When you are alone driving, and your thoughts are catching up to you, there are times when you wish you could just pull a friend out of the thin air, to change your mood.
Jason Rearick / The Citizen
Ken Paradise is the program director and afternoon disc jockey for The WALL 99.3 FM.
Ken Paradise is the program director and afternoon disc jockey for The WALL 99.3 FM.
That, according to Ken Paradise, is his job description.
“Absolutely there are days when I'm just not into it. But doing it for 20 years, you turn on the radio - I love it so much that even when I'm having a bad day, it's the best part of that day,” said Paradise, who is the familiar voice of “The Wall,” 99.3 FM.
“I know the songs. I've heard all the songs,” he continued. “The first thing you learn in radio is you're talking one-on-one with your audience; you ask how are you doing. That's what I like the most: talking with the listeners, bringing them on the air. Being part of the community.” Which is precisely the reason why, in a world circled by satellite radio, iPods and computer downloads, Paradise does not expect to become a technological toaster. Commercial radio, he believes, will always be relevant.
“I think they're good ideas - I've got some catching up to do, but I think they're neat,” he said of all the new technology. “You can't reverse it. My son has an iPod, an MP3 player. But he still listens to the radio. Radio keeps you company.”
Despite that restriction, or perhaps partially because of it, Paradise embraces the capabilities of the new electronic music libraries and the diversity of satellite broadcasting.
“I'm sure there isn't any difference than having a cassette player or a disk player in your car,” he said. “But if it's just your own songs there's no connection to the outside.
As far as satellite radio, I don't think it's much of a threat. They might have 10 million listeners, but there are 300 million people in this country. I do like it in the fact you can get what you want. That's the one thing I can say about satellite. You can find a channel that plays nothing but punk rock, or ethnic music: there are no ethnic stations in this area - or old country music. Radio couldn't possibly do that. They pick up the slack and that's a good thing and people I work with share that view.“
True, there are deejays, albeit in a limited sense, on satellite, Paradise concedes, but they aren't local and can't tell the community what is going on around them, where to shop, who's playing where. However, there is an alarming trend employed by radio conglomerates such as Infinity and Clear Channel to utilize a generic announcer that appears to be from the area, but isn't.
“From a disk jockey's point of view, it's a serious problem. He'll go into a studio and he'll record all his bits in 40 minutes for a five hour show, and they send it out to 10 stations in different markets, no matter the size. The computer - it's called voice tracking - puts them in between the songs, and nobody that's listening knows he's not there. So you have one deejay working at 10 stations, cutting out the jobs for 10 people,” Paradise said.
“You also have people - this is really strange, who'll record for Chicago or Seattle, and he's faking it. He'll talk about the Mariners for the station in Seattle, the weather in Chicago. Or for a station in Kansas or Texas, he'll give the weather, the school closings, whatever. Yes, sometimes he'll use different names. But usually the stations are so far apart people won't know anyway,” he said.
A lifelong resident of Seneca Falls, Paradise first went on air with the station at Cayuga Community College, where he was enrolled. His first job was with an AM station in Geneva. He quickly went FM with a station in Waterloo, then Geneva, and then Rochester until finding a home at The Wall in 1996. Describing his show as personality-driven, the deejay, who also doubles as program director for the station, arrives well before his Classic Rock show begins at 3 p.m. Those three hours on mike require four in preparation.
“Typically, I get to work about ten, ten-thirty,” Paradise explained. “All that time is spent recording commercials, making phone calls, booking guests. I'll talk to the news guy to find out what's happening in the news. Little things I can sprinkle in during the show. Also, I get on the internet, look up stuff on the artists. We didn't have it when I first started. It's a big help.”
One element he is not responsible for, however, is a song list.
“I don't pick my own music. I don't think there's a commercial station where the deejay does, and that's a good thing,” he said. “You'd end up picking what you like - - you couldn't help it. Then you'd run into the problem of second-guessing the listener's taste.”
Remote broadcasting, together with the deejay company he operates with his son, Adam, affords him another way to meet his audience. And provides a few surprises.
“I like doing remote broadcasting. It's nice,” he said. “It's really a kick when they know who you are. You meet people you never would have thought were your listeners. I did karaoke in Newark last week and these young girls that came up - - they didn't strike me as fans of early Led Zeppelin. They ended up singing a country song.”
