Posted by chicagomedia.org on September 01, 2008 at 08:51:16:
10 Questions with ... Dom Theodore
Please outline your radio career so far:
On-Air/Production at WHYT/Detroit, WDFX/Detroit, WIOG/Saginaw, WTCF/Saginaw.
OM at WILN & WTBB Panama City.
On-Air, MD and eventually PD at WFLZ/Tampa.
PD, KRBE/Houston.
OM/PD WKQI/Detroit
VP/Programming CC Detroit
1) Congrats on your #1 finish ... quite a feat in any market, let alone Detroit! What are the key factors that took you to the top?
An incredibly talented and creative air staff ... Mojo in the Morning (Mojo, Spike, Kyra, Rachel, and Rob), Michelle Taylor, Beau, Big Boy and Devediah, along with my Director of Marketing and Promotions Rebecca Falk, and my Creative Services Director Chris Cole. Most of this staff has been together since we launched in 2002. Back then, we were in 14th place and facing a very good direct competitor (WDRQ). This group of talented individuals brings their 'A' game every day, and focuses on creating an emotional connection with the audience. They know that winning is more than just being a good utility; it's about building a genuine entertainment experience beyond just the music. This, combined with creative, pop culture-based promotions, highly focused music, and animated imaging is the formula for success. It's been a journey, not a destination, and it starts with getting the basics right every day.
2) What promotions did you do during the Spring Book?
I have to personally thank Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for providing us with so much promotional material this book due to his text message scandal. We took advantage with the "Kwame Inappropriate Text Message of the Day," where we announced a different word on the air every day that was related to the scandal (like "perjury," "impeachment," etc.), and the 95th person to text the word when it was time would win "Kwame settlement cash." Then Mojo in the Morning printed T-shirts with Kwame's picture and phrases like "$6 million and all I got was this lousy T-shirt," referring to the settlement that the taxpayers had to pay two cops that he fired for investigating the scandal, and "pimpin' ain't easy" with the word "pimpin'" crossed out and replaced with "texting" ... we then tried to deliver a check with the proceeds from the shirts to the City of Detroit to help reimburse taxpayers for the costs of these lawsuits, but we were turned away. Nonetheless, we got tons of publicity. We even re-enacted some of the more steamy Kwame text messages in promos with the part of the mistress played by our station cleaning lady, and the part of Kwame played by our voice guy. How could we go wrong with that?
3) What impact to you think the PPM will have on your market?
It's hard to predict what PPM will ultimately bring because it's slightly different in each market, but what we have learned so far is it's a great "equalizer" in the sense that stations who have benefited for years from a "heritage" position, or huge TSL from people drawing arrows down the diary page when they didn't really listen 20 hours a day, can't rely on the old tactics to remain successful. The game will shift from recall tactics to a more genuine relationship with the audience, generating more occasions of use, and keeping them once you have them. Also, the vast amount of data provided under PPM will enable us to really see what works and what doesn't in unequivocal terms. The good news is we have access to data from other PPM markets and have identified several "best practices" to ensure success under the new currency.
4) What led you to a career in radio?
I really enjoyed listening to the radio as a young kid ... and I literally used to have a Fisher-Price record player that I would play records on and practice talking up songs. I tried to imitate the jocks that I heard on the radio and wanted to be one when I grew up. I even made tapes of my attempts and sent them to Maureen Hathaway, the GM at WHYT. To my surprise, one day she took my call and invited me down there for a tour. After walking through that station at about age 12, I knew that I had to do this for a living. Later I would have the chance to answer phones at WCZY (ironically, the station I'm at today), and then moved to WHYT where I finally got a paycheck ... and thought to myself "they actually PAY me for this?"
5) What makes your station unique? How would you compare it to other stations you've worked at?
Interestingly, the thing that makes this station unique is something that I learned from BJ Harris when I worked for him at WFLZ in Tampa. He used to say that the best radio stations were an assembly of misfits, because misfits are much more interesting to listen to and they stand out while everyone else sounds predictable and boring. Like WFLZ, Channel 955 is a group of misfits (and I mean this as a huge compliment to both stations). I like to call it a "person writ large" -- in other words, these stations are a living, breathing person, with a personality, a "feel," and a unique experience that you can't easily duplicate. We still view this as "show business" to a degree. Over the past few years, our industry has become great at the "business" part, but somehow they forgot the "show." We brought the "show" back, and that has made all of the difference.
