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10 Questions with ... Yonni Rude
February 16, 2021
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BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:
WZFX Fayetteville, NC
MD / Afternoons
WWWZ Charleston, SC
APD / Afternoons
WSSX Charleston, SC
PD / Afternoons
WCDX/WKJS/WPZZ/WXGI/WTPS Richmond, VA
Operations Manager
WGPR/WDMK/Detroit Praise Network, Detroit, MI
Operations Manager
WENZ/WERE/WJMO/WZAK Cleveland, OH
Operations Manager
1) How did you prepare yourself for the programming chair?
I was an intern at WZFX filing CDs in “The Dungeon” and one day D’Cherie stopped me as I walked through the studio and asked, “What do you want to do here?” to which I replied, “I want to do what you do.” I knew she did middays and was the Music Director, but I had absolutely no idea what a Music Director did. From that moment I was hooked --going to get sales reports from record stores, tallying request sheets, and being a fly on the wall while she worked. When she was in Selector scheduling music and I was right there watching. When she was on the phone with record representatives, I was in the background listening. Even when I got hired as the morning show producer, I was still in her office intrigued by the process... watching, learning, absorbing all the info, some of which I didn’t even know I was getting. When I got my chance to be Music Director, I was ready. Fast forward to WWWZ, and Terry Base made sure I was on all the calls. He made the reps speak to me and any corporate programming calls I was right there too. When an opportunity arose for me to lead the team as interim Operations Manager, I was ready. That opportunity led to the DOS/interim GM at the time coming into my studio when the Top 40 PD left and saying, “If you still want to be a PD you should apply for the WSSX position.”
Programming is one thing, leading a team is another. A lot of that came from my time in the Kroger Management Training Program. They would have you train in each department so you not only learn how to jump in and help if needed, but you would have a better understanding of what happens in those departments and what it takes to maintain and manage each department. You learn why it is so important that your produce department is always neat and clean, and you don’t learn because it’s in a book but instead by working under the direction of the Department Head. It’s similar to ROTC camp or OTS (Officer Training School) where Drill Sergeants train men and women to become officers and thus lead them. There are a lot of lessons to learn from that process including respect for those who report to you.
2) What do you think makes your station special?
The easy answer is the people. The Personalities. The board-ops. The sales team. The promotions department. The “Digital Dream Team” as I like to call them. The engineers. Radio One Cleveland is a special building, no one in there is afraid to tell you how they feel nor are they afraid to do the work to win. When quarantine hit and we had to pivot to virtual events we didn’t skip a beat. We did what a lot of stations were doing with Instagram interviews, but we wanted --no we needed more. We started using Streamyard for artist and client interviews to allow for a more professional look, better branding, and the ability to use the content across multiple platforms.
There was a virtual idea that came from another market and our team picked it up and ran with it immediately and Matt ‘N Matt Live was launched. It’s a live sports show at halftime and post-game of every Browns game. Cleveland loves the Browns but the people who talked about them wasn’t us… until NOW! Halfway through the season not only were sponsors believing in the product but so were the News stations. So much so that they created their own virtual show to mimic ours. What do they say about imitation again?
3) How have you been dealing with the pandemic?
As a cluster we’ve adjusted to the new climate and generated revenue with multiple successful virtual events. When the pandemic is over, I don’t see us eliminating virtual events, but instead marrying the on-site with the virtual and creating a better experience for clients and listeners.
At the start of the pandemic, I told my staff, “Those who survive this will thrive when it’s over.” I’ve watched a number of them take advantage of this time and sharpen their skills in the industry and on outside ventures. From growing their personal brand to opening new restaurants and lounges the R.O.C. is relentless. At the same time, I had to heed my own advice and I’ve used the additional time at home to work on other projects. I’ve expanded my weekly Caribbean-themed show Island Vibez w/ Tropix International Sounds (currently with 10 affiliates) and launched 2 podcasts: Regular Guys Random Thoughts with my best friend from college and Unscoped: The Podcast with A Plus (PD of WCKX/Columbus, OH & WIZF/Cincinnati, OH) focusing on the story behind the storytellers—it launches on March 3rd of this year. (2021)
4) What’s the funniest thing that has happened to you during your radio career?
The funniest will have to remain in the archives for clearance purposes. However, I’ll give 2 memorable moments. The first was probably within the first month of me starting at Z93 Jamz and I made some comment about Puffy probably along the lines of, “Who in their right mind think he’s a real rapper?” A woman called up and in the calmest of voices said, “I just wanted to call and say that I think you are rude. You are ignorant. And you need to be fired!” She hung up and I knew immediately I had my new show intro. Years later she called back and said, “I’m the one that called and said that you need to be fired. And I’m sorry. You’re the best now.” It just proves that I am an acquired taste.
The 2nd was the pay-off of the long game. From the minute I heard “Falling” I said Alicia Keys was my girlfriend, she would be my wife and of course the listeners all thought I was just crazy. When I got the opportunity to interview her, I took my shot and asked her to marry me. Now haters will say she said “suuuuure” just to not hurt my feelings, but all I heard was a resounding YES!
