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10 Questions with ... Bruce Newbury
July 30, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. That radio still matters. Radio is an important part of people's lives, whether they are listening over the air or streaming on their phones or Alexa. It is a way for people to connect, and that is something that people need more than ever
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
I have been talking on the radio since I was eleven years old, when I walked into my hometown station, WRLM (FM) Taunton, Mass. and asked the announcer if I could go on air. (It was the late 60’s and on FM, there were no “disc jockeys,” only “announcers.”) A man in a suit and tie sat me in a studio and auditioned me. I passed the audition because I could pronounce “probability of precipitation,” and did the 1:00 PM weather live. I would spend four years at that station during and after my time at Grahm College. In the late 70s, I made the big time – playing the hits from 10pm to 2am on WPRO-FM Providence. However, I apparently talked too much. I also voice-tracked before it was fashionable. So, I moved to New London CT, and bounced around as an AC personality up and down the AM dial from Providence to Boston.
In the early 80s, I took a detour out of radio and went into the coffee business. However, I wanted to get back into radio and do talk. In the late 80s I got the call from WPRO(AM) talk radio. No worries about talking too much here! I did a lot of celebrity interviews including Bill Clinton and Howard Stern. When the restaurant boom hit Providence in 1996, station management came to me with the idea of developing a restaurant-focused talk show. “Dining Out with Bruce Newbury” debuted on WPRO in May 1996. Twenty-four years and twenty-five stations later, including Boston and NYC, the Food Dude broadcasts live about food, wine and dining out every week.
1. Everybody likes food and drink. Everybody eats and drinks. But not everybody makes food and drink their specialty, nor do they become experts in those categories on the radio. What made you decide to follow these particular passions -- food, drink, radio?
It is true everybody eats and drinks but, to some, food and drink is more than just fuel. They are not eating just to eat. To these people, food is their entertainment and their passion! These foodie listeners tell me how I make them hungry just describing food on the radio. What a wonderful group they are. It is so great to be based in Providence, one of the great food cities and all over Rhode Island, from Newport to South County with its bounty of seafood, even the suburbs have outstanding Restaurant Rows.
I have had the great fortune to work alongside and learn from chefs and restaurateurs and culinary schools who are at the forefront of the foodie culture. Working in the coffee industry, I learned to cup and blend coffee which really helped develop my palate. This skill easily translated to wine. There you go -- food, drink, radio. It’s my logo!
2. New England's cuisine is usually stereotyped as seafood-centric (chowder, lobster rolls, etc.). What would you advise a first-time visitor to try -- both the "greatest hits" and the food they wouldn't expect?
The ultimate Rhode Island dining out experience is the clambake. It is served at places like Flo’s Clam Shack in Newport but for the real thing you have to be invited to one. Bakemaster T.R. McGrath puts on the best. Rhode Island lobster, steamed clams and mussels all in their shells, sweet corn, sausage (for best results, Portuguese linguica or spicy chourico), cod and new potatoes, all cooked on wood-fired stones piled with a salt-water-rich seaweed known as rockweed. The whole thing is covered with canvas sheets. The heat bubbles the rockweed to bursting making a giant steam bath in which everything cooks. It takes a while, which is why they invented beach volleyball, badminton, softball and beer.
You may be surprised to learn that Rhode Island has become a prime craft beer destination. A new brewery pops up almost every week. There are literally dozens of microbreweries statewide and each one steps up its game more than the last. Now many of these brewers are opening up adjacent restaurants, some seating a hundred or more with creative pub-style fare. One of the newest is Apponaug Brewery where I just sampled a trendy Berlinerweisse – a tart summer beer. Traditionally this style has a fruit syrup mixed in but this brewer adds fresh raspberries during the brewing process, making it a great match for pub menu items such as banh mi fries – topped with pickled veggies, jalapenos and mint, drizzled with siriracha aioli and hoisin sauce!
3. You syndicate your show across New England, from WVMT in Burlington, Vermont to WADK in Newport, Rhode Island, the signal of which booms across the water to Montauk, Long Island. What's the process of getting your show out there -- do you broker the time and sell the ads yourself, do you barter, do you have someone doing the legwork for you? How do you do it?
You left out Montreal, Perry! WVMT puts a great signal into Montreal. In fact, one of my Rhode Island advertisers –- the Blue Plate Diner in Middletown -- insists on running on the network. His goal is to fill up his parking lot with “Je me souviens” license plates visiting Newport from Quebec. Every time there’s a Vermont or QC car in his lot, he texts me: “It’s all you!”
