One of the hallmarks of any great leader is sharing the credit with his or her team. Hall of Famer Dave Gorab, Class of '93, rose through the ranks of WJPZ to become General Manager at a very successful time in the radio station's history. From there, he eventually became VP and GM of talk programming at SiriusXM Radio. Throughout this episode, you'll hear Dave give the credit to those around him.
That starts with his arrival at the station, and the mentorship of people like Hal Rood, Scott Meach, Henri Ferri, Kelly Sutton, and more. He also speaks of contemporaries like Brian Lapis and Scott Taylor.
Dave certainly paid it forward, as you'll hear in a clip from a previous podcast episode. Matt Friedman, '94, talks about a lifelong lesson Dave taught him.
You'll hear about some amazing things WJPZ did in the early 90's - from giving away cars and cash, to figuring out how to get a buy from Pabst Blue Ribbon, with their slogan, in a way that was legal on a non-commercial radio station.
Dave also tells us about, in his words, "the worst negotiated deal in WJPZ history," which he still catches flack for. But you'll also hear his surprising reaction when 93Q sabotaged a Z89 remote.
Following graduation, Dave tried radio sales and hated it - he missed being part of the creative team. This led him to a career in talk radio, working with Jim Cramer on "Mad Money," and eventually joining up with something called satellite radio in 2004.
There were lessons learned at WJPZ that today's guest applies every day now at SiriusXM. This was true as they built some amazing brands in the talk space, and also when they had to pivot during Covid, as you'll hear.
Something we didn't mention in this episode is Dave's massive equipment donation to WJPZ when the station's gear was on its very last legs. You'll hear about that in Friday's episode with John Ferracane, from the Class of 2003.
Join Us in Syracuse for Banquet on March 4th: https://bit.ly/WJPZ50BanquetTickets
The WJPZ at 50 Podcast is produced by Jon Gay '02 and JAG in Detroit Podcasts
JAG: Welcome to WJPZ at 50. I am Jon Jag Gay. I am so excited about today's guest. This is a name that has been coming up in so many of our previous episodes as just a great influencer in the history of WJPZ and somebody who has gone on to some great heights in the radio industry from the class of 93. He is the VP and GM of talk programming at SiriusXM. Mr. Dave Gorab, welcome to the podcast.
Dave: JAG. It's awesome to be here and thanks so much for all you're doing. This is just a remarkable project and it's been great listening to some and I'm thrilled to finally get a chance to sit down and chat with you.
JAG: There are so many things I want to ask you about Dave, and thank you for the kind words by the way. How did you end up at Syracuse and the station to begin with?
Dave: I was so close to going to Ithaca College. It was always between Ithaca and Syracuse for me. And I was sold. I was gonna go to Ithaca and then made just one more visit to Syracuse on a nice spring day. And I actually remember walking into Z89 as part of that visit and walking into the station and seeing a wall of carts up there. I'd never done radio before. I knew I wanted to do radio, and I saw that and I said, Yeah. This is just where I need to be. And then the rest is history, I guess.
JAG: It's funny, some people have that moment when they walk onto a campus and they say, this is where I belong. You had that at JPZ. That's wild.
Dave: My parents didn't understand it. They saw someone standing at a microphone, a wall of cartridges, a talk up. They didn't understand why that was just so impressive to me. And. I'm not sure I could ever explain it, but it, I just said, this is where I need to be.
JAG: Dave. If there's one podcast where you don't have to explain it, it's this one.
Dave: That's true.
JAG: So you get involved with the station as soon as you get to campus. Who was there, what was going on and how did you come up through the ranks?
Dave: I have a story that I think will probably resonate with a lot of people. It's just great mentorship. The very first person I connected with at Z89 was a guy named Guy Cacharelli, who my good friend Scott Taylor will probably remember, and Matt. I think he came from that whole group in the Midwest and Guy was the production director or the assistant production director and he invited me into start recording some PSAs and I thought that was cool, But from there, I have many mentors at Z89 but Hal Rood is probably, someone I could never repay for the mentorship that he offered me as a freshman. I was offered to me, what was an impossible job. The biggest job I could have possibly have gotten as a freshman. It was Hal's producer. On the Friday night party. Everything Hal does bigger than life.
