-
Nick Gosnell
July 11, 2017
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
I started in radio as a student at MidAmerica Nazarene University in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, KS, interning at KCWJ/Kansas City and then KEXS/Excelsior Springs, MO along with KHUT/Hutchinson, KS.
My first real radio job after college was overnights at KHUT. After that shift was automated, I was out of the business for a little over a year, before coming to KNGL/KBBE McPherson, KS to do sports and sales. Over nearly ten years there, I rose to Operations Manager, while working in News/Sports and on-air. You name it, I did it. That included traffic and lots of interaction with the staff at the Kansas Information Network as a stringer for their news network and contributing to their High School Scoreboard Show.
When the needs of my three boys dictated a move in 2015, I inquired about a position that ran the morning control board and also helped out the news and sports departments for WIBW and the Kansas Information Network. The rest, as they say, is history.
1. What got you into radio? Why radio?
The joke I tell any time I talk to people is that my dad listened to three people when I was growing up: my mother, the preacher and the man calling the game on the radio. I’m not my mother and one of my two sisters is the ordained minister, so that left me only one option. Actually, in my growing up years, there were several different originating broadcasts of Iowa Hawkeye sports, and I was riveted to those, no matter which station I listened to. I literally would run around pretending to call imaginary games from my youngest days. Play-by-play was my passion, but the schedule of a sportscaster isn’t conducive to a strong family life, so with three young boys, I’m keeping my news hat on for the time being, though I still host the Kansas High School Scoreboard Show on Friday nights on the Kansas Information Network.
2. WIBW has maintained its status as one of the region's primary news sources even as digital and social media have eroded other major news brands around the world. How does WIBW (and the Kansas Information Network) remain top-of-mind for news in the area? What do you focus on to stay a news leader?
It helps to have more than 90 years of heritage to fall back on. It’s also positive that current Kansas Governor Sam Brownback was on 580 as a student at Kansas State University decades ago. We have the brand as the place to go for radio news coverage in the state.
Also, with a statewide network of 30 stations to feed, I can tell virtually any state legislator from Wichita to White City that their voice will be on their local station when I talk to them. My question is not, “Will it play in Peoria?” but, rather, “Does it matter to McPherson”. I haven’t lost the sensibility of what the towns we feed care about, and I travel back on a regular basis to visit family (my wife’s folks are from Hutchinson) so that helps.
3. Speaking of digital, how important is it in what you do? How much of an emphasis does the Alpha Media Topeka cluster put on generating material -- news coverage -- for the web, and how does the station generate social media interaction?
It’s our heartbeat. WIBWNewsNow.com is the KAB award winner for best website for a reason. One of my newsroom staff is primarily a web writer and digital content generator. We do a lot of Facebook Live interaction and we Tweet often.
4. As a news director and a host, one of the things you have to do is know what's important to your listeners. So... what's important to WIBW's audience? How much of it is local -- say, the state tax/revenue debate, or local crime, or schools -- and how much of it is national or international?
My morning show is the hard news show on the station. Given our location in the state capital, we keep it to Kansas issues for the most part along with the local crime, etc., but I do have a national/international segment that is basically my ‘flex’ segment to fill slower days, and we use our resources through CBS News for much of that content.
5. In your career so far, you've tended to have positions that have required you to do a million things at once, from sports play-by-play to programming to news to board opping to producing to sales to reporting. If you had to pick one of the many things you've done as what you're best at doing, which is it? And which -- it might be something else -- is your favorite job in radio?
This is totally a Kansas thing. I love anchoring wall-to-wall severe weather coverage. It’s the closest thing to play-by-play I get to do in my current role and Meteorologist Dan Holiday and The Storm Report are awesome in support. If you need RADIO focused weather coverage and don’t have a local TV tie in, give them a call. They have meteorologists all over the nation. My favorite is still play-by-play. Not to be too egotistical, but I feel I’m a gifted sportscaster. I won the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Media Award for my play-by-play in 2013.
6. Who are your influences, inspirations, and mentors in the business?
How much web space do you have? My General Manager in McPherson, Joe Johnston is still the gold standard for how a manager should manage people. I am learning daily from Alpha Media Topeka’s Market Manager Larry Riggins and Program Director Keith Montgomery about the realities of radio and how to maximize resources. I also have a great mentor across the glass from me every morning, as WIBW APD Roger Heaton has been in radio for decades and at 580 for much of that time. Also, I used to listen every afternoon to Rush on 600 WMT in Cedar Rapids growing up. He was followed by Rick Sellers, then the WMT PD and now the owner of KMRY. His "Rick in the Radio Room" is where I learned the relatability of radio.
7. If you hadn't gone into radio -- I know, it's unfair to ask, since you studied it and went right into it, but play along -- what do you think you'd be doing now?
I’d be in the ministry. The joke in question one is still valid, and my faith is very important to me. The Church of the Nazarene does competitive bible quizzing (it’s a thing, really) and I was good at that. I still have sections of scripture memorized. If not that, then singing, probably Southern Gospel. KEXS was a Southern Gospel station when I worked there.
8. Of what are you most proud?
My wife and three boys. They are the reason I get up in the morning.
9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without _____________.
Caffeine is the obvious answer, but I think the real one for me is affirmation. As Mark Twain once said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” A cup of coffee only goes so far.
10. What's the most important lesson you've learned so far in your career?
There is a real person on the other side of that radio (or internet connection), and it’s your job to tell them what they need to know. Take it seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. The message is what’s important, the messenger is fungible.
-
-