-
10 Questions with ... Ronda Chollock
December 5, 2022
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
1. What was your favorite station to listen to when you were a kid?
I wish I knew the call letters, because I remember it fondly and I'd say it was hugely influential on my taste in music. My mom was a big fan of what she called "power pop" but now we'd say was basically 80s alternative or new wave, and there was a station out of—I believe—St. Mary's, PA, which is a very small town, that played that music exclusively. Name a one-hit wonder in the 80s and my mom loved that song. It was what we listened to exclusively in the car through my childhood, but unfortunately, I don't remember the name.
2. What got you interested in the radio business?
I was a grad student at UVA, and one of my classmates' roommates worked at WNRN. I remember her initial pitch to us to listen was "You won't know any of the music, but at least there aren't any commercials." And reader, we were sold. I became a devoted listener to the station at my summer office job on campus. I would listen all day, and any time I heard something I liked, I downloaded the artist's entire catalogue on Napster to learn more. Sorry! I promise I've more than made up for those transgressions by buying way too much vinyl in the years since. I wasn't interested in the industry per se, but I was obsessed with this station in particular, which was playing lots of music I'd never heard before—as promised—and I was hooked.
3. How did you get started at WNRN/Charlottesville?
I did what we hope all super fans of community radio stations eventually do—I donated to my first fund drive in Fall 1999. While I was at the station paying my little $25 pledge, they asked if I wanted to fill out a volunteer form. And then I won one of the grand prizes in the drive, a 6 month all access pass to Trax, the house that Dave [Matthews] built. So now I was also getting a crash course in live music and seeing more concerts than I ever had in my life. Shortly after WNRN called me to volunteer, and I began my radio life as a news reader [a position long since gone, but it was a good way to get interested community members involved with the station]. I did that for a few months and the GM said he liked my voice and reading skills, and that I should train as a DJ. I eventually headed up the news department and after several months of training live on overnights began DJing regularly on weekends and evenings, eventually taking over Friday drive. I was made the host of New Rock Now in 2003, so I was tasked with listening to all the college & specialty stuff that came through the door, and that really broadened my music horizons further. And then in 2007 I stepped into Jaz Tupelo's MD shoes when she left for WRSI. So, I worked at WNRN full time for two years while also being a full time PhD student at UVA and teaching 4 classes a year.
4. Tell us about your experience being on the Board Of Directors at WNRN as the youngest member and only woman.
I guess young people often don't realize they're young, so I don't think I thought it was remarkable at the time that I was a 25-year-old woman on this board of otherwise 50+ year old men [all white, too—terrible optics here in 2022]. I was there because the station had an admittedly idiosyncratic founding document that dictated the board always have one student at UVA, despite having no official relationship with the school. So, I was the "student member," but it was a full voting seat on the board. I think it was a good experience for me, until it became a bad experience for me. But I wouldn't be where I am now without it and how events unfolded.
5. How did you get started in promotion?
My start in promo is intertwined with the end of my radio days. It's a long story I'll try to shorten, and also offer an important preamble: WNRN is barely recognizable now [all in good ways!] from the organization I worked at then. Our old boss was an abusive, barely competent nightmare. He had stocked the station's founding board of directors with cronies and yes men, and appointed himself General Manager, programming director and President of the Board. So, he had no oversight. However—eventually--with years of gradual attrition on the board and old members beginning to see the light, there was finally a will to do something about him. A plot was hatched to remove him from the board presidency. They needed my vote, though, and I was his current employee [just one of many highly unorthodox aspects of the station's organizational structure]. They said they would protect me, but they didn't. We removed him as president of the board, but my days were marked, and I was fired a few months later for—naturally— "insubordination."
The first thing I did was call Jen Daunt, crying, and she said, "Ok, let me think about what to do." My instinct was to try to find another radio job, but as Jen said, "I think you're more of a music person than a radio person, and I think you're going to keep getting fired." LOL. But she was right. I'm pretty headstrong, especially about music. Jen said she believed there was room out there for someone else to be working the kinds of projects she did, and after talking to me for two years about music as NRN's MD, she had a pretty good read on my taste. She gave me all the information I would need to get started in promo—the radio station call times, personnel, addresses, and lots of advice, guidance, and handholding. I don't mean to embarrass her because I think she probably hates it when I get all emo about this, but it's the single most generous thing anyone's ever done for me, and I've long come to terms with the fact that it's a debt that can't be repaid. But there's a lot of grace in receiving such a beneficent gift and just accepting it. I'm not Jewish, but I think it's like a mitzvah? Anyhow, eternal hats off to Jen, and to Sue Busch, who was at Sub Pop at the time and hired me on my first project after they discussed a plan forward for me. Women helping women: I have certainly been the beneficiary of it, and I will always try to model that selfless sense of community in our Triple A world.
6. You've been in the format doing promo for 13 years, what's changed and what remains the same?
I think what's changed the most is our format's sense of self and acceptance of music that stretches our genre confines. Triple A's finally started to have a much needed self-reckoning about how white and male some corners of our genre still are, and I love how more stations have come to embrace a wider sound and a more complex and complete demographic of artists played. More women, more artists of color and from all backgrounds—I think it only improves our palette.
7. How do you pick projects that you want to work?
I guess my guiding principle is "do I love this, and can I help them?" I still listen very much with my WNRN MD circa 2007-09 ears. If I would have found a place for it on the station then, I will work it now.
8. What's the one project that got away?
Ugh. This one stings. I have an email I will always keep from November 12, 2013, asking me to check out new artist Courtney Barnett. I remember that week clearly—we had a lot of visitors descending on us and were just so damned busy getting ready to host guests [my wife is a New Zealander and my God those people love to visit]. I responded a week later, and they'd already found someone else. They found Jen, so they did alright for themselves, ha. Naturally I'm a huge fan. That will always be my biggest flub, but I try not to beat myself up over it. We're sent a lot of unsolicited music sometimes and it often lands in huge waves. It's hard to get to all of them in just a couple of days, and most of them don't turn out to be Courtney Barnett.
9. If you were to leave the music business today and you could choose any other occupation, what would it be?
I'd be teaching English lit—that's what I was supposed to be doing. Shakespeare and English Renaissance were my specialties. But if you think the music industry is chaotic, allow me to introduce you to Academia. I definitely traded up.
10. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without ...
Exercise.
Bonus Questions
Last non-industry job:
Instructor at UVA, editorial assistant at the Papers of George Washington
First record ever purchased:
U2's Zooropa. Was initially very disappointed but eventually learned to love it.
First concert:
Leaning into all the stereotypes here: Lilith Fair at Pittsburgh's Star Lake Amphitheatre, August 1997. I was a latecomer to live music and have been making up for lost time ever since.
Favorite band of all-time:
If I had to only name one, I'd say Sleater-Kinney, but I honestly, I'd have trouble narrowing this down to 25. I'm pretty polymorphous when it comes to loving artists. I don't know how Dead heads do it.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time away from work?
Cheering on the Hoos. Just this year we've attended lacrosse, baseball, softball, field hockey, football, men's and women's soccer, women's basketball, and volleyball, with plans to take in a swim meet in the new year to see the four Olympians on our team compete in person. We love our sports, and we love our Hoos.
-
-