10 Questions with ... Mitch Faulkner

NAME:Mitch Faulkner TITLE:Director of Production Services STATION:National Syndication MARKET:America and Armed Forces Network COMPANY:Reach Media Inc/Tom Joyner Morning Show BORN:July 22, 19-Something RAISED:Hopkinsville, KY

Please outline your radio career so far.

WHOP/Hopkinsville, KY, Country, Overnights

1) What was your first job in radio? Early influences?

WHOP/Hopkinsville, Country. Trained by Marvin Mahoney and Mr. Jefferies.

Fell in love with radio as a kid listening to Hoss Allen, Randy's Record Shop and Spider Harris on WLAC/Nashville on the big clear AM station. Late nights they would play soul/R&B. I also loved listening to John Landecker on WLS out of Chicago. Used to love the jingles on WLS and the drops. It was amazing to hear these stations late nights in KY when AM radio was king.

2) What led you to a career in radio?

My defining moment was , when I was 16, I recorded a PSA for a local community center and I heard my voice on the radio while at home. That was it, I had to have more of that juice! It was on WHOP in Hopkinsville, and they asked me if I had experience, I told them no, I was imitating Spider Harris when I cut the voiceover and they offered me an internship on the spot.

3) If you were just starting out in radio, knowing now what you didn't then, would you still do it?

Of course. Would a crackhead hit the pipe again after the first hit? But with what I know now I would do it a little different and would have stayed in the general-market side of the formats and focus on production early in the game.

4) Where do you see yourself and the industry five years from now? How do you feel about what's happening lately with syndication and voicetracking? Also how do you feel about taking a singer/actor/comedian with virtually no radio experience and building a show around him/her?

Five years from now I see my self continuing to produce for radio in a much larger capacity and producing long-form radio programs.

Syndication is here to stay. Yes, we complain, but it is what it is. Folks who owned huge typewriter companies complained when the word processor came on the scene and later the desktop computers. So we will all complain when a major change comes, but if you want to survive you have to adapt and keep moving or get out of the way.

As for voicetracking, I voicetrack my show in Atlanta from Dallas each week. I don't like voicetracking; I think it takes away the spontaneity of the show and the feel of it. The listener is the big loser here, and ultimately the station or show loses because of the sanitary delivery, and finally the advertisers lose because you don't have the follow-through with the sales pitches.

As for the singers/comedians/actors on the air, I think most of us radio vets get upset when others can come into radio and break all the rules we have had beaten into us from experience -- like talking over a record, going past the stopsets and just plain doing what they want, while we are told to limit our talk breaks and don't talk over the intros or vocals of a song, etc. Plus we get upset when the stations put on a celebrity or syndicated show that has all the resources to win and the sing their praises, where we feel that if the station would give a local guy a five-person staff with a national comedian and national artist or guest each day we could be just as successful -- but in most cases it is cost prohibitive for the local station, so that is why we are where we are today. Most folks I know who own radio stations are in the business to make a profit, and the current brand of radio works for them. So if you can't beat them, either join them or get out! Find another career path with fewer challenges.

5) How you feel about the current practice that forces urban radio to wait on a record until the research validates it? Although it's different for Tom Joyner, how do you feel that impacts the audience that wants some fresh new music?

You know, radio used to be the first place you heard any song, that is why you HAD to listen to see what was new and hot. I feel that often with music research you miss a lot because all music is objective based on the listener and their taste. When you conduct music research you have to depend on someone to pick the songs to research, so therein lies the first margin for error.

Example: Personally I don't like Anita Baker's music, so when she first came out I would never pick her song to even test it. If the power was on me it would have never made it to radio, and the listeners would have missed out on a great artist, a platinum artist at that.

So it is more effective if radio took more chances to offer new music to the audience. Yes, folks want to hear the hits, but they become hits because they get played. Can we use the chicken or the egg argument here?