"The music mixes the difference. It's the Friday Night Party!" This was everything. And Hal treated this radio show, like nothing in the world was more important than it. He interviewed me to be his producer. And that meant, spending my Friday nights pulling carts for him, going over music, answering phones.
Helping him with the Sal's Birdland party pack. And this was the thrill to spend my Friday night, 7to 11 in the booth with Hal, and I was lucky to get it. Little did I know that original experience with Hal would ultimately lead me to becoming his assistant program director and Hal, just one of the greatest teachers of all time.
That's why he continues to be so successful today. But that was my big break amongst many, going from working in PSAs to meeting this guy, Hollywood. Hal Stevens.
JAG: Oh, I didn't know he was Hal Stevens back then. I didn't know that. Okay.
Dave: Hollywood, Hal Stevens. Yes. Now he just goes by Hollywood Hal Rood. Hal was someone. The whole team back then. I worked in a great era there. I got to see a little bit of everything. I saw the end of the beginning in many ways. Scott Meach was the GM when I was a freshman. And then Henry Ferri and Kelly Sutton.
And then, ultimately, I was GM senior year. But the people who were there just really embodied what mentorship was all about. Back to Hal for a minute if I can Jon.
JAG: Sure.
Dave: When Hal became program director, he took that title, and back then the industry was changing. Billboard Magazine and Radio and Records were showing us that in many cases, the old title of program director was now gonna become VP programming.
So the structure at JPZ changed a little bit. It was no longer just program director. It was VP programming. Hal just took it to a different place. I have here an actual memo, which I'm going to share with you. I pulled it outta the archives.
JAG: He taught you to show prep. Look at that, Dave! You've got material are ready to go for the show. I love it.
Dave: The thing that I think is crazy about this is, so at Z89 you fought hard for your positions. You worked hard. You know what? You had to get into a leadership position. It was hard and it was very competitive. Hal took it to a level with vision that I think he was well ahead of his time in and he had become program director, or VP programming.
And I was his APD. He decided he was gonna change the structure of the department. And here's a little bit of vision from an actual Z89 memo from August 29th. 1990. It's to all executive staffers from Hal Stevens, VP programming. And the subject line is Dave Gorab and Brian Lapis, another name that's synonymous with the JPZ experience.
Hal wrote over the past six months or so, Z89 has enjoyed some tremendous achievements, but as always, we wanna keep building for the long term. So winning the war, not just the battles, is really what counts. To that end, the programming arm has been slightly restructured to make better use of the programming team, which has seen the emergence of some very talented radio marketing and programming minds.
Assistant program director Dave Gorab will be handling the day-to-day programming duties of WJPZ if you have specific questions, speak to Dave. I will be concentrating more on the long-term marketing of the station. Brian Lapis is the new chief announcer at Z89, replacing Steve Orlando, who's heading out into the professional world. We wish Steve lots of luck. He's a true Z-teamer. Brian will handle the day-to-day announcer scheduling and air checks and will be able to answer most jock related items. He has loads of professional radio experience. Use his knowledge. This new lineup should prove to be an effective one as we continue to build for the long term.
Isn't that amazing? Coming from someone who's probably 20, 21 years old at that time.
JAG: You know what strikes me about that, Dave? Is there have been so many times at the radio station, it's come up many times at different episodes of the podcast where we were robbing Peter to pay Paul to stay afloat.
We were just trying to get through that day, that week, that month and not go bankrupt. Or not fold or all, many issues the station's had over 50 years. To think that Hal and those before him had set the station up to where he could think strategically long term and put you and Lippy in charge of the day-to-day stuff while he's looking longer term and thinking forward.
That just blows my mind. It speaks to Hal a lot, but also to the culture of the radio station at the time.
Dave: Yeah, think about the courage in the bravery and the selflessness in doing that, in really what it meant to advance the mission. And hopefully all of us in our time after were able to pay it forward similarly.
