10 Questions with ... Scott Busboom

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Been in Radio 30 years. Started out at WITY-AM in Danville as a weekend jock making $3.33 an hour. Moved to the Champaign-Urbana market a few years later. Decatur started out as a sales position, for WSOY-AM, and then I saw the value in the radio business of wearing multiple hats. Actually was a GM for WHOW-AM-FM in Clinton for a three year stint before moving back to Decatur, where I happily work for The Cromwell Radio Group.

1. What got you into radio in the first place? Why radio?

Honestly, I wanted to be the next Orion Samuelson and report Ag News for a radio station. I grew up as a radio consumer having the benefit of enjoying local station WDWS as a kid in Champaign, along with Wally Phillips, Bob Collins, and Roy Lenard on WGN. Talk radio was kinda in my blood.

2. You've been working in central Illinois for quite some time now and you're a native of the region, so you're the guy to ask: In these highly charged political times, what are you finding are the primary concerns of your audience now? Has it changed in the last couple of years? What would you tell those on the coasts about the mood of the people in your market?

One thing we have found is that people are interested more in what they can control, and not so much what they can't control. We saw 21 hours of national political talk that was very charged and not very positive happening on the air. We decided to go with a program that had more local and state issues, and simply have a bit more fun that the other guys. We enjoy getting into those issues that we can talk about for our three hours of the day. The State of Illinois hasn't had a budget in three years, so there isn't a lack of source material. Local taxes, spending issues, bad roads, and school funding all make up the mix. The audience has responded to the content favorably over continuing what has become a single topic day the other 21 hours. People want their voice back, and in Central Illinois we give it to them.

3. You double up on the air and in sales. As for the latter, how do you find business these days in light of the growth of digital media? In a more local/retail oriented market like the Decatur area, are you seeing dollars go to digital or is radio holding its own?

Digital is a ever growing part of my sales toolbox. Our dollars in digital are on the rise as we open up business and organizations to reaching that new consumer of our product. I still sell a bunch of traditional radio to my customers, and it still is my number one revenue source, but digital is coming on fast. Embrace digital. Love your website. Remember, either way, you still have to get business owners to invite that customer in to spend money at their place.

4. Speaking of digital, how do you use social media in conjunction with your show, if at all? Do you see it as show prep, engagement with the audience, or something else?

Social Media is important to what we do. I use it as show prep. Twitter and Linked in especially. Facebook has become a vehicle to communicate with our audience. We use Facebook "live" if something is happening, or we communicate things we discuss on the show so listeners have a chance to go back and see an article we have been referencing on the air.

5. And speaking of doing on-air, sales, and high school sportscasting, take us through a typical day, from waking up to the end of the work day. What's a typical day like for you?

I am up at 3:30a.m. I have most of my stories pulled for the day's show by 4:30a.m. I am in the studio no later than 5:00a.m. Show prep stuff until 6:00a.m. 3Hour Talk Show till 9:00a.m. Out on the street most days by 10:00a.m. if I have no production work to do. I sell until at least 3:00p.m. Home for a very quick break, and on the night I am out doing play by play at the local High School, am gone from 5:30p.m. till 10:00p.m. In between I still book guests for our program, and am out at press conferences and community events. So I am not at a loss for things to do.

6. If you hadn't gone into radio, what do you think you'd be doing now?

That's a tough one after 30 years. Probably tending bar somewhere because I like people as much as I do.

7. Who are your inspirations and influences, in radio and in life?

In radio, it would be the late Bob Collins from WGN Radio in Chicago. He taught me so much about how to do radio without ever meeting the man. In life, it is my dad. He encouraged me to stay in radio, leaving the family farm because he saw I enjoyed it very much. He was my biggest supporter.

8. Of what are you most proud?

Our radio station's community service here in Decatur. WZUS has won two NAB Crystal Awards for Community Service. I like to think about how we can make a difference in our community daily by our stations efforts.

9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without _____________.

...Mountain Dew. EDITOR'S NOTE: Understandable when you read the answer to question 5!

10. What's the most important lesson you've learned in your career?

The most important lesson I have learned in my career is what I do daily impacts my listeners lives. My sports play-by-play, for example, touches grandparents and uncles and aunts who can't make the big game. My players whose games I called twenty years ago. They are becoming parents and professionals and they still tell me how much a broadcast of a game meant to them as do their parents. Organizations in the community remember what you did and people remember what you said. I remember that as I do my job in the studio and on the street daily.