How many of us would have signed DL 4 with the Laffy Taffy demo if we were A&R at a major label? I am one who believes that a station that understands how to break new music AND play the hits will win over a STALE presentation of the hits any day. It takes personalities to sell new music on the radio, you cant do it with liners and great 50-minute music hours alone. In all my 32 years in the business I have never, NEVER had a listener tell me about the great music hour I just played but they will always tell you what you said or what that DJ did on the air. And if they like a song they just heard for the first time they will ask you for the title and artist.

With shows like Tom Joyner and other syndicated shows, research validates the music decisions because we play fewer songs than other day parts and we are only on for four hours each day where the personalities, guest and features are the draw. But there is nothing stopping a station from breaking new music in other dayparts.

Again the listener is the loser, and when they lose the station loses.

6) What is going to happen to the training of tomorrow's talent and programmers if the current trend continues?

NOTHING!

Well, that is already over -- a lot of the programmers today either came from administrative positions or from environments where they had no instruction other than reading liners and following strict formats. When they excel in management or show the ability to interface with sales and promotions properly, they get to be a programmer. Then when they are instructing folks who have chosen to be a personality, what do they have to offer other than theory and read this liner this way and follow the directives or leave.

We have a huge number of PDs out here now who have never worked a fulltime airshift, others who were admin APDs or MDs who inherited a winning station. From that point they are a winning PD. Don't make me call names, but I know folks who have never had to program in a real fight, let alone had to start a station format from scratch to take over a market against an incumbent station. I mean, a sorry six-foot baller can always win over talented fifth-graders because of height advantage. Same here -- if the station you are programming is #1 when you get the job and you keep it there, you can't really brag about your abilities until you have to create a startup or turn a station around against a formidable opponent.

So there goes the theory of today's PDs training tomorrow's PDs.

It is sad but true. Don't believe me? Turn on the radio in your town, and tell me I'm lying. When you hear a sorry announcer on the air, don't hate on him, holla at his sorry PD who can't coach. He can manage, but he CANNOT COACH. It is bad on the PD if you have jocks on the air who can't master the English language or do not have the ability to ad lib outside of a liner card. Yes, the talent may be bad, but remember some PD actually put him on the air and is not developing the talent.

And another thing! PDs don't spend time developing talent to grow inside the station.

It used to be a time when your overnight weekend jock was groomed into the overnight weekday person, and then groomed to fill the next day time opening and groomed to fill the next drive time slot all at the same station. It just makes sense to develop talent in-house so when that morning or pm drive slot came open you as a PD did not have to introduce another talent to the marketplace and your audience. I consider myself a decent on-air talent, but if I got hired to go do pm drive in the Philly market next week I would still have to learn Philly radio, Philly streets, Philly local notables, etc., and the Philly folk would have to learn to like me and so on.

Example: How do you pronounce this word -- Houston? If you said like the city in Texas you are right, but in Atlanta it is a street that is actually locally pronounced as "House-ton" Street. A new jock in Atlanta reading a liner or spot about an event on this street will screw it up if the PD does not train them. But a jock who has been on the overnights and moved up will be a no problem.

PDs have to understand that training a talent in house is an investment in your continued success. But it starts with upper management making good decisions on the PD.

There are PDs who can't even run the board in their control room. Makes as much sense as me training you how to fly an F-22 fighter jet when I have never been off the ground myself.

7) What has been the biggest adjustments you've had to make since undertaking this initiative at Reach Media?

Understanding the difference of syndicated radio production from local radio production, and dealing with a much larger staff in production. Also there is a lot more input from management. Here it is content driven -- if it is compelling, it goes on the air; if not, it goes on the floor. But you don't know until it is done and previewed by the talent and on-air staff. I have to make sure my production staff understands that our job is to produce, if it does not go on the air we still got paid to do it, so just keep it moving and produce with vigor every day.

8) Of all the skills you have gained through the years, is there an area you'd like to improve?