So you reached that position of power, that programming role, where you then are able to put your stamp on the station and Hal did that as good at as anyone. But then he came to two people who were still new to the station and delegated and delegation is something that is a very important part of being a manager, but honestly, not something anyone really learns until they have a lot of experience.
In most cases, people tend to hold onto that. So here he is. He gives Lippy the keys to be the chief announcer and do all the wonderful things that he did, and he took a chance on me. And for whatever reason, I was nowhere qualified to do what he was asking me to do, but he remained my teacher and then, really just taught me so much that when it became time to enter the election cycle for the next term, I was pretty well positioned to succeed him as VP programming.
And I think paying it forward is just something that he did so well and those of that generation did so well, which I think really set, I'll say the latter part of my generation up to be what I really consider to be one of the greatest growth periods of JPZ. Taking success that they had built and achieved and taking it to crazy new places.
JAG: You're modest to say that you weren't qualified because clearly you were. As you look at what you achieved as program director, or VP of programming, I should say, and in your career since. But what you said about paying forward, I wanna stop there for a second because. I'm gonna play a clip that you, I know you've heard this, but I'm gonna play it.
For our listeners here, this is a story that Matt Friedman told about you at the station and a very valuable lesson you taught him when he was, 19.
Matt: I had a really pivotal moment for me. I was very interested in becoming the news director midway through my sophomore year, and somebody had screwed something up in a newscast, I don't even remember what it was, and I scolded her for that in the station.
In front of people. And executive staff took a vote on who should be the next news director, and I got a no confidence vote. They decided not to decide because they didn't wanna make me news director because of that incident. Dave Gorab was the VP of Programming and he sat me down in the hallway of Watson Theater.
I'll never forget it. It was a huge moment for me. I think about it all the time, and he said to me, something really important. He said, never forget this. Praise is for public. Criticism is for private. The issue was not that I criticized this staffer, the issue is I did it in public and that is not consistent with the values of the radio station, and that will not serve me well in my career.
He was a hundred percent right and I apologized and I reapplied for the position with this new found knowledge and humility, and I was named the news director right before the end of my first semester of my sophomore year. That was a pivotal moment for me. Because I might not have made it at the radio station.
I might not have made it at Syracuse. I might not have made it in this career path if that had gone differently. The executive staff did me a huge favor, and Dave Gorab did me a favor. I'll never be able to repay and I'll be grateful forever.
JAG: What's your reaction hearing that, Dave?
Dave: I, you get emotional hearing something like that be because we all know.
We all know Matt. we knew Matt as a student and as a friend and the great things he's gone on to achieve today. And to know that I was able to have that kind of impact on Matt and that he still thinks about it just means an awful lot to me. But I also, I'm just gonna go back to, I think we all had a responsibility then to be teachers.
Every single one of us, and I'm. Matt, through his own professional career and further at his time at Z89, was able to do the same thing. I remember when Matt came in, we thought he was terrific and we knew he was gonna do great things, but. I think we all in general just felt that it was our job to help cultivate the people coming up behind us and teach them the lessons that we've learned.
And one of the things at that time at the station that we really were concentrating on was trying to eliminate the "clickiness" or the hierarchy. We wanted to make it as open for as many people as possible. And part of that, was creating a place where people could come in and learn and not be afraid.
And one of the things we used to say. Joking was one of the great things about Z 89, but this is a place where you could come in and make mistakes and not get fired . So I think, everyone had the same opportunity to grow and advance there. And one of the key things that Matt said there too, and I still would say today in the story that he told the issue was not that he was criticizing someone or offering feedback, it was the manner in which he did it.
You don't get better unless you get feedback. But that feedback can't be in a destructive tone because it's not going to be feedback then. I actually remember bizarrely a piece of Darren McKee feedback I got. Darren was the program director and this is when I was working with Hal. I was spending so much time with Hal.
I, like I did earlier, Hal, when he did the station line, the MUSIC MIX is the difference at Z89! The music mix! So I'm doing one in the morning radio trying to get cleared. And so I'm doing the MUSIC MIX so that the music mix! Darren McKee stops the tape. he presses pause on the boombox where we used to bring our cassettes.
