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10 Questions with ... Bill Sammons & Denise Harper
May 4, 2020
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1. So, if you don’t mind, it’d be awesome if you could take us back to the beginning. When did you two meet, when did you start working on-air together and how has your show evolved over time from start to present day?
BILL: I don't remember the first time we met. I think I met Denise's mom and dad first through a bible study my parents attended, and I remember hearing she was a singer and that she was really good. She had been one of the PTL Singers back when Bebe and Cece Winans were there, and she was touring with The Sound of Joy, and they were coming to Delaware for a concert. I went and we talked and I learned she had gotten married and was coming off the road and would be living in Delaware. I was about to start a new Christian radio station and I figured she'd be a potential hire because she was used to being in front of people with a microphone and had great presence. I first hired her to do some voice work for commercials, and then asked her if she'd consider doing middays. How that led to coming on mornings with me, I will leave to her memory...which is way better than mine.
As far as how the show has evolved, I'd say we've basically 'grown up together' on the radio, in many senses of the phrase. When we started in 1991, there weren't many people doing what we were doing, which was playing contemporary Christian music all day with news and weather and traffic and the formatics of mainstream AC stations. We didn't have a coach or consultant, and there weren't the networking and learning opportunities we have today thanks to CMB, etc, so we just kind of made it up as we went along. We were a Class ‘A’ commercial station in a small market, and it was hard. Nobody knew the music or the artists, or us, but we were determined and we put together a great team and God really used that little radio station.
DENISE: The first time I remember meeting Bill was backstage at a concert when I was opening for The Talleys. Bill was a local celebrity having worked in television at a local news station on air for several years. One of Bill's gifts is that he's a connector. He facilitated conversation between Roger Talley and I at a time when I was pursuing a solo career in music. I toured on the road for four years when God brought me back to the area just as Bill's station was getting ready to launch. I had zero thoughts of a career in radio, but again, Bill connected the dots between communicating to an audience in concert and communicating to the listener on the other side of a radio. I had been doing middays that first year and when the station was about to celebrate its' one-year anniversary, Bill and I decided it might be fun to do it together, host a birthday party, invite listeners to come have breakfast with us. We finished that first show and decided right then there was something special about our on air connection that was worth pursuing.
2. What were the indicators that there was an on-air chemistry between the two of you? And can you recall the time when that chemistry really became noticeable to you? Was there ever a time when that chemistry was in doubt?
BILL: I don't remember having an epiphany about having on-air chemistry, but I do remember that after we did our first show together the feeling that I had just discovered something I didn't know I was missing. The dynamics of working solo, or working as a team, are so so different, and I am much more comfortable having someone in the studio with me. We almost immediately fell into a natural rhythm with our personalities. Denise has a natural infectious laugh, not fake or put on, and it made my dad-humor funnier. She also brought a spiritual element to the show that I couldn't, and it gave us a much more vast palette of colors to paint with. I never doubted our on-air chemistry, which seems to be there even when we're having a bad day.
I'd say we were way more 'fake' in the early days, kind of feeling this weird pressure to act as though we had it all together and our families were perfect and we never doubted our faith, etc. I probably shouldn't speak for Denise on this, but I was definitely that way. After going through a divorce and a crash and burn with depression many years later, and then returning to Christian radio - I am way more transparent and real than I was when we started. Through it all I knew Denise was in my corner, so thankfully we have never had to fake liking each other. She's one of my favorite people on the planet.
DENISE: The chemistry was immediate. We just clicked. That's not to say there aren't harder days than others. We all have our moments. But identifying who brings what to the table was key for us. Adding the tension of male vs. female, introvert and extrovert, and the dynamics of our personalities is part of that chemistry. I can honestly say that one of our power tools is that we always want each other to succeed. Even when we make fun of each other we ALWAYS have each others' back. A few years ago when I struggled through a really painful family situation involving my oldest child Bill was a net for me while we were on the air. We've lived a LOT of life together through the show and, hands down, I would still choose him every time.
3. Has there ever been a time when either considered walking away from radio for some other endeavor? If so, what would that have been?
BILL: Yeah, I actually did a couple of times. The first time we worked together in radio was at WXPZ, a station I built and owned. I eventually named Denise the GM and I started a video production business, and years later I sold the station. Denise stayed with the new owners until just before they flipped the format to Oldies.
