Erik Branine | Discussion Combustion Podcast | #259

[00:00:00] We'll have this discussion. Discussion what discussion? This is a discussion

[00:00:05] Coming to you from Danver, Colorado

[00:00:08] This is Discussion Combustion Podcast with your hosts Kevin Batstone and Arthur Rawe

[00:00:20] Recording what they're doing and having that as an extra channel

[00:00:25] Pursue that they just don't have a big staff. Yeah, they've got they've got three people right now and

[00:00:32] They're all less than 20 hours a week and they're all students and a couple of the guys have other jobs that they're doing

[00:00:38] So, you know unless they have like the heart that she did. Yeah for radio

[00:00:44] They just kind of come in and you know

[00:00:46] They do they do what they got to do but

[00:00:48] To get creative and think of new ideas and new app, you know revenue streams and stuff like that isn't always at the

[00:00:53] Forefront of their minds. What's kind of the backbone of the content?

[00:00:56] Is it like a 6 to 9 a.m. Talk show is it so it's so the station itself is

[00:01:02] Pretty much all student content created. Okay, but everybody's volunteer from the content creation for the most part

[00:01:10] My daughter was the station manager and then she had two other guys that would help one did sort of like the publicity

[00:01:19] He ran social media and then there was another guy that he kind of helped with just production

[00:01:24] He wasn't on air. So it was if you needed help editing a show or if you needed help

[00:01:31] You know recording he would kind of come in Phil and my my daughter kind of trained him

[00:01:37] basically

[00:01:38] They had a block in the evening that they set aside for their primetime programming from much from 6 to 11 o'clock and

[00:01:46] They would have kids come in and they would record for an hour

[00:01:49] She tried to get them to do an hour show every two weeks

[00:01:53] Now some kids were more ambitious and they wanted to come in and record every week

[00:01:56] But she was like, you know, I just I need people your volunteers

[00:01:59] I don't want to ask too much of your time come in record when you want and

[00:02:03] I'll upload the show and then she would air it multiple times. So nothing was done live

[00:02:09] They did have the functionality to do live

[00:02:12] But I just think in terms of making it clean

[00:02:16] It was easier just to record it and then go through and clean it up and post production

[00:02:20] Because often they'd have oh I messed up. Hold on. Let me know. Yeah, you know that kind of stuff

[00:02:24] You know a lot of these kids just they wanted to do it because it was fun

[00:02:27] Yeah, they weren't broadcast majors. I would I would venture to say that none of them are gonna go into radio or TV or anything

[00:02:33] like that they just thought it was fun and

[00:02:36] She would tell them you can do pretty much anything you want

[00:02:39] They weren't over the air. So they're streaming

[00:02:41] So, you know, they were allowed to use profanity and all that

[00:02:44] I just I told I said try to tell them to keep it at a minimum

[00:02:47] No one wants to listen to a be professional with your profanity, right?

[00:02:51] Exactly

[00:02:53] Right, yeah every other word is a f-bomb or an it just muddies up the show it takes away from the professionalism

[00:02:59] It's like this is just turn into a sailor talk, right?

[00:03:02] And she did have it playing in the school

[00:03:05] Okay, and the last thing you want is admit, you know admin or hey, it's parents weekend

[00:03:10] We got people coming in, you know, and somebody drops an f-bomb. So you're like keep it to a minimum

[00:03:15] Yeah, let's not go for the shock value here

[00:03:17] So but she would let them do whatever they wanted and some of the kids wanted to do music programs

[00:03:23] Some of the kids wanted to do a podcast about whatever was their favorite subject matter. They wanted to talk about

[00:03:29] and it was just she just was like just give me an hour and

[00:03:34] You know, we'll make it work and

[00:03:37] It was it was really refreshing to kind of see

[00:03:41] Them come in very timid about being on the air and I don't know how to do all this

[00:03:46] To then their second show when they got a little more confidence third show fourth show

[00:03:51] they'll maybe they're inviting their friends now, they got a co-host with it and

[00:03:55] Really just kind of get that that

[00:03:59] That confidence to be able to speak in front of a microphone or be able to speak in front of a crowd

[00:04:02] And that was kind of what I told her. I was like look

[00:04:06] Yeah, these kids aren't going into broadcasting. They're not gonna be you know

[00:04:09] They're not gonna be on air over at KOA or you know channel 9

[00:04:13] But they're doing something that's giving them an outlet

[00:04:16] to either share their favorite music or to talk about a subject matter a hobby of some kind that they really like and

[00:04:23] Even within that they were kind of born, you know, they're making friendships

[00:04:26] You know, she would host a little she did a she did a mid-year party pizza party

[00:04:32] They would all meet together and they didn't see each other in the station because they were all recording at different times

[00:04:37] But they would come together at this pizza party and they'd be like, oh, yeah, I've heard your show

[00:04:41] Have that camaraderie and then she'd do an end of the year and she'd do like a little awards thing where she'd be like

[00:04:46] All right

[00:04:47] This is the pearl of dibs best new show went to this person and you know

[00:04:51] Best sports show goes to this person and best music and she came up with an award for everybody and just kind of like

[00:04:57] You know kind of they had their own little club. That's cool

[00:04:59] though

[00:04:59] Yeah

[00:04:59] that gives everybody like a chance to have an equal voice and do what they want to do and then make it more

[00:05:03] serious than just you know, there's actually

[00:05:05] Consistent quality content coming out of it. It was kind of what we try to do here

[00:05:08] Years to figure that out, but no, that's awesome

[00:05:11] I like hearing that the you know younger kids and maybe aren't in broadcasting have an opportunity to go and create a program

[00:05:17] But people actually want to listen to and relate to yeah

[00:05:19] And and the thing that you would hear often and again

[00:05:23] I think this is the magic of college radio is so many of these kids would come in and

[00:05:29] They would be like I just

[00:05:31] Didn't really have a friend group. I didn't really have an outlet and this is my connection

[00:05:36] You know, they weren't athletes maybe they weren't maybe they were introverted

[00:05:40] You know, she has a lot of the lot of the kids that did shows my daughter included were just their introverts

[00:05:45] They're not the most social people but they would come in and they would sit down with her

[00:05:49] she'd kind of walk them through how to do a show whether it was a music show or a

[00:05:54] Podcast of some kind and you know, they kind of made a little friend group kind of thing

[00:05:59] That's important and even look even if they just do like a show or two about something that they're passionate about

[00:06:05] To be able to have

[00:06:08] You know a platform to voice your opinion and then to be heard right?

[00:06:13] Right like that act alone even if you just do it a couple times about some serious things that you have a

[00:06:19] strong emotions about

[00:06:21] That's that's like important and it helps like release

[00:06:24] like that inner dialogue because you got to put it out there and then

[00:06:28] You know who knows what can come of that? Like the friendships are coming of it. Maybe they learn something

[00:06:33] Maybe they take a different career path slightly because of maybe the engineering or they learn something new

[00:06:38] It opens up a lot of doors about it's all about creating right like in like that process and that's what's crazy about

[00:06:44] You know being in music or podcasting or doing college radio

[00:06:47] Whatever it is is like when you create you get around creative people and and then like you start making friends because you have

[00:06:53] Similar interests. I guess that's the main thing is you're making the bonds over the interest of creating

[00:06:59] Right on the radio and using using that I mean we've all seen it

[00:07:02] We maybe some of our closest friends are out of the workplace with us, you know

[00:07:06] And it's just because we have a common bond

[00:07:08] We're both working and doing the same whatever it is whether it's bagging groceries or King supers or your you know

[00:07:15] Shipping freight across the country you befriend other people that are like-minded and you go. Oh cool

[00:07:20] We have something in common and that was kind of what this was it was just I

[00:07:24] Have something I want to say or I have something I want to share with the world

[00:07:29] I need an outlet now and this was the the opportunity that they had a college radio and

[00:07:34] Then when they would get around other people to be oh well you like that song too

[00:07:37] I didn't know you like that music or I you know, you you know about this. I know about that, too

[00:07:41] Let's you know, let's collaborate a little bit hundred percent

[00:07:44] I would say being in this five years now

[00:07:45] The people I've met and like the common interest that have you know been discovered and can share with and the Denver podcast scene

[00:07:51] Alone tremendous. I mean the opportunities presented would have never happened if I just stayed not doing this, right?

