-station cluster. “It’s not lost on me just how brief my career history is for someone who’s been lucky enough to do this for over two decades!” she says. “I started as an intern in 2002 at Q101 in Chicago and worked my way up to promotions assistant, part-time on-air personality, and even produced the morning show for our sister station, The Loop (RIP), for a hot minute.”
“I came to Milwaukee to do nights full time at WLUM, then worked my way up to middays, then Music Director, then Program Director, then Operations Manager, and now VP Programming & Ops for the cluster. Once I get in somewhere, they can’t get rid of me, like gum on a shoe.”
Rutkowski is passionate about many things, but dogs are her favorite. “I love dogs. Any dogs. All dogs,” she says. “In addition to working with, training, and obsessing over my own two, I’ve fostered thirteen pups to better homes through MCP Rescue and Outreach. My current schedule makes it tough to foster as often as I would like, but I still help out with fundraising efforts and volunteer all the time!”
To balance her personal and professional life, Rutkowski says it’s all about effective time management. “It is so important!” She says. “Which is unfortunate because I suck at it! But I recently moved to afternoons from middays, and it’s been a game changer. I get most of my day to bounce dumb stuff off my staff and scroll for ideas. I’m a night owl, so I definitely feel I’m more creative and articulate in the afternoons than in the mornings.”
“And as for juggling so many tasks, I think because we are so small, I function (dysfunction?) with the mindset that we don’t have time to be passive-aggressive; we have to be aggressive-aggressive. If something isn’t working, we fix it, change it, or delete it and move on. As much as I love being a goofball with my staff, I am direct and blunt when something needs to be addressed so we can move on to the next thing.”
As for what Rutkowski loves most about the business, it all comes down to the basics. “Passion! I get giddy watching an itty-bitty band become a biggy big band,” she explains. “I freak out hearing a killer break from someone who’s just starting on the air. I am inspired by the creativity and laughter I am surrounded by every single day.”
Rutkowski’s biggest accomplishments over the years include the station’s “Big Snow Show,” an annual Christmas show that has been running for 18 years. They only stopped for the year of the pandemic. “It’s gotten harder and harder to get quality bands as stations stop doing individual shows in favor of larger, corporate ones, or they have gone away altogether,” she admits. “But we’ve made some real magic happen the last few years.”
“My biggest accomplishment, though, is shaping the culture within our building. Over the years, I started to get really bummed out by the misogyny, the homophobia, the ego & lack of respect for coworkers I saw in our industry. But today, I have a staff that treats each other and the world around them with kindness and respect and is inclusive of everyone. There is no ego here. My number one consideration when looking at someone for a position is whether or not they are a fit for that culture.”
Despite the usual revenue and automation/engineering issues, etc., nothing has been quite as challenging for Rutkowski over the years as dealing with the loss of one of her longtime friends and personalities. 102.1 FM’s APD and afternoon host Ian McCain (Justin Cooper) passed away in August at the age of 54 after a brief illness. (BMM 8/14/24)
“To see my staff go through such heartbreak, while my own heart was shattered, is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do personally and professionally,” she says. “There’s the personal loss (I’ve almost texted Ian dumb memes countless times), and then there’s the professional loss (‘Oh, I’ll ask Ian to look into that.’) It felt like my right hand had been hacked off.”
“But this amazing group of people was the best during those awful weeks following Ian’s passing. They stepped up to put in extra work and comforted each other when it got hard. And, as we were literally in the middle of an automation system migration at the time, it got REALLY hard. We are all still reeling, but we don’t shy away from talking about him; we still make jokes at his expense, just as we would have if he were still here with us.
Having been in the Alt format for most of her career, Rutkowski has been through some pretty crazy things. “Look. I worked at the flagship station for Mancow in the early aughts; I’ve… seen some things,” she says. “I’ve watched people chug milk ‘til they puke, drink beer out of strangers’ butt cracks, and at one point, had an entire bar chant ‘Show us Your Meat Curtains!’ at me, all in the name of free t-shirts. That level of madness thickened my skin and set me up for decades of waayyyyy tamer craziness.”
As for what’s missing from the business right now, “Forward-thinking!!!,” she insists. “It feels like so many aren’t looking at the path ahead of them because they are defeated by the path behind them. They’ve given up on radio. I’ve heard several executives say things like, ‘No one listens to the radio anymore.’ Well, shit. How does THAT attitude lead to change? It doesn’t. Radio has lost its ability to believe in itself.”
“If you don’t believe in the future of radio, get out of the way! Let the next generation reinvent and reshape the landscape that others no longer see as viable. They’ll prove that it is. I learn something new from our Gen Z staff every single day, who, yes, do actually listen to the radio.”
“Let them be the ones to tell us what would make them use/like radio more. Innovate! Try new things just to see what sticks, and then build on the stuff that does. Don’t program from a place of fear. Test boundaries. Challenge conventional practices. That’s how we move forward. Not by doing what we’ve always done.”
As for shaking things up a bit, Rutkowski has big plans for the near future. “Camp FM102/1 at Summerfest is our next big event, happening the end of June through the first weekend of July,” she says.
“We’ve taken a selection of Alternative bands playing Summerfest (nine days, 11 stages, it really is amazing) and put on showcases with acoustic lounges, Q+As, etc., at a really cool spot just down the street. We cap it so it’s small, intimate, and really connects with the audience. Can’t wait to unveil this year’s lineup!”
Follow Michelle Rutkowski on Instagram @ismichelleok, @fm1021, @b933fm, @froggymke, @fonz
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Charese Fruge’ is an award-winning Content, Broadcast, and Marketing executive with over 20 years of experience in markets like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, San Diego, and Las Vegas. As the owner of MC Media, she works with radio brands and individual talent, especially young women, helping them grow their brands and negotiate on their own behalf. She is also a Voice Actor and Voice Over Talent as well as a Freelance Writer for International Broadcast Outlets. Find her at @MCMediaOnline or www.mcmediaonline.com.
