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10 Questions with ... Joel Salkowitz
August 5, 2008
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NAME:Joel SalkowitzPOSITION:Program Director, PresidentSTATION:WNYZ PULSE 87MARKET:New York, NYCOMPANY:Mega Media Group, Sound Ideas Programming Consultants, LLCBORN:New York, NYRAISED:Fair Lawn, NJ
BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
First job was at WTIC AM/FM while still in college in Hartford. Next stop, WBAB on Long Island. Then to New York, first at NBC Radio and then ABC Radio Networks where I had the good fortune to work with and learn from the legendary Rick Sklar. Moved to L.A. with ABC/Watermark and then joined Emmis Broadcasting at MAGIC 106. In 1986, we put POWER 106 on the air and later that year I moved back to New York and launched HOT 103 (now HOT 97). Spent about a year after HOT 97 in promotion at Pendulum/EMI Records and then went to work for Fox. 1n 1998, Steve Rivers and Jimmy DeCastro rescued me from "fairly unbalanced" news, briefly loaned me out to Dallas to put JAMMIN' OLDIES on KTXQ and then brought me back to NY to launch JAMMIN 105 and be the Brand Manager for all the AM/FM Rhythm Oldies stations. I joined Sirius in 2002 and became VP/Music Programming for all the music channels. I formed my own consultancy in 2005 and then fired up PULSE 87 at the beginning of this year.
1. You're a radio veteran...what was your last non-radio gig?
From 1996 -1998 I was the Audio Director and ran that department for the launch of The Fox News Channel. In my "other life", I am still a freelance television audio engineer. I do a lot of live sports including shows for all of the New York teams.
2. What drew you to The Pulse programming gig?
I have believed for some time that there was a big opportunity for this Top 40/Dance format again in a number of markets and of course, New York was top on the list! When I put Original HOT 97.COM on the Internet last year it quickly garnered a ton of attention and became one of the most popular "stations" on LIVE 365. It has been #1 in its genre almost since the day it went on and as a bonus, it has served me well as "proof of concept" for the format. Star knew about me from my HOT 97 days and Earl Boston, who had worked with me at Sirius also had a relationship with Star's manager and brought my name up. They reached out to me shortly after Star joined the company and began working on this project.
3. Talk a little about your staff at The Pulse and how you put it together?
First, of course, we have Star & Buc Wild in the morning so we get to start our day with the only morning show that ever beat Howard Stern and actually moved the ratings needle on not one, but TWO stations in New York. The rest of the current staff we put together from people that had been on the radio in or around New York. Jewelz Lopez and Showboat came from WKTU (from the days before it became an Oldies station!) and they both have a tremendous affinity for this format and the music. Showboat also MC's shows all over the New York area including serving as the official DJ/MC for the New Jersey Devils hockey team. Andre Ferro and Abel Sanchez (Production Dir.) came from PARTY 105 on Long Island, Laura Stylez from La Kalle (WCAA) and Ruby Tuesday made stops at a number of stations in New York in various on and off air roles. The goal was always to have a staff that reflects and speaks to the diversity of the New York and who have a real passion for the music. If these people were not working here, they'd all be P-1's to the radio station.
4. Radio is a constantly changing thing. What's been the biggest constant in your years as a programmer?
My own belief that quality people and quality programming will always win. The dynamics and economics of the business are always changing and the constant assault of new technology has certainly presented new challenges. It has necessitated changes in the methods by which you have to develop your programming and even more changes in the way it is distributed and consumed. But the audience will always be drawn to compelling content. If we don't make it, they will seek it out on the Internet, from satellite radio or any of the other new media outlets that continue to come along. If we make great programming, it may "look" a little different or be delivered in new ways even in concert with other mediums, but radio can thrive for a long time.