DENISE: Between stations I went to work at a new church plant as its administrator. I really thought my radio 'career' was finished and working in church ministry would take me to retirement. I enjoyed my time there, but when The Bridge was getting ready to go on the air and Bill and I agreed to bring The Morning Show with Bill & Denise back, it felt like coming home.
4. What would you each be doing if it wasn’t involving radio?
BILL: I still do video production, and I'd probably be doing that in some form.
DENISE: Barista! I love coffee and I love hearing people's stories...and some of my favorite conversations have happened over the rims of mugs!
5. How would you describe your on-air/off-air roles as a team? Are they much different now than they were when you first started? How do they complement each other—make each other better?
BILL: Denise is the producer of the show. We both do prep and suggest content, but she decides what we are going to do and when. The same part of her brain that makes her great at choosing the music we play also makes her great at making sure our show has a good mix of content and, as I said earlier, that we use different colors to paint with throughout the morning. Jason Sharp has been coaching us a few years, and he encourages us to bring our personalities to the show and weave them into the breaks, so I feel free to question things or poke fun at stuff that some people would avoid, and Denise reacts with her natural compassion and role as the wiser one.
We also go with the natural tension between how males and females think, and play off of that. I usually lead the breaks and am the wise guy, but we also try to avoid getting in a rut so sometimes she has the zinger. We usually don't over plan our breaks, because our best stuff usually happens when we are just talking. The danger with that is the breaks can go too long, or I miss the first exit because I have something else I want to say. Usually we'll have the beginning and exit in mind before we start, but it generally goes sideways and better. I think that goes back to the chemistry. We're both happy to let the other person shine and after almost 30 years of doing this together, we know how each other thinks. It is quite scary at times, to be honest.
DENISE: What Bill said!
6. There’s no way this will be easy, but what are three particular moments that will forever stand out as highlights of your show?
BILL: You're right, that is difficult to answer! One highlight I remember was when we pranked our listeners on April Fool’s Day back in the 90s. Our engineer hooked up a quadraverb to the studio mics and we told everybody we were broadcasting live from inside the water tower in town because they had emptied it and were going to be painting the inside. We had sfx of water dripping and we told listeners to drive by and honk at us, and we played sfx of horns in the distance. We told people who lived in the north side of town they could only flush during even hours, and south during odd hours to conserve water, and people were calling city hall to ask when they were supposed to flush. We never let anyone in on the joke and to this day, some people will mention they remember that time we were in the water tower.
Another highlight I remember was when Denise had her first child, Cody, and she would bring him into the studio with her every morning. We put up one of those bouncy chairs in the door frame of the studio, and he'd be jumping up and down while we did the show. He hung out at the station so much that one time somebody asked him what his mommy's name was, he said “Bill and Denise”! One of the best compliments you can get as a radio announcer is when somebody says they stayed in the car for a while to hear you finish a story, so I'd have to include our interview with songwriter John Thompson on this list of highlights. He co wrote El Shaddai and the story of what happened to him after the song became a hit record is worthy of a movie (and it may be one day). It involves Russian spies, the KGB, hooded gunmen rushing an airplane, and the rescue of a Jewish family in Russia. Having him share that story for the first time ever is definitely a highlight.
DENISE: Definitely our best show EVER was the April Fools show of 19?? We even set up 'expert' guest interviews with the painter of the inside of the water tower, the inspector, etc. Some of my best friends STILL think I climbed up that tower and got inside! When I turned 30, Bill had artists, local celebs and listeners call in all morning and sing or 'roast' me. That was a sweet show memory. I love that so many shows over the years, while at the time may have felt very ordinary, hold some extraordinary moments. (Thanks Hannah Kerr!)
7. Conversely (gotta ask), what stands out as the more forgettable moments? Can you recall a time when there was a palatable tension that you were forced to work through?
BILL: When you do a morning radio program together for as long as we have, you're going to have some rough patches personally and professionally. Some days I 'phone it in'. Some days I come in with a migraine or I have nothing I want to say, or whatever. The beauty of having a team is that the other person can pick up the slack. I am an introvert and deal with depression some times, and I can be unintentionally moody. I've never felt judged for that and Denise always is the pro who doesn't let it affect our chemistry on air. She can have a rough day now and then too, but I think we know when to push and probe...and when to shut up. Maybe it's because I am a guy, but I don't remember having to push through palatable tension to do our show. That's pretty incredible since we started doing this in 1991.