[00:07:56] I wanted to be a musician for a long time and you know in the pandemic hit and that kind of got thrown to the

[00:08:00] Wayside and so this kind of took over priority spot

[00:08:02] I'm glad it did because it gives me something like somewhere. I gotta be every week. I do three shows a week now

[00:08:06] I love it man. It's truly it's fantastic. We get to do this

[00:08:08] So definitely podcasting radio all of it and needs to stay needs to be protected people need to be able to do it

[00:08:14] And say what they need to say

[00:08:15] I mean, you know

[00:08:17] There's certain platforms that like Spotify and then they'll sign deals to specific shows or barstool pull a program under their umbrella

[00:08:23] You know, we're just kind of out there on our own just saying what we want to say

[00:08:26] No one's saying you can't or can't do things and you know, I don't know what that looks like in college radio

[00:08:30] I mean you said a little bit those keep the f-bombs to a minimum

[00:08:32] But are some topics completely off off the charts. Thankfully we never got into that

[00:08:37] I always I always told my you know, I was told my daughter I was like

[00:08:41] You know there there are no limits because they are strictly streaming, you know now if they were over the air

[00:08:47] There'd be other

[00:08:48] Requirements FCC regulations and stuff like that that would prevent certain content from being on there but

[00:08:55] Essentially she was just like use your best judgment

[00:08:58] And these these weren't kids that you know

[00:09:01] They wanted to come on have hate speech or they wanted to come on and and again use

[00:09:05] Profanity or I want to play the most explicit music possible

[00:09:09] for the most part they knew how to function in a classroom and

[00:09:12] Generally when you're in a college classroom

[00:09:14] You're not gonna use that kind of language or that kind of music anything is gonna be so they already kind of had their own

[00:09:20] boundaries

[00:09:21] But yes, we never got to that point where it was like, okay

[00:09:24] We're gonna have to restrict content or we're gonna have to kind of you know run this by administration before we go

[00:09:30] I mean really when my daughter was first starting it

[00:09:33] She asked me, you know, so what do we do about profanity? What do we do about language?

[00:09:37] I said, you know what just go ask your advisor and she has an advisor there on campus that kind of

[00:09:41] Supports her and helps her make decisions and what's our what's our requirements here? What's our limits?

[00:09:47] And he's like we don't really have any

[00:09:50] and so

[00:09:51] Thankfully, no one took advantage of that and turned it into you know something negative, right?

[00:09:56] But who's to say it could go down, you know down further down the road somebody else may come along

[00:10:01] And I don't know

[00:10:04] Yeah, especially college kids. Yeah, but I just you know, I don't know and and you know

[00:10:09] You could interview somebody that's familiar with the the college station that they have at CU or CSU or you know

[00:10:15] Do you and they could tell you something completely different?

[00:10:18] Oh, yeah

[00:10:18] We have to do this because we have students that did this one year or whatever it varies

[00:10:23] I'm sure there's you know always exceptions to the rules out there

[00:10:26] But for the most part the kids were very respectful

[00:10:28] You know, they understood that this was a platform to share their ideas

[00:10:31] It wasn't there to be you know shock jocks. They weren't trying to shock shock jockel. Yeah exactly

[00:10:39] So I know that you did some college radio yourself back in the day. I did actually commercial radio

[00:10:44] Okay, so my college didn't have a radio station

[00:10:46] So that's why when I found out my daughter had one I was like, wow, this is cool

[00:10:49] Okay, so so commercial radio. Yeah, how did how did that look?

[00:10:53] And so I'm kind of curious how did that look and how different is it from like radio nowadays?

[00:10:59] Sure, so I did I was doing radio back in the 90s. So we still had a lot of

[00:11:05] You know analog

[00:11:06] You were using cassette tapes we were using cart machines reel to reel machines

[00:11:12] Everything was pretty much local driven very few satellite programming

[00:11:17] Maybe you got your news off of a satellite feed

[00:11:21] Especially if it was national news, okay, but for the most part everything was done in-house. And so you had to have somebody in the studio

[00:11:28] 24-7

[00:11:29] Because you know you were on the air. So that's how I kind of broke in

[00:11:33] You know 16 17 18 year old kid like we're gonna put you on the overnight shifts

[00:11:38] We're gonna put you on the weekend shifts. You're gonna be working holidays

[00:11:41] So that's where I was able to get my foot in the door is simply because they were like we need somebody

[00:11:45] Yeah, that can work Christmas and you know, the senior veteran people don't want to do that

[00:11:51] so that's how I ended up getting in and

[00:11:54] I did music radio. I did a little bit of news and

[00:11:58] Was also a producer for a sports talk radio

[00:12:03] And some traffic but again, it was simply the opportunity to get in because they needed somebody in the building

[00:12:10] 24-7. Yeah nowadays. I think there's a lot more that satellite driven a lot more that streaming

[00:12:19] Because of all the conglomeration that they've had within say like I heart radio or

[00:12:25] Odyssey or Bonneville a lot of these a lot of these bigger companies own multiple stations in

[00:12:31] multiple markets

[00:12:33] So they might program only

[00:12:36] local from say six to six

[00:12:39] When people are in their cars or when they're at their peak listenership and then from 6 p.m

[00:12:44] Back around to 6 a.m

[00:12:46] They switch over to a satellite or some sort of national feed or they've pre-recorded stuff

[00:12:51] I left radio to get into the corporate world around

[00:12:57] 2000 okay, and we just started to kind of see the automation and

[00:13:01] What that would look like back then was you would get?

[00:13:06] You'd have your music logs were basically all on a computer hard drive

[00:13:10] You had software that would go through and assign all the songs based on whatever parameters you put in place

[00:13:16] You know I wanted to play a certain number of new new music songs certain number of

[00:13:21] older songs certain number of songs that are what we call like

[00:13:26] Recurrence which means they were popular a few years ago

[00:13:28] And they're still kind of there on their way back kind of thing so you had all these different tiers you could put your music

[00:13:33] Levels into and you would tell this software. Okay, I want this many new songs this many classic songs this many

[00:13:40] You know semi classic these men and it would spit out a pretty cool

[00:13:44] It would spit out the software for you

[00:13:46] And then what we would do is that would basically fill our overnights

[00:13:50] But we would record everything as if it was live

[00:13:53] So I remember getting handed a log of saying okay, these are the songs that are all gonna be playing between

[00:13:58] 2 a.m.. And 3 a.m.. Here's your breaks

[00:14:01] And I would while I was you know just while somebody else was on the air

[00:14:06] I'd be sitting in the production studio, and I would just record okay, and that was you know whoever

[00:14:12] At and I'd kind of give like a rough time

[00:14:14] Yeah

[00:14:15] As to when it was gonna air and I would just fill in so it sounded like I was in studio

[00:14:20] Even though I was fast asleep

[00:14:23] Working ahead a little bit, and that's how they would and that's how they would kind of fill those overnights

[00:14:26] And so so you would come in and maybe your on air shift live would be four hours

[00:14:32] But then the other four hours of your eight hour shift would be used due to do production

[00:14:36] And you'd either be filling in time spots

[00:14:40] For the overnight hours when no one was in the studio

[00:14:42] Or you'd be recording commercials or promos or liners and some of the other stuff that they would have you do

[00:14:47] But yeah half your day was being on air the other half was doing production work

[00:14:50] And so it was to cover for weekends and evenings when they didn't have anybody in studio

[00:14:55] So they didn't have to pay somebody to be there

[00:14:56] It makes sense did anything ever malfunction in the night hours when no one was there

[00:15:00] It was still very very new technology back then I was at a station out in California and

[00:15:07] It the software went down on the weekend, and we were completely dead air

[00:15:11] Yeah, and I was a good hour from the station

[00:15:15] And this is pager time so we're going back in time a little bit here

[00:15:19] I'd get a I'd get a pay I had a pager that I had to carry with me because I was on call weekend and

[00:15:23] The pager would go off then the station was off air and sure enough. I turned on it dead silent

[00:15:28] I have to drive down to the station. So is it off air for that whole hour? Oh, yeah

[00:15:32] Just our radio silence radio silence is dead air

[00:15:35] I have to go down there and after you know reboot the computer

[00:15:38] And then it would catch itself back up you like you know keep the station tuned the whole drive

[00:15:43] Just to see just to see if it would come back yeah

[00:15:47] Yeah, but yeah, usually it didn't you'd go down there

[00:15:50] You'd have to just basically restart the computer, and it would log itself back in and then be good

[00:15:54] But that happened frequently and of course you know drive my wife crazy because she'd be like it's Saturday

[00:16:00] And you got to go down there and I'm like yeah

[00:16:02] I got to reset it got to reboot the station so now it's now

[00:16:05] It's a lot more reliable the listeners are reliant were relying on you by they were

[00:16:09] Dude was there like a stream of complaints if

[00:16:14] Well was the backlash for having a radio go silent for so long

[00:16:18] I mean listeners will just tune over to something else yeah, you know so they don't care. They would just okay

[00:16:23] Well, I'm just going on to the next station. It would be your boss

[00:16:26] That would be the ones that would give you the memo on Monday being like hey

[00:16:29] Why were we off the air for four hours who was you know who wasn't paying for ours?

