The picutre to the right side of the screen is a picture of the one guy I interviewed. His name was Paul Baroli (right hand side.) Paul is the program director for WBCB 1490 AM radio. He also has his own new show called "Coffee With Kahuna," every weekday at 2:00 p.m. I made contact with Paul by simply going online. He was one of the guys our webisode group interviewed. I went online and typed into a google search, "local AM radio stations in trenton." Sure enough Paul was located right in Levvittown, PA, which is only about 20 minutes away from Rider. When I e-mailed Paul, he e-mailed me right back saying he would love to get interviewed. This was another hands-on experience that was beneficial to me.
This was actually more of a link towards our webisode than the station profile. I thought it was a good experience and wanted to let others know about it as well, which is why I decided to do a blog post on it also.
Paul Baroli basically handles all the programming issues that take place at WBCB. He controls the station as well as hosts his own show, Coffee with Kahuna, which is a talk show consisting of news, weather and sports, which also contains music, fun and prize giveaways. (google search.) This website has a lot of great pictures of Paul and the activities he does, so check it out! Paul does a lot of hands-on traveling as well. In some of his pictures on the above website, he travels to Washington D.C., etc. One of the things he told me he does, that he always loves doing, is hosting promotional meetings as such places in cities like New Hope. I may actually attend his next gig in New Hope is June.
Paul got started as many people originally start off as, just an on air personality. Paul doesn't care too much about being a program director, I think he cares more about just being an on air personality more than anything. WBCB was a very small studio, so I think the job was more or less handed to him rather than him working up in rank.
Paul has a lot of experience, he has worked with previous radio stations before working with WBCB. He loves his job and knows what he is doing and always has something to say on air, which is key to being successful. Paul has a real passion for his job. When Meghan and I went to WBCB to ask Paul about our projects, specifically what he thinks the future of AM will be, Paul commented by saying that he doesn't think AM is ever going to disappear. He believes that his station especially, is going to flurish because of its localization. Bucks County supports WBCB to the fullest and relies on them to bring them there news. WBCB is a local community oriented station, and because of that Paul believes there station will succeed.
This following quote was taken right from their website. "The programming features a perfect blend of news, talk, sports and music. Its hosts are bright, energetic air personalities who have earned the trust and affection of the community. In the past year WBCB has made numerous technical improvements, installing state-of-the-art equipment. Our new grounding system enables us to send out the strongest, and farthest-reaching, signal in the history of the station."
This paragraph describes WBCB in a nutshell. They are a very local community oriented station. This job is basically the lives of everyone who works there. I think the employees there will go above and beyond for this station to survive - I don't think it will go anywhere in the near future.
I believe Paul likes knowing that his stories, news, weather, reaches his community. I think Paul thinks the best part about his job is knowing that he is making a difference to all those people who tune in to his station and rely on him to bring them their news. I don't think there is anything that Paul dislikes about his job.
Fromt he paragraph above, I think it is pretty obvious that Paul does not believe that their station is going down the drain. I think Paul, along with his other employees believes this station will flurish mainly because of the localized feel for the station itself.
Paul said that one of the ways students can get started is by starting at a smaller station like this one. After the interview, I emailed Paul back to thank him again and actually got offered an internship! They love the youth because it's a new balance in their community. It's a fresh start to a new beginning when they see young people who want to have the same career as them. It's like a sign of relief running into people who have the same interest in them, especially when it comes to a small AM station.
Experience is very important. As i stated above, if you want experience you need to start small. A station like this would be perfect to gain some hands on experience.
Some qualities that would be important would be personality. You need personality to fullfill a job in radio. Radio is all about personality and being yourself. It is also about being reliable and bringing the audience the information they want.
As for the industry journal - I did not have a chance to talk with Paul about that. I think Paul would tell someone to just stop by the station and see what it is they do one day.
This is an example of one of their advertisements: Bucks County Idol
No comments:
Post a Comment