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John Garabedian
July 8, 2020
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. John Garabedian built his first radio station at age 14 in his suburban Boston bedroom, he’s continued to build things ever since.
From air talent to programmer to station owner to syndicator to author to relentless innovator to international stardom with Open House Party, he’s always been out in front of whatever the trend may be.
His latest innovation has been to develop a brand new national, and LIVE nighttime Top 40 radio program called Party Liveline, hosted by Mason Kelter.-
You’re a guy who’s “best known” for quite a few things. But, let’s start with Open House Party, which actually had its genesis many years before you signed on in 1987 with the legendary Sunny Joe White at WXKS (Kiss 108) in Boston and taking it national the following year. Was Sunny Joe a tough sell? How long before you knew you’d caught lightning in a bottle?
Sunny approached me about doing a weekend gig at KISS 108 right after I had sold my Boston TV station. “Kiss kicks ratings ass all week,” he said, “but on the weekends we lock the place up, turning it into a music machine and the ratings show it.” I told him I was beyond weekend shifts on local radio, but had an idea which could solve his problem. The concept was Open House Party, which he immediately loved. “Build your studio and we’ll put it on Kiss right away.” We debuted with a 14 share 12+ on a 7 share radio station.
You’d had major success with an all-request concept at WORC/Worcester. What did you learn then that helped with OHP, and were there some pitfalls that you knew to avoid?
WORC was the first totally interactive radio station in the world. Instead of following local record sales or corrupt national charts, we programmed exclusively from tabulated listener requests. Paid request operators took an average of 2500-3000 song requests a day. But the 25-30 shares we got was not just from playing the right music. The key elements of WORC were compelling entertainment, listener participation, and heavy contesting. That is what I adopted for the national OHP which made it jump out of the speakers and outperform the weekday ratings of most stations that aired it.
For different reasons many broadcasters are doing their shows from home these days. You were way out in front of that—not only was Open House Party LIVE every weekend (at a time when a live nationally syndicated radio show was basically unheard of) and to top it off it was from your BASEMENT! What was the thinking there?
At first I looked at office buildings to build studios, but realized the vibe would be all wrong for a local-sounding loosey-goosey party show with friends dropping by for ambience. So we installed a satellite uplink in my backyard, and “from John Garabedian’s basement studio...” became an actual thing. It worked out great!
You were known for an amazing array of guests both in person and calling in to the show. Can you pick a couple of the highlights?
So many great moments! Every single major artist, from Vanilla Ice and New Kids on the Block, to Lady Gaga, Drake, Eminem, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and the many live remotes from major events, like Woodstock 2 & 3, three Mardi Gras’, Six Flags, and from several Billboard Music Awards with live guests like Dick Clark, Ryan Seacrest, Casey Kasem, and even Delilah!
Legend has it that there was a runway behind your house. Was this more for personal use or were artists able to come in and out that way?
Actually I built runways behind each of my three houses (Boston, Vermont, and Cape Cod). It makes it easy to go from one house to the other. Although it sounded cool to visualize artists coming in and out, the runways are too short for a commercial airliner.
We were all sorry to hear about the passing of your friend and former colleague and fellow Boston legend Arnie “Woo Woo” Ginsburg. You were partners in some amazing ventures, including the revolutionary music television channel V66. Where did the idea to do that come from and how were you able to recruit the notoriously finicky cable companies to your way of thinking?
The first time I ever went on the radio was at age 15 when a buddy and I made a record and Arnie agreed to play it on his show. Seven years later we became friends when working together at WMEX/Boston. In 1984 I was granted the license for a new, full- power Boston TV station, but needed help in getting investors, building and running the station. Arnie took a hiatus from his EVP job at KISS 108 to join me.
Radio station ownership is also big part of your legacy. Is there still a place in 2020 for locally owned and operated radio stations? And what is it like for you to be “The Guy?”
Great question to someone who owns a cluster of four radio stations. Except in a few large markets, Top 40 is dying and shares of audience for the format have badly deteriorated in the core target younger demos. The reason is quite clear. Music radio, especially Top 40, will go the way of newspapers if it continues with the current low quality of programming content. Stations that offer nothing but music and voice tracks will not survive in the new streaming world.
Why do you think this has happened?
If you’re only looking for music, there are much better sources than a radio. Bob Pittman described iHeart as having two businesses; “One is the music business, the iHeart music app, and the other is the ‘companionship business,’ the radio side.” Jacobs annual media usage study consistently shows that over 54% of radio listeners primary reason to "like” their favorite station remains the DJ/host.
