Ross Kaminsky Interview

This is my interview with Ross Kaminsky who does the Morning Show (Ross Kaminsky Show)on KHOW 630 from 6 AM to 10 AM weekdays.Jeremy Levy: I first started listening to you when you were on KNUS radio, but is this where you got your start?Ross Kaminsky: My first fill-in work was on KFKA in Greeley, for Amy Oliver. I’ll always be grateful to Amy and to the Sasso Brothers who own the station for giving me a shot. I also did fill-in work on KNUS for John Andrews’ Backbone Radio, and when John decided to retire he suggested to management there that I be offered that Sunday evening show. I reminded them that their audience is substantially Christian conservative and I’m a libertarian Jew, but they believed that I’d do the best job and I will always be grateful to that group for offering me “my” first show. (By the way, all of that stuff was unpaid.)JL:I know that you have been on KHOW for seven or eight months, but are there any memorable interviews, or broadcasts that come to mind?RK:This is going to sound bad, but when you do radio every day, things tend to blend together. Sometimes when someone asks me what I did the same day, I don’t remember. That said, a few things do come to mind. If I have to pick one, it would be my interview with Delaney Henderson. (Link: http://khow.iheart.com/onair/ross-kaminsky-57121/ross-interviews-delaney-henderson-courageous-rape-14866963/)What struck me so much about it is that this young woman is a rape survivor who had done many interviews before mine, including on national television. When I asked her “How are you doing now?” her response truly shocked me. It was: “Nobody has ever asked me that before.” Later on, I asked her (she’s 21 now) if she has a boyfriend, if she’s looking for a boyfriend, how she feels about relationships, and she said “Nobody has asked me that before either.” I just thought to myself, WTF is wrong with people, not asking her these questions?JL:What are one or two strengths and one or two weaknesses of Colorado radio today?RK:I’m more knowledgeable about Denver radio than Colorado radio so I’ll stick to that. I think that Denver radio is exceptionally strong because of the large number of local hosts with a wide range of opinions. As with many cities, there is a dearth of liberals on the air, at least outside of NPR which is more about their own obvious biases than about proudly broadcasting a left-wing point of view. I wouldn’t mind more liberal stuff on the air even though I’d disagree with almost all of it (at least in the area of economics). But other than that, on my station (TalkRadio 630 KHOW) and our affiliated stations (especially KOA NewsRadio) here at iHeart Media, and at the other smaller broadcasters in town, we have a great range of non-left viewpoints from conservative to libertarian to populist. In many other cities, a much larger percentage of talk radio is syndicated material that I frankly find rather uninspiring and much harder to relate to than a local host such as myself or Mandy Connell or Michael Brown. And I should add that with the addition of Denver Sports 760 with Dave Logan and Susie Wargin in the late mornings and Andy Lindahl and Eddie McCaffrey in the afternoons, there’s now an even better sports radio situation in Denver.JL:What would be your advice for someone wanting to get in to Colorado radio?RK:Be expert on something, even if it’s something as broad as “politics”. Send your name to radio show hosts and producers offering yourself as a guest and explaining your expertise. When you are a guest, give fairly short answers in as plain English as you can. After you have some guest experience, e-mail program directors (you’ll almost certainly have to start at smaller operations than here at iHeart just as most folks won’t start shooting hoops and get drafted by the Nuggets) and offer yourself as a guest host and let them know you’re happy to do it for free. SAY YES to any guest-hosting opportunity you are offered, even at an inconvenient time. Whether as a guest or as a guest host, BE OVER-PREPARED. As you get more experience guest-hosting on smaller stations or in smaller markets, start moving up the food chain to larger stations’ program directors letting them know you’re available. By the way, doing occasional guest-hosting without being paid would make it much easier for a station owned by a different company to give you a chance. If you’re being paid by Media Company A, then Media Company B is less likely to consider you, not out of a negative view of you but out of a certain sort of industry gentleman’s agreement. When you’re on air, don’t forget that radio is a dynamic medium, usually broadcast live, and that things happen that you may need to adapt/react to which weren’t in your plan for the day. When that happens, don’t get flustered or distracted, just keep moving and doing the best with whatever it is you have to talk about. Try to get interesting guests but don’t overload a show with guests. Listeners want to hear the most more than guests most of the time. Finally, never forget that radio is a medium of entertainment. You can be as informative as you want but if you can’t do it in an entertaining way you’ll never get a large enough audience to be successful.All that said, a few caveats: Most people’s career paths in radio involve moving quite a bit, starting in smaller cities, and really climbing the ladder. (Exceptions include primarily people who are already famous before getting into radio.) Getting a decent full-time job in radio is not always, maybe even not often, possible. And while you’re trying you’ll spend a lot of time and make very little money. Furthermore, while radio is doing far better than its naysayers predicted, there’s nevertheless a fractured media market out there with the advent of streaming and satellite and podcasts. And AM radio is a particularly challenging place to be because so many young listeners never tune to the AM dial (which is why you really have to make a great effort on podcast and streaming availability and pushing the younger listeners there.) Also it’s critical to try to build a substantial social media audience, in part for the purpose of driving them to stream/podcast. Overall, when someone asks me about whether they should get into radio, I think it’s a tough call. It’s a rapidly changing and exceptionally competitive industry. It can be an incredible amount of fun but for many people they never quite make it to that point even with years of effort.JL: I appreciate your time Ross. Thank you!I enjoy listening to the topics Ross discusses on his show.Thanks for tuning in.Jeremy Levy