The Infinite Dial

Name :
Patrick Thomas

Current Title/Position/Company:
Executive Producer "Big D and Bubba Show" Premiere Radio Networks, host of "Nick and Drew" KTUX Shreveport and producer and co-host of "Country Spirit" on WSIX in Nashville.

How did you get your start in radio?
I got into radio at the suggestion of my 11th grade history teacher, Ann Labiche. She said, if I was going to get a summer job, then I should apply at the local AM radio station so that my constant talking might be put to good use. I started out at KANE-AM in New Iberia, LA. I moved to Baton Rouge at 18 and within a year I was doing a shift on all 5 Clear Channel stations there. I started with Big D and Bubba in 1999 and we have built something that was long thought to be impossible... A successful syndicated Country morning show. We are now on 36 stations from Atlanta to Seattle. I started doing Nick and Drew in Baton Rouge before the BD&B network moved to Nashville. Though Drew and I are both producing successful morning shows in other formats, we both love Rock radio. Nick and Drew has been our outlet for all the bits we dream up that wouldn't work on our other shows. It is both a hobby and a practice field for us. We decided that living in different states wouldn't stop us from doing the show. So, we use the technology available to us to make it sound like we're sitting in the same studio every night (in a city that neither of us live in).

What are your career goals?
I would like to continue doing everything I’m doing now, but with greater success. I like to see BD&B syndicated on over a hundred stations. I'd also like to syndicate both "Nick and Drew" and "Country Spirit." I know that sounds a little optimistic, but I think it's a good possibility.

What do you enjoy most about your work?
I love the creative part of my job. I love dreaming up outlandish bits that might make other people laugh. I also love the people (ok, not all the people). I enjoy working with people who are interesting. If I can say one thing about Big D, Bubba, Drew and Devon O'Day (the host of Country Spirit) it's that they are very fun to work with.

What are the biggest challenges ahead for radio, from your perspective?
Focusing on content is the only way to separate ourselves. We also need to work with sales instead of treating it like an "evil necessity" as a PD of mine once called it. If we think there are too many spots or if the spots are bad, we should work to fix that in whatever way we can. It is possible to make good radio and make money. If we don't figure out how, we will all be in big trouble.

What have you learned that you would most like to pass on to your fellow under-thirty-somethings?
Don't sit around griping about how bad things are. Accept the technology and the low budgets and all the things that people constantly whine about and DO THE BEST YOU CAN DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE! That's the only way to get yourself into a position to eventually make things better.