Oh, yes, I would like to improve my ability to produce more theater-of-the-mind audio. I think that will ultimately be a mainstay as it relates to recorded audio whether it is on the radio, Internet or iPod. It is here to stay, because after a while just music and contest will not be enough to keep folk engaged. I have even heard some of the audio books that have gone beyond just a voice talent reading and they have become actual audio movies with sfx and real acting to make it come alive in your head. I love that kind of production, and I want to do it better.

9) How are things going on the technical side and how are you able to balance all that you do with Reach Media, your imaging business and your family? Speaking of family, what's happening with your stepson?

On the technical side, we are running Pro Tools and Adobe Audition, and on-air we use the Wheatstone Digital G-9 Console. Ross Alan is the man on that thing; it is like the cockpit of the Enterprise. Ross, beam me up! All of our media is stored and aired from the Audio Vault system.

Roger Moore Produces Right Back At Cha in Pro Tools using the Mackie Huie control surface and the G-6 Wheatstone.

Jason Martin joined us recently from the Radio One property along with Mario White, and they are both proficient with Pro Tools and Adobe Audition.

Our Chief Engineer Kent Kramer has done a great job getting us on the air in our new studios and keeping us on. Man, Kent is a magician. I think he has a degree from magic school 'cause he has and is doing some special stuff here with our sound and studio designs.

My day starts at about 4am. I do my imaging reads before I get to work and again after work for orders that have been sent while I am away. I have been doing my personal company, MLMI Creative, since the OMP days and still serve over 35 stations with voice and production services.

I also work with Qsoundz Productions (Al Twitty) out of Memphis. I do the voice, and he puts the stank on it and sends it to the stations. Another one is Maxwell Sounds in Atlanta with Ernest Davis and Marty Ringer in the ATL. Same there -- I do the voice, and they produce and send to the clients. And Jmont Productions in Atlanta with James Bredlove and Mont Ken, all these guys are super producers and they use my voice on all kinds of stuff besides just imaging, Like New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, I have been the image voice for Bishop Eddie Long Broadcast and TV audio for over 20 years.

I am usually done by 9-10pm on a good day.

As for family I have been blessed with the black Brady Bunch. I have three from a previous marriage; my wife, Janice, has three children as well. Most of our children are grown and giving back to us with seven beautiful grandkids. I have one son who is a Staff Sergeant in the USAF, one daughter who works in banking, one son who plays ball with the Sixers (#23), the oldest son takes care of the young baller in Philly, and the other two sons are still in high school.

Yes, we are all stretched out all over the country, but we are family nonetheless and we have our collective moments on holidays and they all find a way to get ME TIME with Daddy and Mommy throughout the year.

10) As you look back over your career ... any regrets? Missed opportunities?

Regrets -- I did not pursue pro football. Damn, I was good in high school! Running back, 6-1 as a freshman, 180 lbs. of farm-toned muscle and attitude.

Missed opportunities -- I think other folk missed opportunities to hire me or allow me to use my God-given gift to help them help themselves. I think God has done a great job in guiding my steps, and he said what is for me is for me, and I believe and I know that to be true.

He also told me that he would not put anything on me that I CANT HANDLE WITH HIM AS MY GUIDE.

Don't play ... with him all things are possible, I started life in Kentucky, population 30,000, and I was a farmer, and my 6th grade 4-H Project was raising a pig that I won 2nd place with in the Future Farmers Association contest at the County Fair.

And over the years I have been heard by more than 14 million people per day, and that was all before the Tom Joyner show. Now that was my God who brought me from there to here and through all the obstacles this business can throw at you daily.

What would people who think they know you, be surprised to learn about Mitch Faulkner?

I am a biker by way of life, and my anti-drug is working on old-school cars, got a tight 72 Chevy Longbed pickup sittin' on them thangs with a bored out 350, hi pro cam, headers and other goodies to haul my bikes around. To clear my head I ride from Dallas to Atlanta on the bike at least three times a year. Member of the Black Angels ATL M/C

What's been your biggest disappointment in Radio today?

Young Hip-Hop jocks who are not getting groomed to make the transition to other formats as they get older. And production folk who think the software they use makes them a pro without knowing the basic principle of recording.

