By Rick McCracken
Assistance Program Director/Music Director
The New 1037
CBS RADIO, Charlotte
Why are you in programming?
Short answer: I love sound! It’s more than just getting 15 more minutes out of listeners. It’s about using all the elements of sound to drive their emotions and strengthen that personal connection in a way that no other mass media can. That’s still exciting!
How has it changed since you started?
Technology has made information so readily available that we’re all experts in everything now. Of course, the challenge is convincing listeners that WE are still the best source for all the things they care about. Technically, the bar has been raised so high that just about any station can sound very good with fairly minimal effort. The downside is that all this technology has taken the “feel” out of what we do. If we lose the emotional connection to the craft, we can’t pass it along to the listeners. Then it’s just science.
Speaking of that, how does GSelector fit into your daily workflow?
GSelector is the very foundation of our daily programming. Except for what comes from the jocks’ mouths over the ramps of records or their own bits, the scheduling software is the canvas where all the programming ideas come together. Whereas so many media diversions allow users to choose what they consume at any given moment, radio takes them from point to point along a linear progression. Flow, or the “feel” I mentioned earlier, is a major determinant as to how far we can take them. GSelector helps me maximize all those points along the way.
Why did you volunteer to be a GSelector Beta tester?
I had been using Selector since 1987. But having only 2.5 percent vision, I needed to take advantage of accessibility enhancements that were not available in DOS. I wanted to see how this new Windows application worked. I was also intrigued by the demand-based, goals-oriented scheduling philosophy. “Can-do” always made more sense to me than “can’t do”.
How cool is your job?
People are always reminding me how cool my job is. I get paid to put music on the radio all day and take people backstage at concerts. Most importantly, there are tons of people who still think radio is cool. I want that perception to grow and flourish. Best of all, I rarely break a sweat.