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10 Questions with ... Dave Mason
January 24, 2006
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NAME:Dave MasonTITLE:AM Show HostSTATION:KOGOMARKET:San DiegoCOMPANY:Clear ChannelBORN:Rochester, NYRAISED:Rochester, NY
BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
WSAY, WBBF,WBFB, WMJQ, WAXC-Rochester, NY
WENE, Endicott (Binghamton, NY)
13Q, WTAE, WHTX-Pittsburgh, PA
WGR-AM, WGRQ-FM, WBUF-FM- Buffalo
WKRC-AM, WKRQ-FM, WWNK-FM, WSAI-AM, WAOZ-AM, WLW-AM, WCKY-AM (Sometimes 3 at a time, BEFORE Consolidation)- Cincinnati
WLAC AM/FM-Nashville, TN
KOGO-AM, KOCL-FM, XOCL-FM, KJQY-FM, KMSX-FM, KGB-FM-San Diego
KSBL-FM, Santa Barbara
KEGL-FM, Dallas
KODJ-Salt Lake City
WLCL-Atlanta
WWXQ, WQXW-Huntsville, AL
(U.S. Army 1968-1971)1. How did you get your start in radio- why did you choose radio?
It's my sister's fault. She brought home these 45's of Elvis, Paul Anka, Buddy Holly and I then started hearing them on the radio. When my parents moved to the suburbs it was in the shadow of 4 local radio stations, TWO which had studios at the transmitters. I made a proverbial pain of myself for the next 7 years visiting, asking, emulating and imagining what it would be like. I got my first job as a junior in high school. I'd skip school, but show up for work -and other than my closest friends, no one was the wiser. After my first 9 months in, I had an interview with Rochester heritage employer Kodak. The interviewer talked with me for awhile and said "you don't want to work here. You want to continue to do what you're doing". Other than 3 years in the Army (out of radio), I have been in it since.
2. What are you passionate about?
In the business: To be the BEST I can be. Passionate about the format I'm in, the promise to the listener and not disappointing them. Outside the business? My family. Making sure the kids have all they need to succeed in the world, and having Dad to lean on. Making sure my wife Diane knows she's got support in all of those things she does that make the family stick together.
3. You've been a jock on music stations for years, and you've done talk as well. Now, you're back to talk at KOGO after about five years doing mornings at KJQY and Kool- was there anything difficult about making the transition from a music morning show to hosting a news morning block? What's better- or worse- about doing news/talk mornings vs. doing music morning shows?
The transition? Not as easy as you might think. I was also the only live person on the other stations . I was also PD of those stations, producer and did the promotional appearances. The imaging. The promos. Now, I'm part of a well-oiled machine. Before I WAS the machine. Now, I have someone else's rules to follow. Before I made up the rules. If I didn't like 'em, I'd change 'em. I'm in the middle of some pretty heavy names in San Diego and Southern California. Roger Hedgecock. Mark Larson. Rush. Laura. George Noury. Cliff Albert. I've done full-service, news and talk and sports since 1983, but. this is my first full-time hosting job in the format. I do have a lot of input into the show, and a great bunch of people who do most of the work while I just try to come up with creative ways to introduce them. Music morning shows are fun -because if you don't feel like talking, you can always play another song. On KOGO, whether it's good or bad, I have to discuss it. I can't use the loss of words as a crutch. There are scores of people who helped me make the switch. Jeff Prescott was the original host. He offered invaluable insight into what my job is. Kevin Finnerty, our Technical Director could do the show himself. He's the guy who can put words into my mouth if I need 'em. LaDona Harvey, our co-host is great at picking up the ball when I drop it. Mark Evans is the main news producer, along with Jesse Marcos. They feed that morning show fire with much more material than we could ever use, but we find a way to get it in. The constant direction of Cliff Albert is the best way to keep us on track-and he's our outside eyes and ears to the world.
4. As a PD and morning guy at one of the Oldies stations that recently bit the dust (and still voicetracking at others), what would you say is happening to the Oldies format? Is it still viable? What needs to happen to prevent the format from disappearing?
