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10 Questions with ... Jay Hicks
December 5, 2017
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
- 2011-2016 WGPR (HOT 1075)/Detroit, PD
- 2007-2011 WQHH (POWER 96.5 FM)/Lansing, MI, PD/on-air personality & Assistant Production Manager (WQHH/WXLA)
1) Would you explain the duties of a Brand Manager as opposed to a PD?
There's no huge difference. You really have to take complete ownership of the stations brand both on air and in the digital space. Understand some of the overall challenges that digital/sales team are facing and find ways to create solutions. Provide good local content ideas for your show as well as other shows. I constantly work with station "voice" to keep station's imaging fresh including timely promos for upcoming events. The biggest duty for me has been responding to the listeners via social media. Our listeners expect to hear from us when they reach out to us and I have systems in place to make sure we are responding to them in a timely fashion and not ignoring them.
2) What did you learn during your brief hiatus before taking this job over the summer?
I learned that people really don't care that much about radio because we haven't given them a reason to care. A lot of syndication and no local connection has really tainted radio. People have a lot of audio channels to sample from and a lot of people that I associated with "outside the radio and record industry" are moving toward streaming, satellite (which is a form a radio but not local).
When I got back on the field, I wanted to give people a reason to consume the brand I was a part off. I want people to care and have a true connection with the next brand I was able to program. The best way to do that was through purpose-driven marketing. Spotify and Pandora can't give away 1,000 book bags to listeners or provide over 500 free haircuts to kids. While I was off, I seen how radio really needed to make a "Purposeful Community Impact" and not just a couple live radio reads.
3) How should a PD approach programming in a new market?
It all starts with building trust. WBLK is a classic example of a highly cost-effective, localized, instantly recognizable brand that can deliver the goods for advertisers, community partners and listeners. You have to find ways to continue that engagement with listeners which further builds that trust and develops a personal relationship not just with the jocks but also with the station itself. We're "trusted agents."
As the audience trust continues to build with WBLK, they come directly to us to find the strongest aggregated music, novelty or new community info, weather (cause it cold in Buffalo) and information on concerts and local events.
Keeping and building that trust is extremely valuable to me whether the communications platform is a radio, computer, cell phone, billboard or the stage at a concert. All of these channels add up to the station's brand and listeners trusting the brand to consistently present a quality product.
This trust helps our sales team build a story that could result in non-stop client solutions. WBLK is everywhere your prospective customer being Mr. or Ms. Advertiser. Our brand can deliver for your brand like no one else, because we can put your message in front of the consumer wherever they may be.
Thinking like a Brand Manager, you start to see that for a radio station to stay successful in the 21st century means going from playing checkers to playing chess. Like it or not, you're not just managing a station, you're managing a Brand.
4) Are steaming services important to terrestrial radio?
As a programmer, you must understand the lifestyle of your listener and the streaming services are a huge part of that lifestyle. Take the word, "playlist," for example. That word has been used since forever. The word "playlist" is a part of radio's DNA. Spotify and Apple have taken that word and really made it hip and cool and have really capitalized on it. Spotify is known for having genre specific playlists that are shared by user community. The people that pick these songs that are on the playlist are titled "Curators." When Jimmy Ivoine partnered with Apple, one of the first things he mentioned was utilizing "human curation" to select the best songs so that a unique listening experience is created with the users via playlist.
Radio has been doing this for years with PDs, but we missed our opportunity of marketing the fact that we have some of the best professional programmers researching and picking the "hottest" songs for you to listen to on this station.
Now radio has to utilize playlists from Apple or Spotify to help verify which songs are gaining momentum so they could be considered to be placed in music rotation. Now it's becoming "which song has more streams than the other song style" game. The Spotify playlists have now become a "vital tool" to help in selecting the best songs for your station. If you don't understand or utilize these streaming services, you're missing out on a huge audience opportunity. A lot of programmers use Shazam, which is cool but Shazam is after-the-fact in that the song is being played on the station, so it gives justification, but Spotify is the reason the song will have the potential to get Shazamed. If I like two particular songs, one from the Migos and another from Lil Uzi, but I only have one slot open and both songs are strong in the streets and in the clubs, and I don't have any research on either yet ... I'm going with the one that's streamed the most! A lot of programmers don't understand the streaming services and how they work, but I'm a steaming expert. I even have my own Spotify playlist with over 20,000 followers. Why couldn't stations create their own?
5) Radio is more than what goes out on the air these days, isn't it?
