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10 Questions with ... Robyn Lane
January 1, 2013
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
Started out as a high school intern at WGLI-A and WBAB/Babylon NY. Started my on-air ascent at a small cable radio station in the Commack Corners shopping center in Commack, Long Island, which was right across the street from the infamous Commack Motor Inn. At the time it was a pump-and-dump no-tell motel where local business executives would take their young, hot secretaries for a little afternoon delight. My co-workers and I would stand at the window with a pair of binoculars and watch them drive in and out of the place and always make note of the license plate numbers as a goof. Then if was off to WGBB/Merrick, NY and finally on the air at my dream station WBAB/Babylon, NY, where I spent 14 glorious years (on and off), In 1996 Lenny Bloch (former PD of WDHA and WRAT) came and dragged me to New Jersey as soon as the RAT launched.
1) What led you to a career in radio? Was there a defining moment that made you realize "this is it"?
When I was a little girl, I'd run home from school to listen to the greatest jock I ever heard, the legendary Dan Ingram on 77 WABC. I was mesmerized and hypnotized every time I listened to him; he was my first radio hero. When I was 14, my mother had a friend who lived up the road from some kid who had a pirate radio station in his parent's basement and I gathered up the confidence to ring his door bell and ask him to put me on the air. He let me say hello and I knew from that moment that radio was for me; it was where I was destined to shine. The guy with the pirate radio station is Bob Buchmann, another hero of mine, who took the time to cultivate what he described as raw talent and turn me into the solid jock I am today. I worked for him at WBAB for many years.
2) If you were just starting out in radio, knowing now what you didn't then, would you still do it?
That's a tough question because the radio landscape has changed so drastically since I started. Back then there was no voicetracking, so most jocks got to hone their skills doing overnights. Nowadays, very few stations have live overnight jocks. I am proud to say that WRAT is live 24/7, even on the overnights.
3) How long have you been at WRAT and what makes this station so unique?
I have been at the WRAT since its inception in September 1996. We have the most recognizable jocks in the market because the majority of our air staff has been here since the beginning, which is a rare in this day and age. Not a single station in our market can make that claim, no revolving door here
4) You are doing middays on the station. How do you balance doing an air shift along with your APD/MD duties?
I come in early in the morning and do the music logs, put my music meeting notes together and make notes on additional programming and promotion ideas for both our on air and our website. Then at 10a it's all about being on the air. I try to never do any MD stuff while I'm on the air unless it's an emergency.
5) Let's talk about the music on The Rat. What makes The Rat rock?
The majority of what we play has loud guitars ... 'nuff said!
6) What's your take on current music in the Active Rock format? Is it as good as six months ago, better, or about the same?
We have so much more to choose from to the point where it's tough to decide what to add. Some of the stuff is automatic, ex: Soundgarden. And then there are artists who I desperately want to turn our audience on to but there aren't enough slots, ex: Danko Jones, Texas Hippie Coalition ... etc.
7) Carl Craft is the PD and also does mornings. You guys have worked together for a long time. What makes this relationship work?
We are very different people. I wouldn't go as far as saying that we are polar opposites; I would say that musically I am much more active. I go to more shows and I am able to listen to a ton of music. He listens to music when he can, but I bring the lion's share of new stuff to him. The thing that truly works for us as a team is the fact that we each bring a unique perspective to the music meetings and I like that, because if we were too similar it would be extremely boring. I hear things he doesn't hear and vice versa.
8) How does your station utilize social media (Facebook, Twitter) as a marketing tool?
We engage our listeners in conversation on our Facebook page; we consider it an extension of our personalities, the ability to connect is very important. We also entertain and inform. Our afternoon guy, Jimmy Steal, and our morning guy, Carl Craft, often have contests to see who can get the most comments on the occasional "Caption Contest" posts. They find the most outlandish photos on the web and go nuts. I tried to get in on it a few times but I had to step aside because I was banned from Facebook twice for posting provocative material. Our listeners were shocked because I'm a nun compared to those depraved animals.
9) How has WRAT navigated its station website to better the station as a whole?
