10 Questions with ... Matthew Bates

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

KZZF/Lake Tahoe, KRZQ/ Reno, KQXR/ Boise, KXTE/Vegas, 91X/San Diego, along with a few stints at marketing agencies. I've done everything from overnights to OM and all points in between. Spent most of my career as a Brand Manager and PD.

1. After doing mornings at 91X, why did you decide to return to Slacker?

I had actually made the decision to transition out of terrestrial radio in late 2006, when I left a great job and group at Journal/Boise and joined Slacker in San Diego. At the time Slacker was a promising startup and their model was much more in line with my professional interests than terrestrial radio had become. In early 2008, Trip Reeb and Phil Manning convinced me to come to 91X and give radio one more shot. Their progressive vision for a different kind of radio project combined with my great respect for both of those guys was what brought me back. I wouldn't have considered leaving Slacker under any other circumstances. After my time at 91X was over earlier this year, I was very, very lucky to be able to sort of slipstream right back in where I left off here at Slacker. There's nowhere else I wanted to be.

2. What is your role as Sr. Radio Programming Manager?

I oversee the programming across 120+ individual genre stations and a staff of 60+ programmers scattered across the US and Canada. I utilize our extremely sophisticated and detailed metrics to maintain the integrity of the programming and work with our programmers to improve individual station performance. I conceive and build new stations -- whether they are genre based, event based, or artist based. I create content for these stations and work on new content opportunities that can either stand alone or be presented as a compliment to our existing music programming. As of late, we've been going to events and festivals that we've partnered with to harvest content that we can use across the entire service. I also program our Adult Alt, Indie, and Punk stations. I'm basically a programming and content guy.

I do all of this in tandem with our Sr. Director/Radio -- Scott Riggs -- another San Diego radio vet and the guy that brought me in to begin with.

3. How does working at Slacker differ from your previous radio jobs?

Where do I begin...? While Slacker Radio is a "personal radio" service, it is fundamentally different than anything I was able to do in terrestrial radio. Terrestrial radio is -- by definition -- a static medium. The end user can't customize it, can't interact with it or change it, it just exists. Take it or leave it. At Slacker, we work with a dynamic medium. Each stream is unique to an individual listener, and they can customize the experience as much or as little as they like to make it a truly personal experience. Specific to my duties here, it's an interesting mix of broadcasting and niche casting.

The way that we actually present the music is different as well. Rather than arbitrarily dictating music to an audience in a one-way communication, we allow the audience to interact with the music they way they want to. We provide multiple ways for a listener to consume and discover their music. It can be as active or as passive of an experience as the listener chooses.

Our programmers are hired first and foremost for their music acumen. They are experts in their genres, and they all love the music that they program. In contrast, I started to noticed a subtle change in terrestrial radio a few years ago where it seemed like many music stations were being run by people that didn't seem to care for music much.

Another difference -- our methodology for audience measurement is tangible and accurate. Our song-level popularity data is accurate and actionable.

The things that we can do to support and promote an artist, event, or product are very different as well. Rather than allowing an artist to come in and do a "station takeover" for 30 minutes and risk the PPM consequences of deviating from the expected programming, we can just give Jimmy Eat World an entire station to curate and host as they see fit. If there's a local event or concert, we can get the message to people in that specific area based on their location. And beyond that -- you can imagine the potential in targeted messaging. I've got more and better tools here.

Also, I am allowed to focus explicitly on how to provide the best experience for our listeners. I don't have to worry about working in some sort of added value element for a used car dealership.

The biggest difference -- innovation, outlook, and culture. We believe in music discovery. We believe in content. I feel like if there is a creative problem, we will build a solution rather than shrinking away from it. I had a radio executive tell me once, "We are not in the business of music discovery and content. That's not what people use the radio for." He has the right to hold that belief and execute upon it, but that's nothing that I want to be a part of.

4. What part of your job do you like best?

I love the culture here. I've never had a better and more effective collaborative and creative relationship with a boss as I do with Scott Riggs, and the entire culture of this company is unlike anywhere else I've been. There is a clear and well defined vision here, and I don't think you realize how important that is as an employee until you've worked without one.

5. What would an outsider find most surprising about Slacker?

Our reach and agility. Slacker is quickly approaching 20 million registered users. We are now pre-installed on every Blackberry that is sold in the US and Canada along with many Android devices. The service is available on every mobile platform -- even Windows Mobile and the Palm OS. We are cacheable on your mobile device, which means you can take us with you anywhere, regardless of cell or wifi coverage. Our engagement -- our "TSL," if you will -- is significantly higher than it is with terrestrial radio in general. We power the radio experience and mobile apps for a lot of great events and festivals like Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits.

We just announced an on-demand component of the service. We've got full ABC News integration- you can hear constantly updated hourly news breaks mixed into your stations or an entire ABC news channel that covers business, politics, sports, etc. We provide a music experience for every kind of listener; if you want a radio-like experience programmed by experts in the genre -- we've got the best. If you want to exercise more control over your listening experience- we provide you with the tools. If you want to just listen to full albums or one specific artist -- we just announced our premium on-demand service.