How did you get your present job?

I was recruited by Tom and Hector Hannibal.

What do you do with a song you don't like?

I use the instrumental or loop the intro and throw it in a spot!

What's the best piece of advice anyone's ever given you? The worst?

Scottie Andrews, sign-on PD for V-103/Atlanta and first black PD to become #1 in the ATL ... When I asked him about if I should take the PD job against him in 1986 with Kiss 104, first he said, "You will never beat me with that station. But if you want to be a PD, take the job, because everybody will know who you are when they find out you are going up against me. If you get a 3 share in the first year you will be a hot item in this business." And he was right. Then he offered some advice, he said, "Slim," as he would call me, "understand what the term Program Director means." He would always use examples. He said, "The police officer with the whistle standing the in the middle of the street is called a traffic director, right," I said, "Yes." And he said, "Well, that is it!" And I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You don't get it?" I said, "No." He said, "When he is there with the traffic and the whistle, how many cars is he driving?" I said, "None!" He said, "That is it, you see his job is to be smart enough to keep the traffic moving -- blow the whistle, make this car stop, wave these cars to go, and keep them from crashing into each other." He said that is what you do as radio PD, you don't have to have all the ideas or ears or knowledge but you need to be smart enough to hire folk you trust, and be able to interface with your on air staff, promotions, sales, clients and the record industry. Stand in the traffic of your station and keep them from crashing into each other! I live that every day since his death in 1986.

What's the best liner you've ever heard?

Elroy Smith sent me a drop once for the Doug Banks Show he wrote! "It is our duty to jumpstart your day ... The Doug Banks Morning Show on 1075 WGCI."

And we at OMP, we rewrote it to say: "It is our duty to jumpstart your BOOTY ... Wake up! With the Doug Banks Morning Show ... 1075 WGCI."

This ran until Doug left!

Describe your favorite meal?

Baloney and cheese sandwich sitting on the back of the pickup truck on a tobacco field lunch break with an ice-cold RC-Cola. What?

What's your favorite fast food?

Wendy's 99-cent cheeseburger with mustard, pickles, and onion. Damn, why did you put ketchup on this? Now I got to go back to the drive-through. Can't they get it right?

Do you read.....everything? Books, Magazines, etc. Nothing? What's your favorite reading material?

Motorcyle, Motorcylist, American Iron ... Favorite book, "Howard Zinn The Peoples History Of These United States," and "the Covenant on Black America" by Tavis Smiley.

How did the events of 9/11 change you personally?

Now I have to use a plastic bag for my deodorant when I travel, and I can't take my 12 gauge with me when I go home for the annual Thanksgiving Rabbit Hunt.

What "reality show" could you see yourself appearing on and why?

"American Idol." Why? Ryan Seacrest needs help with the emcee job, and Simon needs a good kick in the butt!

You just won the lotto and you have your boss on the line. What's the first thing that you would say?

"Say, Tom, hey man, I got a donation for the HBCU's about 1-2 million. Oh and by the way I am taking off work for about 30 days to tour America on one of my bikes." Then I would ask him if it's cool to come back to work after the 30 days off. (LOL.) God, you here me, right?

Who are some of the influential folk in your career?

My dad, Willie Faulkner, who is still with us. My brother/co-founder of OMP Arvester Faulkner; Scottie Andrews, WVEE/Atlanta R.I .P; Ed Nesbitt, R.I.P; and my mentors Dr. James Hall, formerly of Motown Records and U.S. Ambassador of Goodwill in the Clinton Administration, Jack (the Rapper) Gibson, and The "Doctor" Jerry Boulding.

Little-known Black History fact?

Mitch Faulkner was the first African American to be rated #1 by Arbitron in the market of Atlanta -- Spring book, 1984, 3-7pm. Ryan Cameron and Reggie Rouse -- thanks for keeping it there!

Last words: Know your limitations, and stay in your lane!

Example: I can't take Shaq to the hoop, but I would be a great arena announcer for the Miami Heat. Have you heard Shaq speak?