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Lu Valentino Exits Results Radio Northern California

BMM Staff
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Lu Valentino Exits Results Radio Northern California

Lu Valentino is out as Regional Marketing Director at Results Radio’s Northern California group. She joined the group last September from Los Angeles, where she held on-air positions with Local Radio Networks and Westwood One.

She had been overseeing marketing for 12 stations in Chico, Redding, and Yuba City-Marysville, CA. The position was eliminated effective July 24.

Valentino to RAMP, “I depart with my head held high and a smile. Leaving a job, under any circumstances, in the same manner you arrived on the first day is paramount. This will be achievable, given the high esteem in which I hold Jack Fritz.” [Results Radio Pres./CEO]

Reach out here

Stephen A. Smith: Top Brass at TNT Sports Dropped the Ball on NBA Media Rights

BSM Staff
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Stephen A. Smith: Top Brass at TNT Sports Dropped the Ball on NBA Media Rights

As news came down that the NBA had officially rejected Warner Bros. Discovery’s matching rights claim to keep a portion of the media rights deal for TNT Sports, many have weighed in on the topic. Some have looked at the enormous financial package, 11 years and $77 billion, some are discussing the number of streaming-only games that will take place and others are fixated more on the return of NBA and John Tesh’s ‘Roundball Rock’ theme song. Stephen A. Smith on his podcast, The Stephen A. Smith Show, talked about the terms of the deal and what it means for TNT Sports, who had been an NBA partner for nearly four decades.

After reading through some of the particulars of the agreement the NBA announced, Smith said, “…The new agreements with ESPN, ABC and Amazon are not set to begin until the 2025-26 season, meaning TNT could go into its final season under its current contract with the possibility of suing the league it is covering. Warner Bros. Discovery’s most recent proposal did not match the terms of Amazon Prime Video’s offer and therefore we have entered into a long-term arrangement with Amazon. This is according to the NBA. We are grateful to Turner Sports for its award-winning coverage of the NBA and look forward to another season of the NBA on TNT. This is what the NBA said in the conclusion of its statement.

“TNT dropped the ball here. I’m not talking about Barkley. I’m not talking about Shaq. I’m not talking about Kenny Smith or Ernie Johnson. I’m talking about the brass at TNT. It started years ago when they alluded to how unimportant the NBA was to the brand itself and the resistance that they gave in reaching a new deal.”

Smith said his sources have told him that Adam Silver spoke with the top people at WBD and alerted to them to what was coming and what they would need to do in order to match. Smith says it was laid out and instead of taking immediate action, “there was a bunch of hemming and hawing,” Smith said.

“See, that’s why Barkley’s been going off. Because he knew and still knows it never had to come to this. So now we look at TNT and what are we to make of it? Let me tell you what you make of it. Number one, anybody who can get their hands on Barkley, Shaq, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson should do it, even if it’s ESPN.”

They are a treasure and a tribute to the league itself. And there’s no way on earth there should be a basketball season in the foreseeable future, far beyond next season, without them in front of that camera. So hopefully somehow, some way, there will be a platform available to them, whether it’s ESPN, ABC, whether it’s Amazon, whether it’s NBC, something to keep that team intact.

As for the future of TNT Sports without the NBA, Smith said, “All I can say is that I don’t know where that network goes from here. I mean, how many episodes of Law and Order can you air…You need something live. You need something fresh. How many old movies can you air? You need something live. You need something fresh.”

Warner Bros. Discovery issued a statement which led many to believe they are prepared to battle with the league in court. Smith talked about it as part of the discussion and was clear on what he thinks their chances would be of winning.

“It’s going to be really interesting to see what [TNT Sports does] beyond next season, because there’s no way they’re winning this lawsuit. I can’t see it. I can see a settlement happening where millions of paid production fees are picked up and all of this other stuff. I can’t see them winning this and forcing and compelling the NBA to make them a part of the package now that this decision has been made.”

Smith concluded the discussion by saying, “The last days of the NBA on TNT, is arriving next season. Barkley, Shaq, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson. Hopefully, it’s just the last days of the NBA on TNT, not the last days of that crew.”

Mike Thomas Enjoys Stability Amidst Boston Radio Changes

Demetri Ravanos
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Mike Thomas Enjoys Stability Amidst Boston Radio Changes

Upheaval is the name of the game in morning drive in Boston. In recent years, the market has lost stalwarts like Matty in the Morning on Kiss 108 and Karlson & McKinzie on WZLX. Most recently, Rich Shertenlieb left 98.5 The Sports Hub, bringing the dominant morning brand Toucher & Rich to an end.

Mike Thomas is the man that put Toucher & Rich on sports radio. He, along with then-market manager Mark Hannon, oversaw the frequency shuffle that led to the launch of The Sports Hub. He saw the success the duo had on WBCN, the legendary alternative station that was being laid to rest and recognized the potential for sports fans.

“I think the world of those guys obviously,” Thomas says. “You know, we worked with them for 12 plus years in the CBS Radio days. Both of those guys are extremely talented, and it was an honor.”

Now it’s Thomas who is the market manager. He oversees six local brands in Audacy’s building, including legendary sports talker WEEI, but when Thomas thinks about the breakup of Toucher & Rich, he doesn’t just see an opportunity in sports radio. He’s got a building full of stations that offer listeners stability and familiarity every time the market is thrown into chaos in morning drive.

