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10 Questions with ... Brian Douglas
October 4, 2022
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1. What are you up to these days?
On October 1st, exactly 32 years and one month after joining Urban WJMH (102 JAMZ, Greensboro), I retired from my position as VP/Operations with Audacy Greensboro. To say that this has been a great experience doesn't begin to describe it.
2. Did you ever think you'd program anywhere this long?
After five and a half years programming Howard Dolgoff's Z-103, Tallahassee (a radio station with almost no signal, but incredible owners, management, and talent), I drove up on a Friday night back then feeling certain that I'd never work so long in any market again. Consultant Jerry Clifton paved the way to get me in the door and took the time to drop heavy wisdom about so many things that are still burned into my brain as if I heard them yesterday.
3. What were some of those wisdom things that you learned Clifton?
That Radio programming is about one thing and one thing only. Focusing on the listeners and only the listeners and sharing an experience (usually having fun) along with them every minute, 24/7, 365. It's that simple. Taking that approach felt like the part when the Wizard of Oz switches from Black and White to full color; ohhhhh, yeah.
4. Is there a memorable radio moment that stands out?
I was at an NAB in Boston, sitting in a meeting where George Beasley told us that he was about to slash our budgets as the crashing economy was endangering the fate of his entire company. It was do or die. He'd recently bought K-Earth (KRTH, Los Angeles) for about 65 million dollars, the highest price ever paid for a radio station up to that time. Now, we're in a recession. He told us that he had to save K-Earth... period. They were going to get huge contesting, promotions and marketing and we weren't, because there was no other way. He also told us that even though this was news we obviously didn't want to hear; we could rest assured that Beasley was going to get through this and that there was something he wanted us to remember. I promise you, he said, "That you'll look back and remember that these were the good old days." I looked around, and there I was with Jerry Clifton, big time PDs from Philadelphia, Chicago, a few chairs away from Mark Shands of Kiss in Charlotte, Mike Philips of K-Earth, Duff Lindsey of Orlando's 102 JAMZ and right behind Power 96's Bill Tanner, who, after George finished, still slouched in his chair with his feet up on the chair in front of him said, "Well that's all well and good, George, but...". Being in that company, I knew I had arrived.
5. Why do you think you had so much success in Greensboro?
I was fortunate to work with great people at Beasley, the station's original owner, then Max Media, Sinclair Broadcasting, and, since late 1999, Entercom, which is of course now Audacy. From the station's original GM, Roger Stockton, through Brian Beasley, Gary Weiss, Brent Millar and most recently, Lisa Powell, I have been so lucky to only work with GMs (Brand Managers) who did not discourage me from stretching my wings and somehow regarded my "input" as less of a constant pain in the rear than I ever could have deserved. They all loved radio and had great stories to share. Roger was a famed manager in the Greensboro market who gave me the room to get my feet in a brand-new format and was more than fair in our dealings in every interaction. When he gave his word on something, he meant it. Brian Beasley, son of George, grew up close to radio and embraced the job with non-stop passion. He supported my insane, risk-taking ideas even when they weren't popular in the building and was someone who'd always hear us all out. I've heard that he even says nice things about me from time to time. Gary Weiss' dad had owned Cleveland's WIXY and South Florida's Y100, so he'd been steeped in this all his life and loved radio people and radio itself. He still regularly sends me emails about cool things in the biz and shares stories about his Florida neighbor, John Lander. Brent Millar, with whom I had the chance to work the longest, was all in. He arrived every morning around 6am, challenged all the PDs to think ahead and think "what if" - always looking for angles, ways to shift something or add to something, ways to put someone in a new position where they could shine. He sheltered us from the storm, too, coming up with ways to make difficult, but necessary, adjustments easier to handle.
While here, I was able to work with, grow with and learn with Program Directors Mike Smith (Moose), Kris Abrams, Dave Solomon and Randy Bliss at Oldies 93, Al Payne and a man I still can't believe left us far too young, Alvin Stowe, at WQMG, Steve Williams, Mike Kaplan and Michael Bryan at WOZN and Dave Compton at WPET.
