10 Questions with ... Jeff Cruz

NAME:Jeff Cruz TITLE:APD / Donor Relations WEB:www.Zradio.com STATION:WPOZ Z88.3 & 2 HD stations: The Rock & Y Hot MARKET:Orlando, FL COMPANY:Central Florida Educational Foundation BORN:Chattanooga TN - September 2, 1966 RAISED:Army brat until 1975 (NC, VA, GA, TX, TN) but raised in Birmingham, AL from 9-years-old.

Brief Career Synopsis:

I started as an intern for Top 40 I-95/Birmingham (where Mark & Brian at KLOS got their start) and worked my way up to board op, then weekend overnights, and then overnights. I worked weekends, part-time or swing for almost every radio station in Birmingham at some point (Kix106, Magic96, Oldies 106.9, WZZK, Reality101.1). I worked Country radio in Panama City Beach and Tallahassee (KatKountry and B103). When I went to Reality 101.1 in 1998, it was the first time I had worked in CCM radio. After they went out of business in 2001, I went back to school then to work for Arbitron. Two years ago, I moved to Orlando to be Dean O'Neal's APD at WPOZ.

1) What was your first job in radio? Who were your early influences and/or mentors?

I was the MD's intern at WAPI (I-95)/Birmingham. His name was John Peake and was the coolest guy I had ever met. The first thing he had me do was organize and file all the old VINYL records that the station was not going to be using anymore because of this new thing called CDs! He first taught me about music scheduling, clocks, rotations, music research and basic programming philosophy.

My earliest great influence in radio though was when I was 10, listening to the "wacky AM radio morning guy" on the local station named THE BIRDMAN. He made me want to be in radio. Years later, I had the privilege of working for him at Oldies 106.9. It was there I got to mentor his young godson, Ace McKay, when he was getting his first start into this business.

2) What does Christian radio need to do to break through to a mass audience on a more consistent basis?

I think it is a simple as doing great radio. This means playing great songs (not the ones that are just OK, because they are Christian or because they are by artists that have had great songs in the past). It also means finding and developing great air talent. I have had the good fortune over my career to work with some great talent and some not so great and it is almost always related to how much the station puts into developing them. It is amazing how much more effective a station can be at reaching listeners when they take the time to get the right product on the air. If we ran a restaurant, we would not spend 10 times the time and money getting the sign right, only to ignore the food we serve, yet that is what many Christian radio stations do. They spend too much time on image or outside interests, and almost no time or money at all on the foundation of what brings customers to you!

3) What are the greatest challenges and the greatest rewards in your position/jobs?

The greatest challenge is managing creative types. In any company you have different personalities that you have to manage well enough to get the most from them everyday. In a radio station, those personalities are magnified and almost all extroverted and artistic. This makes for some very interesting inter-office situations at times, but thankfully in the end, Christian radio is not about ego or personal gain (at least it shouldn't be), so you do not have the same level of problems you would in mainstream radio or TV.

The greatest reward is feedback from listeners about the music we play and how it is directly impacting their lives. I handle the music research here at the Z, so I am the first to see the responses to songs we play from listeners. It is sometimes tough to make decisions about songs we play, but when you find one you just know will connect with people, then get the direct letters from people telling you just how much it really did. That is amazing. It shows you that God and his messages delivered in the songs we play are so much bigger than our little radio station. They are eternally impacting people's lives every day.

4) Who is your favorite air personality not at your station?

Shannon Steele at KDUV/Fresno/Visalia, CA. She started as an intern for us at Reality 101.1 in Birmingham and within a few months we had talked her into not going back to school and going to work for us on the morning show. Not only is she a great air talent but a fantastically talented young programming mind. She knows her listeners and knows how to give them what they want. And she routinely thinks outside the CCM box to get real issues that matter to her audience. I have been a big fan for a long, long time.

5) Any favorite or funny artist run-ins? Highlights from a promotion or interview?

I have a few funny memories from my years with different artists. Early in my career, at a Country station I made Martina McBride really mad. When getting her to sign her first CD, she asked me if I had the new one, to which I jokingly responded that I could not bring myself to buy it, since I liked her long hair so much. (She had cut off like 10 inches of her hair between projects.) She was NOT happy about that at all! We found out later that, that was the day she found out she was pregnant for the first time. So, I choose to believe it was that and not my really bad joke!

I have fond memories like when I helped Andrew Peterson put together his first baby stroller in the parking lot of Reality 101.1. And funny but not so fond memories of when one member of Jars of Clay passed gas in a crowded elevator at GMA. And by far the best artist sit-down I have had over the years was with TobyMac around 1999 when he was in pushing the book "Jesus Freaks." He was fascinating.