[00:16:33] That's why it could happen. Yeah, I mean ours sure yeah, it could happen

[00:16:38] I got troubleshoot restart or just or use you don't know you don't get you don't get the text yeah, nobody knows

[00:16:44] Oh, well the you know you're out. You're out of

[00:16:47] Cell service or whatever you don't get the alert that the things off

[00:16:51] I mean you couldn't go up to the mountains

[00:16:53] You know if you were out of cell signal or whatever and that's true your pager didn't go off

[00:16:57] You didn't know or if you were again if you were in the mountains, and you were four hours away

[00:17:01] So it became a bit of a hassle, and I'm so thankful that today now the technology is better

[00:17:07] I haven't been into a modern commercial radio studio to see how they do it

[00:17:13] But I imagine they can reset those computers on a phone just pull up the app yeah

[00:17:18] They can log in from home. We couldn't do that. We were literally having to drive down to the station

[00:17:23] Unlock the door flip the switch turn it back on

[00:17:26] And that's how it's changed. There's a lot more

[00:17:28] Yeah, I bet you they still kind of like do that same format though like the pre recording and like oh they still do

[00:17:34] Yeah, you'll hear it even if if it's not if it's not them trying to cover it as local by using their own local voices

[00:17:42] It'll be a national show of some sort if it's especially if it's like say sports talk radio

[00:17:47] You know they've got guys that are doing sports talk radio that are based in LA or Nashville or New York

[00:17:52] And they just flip the switch and they you know they handle all the sports talk overnight

[00:17:56] And then they just keep it local for for the daytime for the daytime for people want to talk about Broncos Nuggets

[00:18:02] That makes sense and that's why they have those syndicated programs that they can tap into right

[00:18:07] Yeah, and you and you know you could do that back then as well if you wanted to set a satellite

[00:18:13] To go and pick up the feed

[00:18:15] But sometimes you had to pay for that and if you had a cheap ownership and they were like no you want to keep

[00:18:19] It local they would buy the software that would simulate it being local and just have people voice

[00:18:24] Make it sound like it was being done through the night. That's interesting

[00:18:28] I bet KOA does that so this thing we were on KOA about a year and a half ago

[00:18:31] Got to see their studio, which was pretty cool. I think it's one of their newer studios

[00:18:34] That's how we didn't really get to see the nuts and bolts of how it worked

[00:18:37] We were just on mic just like we are here, but the producers over there were really cool

[00:18:40] I know KOA has been around a long time people still listen to them

[00:18:42] I mean we were out and about and people yeah

[00:18:44] We just listen your interview and KOA still does pretty well from what I understand

[00:18:47] Well the biggest thing with radio that they've tried to

[00:18:50] sort of

[00:18:52] Steer everyone towards is it's local mm-hmm because you're gonna steal a lot of music stations have gotten

[00:18:58] Absorbed by people that want to listen to Spotify Pandora Apple music

[00:19:03] You know pick your poison they they get their music from there, and it's on demand

[00:19:07] They can dial up the song they want they can dial up the artists they want and they just go and so radios

[00:19:13] Answer to that is we have to be local

[00:19:15] You know where you gonna?

[00:19:16] Go if you want to talk apps where are you gonna?

[00:19:19] Go if you want to talk nuggets Broncos where you gonna?

[00:19:21] Go if you want to find out about the weather you know if there's a you know if there's an emergency alert

[00:19:25] You're gonna go to your radio because you may not get that notification on your phone

[00:19:29] and so radio stations have kind of had to evolve into trying to focus more on the community that they serve and

[00:19:35] Provide that local angle that doesn't make sense

[00:19:38] And that's one of the things that I was even telling my daughter when she's working on the radio station

[00:19:44] down in the Springs is

[00:19:46] Do stuff that like affects the college students?

[00:19:49] Do you know work with your administration?

[00:19:51] Promote the games that they're having on campus promote activities promote other clubs

[00:19:56] You know make it so that you're not just tuning in to the radio station to listen to music

[00:20:01] Or to listen to somebody's podcast about you know horror movies put some

[00:20:07] Local stuff in there that affects the school and provide value

[00:20:12] To your to your school. You know go to them and say hey

[00:20:16] What we want to be partners with you we want to help promote the they every year they do a

[00:20:21] Back-to-school concert they're down in Colorado Springs. We want to help you promote that concert

[00:20:26] So what do we need to do can we can we get an interview with the artist?

[00:20:30] It's going to be performing and we can air it on the station

[00:20:32] Can we incorporate some of that artists music into our regular music and play a song with the tagline?

[00:20:39] Hey come here these guys play at the the fall concert this date that this location

[00:20:45] You know work with the athletic department and do a show where you can bring in some of the coaches some of the athletes

[00:20:52] Hey, we got a big game this weekend against you know our in-state rival Metro

[00:20:58] Metro State's come into play a big game. You know come out

[00:21:00] Let's let's let's get the station there and my daughter was great about doing that

[00:21:04] But then she would also go down to the events and table them as well

[00:21:08] So she'd have a table that would say hey, here's our radio station

[00:21:11] So she would get you know a little cross-promotion

[00:21:13] She'd promote the the either the sporting athletic department or the you know the student life department their event

[00:21:20] And then she would be getting promotion from them when she would go to their events and people would see oh you're with

[00:21:25] That's the way you got to do it. You can't just attack things from one angle

[00:21:28] No, no you can but it's just like you're not gonna get as much juice out of the squeeze that way

[00:21:33] Yeah, that's building the report putting the name out there. You know getting new ears and eyes on it

[00:21:37] I think that's the way for sure and it's a great opportunity to advertise whatever they have at the school right

[00:21:41] Get people involved well and it it you know

[00:21:43] They're all you're all working together in that and that's what I try to tell her because

[00:21:48] Essentially the radio station is a club in the in the in the hierarchy of the administration there at

[00:21:55] UCCS they're just one of the clubs in addition to all the other clubs on campus

[00:22:00] But they were they were lie on funding from like the student media fee that they get so they get a little bit

[00:22:07] Of money from the school to help fund their club

[00:22:09] But that could be taken away at any moment

[00:22:12] You know because schools are always cutting programs or pinching pennies here and there

[00:22:16] And so I'm like you need to come up with a way to make your product valuable to the school

[00:22:22] So that if they have to go through and and unfortunately if they have to cut a club

[00:22:26] Yeah, it's not yours because they're like oh we need to keep the radio station because they help us promote the spring concert

[00:22:31] And we need to keep the radio station because they helped us promote this

[00:22:34] You know this event that we were doing or they help broadcast the sports games or they work with the athletic department

[00:22:39] To get the coaches and the players on the you know on the air to give them some publicity

[00:22:43] So give yourself a reason not to get cut give yourself a reason to be an asset alongside

[00:22:51] The administration so that they while you are a club they see you as more than just hey

[00:22:56] We're not just the chess club, or we're not just the yeah

[00:22:59] There's like it there's like about a value asset that you're bringing right

[00:23:02] It's not just like a money suck basically right right put just something fun that the kids want to do like you know

[00:23:09] reiterate that we're providing a service to the to the community and

[00:23:13] We're also

[00:23:15] providing an outlet for kids to go in and record a show so you're getting two benefits from our

[00:23:22] Particular service, you know we're helping the students who maybe are a little introvert who are a little shy

[00:23:28] But have this desire to share their music or their talents or their

[00:23:33] Interests on air and we're also helping you the school promote whatever event you're trying to do

[00:23:39] Whether it's a sporting event a music event she was working with the fine arts department

[00:23:43] And you know hey come see this play that the the fine arts department is putting on or the orchestra is performing

[00:23:50] Or the choir you know she was working with all those people on campus

[00:23:52] Those clubs are all like grateful to to get the publicity and that too yeah, right

[00:23:57] So I would say radio is probably out of all the clubs one of the more essential

[00:24:02] I would agree you know as far as like promotion and kind of circling back to something you were saying earlier

[00:24:08] About pre-recorded content on radios in general it got me thinking like what percentage of

[00:24:15] All of the radio that I've heard

[00:24:17] Has been something that's like pre-recorded that I thought was already probably like the DJ was actually in there doing it right

[00:24:24] You know so there's like a lot of layers to it. What do you think are some of the?

