10 Questions with ... MoJoe Roberts

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Recently-named Alpha Media Country Format Captain MoJoe Roberts has handled day-to-day programming duties for Alpha Media Country KUPL (98.7 The Bull)/Portland, OR for just shy of two years now. Prior to joining the team at Alpha, Roberts spent over a decade with then-Citadel-turned-Cumulus in Modesto, CA where he served as PD for both the Top 40/Mainstream KHOP and Top 40/Rhythmic KWIN after a successful run at Country sister KATM/Modesto. Roberts is a proud father, hard-working programmer, and a goal setter who took time out of his increasingly busy schedule to talk to All Access about his career journey, the differences in programming varied formats, and where he sees the potential to grow radio's pool of on-air talent.

1. MoJoe, thank you so much for taking time to speak with us. You were recently announced as one of nine Format Captains for Alpha Media, as you head up the Country format. How will that change your day-to-day routine, and how will you balance those added responsibilities along with programming KUPL?

Well, I've eliminated sleep, so that's exciting. And, I'm probably going to consume much more caffeine throughout the day, which will be good. But, in all seriousness, I'm really excited to broaden my horizons while helping the company, too. Some of these stations and markets are ones that I've never even been to or maybe don't know as much about. This will be a good opportunity to gain fresh perspectives from different parts of the country. I'm excited to help our stations grow and take some of the things I've learned throughout the years on my path to this point in my career and spread that knowledge to our other stations and programmers. There may be a market visit or two in my future, but generally, it will just be about helping everyone remotely from my station here in Portland. I have two of my children that live with me here in Portland, so getting me on flights to hit different cities is likely not as efficient of a use of time as just reaching out and being available remotely. But, I will be helping them build their brand and utilize all the different resources that Alpha has to hit the metric points for music. I'm looking forward to helping them with decisions they may be facing with personnel, too. I'm also happy to be a resource for [Alpha Media EVP/Content] Scott [Mahalick], who has his hands so full with so many different formats. This will allow me to take a little off of his plate, as well, while still maintaining our focus on KUPL in Portland.

2. So, as you begin to take some responsibilities off of Scott's plate, will you lean more heavily on your staff there locally at KUPL, as well?

I'm lucky to have an amazing staff, and they had The Bull humming when I arrived. Everybody really does have a hand on the day-to-day decisions we make at the radio station, and I think that structure has enabled me to take this promotion and run with it. I'm blessed to have a team that already helps every day with The Bull. I don't have to worry if I'm tied up on format calls or market visits, because I know that my team is going to make sure The Bull never skips a beat. Not to mention, I do have the best Music Director [Danny Dwyer] in the entire Country music industry!

3. You are getting ready to celebrate your two-year anniversary at The Bull in March, and as you mentioned, it was already running on all cylinders when you arrived. I know you've built out a new morning show since you arrived, but what other changes have you made at KUPL since you took the reins?

The changes, especially to the morning show, really occurred organically. It was nothing that I had set out to change when I got here. It just so happened that our morning show at the time I arrived was Chunky, McKenzie, and Jake; Chunky had an amazing opportunity to be closer to home back in Detroit and take on mornings in a market that he had spent some time in years ago, and that just kind of happened. Luckily for us, Tony Russell was available, and he was familiar to the market and a fan of the Northwest, so he became the perfect, natural fit for our morning show lead. I'm blessed to have Jake as a morning mainstay. He has been through several morning show members, and he's been in the market since birth and loves Country music. I was blessed to have his influence transitioning to this new morning show. Then, we had McKenzie, and she had been working in television but decided she wanted to pursue her dreams and work in television full-time as an anchor, so with our blessings, she is off to pursue that dream. We were lucky to find Jenn Hays after that, who was in Montana when we found her. She had spent time in Portland before that, and had been in Seattle, too. Jenn is from the market, and she has really hit the ground running; we are so excited with the morning show. I think we finally have a long-term, can't-miss morning show for Portland! We just continue to stay the course and build on the blueprint that Scott Mahalick laid out for The Bull. As far as imagining, I'm just continuing to feed the beast, so to speak. I try to add new creative energy with each promotion we do. When I got here, one of the things that I noticed was that Danny Dwyer was doing a lot of different things and wearing a lot of different hats. He was serving as the Dir./Promotions and as the MD, and he was also the midday host; I was worried that he was going to burn himself out with all the things he had to do. That probably wouldn't have happened, because Danny has an insane work ethic and is just so passionate about radio, but I was blessed to be able to find his assistant here ready and willing to rise to the Dir./Promotions position. That's another change I've made that has streamlined the team and helped take a little off of Danny's plate so that he can focus on being a wonderful on-air talent and MD for our team. Another change was, at night, we had Bryan tracking for us; I was able to move him to weekends and promoted our overnight girl, Cassidy Quinn - who is also an anchor on the local NBC-TV affiliate, as well - and I think her market equity and local focus, as well as the fact that she is embedded in the market and goes out to all of our events as a local presence, just made sense for us at night. In fact, right now, she's out covering the Olympics in South Korea, so that has been a bit of a challenge. That was another change that made sense in the logical evolution of The Bull. Really, all I've done since arriving was to see where the needs were and make the right choices to upgrade them for 2018 and beyond.

