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10 Questions with ... Chris Wienk
July 11, 2022
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
I started at a small radio station in the middle of the Southern Tier of New York - WVIN/Bath NY. After working gigs in college at WGR/Buffalo and helping to create and manage WBNY (the Buffalo State station), I decided that radio was the right thing for me. I've been programming stations since 1984 - everything from Pop to Country to Oldies, Classical, Jazz, News/Talk and Triple A. My first gig in public radio was WXXI/Rochester NY. Since then, I've worked in Vermont, Baltimore, Connecticut, and now Albany, NY, where I run both WEXT and WMHT-FM (our classical station) since 2002.
1. How did you become interested in radio?
Listening to late-night Rock radio from Ottawa. Canada. I owe it all to CHEZ 106 and Brian Murphy, who made it sound so cool to get to be the DJ. He really captivated my soul and spirit. I knew I had to do this from the age of 13!
2. What do you like best about your job?
Connecting with listeners. I love hearing how they react to the music, programming, personalities. Everything they have to say - positive and negative -- helps inform me and makes the gig super exciting.
3. Tell us about your 15-year anniversary celebration.
We are doing a Blues BBQ in Schenectady Central Park. Alligator Records recording artist Shemekia Copeland is headlining. She was crowned the new queen of the Blues by Koko Taylor’s daughter, after Koko’s passing. Blues area luminaries Mark & Jill, who won a Blues competition in Blues Foundations International Blues challenge in Memphis. TN and Matt Mirabile – great guitarist in the local community will round out the line-up July 28th.
4. What are some of your biggest challenges as a non-comm station?
I think commercial and non-comm stations face similar challenges. By (both listeners and industry insiders), we are expected to play pretty out-there music, and yet we have to have enough people listening to make sure we get the support that is needed to sustain the station. It is a fine balance of the unique and interesting smaller projects mixed with the significant, important more-popular artists.
5. What has been the station's biggest accomplishments to date?
I'm torn between being the first station in the nation to play artists like Adele and Mumford & Sons, to just being in existence to hear from listeners about how we've restored their faith in radio. We've heard from so many people who have said they had stopped listening to radio regularly until a friend said, "check out 97.7." To see their facial expressions when they describe how WEXT has changed their lives, and how they now love discovering great new and old music with us, is the best thing.
6. If you could add any one full-time position to your budget with no questions asked, what would it be?
Wow! We're so short-staffed that we might just be happy with someone to get coffee. But to the point of your question, our interest is in finding someone to help shepherd our content online and to work with our TV partner to create additional video content that helps extend the WEXT brand. After all, we did ask people to "leave regular radio behind."
7. WEXT has a sister Classical radio station and a TV station. In what ways do you tie them together?
Our TV station is PBS, and as such they have tons of performance programs that they air that include many of our artists. We certainly do a bunch of promotion and cross-platform work on that front. We want to do more. We bill ourselves as a station where you can discover great music, and for music lovers who really want to discover more great music, we often suggest checking out the Classical station. Most of the things we do amongst the stations are of a promotional value. We are looking at ways to do more content sharing where appropriate. Staffing on both sides might help that.
8. What clubs do you tie with in the area?
We work with Empire Live, The Hangar, Caffe Lena, The Linda, and The Egg on a regular basis, and a number of other events and venues when time permits.
9. What is the one truth that has held constant throughout your career?
Since I was a kid listening to American Top 40, I have lived my life by Casey's signature sign-off: "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." I figure that I haven't learned everything yet, and I hope to learn something new every single day of my life. I believe it has helped me with my quest to one day be a great radio programmer.
10. Is there anything else that’s happened of which you are especially proud?
In 2018 we added a second frequency @ 106.1 which tripled the audience reach. The new tower is on a hill in Troy, NY which has great coverage of the Capital Region.
Bonus Questions
Last non-industry job:
OM for GP&P Marketing (ad agency) - Waterbury, CT
First record ever purchased:
Meatloaf's "Bat Out of Hell" and The Police "Outlandos d'Amour" (albums). Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" was my first 45.
First concert:
The Cars Candy-O tour at the CNE in Ottawa, Canada.
Favorite band of all-time:
Whoa! This is hard. I have always thought that the Canadian band (now defunct) Spoons was one of the more innovative of the new romantics in the '80s. Love those guys.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time away from work?
I love to listen to music. I live to listen to new music. And of course, spend time with my family.
Would you ever become a Lutheran Preacher?
Sure absolutely. I love to get up in front of people and say goofy fun things.
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