6) What was your favorite station to listen to when you were a kid?
Well, I barely remember the end days of CKLW, but by far the station that really inspired me to do this for a living was WHYT here in Detroit. From the moment Mike Joseph launched the station on Sept 15th, 1982, I was addicted, and thought I had "arrived" when I worked there years later in 1987 with my friend Rick Gillette as my PD - and great talent like Michael J Foxx, Drex, JJ Walker, Jojo, Sean Caldwell, Karen Dallesandro and Dave Fogel, Sunny Joe Harris, and others inspired a whole generation of people to want to do this for a living - myself, Alex Tear, and Mark Anderson just to name a few. WHYT was also where I first met my current APD/MD/PM-drive talent Beau, who did nights there and had some of the biggest ratings ever on that station. He is my co-pilot, and one of the most talented personalities I have ever worked with, and it was so much fun to bring him back to Detroit where he once again has #1 ratings on Channel 955.
7) What is it about our industry that keeps you wanting to do it for a living?
Quite simply, it's the challenge of entertaining an audience every day. I want to get into the head of the person on the other end of the radio, and I want somebody to be inspired to want to do this for a living because they listened to THIS station and really enjoyed the experience. I'm also extremely competitive and enjoy the battle as well ... it's the part that still makes this fun!
8) What advice you would give people new to the business?
Never say "that's not my job." I've had so many opportunities that came along because I did the job that nobody else wanted to. Learn the art and the science of radio ... you need both if you want to reach the top. Learn everything you can about new technology because the delivery system is going to change, but that also will create many new opportunities for you. Think of yourself as a "content creator" in the audio content business rather than the radio business. When the "delivery" is great, the delivery system doesn't matter. And most importantly, trust your gut even if it's not popular; it's right 90% of the time and those are pretty good odds.
9) What is the current state of the radio "talent pool"?
Sadly, it's a puddle, not a pool. This is a topic that comes up quite often when I network with other PDs across the country because we all share this frustration. However, I refuse to just give up because we can fix this, but doing so will require an investment of time. Take a look around your station. Do you have an intern who has potential but you've never taken the time to encourage them? Do you have a development plan for your part-timers? If you look, you'll find lots of POTENTIAL talent out there in unsuspecting places, but you need to take the initiative to work with them, encourage them, and help them realize their potential. We also need to re-evaluate the culture of radio to attract the next generation of talent (more on that below).
10) What would you like to do to save radio from its "dying-industry" image?
The first thing we need to do is STOP acting like we're dying! We need a culture shift from the "old media" mentality to new media! Did you see the "60 Minutes" piece on "The Millennial Generation?" They were talking about the values, work ethic, tastes and culture of the 80 million people born between 1980 and 1995, and a glimpse into what's coming as a result of the cultural shift they will create in the workplace. And all I kept thinking was how doomed our industry is if we fail to become a destination career for new, young talent with fresh ideas.
To do that, we need to transform our culture from the "General Motors" cram-down, high-pressure, process-focused mentality to the "Zappos.com" creative -- flexible, fun, motivational and results-focused mentality. This next generation won't tolerate an unrewarding, creatively suppressed work culture. And they don't have to since there are more attractive and entrepreneurial new media options for them to work at. They were showing video of employees at "new media" companies playing ping pong, sitting in bean bags while they process orders from customers, and parading through the office in costumes. And almost all of them were under age 30. Compare that experience to most radio stations and you can quickly see the problem ... our industry's culture offers very little to a creative 20-something in most cases.
Instead of adding more structure, cutting costs and piling the work on fewer people who are fearful of losing their jobs, why can't we change the internal culture to be more creative, fun, rewarding, innovative and encourage intelligent risk-taking so that we produce better content to attract larger audiences and make more revenue? Radio can choose NOT to behave like old media. How about we behave like an industry on the "new frontier" of media and remove the stops, limits and restrictions so we can try new things without layers of approval and "analysis paralysis?" If we don't do this soon, it will be too late.
Bonus Questions
For someone vacationing in your market, what one thing would you say they "must see"?
You have to see the actual "8 Mile" because it's not as grungy as what was portrayed in the movie. I grew up about half a block north of 8 mile in Warren, MI and it was actually not that bad ... it was just a blue-collar working class neighborhood. Everyone worked hard, made very little money, but we made our way. What better way to prepare for a career in radio?
(AA)