6. What's one thing that would surprise many people to learn about you?

I am very fond of Basque culture and food. Related: I raised the Grand Champion 4-H lamb at the Tri-County fair in Bishop, CA in 1993. I subsequently sold that lamb to a Basque restaurant. The proceeds from that lamb helped to pay for my education at the University of Nevada. UNR has a fantastic Basque studies program. The circle of life. Viva Euskadi!

7. What do you like best about living in San Diego?

There is a great deal of creative capital in this city. More innovation than one would expect, more young entrepreneurs, people creating and collaborating. And they are a very supportive and welcoming bunch.

The music, too. When I was a kid, so much of the music that I was into was coming from San Diego. Drive Like Jehu, RFTC, Heroin, Swing Kids, Tiltwheel, Gravity and Three One G Records. You can draw a lot of important conclusions about a city based on the music that it produces.

We were recently named 'Beer City USA" by Men's Health magazine- in the last decade or so San Diego has caught up to and possibly surpassed the PacNW in regards to Craft Brewing. Good beer is serious business here.

San Diego also has the largest community in the US of classic BMW motorcycle enthusiasts. The "Airheads" club that I've belonged to for many years is based here.

I don't like the fact that there is zero good Chinese food here. Boise had better Chinese food.

8. What was your favorite station to listen to when you were a kid?

KRZQ in Reno. In the '90s, KRZQ was a pretty progressive Alt station for Reno. And the talent that was there at the time was awesome -- Rob "Blaze" Brooks, Chris Ripley, Bryan Suits, Smilin' Marty Whitney, Jayn, and Marc Young. Not just great air talent, but skilled programmers and content marketers. The work that they did -- whether they knew exactly what they were doing or not -- provided a great example for me as a kid. They built a brand, it had a great identity, and when you do that -- the community follows. I studied what they did carefully, and what I learned there still informs what I do today.

When you drive to the top of the Kingsbury Grade on the South Shore of Tahoe, you can hear Live 105 pretty clear. In high school I would drive my truck up there, drink beers, and listen to Aaron Axelson's Soundcheck show. That was my pre-internet music discovery outlet.

9. What stands out the most from your first job in radio?

So much has changed since then -- and it's only been 12 years or so. The landscape, culture, and model are profoundly different now, isn't it? I got in to the business post-consolidation, but I was largely shielded from its negative effects until later on. A few years ago, it still felt like there might be enough collective momentum to innovate our way out of the challenges that we faced as a medium. Doesn't feel that way anymore. Terrestrial radio certainly faces significant technical and financial issues, but I believe the bigger issue is the brain-drain that the business has experienced.

My first radio gig was at an Alt station in Lake Tahoe that was running the Waitt satellite Alt format. I was 16, and the PD was a local mobile DJ. After a few weeks of running the board for the feed of Max Tolkoff's "Modern Rock Live", this mobile DJ, bless him, gave me my own show. I would take the station off the feed at night, and just play CDs and do my own show. Highly unorthodox, but I'm very grateful. That guy got me my first fake ID too -- so that I could do events at casinos.

10. What are you most proud of from your radio career thus far?

I had a really good run. I got my first PD gig at the station I grew up listening to and I ended my radio career at 91X. I'd like to think that I was a good mentor to some very talented individuals and that I gave back what was given to me in regards to guidance and education. That was one of the fundamentals that I was taught early on -- that you have a responsibility to educate, mentor, and cultivate new talent. Not only because it's the right thing to do, but also to sustain the model and promote innovation. It seems that those days are over now. I've seen reference to the "talent puddle" as of late, but I believe that speaks to poor leadership more than a lack of human capital.

I also hope that my tendencies over the years to be an outspoken contrarian when it comes to the current business model will have at least sparked some discussion amongst those that I came into contact with.

What are your hobbies?

Being a good husband and dad. Mobile Development -- I'm getting pretty proficient with iOS and Objective-C, starting to work on developing for Android. Craft beer, Snowboarding. Collecting and restoring classic euro motorcycles, and building café racers. Motorcycles in general. Continually learning, reading, taking classes, studying this business of art.

Last non-industry job?

I worked at Kirkwood Ski Resort selling overpriced snowboards to tourists.

First record ever purchased?

I can more easily recall the first MP3 that I downloaded than I can the first record I bought.

First concert?

The fake Beach Boys at Caesar's Tahoe. I think it was the "Mike Love and a bunch of random dudes" era. I was 6 or so. Not a good introduction- it was only after I heard Pet Sounds for the first time that I realized that the Beach Boys weren't a casino cabaret band.

Favorite band of all-time?

Too hard. Some of my favorite records:

• The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency and I
• Hot Snakes - Automatic Midnight
• Ned's Atomic Dustbin - God Fodder
• Braid - Frame and Canvas
• The Smiths - The Smiths
• Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation