Kraig Kitchin

Earlier this week, the National Radio Hall of Fame kicked off the two-week period for listener voting to induct a Music Format On-Air Personality and a Spoken Word Format On-Air Personality into the Hall. Orchestrating that voting - as well as the other categories voted on by its members - is Chairman Kraig Kitchin, who is doing all he can to fuel listener participation and raise interest of this media art form. Here he discusses the Hall, how it honors the past as well as the current greats ... and what's in store for the future.

How long have you been Chairman of National Radio Hall of Fame, and do you feel you have met the initial goals you set for yourself and the Hall when you started?

I've been Chairman now for four years and yes, I have met my first level of goals. They were to make voting and the induction process to the Hall of Fame as transparent as possible, so everybody on-air and off are entitled to vote, as well as make the Hall more inclusive across every broadcast platform with all formats and all companies represented, including public radio.

In the four years since our last interview, what new challenges have you faced and how have you addressed them?

I have a very ambitious goal in front of me, which is remodeling and renovating the physical space of the Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago in time for its 100th anniversary in 2020. We're working with some designers who have renovated other museums around the country. We're going to create very interactive exhibits with a tremendous amount of audio and video content of the performers -- radio personalities -- thanks to Art Vuolo. It'll be a tremendous display of the radio performers from the more than 230 inductees. We'll showcase their talents not only in the museum experience but online as well. It may be the most ambitious goal to create this exhibit within the next two years and to create a way to fund it so it can all come to fruition.

How has incorporating fan voting into the Hall of Fame worked out?

This is our third year of listener voting. It's growing in popularity as more and more people find out about it. It only takes a moment for people to vote. We realize they are our most important constituency, so it's important that listeners have a chance to vote on who's really deserving of a place in the Hall of Fame.

It's similar to other Hall of Fames where the fans get a chance to have a say. In our case, we try to induct between eight to 10 individuals a year. Two of those inductees, who are either in a music format or a spoken word format, are voted in by listeners. Last year, we had 300,000 votes from radio listeners and we're looking to improve on that.

Are you doing any marketing or nationwide publicity to increase fan voting, or are you leaving it up to the personalities and stations to do that?

It starts with the announcement of the nominees for induction, who'll be voted on by the listeners. We give the nominees as much advance notice as possible and as much encouragement as possible, to not only talk about it on their radio programs, but to give them more time to support other endeavors to get votes. As an example, Ellen K, one of this year's nominees, has alerted her listeners on KOST/L.A., and her nomination has also been featured on sister stations KIIS FM and My 104, where she previously worked. They're all telling listeners to make sure they go out and vote her in the Hall of Fame. The same is probably being done for Jim Rome, George Noory, Joe Madison, Mark Levin, John Tesh, Angie Martinez and Kid Kelly, the latter who has been incredibly creative in using relationships with affiliates to encourage voting.

Will the fan honorees be integrated into the Hall's other honorees, or will they be put in a special section in the Hall? And can someone voted by the listeners also be voted in by members in the future?

They will be inducted and receive plaques alongside all the other greats who are already there. We're going to treat them as one and the same; they've justifiably received honors in this industry -- in this particular case, from the listeners. Last year, listeners voted in Bobby Bones in the music category and Bill Handel in the spoken word category. With regards to your second question, the great thing about being inducted into the Hall of Fame is once you're in, you're in!

Do you see podcast talent being honored in the foreseeable future?

Good question, but that hasn't been contemplated by the organization yet. I will confirm with you that there are some incredibly talented podcasters who are a thriving part of our industry. I don't know yet when the Radio Hall of Fame will come to recognize individuals who are incredible podcasters. It takes years for podcasters to create an audio relationship with listeners and figure out how to integrate advertising into those relationships. That's a question to be answered in the future.

I will say that there's a real art going on within many podcasting entities. From Marc Maron and Adam Carolla to the podcasts from ESPN Radio, a rich vein of talent is being applied to the podcasting space. I don't know yet how the Hall of Fame will incorporate and recognize those who should be taken, but something tells me that nobody gets into the Radio Hall of Fame without 15-20 years of hard work. A decision could be a long way off; we need to recognize people who have stood the test of time.

But many of the best podcasters, such as Adam Carolla and Phil Hendrie, have years of radio experience...

No doubt, Phil Hendrie is a world-class radio broadcaster, an incredible talent who creates a modern theater-of-the-mind experience. And Carolla has been amazing in terms of being a personality who has been so revealing about himself and who came from the radio medium. Including them is a decision for our nominating committee, which will contemplate their whole body of work.

There are those who believe that the ability to voicetrack, to sound local even when they're thousands of miles away, is a quantifiable talent as well. Will the Hall of Fame ever consider that, since it's already honoring syndicated talent?

There's already a great example of that. John Tesh has made his radio program, "Intelligence for Your Life," available from mornings in West Palm Beach to evenings in Omaha. That's clearly a voicetrack product and he makes no bones about it. He optimizes its potential to make each show personal for every market. He's now being contemplated for induction, so John is the perfect case-in-point. The nominating committee has recognized John's work of being worth a nomination, so the question is now, "Is it worth an induction?" I would expect to see more of them in the future, as more and more of today's radio personalities are voicetracking in multiple cities.

In the last interview, I asked you about the perennial controversy over who gets nominated and who doesn't, and you thought of it as evidence of getting the fans involved. But isn't the whole debate of who's in and out of any arts or sports Hall of Fame, as well as Award shows, good for the Hall in terms of raising its profile?

I wouldn't say that it invites controversy as much as it encourages healthy debates and conversation on who is worth induction, which is very good for any Hall of Fame. We all realize that there's always some level of controversy when such contemplations spark conversations and debate on who most deserves being in the Hall of Fame. But the best ideas win and in the end, the industry - and the listeners -- speak in one voice.

Can you envision a TV special of the induction ceremony?

I can see a time when our induction ceremony, which takes place each year in November, will be shown live. I don't know if it warrants a mainstream or cable TV airing, but it could be along the lines of the 43rd Annual Gracie Awards I recently attended in L.A. It was a beautiful presentation that showcased all women in media, awarded the best in class in a variety of categories - and it was broadcast on Facebook Live. I can see where our event could be shown via video streaming. Our first adoption partner has been TuneIn, which aired our induction ceremony live over the course of the couple hours, hosted by Dave Ramsey. We do want to make the event more visually interesting, so I can see it being streamed for those who can't get to the ceremony. We only have room for about 350 guests this year, so we want to make sure there's some sort of video stream for those who can't go or get in.

Finally, care to update us on your work with SoundMind?

I continue to own SoundMind, a management firm for radio personalities and production companies. I'm happy to say that SoundMind has reached the decade mark in business. If I've seen anything over that time, it's the notion that broadcasters are getting more involved in partnerships with stations and networks. They're more interested in the business and more involved in the ownership of their talents and less reliant on broadcast companies. We offer specialized services that make each broadcaster more invested and interested in how we partner with them in their success. And we've been finding better ways to do that for 10 years.