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10 Questions with ... Nik Rivers
October 25, 2005
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NAME:Nik RiversTITLE:MD/AfternoonsCOMPANY:Infinity BroadcastingSTATION:WPBZ - 103.1 The BuzzMARKET:West Palm Beach (#47)BORN:Bridgeport, CTRAISED:Bridgeport, CT
LAST NON-INDUSTRY JOB:
Financial Analyst for Fleet Bank, Boston (You'd never know I had a background in Business from that picture huh?).
BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Started off at WNKI in Elmira, NY (us Ithaca folk stick together, Thanks Bob Quick). Then headed off for a tour of New England -- WHOB/Nashua, NH, WAAF/Boston, WJYY/Manchester, NH, and MD/nights at WPXC- Cape Cod. After 9/11 my now Fiance lost her job in the travel industry, so we packed up and moved to West Palm Beach where I did nights and eventually Afternoons at the now defunct WRLX - Planet Radio 92.1. and I was a Morning Traffic Anchor for Metro Networks. After Planet flipped formats, I was out of a job for about 6 days. I jumped across the street to my current home at WPBZ - 103.1 the Buzz as soon as John O'Connell let me in the door.
FIRST RECORD EVER PURCHASED:
Men at Work - Business As Usual (and yes it was an actual record. Yes, I still have it. LOVE THE VINYL!)
FIRST CONCERT:
The fist concert I had a ticket for was Public Enemy/Guns & Roses. Go Figure; it got canceled (and I bought the ticket from a Scalper, so I'm still out the $75). So the first concert I actually WENT to was Steve Miller/Eric Johnson.
FAVORITE BAND OF ALL-TIME:
Have to go with the Beatles. Ever since my Mom sat me down with the back of the Sgt. Pepper Album, and showed me how to read by following along with the lyrics, I was hooked!
1. How did you become interested in radio?
Believe it or not, I had no interest in radio in the beginning. I went to school to get into sports broadcasting (my degree is actually in Television Production). I did a ton of radio & TV play-by-play my first three years in school (Football, Baseball, Basketball, even Woman's Lacrosse!). After my Junior year, I had the choice of going back to my summer job at Taco Bell, or doing air shifts at WICB - Ithaca College's Alternative station. I figured, hell I like Nirvana, I wear flannel, and they want to pay me $10/hour (that was a lot of cash back then - I was making $5.50 at Taco Bell) so I gave it a shot. After the first day I was hooked. Once I realized that I could listen to music I love, talk to people, and get paid for it, I haven't wanted to do anything else since.
2. What part of your job do you like best?
I hate to be general, but all of it. I think back to when I wasn't working in the industry, and how much I hated getting up and going to work. That just doesn't happen anymore. I can't think of anything else that I'd rather be doing!
3. What is your biggest challenge?
Up to this point, it has been convincing the future wife that this career is one that can be long lasting. Almost a year to the day after moving to Florida, the station I worked for flipped to Smooth Jazz two weeks before Christmas. Our lives had changed dramatically during those 12 months, and to be told that you're out of a job, and have everything taken away so quickly made us have our doubts. I have to step out here and thank my current PD John O'Connell for taking a chance on me. If he didn't offer me a job here at the Buzz, I probably would be wearing a suit and tie again in a cubical somewhere. Funny how things sometimes just seem to work out.
4. How has The Buzz changed over the past year?
We have made some bold moves musically. When a lot of other "Alternative" stations are starting to play AC/DC, the Stones and Zeppelin, we've gone in the opposite direction. We have taken all gold out of rotation in the nights/overnights. We're playing nothing recorded before 2001 during those times. Alternative stations can't ignore their teenage listeners. Those are the kids that will be your Core audience if you want to still be "Alternative" five years from now. So we have expanded our playlist to over 40 currents. It gives bands like BRMC, Matisyahu, Against Me!, and Head Automatica a chance to be heard, by the people that want to hear them.
We have also started to play some more Alternative classics during the day. It sounds so fresh on the air when you tune in and hear Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and The Sex Pistols as well as Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta," For Squirrels "The Mighty KC" or The Bosstones or DMB. It really gives the station a WOW factor!
5. What would surprise people most about the station?
That half of the staff is New York Yankee fans, and the other half, are a part of Red Sox Nation, and we all actually get along. From the bottom up, John-O has assembled a great staff here at The Buzz. Jason Davis, our midday guy has been here for 10 years, and Ross Mahoney, our night guy, for eight years. We have one of the brightest Imaging guys around in Mick McCabe, and a solid parttime staff. John and I like to have others involved in station decisions. We invite the rest of the staff into music and programming meetings. It is a very open and team like atmosphere.
6. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without _________?
DUNKIN DONUTS COFFEE!! I am so surprised I haven't gotten an endorsement deal from them yet!
7. Besides WPBZ, what is your favorite station and why?
I have to go out of the format for this one - WFAN/NY. Having grown up a Yankees, Giants, and Whalers (Long live the whale!) fan, those guys know how to talk sports. That's the one thing we don't have here in South Florida is a great Sports Talk station. As far as Alternative stations go, I'm a huge fan of WFNX/Boston, Q101/Chicago, and our Sunshine State Brethren 97X/Tampa.
8. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
Well, with my marriage just a couple of weeks away, I'm guessing I'll be a proud parent by then. Professionally, I see myself as a Program Director of a Successful Alternative station. I have spent a good amount of time in this business, and learned a lot from some very intelligent people along the way (John O'Connell, Chris Wheatly, Steve McVie, Jordan Walsh). The next step for me is to take that knowledge and apply it to a station of my own.
9. Biggest career highlight?
Being a part of the WAAF/WBCN/WFNX battle in Boston. Those were some good times, and a part of radio that seems to have gone by the wayside. I learned a lot about what it takes to win in a competitive situation from those days. Some of the things those stations would do to each other is priceless! Times that I'll never forget.
10. If you decided to completely change careers today, what would you do?
I know I wouldn't go back to that Bank job. It was Soooo "Office Space", and yes I had my own version of Lumberg! To tell you the truth, I'd go and be a peanut vendor in Yankee Stadium. Other than my future wife and radio, the Yankees are my other great love in life. It's been a tough October this year!
Bonus Questions
What are your hobbies?
Playing my Guitar, golfing, softball, watching NFL games, and playing Madden on the PS2.
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