10 Questions with ... Ditch

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

KSLV-A/Colorado ... Rich Hawk at KILO/Colorado Springs influenced me greatly.

2) What led you to a career in radio? Was there a defining moment that made you realize "this is it"?

I was in a Radio Shack in '84 and a station engineer came in and was talking to the clerk about how the AM station (KSLV) needed a weekend guy. I asked about it and called the station and was doing the farm report Saturday mornings at 6.

3) What makes your station or market unique?

We're independently owned and don't have to worry about corporate food chain bullshit from another city.

How does this compare to other markets or stations you have worked at?

VERY creative. It's so nice to work for a guy who lets the talent be the talent -- with no playbook mandates from some guy at headquarters five states away who knows nothing about Portland.

4) How have music file-sharing services affected the way you program to your audience?

It made it easier for us to grow our own web presence and strike team membership by providing the audience with the stuff they want to listen to and look at.

5) How do you feel terrestrial radio competes with the satellite radio and Internet these days?

Being local is more important than ever before. In my toolbox, the Internet is like a pair of pliers and the hammer is the terrestrial signal. We have to hammer them with our content on-air and use the website as a tool to help accomplish the job of owning what we do.

6) Where do you see the industry and yourself five years from now?

Answering 10 more questions like these.

7) What is the biggest change that you'd like to see happen in the business?

Go backwards ... back to a day when smaller companies ran radio independently from market to market. It will happen, once the Titanic sinks, the smaller guys will be back to do it right.

8) What is the one truth that has held constant throughout your career?

The gut always wins. If it feels right, it's right. Ratings will never change a personality, only how it's delivered.

9) What was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you at a remote?

I gave a TV to a woman at a Hooters promotion. On mic when she came up, I asked her when she was due ... she wasn't pregnant.

10) How do you keep tabs on the competition? When your competition attacks you on the air, how do you react?

Ignore them. The Coke vs. Pepsi ads never worked. No one cares. Do what you do and figure out how to do it better.

How do you interact with your sales staff?

With drinks. Stiff drinks.