To list the accomplishments of Nik Carter would take the majority of this feature. His LinkedIn profile summarizes his skills as follows: Musicologist, Voice Acting, Radio Presenting, Talk Radio, Dialects, Voice Over, Musicologist in Pop Culture, Expert in Pop Culture, Interviewer, Improvisational Comedy, Comedian, and Dog Enthusiast.
He currently holds down afternoons on 95.5 KLOS Los Angeles. Among other things, Carter is known for his interview skills.
I began by holding up the mirror to him, asking, “If you were sitting down to interview Nik Carter, what’s the first question you would ask?” Carter laughs at the idea.
“No one’s ever asked me that. I don’t know because I don’t see myself as that particularly interesting,” he says.
Yet, for decades, Carter has been one of the most dynamic voices in radio and television. Known for his ability to connect with anyone. Artists, listeners, industry veterans. Carter’s career has defied the mold of the Rock personality. A syndicator once called him “a chameleon,” a label Carter embraces.
“She said, You can talk about anything; you could talk to anyone. And I said, well, that was just my role model when I came up. I came up through the ‘90s, and my immediate default comparison was Howard Stern, because I was on a station with a really tough Rock battle against Opie and Anthony. I had to go a bit edgier.”
But it wasn’t Stern who really caught Carter’s attention.
“As much as I worshipped him in certain regards, my role models were always guys like Larry King, Tavis Smiley and Tom Snyder who could literally talk to anybody. I remember I would see Tom Snyder talk to Joe Strummer one night, and then the next night he would talk to Moshe Dayan. That was the blueprint for me.”
Carter’s wide-ranging curiosity and refusal to be defined by genre or demographic assumptions have allowed him to create unexpected, meaningful connections with the audience.
“I am just a pop culture, music, information, real estate, and political nerd. I think people have always programmed in a linear fashion with this idea that people are one-dimensional. If you’re on a Classic Rock station, people think that your only reference is other Classic Rock artists. I just whipped out, started singing Snow ‘Informer’ on the air to a listener the other day. He chimed right in. You have to pick your spots. I feel like there are a lot of people out there who are not even pop culture, but sort of cultural, societal sponges like myself.”
As far as being a “fearless interviewer” as he is described on the 95.5 KLOS website, Carter isn’t sure.
“I don’t know. One of the demos that I sent to them was an interview demo. And I asked some questions that I know people want to know about artists. Being a man of color in Alternative throughout most of my career and then Active Rock and then Classic Rock, I know that artists would come around, and they wouldn’t see anyone who looks like me for the most part. So, they were really sort of thrown off.”
That dynamic became crystal clear during his days on VH1.
“I used to joke; VH1 Classic hired a spiky-haired black guy to play Classic Rock to a bunch of red states. What could possibly go wrong?”
Carter added that they were accustomed to “The guy with the gray hair, the ponytail and the Hawaiian shirt.”
“I remember I was talking to Heart. They had had a bad experience with VH1 Classic, and they didn’t want to come in. When they came in, they were shocked that I not only knew them, but I was respectful. I would say things like, I thought I knew about the mushroom story, but after reading the book, you guys have been through some shit. And they just opened up like a flower.”
Carter’s secret sauce isn’t shock value or controversy but empathy and curiosity.
“I remember the first time I talked to Rob Halford. I had heard people say, yeah, man, when you guys got sued for a kid trying to commit suicide, that must’ve sucked. And of course, who wants to talk about that first of all? And second, who would respond to that?”
“I remember asking Halford, after the trial, how that affected your perception of America? Because I think America’s the only place where you could be sued in the way in which you were, and it wouldn’t just be immediately dismissed out of hand. And he talked very openly about it. That’s a great setup, though.”
Carter thrives on going beyond the obvious. He recalls a conversation with Huey Lewis, during which he was asked to provide questions in advance due to Lewis’s hearing issues.
“I also knew that whenever I did that, I could get you to go beyond just the 10 questions that we were charged with asking. So, I started asking him about his relationship with Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy), and he lit up.”
“I said, dude, you’re on ‘Live and Dangerous,’ that’s insane. The average person who’s rocking to ‘Power of Love’ has no idea. But I said to him, so at the ‘We Are the World ‘ session, you got your solo line because Prince didn’t show up, right? And he looks at me, goes, Nik, how do you know that?”
Carter’s path to Classic Rock was not straightforward.
“I came up in Alternative, and that was my passion. At the time, Classic Rock seemed like a death sentence. I got offered jobs in the format, which I avoided like the plague because I was so turned off by the format for a long time.”
“My first foray into the format, I worked for a very well-known Classic Rock programmer who exemplified everything that was wrong with the format. For the longest time, it was a format programmed by and for boomers.”
“Those who were born with the standard self-importance champion. I would get, you can’t talk over the music, the music is sacrosanct, and I’m like, it’s Jackson Browne and Steve Winwood and ‘Blue Morning, Blue Day.’ I respect all those artists, but it ain’t that deep.”
“My boss said to me I learn something new listening to you every day. Another member of the programming cabal said, I think you’re the most prepared jock I’ve ever worked with. I feel like you prepare more than anyone else. Unless that’s just mostly stuff that’s just ruminating in your head. I said, yeah, a lot of it is. A lot of it’s just factoids that have been sitting there looking for an outlet.”
Despite his eclectic interests. Music, pop culture, and yes, his dog, who often outperforms him on Instagram. Radio remains Carter’s first love.
“I’m a complete radio nerd. I just love radio. I love to listen to air checks. “When I moved here, KLOS was interesting because it’s in a cluster with Power 106, KDAY, and Cali.”
“And just sort of culturally, too, we’ve always kind of been siloed apart from those other stations. Everybody’s very nice and everybody gets along, but I spend a lot of time on that other side of the building, the Power 106 and KDAY side, because as much as I love everything we play on KLOS, I love that stuff too.”
“Whenever I meet listeners, they’re like, hey man, I love your show. My default answer is, I’m just trying to have a good time, and I hope that it rubs off on a few people.”
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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.