6) If you were just starting out in radio today, but you knew what you know now, would you continue forward?

Yes, I would, but I would do two things differently. I would go to work for CCM stations in the beginning and I would complain less about the climb up the ladder. Looking back, all those years doing the "dirty work" as an intern, part-timer or overnight jock were the biggest opportunities to learn. Today those opportunities are fewer and farther between so I would try and appreciate it more.

7) If you could have any job outside the music business, what would it be?

Elementary school teacher. My college degree is actually in Elementary Education and I loved my time working with local schools, teaching kindergarten through fifth grade. It is the chance to have a direct impact on a child and impart so much more than just reading and writing. At that level, you end up spending more time with the kids than many of their parents do, so you become a role model, mentor and a leader with great influence over their lives, allowing you to positively shape their young lives. And actually, managing a classroom of third graders is a lot like managing a staff of radio DJs so that degree comes in handy more often than you would think. [Smile]

8) If you could ask God about anything, what would it be?

I could probably work on this one for years and not come up with just the right answer. There are so many questions I would love to know the answer to and just trust that one day, when I am in heaven, I will be blessed to understand at least some of it. If I was asked this question a month ago, I would probably have said something like, "Were dinosaurs on Noah's ark?" Or "where did the idea for a flightless bird who lives at the North Pole come from?" But if I was there today, I think I would have to ask him, "Why the Chapman family?" Like most of the Christian and adoption community, I am in shock, grief and total sadness over what happened. I have a daughter adopted from China that is the same age, so I have been thinking about this a lot. I freely admit that I have no understanding of why God could ever allow things like this could ever happen.

9) If a screenwriter came to you and said he or she wanted to make a movie of your life, what actors and actresses would you suggest play the main roles? And would you have Grant Hubbard stand in as himself?

I would like to think that Tom Cruise would be best for the role of me but truthfully, Jim Belushi or Homer Simpson is honestly more like what I would need. Either Andi McDowell or Amy Grant could play my wife Tina, as she has always reminded me of both. Imagine a movie staring Homer Simpson and Amy Grant. Throw in two young kids, two dogs and a wacky radio station, and you have my life! And while I love and respect Grant (who actually grew up with my wife in Northport, AL), I would have to say "no" to his involvement in the film because I know that he would totally steal the show like he did with "The Label" at GMA Week!

10) If money were no object, what hair-brained idea (or hair-brained event) would you pull together for the greater good of the world?

This one is tough because I know that if I had the time, I could come up with lots of ideas, but honestly I would have to say that if money were no object, my first thought is to create a system where adoptions were quick, free and easy. The main problem with adoption (domestic or international) is that they are so expensive and complicated. I believe that 90 percent of the reason that people do not consider adoption is cost, so if that is eliminated, I know that we would be able to greatly impact the world. Christ called us to care for widows and orphans, so this could be one of the biggest ministries in the world if it could happen. Sadly, it probably could happen; it just never will in the world we live in today because of bureaucratic red tape, lawyers and politics. But we can dream.

1) Do you read everything or nothing? Do you have a favorite?

I read far less than I would like (and watch TV far more than I should). But I loved "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller and am currently reading Andrew Peterson's new book "ON the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness" (Very Narnia like. A great adventure!)

2) What's in your stereo or on your iPod right now?

Little Big Town, Needtobreathe ("The Heat"), Chris Sligh's debut and The Police's Greatest Hits (Just saw them in concert! What a show!)

3) Do you have musical guilty pleasures?

I like hair band metal from the '80s. Takes me back to running around in my '76 Pontiac LeMans in high school and listening to the cassettes on my car stereo that cost as much as the car did!

4) Cat or dog person?

DOG! I grew up with cats because my mom liked them but we have two great dogs, Murphy and Baxter.

5) Describe your favorite meal?

I love to eat so this one is probably the toughest one to answer. I would say a big meal with family, dinner for sure, probably Mexican food or Italian food. But I do love Chinese too! (Great. Now I am hungry!)

6) Stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you want with you and why?

My wife and my two kids. That may seem a bit lame but if I have them with me, we can always figure out the rest. I truly believe that family and friends are the greatest things we have. IF I had to be there on the island by myself, I would not make it, unless I had a loaded iPod, Phone to outside world and DirecTV!

7) Favorite TV program of all-time?

"Andy Griffith Show" is hands down my all-time favorite show ever. After last night's season finale of LOST, I am beginning to think that it could become my all-time favorite someday!