Media Insultant
Keith Samuels and Jackson Weaver, two media executives opine on all things media - radio, TV, cable, print, and digital. Both have long careers in radio, TV, digital and print and are not short on opinions in this tumultuous time. All opinions are theirs but happy to hear yours too! Video version available on Vimeo. New episodes each Wednesday. jackson@intownmedia.com and www.intownmedia.com
Media Insultant
SPECIAL EDITION OF Media Insultant - Part two of our interview with Deliliah and her ventures in small town radio.
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We're back with the second of two parts of our interview with America's most successful female syndicated talent. Delilah! She talks about her journey back to the small Oregon coastal town of Reedsport where she is putting KDUN 1030AM back on the air and rejuvinating the stations relatationship with the community. Great story telling by the woman who weaves stories for 8 million listeners a week. Thanks for a great interview Deliliah!
Media Insultant is produced each Wednesday as Jackson Dell Weaver & Keith Samuels offer comments, ideas and sometimes snarky comments about the current media landscape. They focus on radio and TV primarily - but also any media that is relevent or beneficial to media sales and management. Videos are under the Media Insultant Showcase on Vimeo.
Comments are always welcome at jackson@intownmedia.com
Thanks for listening!
Well, welcome back to part two of our special edition of Media Insultant, a small market love affair with the famous Delilah. Yeah. Whose syndicated radio show reaches over 8 million each week. That probably will offend her. She'll never talk to me again after she hears that.
SPEAKER_00Well, which is about 8 million more than we reach, so God bless her. God bless her for even talking to us.
SPEAKER_02So for those of you who may not remember or who haven't seen the first episode of our interview, in the first part of our interview, we explained that Delilah had purchased the radio station she got her start at in the little market of Reedsport, Oregon. 1030K Dune Radio. There we go. So it was off the air. She and Craig were got it back on the air. Craig's a local broker, a broker in out of Las Vegas. And we wanted to check in and see how she's doing. Keith, what's she going to talk about in this episode?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think all about how you know she's upgraded the facilities and all of the wonderful feedback and the uh incredible uh love and support that she's getting from the community because she's really giving back with this station in terms of giving everybody exposure, uh, you know, the homecoming football game. She, you know, played, you know, the play-by-play was live on K Dune. Uh, you know, just all the all the great uh ideas and people that have come together around this project to A, save this radio station, but B, to also bring some um ray of sunshine, as you said the other day, to a to a kind of a gloomy Oregon Coast uh logging town. She couldn't be more proud of where she's come from, and and I don't think she could be even more proud of being back in her hometown, at least in an ownership role and a management role. And the station even carries her show every night from seven to midnight. So uh, you know, she's she's back in Reedsport. And uh and it's amazing how many people that she grew up with are still there, and you'll hear all about it in this episode.
SPEAKER_02Yep, here we go. Let's uh roll into part two of the Media Insultant Special Edition with Delilah and Small Market Radio. You know, this is really encouraging, Delilah, because you know, everybody else is crying the woes about radio and what's going on in radio, and you know, whoa, whoa, digital this and digital that. But you're giving some real encouragement to what's going on in small market radio. And it's it's because you think I'm correct in this because you focused on the local community, you surperserved it, you you did what you said you would do, you fulfilled your promise, if you will. I I mean I think it's I think it's a remarkable testament. You know, maybe you should do this more often.
SPEAKER_04I didn't I just love it. I love it because it's real, Jackson. It's so real. I got into radio because it was real. And I stayed in radio because it's real. I've been offered, you know, multimillion dollars to go into television twenty years ago, before I signed with Craig Kitchen, I was offered an incredibly lucrative deal to do daytime TV. And I went to Hollywood, I met all the producers, I met, they already had a staff assembled for me. And I came back and I thought about it and I prayed about it, and I woke up and I said, I'm not doing it. I am not doing it. I love the intimacy of radio. I love the immediacy of radio. Every day I come into my studio, I open this microphone and I talk. Tonight I'll be talking about a hurricane because it's happening today. In television, you've got a floor director, you've got a camera director, you've got a director director, you've got a makeup person, you've got 15 layers between you and the audience. I don't have that in radio. I have me, a microphone, and my audience. And with small town radio, especially, yes, there's digital, yes, there's other avenues of communication, but it is still the lifeblood of small towns. It is the way they find out if the school is closed or if their kid is going to stay home, if they have to stay home because their kid can't catch a bus because there's snow or there's wind or there's rain or there's sleep. It is still the way they find out if tires are on sale at Costco or whatever. And in my hometown, it's right on the ocean. It is the only way they will hear if there is a tsunami warning. It is the only way they will hear if there's a gale wind. It's the only way they will hear why the fire siren went off. And I love that. I love that.
