10 Questions with ... Ron Chavis

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

I'm a freelance radio and TV commercial producer, director, writer and talent. I have been fortunate to have received both the Silver Microphone and Telly Awards.

My radio history spans three decades and includes #1 ratings as show host at major market FMs ... including: WKLS/Atlanta, KZOK/Seattle, WAMO/Pittsburgh and KRNB/Dallas.

In 1997, I founded the advertising/multi-media production group, Chavis Sterling Media Partners, before returning to radio in Dallas, in 2006 at Service Broadcasting.

While I was working for Service Broadcasting, I did double duty by also doing work for Cumulus Media Network in as a radio host and voice-imaging artist on over 100 stations in the USA on their Westwood One Radio Network.

My radio career began at ABC's WDVE/Pittsburgh, which is also the city where I also held my first job in TV, on the set of PBS' Mister Rogers.

1) How have you managed to work in so many formats?

It's all about the listener. Human beings share common feelings, interests, and desires, no matter the music. As a show host, I've tried to get to the heart of people as best I can and take it to a level that's just a little "bigger than life." This should be every air personality's goal.

2) What does the future look like for Internet radio?

It's hard to overstate the impact of the demise of "Live 365" and platforms like it. These events have had a crushing impact on folks who enjoyed the freedom to create and listen to independent Internet stations, operated at affordable prices. This is all a set-up to the importance of connected cars and Internet radio. But there are operators out here trying to rearrange and survive.

3) Is there anything that surprises you about radio these days?

Too much creative control in the hands of too few.

4) How should this issue be addressed?

A return at local broadcast outlets to use of research methodologies as tools, rather than strict, applicative dogma. If I ruled the world, local radio would be very locally insightful and creative in every respect ... including music "programming," and especially radio host performance.

5) Are you interested in working in radio again?

That depends. The idea of picking up and moving to another city is very precarious now, compared to just 10 years ago. I'm out on that one. I love my life in Dallas. I can't thank Service Broadcasting's Hyman Childs enough for inviting me here back in 2006. On another note, let me express my gratitude to Carl Anderson, Mike Love and Hollywood Hernandez for introducing me to the world of voicetracking, and nationally syndicated radio at (then) Citadel Broadcasting starting in 2009. I miss performing radio as a craft, and I'd jump at the chance to voicetrack any format within my expertise. For a fair price. Thank God, I'm at a place where I can refuse work that would not bring me a great deal of joy to perform.

6) What frustrates you the most about radio and the music industry?

Form before function. One keen observation: On one hand we hear, "People only wanna hear what they already know." These same "geniuses" marvel at the success of Pandora for turning listeners on to music they don't know. Music services are robots, doing what radio should be (used to do).

7) What does it take to be a successful air personality?

• Talent (It used to be a prerequisite.)
• Repeated exposure behind the mic.
• Positive relationships inside the industry.

8) Any advice for those worrying about being downsized?

My answer, in short, is lean on the talents that brought you to employment in radio to create outside money-making possibilities. The "cheese" is moving faster than ever. Always value family over fleeting fame, and your plans will come along naturally. Last: Angels never retire. In fact, one has always been watching over you, or you'd never have made money so easily as in radio in the first place.

9) What's your advice for those who have been fired for arbitrary reasons?

Well ... First I'd say, if you love what you do, keep at it. It saddens me that so many tremendous talents I've known over the years have quit radio due to bad people and experiences. It'll dog you forever if you leave. And it hurts the public really, when folks with a true love of people, and proclivity as talent, are replaced by power-driven wanna-bees who somehow thrive on mostly just a penchant for furthering themselves. You notice, they seem to multiply like rabbits. How many of us have heard, "We're letting you go because you don't fit the direction we're now going." The translation is often, "I've never liked you as a person, and this is my first best chance to deliver a dagger to your soul." Don't be bitter and don't quit the business forever.

Let me tell you in dead earnestness ... and looking back through a 40-year-deep rear-view mirror: I can assure you that these prophetic words are true for all people of good heart: "Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all." Remember, the few like you who have not sold their soul are the only reason anything worth saying or hearing gets said.

10) Do you have a favorite radio memory?

Seattle 1978; a fellow jock left an album side of Hendrix playing, while he took the elevator down six flights to get a burger. He forgot his keys. A photo turned up on the front page of the paper next day, because he called the fire department, who sent a truck, so he could climb the ladder to the studio window.

What do you tell someone just starting out in radio?

I'll quote a famous phrase from Dante's "Inferno" ... "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate," or "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." IOW ... if you're thinking it's anything like you see on TV or in the movies, you're in for a surprise! Making it to the top (fame and money, as a talent) is akin to making it in the NFL.

Who are some of the people that have influenced your career?

Michael Erickson, Jay Silvers, Sam Weaver, Frank Greenlee, Batt "Batman" Johnson, Jerry King, Ken Dowe, Hyman Childs, Mike Love, Dwight Douglas, Carl Anderson (The Clear Channel "Carl").