And he looked at me and he just laughed. He said, you're just a Hollywood Hal rip off,
And he was smiling, but he was sending a message. He was saying, okay, got it. You're learning good things from Hal, but you now have to make it your own. So now take it to another place. And, I think I eventually found it a different voice than Hal. But, feedback in life did I spent some time coaching youth baseball.
Feedback is everything. And positive feedback. And I don't think there's anything positive that comes from ripping someone apart publicly. I just don't think that's the way to make people better. No, but it was humbling to hear Matt share that story and them just gratified to know that it meant so much to him.
JAG: I think it says a lot about you and your character and as a manager, Dave, that when I ask you about the radio station, the first thing you remember is the people and what you learned and then what you paid forward. But outside of the personnel type stuff, you know what significant things you remember from the station from your time there. Significant achievements and big moments.
Dave: I remember a lot about the friendships, just the camaraderie. We certainly were a growth era. We were given the keys from several successful administrations passed us. And the challenge was, A, don't mess it up, but B, bring it to a whole other level.
And when you think back at some of the firsts from our eras, it's really crazy when you think about it. We were giving away cars. For the first time in station history, we actually gave away cash. That was a Rocket Ross account. He went and he got a bank to be a sponsor of one of our summer promotions and they give us a hundred dollars bills to give away, which was the coolest thing in the world.
How do you give away money? We had a prize van. We had billboards. We had our very first billboard up on 690 and we were this little college radio station. And I also think there were many opportunities for us to stretch our limits. Challenge new things. I think when Hal was here, he talked a little bit about Birch ratings.
And the methodology differences and how it was really attractive for our audience. This was a summer project. We were contacted, or Dave Roberts, who was VP business at that time, was contacted by Pabst Blue Ribbon, or the agency representing Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Okay. And our demos were so in line with what Pabst wanted. They wanted to advertise on the radio.
One of the most important things was their slogan at that time was "PBR me ASAP." it has to be said. It has to be said. PBR me ASAP. But sir we're non-commercial, right? We have to do underwriting, but Dave and I think legal director, Kelly Foster and perhaps some outside council at that point had a challenge.
Okay, so they want to pay us some money here. How do we get it? They want their spot on Z89, but we can't figure it out because PBR me ASAP, it's a commercial thing. It's call to action. So it was probably the shortest 30-second. "This hour of music on Z89 is made possible thanks to" in history.
I think there was probably 15 seconds of copy that I think if I recall correctly, Roberts, Dave, myself, I think Beth, we were spending a night at the station trying to make this into a 30. And here comes the payoff and I think between Dave and Kelly and legal counsel, this was determined to be legal and compliant.
This hour of music on Z 89 is made possible thanks to Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Here comes the payoff, PBR Me ASAP is Pabst campaign slogan.
JAG: Ha!
Dave: And that was a factual statement. And it worked. And it was a great buy that drove, development dollars into the station. It helped fund some of the other things we needed to do, but it certainly took creativity.
You asked earlier about, other memories, the friendships. Cousin Danny Corsun once wrote me a note when I was GM and I was lucky I had guys like Larry Baron and Danny and Rocco Macri. Back in the day before texting, either old fashioned US mail letters. Or just phone calls to the radio station.
They just called us at the radio station because they knew that's where we were going to be. I actually I grabbed this from cousin Danny. He wrote a letter to me once. This was a paraphrase, but he said to me, no matter what the station accomplishes, no matter how big, never lose sight of the most important thing that comes out of JPZ. Lifelong friendships.
Talk about vision. We left Z89 in the early nineties, and yesterday on Thanksgiving I'm texting Friedman about coming out to Detroit for Ohio State, Michigan next year.
JAG: Let me know if you're here. Yeah.
Dave: Yeah. This summer out in Chicago at Scotty Taylor's house went to a Kenny Chesney show, but we sat around talking about JPZ.
Rocket Ross. Anytime that Springsteen announces a tour we go into strategizing our ticket process, which shows we're gonna get through and how we're gonna get there. That's all stuff that came out of all of our time together at Z89. But when you look back, so many. Great memories. There were learning experiences.