“In a market where there typically has not been a ton of change, there has been a ton of change,” he says. “I think that we’re benefiting from that because we have Karson & Kennedy on Mix 104.1. They have been in the market now for 15 years and are number one. We’ve got a morning show on Magic (106.7) that’s been together for many, many years. They are a top three radio station, and a top three show. Then you’ve got Greg, who’s knocking on the door of number one.” 

Completing a successful transition from programmer to market manager is not an easy one. Thomas points out that plenty have been able to do it, including Dan Mason, Chris Oliviero, and most recently, Tim Wenger. But to be ready to go from leading a brand to leading a building, you need knowledge, luck, and support.

He asked the right questions. The right people took an interest in his goal. That helped him get where he wanted to go, but his background helped him win the trust of the people he supervises.

Maybe you know a bit about Mike Thomas’s radio history. Surely you know that Bruce Gilbert, one of the truly iconic names in sports programming, is his brother. Maybe you didn’t know that their sister is a radio lifer too. Same goes for their parents. Between watching and doing, there isn’t much about the business Thomas is unfamiliar with.

Thomas got his first shot to run a building in Chicago, where he served as Good Karma’s market manager. There, he was only working in sports with ESPN 1000. All of that previous experience helped him to succeed atop Audacy in Boston, because he needed to have credibility with the staffs of six different stations in six different formats.

“I’ve done, I think, almost everything in this business,” he says. “I was just talking to somebody yesterday, who is just starting out in this business and is very excited about working in our industry, which is great. I said, ‘Look, I did traffic logs for a couple of years while I was doing part-time on air, just because that was a full-time job, and I literally just wanted to be in the radio station 5 or 6 days a week. And that was my only way to do that.’ 

“So, I think with anything you do for a career, the more you know, it doesn’t matter what you do. I mean, if you work road construction, the more you know about why the construction is being done and what the design is and everything that goes into it, you’re probably going to be more likely to rise to be a leader in that industry.”

Part of successfully ascending is trusting someone new to do the job you used to hold. While Thomas never programmed WEEI, he did program the Sports Hub when it was that station looking up at WEEI. It would have been tempting for him to say “I know how to do this. Get out of my way” to everyone around him.

That’s not what he did though. Instead, he put his faith in someone he saw was already respected by the staff. First, he made morning show executive producer Ken Laird WEEI’s ops manager. One year later, Laird became the station’s new brand manager and Thomas has never had a reason to doubt him.

“He really, I think, learned a lot in that [ops] role and now he is leading the radio station and doing a great job,” Thomas says of Laird. “He’s well respected and well-liked by, not only everybody on the programming side, but also, he’s built a great relationship with our sales managers and our sales department. So, he’s doing all the right things.”

Laird is doing all the right things. The station has a lot going for it. Does that mean WEEI is bound to overtake The Sports Hub in the ratings? 

Thomas knows it can happen, but if it does happen, it will be less about what happens at The Sports Hub and more about how WEEI responds when growth opportunities present themselves, and he has lots of reasons to be optimistic that his station will rise to those occasions. 

WEEI is the radio home of the Red Sox. Thomas points out that this will be the 30th year that, even without play-by-play rights, the station has been where to hear the Patriots’ quarterback and coach speak each week. There are plenty of reasons Boston sports fans need to come to EEI, and he’s confident that what the station airs every morning is one of them.

“Greg Hill is putting up some great ratings in the morning now, and obviously the morning daypart is arguably the most important day part. So, you know, we start each day with a show that is one of the top shows in the market, not just with men, but also with adults.”

Sure, it helps that Mike Thomas is familiar with success in multiple formats, but this is Boston. Sports matter. His staff doesn’t have to be reminded of that and that is something that showed up in a big way for Thomas’ adult hits station Big 103 during the Celtics’ championship run.

Listeners can hear the artists played on Big 103 anywhere. If they love Beyonce and hate Taylor Swift, they can go to Spotify and build a playlist that is all killer and no filler just for their ears. But Thomas’ staff made the station essential to their listeners during that time by reflecting life in Boston.

“Steve Salhany and Mike Mullaney program Big 103. Big 103 doesn’t have any live personalities on it, but that station is full of personality, and it’s all done through the imaging,” he says. “The imaging is fresh every day, every week. It’s timely. After every Celtics game, there was new stuff on talking about what happened the night before, and it’s done tongue-in-cheek, with some attitude and humor. The radio station has a ton of personality with no personalities, and that’s brilliant.”

Sports radio will always be under a microscope in Boston. Mike Thomas knows that. The city is crazy about competition and drawn to conflict. But sports radio and WEEI are on just one of the plates Mike is charged with keeping spinning these days. 

That’s why people like Ken Laird, Greg Hill, Karson & Kennedy, Steve Salhany and Mike Maloney are so important. Keeping plates spinning takes a lot of attention and effort. To do something really special, you have to put people you trust in a position to do their jobs well and succeed. Mike Thomas thinks he’s done just that.

Harry Douglas Pulling No Punches During His Rise at ESPN

John Molori
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Harry Douglas Pulling No Punches During His Rise at ESPN

There certainly have been a host of Hall of Fame, superstar football players who have made the transition to broadcasting. Think Frank Gifford, Randy Moss, Steve Young, Howie Long, Terry Bradshaw, and this upcoming season, Tom Brady. Very often, however, it is the good, but not exceptional football players, who make the best analysts. These are the guys who needed to be coached. They were not game changing talents, just skilled players who worked for everything they got in the NFL. One of these guys is Harry Douglas.

