10 Questions with ... Jim Farley

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

1010 WINS 1966-1975, started as copyboy, finished as editor; NBC News 1975-1988 (final painful year after Westwood One bought the NBC Radio Network), started as producer, ended as VP Radio News; ABC News 1988-1996, Managing Editor; WTOP 1996-present, PD, VP News & Programming

1. You've spent your entire career in radio news; what drew you to radio news in the first place? Why radio?

It was an accident. I needed a part-time job during college and got one as a copyboy at 1010 WINS. I loved it so much I dropped out after freshman year to work fulltime. I actually did a little over a year on the TV side at NBC News, but that just helped remind me why I loved radio news in the first place.

2. WTOP has become a consistent ratings dominator and a massive success in recent years, more than any other all-News station. As the guy in charge of programming, to what do you attribute the station's success? What makes WTOP as special as it is?

Bonneville bought us in 1997 when our ratings were pretty low. As we grew revenue and ratings, they allowed us to reinvest in the product. The newsroom is twice as big now as it was back then, both in physical size and staffing. They allowed us to migrate to FM (and eventually to 3 FM sticks covering the entire region). My boss Joel Oxley fosters a spirit where people want to win when it comes to revenues, ratings and recognition (awards). And the PD and GSM actually like and respect each other!

3. WTOP's successful transition to the FM dial, first with a suburban simulcast and then to the full-market 103.5 signal, has been widely documented and cited as a model for other stations. What does being on FM mean to WTOP, both in the sense of how successful it's become and how, if at all, it affects the content and presentation of what you do?

It means moving your store from a shopping center to a bigger shopping center with a lot more foot traffic, more women and younger consumers. It means having a signal that easily penetrates apartment buildings and offices in an urban area. The change has been evolutionary; we began an AM/FM simulcast in 1997, and were able to see for years that the FM audience was younger and more female than the AM audience.

4. You recently sliced the word "radio" out of the top and bottom-of-the-hour imaging, recognizing that the station's content isn't just for radio anymore. How important at the moment are the other forms of delivery for WTOP content -- web, streaming, apps -- to the operation? Do you see them ever approaching or overtaking radio in the amount of revenue generated for the company?

We see ourselves as a news organization informing and engaging as many people as possible, as often as possible, on FM Radio, HD Radio, streaming audio, a robust wtop.com, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and text alerts and our free WTOP ipod app. Right now the radio signal is our biggest megaphone, but hardly our only one. And the rate of growth is faster for digital than for radio in the long-term.

5. WFED, Federal News Radio, developed in the opposite direction from WTOP, growing from an online stream to a broadcast outlet. Do you think there are analogous "company town" situations elsewhere that could support similar specifically-targeted radio formats? Could a station or stream of industry news aimed at, say, tech workers in the Bay Area or entertainment industry workers in L.A. work, or is the concentrated bureaucracy in Washington a special case?

Yes. We started it as a 2-person Internet-only venture. As it grew, profits were plowed back in to grow the enterprise. In the Washington area, between civilian and military Feds, their families, retirees and the people doing business or hoping to do business with the federal government, 25% of the population has a vested interest. And between the WFED and WTOP newsrooms (including dedicated web staff) we have the best federal coverage around. Every industry has trade publications. A radio station could do this by hiring smart people who already cover that industry to do it online. Hartford with the insurance industry and Detroit with the audio industry come to mind. Remember, an online news operation potentially reaches everybody connected to that industry, whether they live in your signal area or not. It is not limited by the radius of your on-air signal.

6. Having been in news radio since the early days of the Westinghouse all-News format and having worked at both the local and network level, you've seen a lot of changes in both all-News radio and news radio in general. What have been the most radical or important changes over that time in how radio news is produced?

Technology. Radio reporters can send high-quality audio, video, photos and text from anywhere cheaply and easily. It's amazing!

7. Of what in your career are you most proud?

The National Murrow Awards. 4 this year and 5 last year. Plus, the folks in our newsroom make make proud everyday. They really, really stepped up to the plate during our twin blizzards in February.

8. Who among all the people you've worked with, met, or known have been the most important and influential in your career?

My sainted wife Johanna. My current boss Joel Oxley. My very patient boss at NBC Radio News, Jo Moring Verne who kept me from imploding when I first moved into management. And I learned from some great professionals in the WINS newsroom in the late 60's and early 70's.

9. With all the cuts in radio news in the industry over the last decade, do you think -- apart from companies like Bonneville who are still strongly committed to news -- there will ever be a recovery, that other groups will rebuild their news departments and presence in local markets? Or have they ceded the news leader position to the Internet and other media?

WTOP should be Exhibit A in making the case for investing in news. A dominant #1 in PPM. #2 in the nation in revenues last year, despite the fact that Washington is only market #9.

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

It's the current motto of the WTOP Newsroom: first get it right, then get it first. It takes years to build trust with the audience. That can be squandered in a few seconds.