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10 Questions with ... Wendy Wilde
March 14, 2006
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NAME:Wendy WildeLAST WITH:Air America/MinnesotaPHONE:612-386-8916EMAIL:wendywilde@gmail.comWEBSITE:www.wendywilde.com
Please begin by giving us a brief career history ...
29 years in radio including music jock, PD and MD. Stations included WMIL-WOKY/Milwaukee, WJEZ-WJJD/Chicago, WTSO/Madison and WYNK/Baton Rouge.
News Reporter, Anchor, and News Director: Stations included WHIO/Dayton and WMMX/Columbus, Ohio.
Talk Radio 1997 - 2003, WCCO/Minneapolis, Saturdays and Sundays noon-3pm, plus vacation fill. 2003 - 2006 Air America Minnesota, Morning Drive.
Talk is like the best of both worlds. It's based on news and commentary, plus there's the fun and creativity and laughter.
1) What do you do to maintain a positive mental attitude and stay motivated?
I'm an extremely energetic and ambitious person. Life is full of interest and challenges. I'm not the sort of person who waits for life to happen to them. I make it happen for myself.
2) How are you occupying your time, besides looking for a job?
I'm a Communications Consultant to several small businesses and organizations. I am President/Founder of a 501(c)(3) non-profit teen center that I help run with a group of other parent volunteers on weekends. On a personal basis, I am spending extra time with my husband and children, and our big fluffy puppy dog.
3) Some people get discouraged or enlightened with the business when they actually step out of it for a while. Tell us your observations from the outside.
Since deregulation in the 1996 Telecommunications Act there are fewer local voices to be heard in radio and many fewer opportunities to be one of the remaining local voices. I keep reading that radio listening is falling nationwide, and I hear analysts blame the Internet or satellite. I disagree. If we give the people what they want to hear to on the radio, they will listen!
4) Do you plan on sticking with the radio industry?
If I cannot find a new radio show I plan to start podcasting/streaming radio shows from my home studio soon.
5) What's the longest stretch you've had on the beach?
The longest I have been out of the biz is when I decided to stay home with my babies in the early to mid 90's and go to college (you get weekends, holidays, and summers off... worked out great with toddlers at home). I majored in Pre-Med (Bio-Chemistry basically) and had a 3.36 GPA, but I really missed the creativity of radio and switched to Communications Studies after a couple of years. Now I see how both courses of study were great intellectual preparation for sliding into talk radio later. The science gave me methodical evaluation abilities and working knowledge of scientific method. The communications studies taught me to see pretty quickly through the gimmicks and rhetorical tricks used by politicians who twist policies into :10 second headlines that mislead the public into thinking they're doing a good thing when they're really not. Sort of like a reverse Karl Rove ... he comes up with catchy titles like "no child left behind" and I show how it is really the exact opposite.
6) What is your best way to get your foot in the door?
Call and ask for the job. And call and ask for the job again. And call and ask for the job again. Either I get the job or they change their phone number.
7) So far what has been your best resource for finding out about job openings?
Allaccess.com. Former bosses. Friends. Grapevine. In that order.
8) What's the craziest thing you've ever done to get a job?
The President of a company called to tell me thanks, but no thanks, and I told him with genuine conviction, "Oh I'm so sorry to hear that. If you don't listen to my demo and look at my resume you'll never realize that you turned away the one person who will do the job for you better than anyone else." So he listened to my demo, and I got the job.
The only time I have been fired was once, back in 1980, and I went to the GM and told him I was being fired over a personality conflict, not because I was failing to do my job. I told him all the extra things I had done to contribute to the radio company and help salespeople court and keep clients, then I asked the GM to hire me for the other station he managed. He called the other PD into his office and had me ask the guy for a job. That PD sort of smirked at me and asked, "How long have you been in radio?" "Four years," I replied.
Then he said with a condescending tone, "Well, I spent the last five years in Stevens Point alone, before coming to Milwaukee." And I told him, "Well, maybe you belonged there. I belong here, now." I didn't get the job, but the GM had a good laugh, and he helped me land a job elsewhere. (Thank you, TM).
9) What is the next job you'd like to obtain?
Talk radio show or liberal talk radio show. I can't see myself doing anything else but maybe news. I still love news, too.
10) With consolidation there are definitely fewer jobs. How do you separate yourself from the pack?
Attitude, work ethic, drive and motivation, talent, did I say hard work? And lots of experience and expertise.
Major market sound -- distinctive, clear, professionally trained voice and delivery -- but personable, glib, self-confident, unpretentious, and focused.
Can crank out the work, from commercial copy to production, to news copy and delivery, to show prep and creative content, all the while keeping clients happy. One-stop shopping.
Bonus Questions
1) What has been your biggest career accomplishment?
WCCO 1997-2003. It was truly an honor to work there among my lifelong radio idols Charlie Boone and Steve Cannon, and today's crew Dave Lee, Mike Lynch, Bruce Hagovic, and Tim Russell. I shook like a leaf for the first six months every time I walked into the studio to do a show there!
Then becoming the first liberal talk host in Twin Cities radio, 6 months before Air America signed on the air. It took a while to find my "voice," but once I did it was so satisfying ... the Michele Bachmann Minnesota Morality Minute, and original parody songs (you can hear them on my website www.wendywilde.com, just click on "Listen"). It was the hardest and most demanding job I've taken on. I didn't even have a producer or research staff for a large part of the time there, but I did it for two full years.
2) My favorite new diversion is ...
1. Touching up my resume: $45.
Postage to mail out resumes & cd demos $150.
Having a little extra time with my beautiful daughter helping her pick out an outfit for school in the morning "Mom, how does this top look with this skirt?" Priceless.
2. Learning Flash to add to my websites.
3. Writing grants for the teen center.
4. Think I'll paint the living room.3) Care to contribute a low-cost recipe to our "ON THE BEACH" cookbook?
Recipe: Sacred Heart Cranberry Carmel Cake
I got this recipe from the lunch ladies at Sacred Heart Elementary School in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in the mid 1970's when I was in grade school. It is simple, cheap, and God (Hail Mary Full of Grace) is it gooey, sweet, tart, and good!
Cranberry Cake
Buy a box of cheap yellow cake mix and mix following directions.
Stir into the batter a couple handfuls of fresh, whole, rinsed cranberries.
Bake as you would following your cake mix recipe. The cranberries will pop open as they bake (Pavlov's dog ... I'm starting to drool already).
Serve drizzled with hot caramel sauce. The ice cream toppings in a jar work fine, just warm it in the microwave first.
Now indulge. You won't have a care left in the world for the next few minutes.
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