A third-round pick by Atlanta in the 2008 draft, Douglas played 10 seasons at wide receiver in the NFL, seven with the Falcons and three with the Titans. Currently, he is a regular contributor to several ESPN programs and cohosts the Freddie and Harry Show alongside Freddie Coleman on ESPN Radio.

Now, I’ll be honest, it’s taken some time for Douglas to grow on me in his role as an analyst on various ESPN programs. Early on, I found his thoughts disjointed and not very clearly stated. I knew he had knowledge, but the execution of his communication was lacking. Lately, however, Douglas has remarkably raised his TV game.

His style of mixing humor, strong opinions, and flat-out courage has made him a sought-after guest on highly rated ESPN shows like First Take and Get Up. Douglas is a hybrid of a new brand of football commentator – men who have honed and refined the gumption and toughness they had as athletes and are kicking tail across multiple media platforms. Douglas combines the cool of Nate Burleson, the fearlessness of Ryan Clark, the X’s and O’s of Dan Orlovsky, and the watchability of Marcus Spears.

He has absolutely no problem hanging with gigantic television personalities like Shannon Sharpe, Christopher Russo, Mike Greenberg, Bart Scott, and even Stephen A. Smith. This was no more evident than on the July 22 edition of First Take where Douglas gave a tour de force performance epitomizing his current rise in the business.

Before he even said a word on the show, you could tell that Douglas is serious about broadcasting. In addition to the obligatory laptop that most studio analysts now feature, Douglas had a spiral notebook, a pen, and a yellow highlighter at his side. It was as if he was taking notes in a history class. Douglas has literally become a student of broadcasting, and he gets a gold star for improvement.

In discussing Ravens’ QB Lamar Jackson’s failure to win a Super Bowl, Douglas didn’t just talk about Jackson himself, he talked about the backdrop and time frame in which Jackson now plays. In doing so, he made an astute cross-sport comparison to basketball. Douglas stated that Michael Jordan was the reason that a lot of all-time NBA greats such as Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, and others did not win a championship. They were playing in an era of the greatest of all-time.

Douglas noted that similarly, Lamar Jackson is now playing in the era of Patrick Mahomes making it very difficult to win a championship. This dissertation showed the ease with which Douglas moves from his comfort zone in football to hard and accurate historical facts about other sports. A lot of other football analysts have trouble making this jump.

Douglas also said that the advantage Jackson might have this year is a closer, someone who can end games on his own, namely, newly acquired running back Derrick Henry. Good point. On ESPN’s Get Up, Douglas dropped some similar reality regarding Jackson. He reiterated that the quarterback position is under the most scrutiny, and that Jackson will never escape the criticism until he wins the Super Bowl.

On that same episode of Get Up, Douglas provided an in-depth analysis of Chiefs’ rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy. He presented a solid scouting report, saying that Worthy could get in and out of breaks, run routes, has premiere speed, and great hands. He also intimated that the Chiefs, who ranked 25th in explosive passer rating last season, will improve that number this year largely because of Worthy.

Moving back to First Take, Douglas again showed his depth of knowledge talking about the US Olympic Basketball team’s close call one point win versus South Sudan. Douglas offered a timely quote saying, “Comfortability drives complacency.” He also shared strong points on how the absence of Kevin Durant hurts the Olympic team.

Douglas continued his thorough examination stating that in international competition, the US is facing teams that rely less on athleticism and more on skill set. He used Luka Dončić and Nikola Jokić as examples. This was a football guy doling out real talk on hoops and trading worthwhile words with two basketball pundits in Stephen A. Smith and Brian Windhorst.

When discussion transitioned to the Dallas Cowboys, Douglas was unafraid to jump alone into the fire of defending Dak Prescott. He stated that if a team does not have a real quarterback, they cannot win in the NFL, and that Prescott is a top 5 NFL quarterback. Amid Smith’s arguments, Douglas stood strong in his assertion.

First Take host Molly Qerim made the point that backup QB Cooper Rush played well when Prescott was injured and perhaps could succeed Prescott as the starter in Dallas. An incredulous Douglas replied, “Please, y’all spare me with the nonsense.” In an interesting point, Douglas opined that if he were Prescott, he would not want to get a new deal done right now, but instead, would prefer to bet on himself, have a great season, and then be an unrestricted free agent.

Douglas then turned up the volume and went toe to toe with Smith in discussing Cowboys LB Micah Parsons’ poor performances in the playoffs. Smith questioned Douglas comparing Parsons’ postseason failures to the playoff successes of ex-Rams DT Aaron Donald, but Douglas countered by saying that Smith had once compared Parsons to Lawrence Taylor. Smith eventually relented, saying, “I got you.”

The decibel and debate level further heightened later in the show when ESPN college football guru Paul Finebaum joined the panel to talk about expectations for Alabama with new head coach Kalen DeBoer. While both Smith and Finebaum predicted that Alabama would be a solid playoff team, Douglas pulled no punches when analyzing the Crimson Tide.

He said that DeBoer is being well compensated and should get no pass just because he is succeeding the legendary Nick Saban. Douglas also said that in the SEC right now, he has Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, and Missouri ahead of Alabama. Smith vehemently disagreed, but Douglas did not back down and started naming key players on the Missouri squad none of whom Smith could even identify. Having clearly done his homework, Douglas then humorously exhorted Finebaum to coach Smith up on his knowledge.