The real music, for Paradise, is found interacting with the audience anyway.
“Absolutely there are days when I'm just not into it. But doing it for 20 years, you turn on the radio - I love it so much that even when I'm having a bad day, it's the best part of that day,” said Paradise, who is the familiar voice of “The Wall,” 99.3 FM.
“I know the songs. I've heard all the songs,” he continued. “The first thing you learn in radio is you're talking one-on-one with your audience; you ask how are you doing. That's what I like the most: talking with the listeners, bringing them on the air. Being part of the community.” Which is precisely the reason why, in a world circled by satellite radio, iPods and computer downloads, Paradise does not expect to become a technological toaster. Commercial radio, he believes, will always be relevant.
“I think they're good ideas - I've got some catching up to do, but I think they're neat,” he said of all the new technology. “You can't reverse it. My son has an iPod, an MP3 player. But he still listens to the radio. Radio keeps you company.”
Despite that restriction, or perhaps partially because of it, Paradise embraces the capabilities of the new electronic music libraries and the diversity of satellite broadcasting.
“I'm sure there isn't any difference than having a cassette player or a disk player in your car,” he said. “But if it's just your own songs there's no connection to the outside.
As far as satellite radio, I don't think it's much of a threat. They might have 10 million listeners, but there are 300 million people in this country. I do like it in the fact you can get what you want. That's the one thing I can say about satellite. You can find a channel that plays nothing but punk rock, or ethnic music: there are no ethnic stations in this area - or old country music. Radio couldn't possibly do that. They pick up the slack and that's a good thing and people I work with share that view.“
True, there are deejays, albeit in a limited sense, on satellite, Paradise concedes, but they aren't local and can't tell the community what is going on around them, where to shop, who's playing where. However, there is an alarming trend employed by radio conglomerates such as Infinity and Clear Channel to utilize a generic announcer that appears to be from the area, but isn't.
“From a disk jockey's point of view, it's a serious problem. He'll go into a studio and he'll record all his bits in 40 minutes for a five hour show, and they send it out to 10 stations in different markets, no matter the size. The computer - it's called voice tracking - puts them in between the songs, and nobody that's listening knows he's not there. So you have one deejay working at 10 stations, cutting out the jobs for 10 people,” Paradise said.
“You also have people - this is really strange, who'll record for Chicago or Seattle, and he's faking it. He'll talk about the Mariners for the station in Seattle, the weather in Chicago. Or for a station in Kansas or Texas, he'll give the weather, the school closings, whatever. Yes, sometimes he'll use different names. But usually the stations are so far apart people won't know anyway,” he said.
A lifelong resident of Seneca Falls, Paradise first went on air with the station at Cayuga Community College, where he was enrolled. His first job was with an AM station in Geneva. He quickly went FM with a station in Waterloo, then Geneva, and then Rochester until finding a home at The Wall in 1996. Describing his show as personality-driven, the deejay, who also doubles as program director for the station, arrives well before his Classic Rock show begins at 3 p.m. Those three hours on mike require four in preparation.
“Typically, I get to work about ten, ten-thirty,” Paradise explained. “All that time is spent recording commercials, making phone calls, booking guests. I'll talk to the news guy to find out what's happening in the news. Little things I can sprinkle in during the show. Also, I get on the internet, look up stuff on the artists. We didn't have it when I first started. It's a big help.”
One element he is not responsible for, however, is a song list.
“I don't pick my own music. I don't think there's a commercial station where the deejay does, and that's a good thing,” he said. “You'd end up picking what you like - - you couldn't help it. Then you'd run into the problem of second-guessing the listener's taste.”
Remote broadcasting, together with the deejay company he operates with his son, Adam, affords him another way to meet his audience. And provides a few surprises.
“I like doing remote broadcasting. It's nice,” he said. “It's really a kick when they know who you are. You meet people you never would have thought were your listeners. I did karaoke in Newark last week and these young girls that came up - - they didn't strike me as fans of early Led Zeppelin. They ended up singing a country song.”
The real music, for Paradise, is found interacting with the audience anyway.
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