10 Questions with ... Jim Mantel

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

A 35-year vet of Country radio, Mantel's career began in Texas, where he worked at KNFM/Odessa, KRYS/Corpus Christi, and KKBQ/Houston. Those stints preceded a long and successful stay in mornings at WGAR/Cleveland, which ran from 1992-2010. Mantel was honored with the CMA Personality of the Year award in 1993, and was a 2005 inductee to the Ohio Radio And TV Broadcasters Hall Of Fame. His successful career continues today, hosting mornings at WRNS/Greenville, NC.

1. Let's begin by asking what induction into the Country Radio Hall Of Fame means to you. What do you think it says about your radio career?

I'm flabbergasted, first of all, to think I can be in a place with people like Terry Dorsey and Ralph Emery, Gerry House, people like, that. Getting there by doing goofy, fun stuff that I did for 35 or 36 years is beyond comprehension. I did nothing but screw around and have fun. As a friend of mine said, I guess if you do something long enough and are loud enough, someone will notice. I've had so much fun and never really felt like I was going to work. I mean, I won a CMA Award and thought, "Holy cow, this is awesome!" And, now this. It's unbelievable. I kept waiting for a phone call going, "We screwed up." I've never taken myself too seriously, and I am the butt of my own jokes. My only hole-in-one playing golf was on April 1st of 2010. Perfect. No matter who I started calling - it was a 5th hole at a place called Pine Hills in Cleveland, and one guy I was playing with, I had him witness. So, you start calling all of your buddies, and of course what do they say? "Screw you, April fools. My ass, I'm not falling for that. You didn't get no hole-in-one." It was perfect; I wouldn't want it any other way. You know, I've had a lot of people tell me I could have probably been a lot more successful if I had a bigger ego. I didn't get into this to do mornings. I always thought it would be fun to do mornings, and that's what drew me to radio - listening to people who were one the radio when I was doing other jobs that weren't fun. What I really got into was Production. I really enjoyed Production. I learned from a great Production Director, Tom O'Brien from WMMS. I learned production from Tom and thought, God that would be a great way to make a living, doing production. So, that's kind of where my head was at when I got into it.

2. Tell us about your first radio job. Certainly you remember some fun facts about that very first gig, right?

My very first radio job was at - that didn't even last a year, by the way - it was at an automated station in Midland, TX, and I was hired to do production. That was KBAT. The guy that I worked for was not anyone's idea of a good boss; we'll just leave it at that. I could tell you stories, off the record, that would absolutely curl your hair, if you would like to hear a couple. His name was Bob, and he owed the radio station; he ran the radio station. He would not let you bring a briefcase beyond the front door for fear that you might steal things, like toilet paper and copy paper. The AM station was a Spanish station; you couldn't sell Hispanic radio in Texas in the 1980s. We had a Sales meeting from 8a to 9a in the morning and from 5p to 6p in the afternoon, and he had a guy - his name was Oscar, but I forget his last name. But Oscar sold some sort of a package deal to an advertiser on the AM station. It was like $2500-3000, and it was a big deal, because this guy was late with the money, so Oscar didn't get back until 5:10p. And, he walks in the door with $3500 in cash and got fired because he didn't come back at 5 o'clock. He fired a guy one time - I was in charge of personnel for a while one time, which meant I couldn't hire or fire anybody - but, if somebody didn't show up, I would have to show up. And the people on the Spanish station worked a split shift, and the guy who did afternoons and late mornings came to me at 11 o'clock in the morning or so, and he said, "Hey do you think it would be okay if I took the afternoon off? I just found out that my mother has been in a bad accident, and she is in a coma in the hospital in Abilene, which is like two and a half or three hours away." So, I called the hospital real quick, and all they would tell me is that she was critical condition or intensive care. I forget exactly what it was. So, I went to talk to Bob, knocked on the door, and said, "Bob, so-and-so has got a problem," and the employee explained. The guy never looked up from his desk - kept on writing - and he said, "Well, why, are you a doctor? Will you do your mother any good by being there? Would be a shame to lose your job and your mother in same day, wouldn't it?" True story. And that's when I moved over to KNFM. They had just been bought by new owners, and they were looking to staff the radio station. I got hired there, and it was my first real job in radio. That's where I say things started.