“Dining Out with Bruce Newbury” is my family business. I have used every broadcast business model out there. What I have found works best is simply to serve a select group of marketing partners, for whom I do endorsement advertising (live reads where I do more selling before you know you’re listening to a commercial), and to have affiliate partners who are on board with the show. That usually means station owners. It is much tougher with local managers answering to corporate, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. Right now, I am working with two of the best. Bonnie Gomes owns WADK with her family. I was the first call she made when she took over the station. Under previous ownership, WADK was my first affiliate in 1997 when I needed a flanker to clear my spots due to my Providence flagship preempting for sports play-by-play. In Burlington, Ken Barlow says it best when he and his team describe WVMT as one of the Vox Family of Stations. As a kid, I spent summers in Vermont, and WVMT was the must-hear radio I dreamed about being on someday. Now, I am part of that family. My job is to find opportunities for my affiliates by creating on-premise marketing programs at restaurants and at retail locations.
4. Your show is available on radio and as a podcast. What does the radio broadcast do for you that podcasting doesn't, and vice versa? Are the audiences different, is one an extension of the other, or are they different animals?
”The Bruce Newbury Food Dude Podcast” is on most of the major podcast platforms. I have found that it is very appealing to listeners, clients and prospects that I have a podcast. Although there is some overlap in content, the podcast format offers more leeway for bonus material such as unedited chef interviews. In podcast-only episodes I push the envelope a little and bring up things that wouldn’t fit on a radio show about food, wine, Dining Out and making people hungry -- such as the possibility your Uber Eats driver is sampling your food on the way to your house. (Eww.) The radio episodes are useful to give clients and prospects a taste of what the show is all about. My experience is that most of my listeners prefer TuneIn and other streaming apps. People walk up to me at my remotes with their phones out to show me my picture on TuneIn to let me know they are streaming. Recently a Gen Z’er walked by my location at a supermarket and heard me mention I was on TuneIn. He took out one earbud and gave me a thumbs up, saying, “That’s how I listen to radio!” That was a great insight.
5. Who have been your influences and inspirations in the business?
We stand on the shoulders of giants, as the saying goes. My first was the legendary Jess Cain, who did mornings on WHDH Boston for almost forty years. He made live spots into theatrical productions. My favorite part of listening to his show were his live reads.
Another major inspiration was Gene Burns on WRKO, the gold standard of talk radio. He did a show on Sundays called “Dining Around.” He would be on location every weekend from a resort in the White Mountains one week to a hotel ballroom in Boston full of listeners doing a cookie swap the next. That is the reason why “Dining Out” is on location every weekend -- at one time doing one hundred remotes a year. I was fortunate to have met Gene. He was the consummate professional who brought respect to our industry. I learned from him that it was reasonable to turn down advertisers, which I have had to do to maintain the quality I bring to my other marketing partners and my brand.
Another was Joan Hamburg. No one knows her market like Joan knows New York and everyone knows her.
6. There are a lot of people who profess to be food and wine experts on the internet, and on radio, and in print. What do you try to bring to the table to differentiate yourself from all the other dining critics? What makes you different?
I do not refer to myself as a critic or even a reviewer. I never tell anyone where not to go. For that, we have Yelp. My listeners tune in to find out where to go and what to eat. At least 8 times an hour, I am describing a dish that my listeners can go and enjoy that very night.
7. Gotta ask, and I won't do it as "your final meal," because that's kinda morbid, but... what would be your ultimate meal, the one that would top all others, appetizer to dessert with wine pairings? (I guess it IS sort of like your final pre-execution meal, but we'll assume that it's more "if you could create one perfect meal, what would it include?" than your real "last meal"....)
From one of my favorite restaurants in Providence, CAV, a wonderfully eclectic place with hand-woven tablecloths from Uzbekistan:
Jumbo crab cake encrusted in pistachios with sriracha aioli paired with WillaKenzie Estate Pinot Gris from the Willamette Valley.
Also from CAV: House-made ravioli filled with ricotta, Meyer lemon and arugula, arugula pesto and grape tomato. Pairing: Wente Vineyards Riva Ranch Chardonnay from Monterey, California
Then from David Burke Steakhouse, his Kansas City bone-in sirloin, dry-aged in Himalayan salt, mid-rare, topped with a lobster tail and horseradish cream on the side -- or lobster mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus on the side. Louis Martini 1997 Cabernet. Dessert would be Burke’s chocolate fudge cake with espresso gelato and a double espresso.
8. Of what are you most proud?
That would be who: Ben and Brooke Newbury. My kids have made appearances on the air with me since they were 3 years old, playing piano and harp, reviewing food and taking part in my holiday reading of A Christmas Carol. Ben is off to college this fall and Brooke is a junior in high school. Then there is my wife Brenda, the brains –- and the beauty -- of the outfit.
9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without ____________.
…COFFEE. Dark roast, black, please.
10. What's the most important lesson you've learned in your career?
That radio still matters. Radio is an important part of people’s lives, whether they are listening over the air or streaming on their phones or Alexa. It is a way for people to connect, and that is something that people need more than ever.
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