4. As you've built this team to be even bigger, better, and more prepared for 2018 and beyond, you mentioned that you had promoted from within as well as going outside to find new talent for the team. We've heard from many stations and PDs around the country that it can be hard to find the right talent for an opening, but you've managed to find your team members fairly quickly. How are you recruiting people to radio now, and how are you finding talent in today's pool of candidates?

Craigslist. It's really that simple. I'm totally kidding! I think the job description of an on-air talent or content provider for the radio station has really evolved, in the last decade, especially. You have to look beyond just radio people now. We've been lucky to find traditional broadcasters who also have the ability to grow on the digital side, but I think you're looking for people who can do both - be great on-air, but also develop great content online, be it through blogging or podcasting, or video pieces. We have a mantra here at Alpha Media that we call "51/49." The talent we hire focuses their energy 51% on-air and 49% online. You have to seek out people who think about both sides and can really be content generators instead of just on-air talent. Part of the recruitment process should now include looking at local YouTube celebrities or podcasters and thinking outside of just the traditional broadcast realm. You'd be surprised at what kind of diamonds in the rough you can find out there that will take a little polish from a Programmer and become not only great on the digital side, but also can become great on-air talent for you, as well.

5. You've listed several "non-traditional" avenues for recruiting new broadcasters. Do you foresee this being the wave of the future, and the place where we can cultivate a farm team, so to speak, for radio?

It depends on whether or not we want to stay relevant as an industry. If the answer is yes, then I'd say we are going to have to start thinking outside the box when it comes to the way we hire talent and start looking for people who have great content creation skills.

6. Let's go back a bit in your career history. You came to Portland after a long tenure in the Modesto, CA market. There, you'd been with the Cumulus cluster there for some time, and you made the move after serving as PD for Top 40 KHOP and Top 40/Rhythmic KWIN. You also had experience at that same cluster, however, with Country KATM. So, can you tell us about your time in Modesto and the journey you took through that cluster?

I was at KATM and was hired as the MD/night host, but I evolved to become the APD and Dir./Imaging there, as well. I worked with KATM from 2002 until 2006, and I was trying to become a PD, but that opportunity just didn't present itself. However, there was an opening at our young Top 40 station, KHOP, right across the hall, and I was there as the PD for 10 years. It was quite a run! Once Cumulus acquired Citadel, about three years before I left, I took on KWIN, as well. That was our Rhythmic CHR, so all total on the Top 40 side, it was about a decade.

7. That was quite a run, indeed, and a shift in formats from Country to Top 40 and Rhythmic CHR. After a decade on "the other side," what programming philosophies, thoughts, or ideals did you bring back when you made the move back to your home in Country?

I'm definitely more aware of the digital and streaming metrics, as well as the attention I pay to some other things that may not have been applicable to Country during my first stint in the format. I also came up on Country in a time when those weren't around. Being in Top 40 also helped me learn how to focus on the audience, because I wasn't necessarily the most well-versed in the Rhythm world, but it gave me the chance to learn about a lifestyle and a culture that I may not have been as familiar with. I think that's what programming is really about - knowing and learning your audience, understanding what makes them tick, and understanding how to appeal to them and develop content that caters to their hot-buttons. I think I had to dig deeper when I was in that world, because it didn't come as easily for me on that side in that format. It made me stronger. Furthermore, I really had to develop my skills when it came to managing a team. While I was at KHOP and KWIN programming both of them, I had to work with two different morning shows, which I had never done before. It was a learning experience, because they were two very different morning shows; on the Top 40 station, I had a two-person team - a guy and a girl - and that girl was my wife! On the Rhythm side, I had an older show in terms of tenure. The gal on the Rhythm side just recently retired on the 19th anniversary of her being in morning drive there. I had to learn to coach two different mindsets and motivate different personalities; I think that helped me become a manager that can work with the team we have in Portland. I came with a new experience and a different perspective. It's about learning what makes the personalities tick, too, just like with the audience. It's important to properly know what motivates each personality to strive for success, and I did really learn that when I switched formats.

8. You mentioned getting to know the audience in a format you weren't as familiar with, but when you came back to Country, the audience had changed quite a bit from your time with KATM, correct? Do you think your time in Top 40 helped you better understand today's current Country audience? Does that influence your programming strategy at all?

