10 Questions with ... Drake Donovan

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

• Bachelor of Arts in Telecommunications from The Pennsylvania State University, 1997
• Internship at the former EZ Communications in Pittsburgh, PA, 1996
• Afternoon Drive/Imaging at the former WOMP-FM, Wheeling, WV, 1998-1999
• Part-time on-air at the former WBZZ-FM/B94, Pittsburgh, PA, 1998-2000
• Traffic Reporter, Metro Traffic, Pittsburgh, PA, 1999-2000
• Nights/Imaging & Morning Show Producer at the former WZPT-FM, Pittsburgh, PA, 2000-2001
• Creative Services Director, WDSY-FM & WBZZ-FM, Pittsburgh, PA, 2001-2013
• Owner, Drake Donovan Creative Services, Warren, OH, 2004-present

1) When did you first realize that you wanted to specialize in production?

It was very early on in my career as I saw how radio was changing with consolidation. I knew my time as an on-air personality would be short. But content is king, so, no matter what shape our medium took in the future, there would always be a need for content creators.

2) Where is your work currently heard?

I do production on an as-needed basis for a handful of stations in Louisville, KY; Peoria, IL; Dickinson, ND; and Santa Rosa, CA. My voice is international with 18 signals in Canada, including Toronto and Vancouver. Here in the U.S. my big markets are Denver, San Jose, San Antonio, Cleveland, and my hometown station, Y108 in Pittsburgh.

3) Do you have a specific specialty?

I would have to say that my specialty is writing. I've built a reputation as a writer with the pieces I share every day on social media and via sweeperoftehday.com. As far as production goes, my specialty has always been theater-of-the-mind. I'm a visual producer. I see the scene in my head and create the sounds that make that scene come to life. I believe that style serves as a trigger to make a passive listener pay attention to what is going on. Radio has lost some of that in the past decade or so and that there's not enough imagination being applied to imaging these days.

4) What's the most unique project that you've been involved with?

When I first took over as the Creative Services Director for CBS in Pittsburgh, we had a partnership with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Our station was helping out with the soundtrack to a fireworks show called "Skyblast." My APD and I spent several afternoons off-site at a recording studio with the team's Director of Marketing, Zambelli Fireworks and a lighting company building the show from the ground up.

5) What would you say is the one thing that "kills" creative?

Sales copy. Telling me that things must be said in a certain way because that's what the sponsor has already approved. I've always hated having those handcuffs put on my writing because it never, ever meshes with the way I write and produce. I always say, it's like "fitting a square peg into a round hole, but you can't mess with the square because the corners are boilerplate and have already been approved." It just means that I'm going to have to compromise the way I speak to my audience that I've already so carefully crafted.

6) What's the most challenging project that you've been involved with?

We always hosted a cluster-wide stage-show event for Pittsburgh's Light-Up Night celebration and I would create a soundtrack with stage announcements and holiday music to play during the early afternoon hours before dusk. One year our cluster promotions person came to me asking if I could get some holiday cartoons to play on the jumbotron they rented. Imagining the potential legal and copyright problems involved in the public performance of something that a radio station wouldn't have any rights clearances for, I didn't think I could get away with just renting a Rudolph DVD and calling it a day. So, I proposed a compromise. I would create the same soundtrack as in the past but with some royalty free animated holiday backgrounds to compliment the audio. As years went on, it began to evolve to include several homemade music videos created with still images set to holiday songs which were themed by each station's format in the cluster, video greetings from each morning show, and logo animations with sponsor mentions and stage schedules rotating throughout. Without fail, there was always a last-minute edit that would need to take place, usually while I was about 50% done rendering the hour long video. I do not miss that one, but it did teach me a lot about doing video.

7) What advice would you give to programmers seeking to get the most out of their production/imaging talent?

Include them in planning. When there are large initiatives or big events being planned, get your imaging and production people into the mix early. Far too often things would make it to my desk that would have benefited from a creative being in the room at its inception, even it if were just to give it a better name. But by the time I got the order to produce, everything was set in stone and it became my job to put lipstick on a pig.

8) Who are your mentors?

I've been very fortunate to work with some very giving and thoughtful voice talents over the years. At my first big imaging job in Pittsburgh at WZPT, I utilized Ann DeWig and John Beach. They both taught me how to service clients and give more than what is on the page. Like me, John is also from Pittsburgh and had to lose that "Pittsburgh-ese" regionalism that dogged me early on. On WDSY, had the pleasure of producing John Willyard for nearly 10 years. What an awesome person he is! I also looked up to Steve Stone, especially when I found some old DATs in my studio that included work he did on WDSY when it was owned by Secret Communications in the mid 90s. You could hear some of the seeds of his K-Rock New York stuff in those old pieces. Of course, I also revere the massive talents of Dave Foxx, Eric Chase and John Frost, all of whom I got to meet last year for the first time in person. They say "never meet your heroes" but these guys were all so wonderful and couldn't have been nicer to all of us star-struck imaging geeks at last year's ReelMix event in Miami.

9) What is your favorite part of the job?

I think making something out of nothing. That's really gratifying when you have a nugget of an idea and you create this whole world in your imagination that is brought to life thru sound. Recently I had my client PD in Louisville email me two words: "Electile Dysfunction." I wrote a parody pharmaceutical ad with questions like "Is the 2016 election campaign causing you stress...Arguing with friends & family over social media? Do you cringe when you see a campaign yard sign?" Then I spun it to promote their commercial free hours at 8, noon, 5 & 8 "where you'll be free from hearing the phrase, 'and I approved this message'". It was one of those pieces that came together almost instantly. I got his email at 10am and had it written voiced and approved by 2pm.

10) What tips would you suggest to maintain a positive/productive relationship with the sales team?

Impress upon them that while radio is immediate, it is certainly not instant. Just because you put in an order to traffic does not mean that your spot or promo is ready that day or even that week. Be patient and plan ahead. If a flight begins on Monday, and you've turned the prod order in on Friday at noon, don't expect to be able to play the spot for client approval before close of business. I heard a production director relate to me that the sales person's excuse for lack of patience and planning was, "I just have so many clients I'm dealing with." To which her response as the sole production director for the cluster was, "well, I have all the clients for all the stations in our entire cluster! You're gonna have to wait in line." I think that a lot of the issues between sales and production arise because most sales people are not radio people first. They have no clue what goes into creating an effective commercial or promo. I would also suggest that any commercial production director take the time to meet with your DOS or GSM and offer to be more involved in some of the sales process. That can save some headaches and make for better production down the line if we demonstrate in front of the client what magic we can come up with when we're properly included in the process and not thrown a bunch of copy points at the last minute.

Do you have a favorite hobby outside of voicework?

When I left my full-time radio gig and followed my wife to Kentucky for her career, I joined a car club to meet people in our new city. I have a 2011 Camaro Convertible, not a show car by any means, but it's gotten me into the "collector car" hobby. Recently I've done graphic stuff for it including a showboard and some ideas that I've outsourced and turned into badges and trim pieces for the car. It serves as another creative outlet for me.