In short, Douglas knows his stuff. He deftly combines feelings and facts creating an atmosphere of entertaining and excellent debate. Douglas may not have the name recognition of his more seasoned colleagues, but he is coming on mighty and strong with personality, preparation, and pugnacity.

What is Your Breaking News Plan?

Peter Thiele
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What is Your Breaking News Plan?

Every station that I have programmed, there was a breaking news plan. I generally wrote it fairly early in my tenure. Given the past two weekends, it is time to review your plans and execution.

Congratulations to MSNBC and Fox News for executing this past weekend’s Biden announcement. Obviously, the networks had their shows ready for potential breaking news. I listened to a couple of NewsTalk stations that just tossed up the Fox News feed and called that breaking news coverage. Sometimes, these events are totally out of the blue. The Trump assassination attempt was totally out of the blue. The Biden announcement was anticipated. Having a plan for breaking news is essential. Seemingly, we have observed unprecedented moments over the past several years. So, you need a plan.

The Biden announcement was anticipated. The belief is that Joe Biden would make a formal statement from The White House. That didn’t happen. Radio was caught flatfooted in many cases. Depending on the size of the station: News People, Program Directors, Board Operators and Talk Show Hosts were or should have been to the studio. Some hosts were using a Tie-Line, a Rodecaster, or a Comrex to get on the air. This was a unique opportunity to create new listeners. It was a CUME event. Breaking News and weather are events to grow an audience for a NewsTalk station. People do not sit at home on a Sunday. When this came down on Sunday, if your station is in the Eastern or Central Time zones, people were in the car. Your listeners and potential audience were going somewhere or perhaps heading home. People frequently are heading home from brunch or going to an activity of some sort in the afternoon. Many radio stations missed a prime opportunity to shine.

Does your station have a breaking news playbook? This should be no longer than one page. It should start with procedures from breaking cart numbers to disseminating the information as fast as possible. There is no reason to ever wait for more information on a tornado warning. Get it on the air ASAP. The EAS System is great, but it does not provide complete information. The EAS System does not take listeners’ calls. The EAS System is not a personal touch.

Does your station have an on-call list? Everyone deserves some time away from the office. Most people in the NewsTalk format are news junkies who can’t help being plugged into current events every waking moment of the day. It is important to have an appointed point person on the weekend.

If your station was flatfooted the past two weekends, you need to reevaluate. The assassination attempt on Donald Trump was a shocking event that happened at a terrible time for most radio stations. A lot of stations were on total automation with likely no operator in the building. There were people rushing to radio stations all over the country. Sadly, due to a lack of live programming on Saturdays, many stations were running the best-of shows or infomercials. Local news was perhaps recorded hours earlier and the national news 25 minutes later is not enough.

How do you prepare for an event like Biden’s announcement? I would start with a team meeting on the Thursday before the weekend. Find out who can be available if something breaks. Generally, unless there is a trip out of town, most news people and talk show hosts live for this. You will need to coordinate with the sales manager, the market manager and traffic. If there is an infomercial, you will need to let these people know in advance that breaking news will be imperative. Then, quickly getting something on the air is the most important thing. Join your station’s national news partner immediately. As your station’s host arrives, I would go live until the event’s news seems wrapped up.

With the Biden announcement, the coverage would have needed to be at least three hours. Every breaking news event is a living and breathing beast. Being live and local is essential. Fox News, MSNBC and the others were prepared and probably had their producers ready to come in at any moment. Those networks likely already had the guests booked. Considering that Biden chose X to make the announcement was the biggest shock. This event was completely shocking except for the fact that it looked like Joe Biden had to quit after his poor debate showing and his polling. Could your host have guests booked for such an occasion? I bet that answer is yes. Once those guests are pre-booked for the special broadcast, the only thing that is plug and play is the actual time of the broadcast. Obviously, MSNBC and Fox News employ many of their experts. Your station probably does not employ guests.

More is better in these situations. Staying on longer is much more important. This allows your station to sound on top of the breaking news. Remember, your audience and potential listeners are not there at the beginning of the story. The listener received a text from a friend. There was an alert on their phone. Someone brought the breaking news up at brunch or the activity. The listener is not on your schedule. This is essential for us to remember.

Brand Expectations Matter In Viral Moments

Robby Bridges
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Brand Expectations Matter In Viral Moments

There was quite a chorus this past week after singer Ingrid Andress’ cringe-worthy performance of our national anthem at the MLB’s Home Run Derby. The fact of the matter is, she was completely off pitch and her voice cracking to the point it appeared to be a parody rather than a serious attempt at performance. No dispute of the reality. The immediate reactions were either “What the hell happened?” or “How offensive to butcher the anthem, especially in these divisive times in which we live.” Fair.

What comes next is dependent on a show/ personalities’ brand in how they react. When viral events like the Andress “performance” happen fans of hosts/shows come to them for their comment. In a sea of content where they have a choice, they make one. This is where a host needs to know who they are, and a show needs to know its brand.

While the choirs of music and radio industry insiders seemed to universally call for compassion and heart and quiet, if not shame, detractors, if a show’s brand or a host’s character is to insult, make fun, poke fun, or mock incredulous, they should do it without fear nor concern for critics or of offending a listener.