SPEAKER_02Do you make market visits very often? Are you down there, what, a couple times a month? A couple times a year? How often do you think that's a good one? Do you want to?
SPEAKER_04I go at least once a month, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Tell us the story about the studios. You put the studios in an old junior high school, is that right?
SPEAKER_04I put the studios in the classroom I was in when I won the speech contest. So this is such a fabulous story for another podcast, but the school went up for sale. The the town has really shrunken in size since the mills have closed down. It used to be a thriving economy. When I lived there, it was a very rich little town. Very rich little town. Um and first the lumber mill closed because of the spotted owl, and then the paper mill, IP closed because they started shipping all the chips to developing nations to make paper a lot cheaper. Um so they lost their backbone, and now it's a hospital, and the school is the only big employers. Uh actually, CBSI, the Canegies, were the biggest employer for 15 years. They had probably a hundred employees at one time, but um economically it is very, very challenged. So most of the people that moved there are retirees who want to go fishing. So they sell their house in California for a million dollars, they moved to Reedsport for $300,000 and they ri live the rest of their life very comfortably. Um because of that, there was no need for three school buildings. We had a grade school, a junior high, and a high school. They've now included the junior high into the high school and it's still half empty. When I was there, we had 400 students, four grades, and we had a junior high. Um, so when they closed the junior high, they used it as storage for the school district for a while, and then they sold it and it went into complete disrepair. And then um a year before I bought the radio station, a young couple named Matt and Emily Free, who grew up in the area, our artist, bought the school. A 40,000 square foot building with two Olympic gyms in it. They bought it and moved into it, turned it into their home. And they have turned it into the Oregon Coast School of Art. So they have their artists that that sell pottery, and so they have their pottery studio there, but then they've turned other rooms into classrooms. They now teach art to seniors, they teach art to students. They have groups that come and use the gym for dancing, um, you know, like square dancing. Yeah, they offer tai chi to senior citizens. It's it's a community center. And I Craig Ruark met Emily and said, Oh my gosh, I can I can I borrow your internet? Can I work out of here while I do this deal for Delilah? And she's like, Of course, because they had one of the only good internet connections in town. And then Craig called me and he goes, Hey, why don't we lease one of the classrooms and turn it into the studio? I said, Which room are you in? He said, The one at the top of the stairs. I said, That was my classroom.
SPEAKER_02This is entirely too deja vu.
SPEAKER_04Oh my God. It is so deja vu. I mean, I can see Randall Phillips kissing me on the stairs when I go there every time. Um you were a bad girl. Oh, I was such a bad girl, Keith. You have no idea. Um but so Emily rented me. I have a two-year lease on the classroom, my my classroom when I went to school there. Craig took blue painter's tape and and drew out the studio on the floor in blue painter's tape, and then he put water bottles as microphones on the floor, and we built a beautiful two studios. We have an on-air studio and a production studio that are as nice as any studio I've ever worked in. Um and then the rest of the classroom is our offices where the staff works. And we have a full staff, we have a full-time staff. I have more staff members in Reedsport, Oregon than my affiliate in New York City has in their office.
SPEAKER_00I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised. But you know, that's one of the things that that our our our audience really struggles with is staffing. They just can't find people. I'm amazed that you're fully staffed, but I'm not amazed after talking to you because it's it's about feeling the bit the mission and the vision and the passion, and that's what a lot of people want and can't get. And then to be able to live in Reesport on top of it.
SPEAKER_04So my morning gal was my producer here in Seattle at my affiliate in Seattle. She decided she didn't want to produce anymore, she wanted to be on the air, she moved to the Midwest, she was doing great, she was doing rock and roll, she had a buzz cut, she was wild, she was hot, she had incredible kick-ass ratings, and she got fired. She got fired and posted it on a Saturday. Very sweet note. All good things must come to an end. Gotta say goodbye to my audience, even though I'm number one. And I love this girl. And but Saturdays are my family day. I try to not do any work on Saturday. From sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, I try to just do things that pertain to my family and my faith. I couldn't stand it.
SPEAKER_00You had to call her.
SPEAKER_04I I actually wrote to Smokey and said, you know, Smokey knows Cece. He had hired her in Seattle. I said, Did you see what Cece posted? He said, Yes, I'm already talking to her. I couldn't take it. I called her. I'm like, I gotta talk to you, but can we wait until sundown? She says, Yes. I called her and she's like, Well, you know, I'm in the um medium-sized market now. I was kind of thinking I would step up to a large market um to be on the air. And I said, Let me just tell you why this is so important to me. And I told her, and we were talking about at the time it was like September, October, probably. We were talking about doing this Christmas parade. And I was working every day with with my team in Readsport to put this Christmas parade together. I said, let me fly you out here and take you to Readsport because you can't fly into Readsport, there's no airport. And and just let you see it. I said, I had this dream. I I literally had a dream. I woke up from it and I was in a Christmas parade for the radio station. And so I started calling around saying, has anybody ever done a Christmas parade? And they said, There's this girl that put it together last year. There was like 10 cars in it. I called her, I said, You put that together last year with 10 cars? I said, If with a radio station behind you, do you think we can get 20 cars? She said, Delilah, with you behind it, we can get 30. We had a two-hour long Christmas parade with every fire department for 200 miles.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's great.