3. What station or personality did you listen to most growing up? And how did either - or both - influence you in pursuing a radio career?

I grew up in Cleveland and was from Cleveland. Radio has always intrigued me. I think even as a little kid it intrigued me. My dad was a huge, Bill Randall fan, who was a great talk show guy in Cleveland. I gravitated towards - you grow up in Cleveland, you listen to Rock - Jeff & Flash, who now two very good friends of mine; it's one of those weird things where you get to meet your idol. But Jeff & Flash on WMMS were the ones I would listen to while I was doing heating and cooling other menial jobs that I had. Not menial, I don't want to say that, but I was doing jobs that weren't my future. I'm sitting there thinking, "These guys are in a comfortable room - and I'm in a cold house or a hot house - and they are in comfortable room drinking coffee, making smartass comments. I'm a smartass, I can do that job." I kept talking about it, and we had just gotten married, and my wife said, "Then do it." So, we bit the bullet, and I went to broadcasting school to learn how to be on the radio. You have no idea what my wife has done and meant. I 'm sure everybody else has that kind of family support, but through the years, between the ideas, the material, being the foil...she's kind of legendary in her own right for doing some pretty fantastic things. Honest to God true story, she made George Strait set up chairs for one of his shows one time - and he did it! In Cleveland, she took on a life of her own as "Mantel's Wife." That was her name on the radio. So named Meg Stevens, completely by accident. She's legendary. She's accident prone, sadly. She's fallen down; she's hurt herself several times. She's got metal and everything else in her arm because of it. But her accidents became legendary, as well. She was as well know as I was, that's for sure.

4. Mentors - everybody has a few of them. Who was it for you that helped you, challenged you, and made you believe you could actually make this a career?

Gosh, there have been so many. Ted Stecker was the first person that I really work with or for - Ted was our consultant - that sure pointed me in the right direction. There have been so many of them. I worked with Ted, and I learned so much from Ted. I've been so lucky that I worked for Clay Hunnicutt, I worked for Meg Stevens, I worked for Jaye Albright, albeit for a very short period of time. I worked for Denny Nugent. Bob Moody was once a consultant of ours for a while when I was at WGAR when I first started there. Along the way, and no one of them has been any less or any more important. They've all helped me figure out what to do next. Kevin Metheny was another one. And I had a chance to work with - and for, in some capacity - all of them. You learn something from each one of them, and I still look back on it and think these people are all legends. Brian Jennings, too; that was short lived, as well. I don't think he liked Cleveland, and I don't think Cleveland liked him. John Lanigan, too, is someone I listened to. I listened to him as a little kid, and he always loved it when I told him that. The running joke was that one bomb at 7a in the Clear Channel men's bathroom would greatly improve Cleveland radio, because me, Bill Wills, and Lanigan were all taking a leak at the same time! Even being around Lanigan and stuff, you absorb so much. Like I said, I never took myself too seriously. I was always in awe that I got to go to work tomorrow. "Well, I fooled them for another day. This is amazing! I get to keep doing this."

5. We talk a lot about the Cleveland years, and there were 18 of them there at WGAR - and that's the largest part of your career. Can you tell us how special it is to spend all of that time in one market at one station?

