10 Questions with ... Aaron Tyler

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

I started in radio in the Summer of 2001 as an intern for Brian "Fig" Figula at WDBR/Springfield. About six weeks later, somebody either quit or was fired (depending on which version of the story you're hearing) and I was offered their weekend shifts. Since then, the radio roller coaster has taken me, in various roles, to WXAJ/Springfield, WCZQ/Decatur-Champaign, WYOK/Mobile, WHOT/Youngstown, WKST/Pittsburgh, WVZA/Marion-Carbondale, part-time at KSLZ/St. Louis, while working in Carbondale, KHTT/Tulsa, back to KSLZ, WZPW/Peoria, and now to Dothan and WKMX. I have also been heard through the magic of voicetracking on WFKS/Jacksonville, WKXJ/Chattanooga, WAKZ/Youngstown, KDUK/Eugene, WNSL/Hattiesburg and WJDQ/Meridian.

1) What led you to a career in radio?

It was completely an accident, really, that I got my start in the business. I was a guest DJ for a night jock's countdown back in the Spring of 2001. I guess I didn't sound completely stupid and the night jock asked me if I had ever thought of doing a radio internship. I hadn't, but thought it might be something cool to do for a summer that I could write about in the typical "How did you spend your summer vacation?" essay that high school English teachers always seemed to LOVE to assign on the first day back in August. So, I took the internship, fell in love with the business my first night there, and have been hooked ever since!

2) How would you describe the radio landscape in your market?

Dothan is like no other market that I have ever worked in. There are three 100,000-watt Country stations (one, WTVY, in my building and the other two, WDJR and WUSD, in the same cluster across the street), for starters. We also have a 45-year privately-owned AC, WOOF, which has been such a huge part of these communities for a long time. My station, WKMX, recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, so it has also had numerous generations grow up listening to it. We have an Urban, WHZT, and a Hallelujah FM signal out of Montgomery that routinely do well in the ratings. On top of the in-market signals and the sticks out of Montgomery, there are stations that can be heard here out of Panama City, Columbus GA, and Albany, GA. Arbitron may call us the 190th largest market, but there are a ton of signals here!

3) Could you give us a little insight into your on air staff?

The day starts with the KMX Morning Show with Julie and Billy. I first worked with Billy at K-HITS in Tulsa in 2006 and became good friends with him. When the opportunity came up in August of '08 to hire him, I jumped at it and have been very happy with the results ever since. In addition to handling mornings, Billy is also our point person for the cluster's production department, my imaging guy, handles fill-in duties for our Country station (and was actually doing afternoons there before I moved him to mornings), and is generally the "right hand guy" that every PD needs to have.

Julie Jacobs co-hosts mornings with Billy and also voicetracks middays. She came to us at the end of September from nights on the AC across town and has adapted very well to the 3a alarm clock. She IS my audience, being a late-20-something female, and I am constantly finding myself using her as my litmus test, so to speak. She also has quite possibly the most overactive sweet tooth that I have ever seen in a short, slender person -- and we make fun of her for it every day.

I do afternoons and try not to put people to sleep.

Bryant Corbitt is currently voicetracking my night show, in addition to being the local producer for the Rick and Bubba show on our Country station, voicetracking mornings on our Urban AC, and whatever else needs done around these parts. Bryant is a consummate professional and I have been able to learn a lot from him, just as I hope that I've been able to help him advance his skills.

We have a full slate of weekend programming, including AT40, Backtrax 90s, the MTV Weekend Countdown, and Dawson McAllister Live. I also recently added The Weekend Throwdown with Jagger and absolutely love how it sounds on the air! We also have a very talented trio of mixers (Drew "DJ Goofy White Kid" Hall, DJ Kidd Leow and DJ Johnny D) that give us 12 hours of great content each weekend.

4) Are you wearing more "hats" than you have in the past?

Absolutely. WKMX is my first PD opportunity and, even though I have been on the job here since the end of June of 2008, I'm finding myself learning something new and rotating what feels like a hundred hats every day. Fortunately, I have a great staff around me, albeit small in numbers, who I can trust and I have no worries about delegating tasks to in a pinch.

