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10 Questions with ... Rob 'The Possum' Walker
February 5, 2007
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NAME:Rob 'The Possum' WalkerTITLE:PM Drive/APDSTATION: KKWF '100.7 The Wolf'MARKET:SeattleCOMPANY:EntercomBORN:June 17 1970RAISED:Norwich, Connecticut
Please outline your radio career so far:
Ready for some alphabet soup?
WICH/WCTY Norwich CT, WILI FM Willimantic CT, WKSS Hartford CT, WQGN New London CT, WERZ Exeter NH, WZPK Mt. Washington NH, WZID, Manchester NH, WBMX/WEGQ Boston MA, WJLK Asbury Park NJ, WALC/WXTM St Louis MO, KLAL Little Rock AR, WXLO Worcester MA, KSD-FM St. Louis MO, KSJJ/KMGX/KXIX/KICE Bend OR, WWWW/WQKL Ann Arbor MI, and now here I am at The Wolf in Seattle. Whew!1. What was your first job in radio? Early influences?
I started as an automation tape changer at WICH and WCTY in my hometown of Norwich, CT when I was 15. I did news during Larry King, ran the board for remotes and so I could spend time in the production room, I would beg the jocks to let me do their dubs. The guys I really looked up to when I was a kid are still there, doing good local radio. Michael Bernz, Stu Bryer and Bill Reese taught me the radio basics, as well as some things that 15 year old kids shouldn't be doing.
2. Can you be a boss and also a friend to your employees?
It's really tough for me to balance the boss/friend dynamic. I like to hang out with smart people and at my first PD gig I wanted to be everyone's best friend. That proved to make me pretty ineffectual manager. Now I just maintain a professional relationship with the staff and it makes things easier.
3. Of all the skills that you've gained as a programmer, which area are you NOT as strong as you would like to be?
Time management is a constant struggle for me. Aside from all of my daily programming and administrative duties, I do Afternoon Drive here at The Wolf. When I'm on the air, all of the programming issues get put on hold and I'm laser focused on my airshift. It's always been hard for me to find the time in the day to squeeze it all in and still have a life. I've always worked long hours and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
4. If you are wearing more hats today, than say last year, what area is suffering, and what are you doing about it?
Last year at this time I was the Ops manager for Clear Channel's Ann Arbor cluster and I wore a LOT of hats there! Here at the The Wolf it's a nice change to be able to be singularly focused on working with Scott Mahalick and the staff to create an amazing product on the air every day. If anything in my area of influence were lacking, I'd say it would be our web presence, but Sandy Smallens and the Entercom Digital team are making huge improvements in our digital content and our new websites will look smokin' and the new content will be super sticky for the users.
5. What do you think of National Contesting? Is it effective?
I think any contest where the listener has a real chance to win a great prize works. I know some of my colleagues think National Contesting is deceptive to the listeners, but when your station takes ownership of it, your jocks execute it correctly and you take the time and make the effort to surround the contest with great production and excited winners, it really works. When I programmed W4, we had several winners in every national contest we aired and the listeners always asked how we were able to give away such great prizes. It may be smoke and mirrors, but you get out of it what you put in.
6. What do you like best about your job? Least?
I love the act of building a winning radio station. I equate it to being a chef, preparing a complex recipe. Adding the right amount of seasoning to the broth will make all the difference. Each tiny element works together to create a massive wall of sound that, when played individually seems insignificant, but when heard all together is undefeatable. There's nothing about my job that's not enjoyable.
7. What can we be doing with our station's web sites to better our stations as a whole?
The key to a successful radio station website is exclusive content. I can go to any radio station site and get music news and see photos of the jocks. A unique website offers downloadable and streaming content that you can't find anywhere else. Perfect examples are the parody songs that Fitz, our morning guy, creates. All of his Seahawks rally songs and his parody of "Before He Cheats" is posted on seattlewolf.com for download.
8. What do you plan to differently in the next year regarding work and family?
I want to spend more time living life! Doing more outdoors stuff! I'm taking sailing lessons this spring and riding in the Seattle to Portland bike ride this summer. It's really important to make time to have a life outside the radio station. My girlfriend Della and I moved to Seattle not only for the opportunities with Entercom but also to enjoy everything the Pacific Northwest has to offer. This is a place where I've always wanted to live and now that we're here I want to take advantage of it!
9. Who are your programming mentors?
I've worked with and for some incredible programmers and I've learned from each of them. Darren Davis in Chicago, Pete Falconi in Boston and my long time buddy Steve McVie on the Cape all really helped to get me to where I am today. Of course I have to mention my current boss, Scott Mahalick. He's simply a genius programmer and it's a thrill to work with him every day. Scott has this laser focused precision on excellence and he's taught me more in the last year than I've learned in the last 20 years!
10. Do you read.....everything? Books, Magazines, etc. Nothing? What's your favorite reading material?
I read everything! Books, magazines and a couple of newspapers. I'll have 3 or 4 books open at any given time and they'll be anything from fiction by Neil Gaiman to a technical manual on point to point microwave data links. I'm a sponge and a bit of a tech-geek.
Bonus Questions
1. Do you have Musical Guilty Pleasures?
I really love downtempo electronica. The "chill" stuff. Massive Attack, Zero 7, Portishead, stuff like that. Also, my favorite non country artist is Mike Doughty. He's the former lead of Soul Coughing and an amazing artist!
2. You are on a desert island...what 5 CDs are in you portable disc player?
Mike Doughty "Haughty Melodic", Shawn Colvin "Polaroids", Tori Amos "Little Earthquakes", and Garth Brooks "Double Live".
3. Describe your favorite meal?
Any meal where I'm with good friends and we're drinking good wine and enjoying each other's company is a favorite. Oh yeah, there must be mashed potatoes involved, too!
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