We have an incredible interactive department! We utilize our "Club Rat" feature to its fullest potential by offering our listening audience who've already become members opportunities to win premium prizes that we don't offer on the air. We also inform our Club Rat members via e-mail blast when they should listen to win concert tickets, get in on certain on-air contests at specific times that we wouldn't otherwise broadcast to the entire listening audience. We create plenty of opportunities to entice our listeners to become Club Rat members because it offers them the V.I.P treatment. We also like to offer music content, not just Rat Rock news, but interviews and music from their favorite artists. Listen before you buy features, and the super popular podcasts offerings.
10) You and the radio station were hit pretty hard by Hurricane Sandy. Tell us how you have dealt with this disaster and helped other New Jersey rockers in the process?
I never ever thought we would see the likes of a storm of this magnitude in our lifetime. We are four blocks from the beach here on the Jersey Shore, right in the thick of it. I remember when Katrina hit New Orleans and watching it on the news and feeling so bad for everyone who was affected. Seeing people lose their homes, their businesses, and their families was incredibly heartbreaking. You really cannot truly wrap your head around something like this until you've seen it up close and personal. Footage and pictures do not even begin to tell the story. I felt like I was on a movie set and thinking that this devastation can't possibly be real, this didn't happen in my backyard, in my community, to my friends, to our listeners... No flippin' way!
We spent the first two-and-a-half weeks on the air collecting and conveying information to our community. We helped them and they helped us with vital information. If someone needed to know where the open gas stations were, our listeners were calling in from their cars with the info. If someone needed shelter or a hot meal, we had the information at our fingertips. There was one instance where a guy called in not long after the hurricane hit looking for his brother, and we were able to locate him. He was injured in a local hospital.
We were the main source of information for the entire community, I cannot tell you how many people told us that we were and continue to be their lifeline during this mess. The biggest station in the state of New Jersey went off the air twice during the storm, but not Greater Media's WRAT! Our engineers worked 'round the clock to keep our station on the air, in fact I don't think these guys slept for the first 72 hours. I was here at the station for the first 36 hours; I slept a few hours under my desk.
The help is ongoing with fundraisers and benefits. Every year, just before Thanksgiving, we do "The RAT's Live Broadcast To Benefit The People Of New Jersey." This year the focus was on the victims of Hurricane Sandy. The Food Bank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties has always been one of the organizations who benefits from the generosity of our listeners. This year the need for food was greater than it's ever been! This year was our 14th Annual Broadcast, and every year we set up our broadcast in the parking lot of a local supermarket alongside a 45-foot tractor trailer donated by our good friends and clients "Pepsi." Our goal is to get that tractor trailer filled from top to bottom with food, decent used clothing, and stocking stuffer items for various charity organizations in a 30-plus hour time frame. Every year we did it, and it's never been an easy task especially since the economy has been on a downslide for the last few years.
This year our community helped us fill FIVE Pepsi tractor trailers in the same amount of time, plus there were pallets outside the trailers that couldn't fit because the trailers were filled to the hilt. Not to mention the refrigeration truck Shore Point Distributing donated so that we could ask people to bring turkeys and hams down to the site for Thanksgiving dinners. It was a sight to behold, a beautiful outpouring of love and compassion. I wish people would do things like this all the time, not just when tragedy strikes, it was astonishing -- 15 tons of food collected and donated, countless articles of clothing and a crazy amount of toiletries and stocking stuffer items for the sick, homeless and indigent.
Bonus Questions
Who's the best live band you've seen this year?
Damn you, Cigar man! That's tough, but I'm going to give it up to Volbeat! I saw them on Gigantour and at Metallica's Orion Festival.
What do you like to do to relax when you're not fully in radio mode?
I am a gourmet cook and a killer baker. My co-workers have nicknamed me "Betty Rocker." I cook and bake for them every chance I get. You'd be surprised how many people in our WRAT family have more than one birthday a year. (I bake a cake for almost everyone here on their Birthday)
You're stuck on a deserted island and you only have five CDs with you. What are they?
- Daryl Hall & John Oates - (The Silver album, 1975)
- Metallica - Master of Puppets
- Bee Gees - A greatest hits package of some sort
- Van Halen 1
- Temptations - The Temptations Sing Smokey
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