Mike McVay is the President of McVay Media Consulting. McVay Media was founded in 1984. In August 2011, McVay stepped away from the firm. For the next nine years, he was Senior VP/Programming for Cumulus Media. In June 2019, he returned to the consultancy.
McVay’s success as a programmer, consultant, coach and media visionary is being recognized with his 2025 induction into the Radio Hall of Fame.
“I have to tell you, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever be in the National Radio Hall of Fame, mainly because a lot of it is that it’s the talent. It’s a talent and performer-based Hall of Fame, and it’s rare that they allow executives in, although they do one or two here and there. This year, Julie Talbott and I are going in.”
“I never thought I would really be inducted. Dennis Green and Kraig Kitchin, the co-chairmen, both reached out to me. And when Dennis called, he had a friend of mine who was on their board, Eric Weiss, who is an agent. The two of them buzzed me probably ten days before it was announced to tell me that I was going in.”
“I was shocked. I mean, it just didn’t register at first. But it means so much to me because, again, you think of where you started and what motivated you to get into it.”
I asked McVay who the early motivators were.
“My older brother was one of the people; he wasn’t in the business. But he was one of the people who encouraged me. Not only to get into radio because I wanted to do it, but when it came time to consult.”
“I was thinking about becoming a consultant. He was working with the Samsung Corporation in Korea, and he said to me, ‘How many consultants are there in radio?’ At that time, there were about 17. Today, there are even fewer. But I said probably around 17 or 18. And he said, ‘How many radio stations are there?’ About 12,000. And he was like, ‘Why wouldn’t they do this? It seems to me that anybody could do this.”’
“No, anybody can’t do this. But I did end up taking his advice and doing it. It means a lot to me to be there. And it means a lot for me to be able to stand on that stage and say the names of a lot of people who helped me in my career. And I wouldn’t be going into the Radio Hall of Fame without those people. It’s a chance to acknowledge them as well.”
So, the impossible question seemed to be asking McVay to pick out some highlights of his Hall of Fame career.
“One was getting on the radio at age 15 while I was still in high school, which was a big, important moment for me to be mentored by grown adults. When I was a kid at the age of 15, my mother used to have to drive me to the radio station.”
“The second would be becoming a morning man and Program Director in West Virginia. The man who owned that Day-Timer at 1600 was a former carny. He had managed Country artists. He wasn’t really a carny, but I would always say that he’s a carny. A guy named Gene Johnson. I learned a lot about showbiz from him.”
“Ed Salomon is the person who hired me from Charleston, West Virginia, to go to Los Angeles to be his assistant corporate PD. Charlie Cook was his assistant corporate PD on the East Coast and was at WHN New York. And I was that for Ed at KTNQ in Los Angeles. And when they announced they were going to sell that station, the guy who was PD, John Driscoll, left. And they promoted me to PD. That year and a half was a great, seminal moment for me.”
“Becoming a general manager for Larry Robinson at WMJI in Cleveland at age 28 was a big deal for me. We launched McVay Media when I was 30. My wife and I did, and Charlie Cook joined us a year after that.”
“Another would be being at Cumulus/Westwood One. That was a roller coaster nine years. The experiences I learned from being on the air, being a PD, an Ops Manager, being a General Manager, carrying a sales list, and working at a high-level corporate position in a big company have given me perspectives that I think other consultants in our industry don’t have.”
Since I had him, I couldn’t let him get away without picking his consultant’s brain a bit, starting with how we get young people interested in radio, both as consumers and as performers.
“I think there are a couple of ways to do it. One of them is to improve the listening experience overall, regardless of what age you’re targeting. We play too many commercials. We have stretched the creative side of our business to a point where it’s difficult for individuals to execute at the high level they once did. And that means that blemishes end up on the air.”
“Be that dead air or two things running at once because you’ve got a satellite and a commercial. There are things that just erode that listening experience.”
“If we improve the listening experience, people would give it a shot. Radio has great distribution, whether you’re hearing it over the air, on a stream, on an app, on social media in bits and pieces or not.
“So young people listen to us where they want to listen. If they are on TikTok and there’s a great funny thing that somebody did on the radio, and it’s on TikTok, they will hear it, and that could lead them back to a radio station.”
“But right now, if the listening experience is not at a high level if you’re not giving them more of what they want and less of irritants and things that make you turn it off, then all that work you put into the great TikTok bit that brings people to the radio, is for naught.”
“When you start talking about Elvis Duran, Ryan Seacrest, Tino Cochino or any of the great talent to target young people, they’re aware of them. They’ve heard them. They can rattle off things they’ve heard them do. But it may not be over-the-air radio where they’re getting it.”
“I have been quoted before, and it creates ripples. But I have often said radio has to fail more before it gets better. And what I mean by that is when there are stations that get to a point where someone says nothing else is working. Let’s try this, that could work.”
“Or the exorbitant prices of some radio stations are lower to a point where non-traditional major groups are looking to buy them, and other individuals. Be they private owners or entities that aren’t even in broadcasting, buy them and do something different. If you could run six minutes of commercials an hour and you had great content that was unique, you would find an audience.”
Being a great storyteller on the radio takes skill. I asked McVay about a couple of the best storytellers he has worked with. And a tip for becoming a good storyteller.
“Delilah and John Tesh are two of the absolute best in the entire industry. When Delilah launched her network show 20 years ago, I was fortunate to be with her and a guy named Ken Spitz. The three of us partnered on the show and started it out on a radio station in Rochester, and built it up to about 10 affiliates when we moved it off to Jones Radio Network. It might have been Broadcast Programming at that point, but we moved it out to them.”
“She’s always been a great storyteller. John Tesh similarly tells great stories. His program, “Intelligence for Your Life.” He’s the guy that’s sitting there and says, ‘If you want to get your kids to eat their carrots, mash them up with mashed potatoes and give them orange potatoes.’ The way he tells the story is beautiful. And so those two people are absolutely great storytellers.”
In closing, McVay encourages the practice of mentoring within the industry.
“Mentoring is an important thing that I do for so many. And it’s because I was mentored many times along the way by some pretty amazing people. I would like to encourage those of us who’ve been out there doing this job for more than 10 years to mentor others. Because mentorship is such an important part of learning the craft and what we do.”
Reach out to Mike McVay by email here.
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Jeff Lynn serves as Editor of Barrett Media’s Music Radio coverage. Prior to joining Barrett Media, Jeff spent time programming in Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison for multiple radio groups, including iHeartMedia, Townsquare Media, NRG Media, and Entercom (now Audacy). He also worked as a Country Format Editor for All Access until the outlet shut down in August 2023.
To get in touch with Jeff by email, reach him at Jeff@BarrettMedia.com.