One in particular, we had a softball team one summer, the Z89 Faegan's Pub All Stars.
JAG: Sponsored. I love it.
Dave: Yeah. Now here's the sponsorship story, and this is one that I think both Scotty and Rocket will forever ding me on. When I was the general manager I was probably the least qualified general manager from a development sales perspective.
That was not my thing. Scotty was like the master of it, and he was, VP business and Scotty said, oh, I'm gonna help you. I'll show you. Yeah. I'll teach you, you can participate. And so I said, yeah, I'll take part. It's my very first I think client call was Faegan's.
Faegan's was an important part of some of our lives. Still is. We spent some time there, right? So I'd said why wouldn't Faegan's sponsor Z89? So I went in with this big bold presentation. And for $500. You're gonna get some development spots on Z89. And it's nice. It's good, but for a thousand dollars, this is the premium package.
And this is on his pitch to Mr. Dulles, who nicely, gave me a meeting, but he was gonna get all the stuff that was in the $500 package. But for an additional $500, you're going to get sponsorship of the Z89 Faegan's Pub All Stars. You're gonna get your logo on our jersey, which will give you recognition throughout, central New York as we play in this softball league, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Pinstripes, uniforms, the whole deal. You had to go for the upsell. There's just no way not to. So we chatted for a while and then, Mr. Dulles leaned down and he said, here's the deal. You're selling air. It has no value. You probably don't have a lot of sponsorships this summer. Anyway. He's so I want the $1,000 package.
Everything in it, for the $500. Now anyone who's ever had a garage sale or a tag sale knows he was negotiating and the typical response probably he was expecting, and he was probably trying to teach me a lesson as well in business because I didn't have any negotiating experience. Probably I should have said.
You know what? Why don't we meet in the middle, 750 for that package.
JAG: Sure. Yeah.
Dave: Being excited to make my first sale and to have the Faegan's Pub All Stars. I said, yeah, I think I could do it for $500. And so that was my first sale, but we became the Faegan's Pub All Stars, and we had a really good summer.
But yeah, along the way I think we, we learned some lessons in negotiating. And Scotty and Rocket can forever ding me for the worst negotiated deal probably in JPZ history.
JAG: I think you've more than made up that $250 difference in the time since then. Tell me a little bit about your career. You've climbed the ladder at Sirius.
Take me through when you graduated, where you've been, what you've done for alumni listening that may not know you that well.
Dave: I always wanted to be in radio management. I always wanted to be effectively in programming management. They taught you back then the way to get there is through ad sales.
When I graduated Syracuse Scotty Taylor and I actually, we started jobs together at Katz Media. Scotty's still there and he's done just some amazing things. I was there for probably about four months and I was just miserable. Because I was always more of a programming guy and I remember, being at the office and they were fabulous people and the program was awesome.
Still is a great company, obviously. But I used to get like sad, like palpably sad. I would come in and a radio station would come in and tell us about all the great things that they're doing and all their great content and the talent moves they're making and promotion moves they're making. And my job is to go out and sell it.
I was like, I wanna be standing over there. I want to be telling you about what we're doing. So I actually came up to Syracuse and had some really good luck. I walked into Lynn Vanderhoek's office and she was running Newhouse development at that point in time. And a guy named Chuck Schwartz was there, his son was attending Syracuse. And he was the owner of WWDV in Philadelphia, which was an FM talk station. So I told Chuck my story and he handed me his business card, says, follow up with me if you have any interest, I might need a promotion director. So I followed up, went down to Philly for an interview and shortly thereafter I got into talk radio, which I didn't have any idea if I was going to enjoy, because, I always thought I was a music guy.
I loved music. I quickly learned when I got into talk radio that the thing that I really loved about radio is the connection with people, right? And how you connect. That's how I found my road into talk radio. And then from there, my program director in Philly took a job at SW Networks in New York, and I think I was 23 or 24, and he hired me to be a producer, which I've never produced a radio show before.
JAG: You produced for Hal!
