10 Questions with ... Billie Marshall

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

My father owned a few bars and would bring records from his jukeboxes home. I would sort them by genre and catalog them alphabetically and chronologically. Mind you, I was four years old when I started this hobby.

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

What used to be considered "underground" can develop into mainstream much quicker now than ever before. It helps to look at these trends.

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

Our radio station makes a conscious effort to be local. We're on the streets; we're at the festivals and parties. Our passion and love for both rock music and our community endears us to the audience. In your face, satellite!

4) What can we be doing with our station web sites to better our stations as a whole?

Stay active with websites! How many times do you return to a website that rarely updates?

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

I wish some of the inflated egos would realize that the listeners are the real stars. Make them shine everyday and forget about your own trip.

6) Tell us what music we would find on your car or home CD player (or turntable) right now and what is it you enjoy about that particular selection?

Mastodon and Clutch saturate my personal catalog. The eternal four-year-old kid in me will kick me if I don't throw in the Queen and Led Zeppelin that's never left me. I appreciate metal that's melodic, but I cringe when someone loosely throws around the term "prog-rock."

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

For me to be myself and to never negotiate my core principles. That truth has lead me to some exciting places in my career and my search for great music.

8) How are you using new music technologies to work with the music you program on your station, in production, and in your personal life?

Social networking has allowed me to hull a method for identifying trends and seeing what genres/ artists are gonna work long-term.

9) How often do you do remotes and which work best for the station?

WFXH is very fortunate to broadcast live nearly every day of the week. We have "game nights" on Thursdays and Saturdays that our listeners love to attend. It's just another way for the listeners to enjoy being apart of the Rock 106.1 Dysfunctional Family.

10) What is the best advice you would give to young programmers/promotion people?

Just because someone has a degree doesn't mean that they're cut out for this type of work. Some of the best ideas never came from textbooks. Learn from veterans who you respect. Shut up and listen. Don't sabotage your skills by finding constructive criticism offensive. But most importantly, never expect something from someone that you could never handle yourself. Learn it all.

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

I walked into a glass door at a live broadcast on the first day I became a program director ... in front of about 1,600 kids.

Name the artist/act (living or dead) you'd love to meet and why?

No one ever asked Queen's Freddie Mercury the questions that musicians and fans of his lyrics wanted to know. He was gay. Who cares? People should've spent their air-time knowing him as an artist.

You're stuck on a deserted island and you get to pick one artist to be stuck with you. Who would it be and don't limit it to our format?

Clutch. Their lead singer and lyricist, Neil Fallon, is my Mark Twain. I could hear his stories for days.