4. What's the biggest challenge facing radio today?
I think that radio is the biggest challenge facing radio today! So much of what made radio an important part of people's lives has been systematically eviscerated by some of the big broadcast groups. These companies have turned radio into a commodity and then stood around scratching their heads wondering why the audience treats radio like a commodity. It's unfortunate that the "best" this business has been able to come up with in recent history is a series of formats that are little more than jukeboxes that happen to be connected to a transmitter. We've taught the audience (or at least tried to convince them) that personalities don't matter, that commercials (our bread and butter!) suck and that the best they can hope for from their radio is little more than a glorified IPOD. The problem is that nobody can program a better IPOD for me than I can. I can have exactly what I want whenever I want it. As long as all I'm interested in is the music, I'm good to go. We've practically taught a generation to look elsewhere for their music and entertainment. Every day there are more choices and places for them to find it and they're doing a damn good job finding them. My 10 year old doesn't even think about the radio unless she forgets to bring her IPOD or Nintendo DS with her! And remarkably, the thing that has drawn her to a particular local station is the fact that she met a couple of the DJ's at her school! Imagine that! If your station has a syndicated morning show and is voice tracked most of the day from 1000 miles away and automated, you simply can't offer that experience to the audience. This isn't "longing for the good old days". Radio can be a vibrant and compelling medium even in the constantly changing and very challenging economic environment we are in today. But we better stop bullshitting our listeners and our clients. They're demonstrating every day that you can't fool 'em for long. Exhibit A: "Less Is More"! We need to get back to the business of programming! That sounds a very cliché and you invariably hear it at every programming panel at every convention but it's really true. We have to stop TALKING about it and DO IT! Right now the industry is obsessed with HD Radio and trying to shove a technology down the throats of consumers who simply aren't interested. We're trying to solve a Programming problem with technology. The reason for the resounding yawn from America is that with a possible handful of exceptions, there's virtually NO CONTENT on any HD station that would compel someone to go out and buy one! They're constantly off the air, sometimes because it's just not a priority for an over-extended PD, and when they are on, they're hard to receive. My Internet station is on the air more reliably and I'm pretty sure it has more listeners at any given moment in time than just about any HD Radio channel. The "better sound quality" pitch is a non-starter. Nobody cares. Everyone is listening to bit-compressed junk audio files. Radio stations are even using them on the air. A high quality cassette (remember those!) sounds better. Another automated jukebox presentation of a niche format is not a reason for most people to invest in the new technology. While there is certainly room for reasonable men and women to disagree about some of the salary numbers and price tags for exclusive content, at satellite radio we quickly figured out that if you want somebody to make the leap and adopt new technology, you have to give them something they can't get any other way. In the current economic climate, it's hard to imagine today's typical radio company making the necessary investment in Programming for HD because they can't realize an IMMEDIATE return on investment. A half billion dollars worth of air time has been thrown at promoting HD Radio! The most generous estimates put the number of HD radios out there at somewhere around 500,000. That's about $1000 in airtime to sell each new radio. Kinda makes the $100 (or so) per subscriber in acquisition costs the satellite companies have been spending look pretty reasonable.
5. What was the last "I need to get out of this racket" moment?
Last Wednesday! Actually, it's never been a "moment" but I made a decision a few years ago that barring some truly extraordinary opportunity, I would not relocate for a radio job. I love this business and what I do but too many very talented people have gotten bounced around as the business consolidates and cuts budgets to "create greater synergies and efficiencies"! I won't do that to my family. Shortly after I left JAMMIN 105, one of my friends was let go from a job where he'd done nothing but deliver stellar ratings for the better part of a decade. Cost cutting. He was offered another position in the company as Ops Manger for a cluster of stations in a much smaller market very far away. While he was travelling to meet the market manager for his interview, the position was eliminated! I always think about what would have happened if he'd sold his house, packed up his family and moved half way across the country only to have his job eliminated 3, 5 or 6 months later. It's one of the reasons I got into doing television production. TV also pays real money and when they ask you to do more work, they generally pay you more!
