10 Questions with ... Michael Popovec (Mike Bradley)

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

• WCEI/WEMD/Easton, MD (2004-2006)
• WNST-Baltimore, MD (2007-2008)
• WZEB/WKDB/Ocean View-Laurel, DE (2005-2006) (2007-Present)
• SFM Sports Net - High School Football Color Commentary (2009-Present)
• High School Football Contributor - Sideline Reporter for Overtime Live-WINX-Easton
• NFL/Baltimore Ravens Contributor to Fox 1370 Sports Radio-Baltimore (2008-Present)

1) What Got You Interested In Radio?

I don't know exactly, my first memories are listening to Hot A/C WMIX-Mix 106.5 and Ken Merson (a long time Baltimore personality) in the afternoon back in the mid to late 80s and thinking how it cool it was to play music and talk on the air. As time went on the ability to have command of the airwaves where you can educate and entertain and paint a picture fascinated me. Radio is a blank canvas and you have to fill it up, what a challenge! What fun!

2) Who do you consider your radio mentors?

Baltimore personalities Ken Merson, Steve Rouse, Johnny Dark, Mickey Cuchiella, Amelia Ryerse, and Bob Worthington (now in Chicago with his voice-over company). There are a few others but those are the first that come to mind.

There's no question, my former PDs Matt Spence (WCEI-Easton, MD), Jeff Farrow (now at WEQR-New Bern, NC) were both were very patient with me and taught me so many things. I would not be here today without them.

3) How do you position the station musically?

I am fortunate to be able to have some latitude in this regard with there being a Mainstream & Rhythmic Top 40 station in the market along with a heritage AC and one other Hot AC. I try and give it a nice mix of current Hot AC and Gold AC that fits the sound of the station but also makes it unique so it can stand out without it sounding duplicative of all the other similar formatted stations. There are songs you will only find being played here. At times we sound like an Adult Hits station. I am very careful though about what currents and gold songs I put back to back.

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

Our market is unique in a number of areas including it covering a tri-state area that includes the beach and rural areas. In addition, for being a small market (#143) the amount of signals that penetrate the market due to the tri-state radius is very high. It's something like 26. My station is unique in that we are a very unique Hot AC. You could almost say we are an "80s-Now/Adult Hits" station leaning hot. We even throw in the 70s for our 5 O'Clock Traffic Jam and Flashback Friday. We may be the only Hot AC that mixes in the 70s for features.

5) Is Arbitron's Personal People Meter (PPM) currently available in your market, or in a neighboring market? What are your thoughts on this new ratings technology?

PPM is not available in this market and probably won't be for a while. I am for any technology that can do a better job of giving us an accurate sign of listenership. In 2010 we must have a better way of judging our audience than from diaries that half the time, seem to be given to their kids to fill out. The PPMs require little to no effort so that helps in this fast paced world. I do like the feedback capability of the diaries though.

6) What other stations and markets do you like to monitor?

I monitor stations in my market like WQHQ and WDKZ. Outside of those, I monitor the Baltimore, DC and Philadelphia markets. We have many transplants from those markets. As far as stations go, WWMX-Baltimore, Z104.3-Baltimore, WRQX-Washington DC, WBEN & WIOQ-Philly, and WPLJ/New York. But at the end of the day we are our own unique market.

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

Well, because we are in a small market...I hardly have any contact with record labels. With cutbacks their resources are devoted to the bigger markets. Unfortunately I have little time to work on contacts right now with all I have to do these days.

8) Describe your weekly music meeting ... a) what is the process when you listen to new music? b) approximately how important by percentage is gut, research, sales, video play, and chart position when determining the status of a record?

I am the only left at the station so it's just me. A lot of it has to do with a group or artist's current presence on the station. It also has to do with whether the song fits the sound of the station. The charts play a part but I am not a slave to the charts. If I think it fits and will be a hit then I will take a chance on it. I might not give it that many spins initially, but I will play it. We have a local artist Jimmie Allen from Lewes, DE whose song 'Comet' fits our sound well and is climbing the Mainstream Top 40 charts.

9) Do you have any music scheduling tricks you've learned that you wish to share?

If you listen closely to the songs played back to back to back you can pick up on some things. Share? No. But my former PD and MD was always a big believer in flow and I try and follow that. I also try to follow an Eclectic pattern never getting caught up too much in the genre or theme.

10) What do you view as the most important issue facing radio today?

Being live and local, without that we are killing the industry and making ourselves worthless. We are working hard here at Great Scott Broadcasting to get as many live bodies on the air on the weekends and cross promote that.

1) What career path would you be following had it not been for this industry?

Finance, in fact it was my major at Loyola College in Baltimore and I worked in that field for three years before getting into radio.

2) What research tools do you use to program your station?

Mediabase, the marketplace and I garner feedback from listeners.

How would you describe the music and imaging on your station?

Eclectic musically, imaging wise in between an A/C and Mainstream Top 40, not too soft, not too heavy.

3) What led to your station's recent ratings increase?

Well, with recent changes due to the economy, we took a hit and needed to build ourselves back up. But two books ago, we had a huge spike in our core demos especially with Women 25-54 where we were #3 in both the middays and afternoons. That was due to the fact that we were truly a personality driven radio station. We had the syndicated 'Bob and Sheri in the morning' who do a real good job. My former PD did middays. She had previously done mornings and afternoons and was loved by our audience. My former co-host and I were the first afternoon male/female duo in the market and it worked very well. That was the brainchild of former PD Karen Stevenson.