DENISE: Before we had the capability of recording & editing calls on the fly we took a lot of our show calls live. Some of our funniest moments came from those live calls. But some callers were just. not. morning. people.! For me, the tension in any relationship builds when we forget to give each other grace. We are co-workers, but we are also friends. Joyce Landorf wrote a book called 'Balcony People' that described people you surround yourself with who either drag you to the basement or pull your up while cheering from your balcony. I know that Bill is in my balcony and he knows that I am in his.
8. Which artists stand out as your favorite interviews?
BILL: Wow, another tough one. One that stands out to me was when we interviewed Randy Stonehill in 1992 or 93. We were backstage at a festival and he had just come off stage, and he gave us the most rambling and random interview I have ever heard. It was fantastic. We were laughing so hard and I don't think we got a straight answer to anything. To be honest, I don't generally enjoy interviewing artists. I think it's because they're usually facilitated by the labels to promote a song or a tour, and I feel like we're on-the-clock with an agenda that our listeners don't really care about. Having said that, when we have access to an artist in the studio or in a setting with no agenda, I enjoy talking to them about stuff that matters. I always ask artists for their testimony, because I think it gives us a chance to present the gospel on the radio in a non-preachy way. They say you can argue about theology but you can't argue with someone's story about how Jesus changed their life, so we always ask about life-changing stories. The 'tell us about your song' stuff is usually just bad radio. So the artists I like talking to are the ones who get off script and talk to us as a person not an artist. More recently, artists I have enjoyed talking to are Danny Gokey, Darren Mulligan, Micah Tyler, Hannah Kerr and Josh Havens.
DENISE: One of my favorites involves coffee. Dan Bremnes came through on a promo tour and taught us how to make coffee using a French press. Danny Gokey flipped pancakes for us and some listeners one year for Fat Tuesday. Mark Hall, Seth & Nirva, North Point InsideOut. We love down to earth guy and girl next door kind of interviews. Let’s just have a cup of coffee and chat about life.
9. Are there any other on-air personalities and/or teams in the CCM format that you watch and glean from?
BILL: There are too many to mention. When I started doing Christian radio, I wanted to be like Jon Rivers, mostly because he has the second-best voice in the world (next to God). Because of his voice, it was easy to not notice he was also brilliant at letting the artists or callers be the star, and he knew when to take the exit, if it was unplanned and the pre-scripted exit was great. I have been in radio since the mid-70's when big pipes were the rage, and it took me a while to realize your voice is perhaps the least important part of being good on the radio. I'd rather be able to tell a story, to be real, and be entertaining, and have something to say. There are so many in our industry who excel at that. I strive to prep like Dave Moore, with the energy of Rob Dempsey, the clarity of Sandi Brown, the brevity of Lisa Barry and the communication abilities of Frank Reed.
DENISE: It seemed like there were so few females in our industry when I first started in radio. I love that there are so many talented girls in radio now! Just a few faves: Lisa Barry, Beth Bacall, Brandi Lanai, Theresa Ross...
10. In light of the COVID-19 situation, you’ve had to make some adjustments. What have those been and what do you look forward to most, heading into the rest of 2020?
BILL: Wow have we had to make adjustments! We're into our 7th week of broadcasting from our dining rooms, which means I haven't seen my co-host in 6 weeks. How weird is that? It is actually well. Denise has a BricLink at her home. I connect to her using a Comrex Access NX unit from my house, and we record the breaks onto my iMac starting at 5:45 am each morning. I use SplashTop to access Wide Orbit at the radio station, and drag the breaks into the system. Considering the circumstances, it sounds pretty good. We miss not being able to take calls, but we do encourage listeners to text us on the studio line. We use ZipWhip for that. We doing all our prep via emails, and we still have our weekly programming and promotion meetings, but via Zoom. Our staff also texts constantly using WhatsApp. Being the introvert, I am actually enjoying working from home. I especially enjoy the extra hour of sleep since I don't have to drive to the station. Having said that, I am so sad we have had to cancel all of our concerts and events, most recently our TobyMac concert at the Delaware State Fair in July. I am ready to get things back to ‘normal.'
DENISE: Doing the show from home has been an adjustment. I miss people. I miss life as I knew it. But I'm also excited for what is ahead. I asked God to help me dig deeper this year. Deeper in Him. Deeper in myself. They say 'be careful what you ask for,’ and here we are. This time seems like a reset for so many of us that have been stuck in 'BUSY' mode all the time. There's a new normal ahead and I'm thinking this reset time is going to help us all prioritize a little better in work and life.
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