Radio is social and always has been. We were the first social media before social media! People live on social media. I'm a millennial and I sure do. My philosophy is to engage on all of them (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) but be extremely effective on at least one of them. For example, my focus was really on Instagram. Instead of just posting typical things like show topics, jocks or guest in the studio, we would post a lot of local humor. For example, when the Lions football team would win, we would post a meme of the Lions coach or quarterback wearing some "Cartier" glasses. Cartier glasses are very symbolic to Detroit because it represents a certain "Lifestyle Status," but these posts would receive thousands of likes on our Instagram page. These small topical things allowed for the station to lead the market with Instagram followers so when a client would request Instagram posts of their product, the sales team was able to create a huge campaign just based around our Instagram following. It's very important to be social and find ways to capitalize on that connectivity.
6) Who have been your mentors?
Brant Johnson was my PD while in Lansing. Brant gave me my first start at radio in Lansing at Power 96.5, WQHH. He would give me stacks upon stacks of music to listen to. This really helped develop my music ear!
Mac MacDonald, owner of MacDonald Broadcasting. Mac, would always stretch my thinking and challenge me to think big non-stop. He pushed me to use my creativity and create on-air element that could be utilized as a product to be sold.
George Jones my former sales GM. He always explained various sales tactics and strategies to me and would always give me some real-life advice.
My sister Cortney Hicks. She has always navigated my career in helping me with various air checks, resume stuff and industry advice. She plugged me with Jay Stevens which helped me secure the PD job in Detroit.
Armondo Rivera my former OM. This dude is a research beast. He showed and explained every part and piece of radio research that was available. He taught me how to use various tools and to be professional at all times.
7) How important is imaging to a station?
Imaging is everything for the platform. With people's ears being pulled so many places, on the phone, map audio, various sounds outside the car, it is really important for a station to capture the listener's attention instantly and that's done with great imaging. I'm a fan of listener drops that allow your station to be endorsed by someone who is relatable and from the area. Imaging should be local and edgy and projects your city's sound. I would do this with key words that Detroit only used like "Whatupdoe" and "Whats Good My Babi." These imaging pieces really helped the station connect more with the listener. I shouldn't be able to take your imaging and place it in another market and it would work.
8) Where did you get your start in radio?
I started as an intern at WJLB, working in the promotions department. I worked directly with Larry Howard, who was a promotions beast. Working in his department required a lot of hard work. We really did grind in that department all day every day bannering up free-way overpasses that would stretch 10-12 miles. Interning in that department really gave me a different perspective about radio and allowed me to understand some of the business aspects from a marketing perspective.
9) How important is air talent in a PPM world?
Regardless if it's in a PPM or dairy world, the air talent has to have the following ingredients: relatable, topical, socially engaging, energetic (I'm not talking about screaming), and informative to become a vital part of the station. The talent is what separates us from our competition. It's what separates us from the Spotify playlist. The talent has to be able to resonate and make an impact and a lot of that comes from being prepared before the shift. A lot of talent prep while doing their show and not before their show so lack luster entertainment is created, and they have no impact or no connection. The talent has to entertain every hour. They have to be creating unique moments every time they open the mic. You create enough moments people will start to gravitate to you and sales are able to utilize the talent for endorsement opportunities.
10) What's in the future for radio?
To be more social and really connect and engage our brands through various platforms. For example, messaging apps are becoming the future trend. Why don't most of our radio apps have messaging on them? Why couldn't a jock or community of listeners message each other inside that platform to talk about community events, new music, or local topics? You could even have a music artist join sometime to message back and forth with listeners.
Another example is podcasting. Programmers always mention how can we develop new talent and utilize some of these "social media" starts. What if we used podcasting to help develop this untapped talent? Have them create "them style" shows and place them on the sites. For example, a Spotify Top 7 countdown podcast, where they count down the dopiest Spotify songs. Things like that could help groom and coach them until their ready for on-air placement.
Bonus Questions
Who did you listen to while growing up in Detroit and what was your take on how they came across?
I was a huge WJLB-Listener, I think everyone in Detroit was.
Mason: I always listened to Mason in the Morning. Mason was so creative, and had non-stop energy that just grabbed your attention every time you tuned in. He was so topical and very humorous. He would do traffic in this "Granny Voice" which made traffic very entertaining.
Reggie Reg: He was so relatable, and his energy was always good. He did this segment titled "Holla at the Mayor" which was done by Hip-Hop mayor at the time Kwame. This was before all the text message stuff. It was a dope segment and generated a lot of buzz.
Tic Tac: He was on Channel 955 and this dude was just off the hook. He was never predictable and always had something nutz going on! I would tune in just to see what crazy things he was about to do.
Big Boy aka Chunky: He was on Channel 955 and his calls was so engaging and hilarious. He really worked the phones well. One of the best in my opinion. He would always end each call or break with a hilarious punch-line.
Cortney Hicks: Yeah, she's my sister but she's a really good jock. Her presentation was very clear, professional and relatable. Her sound was always consistent, and she connected strongly with each caller that she played.
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