january 2013 focuspolkcounty.com14

W I N N I N G L I S T E N E R S A N D A W A R D SINTERVIEW BY BRIAN WEST | PHOTOS BY ANTHONY SASSANO

97 Country WPCV has been a staple in Lakeland and Polk County for many, many years. Their listeners are loyal listeners, and the personalities at the station think of them as family – and they are. This is the type of relationship that arises when you spend so much time with someone, even though it may be as simple as hearing their voices over the air. 2012 was a great year for the 97 Country Breakfast Club. They won a couple of very distinguished awards and even added a new member to the club when Melissa Moran had her � rst child a few months ago.

Focus: Give me a little history about the station.Moran: I know that the station started originally in the orange dome. It was destroyed this year, which is really sad since it was part of WPCV history. � en they found this facility, although I don’t think it was always a two-story building. I think that was an addition. We have all the studios upstairs. It’s been around quite some time, because I know that Tom O’Brien has been around for 18 years.Todd: We’re owned by the Hall family, so it’s a family owned radio group, and we’re very fortunate for that. We’re very blessed to be able to work for them. � e whole family is just fabulous. I mean you look at all the cuts in radio today; so we’re very fortunate to still be able to do what we do.

Focus: What got you into radio?Todd: When I was 16 years old, I was riding the school bus listening to Dancing Don Hall in Wichita, Kansas. I thought, ‘� is guy gets paid to tell jokes.’ He gave the weather and just made people smile. I wanted to do it. My grandfather was a farmer; cattle, corn, chickens, hogs, the whole nine yards. So I was raised on country music. I love the format and never want to leave the format.Moran: I was in college in Philadelphia. When I would procrastinate on doing my projects, I would have the radio on and I just thought, ‘I could do that, and these DJs make a ton of money.’ [laughing] I raced home after a year and did an internship, and then started to get jobs and just fell in love with it.

Focus: So how do most people get into radio? Do they just walk through the door and ask to be on the air?Todd: � at can work. � ere are just so many avenues. You can even go to school for it. A lot of program directors and operations managers are looking for personalities, like DJ � e Trucker. Here’s a guy we pulled o� the street. He has a lot of life experience. He can tell a great story. If you can tell a great story and you’re willing to work for beans, you might have a good shot at radio today.Moran: I would agree with that. I think stations in bigger markets require kids in school to earn college credits to intern for the station. In a medium market station we have a little more � exibility. � at’s how I got my start. Back in Providence, they were a little more � exible and loose on not having to receive college credits, so I slipped through.

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Focus: How long have you been with the station and what brought you here?Todd: Since 2006. I joined with Tom O’Brien. It was the Roger and Tom Show. We had a good time, but we needed a female presence on the show. We searched a long time; about two years, before we � nally found a very talented gal named Melissa Moran, who’s very funny. She’s been a great addition. � en we picked up a guy on the road, no pun intended; DJ � e Trucker. We’re also very fortunate to have 4 people on the 97 WPCV Breakfast Club. With all the cutbacks, how many other shows in central Florida have 4 people? We’re building, and we’re live and local. 97 Country has disc jockeys in the building 24/7, 365 days a year. You won’t � nd that in central Florida, and probably not in the whole state. Moran: I started with the station in 2008. I worked for 93.3 WFLZ in Tampa. � ey decided to replace me with syndicated Ryan Seacrest. I got a call from Mike James, the program director here at 97 Country and he asked if I would consider switching formats. I’d never done country before. So I started listening to the station and then came in to do a few tries at the show. I just gelled with Roger and Tom. It was easy. It was instant chemistry. So I thought, ‘You know, even though I’m not a country girl, I can see myself being a country girl.’ And I love it now. I can’t imagine my life without this station, or without country music.

Focus: How do you explain the chemistry between the four of you?Todd: You don’t � nd this chemistry everywhere you go. � ere are partners that don’t gel. You’ve got to get here at four o’clock in the morning and you’ve got to get along so it comes across on the show that you like each other and you really want to be here in the morning, waking central Florida up. So that chemistry is really cool.Moran: As a listener, you can hear tension on the air. And sometimes we create that tension, only because the longer you do it, you tend to become like an old married couple. You know what each others hot buttons are, but sometimes its fun to press them on air. Todd: Did I do that this morning, Melissa?Moran: Yes.Todd: Do you want to tell him what you did?Moran: You mean what my husband did. My husband spent two and a half hours in line to get a TV on Black Friday. Roger made fun of us, because my husband ended up returning the TV because he hated it.Todd: It slipped out of her mouth this morning during the

show. I was like, ‘Wait a minute. Is that the one where he stood in line?”

