Today you can hear Mistress Carrie on four different radio stations as well as three separate podcasts, but it hasn’t always been that way. Until 2020, her radio career was defined by consistency, working at one station — WAAF/Boston — for 22 years. And while her recollections from those days illustrate how she grew up during a vastly different time in Rock radio, the story of her reinvention after the station changed formats may be the most inspiring part of her journey.
From Intern to On-Air Talent
It all started in 1991, when she began interning at WAAF. She worked for free for more than three years before being hired as a part-time street team member, a job she held for four years. Then, when the station’s afternoon hosts, Opie and Anthony, were given the budget to hire a producer, everything changed.
“Because they had gotten so successful the station decided to get them a producer,” Carrie remembers. “My thought was, Howard Stern’s got Robin, Opie and Anthony should have a female producer, so I applied even though my only on-air experience was in college radio.”
She didn’t get the job, but when Program Director Dave Douglas gave her the bad news, he asked a fateful question: “Have you ever thought about being a DJ yourself?” Even though she’d been at a radio station for eight years, the idea caught her completely off guard.
“I had applied for every job, including the program director, because I was young, and stupid, and just wanted a job. When Dave asked me if I had ever thought about being a DJ, I said no,” Carrie says. “Because I’m an idiot and I was heartbroken because I wanted the producer job. But also, I just had never thought of myself as being the talent. I always thought I would be the person behind the scenes.”
Opie and Anthony
When she told Opie and Anthony about the conversation, they set her straight and sent her back to Douglas’ office. “Opie yelled at me. He told me I was an idiot. He told me to swallow my pride, apologize, and tell Dave, whatever you need me for, I’ll do it,” she says. “Not many people in this industry say, thank God I took business advice from Opie. I, however, did and it was the best decision I ever made.”
She did weekend shifts for a few months before Opie and Anthony helped her career in a second, unexpected way: they got fired. The station’s night host got promoted into afternoons, and Carrie was given the night shift. “They were like, let’s give Carrie a shot. We didn’t have any other women on the air at that point so let’s see what she can do.”
It was a tough way to start her full-time on-air career. Opie and Anthony were incredibly popular, and the audience was upset. The station had to fire them after they falsely announced that the mayor of Boston was dead. But that didn’t mean the audience wasn’t angry.
“Dave called me into his office and said the listeners are pissed. If you answer the phones, people are going to scream at you, they’re going to say they hate you,” Carrie recalls. “Then Dave literally walked me down the hallway, put a hand between my shoulder blades, and pushed me into the studio. He said, ‘figure it out kid’ and closed the door. That was the first night of my full-time radio career, and I’ve never looked back.”
When You Could Get Away With Anything
Even though she had a full-time slot, Carrie was still inexperienced. But in some ways, being naïve about radio and having been around shows like Opie and Anthony freed her to explore the limits of Rock radio — before the infamous Janet Jackson incident, back when you could get away with nearly anything.
“There was a porn star in California I was introduced to through a band. She used to call me every Friday and talk about her week of work. And in true AAF fashion, we found a way to get her to Boston with help from advertisers like strip clubs and adult stores,” says Carrie. “She ended up in the studio co-hosting the show and a female listener begged to come in and meet her. Within 45 minutes I was emceeing play-by-play like Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football, of the two of them having sex on the console.”
When things… finished… Carrie didn’t feel right going into commercials, so she played a song. “I came in for my air check on Monday and Dave Douglas is sitting at his desk with the commercial log and the music log. I’m sweating because I’m sure I’m getting fired,” she remembers. “Then he kind of sat back and gave me career advice I’m sure no one else in this industry has ever got. He said, and I quote, ‘the next time you have a porn star and a listener in the studio, drop the songs, not the spots.'”
Life After WAAF
Carrie stayed at the station until it changed formats in early 2020. That was a turning point in her life in many ways. “When AAF got sold we were all set adrift. Then, within a couple of weeks, COVID hit. Around the same time my mom was diagnosed with early onset dementia and Alzheimer’s and my boyfriend, an active duty Marine, got orders to deploy for twelve to eighteen months.”
Carrie had job offers, but her mom’s illness made it nearly impossible to move, so she regrouped. “That set of circumstances made me decide to take a room in my house and build a studio. Though at that point, I had no idea if my brand meant anything to anyone outside of WAAF,” she says. “I was Mistress Carrie from WAAF. It was like, my first name was Mistress Carrie, my last name was from WAAF. When the ‘from WAAF’ was gone, I didn’t know what Mistress Carrie meant. I didn’t know who I was without the station. It was the only place I’d worked. It was devastating.”
COVID
In addition to building the studio, Carrie used the downtime during COVID to start her own company. Once again, she planned to work behind the scenes, thinking she could be a producer. But once again, she landed on the air, this time with Westwood One’s 24-hour Rock format. “It was a great opportunity to show the industry what I could do, and not just in Boston. Because I think a lot of people thought, I was so Boston-centric.”
The Westwood position led to an opportunity inside the company with Cumulus Classic Rock WWFX (The Pike)/Worcester, which got her back on the air in New England. Since then, she’s added shows at WLZX (Lazer 99.3 & 98.5)/Springfield, MA; WHXR (The Bone)/Portland, ME; and WIQB/WKZQ (98 Rock)/Charleston, SC. Add in three regular podcasts, and she’s emerged from the sale of WAAF as strong, and busy, as ever.
A Custom Show for Every Station
While she’s not doing Westwood One anymore, she does a custom show every day for each of her radio stations. “If you’re not looking for generic content from the incredible syndicated shows that are out there, but instead you want something that’s more catered to your station specifically, that’s what I do.”
And she brings a lot of content with her. Between nearly two decades of talking to bands as music director at WAAF and now the Mistress Carrie podcast, her archive of interviews is extensive. Add in the access her relationships with artists give her, and you can see what drives her show. “Music is the heart of the station and for the music lover who tunes in I’m the one who knows what’s going on. And I’ve got the content to back it up.”
Local
Despite having bandwidth for more stations, Carrie says she admires stations with local staffs. “I love being told by a station that they would hire me, but they are trying to stay live and local. I applaud that. But it’s not always possible,” Carrie says. “So, if a station wants a custom show with compelling original content by the artists they play. That’s what I specialize in.”
And it’s that evolution — from one station for 22 years with a team of creative hosts and staff to working alone in what she refers to as MCHQ — that makes Mistress Carrie’s story an important tale of survival in a constantly evolving industry. “Everything about what I did changed. But while every single thing about the industry has changed, the relationship with the audience is the same. That’s the only thing that hasn’t changed.”
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