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10 Questions with ... Jim McGuinn
September 16, 2019
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
PD at KCMP/The Current since the day Barrack Obama was inaugurated. Started with High School, college and community radio and then WWRX/Providence from 1988-1989. PD at WEQX/Manchester, VT from 1990-1994; PD at KPNT/St. Louis from 1994-1995; PD at WDRE/Philadelphia/Long Island from 1995-1997; PD at WPLY (Y100)/Philadelphia 1997-2005 and then afternoons at WXPN/Philadelphia from 2006-2009.
1. How did you become interested in radio?
When I was about four years old, I caught "Beatles Week" on the 3:30 Movie, and combining those with seeing the Monkees in syndication, pretty early on I decided that being in a band was cool - I think I identified with the idea of a band as a gang or team where you could live with your friends in a cool house and make music. I started collecting records early on and was always in charge of the turntable at the junior high dances. At some point I realized that my NBA hopes weren't going to happen, and I got my first break doing color for my high school radio station's broadcasts of the Varsity hoops (I was on the Sophomore team). Not long afterward I figured out that being an MD meant you got free records and I was hooked.
2. How did you get the gig at The Current?
Steve Nelson foolishly abdicated the job to shift over to work for our mothership - Minnesota Public Radio News (he's now at NPR). I loved afternoons at WXPN, but always admired what The Current was doing, and the opportunity to be part of a team where the station was both big enough but also new enough that the concrete hadn't set yet was really exciting to me. And now I play hockey every week, so my acclimation to MN is complete.
3. How would you describe the music on the station?
We just try to play really great music from a variety of directions, eras, and styles. We have an audience that is Musicurious, and we put ourselves in their shoes as best we can - working to balance a mixture of Discovery and Celebration across all our platforms. There's some kind of center, what we call "The Hub," but there's also a lot of fun spokes - we try not to stay in the hub or on the spokes for too long. We're both deadly serious and playful at the same time about the music, and with an amazing team from Managing Director/Head of Music David Safar thru all the great hosts (who have a lot of autonomy on their shows and are music experts), we touch on a lot of music every hour/day/week.
4. As The Current gets ready to celebrate 15 years, how has it evolved from when it first signed on? Since you came to the station?
The world looks pretty different than it did in 2005, before Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, the ability to access every song ever recorded on a device you carry in your pocket, the vinyl revival, Obama and Trump - all this impacts what we do. At the same time, at our core we're still the music freaks sharing great music with our friends. I like to think of us as your perpetual 28-year old friend with excellent music taste, stopping by to share. The Current is a great lean-out option for lean-in people, we're human, we're focusing on exploration and nostalgia, emerging and celebrating.
As to tangible differences for The Current, we spend a lot of time thinking about how our audiences use our products and trying to meet them where they are to fulfill their needs. Radio still drives the vibe and feel and a lot of the consumption, but increasingly, we're focusing (and staffing) towards a future that exists across a multitude of platforms and experiences.
5. What are you planning to do to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the station?
For our 10th we prepared 10 days of events and shows. This year we're not sure of all that we're going to do, but we're really trying to make it less about celebrating ourselves and instead celebrating the audience and the artists who have come together over the years.
6. What has been the station's biggest accomplishment?
Every day we hear from listeners and members that have made this station such a huge part of their lives. It might be because of our hosts or the music or our support of the local community - any number of reasons -- but when you hear someone say "The Current is one of the best reasons to live in Minnesota" that means a lot to us. Ratings and revenue might rise and fall, but if you continue to focus on the listener experience and you contribute to enhancing their lives through your programming or by connecting the audience to the artists and music, then it's easy to come to work every day.
7. What station do you share the most listeners with?
With our news service MPR News. We give a little news and information in the morning, but also direct folks to go back and forth between our services depending on their needs, and they do. And at member drive time, a majority of our listeners do report using multiple products. MPR is pretty unique in that there is a real sense in the community of corporate brand attributes that extend between the services. Outside of radio, we look at how our audience's behavior is changing due to Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, and whatever's next, what each of them do well, and where we can provide value or ease of use to those listeners that we think we can connect to.
8. There has been staff changes and responsibility shifts this year at the station. What do these mean for the future of The Current?
It's exciting times at The Current! I'm really proud of David Safar, who was recently named The Managing Director for The Current. Those that have worked with David as a Music Director know that not only does he have a great skill at identifying the music that's going to matter today and in the future, but he also has a rare ability to see what's possible and work to make it happen across every platform where we engage with audiences - helping create and grow our #Microshow and Live Concert Streaming efforts over the past few years. I might be slightly biased, but I think he's got the best ideas and vision in our world right now, and it's been fun to collaborate with him and watch him grow over the past decade that we've worked together.
At the same time, our very awesome APD Lindsay Kimball was recently promoted to the Membership Director job at MPR - which is a huge role, and one that she is uniquely qualified for, given her skill at project management and user experience skill acquired thru years of keeping a lot of plates spinning at The Current. We are so very fortunate that we have the audience and revenue that enable us to have the resources to do a lot of activity, and we have that activity that helps us generate the revenue and position ourselves to work towards an increasingly multi-platform future. The moves with David and Lindsay create the opportunity for us to bring new people on board - we're working on the APD replacement position now and will be posting for a new Music Director soon - it's exciting to think of new people putting their insight and skills to help inform the next phase and evolution of The Current.
9. What would surprise people most about the station?
For people on the commercial side of the dial, probably that a station with some of the highest ratings in Triple A would allow the hosts enough freedom to program about 50% of their shows themselves. We set up the clocks and rules and populate the music categories for them to choose from, but the hosts are working daily to build musical context and inject their own personalities into the station.
The other thing might be that for a station with so many resources, we still feel like we're swamped and don't have enough time to listen to more music, to go to more shows, and to spend more time thinking about the audience. In that aspect what's surprising is that we're just like everyone else.
10. What do you view as the most important issue facing radio today?
How do we continue to serve the radio audience while also being a viable choice for younger generations to whom radio doesn't mean as much? Where can we insert ourselves in serving listeners and fulfilling needs with our unique approach to curation, community, discovery, humanity? With audiences so fragmented and with so many platforms, where do we allocate our efforts to have the greatest impact, and continue to be the musical hub where people can hang out, share their passions, and engage with us and each other? In a disconnected world, how can we bring people, artists, and music together?
Bonus Questions
Last Non-Industry Job:
Washing dishes at George's of Galilee, RI seafood eatery in 1988.
First Record Ever Purchased:
Meet The Beatles - and I've still got it.
First Concert:
The Clash, Aragon Ballroom in 1982.
Favorite Band Of All-Time:
this is an impossible question
If you wanted to completely change careers today, what would you do?
I'd be fulltime dreamer. I mean, if there's still sex and drugs, I could do without the rock and roll. Maybe I'd sell chapeaus in a haberdashery. OK, Spinal Tap answers aside, a while back I came to the realization that I find the most purpose in serving the music and everyone it impacts - artists, audiences, and the people who work to connect them. Even if my media/radio career ended, I can't imagine not doing something having to do with music.
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