Being from there, doing radio in your hometown, you know where all skeletons are buried. You don't have to learn anything, because you know everything, because you grew up there. What a great city, because it had its attributes, it had its weaknesses. It had been kicked and picked on by everybody, and yet we love this city. if you're not from there, you can't make jokes about it, but we have the best Cleveland jokes anyway! To be able to do radio in your hometown and then have people - I had listeners that would come up to me be like, "I had your mom as a teacher in school." I would hear from people, every day on the first day of school we did "I Trust You'll Treat Her Well." An interesting aside, our afternoon guy, John Arthur, had just the pipes of the Lord, and as we asked John to read that... Are you familiar with that? "Dear World, I Trust You'll Treat Her Well, My Little Blonde Girl." We had John read this, and we put music behind it, and we would play this around the first day of school. We played it three or four times. And, I still today get emails from people saying, "Hey do you still have that?" That kind of thing. There are people now that have kids that are in high school, whose parents cried when they heard this thing when they were 5 years old going to the first day. We gave this to John, because of those great pipes. "John would read this for us?" And, he said yes. And we left - he just left a tape for us - and we had no idea that we have given it to him on his daughter Abby's first day of kindergarten. She was his only kid, and she had blonde hair and blue eyes. And John was just a blubbering mess trying to read this damn thing for us, and we never knew it. This was something that we began - going back to people that we mentored and had an influence, Kidd Kraddick would be another one, and everybody from that whole BitBoard. Instead of the Bill Belichick Coaching Tree, I call it the Kidd Kraddick Radio Tree. Kidd was so brilliant and so far ahead of the rest of us. And so generous. That was the other thing about Kidd, we always tried to remember that kind of stuff. What would Kidd do? How would Kidd handle this? I met him - I think it was 1989, I'll have to go back and double check - and, I realized at that time that no one was going to invest in me, and that I had to. So, I took money that we didn't have. I told my wife I was going to a "Joel Denver Radio Personality Seminar in Dallas." So, I went to that thing. It happened to be the weekend the Cowboys fired Tom Landry, which is why I will never forget it. That was the weekend I met Steve Harmon and Scott Evans, and Kidd sat next to me. He had just gotten the job as a night jock at The Eagle in Dallas. He was the only guy in the room that had a laptop computer. I had never actually seen one in person! He was ahead of us all then. But, I met Kidd then, and fast forward three and a half years later or something like that, I get a phone call from him. He tells me he's starting BitBoard, and he's starting the Country edition, and he was looking for some bigger names in Country music - which blew me away that I was one of those. He asked if I wanted to be a part BitBoard, and that was game changer. Not just for me, but I think for everybody.

6. I understand, based upon what I read, that your arrival at WGAR was surrounded by some unique circumstances. I understand that it may or may not have involved a murder. Is that correct? Can you tell us about that?

It's a real thing, and it was very tragic. Dave Perkins, who was the morning guys at 'GAR - Dave and I had been good friends and competitors and golfing buddies - and Dave and I are still friends. When I was in Midland, Dave was at KCRS and eventually KODM, and he did mornings. And, about the time I left for Corpus, Dave left for Cleveland. Under my skin, I was like, "Why didn't I get the Cleveland gig?" So, I went to Corpus. I had two and a half great years there and had moved to Houston for nine months and was in Houston. Dave was leaving 'GAR to move back to Texas. And, as I recall the story, it was that his wife had worked her last day, but there was a going away party for her. She drove into downtown Cleveland to go to this going away party, and as she was getting out of her car in the parking lot, a guy jumped in the car and drove her out to the Eastside and raped her and killed her. And, of course, Dave having been there for four or five years - whatever it was - the audience loved him. And, you never want to be the guy that replaces the guy. So, they had hired a guy, but he didn't like Cleveland, and Cleveland didn't like him. Kind of like what we said about Brian before. He lasted like two weeks. And the guy that took my place in Corpus - Scott Ward, who is now on KFRG out in San Bernardino - Scott was at CRS and ran into Denny Nugent. And, Denny was like, "I don't know what I am going to do" - and, he told Scott the story. "I have to find someone that the audience is going to accept." Scott goes, "I know your guy. Jim Mantel. He's from Cleveland, and I think he may know your old morning guy." And so out of the clear blue, I get a call from Scott Ward, saying "Hey, you're going to get a call from Denny Nugent at WGAR in Cleveland. He needs a morning guy, and I think you're it." And, as I said, Dave and I had been good friends and still are good friends. And through the fact I was from Cleveland, and that I knew Dave - and Dave was still around, because he would come back for the investigation and the trial - we would have Dave on the air. So, we kind of got Dave's blessing with the listeners, because we knew each other. And when he would come in, we would go play golf together. He hit the ball a lot farther than I did and was a better golfer than I was, but that was maybe the most unique set of circumstances that I think anybody has ever gotten a job under. But, I happened to able to step in and be the guy that replaced the guy. Dave went and saw the guy and visited the guy that murdered his wife and forgave him. We've had that conversation, and Dave is remarried. I think he is remarried. I'm pretty sure he is. He still lives in Texas and does a lot of stuff. He worked for a network; he did a talk show. I'm not sure what he is doing now. We still talk on Facebook. He fills in everyone once in a while doing stuff. I'm not sure he is working full time anymore. I've known Dave for 36 years.

