10 Questions with ... Marty Linck

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

• 1996-1998: KPNT - 1057 The Point (alternative)-APD/Imaging Director
• 1998-2000: KXOK - 97fm The Rock (Classic Rock)-PD
• 2000-2002: KSHE - KSHE 95 (Rock)-APD/Imaging Director
• 2002-2006: WVRV - The River (Hot AC)-PD
• 2006-2011: WCJK - 96.3 JACK-fm (Adult Hits)-PD
• 2011-2018: KYKY/KEZK/KNOU (Hot AC/AC/Top 40) Operations Dr.
• 2018-2019: JACK-fm Radio Network- Brand Dr.
• 2019-Current: KSHE/WARH (Rock/Adult Hits)- Brand Content Director

1) What was your first job in radio, and what led you to a career in radio in the first place?

I had heard a guy I went to high school with on KCFV, the local college station, in 1989 and thought to myself, "I'd be better than him". So I talked my parents into letting me go to community college and I got on the station, eventually becoming PD there. For my first paying job in radio, I ran the board overnights at the (now defunct) KLJY, JOY 96 in St. Louis in 1990.

2) How long have you been at KSHE and what makes this station so unique?

I just started here in December of 2019, but I interned at KSHE in the early '90s, and I was Assistant Program Director for the station from 2000-2002.

It's so unique, because it's been around for more than 50 years as a rock station. It's the longest-running rock station on the planet. It's very listener driven. Every move you make gets a massive reaction, both positive and negative. The people in St. Louis really care about the station and its history.

KSHE also introduced so many bands to St. Louis that are virtually unknown in other cities, and those bands still matter here. The station has also gone so deep with artists. It's been said that if a Foreigner album had 12 cuts, KSHE played 13 of 'em!

Artists reminisce about the station and its impact on their careers. People still buy our KSHE gear. I recognize the weight of what I have been entrusted to help shape and oversee. It's pretty heavy, but it's also amazing to have the opportunity to add to the already legendary history of the brand.

3) KSHE has been rocking since 1967 and celebrated its 50th anniversary a few years back. How much does this legacy play in any of your content decisions for the radio station?

We play on legacy big-time, but the station has been really good about revisiting the past while utilizing today's technology. There are hard drives full of content that we now repurpose in our Real Rock Museum at kshe95.com, plus we have podcasts and specialty shows where our talent replay old interviews and talk about the early history of KSHE and the artists that shaped KSHE.

We also have the heritage and the leeway to go deep with features like "No Repeat week." I've never seen so much feedback from a radio promotion as I did when we played around 1,400 songs straight without repeating one right after Christmas, during a week when radio usage is normally very low.

We're lucky to have Ray Collier, our Music Director, in the building as a resource. He can tell you pretty much everything that's ever happened here, so I lean on him whenever we look back on our history. He's a guy who will say, "Oh, we did that back in '82 and it tanked," or "Yeah we interviewed that guy 15 years ago, let me go track down a copy of it for you."

4) You recently reshuffled the on-air lineup at KSHE. What changes did you make and why?

Most of that was in motion before I got here, but it all makes perfect sense. Favazz had been doing afternoon drive for 20 years or so, but he always wanted to work more closely with John Ulett (The U-Man), who has been on KSHE for nearly 40 years. They started doing a podcast together a while back and there have been a lot of "magical moments". We decided it would be great to pair the two of them on the air.

Add to that, Lern now gets the opportunity to shine on her own in afternoon drive, and having Mark Klose come back to do middays, and share his stories with our audience... It really just all feels right.

The new lineup is:

• Mornings John Ulett and Favazz
• Middays Mark Klose
• Afternoons Lern

5) Let's talk about the new U-Man and Favazz morning show. I know it's early in the game, but how does this change in KSHE mornings sound so far?

Well, we're three days in at the time of this interview, but I already hear moments of fun and unpredictability. When people are great friends off the air, it shows on the air, but they're still comfortable giving each other trouble, so I'm excited to see where it goes. The amount of Rock n' Roll knowledge found in the room when they are together is kind of mind-boggling.

Much of the show is rooted in music features like "Brack-Off," where we pit songs against each other and listeners vote on social media. Right now we're doing "Beatles Brack-Off", so pretty much every Beatles song has a chance to fight for supremacy. Two songs a day fight each other, so Beatles Brack-off should last until, oh, maybe 2023 (laughs). But they also get to show their quirky personalities, which is what I think our listeners like the most.

Marty's friend Mark Cannon, Green Day's Tre' Cool, Marty, and Green Day's Mike Dirnt

6) Now let's talk about the music on KSHE. How are you programming the station's music to reflect its 50 plus year heritage?

