Next month marks the second anniversary of Mason’s Observations. In that time, some have felt that the column tends to be critical and negative towards the radio industry instead of shining a spotlight upon the stations and personalities doing great content. A good example of why that might be is comparable to looking up at the night sky. You can see millions of stars but it’s impossible to analyze them all, those that look noticeably different obviously stand out.
One thing we’ve hammered home is that there isn’t enough radio being geared towards the listener experience. Every show says they are, but they don’t walk the walk. They aren’t live, they don’t put callers on the air, they play the wrong music and never any requests, there are endless commercials, liners and imaging that get in the way of personality and fun. Because so many stations are owned by a small number of big companies, it’s the same thing on all of them and very few are able to do things differently.
Possibly the biggest issue for longevity of radio is that there aren’t enough youth getting excited about listening, let alone working in it. We hear from thousands of callers every single week of all ages with many of them being little kids and teenagers. Last Friday, Kate, listening on KCLD St. Cloud Minn., told us she never listened to radio before, but just got a new-old car that doesn’t have Bluetooth. 104.7 FM was what it came on. She told us, “this show is so fun and I love the call-in aspect of it”. We hear that constantly.
Another girl called in last week requesting “Agora Hills” by Doja Cat and I asked her what many radio people often ask us. “You could’ve heard it right away by playing it on your phone with Spotify, but instead you called us and have to wait until we play it. Why?”. Her response was totally unscripted, but I would’ve paid someone to say it. “It just sounds better on the radio, I don’t know. I feel like I don’t even care about the song, I just wanted to call you”. I told her “this song is only playing right now because of you, and we get to talk about your life and what’s going on. We just use the requests as an excuse to get people on the phone”. That’s been the motto since day one.
Two people who really understand this concept share the same name, but they’ve never met and live on opposite sides of the U.S. Izzy Mitchell has been PD/afternoon host of Vox AM/FM’s WXXX (95 Triple X) Burlington Vt., since January. Mitchell graduated from Emerson College in Boston last year, where she worked as a Program Coordinator at the highly successful campus station WERS. She was hired at Triple X as an intern after her sophomore year and also spent three months interning at CNN in New York City.
Israel Nunnelly, who also goes by Izzy, does the afternoon show on Hubbard’s KQMV (Movin’ 92.5) Seattle, making a major jump just three months ago from KCAR (Rewind 104.3) Joplin, Mo. Izzy’s radio roots come from his father, Howie Nunnelly who has been in radio for 30 years, currently co-hosting mornings on Country KKOW Joplin. I first noticed Nunnelly at the beginning of this year, posting videos of him running the board, playing calls and interacting with listeners, which in market #220 was one of the most entertaining and fun shows on the radio. You can just hear how he was actually inspired and taught by someone who gets it. Now only 18 years old, he is the youngest person manning a major daypart shift in a Top 150 market.
I haven’t met Nunnelly in person yet, though we’ve talked extensively and he truly gets me excited about radio. As for Mitchell, we’ve met a few times. The night before she officially became PD, we went out to dinner with WERS’s Hal Slifer and John Garabedian. Then she hung out in the studio during Liveline and asked so many great questions about John’s career, how we do the show, and different ideas that she had for revamping Triple X.
Since then, Mitchell and consultant Gale Parmelee have done an excellent job positioning 95 Triple X as a station for people under 30. She’s curious, upbeat, positive, genuine and living the lifestyle of the people she’s trying to attract. She knows everything about all the songs and artists, studied old and new pop culture and is now part of a heritage brand known for propelling so many careers. Now, Triple-X’s fresh new imaging, on air lineup, laser focused content and music of now makes the station one of the best sounding CHRs in America.
Aside from all the things that make both Triple X and Movin’ so successful, it’s the fact that two of their star personalities are in the demo and creating something that is good enough to inspire young people who may not have had a reason to love radio before. There once was a time when kids grew up wanting to be on the radio because of something they heard. For me, it was John Garabedian’s Open House Party at age 10. I never knew anyone else my age who wanted to be on the radio, but rather a YouTuber, athlete or singer. They didn’t have the same inspirations.
Both Izzys get heavily involved with the community more than I see from most stations. 22 year old Mitchell has integrated several interactive features on air and social media, like their weekly Triple X Top 15, where a random fan DJ counts down their Top 15 songs every Sunday afternoon. She’s been posting a ton of videos recently dressed up as the X mascot, roaming the streets of Burlington and visiting local businesses. When Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo dropped their new albums, they played each track back-to-back and talked about them.
Nunnelly’s phone calls on MOViN are what we remember from the “good ‘ol days” of radio, but his most notable community involvement is currently the “Friday Night Lights” where he visits different high schools for their football games. He chills in the student sections, learns their chants, dances and gets the teens involved which gets them excited about the station.
We get numerous calls weekly on Liveline from people shocked that we answered the phone like “I didn’t expect anyone to actually pick up”. That is so sad. Many kids say “I only listen to the radio when your show is on” and “I love hearing other people”. The key word is community, and if you’re lucky enough to touch just one person through your words and create another fan and future radio superstar, you’ve done your job. Izzy and Izzy might not know it, but they’re doing it every day, and are the two greatest people in radio under 30 right now.
95 Triple X airs Liveline Monday-Friday night and KQMV airs our LIVE Saturday “Party Songs Weekend” show from 6-11p.m., local time.