7. You had a great run at WGAR, and now you've been at WRNS for about six years. You're putting together another great run there. So, can we talk about going to WRNS? Were there any adjustments you needed to make? Or is radio just radio?

It's a different part of the Country, it's a different market, it's a different lifestyle, and it's a different mentality. Joel Raab had to point that out to me. He said, "You may not realize how sophisticated and urbane Cleveland is, but you need to take step back. Because, you are not in a big city; you don't have all things the things that you have in a big city. You don't have the arts, you don't have the sports. You're in small town rural America now. It's not that they are not as smart, they are just not as hip. And, you can't be, either." It took me a few months to get ahold of that and to get my head around it. But it was maybe the best advice that I have gotten in six years of being here. We don't have a lot of staff, so we are not able to go out and do a lot of things. And the geography of this market is so bizarre that it would be hard to go out and do a lot of things, anyway, because there is no city here. You've got five or six cities that are all 45 minutes to an hour apart that make up the metro area. You've got Greenville, which is ECU and a big medical city. You've got Jacksonville, which is like an hour and ten to fifteen minutes away from Greenville, which is Camp LeJeune and Marine Corps. You've Morehead City to the East, which is kind of a beach town, summer time, living on the water town with a lot of tourism. You've got Goldsboro to the West, even though that's not in our metro. But that's Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. You've got Kinston, and you've got New Bern, which is where our studios are, which is kind of a tourist town. So, where do you when you go do something? They're all 45 minutes to an hour apart. It's the second largest geographical regional market in the country. So, what's important to Greenville and ECU or the medical community - or what's going on there - doesn't compare to Jacksonville, because it's a completely different city with a completely different mentality, a completely different set of goals and objectives being basically a Marine Corps town. So, doing local radio here is a challenge. It's a lot of kids and dogs. What does everybody have in common? Kids and dogs. Cleveland was a town that became fond of Country. This is an area that has always been Country. Eastern North Carolina is as Country as you can get. There are no more Country people. It's interesting how their taste in music runs the gamut. They love Country music. There's a lot of people in Cleveland that came up 77 from West Virginia or Kentucky that grew up listening to Country music. But, a lot of people became Country fans with either Strait and Travis or Garth later on. Down here, it's more people who have been listening to Country to their whole life. That may have started when they were little kids with Garth. There is a different perspective; maybe is the word? And, I don't think any one group is more ferment in their fandom than another. They are equally as loyal and equally opinionated. Maybe a different knowledge.

8. The movement from a bigger city market like Cleveland to this smaller market, do you think that has made you a better radio personality?

I think I am more well-rounded. I think I am better at working on the fly, for sure, because there is only two of us on the show. I'm used to having producers and interns and sidekicks. At one point, there were six or seven of us in the studio. Now there is two of us. It's self-sustaining, but it is also radio in 2017. A lot of people are doing with less, and having to make due. It's the lay of the land.

