10 Questions with ... Katherine Turman

NAME:Katherine Turman TITLE:Producer, Nights with Alice Cooper STATION:Syndicated / Nights with Alice Cooper MARKET:National, International, 110 stations and growing COMPANY:United Stations Radio Networks BORN:Los Angeles RAISED:Well! (Not in a barn, though I did spend a lot of time at the stables...in L.A.)

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

* Producer, Nights with Alice Cooper, July 2005-present
* Editor, LA Alternative Press 2004-5 (free alternative paper)
* Music Producer, Sharon Osbourne Show (syndicated daytime TV, 2004)
* Producer, Rockline (1996 -2003. Started as associate producer to Dominic Griffin (RL) and Richard Winn (Modern Rock Live). Did Active Rock RL (Monday); Classic Rock RL (Wednesday), and somewhere in there was Country Live Tonight!
* Rip Magazine (and before that, Rockbeat, both Larry Flynt Publications), editor/writer 1989-1996.
* Before (and during) the above: all entertainment journalism, contributed to: BAM, LA Times, Raygun, Rolling Stone, Guitar One, Mother Jones, Amazon.com, SPIN, Metal Hammer, Daily Variety, Album Network, Billboard, 'TEEN, etc.)

1) What was your first job in radio? Early influences?

Associate Producer of Rockline, when owned by Global Satellite Network, upstairs from HITS magazine! Early influences: AM radio--93 KHJ--and early KMET, KROQ and KRTH. Fascinated by L.A. music scene and history (Sunset Strip/Laurel Canyon scene, and places before my time in the '60s and '70s, like Rodney's English Disco, to when I started going out (early '80s while in high school!) and became involved in the L.A. scene. Through the years, seeing and interviewing new and then-unsigned bands including Guns N' Roses, Kyuss, STP, System of a Down, Masters of Reality, LSD, Rage Against the Machine and hundreds of unsung others, plus and all my favorite Def American/Geffen bands of the late '80s and onward (Raging Slab, Little Caesar, Nirvana, Junkyard, Frank Black, Trouble, I Love You, Geto Boys, et al.)

2) What career path would you be following had it not been for this industry?

The alternative and complementary career path I still dabble in is music/entertainment journalism. It's the reason I got my first radio job at Rockline; I had the musical knowledge, passion, industry reputation and contacts. If I don't write for a while (be it a band bio, record review, or just this questionnaire), I get a little stir crazy!

3) What makes your station or market unique? How does this compare to other markets or stations you have worked at?

Nights with Alice Cooper is unique because of Alice; he's not a trained DJ and people love that. He's not perfect; he's human, he's off-the-cuff, he's funnier than you'd ever believe and has great taste in music. People get to know the real Alice on the air, as opposed to the stage Alice. He's turned me and his audience onto bands like Pretty Things and Screaming Lord Sutch. And he lets me play deep Skynyrd cuts and doesn't make fun of me too much! We use a lot of gut instinct and programming according to mood, which really sounds authentic ... because it is.

4) Who is your favorite air personality not on your staff?

Frosty, Heidi and Frank (97.1 Free FM, LA.)

5) Besides your own, what is your favorite radio format?

Talk. (Stern, Adam Carrolla). And metal (knac.com). Great weird old-timey radio shows I sometimes find driving through the desert on a Sunday.

6) What format does not exist that should? Would it work?

I'm a nostalgia junkie, so I'd want a "one-hit-wonder" sort of '70s format, like the Rhino "Have a Nice Day" series. Songs would include "Chevy Van," "The Night Chicago Died," "One Tin Soldier," "Emma," "Seasons in the Sun" and "Brandy." I guess we could call is the "Katherine's Lost Childhood" format? Might fly as a one-hour specialty show, but as I'm afraid I might be the only one getting teary to Terry Jacks while I sit in the middle of the jungle gym at Brentwood Elementary school.

7) What's the best concert you've been to so far this year and why?

Well, I've seen Judas Priest twice this week alone, and really enjoyed Disturbed, but for pure emotion and beauty it was Jimmie Dale Gilmore at Bearsville Theatre in NYC; a very special, spiritual performer at an equally wondrous venue. Yes, I'm a heavy metal hippie. (And no, I wasn't on the guest list -- full price, just like the fan I am.)