[00:24:29] biggest challenges that like modern radio has

[00:24:33] In light the digital landscape with all like the I hearts and stuff

[00:24:36] I mean the first challenge that you have of course is all the streaming services that are available whether it's Spotify YouTube

[00:24:44] Pandora Apple music wherever people are getting their other you know getting their music from

[00:24:49] Because they can do that on demand if I want to hear the newest song from Taylor Swift

[00:24:55] I can pull it up right on my phone. I don't have to wait for it to come up on the radio

[00:25:00] So that's always that's how that's how it was growing up. Yeah, like we were

[00:25:04] Yeah, and then you'd like make the your own mixtape

[00:25:07] Yeah from the radio and you would like hope that you'd start your recording

[00:25:11] On time the song started and then you like come up with your own mix that was the 90s recorded on yeah

[00:25:15] And you know you know the DJ wouldn't talk over the top of it and screw it up for you. Yeah

[00:25:21] Yeah, how things have changed like that so that we used to look forward to doing stuff like that

[00:25:25] Oh, yeah, so that's the struggle that I think they have is just the fact that people can get their music

[00:25:30] Their sports talk their podcasts their news on demand and those were all features that were available

[00:25:36] Only through radio and TV

[00:25:38] So the biggest challenge that I think radio has is that they've got to keep it local to the sense that people are going

[00:25:44] To tune in because they know that they're not going to be able to get that from a streaming service

[00:25:48] They want to have that local feel so there's been a lot of drive towards making

[00:25:53] Radio more local and serving their communities now. It was interesting

[00:25:57] We were at a college radio conference at the first part of May first part of March excuse me in New York City

[00:26:03] So all of these that sounds like fun. Yeah, it was it was a blast

[00:26:07] Yeah, and learned so much and got to see other schools. You know it wasn't just schools from Colorado

[00:26:13] it was schools nationwide and

[00:26:16] Some big schools some little schools

[00:26:18] They all came to this conference

[00:26:19] And they were all sharing best practices and stuff and they try to bring in people from the industry

[00:26:24] To kind of speak at these workshops and conferences as well and one gentleman came in

[00:26:28] He was with he was with one of the big two the big two are I heart radio or Odyssey

[00:26:32] Okay, I heart has like 800 radio stations nationwide

[00:26:37] Koa being one of them

[00:26:39] Odyssey I think is second and they've got maybe two fifty three hundred

[00:26:43] So don't hold me to these numbers. This was and it could have changed

[00:26:47] Yeah, but they run a lot of stations and this gentleman came in and he was like while they've seen a dip in

[00:26:53] Listenership because people aren't in their car

[00:26:57] Commuting as much a lot of people work from home

[00:26:59] So maybe they're not listening to the morning show like they would have pre

[00:27:02] pre-covid when they would have been driving into work or they're driving home listening to their you know,

[00:27:07] They're they're talk shows and what-have-you

[00:27:09] They have seen a decrease but it's hasn't been as significant within the minority communities

[00:27:17] they said that radio is still very big within the Latin community and the and the

[00:27:23] African-american community and so if you're somebody that's in that industry

[00:27:28] You really have an opportunity to kind of

[00:27:31] Taylor towards that towards that group. You know the yeah

[00:27:35] you know the the and even to some degree it hasn't dropped off as much as like television like television seen a significant drop in their

[00:27:44] Going down by the day. They are television is really struggling but radio has kind of held its own and they've been okay and

[00:27:52] Like I said it within the the minority communities. It's still going relatively strong

[00:27:57] So that's that's another avenue that hasn't been replaced yet by your

[00:28:02] Streaming music service. Yes

[00:28:04] Is within the Hispanic and the and the African-american community? I wouldn't known that that's that's interesting information there

[00:28:11] One thing I have noticed that's worked

[00:28:12] Well is seeing like KOA for example go take their program that they did the six to nine hour with

[00:28:18] Raskaminsky or whoever does it and then you can go listen on Spotify if you missed the six to nine

[00:28:22] Yeah, you missed on your drive

[00:28:23] No need to worry because but you know before right if you missed that six to nine hour

[00:28:26] Show it was now they have an opportunity to maybe I'll listen to that later

[00:28:29] I got stuff to do and I thought helped them and I think they count that yeah

[00:28:33] You know, I think that's that or look towards their relationship if you listen to it on your drive home great

[00:28:37] But if you also pick it up later when you're being a running errands or mowing the lawn or whatever

[00:28:43] Then that I think they can they have a way of tracking that and count that as part of a listenership as well

[00:28:47] Yeah

[00:28:47] And then you have the social media piece right switch back when you're in radio what like with the radio went down you

[00:28:52] Could put out a tweet now saying hey, we're down. We're working on it. Nobody knew we were in the dark

[00:28:55] So that's got to be a tool for them as well

[00:28:57] I think and they do a lot of it a lot of a lot of the in fact a lot of the on-air

[00:29:01] personalities today are

[00:29:03] Encouraged and almost required to have social media accounts, you know

[00:29:08] It's not uncommon for your music stations to be promoting a concert and then have their personalities

[00:29:16] tweeting or

[00:29:17] Posting on Instagram from the event on their own personal accounts not not the stations account. It's like hey

[00:29:23] You know Suzy Johnson who does the afternoons over here at the music station

[00:29:29] her personal account is showing pictures of her and her friends hanging out at the

[00:29:34] you know, the

[00:29:35] Whatever the the Harry Styles concert and trying to get people that so they want you even to kind of

[00:29:41] Almost come outside of your own personal space. Yeah and show yourself now

[00:29:46] That's like I feel like there's like a legal gray line there sure

[00:29:50] Like where it's like encouraged but you can't put certain things on there

[00:29:53] Yeah, you can well you can't like say that they have to yeah

[00:29:56] It's like encouraged that makes sense because you want to build up the program and yourself, right?

[00:30:00] It's gonna fit the station in your portfolio at the same time. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah

[00:30:04] Yeah, they're all about getting the followers and that often, you know, we used to call in

[00:30:09] I'm sure you remember his kids calling into the radio to try to win contests. Yeah, I'm trying to win tickets

[00:30:15] I'm trying to win whatever. Oh, yeah, that's all been pushed to social media. That's true

[00:30:18] They really want they want you to interact with them on their social media

[00:30:21] So they come up with contests that they were on on Instagram or on Twitter or on Facebook

[00:30:25] It used to be fun back in the day. Like I remember used to try to color

[00:30:28] Yeah, and like calling and like hit that like maybe I could be the same. Oh, yeah

[00:30:32] Yeah, and like I would never hit I would sometimes I remember I got through once and they're like no

[00:30:38] You're not the one and I was like, ah, but it was funny like actually get answered

[00:30:42] Yeah, they don't do that anymore. No that way they want they want you to they want you on your social media

[00:30:47] And usually what it means in order for you to participate is they want you to tag other people

[00:30:51] Yeah, so they're using it as a way to grow their I even you know, we even ran one

[00:30:55] I told my daughter I was like here's an idea for one you can do

[00:30:58] They had some concert tickets that they were given for a show down there in Colorado Springs and they're like give the tickets away

[00:31:05] But the way you get an entry into the drawing is you have to tag other people

[00:31:10] And the more people you tag the more entries you get and so she would have people that would tag like ten people

[00:31:16] On the station's Instagram account they got a follow and then she would pull based on that

[00:31:21] So she was able to grow her following on good idea stations

[00:31:26] It's great just by having people tag other people and liking posts and following and things like that

[00:31:31] Yeah, so that's where they've gone more with those on air contests. It makes sense though. No, I like that idea

[00:31:36] That's that seems to be the way everyone's on their phone. Now. Everyone's get most part folks

[00:31:40] I talked about social media. Hey, you know, what's your at this and and the other my question is with traffic

[00:31:45] I've always wondered especially back when when you were doing traffic

[00:31:48] How how was that like was it do you have people out on the streets just monitoring these accidents?

[00:31:52] How is it all monitored?