To a certain degree, yes. But, I really think the Country format is at its best when there is a good balance of all the types and flavors of music out there. There are a lot of shades of Country music, and I think the format sees its best ratings successes when all of those shades are represented in the format. Right now is a good time for Country music. We have everything from the very Traditional to the very Pop-leaning playing on The Bull right now, and I think it's a good balance and a good mix. The format seems to have a great mass appeal; just look at how many songs are crossing over from Country to Top 40 right now! The last time I think there were this many crossover success stories was during my time all those years ago at KATM. I think that tells the story of our format right now.

9. Speaking of the Country audience and our format's mass appeal, Country really is country-wide right now. But, surely there are differences that you see between the audience in Modesto where you were for so many years, and the new audience you're embracing since moving to Portland, correct? Was there a learning curve when you moved markets? What have you learned about Portland so far that makes the market unique?

Portland is a very unique place. Portland itself is a very liberal-minded, progressive city where weed is legal and you don't have to pump your own gas. But, the target audience for The Bull really isn't the cluster of people just outside of our building; the core for us is really the red that surrounds the blue dot. It's all of those communities that surround Portland that make up the bulk of our audience, and I think in that regard, it's pretty similar to the mindset of the Country crowd in Modesto. They're about God, family, and country; they have those deep family values, and there's a lot of farming communities around, just like there were in Modesto. It's about knowing where the audience is so that you can properly assess who it is that you're speaking to each day.

10. Looking back on your time at KATM, you started at that station as a fairly young on-air talent before making the leap across the hall to change formats. As a young jock, who then started adding imaging and programming duties, how did you take those steps in your career? What would you advise other young talent to do if they are interested in rising through the ranks?

The young part of my radio career, I was never the kid with the deep voice or the amazing talent. It was really two things for me: work ethic and being a sponge. I believe that any programmer or manager who worked with me in those years would tell you that the thing that stuck out about me was the fact that I was the first one to get there, the last one to leave, and I asked as many questions as they would allow me to ask. Part of that is to not only learn the good things, but to be observant and learn what not to do. Some of the things I observed about other people, talent, and programmers helped me shape who I did want to be, who I didn't want to be, and how I wanted to make people feel. That helps you figure out how to best build your brand and your leadership style.

1. Now, taking in to consideration all you've done, all you have accomplished, and the new title and responsibilities you've just taken on with Alpha Media, what are your goals - both personally and professionally - for the remainder of 2018?

That's a really good question. I would love to continue to grow The Bull into a market-leading radio station, no just within the Country format, but overall. I think we are making great strides towards that, and we are poised to continue that growth. I would also love to see all of our 48 or so Country radio stations have better ratings that derive from putting out even better product on the air. With my help, I think that is an obtainable goal. Personally, I would love for my kids to continue to be great kids and grow. Honestly, I set out at the beginning of the year with five goals, and I used the acronym F.O.C.U.S. to describe my goals. The F is to strive to be Father of the year. O is to have an Optimistic outlook - being positive and full of gratitude instead of getting caught up in the negativity of the world - and to be about finding the glass half full and looking for solutions. S is to cut Screen time, which is a goal of mine, because we only have one set of eyes and one gift of time to be present with those in the room. U is to better Understand others, despite the varied and strong opinions thrown around in person and online every day; understanding each other can strengthen relationships and make you a better person overall while also helping me tailor my coaching and motivational styles to each person and their goals. S is for Saving more money. Those "F.O.C.U.S." goals are more on the personal side, I suppose, but that is the basic breakdown of what I have set out to accomplish in 2018.

2. Because you have such a wide view of the musical landscape, both having come back from a long run in Top 40 and Rhythmic, and now with looking at Country from a nationwide perspective in your new role, who are the artists that you are watching rise up in Country that you think are about to make a big leap in their career and as artists in the coming year?

I'm excited for Luke Combs and Brett Young; I think they are both poised for big years. I also think we are on the verge of a new batch of "A"-level artists that are working their way towards that stage in their career - Thomas Rhett feels like he's there, as do Cole Swindell and Brett Eldredge - like they are about to become that next crop of "A" stars. I'm also learning so much more about the artists who are at that level, or about to be there, who were not even in our format when I left KATM to cross over to Top 40. At that time, there was no Florida Georgia Line or guys like that. Those artists continue to impress me with the way they push and press the boundaries to increase the audience and shape what Country music is. I know it's easy for some people to dismiss a group like Florida Georgia Line as being "not Country," but they are! They definitely are. They are just from a new generation of artists, and they grew up being influenced by a different set of artists and multiple genres and styles and sounds. I think it helps Country music continue to evolve and stay relevant with the younger demos. And, look, those younger listeners will grow to be our next batch of 25-54-year-olds who will be the core of our audience in the not-too-distant future. If an artist can continue to push those boundaries and grow the mass appeal while keeping one foot inside the tradition of what Country music started as, I think that's important and noteworthy. Nashville is full of talent, and it never ceases to amaze me that the format continues to grow and progress.