5-17-2013
I met Snr. VP/Programming Cumulus Media Mike McVay at my first NAB convention. He walked up to me at the cocktail party and said, ?I?m Mike McVay, you need to know me.? Stunned I looked up at this very tall, striking man and started laughing. I asked him if that was a pick-up line or if he wanted to meet me. He looked me dead in the eye, as he does with everyone, and said, ?If you?re in radio, you need to know me.? I thought he was crazy, and I?m very attracted to crazy, so I remained where I was and talked to Mike for about an hour. He was funny, smart, interesting, and loved radio. One of the highlights of every convention is the time I spend with Mike. Thirty years later, I?m honored to call him my friend and fortunate to be able to work with him at Cumulus.
Now, let's let Mike tell us how he got started in radio?
As a kid I lived on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, in what is now a suburb, but was a rural area when I was growing up. My Dad worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad which allowed my brother and me to ride everywhere for free. Whenever we could find the time and money we would take the train to downtown Pittsburgh and attend a Pirates game.
A block from the train station in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was a radio station, WHJB. We would walk by it and stare in the window at Cowboy Phil doing the morning show. We would stand for hours, watching him spin the records, talk on the air and, when he had time, he would talk to us through the speakers that were hanging outside on the building next to the huge picture window. Every time Cowboy Phil put on a record he would rise from his chair and disappear into a dark back room, where we couldn?t see what he was doing. Then he would emerge from the back and hustle to the turntable just before the record ended. One day my brother turned to me and said, ?You know where he goes don?t you? He goes in the back and plays cards when the record's on.? I knew then and there that this was what I wanted to do.
At 14 years of age I conned my way into a job at WHJB. My first job was Sunday mornings playing the programs for the ?God Squad.? Before long I was promoted to weekends where I talked between the music of the day and was paid a whopping $1.65 per hour.
After a few years in Greensburg, at the age of 18, I got my first real job in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, at WCVI as the night DJ, spinning the hits and talking with anyone who would call. I had arrived; I was ?Mighty Mouth Mike McVay?.
From Greensburg to Connellsville to Uniontown; I had made the rounds of Pennsylvania?s rural stations; then I hit it big and got the job of a lifetime in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Email Mike at Mike.McVay@cumulus.com
Lisa Miller is president of Miller Broadcast Management
in Chicago and can be reached at lisa@millerbroadcast.com or 312-454-1111.
Read more of her feature How I Got Into Radio Sponsored by www.localfocusllc.com HERE
(5/18/2013 8:22:09 AM)
When my son was diagnosed with Leukemia and - believe me - my life took a dramatic turn, two men in this industry really reached out to me in a way that was sincere and substantial. Those two men where Rusty Walker and Mike McVay. I had great admiration for both of them before this moment in my life, but their positive impact on me at that moment and after was really needed and appreciated by me. Mike is very wicked smart. He is someone who has done very well in this industry and plays on a different level than others, often including his employers. However, my personal experiences with him cause me to appreciate Mike as a person. In addition to the commercial side of Mike and his skills to monetize consultation and connectivity, he has positively influenced a lot of people in our industry at a lot of levels and remains someone who I am certain makes the lives of those he is working with inside Cumulus today.....much better. That's pretty good in my book. I'm grateful to have known Mike.
(5/17/2013 11:31:15 AM)
About time for Mike McVay to get out of radio. Your boilerplate consulting was bad enough. Now you are bit by bit destroying the program director position at Cumulus. Out of touch? Also, what do you know about talk radio? Nothing. Zero. How is the tanning salon?
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