10 Questions with ... Andy Ritchie & Alison Mencer

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Already seasoned radio personalities as solo air talents when they teamed in 1997, Andy Ritchie and Alison Mencer spent 20 years waking up Knoxville at the legendary WIVK. During that time, Andy and Alison were consistently recognized by the industry as one of the top morning shows in America, with seven CMA Personality Of The Year Awards, three ACM Personality Of The Year Awards, two CRS Awards, and numerous local awards, too, from the Knoxville Sentinel News, and City View Magazine. With their induction this year, Andy and Alison join former WIVK PDs Mike Hammond (2010) and the late Les Acree (2007) in the Country Radio Hall of Fame (CRHoF). The duo announced their retirement from radio in June of 2017. In the first of a series of "10 Questions" with 2018 CRHoF inductees, Andy and Alison talked to All Access about what the honor means, what station and personalities influenced them to get into radio, and the responsibility a top-performing radio show has to its local community.

1. Let's begin by asking what induction into the Country Radio Hall of Fame means to both of you and what you think it says about your radio career.

Alison: I'm absolutely honored to be among the other people that have been inducted before, and I never thought this would be something that would happen to me 33 years ago when I went into it. I'm just very humbled, and I feel very honored, very excited, and very proud.

Andy: What she said, plus it's kind of surreal to me, because those days when you're out [at remotes] on a Saturday in 90 degrees, you don't feel like Hall Of Fame material. But, it's kind of surreal, because all of those days of all those little things - getting up in the morning, worrying about what gig we were gonna do that day, and such and such - added up to 20 to 30 years, into a career, and it seems like it flew by. It doesn't seem real to me. It's certainly an honor, and it's humbling to be in the same conversation as all the other inductees that have been before and the ones this year is pretty incredible.

2. How did you two originally team up?

Alison: I actually started working at WTDR in Charlotte in 1992 doing a midday show, and Andy was doing afternoons at the time. So, when I got off the air, he was coming on the air, and we kinda got to know each other that way, and of course, with events and different concerts - things you had to do as a team at the radio station.

Andy: When we were in Charlotte together - I was there for about eight and a half years, and Alison was there for about five - we exchanged a lot of jokes back and forth. Both of our contracts were up for renewal around the same time, and we had talked about doing a morning show. We had both done mornings at that station with different partners that didn't turn out very well. So, we decided to team up. We enjoyed goofing off together and thought maybe we could turn it into a show. So, we put together a package with some characters I had done and mocked up an aircheck, since we had not done a show together before. We actually, initially, sent it to a Memphis station, because they had an opening. It was about a week later when we found out WIVK had the opening. Honestly, we didn't know a whole lot about the station, other than the Music Director, Mickey Dearstone, and Les Acree, and the heritage of the station up there. We prank called them to see if Whilhite & Wall - the show at the time - were leaving, and they were. Next thing we know, it sped up to high-speed; Paul Johnson had called them and recommended us.

Alison: We kept calling to inquire about it, and we sent in our aircheck but didn't hear back. We had to resort to some of our friends that knew people over there. So, Brooks Quigley worked with a record company and always played golf with Les Acree, so I called him up and said, "Get this Les Acree guy to give us a call back; we're interested in the job." Then, we got a call.

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?

Andy: For me, since I grew up in Charlotte, a couple people I liked to listen to were John Boy and Billy, because that's what everybody listened to. I remember them when they were at BCY in Charlotte. Also, Rick Dees; I was a big fan of the countdown and all of the characters he did. With them being from North Carolina, I thought, "Hey, if they're from North Carolina, maybe I can do something like that."

