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10 Questions with ... Jeff McCartney
October 10, 2006
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NAME:Jeff McCartneyTITLE:PDSTATION:KZHTMARKET:Salt Lake City, UTOWNER:Clear Channel
Please outline your radio career so far:
WKRZ/Wilkes-Barre
WKCI/New Haven
KZHT/Salt Lake1 How would you describe your first radio gig?
For the first time in my life, I'm starting to feel old. I was board op, running "Party America with Jay Thomas and Fast Jimi Roberts" Sunday nights on 'KRZ (on vinyl at the time). We used to broadcast live from a club afterwards. I put a technical snafu to my advantage one night and cracked the mic. From there, I started doing part time and weekends for Ken Medek. I became a "Jeff of all trades" working in promotions and production as well.
2 What led you to a career in radio?
Radio is all about theatre of the mind and it was all about the visual for me. When I was younger, it all started with a visit to KRZ to pick up an album I'd won: Survivor "Eye of the Tiger"! Jim Rising, who is now in charge of the market for Entercom, was kind enough to give me a tour. I fell in love with what I saw. Ran home to build an imaginary radio station in the basement. The walls were cardboard boxes! My friend and I even went as far as to wire cassette players and turntables together so we could hear them in our headphones!! Enough said. As they say, the rest is history.
3 How would you describe the radio landscape in your market?
Jam packed! There are somewhere in the area of 50 signals! Rest assured, every basic format has been done. The options are few when it comes to filling a hole here. Even niche formats are plentiful. It makes it twice as hard if that signal doesn't penetrate the metro well. Add to that, most companies do not have the funds they might have had at their disposal five years ago. In most cases, that's due to it being a public owned company. However, when you have a market with so many signals, that also means their return on investment is greatly diminished. The revenue doesn't come close to off setting the overhead.
4 What is your favorite part of the job?
When Arbitron "gets it right"! LOL. Seriously...our hard work and effort is validated when we're able to celebrate a success. Because of the number of signals in this market, it makes it a lot harder to succeed. There's even more satisfaction when I know that what we have achieved has come from executing the basics well. You can't hide bad radio and too many spots behind marketing dollars anymore. I've seen stations in our market try to do that. Those days are over. The listeners have become too smart. They have too many other choices these days. That's why I think Clear Channel was so smart when they rolled out "Less Is More." It was time.
5 Could you give us a little insight into your on air staff?
Ya know, sometimes it all feels just right. I think that our current staff as a whole functions as a real team should. We all wear many hats these days. Juggling an airshift with off air responsibilities is not the easiest thing in the world. Several of my staff members do it extremely well.
Monroe is our Music Director. She was born to be in radio. It typically takes a long time to train someone on Selector and even longer for an MD to get inside the head of their Program Director. She and I act as one. She understands the music flow and direction of the radio station. On top of that, she's a great midday talent.
AJ also handles imaging for the station. AJ does afternoons and I honestly compare him to a young Cubby for reasons I'll explain in the next question. Previously, both he and Monroe worked across the street. I definitely think we gained a lot from them coming on board. I'm anal when it comes to music and imaging and oftentimes am yelled at for never going home! Now, I have two people who "do as I would." John Ivey once explained to me how important it is to have balance. These days, I can spend many a Saturday outside of the office! LOL. However, that doesn't mean I might not be working at home on some stuff! Seriously, it's nice to have responsible people to whom I can delegate. Both Monroe and AJ will be in major markets soon.
Mornings are home to The Morning Zoo with Frankie, Danger Boy and Jessica. Frank and DB have been here longer than I have: Over 8 years! In that time, they've grown into a major market morning show. Jessica joined the show last February and has been a great addition. Female listeners really love and relate to her. The three of them have been firing on all cylinders lately. I'm particularly impressed with how much they've embraced new technologies that have come their way. Most of the traffic to our website comes as a result of their show. They understand the benefits of using the tools corporate has made available such as podcasting, streaming, text messaging, etc.
Boy Loco came to do nights for us from Nebraska. He's a California native with the uncanny ability to communicate with the Hispanic audience we never fully embraced until now. The Hispanic composition of the market has grown substantially and he is plugged in to that community. We just recently finished doing our first ever "Boy Loco Comedy Jam" with Carlos Mencia. We sold out 2 performances downtown.
6 Who is your favorite air personality not on your staff and why do you like them?
Cubby. I think you'll get that answer from a lot of people. He's focused, energetic, natural, versatile, interactive, real, passionate, and just an overall good guy in person. He's a talent that lives the lifestyle and "gets it." So many other talents try too hard and lose sight of the overall goal. They think they know their listener but get caught up in themselves.
7 Do you have a favorite hobby outside of radio?
Camping. I should mention I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. There's lots of great places to camp in Utah. I think I was out just about every weekend this past summer.
8 What music do you listen to when you're not working?
Some stuff that's drastically different from what we play! Right now I love Regina Spektor, Corinne Bailey Rae, and the last Moby CD, to name a few. I'm a huge David Gray and Coldplay fan. When it comes to our format, I really dig the new Fort Minor, Jojo, Justin Timberlake, Akon and Snoop, and the new Christina Aguilera. I'm really passionate about the music we've been playing. We were the first station to go on Jojo's "Too Little Too Late." I literally played it over and over again in my car outside of work because I thought it was such a great song. "Hurt" by Christina is going to be huge too!
9 What's one thing that would surprise many people to learn about you?
My $900 trip to Vegas a few years ago. It's a funny story and that's all I'm saying. Lesson learned! You try and figure out which vice I gave into!!!
10 What is the one truth that has held constant throughout your career?
Scott Shannon always said it best: "It's the music, stupid"!
Bonus Questions
Which character on a current TV series most reflects your personality?
People say Tony Soprano. I guess that's a compliment, huh?
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