SPEAKER_04And so I said, Cece, let me bring you. I told her my dream, and I said, it's gonna be a cool Christmas parade. At this point, I had no idea how cool it was gonna be. I flew her out to Eugene. I met her in Eugene. We drove the two hours to Readsport, and it is a magical, I can't even describe how beautiful it is. I have I have been all over the world and I have never seen anything as beautiful as my hometown.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_04It is three rivers that converge in Readsport, and it is sand dunes, it's the home headquarters of the Oregon National Dune Forest, it's forest, it's evergreens, it's water, it's the beach, it's crabs, it's it's salmon, it's beautiful. It's just in the middle of nowhere. Um so nobody ever goes there. Unless you purpose to go there, you can't accidentally go there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's it's two hours off a freeway. It's there's no way to accidentally go there. And so I took her and we rode in the parade. I bought an Antrique truck and we decorated it for the parade. And it was the most magical night of my life.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_04Bar none. And I've been in Chicago's Christmas parade. I've been in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Nothing was like this night. And the next day she said, I'm in. I am all in.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that is so cool. That is really good. All right, so Delile, I gotta tell you because you know, you are known for having a propensity of telling great stories and telling more great stories. So we could do this all day, and that would be great fun. But to try and bring it to some kind of conclusion, I I guess you know you've talked about the joys you've had in it. What has been your greatest joy and what's been your biggest challenge?
SPEAKER_04Well, the biggest challenge also uh is obviously economics, um, but we're working really hard. Um, Rhonda and the other girls on the team there, and Bob work every day and come up with really creative packages for local merchants. There are no big box stores there. None. There's no Home Depot, there's no Lowe's, there's no car, there's not a single car dealership in town.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_04There's nothing. So that's our biggest challenge and our our biggest hurdle to get over. I would have 10 people on my staff if we if I could afford it. Um my biggest joy has just been seeing how the town has come together. We just we just broadcast our our home football game, homecoming. It was postponed on Friday because the other team was sick. Um so they did it Monday. And they haven't had a home football game in I don't know how many years. And I got so many messages on Facebook, on my phone, from my friends that I grew up with, from their parents who said, Oh my God, we got to listen to the football game. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. It was the sweet, just the sweet sound of hearing their home team that brought so much joy. And it's little things like that that that small town stations can do that big stations can't do. Big stations can announce, you know, who won the Super Bowl, so what?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_04So what? You can get that anywhere. But hometown stations and we do this thing where we have schools that are students that do well in school that do something exemplary, and the principal talks about them on the air. That's a life-changing transformative moment for a child, maybe who is dyslexic, who hears the principal say, Good job, you've overcome this hurdle, and you just you know got an A in reading, and I am so proud of you. That changes lives. That's that's the joy. That's the that's why I love this so much.
SPEAKER_00Well, what well how and how does it feel? Because I looked it up and doing the research for that. And my gosh, you're doing nights on KDUN. This is great. I am how does it feel to be on the air again at uh at KDUN? The dude.
SPEAKER_04The voice of the Oregon Don't. Yeah, 103L. Well, when I when I used to be on the air, it was 500 watts of crystal clear AM power. So now we're at least 5,000 watts. That's good. Um, it's home. It's home. It's home. It's just, it feels like if you've ever had a chance to go home and really be home, it is like I said, I've been fired. I've moved all over the place. Oh my gosh. I used to move every two years to be able to go home and to give shout-outs to my next door neighbor who's 94 years old and still kicking it, still fishing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You know, it's just, it's, it's well, your your passion has uh rejuvenated, I think, our faith in small market radio. You know, we have a uh there are a lot of us who Keith is not one. Keith is not one of the, but I'm one of these guys who always thought it would be really fun to move to a small market and run a small market radio station, you know, kind of in my retirement. So that's always been, you know, long time fantasy. Now, I did so in Astoria and I found out how tough that is. So so I've been somewhat dissuaded by that, but I didn't own Astoria, so that's the difference. And I I think your ownership there makes a big, big difference.
SPEAKER_04And the fact that I I don't have to count on it for my income.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_04You know, I I still have that little side gig.