Conversely, if the brand expectation is warm and inviting, meet that. If not, “compassion and grace” generally doesn’t attract attention or get a market buzzing or fans talking. It’s vanilla. The endless online comments opining “kindness” are more cringeworthy than Ingrid singing the anthem. This is show business. It’s not truly personal.

To this point, read a newsletter from a consultant this past week suggesting shows/hosts should always be thinking of the listener and trying to be what they want, letting the listener guide the content choice. I’d suggest that, again, is a vanilla, safe, uninspired strategy. Hosts/shows should tell the audience who they are and what they are, and if there is talent there, a connection with an audience will happen and then so long as the host/show is always authentic regardless of their view, the audience will seek, accept and embrace the POVs offered and appreciate being guided to the content because the choice of show/host was made by them. There’s a trust built.

Insiders argue that talent should try to anticipate research study answers to please an audience and avoid any prickly stance on a topic or risk shaming, which is political correctness at its worst and a first-class ticket to mediocrity.

KS95’s Tricia “TJ” Jenkins Loving Life In the Twin Cities

BMM Staff
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KS95’s Tricia “TJ” Jenkins Loving Life In the Twin Cities

KS95’s Tricia “TJ” Jenkins is a full-grown woman of 46 years, with more than two decades’ worth of professional radio airchecks to highlight her hard work. She’s also got a closet full of VHS tapes of her much younger self singing and dancing to New Kids on the Block and Paula Abdul.

Those VHS gems were recorded in Omaha, Nebraska, where she was born, raised, and went to college.

“I went to school to become a principal and a teacher,” she says, “and my friend who did a radio show asked me to join her. I did, and I was like, you can go to college for it?  I changed my major the next day to Communications. I knew that’s what I wanted to do forever.”  She graduated from Wayne State with a B.A. in Media Studies and Broadcast Journalism in 2001.

“Radio,” she says, “is a way to be in music even though I have no musical talent.” That college show, “T & T Club Cuts,” (her co-host’s name was Tricia, too) led the way to TJ’s crisscrossing the country for radio jobs in San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Modesto, California, and currently, Minneapolis/St. Paul.

TJ loves all kinds of music. Her “walk up” song? “Good As Hell” by Lizzo. Shaboozey and Teddy Swims are current favorites, but her first love is country. She was raised on it.

She’s hosted two country music radio shows, including a morning show in the country music capital of the world. The tough part about that gig was not just waking up early, she says, but also being an early bird where there’s the best in live music pretty much 24/7. “When you have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning in Nashville, either you don’t sleep or you have FOMO,” she says.

Losing sleep and/or missing out was worth it. “The time I spent in Nashville was a big deal. I was on a nationally syndicated morning show, and we had an international audience with ‘Afternoons in the UK,’ which ran on Country Hits Radio UK.”  What’s more, it was her very first morning show, with heavy hitting co-hosts: country music recording artist Chuck Wicks, and radio great Ty Bentli. It was Bentli who asked TJ to join “The Ty Bentli Show,” then on Westwood One, saying she’s “hilariously honest, strategically focused and innately curious about others.”

That lasted for a year and a half. “Ty went over to Apple Music,” she says, and “COVID changed everything.”

But she ended up where she wanted to be. That’s back in the Minneapolis market, where she’d worked from 2012 to 2018 as Midday Music Director at KMNB.                            

Now, she’s Assistant Brand and Content Director, Music Director, and Midday Host from 9:30 to 2:00 p.m. on Hubbard Radio’s flagship brand, KS95.

“We’re really lucky. Minneapolis is such a special market, and KS95 listeners are really loyal.”  She and Brand Manager Mat Mitchell choose the station’s music together. TJ says the listeners trust their taste so they can include country crossovers and other interesting picks to their Hot Adult Contemporary format. Their tag line “Today’s Variety, from 2k to Today.”

She met her husband, Ricky Stark, who’s fourteen years younger than TJ after he replied to her somewhat snarky social media post. “You, too, can find love on Twitter. You don’t need a dating app,” she quips.

“I had tweeted something sarcastic that I was eating organic Cheetos, so I’m healthy now.” Stark, then a personal trainer, tweeted that it was good to see someone with her visibility on her platform promoting healthy eating.

“I was like, who is this jokester? Healthy eating? It’s still Cheetos! But I saw his picture, and he was really cute,” she recalls, “and we became friends. And then he slid into the DMs, as the kids say.”

Speaking of kids, they have one. TJ got pregnant very unexpectedly about a year after they started dating. Their beloved Ambrielle is now seven years old. Their little “Nilly” is a blessing, indeed, as doctors told TJ it would be almost impossible for her to have a child due to an immune deficiency disease.

She had also suffered from a recurring nightmare that she would die during childbirth. It could be because of a Tim Burton video she remembers watching when she was twelve, where a mother dies during delivery, and the child grows up motherless.

These factors combined to terrify TJ during her challenging pregnancy, and the birth was difficult, too. TJ’s mother, there to help, fainted in the delivery room. Then, she says, “Ambrielle was born with the cord wrapped around herself twice.” Then, TJ got really sick.

“The doctor said she was on a tightrope between life and death,” says her husband, as TJ had an ovarian clot, which could have been fatal.

