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10 Questions with ... Paul Marszalek
March 1, 2021
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Graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism but started in radio when I was 15 at WDGC, Downers Grove, Il – a 250-watt station we had at our high school. Worked at the college station and got my first commercial radio job while in school as well – at KWNO/Winona, MN. The string of call letters after graduation is WMAD/Madison, KBCO/Boulder, WXRT/Chicago, KFOG/San Francisco. From SF, I became the VP/Music Programming at VH1, and then partnered with Mike Henry and Ben Manilla to form Media Mechanics, a content creation and consulting firm that worked with a lot of public media clients. For the last 10 years I’ve been working in international radio, TV, and digital for the United States Agency for Global Media, which is perhaps the biggest news organization you’ve never heard of. We have a weekly cume of 350 million people in 60 languages. It’s amazing.
1. How did you become interested in radio?
Loved it as long as I can remember. WLS probably started it. As my musical taste expanded, I drifted to WXRT almost exclusively for music, but was also influenced by the short-but-brilliant run of WLUP (The Loop AM 1000) in the ‘80s. As a kid, I also listened a lot to Harry Carey and Jimmy Piersall calling White Sox games before Harry went to the Cubs. They would get bombed on the air on Old Style or Falstaff or some garbage beer and were hysterical – they almost had a morning show vibe. I got a license and joined the high school station - went on the air playing music and doing a lot of play-by-play sports.
2. You work with WERS/Boston and I have always thought they are one of the best schools to prepare young people for radio. Give me your thoughts on that.
There are increasingly few places where radio talent can develop, and that is a concern to me, and should be for the industry. There aren’t many bodies in small markets, and the pay is horrible, so you must worry at least a bit about the talent pipeline. WERS has landed several students into some great jobs in radio and the music industry, and it’s because they’re getting experience at a station that’s run as a “professional” organization and not your typical “college” sandbox. You really must credit Emerson College for their approach.
3. The NONCOMMvention is set to celebrate 20 years! Considering your association with them, tell us your thoughts on that milestone.
Well, that’s Dan Reed’s baby, and WXPN has grown it immensely over the years. I just help to try to get the word out. As it hits 20, I think it’s been increasingly important for its non-musical side. The sessions are more serious as the media environment has rapidly changed. It’s now a place where you can get together with a ton of really smart people working hard to figure it all out.
4. More broadly, how do you view the Triple A community as a good home for public radio?
That’s a good question, and what interests me is the business model. People are getting quite used to paying for good content, and non-comms were “pay radio” years before SiriusXM or streamers – even though membership is kind of a voluntary tax. Being reliant on CPMs scares me, so different revenue streams are a positive. That said, on the commercial side, WXRT cumes about a million people and KBCO is still very successful. I think an interesting play for Triple A moving forward would be to run stations as B-corps. As a B-corp you could get the best of both worlds – you can have membership, investors, an exit strategy, and still run a reasonable number of commercials. What’s not to like?
5. Of all the things you've done in radio so far, what's made you most proud?
That's funny you ask because someone recently asked the same question to me, and I told them that I loved all my projects equally. That's actually true, but also a cop-out. So, I'll go with my most recent: In the time I've been with USAGM, we increased the weekly audience from 165 million to more than 350 million and did it without pandering or dumbing down. Now the "we," mind you, are hundreds of people -- but a more than doubling of audience at that scale is pretty cool and very satisfying.
6. How do you feel about the current climate of music?
I think it is generally fantastic right now, but with one caveat: As much as I love DIY and the punk ethos, I also want to hear something really produced – something really expensive. With a singles-driven streaming revenue model, there’s not a lot of incentive to spend much money developing artists, much less actually developing songs. There’s a little bit too much of a ‘throw it against the wall to see what sticks’ approach for my taste. Lots of good stuff, but also lots of derivative, cheap sounding production.
7. What do you view as the most important issue facing radio, in general, today?
I think we’re still in the consolidation hangover. The debt just killed investment in the product. In my opinion, there’s actually nothing wrong with the medium, and you can see that from how public radio has grown. WNYC/New York Public Radio has a budget in excess of $90 million per year. KCRW/Los Angeles? More than $25 million, with assets approaching $50 million. Think about that. It’s about the content. The biggest threat to radio is that people at ad agencies can actually hear commercial radio. And what they hear on the commercial side is a medium that is cutting costs. Yes, that’s actually audible. So, they spend elsewhere.
8. What is the one truth that has held constant throughout your career?
Being credible rather than cool is a pretty good strategy. Trying to be cool can get you too far out in front of the audience, and you’ll fail. Also, community. Build a community and you’ll be backing up a Brinks truck to your door every afternoon.
9. What’s your recommendation for stations during COVID?
One of my concerns right now, especially on the non-comm Triple A side is the slide in cume. Some stations are really off, and I worry that if we just sort of say, "They'll be back when we return to normal," that feels a little too much like hope and not a plan.
I think a year in, we need to really get aggressive, and one thing non-comms can really execute are stunts. At WERS, for example, we're going to have a great sounding Monday, March 8th, International Womens Day. All women artists all day. And they're going to put a little bit of marketing muscle behind it with email and targeted social.
We're going to try to do something like this every two weeks to remind folks who may have slipped away. And we know commercial stations cannot compete on this level, so it reinforces the brand to members.
None of this will really cost anything. Man hours will be tough, but if we're smart with our stunt ideas, we can mitigate that.
10. If you wanted to completely change careers today, what would you do?
Outside of media? Sustainability. I love the environment, outdoors and technology. My son is studying it, and frankly, I’m pretty jealous. He’s also on his college radio station, but don’t worry, he’s not a mini-me. He has better taste in music.
Bonus Questions
Last non-industry job:
In high school, I worked retail at a kids’ clothing store that my dad owned.
First record ever purchased:
I don’t know, but good guesses would be Chicago Transit Authority, Talking Heads :77 or maybe Aja?
First concert:
Honestly? Barry Manilow. The Copacabana Tour! The whole family went, and it was great. My choice? Probably Chicago or Cheap Trick at Chicagofest. First concert where I my life sort of changed would have been R.E.M. or Ultravox at the Aragon Ballroom in ‘82 or ‘83.
Favorite band of all-time:
Impossible, but I do regularly return to The Tragically Hip, R.E.M., New Order, virtually everything Brian Eno touched, everything Neil Finn did, and a boatload of New Wave stuff.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time away from work?
Fly fishing or playing softball. Increasingly good at the former, increasingly bad at the latter.
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