10 Questions with ... Willie B

1) What led you to a career in radio and was there a defining moment that made you realize "this is what I want to do for a career"?

I was nine years old, waiting to record a song off the radio on my boombox. I religiously listened to this little station 100 FM WFMI (now WKQQ) in my hometown of Winchester, KY. I'd repeatedly called for a request so I could hit the "play/record" buttons and then I'd have that bitch on cassette! That was "downloading" when I was a kid. Anyway my constant calling and nagging of this jock over a period of few hours was enough for him to lose his cool and to ultimately determine my future ... kinda cool though, right? So after feeding me the usual "I'll see what I can do" several times and me calling him out on each, he finally broke, got all pissy and yelled at me "Get your own show or your own station if you wanna hear your fucking music" and hung up on me. Next day I walked in the kitchen and told my mom I was going to be a radio DJ!

2) If you were just starting out in radio, knowing now what you didn't then, would you still do it and why?

Oh hell yeah, it's such a unique and rewarding thing we get to call work! So obviously there are obstacles in your way now that weren't around when I was coming through the ranks. Some of the technology was intimidating for me initially. Technology has an interesting relationship with radio but such a vital part of success today. It depends on how well you merge the two! For most of us we had to endure some years as scabs, but I never was happy with just doing what was asked or needed. I was putting in time making airchecks, asking for fill-in slots, extra shows, working on material, trying to understand the difference between talking to your listeners and creating a relationship with them, which is stupid huge by the way! Success in most carriers has its list of usual ingredients -- hard work, passion, relentless pursuit to be better ... or a rich relative who owns the company. Radio requires a bit more of those ingredients and some sauce that's special to an individual or a team. So sure, I'd for sure do it all over again, but bet I could do it better, too.

3) How long have you been at KBPI and what makes this station so unique?

I've been at KBPI since April 1993, at first I was handling the 7p-mid shift, but my goal was always to get to mornings. In late '99 after several years of great success doing nights, yet the station was still struggling in mMorning drive, I proposed an idea to my PD that would solidify my move to mornings. My idea was for me to take over the morning drive time slot for a year, while also doing nights. If after a year I could get the morning-drive show into the top 5, I could come off nights permanently and be full-time in morning drive. If not, I wouldn't ask for a penny more pay. Two weeks later I was doing both mornings and nights. The show in that year was still on the diary method, so books came out quarterly and in mornings we went from 14th to 7th to 4th to 1st in that calendar year and I came off nights for good.

Now for the second part of that question, what makes KBPI so unique, I guess you'd have to just witness how the station breathes. It's such a unique connection we have with our audience that really makes it so different. For years now I've coined the listeners and myself really as a "family" ... the KBPI family, to be exact. Now this doesn't seem special to most people nowadays cause that term gets thrown around like it's got no meaning behind it. But 15 years ago nobody positioned their station like that. We've not only positioned it like that; we've backed it up relentlessly. Our community involvement is off the charts, our engagement with our audience is unprecedented, and our commitment to our audience is freakish. In 2016 I've personally restored a truck for a listener fighting brain cancer, have led six or seven charitable car/bike cruises this year, aside from annual events I do. This station actually works on providing much more than just music to our audience; it works on providing a lifestyle. Every time I'm in a sales meeting or programming meeting my goal is to create a better life for our listeners. Creating ways to give our audience something unique, engaging, fun, has a sense of exclusivity to it, and giving them an experience is what I kinda live for nowadays!

4) While you currently do the morning show as Your Morning Show w/Willie B, you were the BPI PD from 2003 to 2012. Are you still involved with the station programming?

I'm as involved as I can be! Some of the day-to-day things I'm not as involved in as I once was, but for important decisions about the direction of the station, I'm always at the table. The station honestly has been this little workhorse over in the corner of the Denver iHeart cluster that's just survived on its connection with the listeners. A lot of focus in past few years has been on bigger formats in the building that were going through programming changes or, in part, because Active Rock hasn't been real robust format for most radio company's since the early 2000s. We've just been over there surviving with a ground game that's come full circle. Rock is back and stronger than it's been in years. It's not just a wall of men anymore either; it's women in the mix as well. It's been supe- cool to see the swell of rock and rock culture moving back into mainstream and if you don't know this already, you're probably gonna want to pay some attention to it, just saying.

5) Let's talk about your morning show. How long have you been doing mornings for KBPI and give us some of the ratings highlights during your time there?