9. A lot of people have expressed concern about where the next generation of new, great air personalities will come from. Where do you think the next great radio stars will come from, with fewer and fewer "farm team" type opportunities anymore?

In just the six years that I have been here, I have seen a handful of people come through a station and then move on. Not necessarily at our station, but in our cluster. They're still out there, and they still have a passion for it. And when you find them, or they find you - as was the case with most of them, they found us - they started out the same way most people did, on the promotion team or on the street team. They end up doing some air work and voice tracking. They're out there, and they will find their way. It's unfortunate that radio has gone the way it has, I think. And not necessarily from the development standpoint, because the people that are good at and that are driven at - the people that can entertain and command with their voice - will find a way to get it done. It may be podcasting that does it. I think the saddest thing that we face is the lack of live and local. I hear people who voice tracked all day say, "We're live and local." No, you're not! I read after all these storms and hurricanes, "We were live wall-to-wall, we were local the whole time and working with our news partners." Well, that's great. Why don't you do that 24/7? That would be awesome. "We dropped all of our syndication." Well, good for you! I'm proud of you. The first time that ever hit me hard, I was 'GAR. I was out on the East side of Cleveland at my brother-in-law's on the snow belt. I am driving home to Akron, which should have taken me about 45 minutes to an hour; it took two and a half hours, because it was an absolute freaking blizzard. I couldn't see. There was one line of traffic on I-90, we were going about 25 miles an hour. I had our station on, and never once was there a mention of snow or bad roads if you were on the Eastside. I went in Monday morning and absolutely blew my cork. We have news here. We don't have anybody here. There is somebody down the hall at the news station. But, we could have been in Hawaii for all I knew listening. There was nothing about the weather. Nothing addressing a freaking blizzard! How are we serving our audience? I'm sure the next generation of talent will find their way. It won't be the same way I entered, that's for sure. But, I think they will. I just wonder what there is going to be for them to do. I've had my bigger concerns than where is the talent going to come from Will there be as live and local radio 15 years from now. And, it's a real concern for me, because my daughter is on a morning show in Buffalo. She's at WYRK. My other daughter is a teacher. I'm not sure which one of them is smarter.

10. You've obviously been in the format for many years. So, let's talk about the music. From where you sit, from your chair, where do you see the format going? What direction do you think we're headed in, sonically, right now?

I don't know where it's going to go. I don't think anyone does. But, I'm excited to see where it goes, because back when Garth came out, who would have ever imagined you could do what Garth did on a stage and ignite a crowd with Country music the way he did it? If you go back even further than that, when I think of where Country was when George Strait came along and kind of where he is now. When I think of groups like Bandana, and when Restless Heart was brand new. Acts like that that were pushing the envelope. And then along comes George Strait and Randy Travis, and the pendulum swings back the other way. I think Sam Hunt's new song is awesome. I think everything Sam has written has been awesome. I think he is a lightning rod, to be sure, but I think he has written some phenomenal songs. I'm not sure about his production choices, but he's the artist, not me. Kane Brown is another one. But, for every one of those, there is a Justin Moore, there's a Chris Janson, there is somebody who is pushing back the other way. Is it ever going to be the same? Hell, no! And we wouldn't want it to be the same. If Country music was the same as it was 30 years ago, how much would that suck? It's got to change. George Strait drew in some influences for what he became based on what he listened to as a kid. No different that Florida Georgia Line drew from what they listened to as kids. Or Kane Brown, or Chris Janson. I laugh at people who want to rip Sam Hunt a new one. He grew up in rural-freakin-Georgia. There is nothing about Sam Hunt that is not Country. He just listened to different music, maybe, than you did. I think the guy is a genius. With that said, I'm not sure I would be the first one to add his records if I were programming the station, but it's always going to be evolving. It's going to evolve from what the next generation of artists are listening to now. I'm excited for that. I was really good friends with Brian and Tyler when they first came out, and when I heard the cut they did for the Alabama tribute album, these guys are as Country as they want to be. They are as Hip-Hop as they want to be. Because, they listen to it all, and they know it all. There is nothing fake about them. They just have a different perspective on music than I do, because they are that much younger than me. I also remember hearing from people that when Chet Atkins showed up with the new Nashville sound, a lot of people thought he was the devil. Here's my theory on Country music: Country music and "Saturday Night Live" are the same thing. When you started watching "Saturday Night Live," it was the best "Saturday Night Live" there ever was. The stuff that followed was crap, and the stuff before it just didn't make any sense. Country music is the same thing. Whenever you started, whatever got you listening to Country music, was the best music there ever was. And, the stuff that is out now is crap, and the stuff before was twangy stuff that you didn't understand. "I don't know why anybody would ever like that." I think there is a great parallel there.