[00:31:53] We had a service at least the stations that I worked out we had a service and

[00:31:57] There were a couple ways you could do it. You was it was either the old fax machine

[00:32:02] Print that would come off the fax machine

[00:32:04] It would say, you know accident at this location slow down

[00:32:07] You know at this whatever and you would just you basically read it like a new script

[00:32:11] You know, so you'd go on and you know say, you know, I'm Eric Brandon with traffic and you know

[00:32:16] We've got a slowdown on I 25 just passed Hamden

[00:32:21] You know advised using the left and you were just reading a script

[00:32:24] That was one service that you could get the other service and a lot of these now use that and you'll hear them

[00:32:30] If you listen to any of them that are owned by say I heart altogether

[00:32:34] There's a there's a traffic department that they subscribe to and they just record for your station

[00:32:40] So that's all these people do is just traffic and they just record it and then they add

[00:32:46] Whatever the station is

[00:32:47] You know, this is this is Tim Johnson for KOA

[00:32:51] And then if you immediately flip over to another station that's owned by the same people that own KOA

[00:32:56] This is Tim Johnson for you know, cool 105 Tim Johnson's all over the place

[00:33:00] Yeah record all this quickly and he's just it's just he's just doing it coming down one at a time

[00:33:05] He's just recording the same thing over and over again

[00:33:07] He's just tagging it and then somebody the on-air person is then mashing it up with whatever they need

[00:33:12] I've noticed that with weather to our friend Kylie Burr server at Fox 31 every station

[00:33:16] It's always her giving the reports in the morning. So it's probably works the same way. I imagine they'll do that, too

[00:33:20] Yeah, and they'll part and they'll partner with the TV stations too. Yeah often you'll have a radio station that's getting a

[00:33:27] Weather forecast from somebody out of TV station, but it's used as a cross promotion for the TV station

[00:33:33] Hey, you know listen to us on your draw

[00:33:35] You know this evening for at five on whatever channel seven or whatever

[00:33:40] So they that was you know, that was the other way we were we were getting our traffic is either

[00:33:44] You would read it yourself off of a script that was sent to you or you would just sign into a service and I

[00:33:51] Always picture just like a team like they're scouting like an elite team that would like they would always be in the helicopter

[00:33:58] Well, they did some of the bigger stations had the helicopters and you would see so they're not always up there flying around

[00:34:04] No, like see that's how I always thought it was like there was always a helicopter spot

[00:34:08] And what was going on telling you where the wrecks are? Yeah beforehand, right?

[00:34:12] Yeah, I was at I was the very first station that I was at was in my hometown a unit Yuma, Arizona

[00:34:16] You may Arthur you may know this story

[00:34:18] So I was grew up in Yuma, Arizona

[00:34:20] which is right on the border between California and Arizona and Mexico and

[00:34:24] Little small radio station was where I got my first break and we didn't have traffic because you didn't need it

[00:34:29] It was a small tail. Why would you do traffic?

[00:34:31] But one of the bits that our morning show would do was they had this guy

[00:34:36] His name was Nigel prop wash and he'd he would do a wash prop wash

[00:34:40] Oh, that's a name. Yeah, it's a I believe it's a aerospace term of some sort

[00:34:44] but

[00:34:45] He would he would come on and it was one of the one of the on-air guys and he had an

[00:34:50] Australian accent and he would come on and they had a sound effect of a helicopter and he would just have this rent

[00:34:56] He just had these random takes about flying over the desert in Arizona

[00:35:01] Spotting rattlesnakes and coyotes running around and that was his traffic report

[00:35:06] But people probably believe people probably well it was it was done for humor

[00:35:09] Yeah, he would always have something silly that he would talk about but yeah, it was just the hey we got an overturned

[00:35:16] tractor on you know route 45 and

[00:35:20] That was just the bit that they would pull that's fun though. Yes, that's keeping the locals

[00:35:24] You know laughing along right because I'm sure that was a long-running joke. Was there a stoplight in that town?

[00:35:28] Oh, yeah, we had enough. I was trying to see how small it was. No, we were 40 40 50 thousand people

[00:35:34] Okay, so not tiny. Yeah, but not huge but not huge enough to have a radio station

[00:35:38] I think you would need a traffic reporter. Yeah

[00:35:41] I bet you people actually believed that what they this guy was seeing out of the health

[00:35:46] Helicopter because early on when we were doing a DC PC promotion stuff

[00:35:49] We like made these little commercials where it put a DC PC logo like on an airplane

[00:35:54] Yeah, and then also a helicopter and it looked really good and good and people were asking us. They're like

[00:36:01] No way

[00:36:02] Yeah, you guys got yeah your name on a Boeing 737

[00:36:06] Yeah, and we're all like we're just kind of owning it a little bit

[00:36:11] Like we're just kind of like oh yeah, you know, like we weren't we weren't confirming nor denying

[00:36:16] You know that it was true and then people there's an elevator

[00:36:19] I mean sorry not the elevator but the the helicopter you can see these two people like people sitting in it and one

[00:36:25] Of them kind of looks like a profile of Kev. It's funny. Yes

[00:36:28] So they're like is Kev actually in that helicopter? It looks like like we were like on super official podcast business

[00:36:34] You know hopping in helicopters and stuff. That's funny

[00:36:37] Well, that was during like the marketing trying to grow our viewership portion like when we went to YouTube

[00:36:42] That was a tough jump

[00:36:43] That's a tough market to go from audio only to YouTube and we launched video only on March of 2020

[00:36:50] So COVID it was just about to hit just about to hit the world

[00:36:54] We got what two episodes in then we had to shut the whole thing down

[00:36:57] After spending all this money on the equipment and getting all you know, YouTube set up. It's like here's a new challenge for you

[00:37:02] Yeah

[00:37:02] So, you know jumping over to YouTube about how are we gonna grow this market over here?

[00:37:05] Just because you have a great content doesn't mean people are gonna find it

[00:37:08] I think that's still to this day something like I am constantly trying to research and understand how to because it's a saturated market

[00:37:15] There's so many channels, you know these big businesses that do it. They have you know the money to hire these

[00:37:20] Advertising companies and can put these embedded videos everywhere to drop draw viewership and stuff

[00:37:25] But it's it's tough to start a channel now and really really get it to take off

[00:37:28] Right right. Yeah, I think I think and you know Arthur and I had talked about this off-air

[00:37:33] We were looking into that for the college radio station because there were quite a few

[00:37:40] Schools at this conference that we went to that they were also doing

[00:37:43] You know, they were doing YouTube

[00:37:46] Shorts they were doing full content talk shows on their own YouTube channel and they were using it as a revenue source

[00:37:54] Now the station down in Colorado Springs is strictly audio only, you know

[00:37:58] It's a small little conference room with an array of four microphones and they just record everything onto a computer hard drive

[00:38:06] Edit it in the software and upload it to the to the cloud service that they use to do the streaming

[00:38:11] But there's an opportunity

[00:38:14] because other schools are using it to have some of this be done on video and

[00:38:19] Especially if it's sports related you can show clips

[00:38:22] You know if it's if it's related to you know concert

[00:38:26] You could show clips of you know concerts and things like that

[00:38:29] So there is a there's a whole nother Avenue that people who are traditionally doing radio

[00:38:34] can pivot and incorporate some of this video because there is such a demand for

[00:38:39] Shorts on social media or long form stuff on YouTube Spotify things like that

[00:38:45] So it's it's another area that people can add to their portfolio

[00:38:49] Even if all they're doing and they're all they're accustomed to is radio. Yeah, it's definitely a tool and a resource for sure

[00:38:55] I mean the shorts, you know people are scrolling you got the tick tocks and the 60-second hits those seem to do really really well

[00:39:00] Yeah, you know just just with me playing around with it and trying different things these long form

[00:39:04] You know, this would be over an hour program on YouTube

[00:39:07] You know you start to see a drop off when we look at the analytics

[00:39:10] And then we can track it to the age demographic. It seems like over 35 they'll hang on a lot longer

[00:39:14] Yes, so it's like you got to analyze all this data and go, you know what makes sense

[00:39:18] Yeah, so how to crack the code YouTube algorithm and then it's always changing

[00:39:24] They had it constantly change the algorithm. So it's it's it's an interesting. I don't know. I saw this one video once where

[00:39:30] The the creator he was talking about

[00:39:33] His success and like what they were doing wrong for so many years as they would find a successful

[00:39:39] YouTuber find like oh, I like that

[00:39:41] I like their form and then they would kind of just mimic that form right and then they wouldn't see the same success

[00:39:46] they're essentially doing the same thing somebody else has already done and

[00:39:50] Essentially what the video said is you need to do something that is unique to you and

[00:39:56] Then you will see success from it. So then you're not copying a formula

[00:40:00] You're like creating something that only you can create because you know, you're being unique in like

[00:40:06] Authentic about who you are and so like that's kind of the secret to it

[00:40:10] But then at the same time and this part I don't feel like has talked about enough

[00:40:15] But if you really want to like jumpstart success on YouTube you got to play by the rules and and what I mean by that

[00:40:22] Is like what you actually talk about and what your content?

