10 Questions with ... Gary Daigneault

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

1989-Present: KCDZ-FM, Twentynine Palms, CA. While my wife and I own the station, I still work full-time as the Program/News Director/Morning Show Personality. She is the full-time General Manager.

1979-1988: KDHI-A & KQYN-FM, Twentynine Palms, CA. I started as evening announcer, nine years later I was the Program/News Director and Morning Show personality. (I was fired when I applied for, and subsequently was awarded, a "license to operate a radio station" from the FCC. General Manager said, "He could not employ a future competitor". They went bankrupt eight months after I signed on with KCDZ.

1977-1979, KGOE-AM, Thousand Oaks, California. I started as part-time weekender, and moved to full time on-air/promotions, then full time News Reporter. (I was fired because of station "Non-Frat" policy when my girlfriend (station sales staff) moved in with me. As of 4/7/17 we have been married for 38 years.)

1. What Got You Interested In Radio?

I have always been a performer. Since I was eight years old I have been doing Community Theater in Elementary, Junior and High School in Santa Barbara, CA. I went to college in New Hampshire as a Theater Major, then I went on to work in Summer Stock and repertory theater professionally.

After moving back to California in 1976, I was working as a Disco DJ in a Thousand Oaks Nightclub when I was offered a part-time job at KGOE by the owner. For me radio was a natural continuation of my performing career.

2. What makes the Joshua Tree market unique? How does this compare to other markets you have worked at?

Joshua Tree is a magical place with a delightfully eclectic mix of Old Hippies, Desert Rats, and now an influx of hipsters. Over the years, I have watched it slowly morph from a very sleepy gritty blur on the Highway, to Twentynine Palms, to a quirky always-active world-class destination that hosts a stunningly beautiful National Park.

In Thousand Oaks, it was very tough for the station to survive in a market with Los Angeles on one side and Ventura on the other. In the Morongo Basin (the region that includes Twentynine Palms, Joshua Tree, and Yucca Valley), the station is in a geographical bowl that keeps outside signals out.

3. What do you view as the most important issue facing radio today?

The most important issue that faces radio today is the loss of localism and direct community involvement. While once a vital thriving part of their regions, the modern radio stations of today feature personalities in big cities hundreds (sometimes thousands) of miles away. They are disconnected from their local listeners with homogenized, pasteurized playlists that reflect no local color. Many stations are just music providers with no personality at all.

4. How are you using social media to market your radio station?

We saw the convergence of Internet and radio from its inception and positioned ourselves well. We were one of the first stations in the country to do live streaming. We have an App for both Google and Apple markets. Our website is a huge and monetized part of our business with up to 190,000 monthly visitors (about 35,000 unique). We have a very active Facebook presence with over 7,500 friends and we have an employee who keeps it active and interesting with news updates, online games and contests, station promotion, and information about artists and performances. We post breaking news to our Twitter account daily and maintain an interactive presence on Instagram. Our personalities keep up with Snapchat and other new social technologies. My philosophy has always been that we are delivering the same product, hometown information and entertainment, just on different platforms.

5. How do you stay in tune with your audience?

We stay in tune with our audience by being out among them as much as possible. We sponsor many local events and promotions where we are in constant contact with our listeners. They tell us what they like, what they don't like, what music they want, what personalities they are fans of and a myriad of things that help us stay current and relevant in their lives. We have a local weekly live call-in show that focuses on local issues and politics.

6. How are you using new technologies in your personal life to listen to music, and what observations have you made about how today's listeners use technology?

In my personal life, I still like to listen to local radio. Anywhere I travel I try to find a real local station to give me the "flavor" of the community I am visiting. Those are becoming more difficult to find as the industry becomes corporatized.

While today's consumers are using Pandora, Spotify, and Satellite services for music, they always come back when there is a local fire, flood, storm, traffic accident, school closure, or any other interruption in their lives.

There is also a proliferation of the "Techno-Snobs" who use new technology just because it is new, even though they are really just getting the same old product.

7. Who do you consider your radio mentors?

Having done most of my serious professional work as a journalist (AP Hall of Fame 2010) I consider my mentor to be Jim Simon, "The Father of Talk Radio", a respected Los Angeles broadcast journalist who bought KGOE in Thousand Oaks while I was working there. He realized I had a penchant for journalism and took me under his wing to train me in the discipline. Jim has since passed away but three of his sons, Jim Avila, Jaie Avila and Chris Simon still work in network news.

8. What is the most rewarding promotion you've ever been a part of?

The most personally rewarding promotion I have been part of was an effort to fund a child sexual abuse service in Twentynine Palms. The effort raised some $65,000.00 and saved the service for the community.

9. What advice would you give people new to the business?

My advice to people new to the business would to stay in touch with your listeners. Understand their lives, their values, and what is important to them. Honor that, respect it and most importantly be part of it.

10. What is the one truth that has held constant in your career?

The one truth that has held constant in my career is to be honest and real in all your dealings and relationships especially with your listeners. If you pretend to something that you are not, then you are an actor not a true personality.

What do you do in your spare time?

In my spare time, I am very active in the Twentynine Palms Community Theater and Theatre 29. I direct large Broadway Musicals and I have directed 20 musicals in the past 17 years. My wife and I are both on the board of directors (I am the Board President) and our radio station gives a lot of our resources to the effort to bring quality live arts to a rural community.

Who is the most amazing talent you've worked with?

The most amazing talent I have worked with is my morning show partner, Pat Michaels. He has worked with me and for me since he was a teenager. He is a natural talent with a God-given radio voice and an ear for technical nuance.

What has been your station's biggest accomplishment?

Our station's biggest accomplishment is two-fold. First, is how my entire staff came together with compassion and furor to rally our stricken communities in the wake of a 7.3 Earthquake in June of 1992.

Second, is the "Station of the Year" award from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association in 2002. The fact that a little Joshua Tree mom and pop were given that recognition out of every major market station in two states still is a great source of pride.