Why would someone choose radio for music over streaming, when 20% of the content is commercials, and the rest is mindless plugs for station priorities from colorless voice tracked DJs with nothing entertaining to say? My Tesla has Spotify buttons right next to the radio buttons. The clock is ticking. As every other car catches up, music radio will continue to wither if it continues to lack compelling content and offer “companionship” to build fans and hold listeners. The key is turning listeners into fans.
The “RIF” cutbacks of the past ten years dried up the radio talent pool. It’s no secret that voice tracking, “PPM panic,” over-commercialization, and corporate priorities degraded Top 40 radio into a vast wasteland. An entire generation of young people find nothing compelling or relatable about music radio. Imagine Spotify or Pandora with commercials 20% of the time in 6-minute spot breaks on top of canned announcers banging you over the head 3x an hour urging you to download an app or to ”like us on Facebook.” A DJ playing some songs is not compelling, nor competitive in the 21st century media landscape. There is nothing there to love.
Where will this compelling programming come from?
The future is clear, it is a national programming model. Local morning shows are the first place where national programming has become the norm. iHeart has totally embraced national programming systems; yet aside from morning shows in Top 40 no one has succeeded in creating anything more than well-produced-but-generic semi-live programming or small-market-sounding voice track services. The next Top 40 daypart to go national is weeknights, and that is why we have created Party Liveline. It is a different animal, 100% live and interactive.
You broke into radio as a teenager, you were a revered air talent, you programmed stations, you founded and ran syndication networks, you’ve owned radio and TV stations, you’ve literally seen a million faces and rocked them all. What is it about radio that always keeps you coming back?
Exciting contemporary music radio has been my life passion. Creating something great by entertaining millions of fans is fun and challenging and the reward for success is great ratings. It’s like winning the World Series.
Your latest creation is now up and running - Party Liveline debuted on WHYA (Y101)/Cape Cod as you developed it for syndication and you’re now ready to roll nationally. This is different for you, as the show airs totally live for 5 hours, 5 nights a week, of course, LIVE from the fabled basement. What made you decide that the time was right for programming like this?
The economic pressures that created massive staff cutbacks in the past few years were the initial catalyst, but now are greatly accelerated under COVID-19. Station owners are desperate to save cash in a depressed economy. WHYA was running a night show with generic syndicated voice tracks from a top DJ, but it was boring...just a DJ playing some music. I knew I could create something exciting and live which would be far more powerful and compelling. Our managers and sales team are now genuinely excited with how great we now sound with a live show weeknights. Anyone can listen to the live show at capecodradio.com or download the WHYA app.
Mason Kelter is the show’s host. How did he land the gig?
Ha...Mason actually found me. He’s among the most naturally talented Top 40 DJs I’ve ever known or worked with, just like current legends Elvis, Bobby Bones, Broadway Bill, and Ryan Seacrest who started very young.
Mason is a millennial who grew up in Wisconsin and discovered Open House Party around 2009. It fired up his lifetime passion for Top 40 radio, and the style of exciting, highly-produced compelling entertainment it once represented. He battled busy signals to call in every weekend and would never miss one minute of a Saturday night show. Mason’s passion motivated him to find, collect, and post on YouTube dozens of old airchecks of Open House Party as far back as 1987! After I left the show in 2017, United Stations demanded he take them down.
While in high school Mason got a weekend gig at B104/Appleton, and then created his own online radio station Vibes Online as he developed his DJ skills. He simultaneously worked weddings for the largest mobile DJ company in Wisconsin, earning $1,000/week and learning live entertainment skills. WHYA station manager Steve McVie discovered Mason on Vibes Online, and hired him for WHYA weekend voice tracking.
When developing Party Liveline, there was no one else who came close to his abilities to deliver a great live performance every night. Mason is the future of Top 40 radio. He is like a Patrick Mahomes or young Tom Brady. Everyone should check him out week nights 7P-Midnight live on the Y101 stream, capecodradio.com or on the app “Y101 Cape Cod.”
“Be Your Dream” has been your mantra and ending phrase for many years. What would you say to your radio family to encourage them to ‘be their dream?’
The phrase has many meanings which all originate and end at the same place. Just as the name of my book, “The Harmony of Parts,” it is a life philosophy to achieve happiness by being true to yourself, following your heart to achieve unity with your best idea of yourself.
Be your dream!
For more information contact John Garabedian: john@rcrq.com
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