[00:40:27] What the underlying tone is to your content and I feel like to a certain extent if you are super transparent and

[00:40:35] honest about everything then you know, you don't you're not beating to the same drum and to like the same message that

[00:40:43] Might get more promoted

[00:40:45] Like I'm trying to say that in a roundabout way, you know

[00:40:49] We're going to where it's not super specific, but hopefully you could pick up what I'm putting down there

[00:40:54] It goes back to the micromanaging content question. Like I had earlier. Yeah about the school

[00:40:57] Yeah, YouTube kind of does that a little bit

[00:40:59] I mean, I think I don't want to say every platform but to some degree there is some censoring happening

[00:41:04] I think that's also concerning too though

[00:41:06] If you know the internet we want to keep it as free as we can obviously know with the tick-tock band coming

[00:41:10] That's a whole nother discussion but you know when it comes to content creation when you start capping that I think that's where it gets a little

[00:41:15] Dicey it absolutely does it absolutely does because you you end up limiting the voices in the room, right?

[00:41:21] So if you don't have the the narrative that we want you to have then we're going to deep platform you

[00:41:27] We're gonna limit who can hear see what you have to share and that is very troubling

[00:41:33] You know, the refreshing part is we haven't seen that in college radio. That's good that I'm aware of

[00:41:38] Just kind of

[00:41:40] Interacting with some of the other schools that were at this conference talking to some of the advisors the staff members that work with

[00:41:46] the students

[00:41:48] They don't seem to be too restrictive on what they do when they say student content

[00:41:53] Student-run content they mean student-run content a lot of these a lot of these advisors

[00:41:58] Even though they work for the university

[00:42:00] Are really just there to make sure that the kids don't get too out of control now. Do they have limits?

[00:42:05] Sure, we all do you know and there's gonna be campus policy that's gonna prevent this that and the other thing

[00:42:10] But for the most part I got the impression that a lot of these colleges

[00:42:14] Kind of let kids go on and kind of talk about what they want to talk about

[00:42:18] You know and if it's if it's offensive to some then it's done in a learning environment

[00:42:24] In that we're gonna you know, okay. Let's talk about why that's offensive

[00:42:27] Let's have that discussion. What was like one of the more impactful conversations that you feel like

[00:42:32] You you saw or like heard on college radio sure

[00:42:37] So at this conference you had really big schools with staff of you know, 20 30 40 50 kids

[00:42:45] Again, my daughter's school was is was three three students and a staff advisor and I was

[00:42:52] Assisting as sort of just a parent volunteer. Yeah

[00:42:55] So I was just helping her based on my experience that I had from radio, but some of these larger schools

[00:43:01] Their advisor was like, you know what? I'm gonna let you guys vote on how you want to do it

[00:43:07] You know

[00:43:07] Well, we'll hold a staff meeting to talk about what it is that we need to work on either today or this week

[00:43:13] Or you know whatever programming but it's up to you guys to create the content

[00:43:18] It's up to you to go out if you're gonna do a podcast and you guess I want you to go out and get

[00:43:23] Them if you're gonna do music you need to decide how much profanity are we gonna allow?

[00:43:28] Are we gonna edit the songs at all?

[00:43:30] To make them radio-friendly or are we gonna let you just play whatever you want and

[00:43:35] often it was put up to a vote and

[00:43:38] Really the advisor only stepped in if it was something that was against school policy or or something that he or she felt could

[00:43:45] potentially be a

[00:43:46] Problem with the school, but they let the kids make mistakes

[00:43:49] They let the kids go out and you know if they did something controversial they would take the heat for it

[00:43:54] Yeah

[00:43:55] So long as they you know, somebody wasn't gonna end up getting fired and it was a learning environment

[00:44:01] They kind of let it go. Okay, that's good. It's refreshing her school didn't do any political talk

[00:44:07] But there was a category that they were giving awards for that was you know best political talk show

[00:44:13] I can only imagine what a you know, a political talk show and

[00:44:17] College campus might sound like you know, especially this year with an election year

[00:44:22] But they would let those kids kind of go wherever they wanted to talk about whatever topics they wanted to talk about that was

[00:44:28] going on in the world and they did it in a way that they could learn and grow and

[00:44:33] Hopefully everybody was respectful each other but you know, you just don't know but yeah

[00:44:38] It was it was all done in a way in which kids were encouraged to learn make mistakes

[00:44:43] Maybe challenge what they're comfortable with but at the end they're learning and growing

[00:44:49] Sounds like great program. I like it. I wish I would have taken it up earlier

[00:44:52] I got into a kind of late got into music late

[00:44:54] Like I feel like I missed it a little bit and trying to catch on that train before it leaves

[00:44:58] But you know the tools and resources that they have now wasn't really available when I yes 15 years ago podcast

[00:45:03] And wasn't he really a thing yet?

[00:45:05] But just seeing it's cool. I like to see kids get inspired by like we talked about

[00:45:08] We didn't we didn't have the equipment available to us, you know back in the day to do that kind of right

[00:45:12] You know

[00:45:13] You couldn't you couldn't just pick up stuff off of off of Amazon cheap or go down to a used

[00:45:19] Maybe there was a used music store in your town that you could get some equipment secondhand

[00:45:23] But for the most part that stuff was all left to the professionals

[00:45:26] If you wanted to record anything you were using your tape, you know tape recorder and hoping that it sounded good

[00:45:32] But now there's so much stuff that's available low cost

[00:45:35] You could build a studio in your you know in a little empty classroom somewhere on a college campus

[00:45:40] For very little money and give give an outlet for these kids to kind of record and stuff

[00:45:45] I mean they could probably do most of it on their phone

[00:45:47] We had we had one school that was at the conference that they did all their YouTube stuff on their phone

[00:45:54] They were just like we just send the kids out. We're like film something on your phone

[00:45:58] Bring it back. Maybe they do a little bit of cleanup, but for the most part everything is captured on their phones

[00:46:03] We could have never done that. That's good point

[00:46:05] That's good point because now you can plug in like the USB sees have these little MIDI devices that you can attach to it

[00:46:10] And then you can go around interview people. Yep sound quality is pretty decent

[00:46:13] You know, you don't have all that muffling in the background

[00:46:15] So that's true the tools and everything's got smaller too easier to carry you don't have this big bulky heavy equipment

[00:46:20] So which we had that a little bit a little bit sooner

[00:46:23] Yeah, I bet you when it came down to the voting though kind of going back to that for like these bigger

[00:46:29] College radio clubs where there's like multiple like 30 people or something when it comes down to the vote for

[00:46:36] Allowing profanity in the songs or not

[00:46:39] My vote I'm thinking that they're going to vote. Yes to college radio has profanity

[00:46:45] Yeah, I would say yes. Well here's a story that went along that goes along with that. Okay, so one of the advisors

[00:46:53] That was there he was in

[00:46:56] Commercial radio back in the 80s and 90s worked with a guy out in LA called Rick named Rick Deese

[00:47:02] He was like huge he was he was basically Ryan Seacrest before Ryan Seacrest, right? Okay big morning show out in Los Angeles

[00:47:08] he was on the Rick Deese show and

[00:47:11] He got up there in age kind of retired but went to work at one of the California

[00:47:17] Universities there in LA and was going to be their advisor for their student radio station

[00:47:23] streaming station so they didn't have the FCC requirements concerning profanity and

[00:47:28] They is that weird that streaming gets all these different breaks compared to like live

[00:47:33] Well, I think I guess

[00:47:35] Yeah, the assumption is that it's your choice to to tune in on a streaming platform

[00:47:41] So you know in advance there could be profanity?

[00:47:43] Yeah

[00:47:43] If you're just switching around the dial on your car radio when you're driving up and down I 25

[00:47:49] I've got kids in the car. You might have kids in the car grandma might be in the car. You might hear something

[00:47:53] Yeah, it makes sense. That makes sense

[00:47:54] Like any of our friends that have kids if we call them and they pick up in the car, they're like hey

[00:47:59] I'm on speaker phone. That's what you do

[00:48:02] My kids in the car right now how you doing today?

[00:48:06] They're basically streaming that phone call at that point, right?

[00:48:09] But so this this guy left and he was running the college radio station there and in LA at one of the Cal State

[00:48:16] And they had that same dilemma. They were playing music

[00:48:22] uncensored and the

[00:48:24] Dean was taking some corporate, you know donors some alumni around campus

[00:48:31] Happened to walk right underneath one of the speakers

[00:48:34] Got an earful of the f-bomb. Mm-hmm. And of course, you know, she kind of played it off and was like, oh, yeah

[00:48:40] That's our radio station, huh?

