10 Questions with ... Jeff Cochran

NAME:Jeff Cochran TITLE:OM STATIONS:KOSY, KZHT, KNRS-A, KJMY, KODJ, KXRV. MARKET:Salt Lake City COMPANY:Clear Channel BORN:November 21, 1958 Marine, IL (Population 900) RAISED:Highland, Illinois

Please outline your radio career so far:

WGBF/Evansville, IN - Nights, then middays
WHKC/Henderson, KY - PM Drive
WSKS/Cincinnati, OH - Mornings
K-102/Fort Lauderdale-Miami - Middays
KWK/St. Louis - Middays
KFMZ/Columbia, MO - First PD job/Middays
WFMK/Lansing, MI - PD/PM Drive
KHTT/Santa Rosa, CA - PD/PM Drive
KIOC/Beaumont, TX - PD Mornings
KMZQ/Las Vegas - PD/PM Drive
KEZK/St. Louis - PD
AM/FM-Capstar/Richmond VA - OM
KOSI/Denver - PD
WLIT/Chicago - PD
Clear Channel - Regional VP of Programming (based in Boise, ID)
Clear Channel/Salt Lake City - OM

1) What was your first job in radio? Early influences?

After some discount knowledge at the Jr. College (Wabash Valley College) I landed my first paying job at WGBF in Evansville, Indiana. I learned a lot listening to KSLQ, KSHE and KMOX in St. Louis.

2) What led you to a career in radio? Was there a defining moment, which made you realize "this is it"?

It is John Landecker's fault that a lot of us from the Midwest ended up in radio. My AM radio couldn't pick up the station just across the river in St. Louis so a friend said "Try this station out of Chicago" which was 300 miles to the north. Just as I was thinking that wasn't going to work, I heard the blistering signal of 89 WLS for the first time and John "Records" Landecker was launching into "Boogie Check." I was hooked immediately. What a showman! And he was having a blast doing his job. I had just taken an Algebra test that day and I thought, "He hasn't done any Algebra in this job and I'll bet this radio thing is a GREAT way to meet girls."

3) What makes your station or market unique? How does this compare to other markets or stations you have worked at?

Salt Lake City is very conservative and very family oriented. It makes you think twice about doing something really edgy. But the people have been great, very polite and they've really responded well to our stations.

4) How do you feel terrestrial radio competes with the satellite radio and Internet these days?

The pitch for satellite that reached me was all of this non-stop music by format 24 hours a day with no jocks and no commercials. Oh, you mean like those cable channels that I get that I never listen to?

One of the first of many questions I got wrong while learning radio in college was, "Why do people listen to the radio?" I answered "Music." That was wrong (at least on this test). News and weather were also wrong. The correct answer on the test was "Companionship." You're not alone in the car with the radio on. If you've ever had your radio conk out, you know what they meant. Satellite is delivering some of that, but radio (to me) is just more entertaining and more connected.

5) How have the recent FCC regulations impacted the way you program your music and the station's dialogue on the air? What are your feelings about these recent changes?

Outside of some extreme cases, I think radio was doing a pretty good job of staying inside the lines. I like humor and material that goes right to the line but doesn't just go over it with complete disregard. Now, a lot of great jocks have been so homogenized that the fun just fell out.

I'd like to ask Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson why they thought that was a good idea in front of the Superbowl audience (including KIDS) to do the "wardrobe malfunction." Take your top off in a club of drinking age people. That's fine. (Actually encouraged). But they brought so much scrutiny down on the radio business that I wish they'd never been invited to perform.

6) Have you explored launching an HD Radio channel?

Not launching [yet], but I do program THE VARIETY CHANNEL for Clear Channel now.

7) How is the relationship between programmer and record label changing? For better or worse?

[This is] another thing that has gotten silly over the last couple of years. It used to be easy to work with a label that was providing a fly-away or other promotional item. If you were keeping stuff for yourself, you go to jail. Let's just do that again. Now, you spend a lot of time cataloging what came in the mail, and a lot of it you'd rather not get in the first place. It is a terrible story, but I had a friend who had been a record label rep, then a jock for 10 years or so and went back to a label. He said it was terrible because he used to show up at a station with some cocaine and a couple of hookers, but now he was meeting a guy at a salad bar and then they were going to play racquetball. I am sure he was lying but I loved the story and it really has changed.

8) What is your favorite radio station outside of the market and why?

KDWB/Minneapolis, MN. They are just amazing EVERY TIME I HEAR THEM.

9) What is your biggest pet peeve with your airstaff?

Not so much here, but my big pet peeve with jocks over the years has been the lack of show prep. How can you walk into the studio carrying just your headphones? If you have a cume of 150,000 people, as far as I am concerned, you have a speaking engagement in front of 150,000 people! And you brought NO NOTES? Show prep is NOT what is in today's paper. That's part of it, and so are prep services. But it is also ALL of the stuff that happens around you. The stuff your audience can relate to.

10) What is the one truth that has held constant throughout your career?

Be nice to the people around you. You are going to run into them again.

1) How did you get your on-air name?

The Miami phone book.

2) In today's world of multi-tasking and wearing many hats, how do you find time to show prep and what sources do you use?

I love Mike McVay's prep service and the Ross Britain Report.

3) Do you have any good stalker stories? Misty requests? "Fatal Attractions?"

Most of us that became jocks went from being thought of as a disease in High School to having girls CALL US at the radio station. Luckily, I learned fast in college how badly that can go. When you're 18 and incredibly stupid, a girl invites you over on the request line and you can't think of a reason not to go. It doesn't register that all sorts of bad things could happen when you knock on that door. She could be married. She could be younger than she said. It could be a set up and there are a dozen guys there to beat the crap out of you. The chances of her being an attractive, intelligent, interesting female are extremely slim. I have a friend in radio that actually said, "Where were all of these hot girls when we were single? I said, "Are you kidding? Right. Where they are now? Dating better looking guys with more to offer than us." It is no mystery.

4) What is the best advice you would give to young programmers/promotion people?

Enjoy your job and you'll do even better. Treat the jocks well. If they enjoy their job it's better for everyone. It is our JOB to do stupid things to entertain our audience. We just gave away a chance to "Win Your Dad's Weight In Meat" on the Friday of Father's Day weekend. What a great way to start barbecue season and what a stupid thing to do? We had a lot of fun with it. Capture the moment and know that it is our job to have 10 listeners pass around an empty gas can (sort of playing hot potato) to win a $100 gas card and call it "Passing Gas with (morning show)." How cool is that to do this for a living? Learn SHOWMANSHIP. It will serve you well.