8) Please describe the best or worst promotion you've ever been part of?

As a journalist, this would be more of a junket than a promotion, but I was flown to New Orleans to a Cinderalla album launch on a riverboat. All the journalists were trying to buy pot on Bourbon Street, and getting oregano ... and angry. By the way, that was one of the best. Another winner -- I don't know how it happened, think I was covering it for RIP, but I was on a chartered plane to Mexico to watch Van Halen open Cabo Wabo. Ditto, going to Cabo again with the KNAC crew and seeing Layne Stayley of Alice in Chains in the hotel fountains ... and a LOT of other decadance! At Nights, we got to send a listener to see Zeppelin in London. I was just happy to talk to the listener and see how thrilled SHE was!

9) Most of us have known or even worked for a "colorful" owner/GM/air talent. Care to share a story? (The names can be changed to protect the innocent).

Rockline and Modern Rock Live were live shows, usually with live performances, and a lot of the guests were live wires. Let's just say: on-air vomiting, on-air sleeping, Rob Halford blowing out a vocal mic on live radio, crack smoking in bathrooms, drummer nudity, drug requests, groping, passed-out guests in the elevator (thank God for surveillance cameras) and allegedly, before my time, an employee pregnated by a rock star guest. All in a night's work.

10) How do you stay in touch with the latest music trends?

Since I was 16, I've been going to clubs, reading every free paper and critic possible and keeping in touch with musician friends and acquaintances of every stripe. I used to do A&R consulting, so still have that ear-to-the-ground mentality. Now, since moving to New York three years ago from L.A., I go out less for music, but still a lot to both clubs and bigger shows - in the last few weeks: Judas Priest, Alejandro Escovedo, Black Stone Cherry, Disturbed, Slipknot, Lila Downs, Heaven & Hell (Dio-era Sabbath), Shinedown, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and of course, I read, listen to lots on MySpace and Pandora.com. I am a culture sponge.

How do you stay in tune with your audience?

I am our audience (I rock like a guy!), but I also skew younger, so knowing that both I and Alice's classic rock audience like Thin Lizzy, psychedelic, Skynyrd, etc., I try to find like-minded/sounding older bands (Cactus) and newer bands (Wolfmother) to turn them on to between 'Dream On" and "Peace of Mind." I check all the nightswithalicecooper.com forums and see what listeners are posting, I chat with listeners via our new blog, and I also read all the hundreds of daily e-mail requests. Of course, I listen to our affiliate PDs! I love it when they play, outside NWAC, an old song after hearing one of Alice's 'Closet Classic' selections like Nilsson's 'Jump Into the Fire.'

What is your biggest pet peeve with your air staff?

My air staff is Alice Cooper; what's not to love? He's the cuddliest mutant on the planet. Okay, what's not to love is that he's on tour constantly and there's not always daily "face time" to prep one-on-one for the show, and that he works so much and such long, odd hours, I have to do the same. Plus, with affiliates in Australia and Hawaii, there are a lot of late night and early morning e-mails!

How many songs do you have active in your library?

So many that I got in trouble! Let's just say thousands. (If you need anything, just ask us, we have it!)

How much leeway do you give your jocks to talk between records?

What Alice wants, Alice gets. But he also takes great direction, and there's a little thing called "editing." But, seriously, it's his show, and he's got such great stories and odd observations ... people love it!

What type of features do you run on the station?

Anything we can think of! Alice is super-creative and enthusiastic, and we both come up with features/segments, ranging from The Quiet Room (songs about insanity); Lockdown Rockdown (songs for our incarcerated listeners); Songs We Just Don't Understand (Alice explains what the heck your favorite band is singing about); Same Name (i.e., "Desperado" by the Eagles, "Desperado" by Alice Cooper); Vinyl Siding (I get to buy old Savoy Brown and Ten Years After vinyl!) and The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life (named after a Zappa record and encompassing bands including Tucky Buzzard, Silverhead and Man).