“Our morning show hosts at KMNB were sharing a countdown on the air of how the birth was going, and when I had the complications,” TJ recalls, “everything started going south very quickly. I used Facebook to mention what was going on and I got bombarded with people messaging me and sending me flowers.

“One listener wrote: ‘I don’t know you, but I have my whole church praying for you, and we listen every day.’ I’m not that religious, but in those days, I could feel it.” She says the collective prayers and healing thoughts of the community cured her.

She and her husband shared the very personal and very dicey details of their medical experience on a podcast called “Birth Confidential.”

“That was really important to me. That was an idea of a friend of mine who had eight miscarriages who said she wished more people talked about this and that it was more in the open. She was right, so I shared my traumatic birth story. Lots of women were more than willing to share, and it brought comfort.”

She even told listeners that she both vomited on and wet herself when she was pregnant. “That’s just real life,” she says. “I’ve always been an over-sharer, and I always say way too much. I sometimes wish I could take it back, but then I say, there has to be someone out there representing the pee-ers and pukers on themselves, and I am that person.”

She says social media and podcasts are critical to communicating your brand.

“I’m always trying to think of something new. There are 1000 podcasts for every single topic. What can we do that’s different?

“My daughter is a character, so we thought we could get her to answer some funny questions or have her tell stories or read a book. There aren’t a lot of podcasts for kids. We keep them short so it’s listenable and I thought it would be good for parents and kids to listen to a podcast together, so that if she was scared of going to kindergarten then another kindergartener can hear about that and about a lot of different things that happen at that age.”

The listener response to “Six Minutes with My Six-Year-Old” was robust. Nilly, however, “got bored and wanted to go outside.”

The household is hectic, with a precocious seven-year-old and plenty of pets. “At this moment, we have one cat and two dogs, but there was a moment in time where we had three dogs (including a beloved dog ironically named ‘Kitty’) and two cats,” she says.

TJ’s a beer drinker and carb-lover who goes overboard on holidays, having as many as eight Christmas trees and a llama at her daughter’s birthday party. In addition to family time, she takes girls trips to Disney and solo road trips, and says while she dreams of palm trees, “I’ve lived all over and experienced so much and I’m really content and love Minneapolis.”

She’s involved in vetting new hires for KS95 and advises aspiring radio pros to learn as much as possible and to post on social media to showcase their personality. In TJ’s trajectory, timing was everything. She knew the right person at the right time.

“Find someone who’s willing to aircheck you,” she says. “First, believe in yourself and then find one other person who believes in you, too. It can make all the difference.”

20 Brands In 20 Days: Ron Allen, 96.3 JACK-FM, Nashville

Jeff Lynn
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20 Brands In 20 Days: Ron Allen, 96.3 JACK-FM, Nashville

To support the launch of the new Barrett Media, we’ve created a special series titled “20 Brands In 20 Days.” Highlighting successful stations across the country in various formats by conducting conversations with their brand leaders. Up next is Midwest Communication’s Ron Allen. Ron is PD for WJXA (96.3 JACK-FM)/ Nashville. The station we are highlighting today.

Jeff Lynn: So in the country music capital of the world, you are consistently one or two with a Classic Hits JACK station. How do you manage that?

Ron Allen: I think there’s a lot of hard work and a lot of great people in our building.

A great company behind us that has paid for a lot of great research. So, everything comes together in a way that gives us an opportunity to be successful and to win. I think we have a great brand.

It’s been here for 19 years. It launched on May 12, 2005, so it was one of the first JACK stations in the country. I think just having that consistency and heritage is still paying off for us.

JL: One of the first JACK stations. A lot of them have moved on to probably two or three other formats by now, and yet you’re still in there. What do you owe the longevity to on that?

RA: I think that we have a unique position here at Music City—a very broad radio station. We don’t have to be anybody’s P1.

We could be everybody’s P2 and be successful. But we have a great street presence with a great brand face in Moose, who gets out, shakes hands, and kisses babies. We do a pretty heavy outdoor marketing campaign fairly consistently every year.

The company spends money on research, allowing us to have fun and make great radio. And I think that that stands out in today’s landscape. We keep making real radio the way it was meant to be done.

JL: Have you, as the brand, switched its focus? Some of The JACKs in the beginning were 80s Rock, Classic Rock, and Classic Hits. Have you had to shift over the years to stay in that number one position?

RA: We just had our biggest book ever. We were not number one among 25-54 persons in the market until about 2017 or 2018.

We have a huge sister station, MIX 92.9, and they have pretty much owned that position for years. We’d never really been able to jump past them. But we started seeing more consistency in the ratings at about that point. Last month was our 39th number one, and we’re already seeing trends that this month will be our 40th.

Part of that is because we haven’t necessarily continued to evolve. We have found our lane and we’ve continued to stick in it.

When they first launched it in 2005, it was all over the place and not well defined. I think they knew what they wanted to do but weren’t sure how to get there.

By the time I arrived in 2012, they had figured that out. And then it was just a little refining, a little more street presence, and a little more commitment to the writing. That consistency of knowing who we are musically, staying in that lane, we haven’t changed much at all musically in the last seven or eight years.

We’re still playing Prince, Journey, and all those songs. We’re playing a little Adele and Justin Timberlake, but we don’t get much farther down the evolution than that.

People have come to expect who we are from us. We’re very consistent every year, and they enjoy the brand. And we haven’t gotten caught up in that game of, oh my gosh, somebody’s doing well over here. We need to slide in this direction. Or this is being successful. This music trend is hot. We continue to be who we are. And I think that’s led to success.