Alison: I grew up in Atlanta; the DJ I grew up listening to was Gary McKee at WQXI in Atlanta. It was Rock 'n' Roll and Pop music. I never listened to Country music. I kind of fell into radio; I never had this desire, growing up, to be on the radio. I was actually a single mom, my son was a year and a half old, and I had just bounced my third rent check. I was waiting on tables at the time, and I knew I really need to get a full-time job. I went up to the 7/11 and got a newspaper and saw an ad for a receptionist at a brand new Country radio station in Atlanta, which was WYAY (Y106) at the time. So, I applied and got the job. I was receptionist for about eight months, then worked in sales as an assistant. One day, somebody came up to me and said, "Hey, somebody from production asked if you'd voice a feminine product commercial, because none of the girls on the air wanna do it," so I said, "Sure." I started doing that every once in a while. Dixie Lee and I became really good friends; she was doing middays at the time and told me I should be on the air. So, we would go to the station on the weekends, and we worked on an aircheck, pretending like I was on the air, and she finally got one that she thought was good enough and told me to give it to the Program Director. At the time, it was Bill Wise. I gave it to him, but I was so embarrassed. He came up to me a couple days later and asked if I could start that weekend. I was the most scared I'd ever been in my life, but all I was doing was running countdown shows.

4. Tell us about your first radio job and your first-ever live break on the air. Certainly, you remember both, right?

Alison: I remember my voice quivering; all I had to do was a liner. I went to go sit back on the chair, and the chair fell back, and I went down and landed on the ground. That was my first break.

Andy: My first break was probably on the Gaston College station, because I went there for the one-year broadcast program. I really don't remember the first break - I was reading a news story or something - but, I do remember falling asleep on the air playing a big band show one time. We played a lot of block programming, and they had reel-to-reels about three hours. It was, I think, Easter and a big band show. A guy locally produced it every year, and he'd have a party at his house for his friends to listen to him on the radio. And, I fell asleep about 45 minutes into the first-hour tape, and it flipped over and was playing on the backside. They were calling the station repeatedly, and no one was answering. So, the broadcast guy that ran the department knocked on the door. I almost got kicked out of the broadcast program for that.

5. 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?

Alison: I would have to say Bill Wise when he was the Program Director at the time at Y106 in Atlanta; he's the one who gave me a chance and believed in me. There were a couple of people at the station that went, "He's crazy. What's he doing, letting somebody who's never been on the air, on to a major market station?" So, I really have to thank him. Also, Rhubarb Jones, who was the morning show personality at the time. He would take the time, when I was doing 7p to midnight, and call me up and say, "You sound awesome. I am so proud of you." And, throughout my career, on Facebook or through emails, no matter where I was, he continued to send me messages to say how proud he was on me. I really thank him for all his encouragement; it really made a difference.

Andy: For me, going back to Charlotte, doing traffic was my first real radio job. When they had an opening at K97, which is now WSOC (Cat Country), I wanted to take that job. I asked Mark Tudor, who was the Program Director, and the General Manager, and they said they'd like to hire me for the job. I said, "Great, I'll work," and Traffic Patrol [where I was working] said, "No, you won't. You've got a non-compete, and we're not gonna let you work." So, with my spirit crushed, I walked across the street to tell them I couldn't take the job, and they told me, "We've got lawyers, too. When do you wanna start?" So, they had my back, and put me on the air. I went from doing 7p to midnight to doing mornings, which is where Alison and I met. Although, it changed call letters and monitors about five times. You spent a long time at one station in the same market; at what point did you both realize "hey, this is working; this is going well. Let's stay here a while?"

Alison: At the very beginning, we had a lot of things to work out, because we had never been a morning show together, and we had to find our groove. I think about five years in, we got our groove, knew what worked and what didn't work, what our best bits on the air were.

Andy: I might say a little sooner than that. Probably after a couple years, because we started getting a good response from people around the area with some of the things we were doing. And, we hit a stride where we were comfortable with one another. We were just doing our thing in a natural way. Within about five years or so, we did realize that we were going to be there for a while. We got our CMA Award in '99, and that gave us validation. It was a refreshing place to be; it was a big family of people. We decided at that time, "Hey, this is pretty cool here." We also went back to [WIVK GM] Bobby Denton and said, "The show seems to be working, how 'bout a raise?" He gave us a significant raise that kept us there for the rest of that time. He had our back and invested in us, which made us stay.