6. You've been a fixture in NYC radio for a long time. How does the market sound to you today?
There are a few very good sounding stations in the market. Z100 and HOT 97, for example, are both very good at what they do. But a lot of the stations here sound like they're just going through the motions or they exist to serve as "blockers" for a cluster buddy or even to just mess up a cross-town rival. This may well be a good "corporate strategy", and you can't fault the people in the market for following orders, but it doesn't make for a very robust competitive environment or particularly compelling content. You have to wonder what other choices we might have if ownership was limited to one AM and one FM station in a market and you actually had to get in there and REALLY COMPETE with everyone else. Unless you count CBS-FM (mercifully) dumping JACK and going back to Oldies....uh sorry...Classic Hits, the launch of PULSE 87 was the first format change in New York in a long time that people in this market actually got excited about. The current economic conditions have just made the problem worse. Companies are not inclined to take even a small risk in an effort to really "hit one out of the park". We're content to pluck 3 or 4 hundred songs from a competitor's library, see if we can knock 'em down by a share, crack the top 10 in some narrow demo and declare victory! I give Emmis a lot of credit for taking a shot with WRXP. The jury is still out but at least they're trying something different. We should all pray that it's successful and encourages others to take similar chances in other formats. Hey, maybe with the People Meters coming online in New York we'll finally get a Country station here again!
7. How can a new programmer find the longevity you've found in radio?
I truly hope that this is still possible. I've seen way too many talented people get fed up and just get out of radio. The "brain drain" on our business is terrible. Most of my contemporaries got into this business because we loved it! Whether it was on the air or behind the scenes, we knew that if we worked our asses off and got really good at what we did, there was opportunity to advance, make a good (even very good) living and hopefully have a long and happy career doing something you loved. Today, you really have to be prepared to sweat blood if you want to work in radio and maybe even have a second job. As more and more positions are eliminated, radio is demanding more and more of its people and paying less and less. Your compensation for taking on the responsibility for one, two, three or more additional stations may simply be getting to keep your job. Yes, this is happening on some level in many businesses. I believe the Bush administration calls it "increased productivity" but it hasn't done much for the quality of the product that comes out the radio. I would like to hope that if people come into the business today with the same passion, conviction and a great work ethic that there will be places they can flourish.
8. Where do you find joy in your job?
I really enjoy the entire process of building a radio station from the ground up. It's all about trying to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts; the personalities, the music and imaging, the marketing and promotions, the underlying strategy for a format or for a group of stations. A great radio station should almost be a living, breathing entity. I'm very proud of the fact that people always commented about how much my radio stations have "sounded like New York". Being able to do that is what keeps me coming back for more. I hope to be able to take this format into some other key markets very soon.
9. Give me a few sentences on working with Star and Buc Wild?
First of all, it's a real luxury to walk into a radio station that already has a morning show with the track record of success in the market that Star has enjoyed. He and his team (DX21, "White Trash" Helene, DJ Yonny and Pablo) really work their asses off to do a great show every day. This is also the first station I've been at where the morning show really enjoys the music on the radio station. Star is always asking me for more information about the artists or looking for them to come in as guests on his show and he plays the music from the format. I discussed the importance of great content and in our situation being at 87.7 on the dial, which is not a place people typically stumble onto, it's even more important. Star gives us "destination content" and along with our unique music format, we've created something that people are actively seeking out.
10. What would you say is your biggest success story in radio?
I've been very fortunate to have had a lot of fun and a lot of success in this business. Back at HOT 97 when we beat Z100 for the first time was certainly one of the biggest highlights but the whole experience at that station would probably be near the top of my list. We broke a lot of ground, not just in New York, but in the industry with that station along with POWER 106 in L.A. Working with Rick Cummings, Jeff Smulyan and all the people at Emmis was also a rare pleasure. I'd also have to include the opportunity to work with Rick Sklar, pretty early on in my career, not so much as a success per se but as an experience that really helped to shape me as a professional.
Bonus Questions
What did you want to be when you were, say...12?
A pilot.
What song, in rotation now, always seems to make you want to smile when you hear it on the station?
Laurent Wolf - "No Stress". I heard it for the first time on the radio in Paris this past May while we were on vacation. It was in POWER rotation on the big Dance/CHR station there.
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