[00:48:42] But he ended up getting a memo from her saying look we need it. We need to see about something

[00:48:47] They put it up to a vote with the students

[00:48:49] Yeah, and they came to a compromise that basically during business hours

[00:48:53] So, you know nine to five

[00:48:56] They were gonna have when all radio friend all the tea when all the professors are teaching teachers

[00:49:02] students parents

[00:49:04] Faculty members I get behind that

[00:49:06] Yeah, make sense to me and then they then they were allowed to flip the switch after hours

[00:49:10] Okay, whatever they want to okay. That was the compromise that came to which I thought that's fair

[00:49:14] That's a fair way. Everyone kind of wins there because it's a business, you know at the end of the day

[00:49:18] It's still a business. You're still representing the school

[00:49:20] And you want to just make sure that you know while most people in this world are fine with a little profanity

[00:49:25] Yeah, you just never know who's gonna walk through your door

[00:49:28] You don't want to make them when you just got out of high school and all these rules. You're an adult now

[00:49:31] Yeah, and so like, you know 18 plus you're like let the swear words fly

[00:49:36] You know, I will I will kind of blow up my mom's spot here just a little bit

[00:49:40] She was so good when I was growing up

[00:49:42] She would always always you know use proper good word sentences and good words and wouldn't swear

[00:49:48] My brother was six years older than me and when I turned 18 or like I was 17 or something like she's like, okay

[00:49:55] That's enough

[00:49:57] You guys are all old enough now. So I'm gonna start fucking cussing

[00:50:02] Yeah, and then she's tasteful with it, yeah, you know, yeah, but like we were saying yeah even the leg

[00:50:08] There's appropriate times and you know

[00:50:11] She helped teach me that it was not always appropriate to swear all the time

[00:50:15] But when absolutely needed it helped release your emotions that you had on something. Yeah, that's funny

[00:50:22] That's when you when mom at business. Oh, yeah mom always have had away

[00:50:25] She when I was growing up we had a swear jar

[00:50:27] It looked like a lemonade pitcher and handwritten swear jar on it

[00:50:31] Anytime profanity happened quarter went in that sucker by the end of summer

[00:50:34] Well, we had enough to go to a concert or go do something fun

[00:50:37] So I was like is it worth it should I use the profanity and save up for something?

[00:50:41] What's the compromise? That's funny

[00:50:43] Yeah, I got my mouth washed out by oh yeah had that the first time that I actually like side like swore at my mother

[00:50:51] No, she

[00:50:53] Soapworthy. Yeah, so so even though

[00:50:56] Ma you eventually use cuss words you washed my mouth

[00:50:59] That was so when I used mine when I was young and I respect you

[00:51:04] And then like is that is that like allowed now?

[00:51:06] I was gonna ask that like is that like child is that considered like child abuse nowadays change a little bit

[00:51:11] You know like I don't know how like the modern the modern. Yeah, I don't know how it is

[00:51:16] Yeah, I mean we don't have kids. I don't have kids

[00:51:17] So I just see how my buddies are raising their kids and I'm like, well

[00:51:20] I remember how I was brought up and I guess everything changes with each generation, right?

[00:51:24] Yeah, you know, I didn't grow up with a cell phone and a tablet in my hand all the time

[00:51:27] I was playing in the dirt. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you know, so I don't know we got out of it

[00:51:32] Just in time. I feel like yeah, I Facebook would have been no good for me in high school

[00:51:36] I wouldn't I would have the temptations of it and the cyber bullying all that shit. It's no good

[00:51:40] Well, yeah, and we've talked to people about that too about how much it's like affecting

[00:51:45] Students like hey, oh I saw that this whole group got invited to a party

[00:51:50] And they'd never got an invite, but then they found out through

[00:51:54] Facebook's yeah social media. They saw it and then they're feeling left out because of that. So

[00:51:59] Yeah, it's a blessing and a curse. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know social media

[00:52:03] I agree with a light, you know

[00:52:07] Physical discipline. I think that's okay

[00:52:10] You know not full-on like abuse but like oh with kids. I don't know. This is one of those subjects you start talking about

[00:52:18] Striking children. Yeah, this is where YouTube says hey, we're pulling it right there gonna hear that striking children line in there

[00:52:25] Do it YouTube we're not pros in anything. Yeah

[00:52:32] This program was about college radio how they evolve into that yeah, welcome to discuss combustion

[00:52:36] You don't know which way this thing's right exactly. This makes it fun though. I know

[00:52:41] Yeah, and it's just you know, it's that environment because we're talking about radio is something that is so fundamental

[00:52:48] To the development of this country like in the earliest ages

[00:52:52] Like this is how stuff like information was passed like everyone would be listening to the baseball game on the radio

[00:52:57] Yeah, everyone be tuned around the radio

[00:53:00] Oh, yeah, like hanging out until the TVs came and then everyone was hanging around the TVs

[00:53:04] So it's like

[00:53:05] It's still here and then it's in different forms now as well

[00:53:09] And it's just like same with parenting like there's these solid like foundation ways of parenting that really worked build these great

[00:53:17] Generations like we can't completely let go of some of these foundations

[00:53:22] Even though there's different forms of it now, you know, so that's like a whole cover

[00:53:27] That's a whole conversation within itself though comparing radio

[00:53:31] To parenting. Yeah, maybe that's a bit of a stretch

[00:53:35] Little bit

[00:53:37] It's a bit of a stretch there

[00:53:39] But one classic question that we kind of got away from asking is often I guess we have huh?

[00:53:44] Yeah

[00:53:44] but you know

[00:53:45] I feel like I feel like you're worthy of this classic question discussion combustion question and the question is

[00:53:51] That let's say that the whole world hears this tomorrow

[00:53:54] Okay, and you you're offering one piece of advice to humanity

[00:53:59] So that everybody can be better tomorrow, what would that one piece of advice be?

[00:54:05] so I would say everybody has like a story to tell

[00:54:11] It's just how do they get that story out?

[00:54:13] now if you're an extrovert and you're somebody that just likes to talk and

[00:54:17] You're easy to make friends with and you are a person that doesn't mind sharing your opinion

[00:54:22] You probably will share that

[00:54:24] That idea that message

[00:54:27] Regularly, but if you're somebody who maybe you're a little introverted, maybe you're a little shy

[00:54:33] You need an outlet and I kind of classify radio under say like the arts in the sense that

[00:54:40] people are expressing their

[00:54:42] Feelings their emotions through their art just like a person would if they were to make a painting or they were to play

[00:54:48] A piece of music create a piece of music. So

[00:54:51] radio at least at the college level is

[00:54:55] Production of those ideas and presented to an audience

[00:55:00] Now your radio station college radio station may not have but just a handful of listeners

[00:55:05] But just getting that out there is

[00:55:09] Is healing for some people?

[00:55:12] You know, there's there's a kid that's on

[00:55:14] My daughter's radio station a little bit younger than her

[00:55:17] He came in as a freshman and wanted to do a show about local music

[00:55:23] Who's really big into just local bands and stuff like that

[00:55:26] He's like I want to do a local music show and my daughter's like absolutely come on

[00:55:29] You know you can do it and so he played a lot of a lot of local artists that he found on YouTube

[00:55:34] What not?

[00:55:35] Came in had a blast

[00:55:37] Did it again came in next week has kept doing it kept doing it

[00:55:41] I think the kids up to like 35 different shows that he's done. That's awesome over like a two-year two-year span terrific and

[00:55:48] My daughter just graduated so they did like a little farewell end-of-year party

[00:55:52] And he came up to her and he said he goes I came to school with no friends

[00:55:57] And I saw this club that was a radio club. I thought that'd be really fun

[00:56:02] I should sign up for it

[00:56:03] He's like you were the first friend that I ever made my daughter's the first friend I ever made and through that

[00:56:08] He's made all these other friends guys that are in bands and stuff will send him

[00:56:12] You know send them demo tapes to play on his show

[00:56:15] He actually met his current girlfriend through that show. Okay, he went to it

[00:56:19] He went to a local so the show was done. Well, the show was done

[00:56:23] Well, yeah, yeah, and he went to it. He went to a little show

[00:56:27] Met this girl and now she helps him

[00:56:29] So she's like his co-host and they're dating but he used that opportunity to share his message of

[00:56:37] I love local radio. I love I love local bands. I want to do a local radio show

[00:56:42] To kind of express himself and through that he was able to connect with other people

[00:56:46] Make friends do all this other stuff that I don't think he would have gotten the opportunity to do if the radio station hadn't existed

[00:56:53] If that outlet hadn't been there, you know, we're not all gonna play on a sports team and make friends with our with our teammates

[00:57:00] We're not all gonna join a band and make friends with the people that are in our band

[00:57:04] We're not all gonna do you know this that the other thing but we might do a podcast or we might do a music show

[00:57:11] That's an expression of what we love and somebody else also loves it

[00:57:16] And also wants to connect with us and then we find another person and we find another person and another person before you know