Focus: How has the business evolved?Todd: For a lot of stations, not including us, it’s like a jukebox. How can anybody in the community get the information they need that morning, that day, in Lakeland or central Florida if the station is just a jukebox? If we have a freeze or a hurricane, we’re going to be here. A lot of other stations just keep rolling that music, and there’s nothing wrong with good country music. But when there’s an emergency, or you need to get some information to help keep your family safe, or where to take the kids for the holiday or on break, we’re going to have that information for you. A lot of the other stations aren’t.Moran: Other stations have national contesting. You may be listening here in Lakeland, Florida, but the contest is open to everyone in the country. So what are your odds of winning that contest? At 97 Country, we stay as local as possible and each of our contests are open to 97 Country listeners, and that’s it. So your odds of winning are great, and we have some really awesome prizes.Todd: And you can take us with you around the world on-line at www.wpcv.com or on the App on your smart phone. So we’ve evolved with the rest of the industry, but we serve Lakeland and central Florida.

Focus: Tell me what you enjoy most about your show and each other.Moran: Keeping everything local helps to tie us in with the community. We’re not just talking about the national water cooler type things, we are, but we’re also adding another layer onto that talking about things right here in Polk County.Todd: We have a philanthropy; the 97 Country Breakfast Club Kids. It’s cool that we get to help make a di¢ erence in the lives of kids right here in Polk County with Kids Pack. We also have the St. Jude Radiothon to help give kids hope as they battle cancer. During the Christmas season we have Toys for Tots with the Marine Corps Reserves. We also do Stu¢ the Bus in the fall to help kids with their school supplies for the new school year. So we help people in the community. If we can help put a smile on their face, hopefully make them laugh, then we’ve done our job.Moran: We mention all of these programs because its fun to get our hands in it and actually see the people we’re helping, instead of just throwing our e¢ orts out to some national charity. And we have so much fun together in the morning.Todd: We never know what’s going to happen. We were at

the Christmas Parade the other night, and we’d been talking on the air about how sometimes you go through the parade and there’s that guy who sits there like this (arms crossed with a scowl on their face). DJ and I said we were going to take pictures of those people. So during the parade this guy yells out, “Hey Roger!” and he goes into character because he heard us. So he responded. So hopefully we’re able to enrich the lives of our listeners a little bit.

Focus: Are there any memorable moments from the show that you can share?Moran: Usually my memorable moments involve me crying. It was touching for me when I announced that I was pregnant. � ere were a lot of emotions wrapped up in it. My mother had passed, and it was shortly after that when I found out I was pregnant. As was telling the story I just started wailing. � en the outpouring from the listeners was just overwhelming. It was really, really nice.Todd: One of my favorite country artists, Brad Paisley, recently called to tell us we’d won a Country Music Association Award for Best Morning Personality. We love Brad. I had an opportunity to interview him when he was just getting started and I’ve followed his career. When he called, he said something like, “We’re not sure how this happened. � ere weren’t many entries, but you’ve won Broadcast Personalities of the Year.” � at was memorable. And about a week before that DJ � e Trucker had someone call saying they were Brad Paisley, but it wasn’t. I hollered and screamed like a girl. And in April, Melissa called me while I was driving home and said, “Have you heard?” We won the Academy of Country Music Award for On-Air Personality of the Year.

Focus: And of course there are bonuses and/or pay raises coming your way for winning these awards?Moran: [Laughing] Our bonuses are that we get to keep our jobs. We’re very fortunate to be working here.Todd: [Laughing] We love the people we work with and for. Seriously, it’s [our success] all because of our listeners.

It’s easy to see why the 97 Country Breakfast Club has been so successful. � ey did a good bit of laughing during our time together, but they had me laughing too. � ey’re so easy to talk to, genuine and down-to-earth, and their listeners have noticed. Congratulations on your awards and we wish you the best of luck and continued success.

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