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10 Questions with ... 'Brother' Dale Desmond
May 11, 2009
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NAME:'Brother' Dale DesmondTITLE:Morning Host PD/MDSTATION:KTHK Idaho's Young Country 105-5 The HawkMARKET:Idaho Falls/Pocatello/Blackfoot, IDCOMPANY:Riverbend CommunicationsBORN:April 8th, 1977 in Rochester, NYRAISED:NY until I was 13, then Quincy, WA
Please outline your career so far:
KWNC-Quincy, WA 1995-1999, KMVP/KTAR - Phoenix, AZ 1999-2001, KWIQ - Moses Lake, WA 2001-2004, KMSO - Missoula, MT 2004-2006, KTHK - Idaho Falls, ID 2006-Present
1. Please tell us how you got into radio. Was it a career path you planned on, or did you fall into it by accident?
It was a planned accident. There was an ad in the paper the fall after I graduated from high school, looking for a sportscaster. They hired me as the color/sidekick guy for Quincy Jackrabbits sports. $10 per game. The best money I ever made! A few games in, I knew radio was it for me.
2. You live in Idaho Falls, ID, an area that most of us probably don't know much about. Tell us some of the things that make your market unique. Does Country music have a pretty good following up there?
The Snake River runs through downtown I.F. (as the locals call it), hence the "Falls." It's a very beautiful area, low cost of living, has everything you need and not the crime and high unemployment you don't want. There are six Country stations in East Idaho, so I'd say yes, there's a very good following.
3. You and your wife, Melinda, have four children. Wow! First, what are their ages? How do you find the time to balance running a station and being a dad?
Emmalee is 9, Savanna is 7, Rebekah is 6 and our son Caloway is 3. At my first PD gig in Missoula I was doing afternoons, so it was very tough because I would get up and feed the kids breakfast and leave for work and get home in time to put them to bed. Now I'm doing mornings and I'm home by 2:30 or 3 and that makes it much easier. There are still days where I'm on the phone or on Remote Desktop finishing some imaging or scheduling music at home. And there's still family things that I can't be at (the studio is in Blackfoot and I live 30 miles away in I.F.), but I'm almost always there for bedtime stories.
4. At the very crucial age of 13, your family moved from Rochester, NY to Quincy, WA. That must have been a major adjustment. What was that like? Your bio says that this move prepared you for a career in Country music - tell us about that.
It was tough. I was a city kid that moved to a town with one stoplight. If that happened today, we could absolutely sell that reality show. My first day in school in Quincy I wore Skidz pants (anyone, anyone?) and I quickly got shunned. It was tough to make friends until I changed my choice of clothing. I was like Kevin Bacon in Footloose except I couldn't convince everyone that my way was better.
5. If someone were coming to spend the weekend in Idaho Falls, ID what would you recommend they see and do?
Yellowstone Park is only an hour and a half away. We had a plan to take Kellie Pickler there when we brought her in for a show last year but it fell through. Grand Teton National Park is just a few miles south of Yellowstone so if anyone wants to visit, you've got a guide!
6. I can imagine that weather is a very important factor in the lives of people in Idaho Falls, especially in the winter months. When it's freezing cold outside and people are bundled up inside their homes how does the sound of the station change to not only entertain people, but also to pass along the important weather information people need?
The best part is that people don't really change their active lifestyles. It does get cold. The wind kills you, but people here are used to it. The hard part is in the Spring it will be 75 degrees for a week, then snow 8 inches the next day, then back to 75 two days later. We have our caller-supplied traffic reports (accidents, slick areas, wildlife on the roadways, etc.) called HawkEye Witness Traffic Reports. Get it? Hawkeye and Eye Witness all mashed together? Ok, forget it.
7. Tell us about three songs that have had an impact on your life.
- Garth's "Lonesome Dove" from the "Ropin' the Wind" album is the song that really converted me to country. There's a girl involved.
- Brad Paisley's "Then" is the song that describes the relationship with my wife right now. I know it's mushy, but it's true.
- Live's "Selling the Drama" was my graduation song and since I knew it, the GM in Missoula was impressed that I knew an obscure alternative song coming from a Country background. She hired me to my first PD job.
8. Your bio mentioned that in the rare event that you have spare time, you like to play softball, golf and lay in the hammock. Those sound pretty much like warm weather activities. What do you do the other 10 months of the year for fun?
HA! My wife and I love to snow ski. There are several major resorts close (Big Sky, Sun Valley, Grand Targhee, Jackson Hole and all the Park City and SLC resorts) and we have trade for many of them!
9. There is a lot of new music coming out right now in Country, tell us about a few things that really have you excited.
Our station is called Young Country (we're basically a Country CHR) so Gloriana sounds so right on our station. If Caitlin & Will's "Address in the Stars" isn't a mega-hit in this format, there's something very wrong. My wife has been writing letters to her late mother for 12 years. Brilliant writing, and Caitlin is the next great female vocalist.
10. Growing up in Rochester, what music did you listen to? Did your musical tastes change at all when you moved to Quincy, WA or were pretty much the same styles popular?
That's funny because I grew up listening to 98 'PXY in Rochester and once met Scott Spazanno at a remote - he was so cool to me. I'll never forget that. When I moved to Quincy, everybody listened to Country and I hated it until Stacy Wolfe wore out her Ropin' the Wind CD during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year. I was hooked and have never looked back.
Bonus Questions
1. Blackfoot, ID is known as the "Potato Capital of the World" - are you really sick of potatoes? Are they everywhere up there?
I worked on my best friend's dad's potato farm every summer in Quincy through high school. Then I worked at a potato processing plant just after high school and now live in Idaho and I'm not sick of them at all. Storage sheds and spud trucks are everywhere, but you don't really notice them.
2. If your house were on fire and you could only save three items, what would you grab (and no, your wife and children are not considered items)?
- My scriptures - I'm working on a deeper faith.
- My laptop - I've become a slave to Remote Desktop.
- My 42" Samsung TV. It's such a selfish thing, but I'm not letting it burn.
3. What was the first album you ever bought? First concert you ever attended?
- I bought Faith Hill's Take Me as I Am on a date with Melissa Hull my junior year and preceded to ignore Melissa the rest of the night. Sorry, Tim.
- I saw Def Leppard at the Gorge in George, WA July 4th, 1993. Seeing a summer concert at the Gorge needs to be on everyone's bucket list. You can actually see heaven just across the Columbia River at sundown.
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