Dave: I produced for Hal. I actually, yes, I actually told my program director yes. There was the Friday night party that I also produced for Rocket Ross and for Hal. And yeah, this would qualify me. So yeah, I started producing, talk shows in New York and then a few other things.
And then ultimately my, my last job producing was with Jim Kramer. If you look at what on CNBC, Mad Money, Jim and I, built that on the radio first. He's just one of the greatest human beings you'll ever meet. And I had to say goodbye to him in 2004, to take a chance to go work for a company called Sirius Satellite Radio.
And back then people were saying why would anyone pay for radio in its infancy at that point. It's been a great voyage because we literally were able to build something from square one and just watch incredible growth and it's been just a great privilege and honor to be part of that.
We've done so much, in original talk radio and for me personally, I've gotten to see so much history, get to work with great folks like Scotty MacFarlane from time to time still. He did some work on our POTUS channel back when he had a little more free time than he has right now.
JAG: When he wasn't busy saving democracy. Yeah.
Dave: He's really busy now, but I get to see other folks who, I sat in the hallway in Watson Theater with. Just the other day, Dion Summers and I, we're actually in a meeting together in the big boardroom where we were talking about, coming up for the Banquet.
Then there's so many others at SiriusXM too that started at Z89. So we have a little family there, but it's pretty great to see what so many people have done. All coming from the very same humble beginnings of just having a great time, working hard and just learning from one another. It's really great to see.
JAG: What are some of the things you experienced at SiriusXM coming in toward the beginning in 2004, and then working your way up to where you are now as the company has grown? And you've alluded this earlier, Dave, but are there lessons from JPZ that you applied specifically as you came up through the ranks at Sirius?
Dave: Oh, every day. every day there's something that came from Z 89 that's applicable. And I'm sure everyone else would say that too. What you learned at JPZ was a management style and your strategy too. This is another Z89 story, but there, there was once a time where we were doing a morning show remote and Dave Roberts was hosting the Crazy Morning crew and I remember, pitch perfect, the phone call. "Dave 93Q at sabotaging the remote!"
We were doing something somewhere and 93Q went out and sent one of their people to mess up our Z 89 broadcast. So, net here, and I think Matt Friedman would probably praise the PR approach, which was just a visceral reaction. But the Post Standard knew that 93Q had done this. Their media reporter called me at the station and says, how does this make you feel?
And just my visceral, which was true, was this. It's actually really exciting for us that a 97,000-watt radio station has enough time to pay attention to what a 100-watt radio station is doing. And so that was visceral. But there is some strategy in that, in, in terms of. How do you handle PR?
Cause I suspect what the folks at 93 Q would've enjoyed hearing was, oh, it's awful, and how dare they? And they're picking on us. It ruined our event. They're picking on us. No, but it was like, this is awesome. This is awesome. There's just so much that came from Z89. This will sound crazy, but the art of learning brevity.
So even when you're in talk radio, there is still an art toward being crisp and tight with what you're saying. So production-wise most of the stuff that you know, I'm involved with are, I'll encourage my people to keep, everything, "bright, tight, and outta sight."
Those are just the little things. I think when I first did my jock training, Scott Meach did it, and he always said everything has to be concise and to the point. If you could do this format, you could do any other format. So there are literally principles of Z89 that get applied to what I do every single day.
JAG: Absolutely. Take me a little bit through your evolution at SiriusXM.
Dave: So I was brought in to be, I think the original title was director of Talk programming. And that was effectively, we didn't have that many channels back then because there really weren't that many listeners. And doing talk radio then was particularly challenging because then it was 100 channels.
And not that many subscribers. And you could literally ask, is anyone listening to this channel right now? But it was about starting to image up the service, try to begin a position that we're going to do some top programming, and then it just blossomed as people took hold of the service, we started doing more and more original content.
And I've been just privileged to work with some incredible people. Just, some of the original hosts we have, many of the celebrity hosts that we have. For me the diversity of the content that I can be involved with and have been involved with over the year it's just staggering.