6. As a morning duo, you were always so involved with listeners and within the community. At what point did you feel a sense of responsibility to the Knoxville community?

Andy: Almost from day one; behind where I sat, for about 15 of the 20 years, a plaque on the wall that James Dick - the guy who founded Dick Broadcasting - put on the wall. I don't remember the exact quote, but it was all about the community service, and why it started. That station, up until we left, and I'm sure they still target that now, was involved in everything. There were times where we'd say, "We can't be 10 places on a Saturday." We really owe that to the station, because they were already engrained in the community, and we stepped into that. We tried to latch onto things that we felt personal about and go from there. A lot of credit goes to Dick Broadcasting and the people that have been there forever.

Alison: I remember when I first moved here, I couldn't believe it; you saw the WIVK attached to everything, whether it was a fun run or some sort of barbeque cook-off. They were a sponsor, or they were involved in some way, and I was like, "Wow, this place is crazy!"

7. There's industry-wide concern about the thin on-air talent pool and its lack of development. How will we get younger talent ready for prime time, and where will we find younger creative types, in a time where radio isn't seen as cool as it once was?

Andy: Let's have some of the corporations that own the stations open up and let talent be talent, [if not] then the talent's not going to wanna do that. If I can go on Facebook and do whatever I want without limits, and I'm a talent that wants to create, why would I go somewhere - except for the fact that they might pay me - and do something that will limit me and put me into a tight box to where I can't be creative anymore?

Alison: I think that's why podcasts are so popular, because people can just get on their computer and get a microphone and do whatever show they want to. They don't have anybody telling them what they can and cannot do.

Andy: And, here's the thing: all those ridiculous Facebook stories about the kid who found a mouse in his shoe, or whatever it is, all those stories are things that we used to share on the radio; it's been taken over by Facebook - not that it's not a great platform, because it is - but, we kind of let them do that, because we squeezed our breaks down to 15 seconds, and we don't do this, or we don't do that. We took the creativity out, so a lot of people feel hamstrung when it comes to being on the air. I know we did for a while, like, oh my gosh, we can't do this, or we can't do that, so you're looking through a narrow scope and letting everybody else eat your lunch, because there's so many other places that people can get entertainment these days. I'll get off my soapbox now.

Alison: It was like, we used to do this, or we used to do that, but we can't anymore, because our lawyers say, "If you do that, we can get sued." It just wasn't fun anymore; we couldn't do what we wanted anymore.

8. Having been in the format for so long, and now sitting on the sidelines, let's talk about where the format is going - What direction do you see it heading -are the Pop, Hip-Hop, and Rock influences here to stay? Does the music and the artists still relate to you and vice-versa?

Andy: To me, because everybody, these days, is exposed to so many different formats, because they are so many different avenues for entertainment. I think that as far as radio goes, whatever radio can do to provide something that can't be had somewhere else. I love Country music, but I don't have to listen to the radio to get that; I can listen to any song I want right now within five seconds. I don't have to wait or listen to commercials.

Alison: You don't have to call a radio station up and request a song.

Andy: The point is, if radio can't provide something that people can't get elsewhere - that's where the local stuff and talent comes in - then I don't see how it's gonna make it. I know it's still free and still in cars, but we're only a matter of a few years away. Right now, I can still stream Apple Music, down the road, in my car. It seems to me that that's what you have to do.

9. What has been your proudest moment in radio - could be an off-air or on-air moment?

Andy: It would probably be the first CMA Award; that really validated our show and said to me, personally, "Wow, we actually did accomplish something. Somebody else besides us thinks we're good." That made us feel that what we've done here has actually been working.

Alison: Like Andy said, I think our first CMA Award, then when we won another CMA Award. It was like, "Wow, this is crazy." That was probably my proudest moment and getting to be on TV, hanging out with everybody else. The CMA Awards and the ACM Awards that we've won - those were very proud moments. And, of course, being inducted into the Country Radio Hall Of Fame is huge, as well.