10 Questions with ... Whitney Allen

NAME:Whitney Allen SHOW TITLE:The Big Time with Whitney Allen/The Big Time Saturday Night STATIONS:Lots BORN:Glendale, CA RAISED:Eagle Rock, CA

Please outline your radio career so far:

KATA, KFMI/Eureka/Arcata, CA
KKOS, KAVO/North County San Diego
KS-103, KCBQ, Q106, San Diego
KQLZ Pirate Radio, KIIS-Los Angeles
After Midnite Weekends
KZLA/Los Angeles
The Big Time Saturday Night
The Big Time

1. First of all, congrats on the success of The Big Time and The Big Time Saturday Night! Tell us about the two shows and what they have to offer?

The Big Time is pretty much my show, almost like an afternoon show at night, minus the traffic and weather. It's highly topical and very listener interactive. Now, ya bring on The Big Time Saturday Night, which is kinda of the same thing, but with the added bonus of, not just me, but also my producer Justin, and up to four other people trying to chime in and help me out. And sometimes take over. It's a total blast for me and I hope everyone in the room, and I especially hope that the listeners are into it.

2. You actually helped create the shows and you own them, correct? Does that ownership change the way you do your job from the days when you were working for someone else?

Oy! I got into radio because I am a big fan of the four-hour workday. LOL! That hasn't happened in years. I can honestly say that the first thing I do in the morning is check on the industry news and then I update that all day long and search for fun or unusual or entertainment stories for the show. Once I get started I might never stop. I have to remind myself to go outside and enjoy the sunlight at least once a day.

3. The Big Time is a Monday through Friday show and The Big Time Saturday night is obviously on Saturday nights, are there any real differences between the two and do you prepare differently for the two shows?

Saturday is really a group effort. When I start a story, I don't always know where it's going to end up, which I know, is the exact opposite of everything we have been taught in radio school. So if you are a new comer to radio work, don't do what I do, it won't get you anywhere. Listen to your PD until you're good enough to move on to another PD who's also going to tell you what to do-and do it. Chances are good, he or she knows a bit more than you at this point, and good recommendations are like gold!

4. Having been born and raised in LA had to influence your love of music and desire to be in radio, tell us about that?

How can anyone growing up in LA listening to Charlie Tuna, The Real Don Steele, Casey Kasem and the other greats, NOT want to get into radio? Of course there were just a few women doing any format when I was a kid, so I must have had a good imagination. I always loved Sy Holiday (who is exactly the opposite of me when it comes to delivery-she was the best). I loved Carole Hemmingway doing talk radio (my parents were talk radio junkies) and a woman named Kathy Gori did nights on KIIS and on KMPC for a while when I was a teenager. She was a huge inspiration to me as she was one of the women who did straight up top 40 but was also really, really funny. After I left Los Angeles "The Slim One" hit town and every time I got back to town I would just listen and dream of being that good. Amazing jock.

5. It's rare to find a woman with her own syndicated show in this industry and even more so to find one that owns her show. Have you been faced with any challenges in that regard? What advice do you have for young women that hear you on the radio and thinks, "Wow, I would love to do that someday"?

Not just not just women, but men have approached me too who want to talk to me about getting syndicated. It's not that simple. This was 25 years in the works to tell you the truth. I know there are exceptions to the rule, but just because you have a successful morning show or afternoon show or night show doesn't mean that someone is going to take a chance and syndicate you. My company started off with a nitch hour called America's Hot List, I really thought it was a great idea. One hour of all the most topical stuff you could get delivered that day via FTP. With so many companies going without night and overnight jocks I really thought this would be a shoo-in. Instead of dead segments, or having a jock that had already done his or her five hour show, now track five more tiring hours PDs would LOVE to have something fresh. I was way off base there, LOL, but I am forever grateful to the PDs who did pick us up. People who relieve did believe in what we were trying to do. R.J Curtis, Mike Peterson, Steve Pleshe, Blake Hunter. America's Hot List never did take off, but instead of looking at the syndicator and saying "oh well, I did it you sell it," we wanted to find another nitch and fill that. That's when the Big Time Saturday Night was born. When KZLA flipped format in August 2006, I finally had time to do the 7-Midnight "Big Time" Show, Monday through Friday (which is what quite a few PDs had been asking for when they rejected the Hot List). There is a lot of money floating around in syndication and no one is going to take a chance on you unless you have a great track record or something very unique. They have to believe in you, and you also have to make them money so they can continue to believe! Also, find a good agent. Like I said, there's a lot of money out there in syndication and you want to make sure you get yours!!

6. With all of the changes in radio in the past few years, is it tougher out there for a syndicated show? If so, how do you set your show apart from the rest?