6. What do you think made WJMH so special?
102 JAMZ always had a strong street presence. We washed cars for free every summer, gave out goodie bags then stuck 102 JAMZ Super Stickers on the cars we washed with the goal of making our sticker presence stronger than that of all other stickers combined. It quickly became clear that people actually will put stickers on their bumpers and we made sure as many of those people as possible got paid for doing so as we gave away those hundred-dollar bills. Like in all of programming, of course, it all came back to the people. Where *they* were, *we* were. From original Promotions Director Jamie Workman through Frank Neill, John Gazerro, Rob Swynga, Kevin Kaous, Horse Raney, Rugbee 3000 and Karlos King, the streets ruled on 102 JAMZ.
7. Did you ever pull any promotional stunts and how did it turn out?
One morning, the WJMH Jam Machine "got stuck"... (jam, oh jam, oh jam, oh jam, oh jam) on and on and on through the rest of the morning, mid-day, afternoon, night, overnight, and most of the next morning. If a listener hit our button, they couldn't miss it. Everyone who tuned in instantly knew something was very wrong. The reaction was, literally, instantaneous. We all heard people talking about it everywhere we went. For me it was in the grocery store, at a restaurant, in the post office, driving home as an older neighbor stopped me to ask what was going on (What? How does he know about 102 JAMZ?). The police came to the station after a few hours and told us it had to stop.
They were worried about 911 calls as it was almost impossible to get a dial tone on land lines (no cell phones back in the day). At the station, we left the phone on speaker and it continuously clicked over automatically from call to call to call all night without anyone having to touch the phone at all. The next day, when we'd "fixed" the Jam Machine, we went to 24/7 commercial free mixing for three days, with all the jocks coming and going on the air together, answering, editing, and playing back phone bits constantly. I've never felt such an outpouring of love for a radio station, and it set us up just as we'd hoped. Now we played rap totally un-dayparted and brought attitude 24/7, with no concern for upper demos. The listeners got it and we never looked back, never got caught in the ratings and were #1 18-34 (driven by 18-24) by a mile - from then on.
8. Would you share one of your funnier radio moments?
If you'll indulge me, I'll mention another promotional stunt that I still laugh about. We stopped calling ourselves 102 JAMZ. The jocks started identifying the station simply as 0-2 JAMZ. After a few hours, we started getting calls. Why aren't you saying *1* 02 JAMZ? Of course, we said we didn't know what they were talking about. Then at the end of the call said 0-2 JAMZ and played it back on the air. By the time four or five days had passed, we couldn't move without people asking why we quit saying the '1' at the beginning of our name. We put on a promo with a great imitation of McGruff the Crime Dog saying that he'd solved the mystery of what was wrong with this radio station and announcing a 5:15pm Friday press conference to clear things up. At the live on-air news conference, just as McGruff was about to explain, listeners heard squealing brakes as an out-of-control car, unfortunately, caused McGruff to meet a cruel and final fate. The intensity got stronger, the callers increased, the most important element, the street talk, grew. After a time, we explained what we'd figured out on our own... we'd lost our ONE! Could our ever-tolerant listeners help us find it - for $10,000? We'd hid a plastic, clearly marked six-inch-tall numeral "1" on public property and began giving clues on how to find it - and claim the cash. People came to the station with every kind of "one" you could imagine, including street signs they'd dug up. I'd come out of my office with anticipation every time, before seeing a trash can with the number one painted on the side or some other random find. Were they listening to the clues? As the search narrowed, public property was subjected to people on the premises 24 hours a day. As it became clear it was in a park, things got fairly out of control. A huge, beautiful garden was almost destroyed... something we had to make right with the city. Thank you, Mr. Beasley. Very late one night, four listeners came to the station with the 1 in their hands and we had a winner. The missing '1 set it off and was a big part of an effort to achieve a unique identity in the market. Taken' to the extreme, the goal was to leave listeners with the impression that all the other stations, regardless of format, were just plain, old radio, while we were something very different, we were 102 JAMZ.