The answer is right in front of us. During the last six months of KOOL (XOCL), I was told to go with what felt right. No era restrictions (like many stations have today). No need to worry about songs to "protect" other stations in the cluster. I was one of the fortunate few who, in a corporate climate, had no corporate restrictions on what we could play. We played GREAT OLDIES, period. "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang - 1980's - we played it. Everly Brothers - 1950's, we played it. All of the great music in between. It was UPTEMPO music for Adults. It was the BEST music variety for "older" songs possible. We played the hits, stopped worrying about demos and payed attention to people who wanted FUN music on a FUN station. Our approach? "We play ALL your favorite oldies, not just some of 'em". Our final playlist was about 1100 songs- and we examined the categories on a weekly basis to make sure we SOUNDED like we were having fun. We shortened everything between the songs. We never played 2 ballads in a row. We weren't afraid to play the Classic Rock HITS....the Oldies doo-wop HITS....the British Invasion HITS. It worked. Our last book was the BEST ever for the frequency. We had nothing to lose, nothing to worry about. We increased in EVERY demo.
How to keep it going? Don't restrict the format to "everything from 1964-1972". Don't "add more 70's music" to make the audience younger. Add it because it enhances the station's musical PLOT. Remember what the audience calls you. The stations that use "Superhits" or "Greatest Hits" or position themselves as being from a certain era are shooting themselves in the foot. Radio is NOT a quantitative experience. It's not how many times you do it, it's how well you do it that counts. I think we took "Jack's" best intentions and added real people and REAL unpredictable fun to the station. We have to continue to do that in ALL formats to keep people coming back. We had days where we would PLAY ANYTHING the listener wanted. The first time we did that, i was scared that we'd get calls for 50 Cent, and "Stairway to Heaven". 90 percent of the calls were from listeners asking for what we had in mind-- FEEL GOOD songs from 4 decades. The phones were lit up from 5am until well past midnight.
5. If you hadn't gone into radio, what would you be doing today?
I had the chance to go to work for Kodak. I had visions as a youngster of being a lifeguard. A bowling alley mechanic. A meat cutter. Working for the telephone company. A bartender. I could do those other jobs but whenever the radio was on in the background, I'd envision myself in the studio, on the air doing their job while talking to people like me doing MY job.
6. Who are your mentors, your inspirations, the people you've learned the most from?
My inspirations came from almost everyone I met in the business.
My uncle's brother Bob Bohrer was the first DJ I ever met. He gave my my first record.
I was inspired by every program director I ever had. Larry White was the first PD who gave me actual responsibilities in driving the future of our radio station. Dick Sargent, my PD at WENE inspired me because his goal was New York. He went there directly from Binghamton, changed his name to Johnny Donovan and has been at WABC for decades.
Consultants like E. Karl, Tommy Hadges (Pollack), Dick Springfield (Research group-also one of my PD's at WENE).
George Johns.
Radio executives like David Barratt (Hearst), Dave Crowl, Jay Meyers, Mike Glickenhaus, Bob Bollinger.
Managers I've worked for from Andy Hubbell in Binghamton to Tom Sly and Jim Bryant in Cincinnati. Ken Wolt and Rand Gottleib in Rochester.
Current and former co-workers like The Greaseman, Tom Birch (late of The Birch Report), Keith Abrams, Bob Savage, Tom Langmeyer (now GM at WGN in Chicago), Marty Thompson, Rick Thomas, Jack Evans, Marc Chase, Gabe Hobbs, John Roberts, Jay Stevens, Jeff Howlett.
The most influential? Randy Michaels for sure. I met him in San Diego in 1979 when he was PD at WKRQ in Cincinnati. 4 years later he was our VP of Programming for Taft radio. Then we were competitors in Cincinnati. He actually let us WIN a few rounds so he could kick the crap out of us in the future. Then I was lucky enough to become part of the Jacor/Clear Channel family while he was our CEO. No one understands FUN like Randy. No one understands COMPELLING like Randy.
I'm sure I left many people out, but I think I've learned from and been inspired by everyone I've come into contact with in this business.
7. Of what are you most proud?
I think I'm proud that I've been able to be some part of just about EVERY radio station that I grew up listening to. If I didn't work for one, I was competing with one. (KDKA and WKBW are two that come to mind). I'm proud that some people have actually understood my radio philosophy and adopted some of it in guiding their own career. I'm also proud that I've been able to get experience in almost every mainstream radio format over the past 40 years. Most of all, I'm proud that in the middle of all of this, I have a great supporting wife, and two wonderful kids.
8. What do you do for fun?
Boating, computers, and 4-wheeling in the incredible California deserts. The wife and I can also be found feeding the games at one of our local casinos.
9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without _____________.
...reading "Talk Topics" by Perry Simon, and watching "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons". .
10. What's the best advice you ever got? The worst?
Best: From the guy at Kodak. "You don't want to work here. You want to work on the radio. Go do it."
The worst? "You've got to be REALLY careful".
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