Never would've thought that when I joined up in 2004 that I'd be able to have this many experiences, from attending political conventions since 2008 to attending some of the great events that the company throws and other formats and concerts. My daughter Casey got to appear on the Rosie O'Donnell TV show when you know, Casey was touring the country with the Christmas Story, the musical. I happened to be in Chicago working with Rosie O'Donnell at that point and Rosie just took the interest and said, bring Casey over. Amazing opportunities working with just some really amazing people, very lucky.
JAG: I assume no two days are alike in your role, Dave, but can you give me a typical day might look like for you?
Dave: No two days are ever alike. A lot of what I do revolves around current events. So literally you could go in with a game plan for one day and have it drastically changed by anything that happened.
Going back to Covid for instance. If I had been planning to come to the Banquet that year which I wasn't, but the Saturday night in 2020 when the world really started to change, we got an email saying our office can't be open on Monday. And those of us in programming got to figure out how are we getting our shows on the air.
We spent the next however many hours and days getting it all figured out. Whatever the plan for that following Monday might have been. It then became creating a, both an operational plan for the shows across the platform, but also. We work with a fabulous partner at NYU, Langone Health.
Doctor. Radio is one of our channels. We decided we were going to create a Covid only channel, and we were going try to get this figured out amongst operational concerns that we had to figure out and getting our regular shows on, but also, how are we gonna provide this public service so no two days are the same?
And because of that, the days and the weeks and the months moved so incredibly quickly. Because it's never stagnant. There's always forward momentum. There's always something new. There's always something that if it's happening, we either need to be ahead of it or respond to it, and I think it's one of the things that people depend on us to do, but as content creators, it just keeps the job fresh on a daily basis.
JAG: As an audio guy. I'm curious, in the beginning of Covid, was it Zoom? Was it ISDN? Like how did you get all these hosts? Was it online from their houses quickly, how did you do it?
Dave: There was some Zoom, but the internet and, the ISP protocol allowing you to broadcast, was a game changer.
We had a fabulous management that pretty much said, “Do what you need to do to get this done.” So there were remote kits heading out and, I can't take credit. The operations team was just incredible. We literally had to organize everything where, I had to tell my team, everything comes through me at this moment.
Do not go to the ops team right now because they have incoming coming from music, it's sports and entertainment. And for at least our area of it, use me as the point, and I'm going to work with them. And then on a very orderly basis, we said, this is what needs to happen. And we need a kit out here.
We need to kit out here. We need a kit out here. We're gonna do IP protocol test here, speed test, make sure it works. But then as round one was complete and everything was on the air, just incredible improvements and evolutions in how things were done, even to like remote call screening. Now that can be done through a hub, so there, there are just so many advancements that came through ingenuity and creative thinking.
But, above all else, it was just about keeping a cool head and realizing you had a job to do. And a service to provide. It was a fascinating time, but it just changed so much of would've been done, like you said earlier. That was a year for me, it was a presidential election year.
So we had plans to be at the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention amongst other things that year. None of that happened. It all went virtual. We had to find other ways to cover it, and we did.
JAG: Without asking you to reveal trade secrets here, does that kind of give today your hosts the flexibility to either be in studio or remote to do their shows or most back in studio, or how does that work at this point?
Dave: It's a combination of both. In, in many ways there's no substitution for being in the studio. And being able to interview someone in person there's something really nice about that. But at the same time, being able to do things remotely, it applies to events as well.
So in the past, when I was producing one of my early days producing at SW Networks, when we were to go on the road with the show, we had to call the phone company and get ISDN lines installed, involved, and hoped that they got there on time and all of that. Now if there's an event happening tomorrow, let's say something happens tomorrow and we wanna be their part of it theoretical.
We need an internet connection and we can find a way to get on the air. So a lot of good has come with it, but in person is always going to be important. There are certain things that are just better in person, but at the same time, there's great flexibility that comes with technology now.
JAG: From your perspective Running Talk at SiriusXM, Dave, I do have to ask you, and I've asked a couple other folks working in radio this on the podcast. What is your perspective on where radio is now and where it can go and what it can do? I know talk radio still does pretty well compared to music with some more competition on the music side, but what is your perspective overall in the radio industry from where you sit today?