JL: When I programmed Classic Rock, Classic Hits, and Oldies, I was always tempted to tinker with it. Staying in your lane takes discipline.

RA: Well, it’s hard in PPM or any radio market. But I think it’s a little harder in PPM, where you see those dailies. You see those weeklies.

There’s a lot of pressure to knee-jerk and react. I think that the smart programmer stays the course, has a long-term plan, knows that there’s been success, and knows there will be wobble in those numbers. And you accept that. You don’t love it but accept it, move past it, and stay with the plan.

JL: When I lived in Nashville, sitting in traffic jams, I would see your billboards. Midwest gives you a lot of support. You’re not the largest cluster or company, but you are the largest two radio stations in town.

RA: It’s pretty amazing. I think those billboards have been a really important part of our success. It comes back to that creative writing on the brand.

I’ve got a great group of writers in my office every Wednesday morning, and they come up with the stuff you’ll hear on the air. But you’re also coming up with the stuff that we’re going to use in those billboards and those billboard campaigns.

The messaging is just short enough to cut through. And I think those have helped define the brand’s identity and keep us top of mind while you’re sitting in your car with your radio right in front of you.

So, hats off to billboards, which have helped us define the brand and keep us top of mind.

JL: I think it’s funny. I could not sit here right now and tell you one thing you had on there, but I could tell you I saw JACK all the time, and I laughed, and I smiled, and I remembered JACK.

RA: I think we’re strategic with those boards. We’re not cluttering them up. You’ve got them up for a few seconds.

It’s not a bunch of copy. It’s the Jack logo, and it’s very large. And then it’s a funny quip, a funny statement, something about the music.

It’s three or four words. It’s never going to be more than that. What we’re trying to do is just brand funny, creative, and musically oriented we are. And those billboards help.

JL: Talk to me a little bit about Moose.

RA: Oh, what can I say about Moose? I mean, he’s been here since the brand launched. He came in in 2005 and predates me when I came in in 2007.

When I got here, he was sort of a character, but it wasn’t really who he was. It wasn’t his personality. He and I sat down and talked about who he was as a person, who he was as a professional, and where he wanted his career to go.

And I said this character that you’re portraying, is that you? He said I’m just a big, lovable teddy bear. I’m just a fun guy.

So, then, why aren’t we doing that? That comes naturally. He said well, I wear funny shorts, and I go out and have a good time.

I told him, well, wear your funny shorts and go out and have a good time. He goes out and tries to meet every listener. We do summer campaigns that are sometimes called “Moose Meets Every Listener” or JACK’s World Tour.

We go to all the little surrounding cities. We have an ice cream truck, so we give away ice cream every summer, and Moose gets to throw on his wild golf shorts and go out to meet listeners, shake hands, and kiss babies.

We’re a market of almost a couple million people, but that’s still impactful. Sometimes, we forget that the one-on-one connection that personalities can still make with our audience is just invaluable. And he’s the perfect guy to do that.

JL: There’s just nothing to replace it. Meeting the listeners.

RA: No, it’s invaluable for what we do. I think we all got into the business because we love that connection with our audience and our communities. I think we still have a commitment and a responsibility to our communities to go out and do walks and runs and do those big things, but also just to be visible and represent radio and what we do for a living.

JL: Are you using AI, or how has it impacted your job?

RA: You know, it’s funny. I think AI is the biggest topic of conversation, probably not only in our industry but every industry. If you’re an accountant right now, that’s sort of scary.

AI is going to do my taxes. We’re in the entertainment business. Voice tracking has been going on for years.

There’s been multi-market stuff going on. I find it a little scary, but I also find it a little exciting. If done right, applications will be part of our world. It’s here, and there’s not much we can do about it.

I still don’t think it replaces the human touch we discussed. AI is not going to go out and meet our listeners. AI will not be as creative in a writing session as I hope we are when we sit down in my office and talk, chat, and bounce ideas off each other.

Can it generate algorithms, ideas, and concepts? Sure, but I think the human element will always shine through.

For years, we’ve told our audiences that human connection is the most important thing. And then for us as an industry to go, whoops, just kidding. I don’t know how we do that.

I don’t see that happening. And I hope it doesn’t happen.

JL: Anything else you want me to know about you or the brand?

RA: Any successful brand is a combination of hard work and luck. You put the best product on it and pray. And I think that’s what we all do.

We are fortunate to have some tools and research. I also have a great staff. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with or a better company to work for.

I’m fortunate. But I hope that we, as an industry, remember those things. We remember how important that community and that commitment to shaking hands and kissing babies are and how successful they can make you.

And that we never get away from it. That would be my philosophy.

Listen to JACK-FM here.  Find them on Facebook, and Instagram. Connect with Ron Allen here.

Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster Believes Podcasting Has a Bright and Profitable Future

Garrett Searight
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Sounds Profitable’s Tom Webster Believes Podcasting Has a Bright and Profitable Future

Despite being more than 20 years old, the podcasting industry is still in its infancy in many ways. Despite not being as polished to advertisers as many of its media brethren, revenue continues to grow, as does listenership. And Sounds Profitable partner Tom Webster believes the future is a bright one for the industry.

