When Patti Marshall was 14 years old, she followed a DJ around like a puppy during an Easter Seals danceathon. He was playing all her favorite songs, and something clicked. “I thought, oh I could get a job doing this maybe,” she recalls. The DJ issued her a challenge: record some commercials on a cassette player, bring them back, and they’d see what she had. “And the rest is history. I got the bug, and it never left me, and I still have it.”
That was over three decades ago. Today, Marshall oversees programming and branding for Hubbard Radio’s Cincinnati cluster — Q102, B105, Mix 94.9, and The Wolf — as Managing Director of Branding and Content. Yet the spark that ignited in that moment at 14 remains central to everything she does. Fundamentally, it’s all about the music. Always has been.
The Path to Radio
Marshall grew up in Albany, Georgia. College is where everything changed. “I ended up getting a job at a radio station doing nights while I was going to school, and I hated school. Like I literally felt like it was just in the way of me having a radio career.” School became the obstacle; radio was the reason. She moved to Atlanta in her early 20s, initially intimidated by the market and doubting she was good enough to apply. But those college radio nights had already lit the spark.
Before radio, though, music was her first language. She was in marching band — a drum major, no less — played jazz band and concert band, and picked up clarinet and tenor saxophone. Essentially, the connection between her band days and her role at Q102 isn’t metaphorical. It’s literal. “I guess band taught me a massive appreciation for all sorts of music. You know, I was in jazz band, I appreciated jazz. I was in marching band, I appreciated taking hit songs and turning them into marching band songs. I appreciated the pomp and circumstance of, you know, the the uniforms and the. I mean, we were all passionate about music, or we wouldn’t have been playing an instrument. You know.”
A Philosophy Built on Understanding
Marshall has been in the chair at Q102 for 22 years. The station itself has a longer lineage — top 40 since 1972, transitioning to Hot AC in the late 90s. When Marshall arrived, she brought a specific philosophy. “I felt like we treated the station as if women didn’t want to hear top 40 music. Does that make sense?” She wanted to reject that assumption entirely. “We felt like adult women wanted to hear all sorts of music, and that doesn’t stop them from wanting to hear Black Eyed Peas or… like a top 40 song.
So we’re a hybrid. I would call us an adult top 40.” Notably, that philosophy hasn’t shifted in 22 years. What has changed is everything around it — rotations, the broader music landscape, and the meaning of streaming. “Are we all still trying to figure out what streaming actually means to music? I really think we haven’t figured that out yet,” Marshall says. But the core mission remains intact: music for adult women who refuse to be boxed in.
Why Radio Still Matters
There’s a phrase Marshall uses that cuts through industry hand-wringing about radio’s future. “I love radio for more reasons than it’s my paycheck.” She’s seen what radio can do. Indeed, she’s seen its power then and its power now. When listeners line up at concerts to meet their favorite on-air personalities — Jeff and Jenn, or big Dave from B105 one of the the sister stations, or Jesse and Anna from B105 — there’s something happening. Certainly, it transcends the airwaves. “There is still a strong connection between humans that listen to the radio and humans that work on the radio. You know, there there that we provide a human connection that I just don’t think streaming does. I’ll just say it.” It’s not a criticism of streaming so much as an articulation of what radio uniquely provides. “It’s all about the music, but it’s not about streaming. It’s about the community,” Marshall reflects.
The People Behind the Music
Here’s where Patti’s philosophy takes an interesting turn. Ask her what makes Q102 — or any of her stations — work, and she pivots from music to people. Clearly, her team is extraordinary, and she means it. Grover Collins runs B105’s programming. Julie Evans splits time as promotion director for B105 and program director at Mix. Freddie Mac does afternoons on Q with Roy for The Hang. Additionally, he tracks middays at Mix with a completely different show. “That’s the world we live in,” Marshall says, but she says it with gratitude. She doesn’t express exasperation.
The ownership structure at Hubbard matters to her too. “Our ownership and Ginny,” she says, speaking of the owner. “I don’t know if you’ve ever interviewed Ginny, but she is incredibly supportive, loves the business, cares about her people.” Dave Bestler, the CFO, is taking on more responsibilities. Greg Strassel, VP of Programming, is great at handing out advice and support. “We are blessed here to work for a company like Hubbard,” Marshall says simply.
The Drum Major of the Building
That metaphor of a drum major — someone who doesn’t play an instrument but keeps everyone together — fits perfectly here. Such leaders set the tempo and ensure the whole ensemble sounds like one unit. That’s exactly what Marshall does across her cluster. Her radio stations succeed because everyone’s on the same page. They’re in the same time signature. “It is all about the music,” Marshall concludes, “but for me, it’s about the people I work with every day, and my team is extraordinary. Yes, I would take this team to a band competition in a minute, and we would play.”
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David Hill serves as a Music Radio Editor, Columnist and Features writer for Barrett Media. A radio lifer with more than 30 years behind the mic, in the control room, and in the program director’s chair, David’s career spans influential stops at brands such as WIYY 98 Rock, WBAL-AM, and 99X. He has worked across multiple formats and ownership groups, including iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media, developing talent, breaking music, and navigating every major industry shift from diary to PPM and terrestrial dominance to streaming disruption. When he’s not writing or analyzing the industry, Dave runs The Tune Farm, a marketing firm built to help artists and brands grow audience the same way great radio always has—by creating connection, not just impressions. He can be reached at David@BarrettMedia.com.