Dave: I think the most important thing and it's something that we do. I'm a big believer in diverse viewpoints and in more speech versus less speech. It's one of the things that makes me really proud about what we do at SiriusXM. Let's start just with politics and, I don't wanna get into politics certainly. One of the great things about what we're able to do is, at least in the realm of politics, we offer, a right-leaning channel, a left-leaning channel, and one that's right in the middle. And that's the way it should be. Everyone has the ability to come on the air and speak their mind, share their point of view.
And what we found with our listeners is that they will sometimes visit, other places, hear other perspectives, but I'm a big proponent of more voices in the market. We have a channel. The POTUS channel stands for Politics of the United States.
And it was originally designed by then XM before we merged to be a channel just covering the 2008 presidential election. But it became such a great clearinghouse for, a place where you can discuss politics and you could have an opinion, but you can't be chastised or shot down by a listener. Or if a listener doesn't agree with you, all opinions are welcomed.
And they're discussed and I think it's really important. That's where Scotty MacFarlane would do some fill in on our morning show prior to going to CS News. And we have so many hosts there who are just able to have a good political discussion. But then we have, a channel in that realm dedicated to issues impacting the African American community, a strict progressive politics station, a conservative one, that's probably more of a conservative viewpoint, but not conservative politics. We carry every cable news channel, every major cable news channel from Fox, CNN, MSNBC, then business CNBC, and MSNBC. So variety I think is out there. And I, from where I sit, I do think that's an important part of keeping a dialogue going. Just keeping multiple viewpoints out there.
JAG: Dave, as we start to wrap up, any funny memories or significant memories from JP Z that come to mind before we call it a day here?
Dave: This story, Scotty Taylor and I were talking about this summer when we were out in Chicago just having some drinks. Our junior year Scotty and I both decided we were gonna run for general manager of the station.
Scotty and I had always been really good friends from day one, and we are today, and everyone was like, whoa, Dave and Scott are running against each other. Is this gonna be weird? What's gonna happen? So if you remember back then, JPZ elections were pretty intense. We spent, I felt like we got there at nine in the morning and didn't leave til four or five. We often went to let the Newhouse conference room and there was breakfast and there was lunch and it was a long day. Long day. Everyone just talked just really deliberated. So Scott and I were already on the executive staff and when it came time and general manager was always the first position to be decided.
So we were dismissed from the room together. And I don't think anyone knew how that would work. Scotty and I looked at each other and said, breakfast?. Scott said, Cosmos? I said, done. Let's go. So while this decision was being made, we had already had an agreement with one another. However it works out, we will support the other.
If Scott won gm, I would be working with him this way, and vice versa. The goal was to do this. And so we know we spent a really nice morning there and we eventually got back probably like an hour later maybe, and they were still deliberating. We hung outside, they invited us in, they told us the decision.
Scotty gave me a hug and said, congrats. And then the next election was for VP business and I think that one was done in three minutes. And that became Scott's. That was, I think just the beginning or the continuation of our partnership that just worked out so well. And it wouldn't have been the same without him there.
And it was just a neat story of friendship that I think, we look at that story. It's kinda like a metaphor for so many people there. All the people there. Everyone just supported one another and would always support one another. And that speaks to the friendships too. They always survived through thick and thin. Just a special place because of that.
JAG: I think that's a perfect place to leave it. I think you've summed up so many things about JPZ perfectly and it being about people. It's funny because I don't know you super well, Dave, but coming into the interview today, I'm thinking, okay, you pretty high up the food chain at SiriusXM.
You've done a lot of things. Many people as you've heard on the podcast, I've said glowing things about you. I was expecting to come in and talk to you more. You know about your career and all these big things you've done, but the fact that you keep bringing it back to JPZ and the people and the stories, I think says number one a lot about the radio station and the culture, and then number two about you as a person.
So I really wanna thank you for coming on the podcast today, and thanks for spending some time with us.
Dave: This was so much fun. Thank you for all you're doing and I look forward to seeing you in March.
JAG: Sounds good, my friend. Take care.
Dave: Thank you, Jon.