5) Would you share the names of some air personalities you grew up listening to?
Wow. These names may not mean much to people stateside but in the Caribbean personalities like Dubai rang out from island to island on Radio Antilles.
Stateside I would have to point to the people who preceded me in Afternoon Drive at WZFX: “The Heavyweight” Ray Thomas, Omega Jones, and “The Wild & Crazy Guy” Lamont Swyng. Each of them played a part in who I became as a personality when I got my shot in Afternoons. I never worked with Ray, but he was the first US personality that made me want to listen when his show was on. Omega was the consummate professional and one convo with her taught me the importance of always airchecking. From Lamont I learned that compelling content didn’t mean long talk breaks. he had the ability to draw you in with a few words and make you listen every time because you never knew when he would say something or do something wild and crazy.
6) How did you get into radio?
I’m third generation radio and TV. My grandfather was GM for 2 radio stations and 2 TV stations in two different islands in the Caribbean. My Mom started in radio when she was 16 and I started when I was 8. Therefore, my daughter has 4 years before she’s got to keep the trend going. My first radio gig (un-paid) was at Radio Antilles on the island of Montserrat as a part of a weekly pre-teen talk show, The Children’s Hour.
While at Fayetteville State University I received the NBPC scholarship and was introduced to Bobby Jay, then PD at WZFX. When he told me to come see him at the station, I just knew he heard my show on WFSS and was about to hire me. Nah. He offered me a free internship, so I quit my part-time job and said I wasn’t leaving until they hired me. Two months later the Morning Show Producer was moving to sales and I was hired to replace him.
7) Who have been some of your influencers and mentors?
My grandfather and my mom, of course. When I got to Charleston, I remember bragging to my Grandad that I was #1 in all demographics and was waiting for the congratulations and pat on the back. He said ,“Now that you have their attention what are you telling them? What are you teaching them?”
Other early influencers and mentors would have to D’Cherie, Terry Base and Jeff “Uzi-D” Anderson. Uzi’s show prep as a night jock was unparalleled and his creativity and level-headedness as a programmer are at levels that I aspire to achieve one day, but he keeps moving the goalpost.
8) What’s your forecast for radio innovation?
Radio has been stuck in its ways for a long time and at times has been late to the party. During the last years of the 90s (you know the height of the fax wars middays contests) I remember a PD saying that we don’t need to worry about email because “Black people don’t have computers.” I also remember a COO in the early to mid-2000s saying that streaming wasn’t important because it doesn’t affect ratings, then a year later stressing the importance of streaming. I’ve heard there’s no money in podcasting, then the expected 360 and the importance of jumping in the podcasting arena. We’ve got to do a better job of identifying trends and being early believers.
9) Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without _______?
Watching my little girl smile. Listening to music. Scrolling the feed. Flipping on the TV. And most importantly, in the words of James Todd Smith… “I can’t live without my RADIO or Alexa.
10) What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
When I was training with Rico “The Thin man” to replace him as morning show producer he gave me two pieces of advice... “You can learn something from everyone. What to do and what not to do” and “when opportunity knocks are you going to be ready with your bags at the door or are you going to say, “hold on let me get my bags?” Both were true then and stay true now.
Bonus Questions
What thing or things you are most proud of?
I’m always proud of setting goals and achieving them. Not just mine, but those of my team. I love watching people grow and win. Seeing Jackie Paige in a top 10 market makes me extremely proud knowing the work she put in to get there and her “never settle” attitude. Watching Incognito get syndicated mere months after we put a plan into action and watching him have success in one of the most competitive markets in the country is extremely satisfying.
I’m a competitor so I love a challenge. I wanted to go to Charleston because there was competition. At one point or another we had George Cook, Charlamagne, Kelly Mac, Jae Jackson, DJ B Lord, TT Torrez, Divine Martino, Mike McGuire, H Vidal, Corey Hill, Ant Mack and many more coming for our necks. To have Hot 98.9 and Power 94.3 flip formats within a month of each other says a lot about how strong the Z93 Jamz brand was at that time.
At every stop along the way I’ve tried to create some history. In 2013 I moved down the hall to WSSX for my first PD gig. Being the first Top 40 Afternoon host to be #1 in over 12 years was a huge accomplishment, but taking the station, with a reduced staff, to heights it hadn’t seen in at least 15 years is something that I’ll always hold near and dear to my heart. When I got to Richmond someone told me that being #1 was unrealistic. So, we went #1 across the board then did the wash, rinse & repeat. When I got to Detroit, we determined that the area for greatest growth was our local morning show. I had some serious heart to hearts with our team, the Morning Heat, and we made a few tweaks and in 4 months we went from losing to The Breakfast Club to doubling their rating. One of my first meetings with Eddie Harrell (GM/RVP) when I got to Cleveland was that we do better when WZAK is winning. Here we are in the midst of a pandemic and going back-to-back books of achieving this goal. The work is never done though. We’ve got work to do on other stations and we’ve got to not only defend those ratings but also build on them. I like to believe getting to the top is not the hard part. Staying there is.
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