Winning with WILK

I spend very little time contemplating what we do on the air during “The Morning News with Nancy and Kevin.”   But we won this week and it sort of jolted me back a step to take a look at our show, all these years in.  We’ve got us one very cool radio station.

This was a huge year for WILK and a huge year for Nancy.  At the state Associated Press awards we won first place in 5 different categories, including our show and Bud Brown’s news.  Joe Thomas and Gary Ferentino won for best local sports coverage and Sue Henry won by herself and with Nancy in other categories.  Nancy is our Program Director and she directs where we go as a station.  The judges—all from other states by the way—clearly like how she’s doing things. 

I like how we do things, too.  I was particularly pleased to see Bud Brown win.  If you listen, you hear a guy with very high standards and incredible talent.  It’s hard to be droll and dry and interesting and funny in a minute and Bud’s been doing it for decades.  When I arrived at WBRE-TV in 1976, Bud Brown was handling their all-news radio.  Thirty plus years later he’s still on the job and his delivery and approach are as fresh as ever. 

Look around the country and you’ll find that WILK is in a distinct minority for medium markets.  You can drive across this country and never lose the signal of the few syndicated shows which seem to play in every town.  Most stations have reduced the number of local hosts.  But not us.  Starting when they hired me back in 2001, WILK has sought to remake itself as a local station.  At the time I joined Entercom, WILK had only the Fred Williams Show playing weekdays.  Then they added me.  A short time later, Sue Henry came on board and although Fred left, Steve Corbett came on board.  Now we do local programming all day, except for Rush from noon until three.  I am not being fawning when I say how much I admire Entercom for supporting local programming.  It’s great for people who do what I do and what’s more, it’s smart business.

I believe WILK is sitting on the horse in the direction it’s headed.  As more and more big box companies fold up, I have noticed that the companies which remain are succeeding by going “small.”  They reach out to their neighbors.  Whereas the internet was formerly to reach across the world to sell your widgets, anymore the web connects you and lets you connect with your neighbors up the street.  Smart businesses are helping their communities and earning customer loyalty in return.  Talk radio stations can do the same things and the more hosts we have, the better we can do it.

I still don’t know what to think about Nancy and I winning this AP award for the second time.  I know that I generally hate talk radio.  It is presumptuous for anyone to think they have enough to say to fill the dead air and that includes me most of all. Yet, I'm out there talking anyway.  I guess someone has to do it. 

However, doing talk radio with Nancy is different.  Every day is a surprise and every day is new.  And while I’m still convinced I am essentially a boring idiot, with Nancy I feel like I’m something more.  Still an idiot, but at the very least---less boring.