1. What has been your proudest moment in radio? Was it an on-air moment, or was it an off-air moment? Can you tell us about it?

I would have to say my CMA Award win would be one. It's hard to beat that. It was also a pretty heavy moment. The other thing I would say is being involved in all things I have been involved in over the years to help make people's lives better over a speaker. There are so many of those. The different charities - from St. Jude, to motorcycle groups, to helping the police, the firemen, other charities. Just trying to make people's lives better. There is so many of those things. And, I also think having a daughter that followed me into radio. It's so funny, when I look back at the people who have interned for me and two of them are doing a morning show together now in Akron. I've got people all over the Country who are in various forms of radio or entertainment. Hell, I don't know if you know "Black Mike" who is Luke Bryan's videographer. He's on Cole Swindell's videos. He's like the video guy around Nashville right now, and Shawn Silva is still the guy, I mean it's his label. But Michael was an intern of mine back when he was in high school. I don't know what kind of money he is making, but I'm sure he is doing very well. He's with Luke full time and has been for four or five years. That would be something else that I am pretty proud of. The of people that are in radio or the Country related fields in and around Nashville and around the Country. They've done the work, and they give me credit for getting them started. I know as well as anyone getting the door open for you and actually putting your foot down and doing the work are two different things. I don't take credit for any of them, but I am awfully proud that I was able to help start a lot of people and point them in the right direction and give them some valuable advice.

2. So, we are looking at the WYRK website and see your daughter there on mornings like you said. And, her last name is Mantel, so that must be the family name and not a radio name. Is that right?

No, this is legit. This is my name. They made me change my name in Houston. Joel Rabb made me change my name in Houston, and I still don't know why. I think it was more Dean than Joel, probably. "You've got to come up with a name. Jim Mantel doesn't ring right." And I said, "Okay, how about Roger Houston?" Every time the space shuttle flies out. I thought it was great, too. But, I can't take credit for it. That goes back to my wife. My wife thought of that. We have a running family joke that my wife's funnier than I am, and my daughter the school teacher is the funniest one in the family. And, I would not argue with that. My wife, not just from a support standpoint, but you know as well as anybody who has done this job. It's not a normal life. I think it was from fifth grade my kids went to bed after I did. So, for someone to be able to create a normal family environment out of that and put up with this for 36 years... I mean, it has its rewards, obviously, but it's not an easy life. And, she had to do most of the work to make the family be as normal as possible, so it was relatable on the air as a normal family, if that make any sense. It certainly could not have been a normal family if not for her. It all comes back to relatability, regardless of what crazy scenarios you come up with the talk about. It all comes back relating to the audience. If you can relate to them, and they can relate to you - and having that normal sense of going through the same crap that everybody else is going through - kids in school, dogs, and bills, and veterinarians, and cars, and all that stuff. And, she's just been amazing. There aren't a whole lot of people that have been married 35, 36, or 37 years. That's a lot on her. Like we've talked about, I've been so lucky to work with the people I work with and to be associated with them. Every time I look back, I think, "How in the world did you end up working for those people and learn something from them?" It's mind boggling.