-
10 Questions with ... Brooke Fox
July 5, 2005
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. -
NAME:Brooke FoxPOSITION:Morning Host/MDSTATION:KZZU-FMOWNER:Spokane, WAMARKET:Morgan Murphy
1) Please outline your radio career so far:
My whirlwind two years in radio have all been at KZZU. For three months as morning co-host, eight months in middays, and for the past year I've been Morning Host/MD.
2) You've only been in the biz two years? What led you to radio?
Holding a B.A. in journalism, my plan was to do TV news (our company owns a local news station as well). I was struggling for hours after a couple months working as a news editor. There was an opening upstairs for a sidekick with the Breakfast Boys. I auditioned, got the job and was immediately addicted to radio. Who would choose reporting on the Spokane Mayor over talking about Michael Jackson's trial ... oh wait they're almost the same subject!
3) It's our 10th anniversary this year. What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was trying to overcome the damage my huge glasses and "NOT" t-shirts did to me through junior high.
4) What would you like to be doing 10 years from now?
I will be hosting a morning show in a top 10 market!.
5) You've got an all female air staff. Using one sentence for each, how would you describe them?
Tanya Tyler is a materialistic single mother who bases her day on what her horoscope reads.
Crystal Cash is a recently graduated college student who has to dig under the seats of her Subaru to find change for the Laundromat.
Ronnie Blackwood sports patchouli oil to the High School dances she mixes at and embarrasses her kids by dancing to the Black Eyed Peas.
Jackie Brown is six feet of big city mentality living in a conservative small town.
6) What was your favorite station to listen to when you were a kid?
I grew up an hour from Spokane so of course my station was KZZU - 93 Zoo FM!
7) Do you have a favorite hobby outside of radio?
I take tap class with my mother, am on a hip-hop dance team made up of mid-20's girls trying to re-live their high school cheerleading days, I struggle taking guitar lessons, play indoor soccer when the games aren't too late and love art!
8) What do you do to keep ahead of your listeners in terms of trends, likes and dislikes?
I eavesdrop. At parties, in bars, at my dance classes, in the mall, grocery stores ... everywhere. I listen for what people are talking about, what their plans are, and what piques their interest.
9) What is the one truth that has held constant throughout your career?
Be yourself. Reveal who you are, be vulnerable, be honest, and don't hold back.
10) Please describe the best or worst promotion you've ever been part of?
I wouldn't categorize it as a promotion, but it was certainly the most powerful radio moment I've been through.
About a year after a school shooting in Spokane, another school shooting happened in Minnesota. We decided it was important to let our listeners verbalize their feelings. A teacher from a local high school shared a story of how one of her students had sent her a threatening email, which she gave to the police. He was arrested, expelled from school and had to undergo counseling. She's a single mom and figured the threat was a cry for help and that the boy contacted her because he knew she would get him help. "I know good kids make bad choices," was how she put it. Even though the student was never identified, his stepfather heard the show and told his son that his teacher was talking about him on the radio. The next day, the boy showed up at school with a gun, waiting for her to come out of her classroom. In a fortunate turn of events, just as the teacher was about to leave, the student went into the restroom. The teacher left the building - unaware and unharmed. The police picked up the student, being alerted by the mom who had found a suicide note he'd left her.
That incident drove home the power of radio and the influence, good or bad, it can have on a community.
Bonus Questions
Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without ______?
A pep talk from my best friend in KC! Thanks CB!
-
-