This is going to sound a bit Pollyanna-ish, but it's true. Not once in my career have I tried to get someone else's job. When we saw the way that the entire industry was going we started with the Hot List, hoping to pick up an hour of those stations nightly tracked hours. In the last four years more and more companies have dropped their night and overnight talent. They did not do that because syndicated programs are out there for the taking, however we are hoping to fill a void that the industry created. No one is beating down our doors to take the programs (ok, some people are knocking) just because we are there. Having a show to fill an empty spot does not mean that someone is automatically going to take us. That being said, we are different-- not just by design, but by personality. I'm a loud girl who makes the listener a big part of the show. I can't solve their problems-but I hope I can make them laugh and show them a good time. I learn a lot, too. Did you know in some parts of the country, there's a big bonfire movement? Oh yeah, trailers, trucks, they don't need it; they throw a party and burn it. It makes me laugh-and I learn something every night that I don't hold back from the audience.

7. You got your start in syndication when you worked for Blair Garner at After Midnite, what did you learn from working with Blair for eight years? Did that influence your decision to create your own syndicated show?

I learned so much working with Blair. I learned that mere mortals like me could work hard enough and long enough and find the right people and actually have their own business. I learned that everyone has a job and a place and if you have the right people around you, you can do a good show (which is the bottom line) because everyone else is doing their job well and you don't have to spend time micro managing. Truth be told, I can hardly manage myself.

8. A lot of up and coming artists stop by your show to talk and play their music. Is there anyone that you have seen lately that you are really excited about? When you look at the up and comers as a whole, what is your overall feeling about the future of Country music?

When Whiskey Falls came in singing I was blown away. I didn't know that type of harmony existed anymore. First time I saw Sugarland live I knew they had a huge future, and Jack Ingram came in and sang "Wherever You Are" acoustically before it was even a single - I was flabbergasted. I love Jack so much that I expect the restraining order any day now. Do I even have to mention Carrie Underwood? Despite slowing sales overall, I think artistically there are some great new sounds and styles coming out of Nashville. Seems like yesterday Brad Paisley and Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban got their start---they seem to get stronger every year and really are not ready to pass a torch to anyone soon. They still carry it proudly-right into the future.

9. If you could tell the record labels/promotion folks one thing that would really help you as a broadcaster and in turn help their artists when on your show, what would it be?

Give us something a little more than the bio sheet. Many times those things are months, and sometimes over a year old. Give us something "inside" to talk about. That makes your artist sound like a real person, and us sound like we have the inside scoop. Makes for good radio.

10. Your two shows are broadcast from coast to coast, so how do you make it as interesting for the listeners in Saginaw, MI as it is for the people in Fresno, CA?

I tend to talk about things that are universal----be it who in your family is serving in the armed forces or what happened on "Dancing with the Stars." I also focus a lot on the country artists with stuff that's not on their web page. I try to Google news just about every break I can to see what the artists did last night or what was reported on in the last 20 minutes.

1. What is the most embarrassing moment you have had on your show?

Oh, ya know every now and then you miss an edit and wanna hurt yourself, but the thing that comes to mind, when I talked to Glen Frey and Joe Walsh of the Eagles, who of course I have been listening to longer than I've even HAD a career. I was nervous, I was chatty and near the end I could not contain my excitement anymore. I was speechless and I fear that I went into full groupie mode. Oh and is it embarrassing if Dolly Parton comments you about your boobs? Because she just did, and I'm not embarrassed-I'm kinda honored.

2. Your bio promises to "never sound like a girl who wants to steal your boyfriend." Tell us the story behind that.

I had just left home for a small break in Eureka, California, driving into town, it was raining-had no idea just how MUCH rain I'd see over the next two years. My friend and I turned on the radio and there was a woman on, doing top 40 radio is this extremely breathy voice. I mean, do you really need to do that over a Steely Dan song? It went on for an hour like this, and I said to my friend who I was traveling with, "ya know if I was with a boy friend listening to this, I'd be really uncomfortable. I would NEVER want to sound like this." There are women who have extremely sexy voices and depending on the format or even the song you are talking up, it works, but to do this over KC and the Sunshine band is just nuts. Unless, ya know, you're talkin' up "Don't Go" (ooh, I just dated myself).

3. You obviously work a lot, what do you do in your downtime? Do you ever have downtime?

This last year there has not been a lot of downtime. I have found that my favorite spot to relax is Mexico. So over the last three years I've acquired two little properties on the beaches way way south of Cancun. Problem is, I rent them out, so I can't relax as much as I'd like since I am always looking for ways to make them more appealing to renters. Me, I'm fine with a nice lounge chair and a book. But people on vacation, even in Mexico want all the comforts of home. So I can spend too much time stressing over a scratch in the table or a crack in the tile. But when I'm there I can end the day looking out over the Caribbean, Pina Colada in hand and remember, "oh yeah, THAT'S why I do radio with a passion, look what it's given to me."