5) What is your favorite part of the job?

I love being able to come into work every day and do something that I enjoy, knowing that there are people who turn the radio station on every day, looking for us to help them get through their day. The great thing about my job is that I could be having the worst day, but then realize that no matter what is going on in my world, the radio station is making somebody in the audience happy and that helps brighten up my day. I love the challenge of putting together a product that is going to make that happen for people.

6) What was your favorite station to listen to when you were a kid?

I used to win radio station trivia contests when I lived in Carbondale, Illinois between '93 and '95, when my mother was in law school at Southern Illinois University, but I never really paid attention to the radio until probably 8th grade when I discovered Z107-7/St. Louis. I didn't understand why I was so drawn to the station at the time, but I remember always finding myself thinking, "How cool would it be to be on that station?" Once I got my start in the business, I made it a goal to one day crack the mic there, and Tommy Austin gave me that opportunity just a little over four years later, in June of 2005.

7) Do you have a favorite hobby outside of radio?

I absolutely love to play Texas Hold 'Em and it is a dream of mine to one day (hopefully soon) be able to play and cash in a World Series of Poker event. If a self-employed logger from Western Maryland who had never even had an e-mail address or been on a commercial airplane flight can outlast 6,492 other players and pocket $5.18 million, then there's hope for a kid from a small town of 950 in Central Illinois. Hey, who knows, there are enough people who I know of in radio that are playing the game. Maybe a final table at the WSOP at some point in the future could be made up of all radio people!

8) Who is your favorite air personality not on your staff and why do you like them?

It's so tough to just name one, so I'm just going to call these guys "the next generation": Grooves at Amp Radio in Detroit, Jason Cage at KLAL/Little Rock, Rayne at Radio Now in Indy, Haze (formerly of KSLZ, currently on the beach and celebrating the recent birth of his first son ... somebody hire this guy!), Mo' Bounce at Z100, and Silly Jilly at HOT 95.7/Houston. These guys -- and a gal -- are so in tune with the ever-changing Top 40 audience and, just as we have all come up idolizing talents such as Kane, JoJo Wright and Scotty Davis, they are going to be the group of jocks that the newcomers to the business are going to be looking up to for the next several years, if not longer.

9) What advice you would give people new to the business?

When you're just getting started, do yourself a favor and find somebody who really enjoys what they're doing every day and become a sponge to them! If you find that person, not only will you enjoy the experience more, but - in my experience - you'll learn more and learn faster than you would normally. I've been extremely lucky in my career to have had amazing people around me every step of the way who put up with my mistakes (and believe me, there have been more than a few!) and were always willing to share knowledge. I owe so much to people like Brian "Fig" Figula, Dan Edwards, Ted Striker, Paxton Guy, Tommy Austin, Matt Bahan, Kris Van Dyke, Chris Alan and Rick Peters, who all went above and beyond what was "expected" of them to help me learn.

10) What's the coolest promotion you've EVER been involved with?

The coolest promotion that I have ever been involved with was not because it was the flashiest, nor was it an opportunity to press the flesh with stars, or anything else like that. It was cool because we had a chance, as a radio station and as a fixture in our community, to make a lot of children happy. We organized a toy drive last year at a Wal-Mart store that made it possible for 125 foster children in the market to have presents at Christmas, when they may not have had any otherwise. People do toy drives all the time with Toys for Tots and other similar organizations, but this one was done completely independently and we made a great thing happen. I've never been more proud to be a part of something than I was when we handed out the toys the day after the drive and got to see the smiles on those kids' faces. I'm very grateful for my Promotions Director, Valerie Spivey, for all of the effort that she put into coordinating the drive and we are looking forward to doing it again this year.

What ringtone do you currently have on your cell?

I have specific ringtones for just about everyone who calls me on a regular basis, but right now I'm going back and forth between Cartman singing Lady Gaga - Poker Face, and Owl City - Fireflies.