Ranked #16 in a mid-sized market by Barrett Media, Gee Scott, host of Gee and Ursula — the midday show on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 — was shocked and humbled to hear the news.
“It feels great to be recognized for anyone when you go to work,” Scott told Barrett Media. “I think everyone loves some type of appreciation and acknowledgment. So I’m humbled and grateful to hear the news.”
High accolades aren’t changing any of Scott’s future plans. Two years ago, he told Barrett he wouldn’t leave the Seattle area, and now more than ever, he believes local is what is most important to focus on. “When you start talking about local, that’s what truly matters,” Scott professed. “So when you’re thinking about why there isn’t a stoplight in your neighborhood — and it would be better for safety reasons if they had the stoplight — well, the national news and the federal government don’t take care of those things.”
He added, “So you’re talking about school budgets — that’s a local thing. Basically, 95% of things that really impact us are things that happen on the local level. And so I think it is important to be a part of the conversations centered around local media.”
But with this in mind, Scott recognizes there is a much larger responsibility than when he began in the sports media realm 12 years ago. “When you start getting to news and you start having topics, you realize that in sports, hot take is awesome. Right? In news, hot takes — you have to be more careful about that because words have power.”
Using this power carefully, Scott’s show does have one major issue on the minds of Seattleites: affordability. “I believe that UBI — I definitely believe it’s possible and I definitely believe that that is the answer to things. I know me, look, for 15 years of my adult life, I was financially poor. I was broke. I was poor.”
His passion resonates with many of his listeners. “Some people just say, well, all you got to do is work hard. Well, I was working hard too, and I just couldn’t catch a break until I did. And when I did catch a break, my life changed, right? And so then I was able to make money and then I was able to get other jobs and do all these different things.”
Scott added, “So now I make great money today. And guess what? For some reason, I don’t have the problems that I did years ago. So it’s not like I had to read an economic book to teach me these things. I know this firsthand. I know how much money fixed my life.”
This is why Scott is more reluctant to offer his hot take with the news and instead offers something far better. “When you’re talking about the homelessness crisis and drug crisis and you’re talking about a global pandemic and you’re talking about housing affordability, these conversations really matter. It’s not really about the hot take. It’s more about the conversation that gets facilitated and how can this conversation help push things along?”
Meaning a good show for him has three things:
“First, did the show inform? Great — got you the information, told you about it.
Second, did we have an opinion about that conversation? And in that opinion, what type of sources did we have and what type of experience did we have to help people better understand the conversation at hand?
Third — and this is probably the most important part — can you make it a way for all of the information that they got, all of the examples that they got, did the show entertain?”
The morning drive host noted entertainment is the most important because shows “got to be loose and fun and you almost want to bring a conversation that you’re having with your loved ones — whether it’s a family get-together or a happy hour — and you got to be able to do that same thing with a radio show. So when someone’s listening to it, they might hear something that they don’t agree with. They don’t agree with the opinion that’s being given. Great, awesome, right?”
Gee Scott appreciates the callers he and Ursula get that don’t agree with him because, “Think about that for a second. I mean, we’re at a time where you can spend your time anywhere. You can get on YouTube, you can get on Spotify, you can get on IG. There are so many places you can go so that you can hear people that you agree a thousand percent with.”
Later reasoning, “But what does it mean for you to be someone who just listens to somebody that you don’t agree with? Those are potentially change-makers in the world. Someone who’s willing to step outside of their bubble. So it means the world to me when that happens. I love it when people get on there and they don’t agree with me.”
Gee Scott struggled with imposter syndrome for a long time, and for young people who are struggling with this, he found his greatest strength is what he once thought was his biggest weakness. “My weakness that I thought I had is I never went to school for this stuff. I never trained for this stuff. I didn’t really have an understanding of this stuff. And I think that that weakness that I thought was a weakness was actually my greatest strength because I don’t sound like other people.”
“The good Lord only made one of you. There’s 8 billion people on the planet. Only you — there’s only one you. To the youngster that had that imposter syndrome, stop trying to be like all the other people.” He went on to declare, “There’s two things that you can do to literally stay on top. One, be yourself. Two, work hard. That doesn’t change. If you can just focus on those two things, you win.”
But it is easier said than done. Gee Scott believes this is because, “It is harder for us to be ourselves than we want to admit because we’re trying to go along and get along. We try to do things a lot of times. We spend a lot of time trying to make people happy.”
Scott added, “Right now, lately, is probably the best time in my job I’ve ever had because I’m being myself. I’m authentic.”
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