KSHE isn't playing any current product right now. We're heavily rooted in 70s and 80s music, but there's a lot of '90s, too. It's cool that we can play a Fleetwood Mac song and a Pearl Jam song in the same quarter hour without it feeling weird. There was a time you wouldn't hear Fleetwood Mac or Elton John on KSHE, but now it feels so right for us to not just play hard rock, but pretty much all rock that matters.

We also have the KSHE Klassics show on Sunday mornings, hosted by John Ulett, and Vinyl Exam, which airs after the Klassics show. If you didn't grow up here, you wouldn't get these shows, which is one of the things I love about them. It has a very local vibe, as many of these songs weren't heard around the country when they were released.

We also feature The Lone Classic on the Morning show, Klose's Cut Above in middays, plus No-Repeat Weekends each month.

7) I've asked this question before to various Classic Rock programmers. One of the programming challenges of the Classic Rock format has always been how to keep the station sounding fresh and relevant while it's playing Rock music that's sometimes 30 or 40 years old. Your thoughts?

KSHE has done a really great job of embracing technology over the years and turning old things into new things by repurposing analog content in the digital world. Yes, the songs are old. Yes, we've all heard "More Than a Feeling" thousands of times. You can't change that. But I think you can re-invent everything that happens between the songs, and you can present yourself as an active and in-touch station, both on the air, on the web and on the streets. The on-air imaging has to be vibrant and convey the right Rock-N-Roll attitude, which we do with Howard Parker's voice. The talent must tie into what's happening today, not just relive the past (though we do a lot of that, too).

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top rocks with Sweetmeat!

8) Another part of the KSHE 95 story is the "Sweetmeat" mascot. How did this iconic station mascot come about and how are you still using it today?

Sweetmeat is definitely an iconic figure. I mean, who else has a pig wearing headphones and smoking a doobie as their mascot? Actually, the band "Blodwyn Pig" also used a very similar looking pig on an album cover in 1969, but I wasn't alive then, so I have no idea which came first! (laughs)

My oldest sister introduced me to KSHE at age 7 in 1977. She was 17 or so. She showed me the Sweetmeat bumper sticker and said, "If you want to be cool, listen to this" and then she turned up KSHE. I vividly remember them playing Aphrodite's Child-The Four Horsemen when she turned it up, and I was hooked! I had my Mom take me up to the record store at the local mall and I bought Rush 2112 on vinyl (My older brother's recommendation) and picked up a KSHE Sweetmeat bumper sticker at the counter and immediately put it on my bedroom door.

We still sell a hefty number of shirts, hoodies and other items featuring Sweetmeat in our KSHE Schtuff Store (ksheschtuff.com), and he's featured in pretty much all of our marketing. I would venture to say it's the most beloved character in St. Louis, maybe even bigger than Fredbird from the St. Louis Cardinals with Men 25-54. I'd love to see them get into a tussle in public and see who everyone roots for. Joking... kind of.

9) Looking ahead to 2020, without giving away and trade secrets, what are some cool new station features or promotions that are in the works for this year?

We have our annual "KSHE Pig Roast" concert happening at the amphitheater this summer. It's not announced yet, but we have big artists lined up. We're also producing an event named "More Stories from the Window," our third event featuring stories from our current on-air lineup and many on-air stars from our past. The "window" refers to a window in the original KSHE studio in Crestwood, St. Louis, where the station would sell concert tickets, take requests and hang out with listeners. Remember, it was the late '60s and '70s, so the stories are legendary. In the past we've sold out the shows to crowds of a thousand, or so.

Mark Klose once told a story about how all of the records from bands starting with the letter "L" were lined up right by the window and how they would occasionally get stolen by people who reached through the window and took off. We couldn't play Lynyrd Skynyrd or Led Zeppelin until someone went back to the record store and bought more copies to replace the stolen albums!

10) Finally, surviving and thriving over a 50 plus year period is quite an achievement. What would you ultimately attribute KSHE's long and successful run to?

While KSHE has zigged and zagged, musically, over the years, it has always stayed true to its rock roots. We play great rock music, we project the rock lifestyle and our audience keeps us in check whenever they feel we've done something that negatively affects the brand.

We've also had great leadership in programming over the years, from Rick Balis, to most recently Tommy Mattern, who is still actively involved with the station as Operations Manager. Emmis owned the stations for 30+ years and really developed the format and brand, and now Hubbard Radio continues the commitment to keeping KSHE at the top of its game.

Ultimately, through the highs and the lows, the station has remained dedicated to being THE rock station in St. Louis.

What do you like to do for fun and relaxation when you're "not" in radio mode?

I do not understand this question. Not in radio mode?