[00:57:22] It you thought you were the only person that liked that particular music or that particular topic

[00:57:28] And now you got a whole room of people and then those people become lifelong friends and you connect with them

[00:57:34] And maybe it turns into jobs if it's a you know, it's a career kind of thing or whatever

[00:57:38] But at the very minimum

[00:57:39] You've got somebody else to kind of help you along the way that can hear whatever your message is that you're trying to share

[00:57:45] Hmm

[00:57:46] So to kind of get because there was a couple different places there. Yeah

[00:57:51] Everybody has like an essential need to express themselves

[00:57:55] Right and so so the advice is to

[00:57:59] Find a place even if it's non-conventional

[00:58:02] Find the place where you feel comfortable

[00:58:07] expressing yourself and then from from that

[00:58:11] You life will provide like new opportunities and new new like this is how you're going to find

[00:58:19] more meaning to existence

[00:58:21] In a sense, right because you're you're you're out there saying something that's meaningful to you

[00:58:26] You're getting involved with people that are have have similar interests are part of that group

[00:58:33] And then from there you can

[00:58:36] Like create and and like make more

[00:58:40] Opportunities come come from that you're making yourself vulnerable which scares a lot

[00:58:44] Nobody wants to make themselves vulnerable, right? So to go and say I want to do this radio

[00:58:49] So especially if you're an introverted person and you're just like I'm really shy

[00:58:52] I don't even know what how to use sound equipment. I don't even know how to use a microphone

[00:58:56] Yeah

[00:58:56] I don't even know what I would say

[00:58:57] But getting that first show under your belt and kind of getting it out there and then if you get positive reinforcements, which

[00:59:04] You know, I'm sure my daughter was great at you know, she would always just hey that was great

[00:59:08] You know

[00:59:08] Even if it wasn't just to get people encouraged to come back and do it again and again

[00:59:13] But getting that encouragement of oh I can do this I can get that confidence

[00:59:17] So then you take that once you graduate and you take that into the workforce

[00:59:21] You know where you take that into your everyday life

[00:59:23] You've now got the confidence to make yourself a little vulnerable but do it so you can learn and grow

[00:59:30] And so yeah, not all of us want to take that risk but for some kids

[00:59:36] That's the outlet that they need is just to be able to get in front of a microphone and just share whatever it is

[00:59:41] That they've got I think that's great advice. Good advice and repetitions of mother skill

[00:59:46] You know more times you do it easier. It's gonna get

[00:59:48] So well and if you consider the alternative and we have so many kids in this country that they suffer from depression

[00:59:54] They suffer from isolation, you know

[00:59:56] They they they are on their phone too much and unfortunately

[00:59:59] We see it and I'm sure the younger generations see what they see on the internet and they take that as truth

[01:00:06] Yeah, you know, there's so many lies out there. There's so much to AI AI

[01:00:10] What I'm even more just like the bullying. Yes, I were bullying

[01:00:13] Everybody is doing this. Why am I the only person that's not getting to do that?

[01:00:16] Well, guess what? You're not the only person gonna do that. But the Internet is this clown show

[01:00:21] You know May's

[01:00:23] Funny mirror that makes everything look like it's not it distorts it and so if I don't see it live-action

[01:00:30] Then I'm skeptical right at this point

[01:00:32] But you see it on the internet and you think this is how life is and so

[01:00:35] You have a lot of kids that if they're on constantly on their phone, they're looking at social media

[01:00:39] They're they're judging themselves against the people and the images and the things that they see on social media

[01:00:44] They

[01:00:46] Can get themselves into like this isolation this depression you give them this outlet now

[01:00:51] Where they can get in front of a microphone and share something their favorite song and talk about why they like that song

[01:00:58] Their favorite hobby and why they like that hobby

[01:01:01] You've you know, you've changed that kid's life

[01:01:04] You know, you've given them something that they get excited about

[01:01:08] You know, we all want to talk about things. We like yeah, we just need an outlet and sometimes

[01:01:14] Social media is where kids go and then they get bullied because that's a stupid idea

[01:01:18] Why did you say that or whatever? They're embarrassed to say it?

[01:01:22] College radio for the most part is relatively safe. Yeah, you know, there's nobody there's no likes button on a

[01:01:27] Yeah, or comment section where people are being haters. Yeah for the most part you can just you listen to it and

[01:01:33] You either agree or don't and your like button is basically you turn it off

[01:01:37] But here's the thing the person you can't see your audience when you're on radio, so you don't know I

[01:01:43] Always tell I always tell them I'm like assume that there's hundreds of people listening

[01:01:47] Yes, they're very well could be hundreds of people listening to your show, but it gets you that mindset of okay

[01:01:53] I'm gonna do a good job. I want to be positive. I want to be excited accountability. Yeah. Yeah

[01:01:58] No, I think that this that is great. That's all great advice and it's interesting too because

[01:02:03] It's it scratches this

[01:02:06] human need to be acknowledged and like heard and

[01:02:13] Get involved with radio. I think that's awesome like a nice nice nod to

[01:02:18] Till I have having that release right and if you've got it if you've got a child

[01:02:22] That's it's you know high school college age and they don't have that outlet go to your administration and say hey

[01:02:29] Can we start a club?

[01:02:31] can we start a group on campus that meets and records podcasts or

[01:02:36] Just does even if the recordings just sit on a laptop somewhere and never actually even get played

[01:02:42] If they have that outlet to at least do it

[01:02:45] You feel like it's freeing. It's it's like when people say let me just vent for a minute

[01:02:50] Yeah, they don't even really need your feedback

[01:02:52] They just want to say I just want to talk this is this is that same kind of same kind of mindset

[01:02:57] Just get a kid in front of a microphone

[01:02:59] Let them talk about whatever they want to talk about

[01:03:01] Now where can people get in touch with you? Let's say people want to pick your brain after this sure

[01:03:08] So I can definitely send you some contact information. I don't have

[01:03:12] Anything formal aside from just my personal email

[01:03:14] I was so inspired by that conference and just my time working with the radio station down in Colorado Springs at

[01:03:22] UCCS that I'm thinking about kind of starting

[01:03:24] I don't know if you want to call it a consulting but just somewhere that a

[01:03:29] Student's high school college an administrator at one of those

[01:03:34] You know high school or college wants to get involved be happy to give them my you know

[01:03:38] My two cents on how to do it for sure so I can you know

[01:03:41] You can put that in the in the show notes if you want to put my email or some other information later

[01:03:46] Yeah, but yeah

[01:03:47] I would love for people to reach out to me because I after seeing what it's done for my daughter

[01:03:52] And seeing what it's done for other kids that are of like mind is her. I'm I'm sold on it

[01:03:58] I'm like we need to have more college radio

[01:03:59] We need to have high schools that do it even if it's just in you know, the AV lab after school

[01:04:06] I don't even know if they still have AV labs, but

[01:04:10] Yeah good stuff well thanks for coming on yeah stories man

[01:04:13] Yeah, kind of dove into the radio world stuff. I didn't know all that about I do have one more question before we get out

[01:04:18] Here go ahead so you know every Wednesday I look at the calendar go

[01:04:20] Okay, who's on this week? You know do a little prep work this and that I don't even know how you guys met

[01:04:24] I just he's like oh, yeah, we got this cool guy. Don't worry about it

[01:04:27] How did you would are you even me I like to keep the mystery alive? I know which is good

[01:04:30] I appreciate these as a cool guy. I appreciate that. Yeah, we we work together. Yeah in the Denver office

[01:04:35] Oh terrific. Yeah, he was actually one of my bosses for a little bit. Okay, I'm Andrew and you were a good leader actually

[01:04:41] You're respectful a respectful leader that I was like, okay, I respect this guy's opinion and

[01:04:46] And you believe in me

[01:04:49] At some of my lower points and so you earn my respect

[01:04:53] Eternally for that and I know I've said that to you but now it's on wax

[01:04:57] Now I'm saying it so the whole world knows well

[01:04:59] I believe I believe in that you are a good genuine human why I appreciate that

[01:05:04] That's why we had to get you on that's why we had to get you on here man

[01:05:07] I'm happy to come on any time. Yeah, that's true. We don't have to talk radio

[01:05:09] We can talk something else. Yeah

[01:05:10] I was gonna say next time we can get into some mother wild things or sports or whatever. Exactly. Love it

[01:05:15] Yeah, good good deal. Well, we'll see everyone tomorrow. Happy Fridays coming your way. Thanks for all the support

[01:05:20] We love it match that subscribe button get touch there down below be good to yourselves. You deserve it

[01:05:25] Yeah, we'll cut it right there. Thanks guys