Cornball Me, I Still Believe in Radio Magic

Live radio. Bit of a novelty these days for those of you who may not know... it's basically all prerecorded, robotic. No theater-of-the-mind, no vibe, no dialogue. A jukebox dictated by charts and numbers, not humans. And certainly, no one behind the mic picking a song and playing it simply because they feel like it, keenly led by that two-way street between programmer and listener that has to happen for radio to be magic.

By some strange collision of the cosmos, that's the kind of radio I grew up learning thanks to a team of seasoned programming mentors at my first station in Vermont. The pay sucked but still, we had the bug. It was simple. Find great music. Play it. Be human. Create compelling radio. Those were the unquestionable standards and we worked our asses off to achieve them. Hell, even the commercials made for great listening. No joke. All because, first and foremost, we were fans; fans of each other and fans of the ideal... the ideal being to "create a product or service that makes the world a better place" (Guy Kawasaki 101). Corny? Definitely. But powerful.

These days, it's rare for any of us to engage in true participatory listening [...]

A Triple-A radio programming veteran, Kate has served as Music Director of the Loft at XM, Midday Host at WYEP, Evening Host at both WNCS and WUIN, as well as Content Supervisor for Pump Audio. Currently, she's the CEO of Outlandos Music, a new-music discovery service for grown-ups. Kate has been nationally recognized for her ardent presentation of music and her ability to champion talented, compelling artists.