Hailing from WATB-1420 AM in Atlanta, Georgia, Radio Connection mentor Meredith Harris tells us her broadcasting career was almost accidental—that she found her way to the microphone from the business and marketing side of radio, and learned everything hands-on (which is EXACTLY what we love!). Since that time, Meredith has logged more than 20 years in radio broadcasting, having worked in virtually every department. As such, she’s able to provide her students with a broad perspective of how radio works and to give them exposure to multiple facets of the industry.
In the interview below, Meredith talks about her roundabout way of getting into radio and offers key insider advice for students on how they can create opportunities for themselves in this ever-changing industry. Enjoy!
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Radio Connection mentor Meredith Harris
and student Morgan Davis
I got introduced into the radio industry by working with an entertainment company while in college…I was responsible for recruiting radio personalities to do the voiceovers for our commercials, and then I also had to go and do the media buys, which required me to go and do a lot of visits to different radio stations. I think it just actually sparked an interest in me getting to know about the business of radio. I wasn’t just attracted to the on-air part of it. I wanted to know about each department and how it all worked…Honestly, I never saw myself being a radio personality. I was going to college for marketing. So I was always more attracted to the business end of it than the on-air part of it.
RRFC: So what eventually got you behind the microphone?
Meredith: A friend called me to tell me that there was a new hip hop station in town, and thought that I should just go and apply for a job. I had no idea what type of job I would be qualified for…but I knew how to do those media buys. So I went to apply for a sales job first. I went for the interview, I sat down with the sales manager, and the sales manager told me that he had satisfied all his positions at that time, but that he liked my voice. So he picked the phone up and he called the program director while I was sitting in his office, and recommended that he speak with me immediately. The program director called me within an hour, and the next day I came up for an interview and I was offered an on-air job within a matter of two days. I had never been on the air, I had never done a demo and didn’t have an air-check initially, but worked hard to perfect the craft. It was really divine intervention…He told me I needed to sit in with some full-timers, and I watched them. I watched them work, but I had never worked a board before in my life…I got that literally doing hands-on work as I was learning. I just went to watch her, I took notes, and I’m a very fast learner…And I would take a notebook and I would literally write out every break, everything I wanted to say verbatim. I would write it out, so I wouldn’t freeze up on the air. But that’s how I got it.
RRFC: So are you a real believer in the hands-on approach to teaching people what it takes to work in radio?
Meredith: Absolutely, because I feel like I was birthed from it.
RRFC: How does your own experience inform your approach to mentoring students?
Meredith: I really want to see them win, and I want them to finish this program with as many skills as I can possibly give them. So I give them their own block of time [on the air], and I give them creative control over it. I tell them to look at it as ground zero of their career. I tell them to go home and think about what their on-air name will be. Think about what you want to call your show, what type of music you like to play. Do you want it to be a music-formatted show or talk formatted? And then we use the curriculum, of course, to apply what they’re learning in theory to what they will be learning when they do their own show…Because I have worked in every department, I’m able to give them a little extra…I may say, “Now let me tell you about the sales aspect of this. Let me tell you what they mean when they say stop set,” and then I’ll maybe pull out a media kit and I’ll explain that. What I like to see happen with all of my students is, if I can, give them just a snippet of what promotions does, what sales does, what traffic does, what production does, it gives them more marketable tools to be able to finish the program and enter in through any department that you can get in through…I really do all of this because I want to see them win.
RRFC: Any students you currently have that you’d like to talk about?
Meredith: Well I actually have one that I’m working with presently…he’s amazing…His name is Morgan Davis. We’ve only been working together a short amount of time, but I am so impressed with him because he is such an invested learner. He’s one of those students that, you know, you really don’t have to assign him recording for him to record. And I feel like that is an awesome foundation. He is exceptionally talented, just has a real raw talent for doing impersonations and voices. So what we are working on presently, I already have him setting up profiles on industry sites for voiceover talent…That’s going to be, I feel, a very promising career for him in addition to whatever else he wants to do in radio. So we’re actively working right now on creating his voiceover demo.
RRFC: In your view, what can up-and-coming students do to create opportunities for themselves in radio?
Meredith: One thing I always try to tell me students is, don’t be closed to the idea of coming in through another department. It may be that they already have a healthy background in sales, for instance. Don’t be closed off to the idea of coming in through that department, if need be. I had no less than two titles at every station where I’ve worked. So I’ve worked in every department in radio. I’ve been a promotions director, I’ve been traffic coordinator, research supervisor, radio personality simultaneously while I held these other titles, interim sales director. I’ve done all of that because my ultimate goal is to own my own radio station one day…You want to learn how each department works, because it might be that promotions is hiring or they’re looking for a promotions assistant to go out and set up a tent, for instance, equipment up. But if you get your foot in the door, it’s a lot easier to segue over into programming, if that’s your ultimate goal.
Another thing I tell my students is, don’t be restricted to your present market. You’ve got to be open to applying for opportunities, maybe in another state or another market. Learn other genres of music other than the ones that you listen to, especially if you have a voice that has cross-over appeal and can fit well in different genres and formats. That’s how you stay working in this industry.
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