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10 Questions with ... Gabriel Carrillo
June 6, 2023
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. As far as the station, where is your first social media stop in the morning? Do you have a favorite place to post, personally?
The first stop is ALWAYS Instagram for the station. It's still the hub of where our listeners are. TikTok is massive, no doubt but Instagram is the ultimate bottom of that content funnel where we all end up, eventually.-
BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Started in radio as an unpaid intern (remember those?!) in Sacramento with stops in Vermont, Ithaca, NY, Milwaukee, Canton and now programming in Youngstown.
1. What did you dream of becoming when you were a kid?
Like most kids on the spectrum, I was OBSESSED with dinosaurs so I wanted to be a paleontologist. Then, as I grew older, I realized you had to work outside to do that and I'm just not built for that.
2. What would you be doing now if you weren't in radio?
Honestly, I'd probably still be doing marketing if I needed it to be a money maker. If I hit it rich and didn't need the income, I'd go back to working at a movie theater.
3. What would you like to do better as an air personality?
I thank the dark lord every day I get a small window to entertain people. I don't think there is any "one" thing that I can do better as an air talent, I think the challenge is always going to be, how do I do all my core things better than I did the show before today? Experience has given me a LOT of perspective on this and I think if I were to boil it down to "calls" or "more word economy", it's really missing the forest among the trees.
4. What about as a programmer?
As a programmer, I've been fortunate enough to learn a little from some really great minds. I think the two things that I always push to continuously improve as a programmer are:
A. Don't miss an opportunity to make positive contributions to listeners
B. Don't overthink it. There is such a thing as being too clever and I find a lot of times in radio, myself included, we create things to impress other colleagues and industry minds, rather than be simple and impactful for our own backyard communities.
5. Has the game changed much since the start and run of the pandemic?
How much space do you have for this one?! It's certainly changed and in a lot of ways for the better. I think at the top, the Panini taught the valuable lesson of being a true supporting pillar of communities as a station. I don't know if it's anything more than anecdotal but really look at the stations that weathered the storm well in terms of local and staffed versus empty closets running PCs. People matter because as they say, "people take care of people". It's not "SkyNet takes care of people".
6. As far as the station, where is your first social media stop in the morning? Do you have a favorite place to post, personally?
The first stop is ALWAYS Instagram for the station. It's still the hub of where our listeners are. TikTok is massive, no doubt but Instagram is the ultimate bottom of that content funnel where we all end up, eventually. Twitter is a lost cause and Facebook HATES outside business. Meta seems to still allow IG to be a nexus so until they stop, it's going to reign.
Personally, I tend to avoid social media outside of posting unhinged leftist content on my IG story.
7. What would probably surprise most people about living and working in Youngstown?
I think the biggest surprise for most people is the size of the market. It's the third biggest market I've worked in, and the others were a state capital and the largest market in the state (MKE). Youngstown is on the rise, for sure. There are a lot of great leaders in this community and the people truly are fighters for positive change.
8. You have three consecutive days off work, how are you spending your time?
If I am off that many days in a row, it's usually because I am at some sort of Disney property. Honestly, the biggest thing I'm doing is not worrying about work…and most likely drinking something with an umbrella in it!
9. Who were/are some of your mentors, both in radio and outside of radio?
These questions are tough because you always feel like you leave someone out by accident. But in radio, for me people like Chris Cruise, Clay Church, Nikki Drake, Nick Draeger, "Shorty" Sean McGroarty, Tom Lawler, Tony Lorino, and Dakota Mendenhall are all people that have never failed to give me great radio insight and advice on various aspects of radio and life. My greatest life mentor is probably my therapist. They are amazing and I stand by the fact that every radio person should have a therapist!
10. What makes Loud special to its Youngstown listeners?
LOUD really stands alone here in Youngstown for what we have done and continue to do for our listeners. There is a HUGE lack of community focused radio here in the market, and not only has the station taken root as THE community station, we've managed to do it with a signal that is comparatively smaller than our competition. By focusing on our backyard, we've been able to help lift listeners and organizations that we consider family and neighbors to bigger highs. To quote the worst cliche in radio, "That's why we do it"
Bonus Questions
American Idol, The Voice or America's Got Talent?
Let's see, Marry America's Got Talent, Kill American Idol…oh wait, we aren't doing that version?
My mistake! Honestly, They are fine. I don't watch ANY of them. I'm not trying to be an edgelord but I don't believe most under the age of 45 watches full run shows like that anymore. That's like when you see air talents doing their mandatory social media coverage of The Grammys or The AMA/CMA's. If it wasn't a "Work" thing, most wouldn't waste 5 hours on a Sunday night watching the entire show. What we do watch is the TikToks and Reels from the best moments, just like with anything else. That's the perfect intersection for a culture like ours that has the attention span of a goldfish and is chronically online and I'm fine with it.
If you had to eat one type of meal every day for a month, what would it be?
I'm on the spectrum. Routine, when it comes to food, is paramount. I could, without hesitation, eat some form of chicken every single day. In fact, I've probably unknowingly done it over the last thirty days so I'm probably being more accurate than I think!
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