SPEAKER_02I understand that. Seven or eight million people uh a night. That's not bad. Well, Delilah, thank you so much. Uh for anybody who's interested, you can listen to K Dune on the iHeartRadio app and uh and and I yeah, you bet yay, and and I do have to hand it to you. You know, I've I've listened to mornings uh for the last couple of weeks on and off, and very engaging, very good local, small town radio. It's really encouraging.
SPEAKER_00So the music is great. I'm I'm loving the 80s. I'm I'm I was I was rocking out to it today. So thank you. How about the 70s? And the 70s, too.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. The music gets better and better. That's all smoky. That is all smoky. Um, yeah, smoky does all that for me. And yeah, the team that's on the air, and I don't know if you've heard any of the remotes, but they go to the dunes and broadcast live, you know, for the the downhill contest they're having and the fishing derby. And they're just so much fun. They're so much fun.
SPEAKER_02Well, you might be single-handedly responsible for the economic rejuvenation of Reedsport. Readsport, you know, might turn into a major tourist destination just because Delana was there. You know, I can see the sign as you enter the city.
SPEAKER_04Honestly. Jackson, what my hope is, what my dream is, um, is to be able to transfer some of my national audience to KDUN because there are a lot of artisans there who make homemade soap, who there's one woman who shears her own sheep and dyes the wool and knits these amazing scarves. And I'm like, oh my gosh, if we could be a platform for people to find out that you can get fresh canned salmon from Reed Sport that is less than two hours caught when they can it, yeah, we could rejuvenate the economy.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's that'll be your next project, girl. That'll be your next project.
SPEAKER_04That's that's my next project.
SPEAKER_00Well, and so glad to know that you can go home.
SPEAKER_04I can go home.
SPEAKER_00You can go home and and and can and make home great again, which is which is just fantastic. Because you have been a lot of places. And uh uh what a what a great thrill it is to to finally meet you, Delilah, and thank you for uh for sharing the story with us. This has been amazing. Thank you.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, thank you. We'll be in touch.
SPEAKER_02We will be in touch.
SPEAKER_04Maybe you guys will come for our second annual Christmas parade.
SPEAKER_02Hey.
SPEAKER_00This will be great. It'll be the media insult and float, Jackson. This will be awesome. I'm in. I'm in.
SPEAKER_04You can just ride in one of the fire trucks, it's really fun.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02All right.
SPEAKER_04There you go. Thank you guys.
SPEAKER_02Thanks so much, Delilah. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04Bye-bye. Maybe you guys will come for our second annual Christmas parade.
SPEAKER_02Hey. We can get a ride for a bear down there.
SPEAKER_00This will be great. It'll be the media and sultan float, Jackson. This will be awesome. I'm in. I'm in.
SPEAKER_04You can just ride in one of the fire trucks. It's really fun. There you go. Thank you guys.
SPEAKER_02Thanks so much, Delilah. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_02Well, after that, if you're curious to listen to K Dune, and who wouldn't be, it's streamed off their website and it's at uh the iHeartRadio app. And you know, Keith, it is both encouraging and exciting to hear what's going on in Reed Sport. Uh and you know, it just it's uh really for anybody who's in small market radio, it gives you a ray of hope that you know you can do it. And as you have said several times, you can go home. And of course, we want to thank Delilah for her time and wish her all the best. And, you know, I I I hope I hope we can do this again with her in year two.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I yeah, that would be that would be really fun. And hopefully we can get up for Christmas time and get in the boat or get in the uh Christmas uh parade through Reedsport. I think she said there's a fire truck ready for us to to ride on. But I you know the other thing that comes out of this for me, too, is that you know Delilah's been doing this a long time. I mean, she's been a successful radio personality since what, the early 80s, back when you and I were roaming the earth. And uh uh and you know, but her passion for radio is still as high as it ever was. And uh the fact that she took some time out of her incredibly busy schedule to visit with us, to share this story about Kay Dune was was terrific, but even more so, just to just for us to experience just her passion, her love for radio, her love for the business, and and to hear some great stories about you know a lot of people we know and uh and have known throughout our careers, and how much they've helped her in this project. So can't thank you enough, Delilah. We love you, and uh we just hope you hope all the best happens to uh AM 1030 Dune Radio and all your friends in Reed Sport.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think that's gonna about wrap up this special edition of Media Insultant. And of course, we do regular Media Insultant each Tuesday and Friday, and we hope to uh both encourage and benefit our friends in the radio and TV sales and management. But uh we're on all the podcasting platforms. You can find us on Vimeo under the Media Insultant Showcase. Keith, thanks for helping us put this together, and uh, we thank Delilah again for a great interview. And thanks to all of you for catching up on what's going on. I hope you found it encouraging to see what's going on in a real small market radio special.
SPEAKER_00And we'll be back next week with our insults and uh updates. There you go.