9. Who are some of the air personalities that worked for you over the years?
In the early days, 102 JAMZ regularly brought in talent from other markets, but over time as a station that was both live 24/7 and heavy in the streets, we were able to see people grow here with us - from intern to part-time to full-time before leaving for larger markets. Houston's The Box/Magic star Mad Hatta, Bushman of WJLB, Kyle Santillian, mornings at WGCI, The Jammer, in demand in LA as owner of Larry Davis Voiceover (and still on-air with K-Earth), Skip Dillard, PD of The Block in New York, Janine Davis, mid-day talent on Charlotte's V 101.9, Boogie D, programmer of KMJK, Kansas City, Kendall B, Denver morning talent, TV personality Terrence J, Apollo, imaging/commercial VO head of Apollo Productions, Traci LaTrelle with WHUR, Miami's Big Lip, who both owns a restaurant and does afternoons at Hot 105, Sammy Mack (Buck Wilde), who handles WALR/WPGC Creative Services ,and Mary K, currently programming in Crimson Tide Tuscaloosa come to mind right away, along with Waleed Coyote, who's been a record company exec, Big Tap Money, programmer in both Atlanta and Miami and Tre Black who worked in LA, NYC and Detroit before his untimely passing.
Some have stayed in the area, like market superstar Busta Brown, who's done both TV and radio since owning this market in afternoons and mornings, Afrika Perry, back from Miami and sounding great on WQMG and B-Daht, who headed up our Wild Out Wakeup Show for eight years and is getting creative in new ways all the time, as well as Kevin Kaous, at one time on-air, later Promotions Director and now, for many years, one of the cluster's top sellers. Long ago, on vacation in Hawaii, I heard Shilynne Cole in the mornings on KIKI-FM and began a long campaign to get her to come to work here. While most of the stations there sounded bland and uninspired, she sounded great and totally plugged in to the scene. I assumed she was Hawaiian and never knew until much later that she was actually from Columbia, SC. She finally agreed to make the move closer to home and did both midday and imaging for JAMZ before becoming the now longest serving PD and afternoon host for top rated 'QMG. Most unusually, there's NC House Democratic Whip Amos Quick who, in another life, was an over the top, hilarious co-host of mornings with Busta Brown on JAMZ. Who could make that up? It's like something out of Animal House.
10. And the best advice you've ever been given?
I'll say it was... Give it 3 days. If you're dealing with a situation you're tempted to react to very intensely or in a life changing way, sit tight, give it three days before you react. That came from my dad. And here's another piece of advice I got that I liked, "If someone's always talking dirt to you about others, be sure they're talking dirt to others about you."
Bonus Questions
What are you most proud of with the legacy you're leaving behind?
As our cluster grew to four FMs, my role evolved to that of Operations Manager. Today, PD Shilynne Cole breathes life into the totally connected 97.1 'QMG (R&B), Sean Sellers acts as musical magician and super inspired content creator of WSMW Adult Hits 98.7. Simon, and technological wizard Clay JD Walker, while handling some very important companywide work for Audacy, he programs WPAW Country 93.1 The Wolf. Since the beginning of 2022, Big Mo has moved from his previous APD role to take on the much-deserved title of Brand Manager of Urban WJMH 102 JAMZ, something I thought I'd never be able to give up. He was born to make it happen.
And one more thing. Personally, I'd also like to say thank you to Audacy Urban Format Captain Reggie Rouse. He was great to work with and he made my last year a fresh adventure, giving me the opportunity to get involved in projects that have kept a smile on my face. It was a pleasure, Reggie. And I want to thank all of you who might be reading this and who helped to make our station and our cluster successful at any point in our long history. It was an honor to have played a part with what I'm leaving behind.
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