I've been doing mornings now for 17 years; crazy to even think about. The highlights have been plentiful honestly. In the early years we had Howard Stern in the market and a few big-dollar-backed shows, but they never really caught traction against us. Over the years we've seen what was really an 18-34-year-old format grow as we have. The morning show is always a Top 5 contender in 18-34, 18-49, 25-54 ... with #1 and 2 rankings in those demos for men the majority of the time.

6) Describe a typical morning show. What is the process and what are some of the key benchmarks of your show?

The day usually starts around 5a catching up on the world, then what's happening locally and in our own personal lives. The show albeit directed by me is really organic. Fancy way of saying we don't necessarily have a routine aside from a meeting each morning before we go on ... Just to check up on each other, what would make for some great content for the day, any personal things going on to develop, what my mom is doing and overall direction for the day. My mom is a regular character on the show.

We have a few benchmarks that people really enjoy. Our version of the world's stupid news for the day called Stupid Stories, a daily little factoid in form of a trivia question we call the DTC (dumbass trivia challenge), a bit called "Teach Us Something" where we invite listeners to educate us on some facts or knowledge they have. My mom does sports on the show from a retirement community in Florida and she doesn't know shit about sports, which makes it hysterical. She won the stations football pick 'em challenge this year based on color of jerseys and helmet designs... she had two 14-1 weeks!

The show is truly based on our lives and our listeners' lives. If they have a story we help tell it. It's me as the Alpha, Scoop the producer of the show who's terrible with women and great with video games, and Alyssa who our listeners refer to as Sweet Cheeks; she's our youngster aka hipster on the show. Neither of them had a traditional radio background; I just kind of found them and put them to work on the show. We truly have crazy chemistry between the three of us and our listeners on the show. I feel truly blessed to have found that sense of balance on the show.

7) Tell us some of the best and most memorable moments to date on Your Morning Show w/ Willie B.

Wow, what a question for a guy who's been on as long as I have. I could name countless guests we've had on who blew us away. There's so many events I do and create that are free, fun and have turnouts that most people freak out over. I'd say those type events are always my favorite. Case in point: Each year I do a "Downtown Takeover Cruise." I choose a Saturday in late October or early November, invite listeners to meet me in the parking lot of our big arena downtown in some form of a cool car, truck, bike or build they'd like to cruise in. This year I had over 1,500 vehicles and thousands of people crammed into downtown to see the two-hour impromptu hot rod parade. The ability to move the masses like that validates what I think is so powerful about radio. The connection you create with your listeners depends on both the time you share on the air and off the air.

8) Is your morning show active with social media like Facebook and Twitter. If so, how has that benefited your morning show?

For sure. We utilize FB more than anything. Our station's page is really active with the users. We're closing in on 90k likes and share artist interviews on there, do a ton of FB live streams, and videos from backstage of our shows. We use our FB page daily to drive content on the show as well.

9) Last month, All Access ran a Net News story on all the amazing things you do for your community during the holidays. What has been some of the most rewarding experiences for you in getting involved with these projects?

You know this is probably the most rewarding thing about my career in radio. The ability to change someone's life is a gift few of us ever get to experience. My Cars for Christmas program has been the best for me. As you might have been able to tell, I'm a car guy. I host a couple national TV shows about cars, either building them or racing them. So 11 years ago I got the idea of buying a car and giving it to a needy family for Christmas as one of the ways I could help out someone in my community. I've done it now every year and I've added a car each year. This past Christmas I was scheduled to give away 11 cars (being the 11th year I've done this), but because so many listeners and businesses I have relationships with helped out, this year I gave away 18 vehicles to needy families. I'll buy the cars cheap, fix them up along with a few shops I have help me, and give them to needy families each year. I'm blessed to be in a position to help so many people out with a car. When you think of how many people, kids, parents, or mouths get helped out when they're on the receiving end of a good reliable car, it's for sure humbling. I typically give away a car or two throughout the year to a worthy family, but the CFC program is by far one of my biggest blessings. I also do something called Hammers and Angels each year as well. This was our fourth year doing it and we had over 70 construction crews out to help us fully remodel two deserving families' homes.. We were able to do over $200k in remodel work for these two families at absolutely zero costs to them. All the time, material and labor is donated and we do the entire remodel in a wee That's the practically untapped positive power of radio

10) Finally, what do you like to do to relax when you're not fully in radio mode?

I'm a car guy so anything I can race, build, drive or jump, I'm all about it.