As you might deduce, podcast listening has grown as the industry has evolved and become more widely available and accepted. And while the growth on that front has been encouraging, what’s been more surprising is the revenue associated with on-demand audio.

“The revenues and the sort of commercial interest in it has grown considerably over the last five to seven years. The actual audience growth has always been slow, and steady, and linear, right? It’s never been sort of rocket ship growth on the audience side, but it goes up every year,” said Webster. “And to me, it’s less about this kind of special snowflake that I think podcasting might be to some people and more about a really core behavior. That is the desire on behalf of a listener to listen to whatever content that they want, wherever, and whenever. They want the right to have that kind of control and convenience over it.

“There have been some high-profile podcasts that have attracted more advertising attention to it, but the audience is already here. I think one of our biggest goals at Sounds Profitable really is just to get podcasting to punch its weight with advertising dollars with the audience that it already has.”

While podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience and The Daily feature humongous audiences and robust revenues, advertisers haven’t fully embraced the middle-tier programs. That’s where Webster believes the growth potential lies for the industry.

“People tend to want to buy the biggest shows. Those shows don’t necessarily have a lot of inventory. And I think one of the things that we have to unlock in this business is continuing to make it easier, and frictionless, and risk-free to buy the smaller shows at scale, with the kind of targeting that podcasting enables,” Webster said.

“I think the great blue ocean for podcasting is to unlock the monetization of the millions of smaller shows out there because they convert really well. The data that we do have on those smaller shows is that when they talk about products and services to their audiences, people are super loyal to those hosts. So we need to continue to unlock that space for monetization.”

Revenues continue to grow in the space. In June alone, the top 15 advertisers in podcasting grew their spending by 7%, with those accounting for more than $42 million of commercials in that month alone.

And yet, there are still some podcast formats that lag behind other less established genres. Tom Webster believes it’s the industry’s job to educate those potential advertisers.

“People talk a lot about things like brand suitability … brand suitability is sort of a big buzzword with buyers and agencies and not wanting their content next to things that they might find objectionable, right? But podcasting actually has a lot of ability in that space,” he shared. “There’s a lot of tech available to be able to target things very precisely. And I think when you use keyword kinds of brand suitability tools to screen things out, you run the risk of doing things like defunding the news.

“Or because, ‘I don’t want my ad to run next to something that mentions a gun.’ Well, the news talks about guns and things like that. So I do think that news can continue to be monetized. I think things like true crime — true crime is absolutely the biggest genre with women. In the top 15 advertisers in podcasting, true crime was the top category I think for only two of them. So people are still sort of like ‘I don’t know if I want my brand to be associated with murder.’ And yet, people run ads on that kind of content on TV all the time. So I think there’s more education that needs to be done.”

The Daily Wire is one of the conservative news organizations leading a similar fight. That organization — which was co-founded by podcast titan Ben Shapiro — believes recent standards put in place by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) specifically hurt conservative organizations.

Tom Webster — who recently published a book “The Audience is Listening”, which details his insights into the industry — believes that there’s a misunderstanding from potential marketers about the “objectionable” content.

“People come up with edge cases when they think about these things. ‘Oh, my ad’s gonna run next to the Nazi podcast’ or whatever, but that’s not going to happen,” he shared. “Those are real edge cases. The truth is, and we actually put out a study on this called ‘Safe and Sound’ a couple of years ago, that people who are fans of true crime podcasts and potentially controversial comedy podcasts, they love the brands that support them. They self-select into liking those shows. They’re not listening to things that offend them. So the fact that a brand supports that content that they love, that they have self-selected to listen to, they’re much more likely to recall that brand and think favorably about that brand. And we have data that supports that.”

Mike Felger: NBA vs TNT Sports ‘Has a Chance to Be a Bit of a Mess’ for Both Sides

BSM Staff
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Mike Felger: NBA vs TNT Sports ‘Has a Chance to Be a Bit of a Mess’ for Both Sides

The NBA doesn’t appear to want to continue it’s relationship with TNT Sports. 98.5 The Sports Hub afternoon host Mike Felger believes the situation can get quite interesting in the coming days.

During Felger & Mazz, the Boston sports host argued that the league would be ridiculous to choose Warner Bros. Discovery over Amazon for the next decade, but said the contract sure sounds as if the cable network has a strong case to make.

“They’re gonna stick with Amazon. And I can feel that … TNT is saying ‘Wait a minute. We have the right of first refusal. We’re matching, and you’re saying we can’t match? You’re gonna stay with Amazon? We’re gonna sue your ass’,” Felger said. “TNT has a contract that says they can match any offer and retain the rights, which they’re doing. If the NBA says no, they’re in a breach of contract … For TNT to not sue them, the NBA is gonna have to give them something. Either just money or a we’ll whole fourth, fifth package to satisfy your demands. It’s like a charity event and you have two people bidding up an item. At some point, you just say ‘Ok, you each win.'”

When Tony Massarotti said that the league will probably just carve out another package, Mike Felger argued that makes things even more complicated.

“Except now these other partners are now gonna say ‘Hey wait a minute. We thought we were gonna be one of three. Now there’s gonna be others?’ It’s a mess. This isn’t a charity where the guy was happy to give more to charity. This is a business … this has a chance to be a bit of a mess.”

After the NBA announced it had not accepted the deal from TNT Sports, the network insinuated it would indeed take legal action.

“We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it,” a statement from the network read. “We think they have grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-2026 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action.”

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