The Infinite Dial

Title:Founder and Chairman WilkeySouth Media Brokers, LLC; President and CEO Countrywide Broadcasters, Inc

Who is Joshua? "Mr. Wilkey began work at the age of 13, working over the summer for his grandfather's auto care business. It was here that he learned the value of hard work and the value of integrity in business. He worked with his grandfather until he turned 15, at which time he began to work full-time at a local Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. It was in this environment, working six days per week while still attending high school that Josh realized the importance hard work plays in the life of anyone with a desire to be successful. By age 18, Josh was promoted to management, and became a trouble-shooter, traveling to restaurants which were distressed and building an appropriate team to address the problems. Soon, though, he became burned out and looking for something different in life. He discovered an opening for a part-time sales rep and board op at the local radio station, and applied. A drastic pay-cut was in order, but Josh fell in love with the radio business and began to work his way up the ladder. Just a few months after starting work at the radio station, he was startled to learn that the station's parent-company was insolvent, and that the General Manager had abruptly left to pursue other opportunities. Rather than leaving, Josh decided to "dig in" and put his trouble-shooting experience to good use. He worked tirelessly to rebuild the station and make it solvent. Working to rescue the distressed station, he occupied virtually every position at the station in time, from Traffic Director and Announcer to Sales Manager and eventually General Manager. He was rewarded for his efforts with an opportunity to purchase the stations himself, and completed his purchase at the age of 20. He was able to divest the station less than a year later, for a healthy profit, and at that time started Wilkey South Media Brokers. Currently, in addition to his Broadcast holdings, Mr. Wilkey is working on several projects in Middlesboro, Kentucky. He has founded a new company to acquire and develop downtown real estate, and also plans to launch a new restaurant in the Winter of 2009."

What would your dream job be? "I am fortunate to say that I already have my "dream job". Being President & CEO of my own company gives me the ability to work in the industry I love while building a secure future for myself personally. Being not only the head of my company, but also the sole stockholder, also allows me great opportunity to contribute to my community as much as I'd like. I am a very active member of several local boards, including the Middlesboro - Bell County Airport Board and Discover Downtown Middlesboro. If not for my current job, I couldn't afford the time to be as active in the community as I would like."

Who has been your greatest influence? "It would be virtually impossible to pinpoint a single person as the greatest influence in my life. Growing up in rural Appalachia, I was surrounded by a great many influences, both positive and negative, and all of them contributed to where I am now in life. I grew up in a family with meager means, and this environment, more than anything, served as an influence for my life. I realized early in life that if I were to ever hope to be successful, my success would have to be obtained through my own efforts. The drive to be successful, combined with the necessity of being "self-made" served to influence my life dramatically."

What is the one format that you can't believe nobody has done? "In today's world of over 400 Satellite Radio channels, I personally can't think of any format I believe may be viable which has not been tried already. However, a format I am amazed is not tried "enough" terrestrially is Hot Adult Contemporary. It seems that these days, the Hot AC format isn't present in many medium-sized markets, a fact which surprises me. The format, when properly executed, has broad-based appeal, and is incredibly "sellable" to advertisers, and yet many corporate owners simply won't program it."

How could radio do a better job of attracting younger listeners? "Radio is faced with a bit of a Catch-22 in the department of younger listeners. The bulk of major advertisers focus on the 25 - 54 demographic, forcing radio to work hard at attracting large numbers in this age range. It is a bit of a challenge to attract younger listeners knowing your advertisers (at the end of the day, the folks who pay the bills) are looking for listeners who are older than 25. At my stations, we work hard to attract the younger listeners, though, doing things that many larger-market operators wouldn't touch. For example, we feature the "Young Authors Club" every spring. Not only do the kids tune in, but so do their parents. Additionally, we run high school football and basketball games from our local high schools. This serves not only as a financial windfall, but also as a way to get middle- and high-schoolers to tune in. Again, not only do the kids listen in, the parents do as well. That way, we get our 25 - 54 demographic while at the same time attracting a younger audience. Once we've "trained" the kids to tune in to programs focused on them, we have realized that they continue listening to the station on a regular basis."

How will radio remain relevant in a digital world? "Radio has a large problem remaining relevant in today's media environment, and this problem stems more from our own actions than from market changes. Radio of yester-year featured talented and entertaining personalities, something drastically lacking in today's terrestrial radio business. In the words of Shakespeare, the problem lies not in our stars but in ourselves. Radio executives have, in the name of saving money, cut the very radio personalities which allowed radio to build such a huge following. Until we realize that we cannot cut ourselves out of the mess we are in, we have little hope of advancing our business. It is imperative that we offer our audiences programming which they can connect with, rather than homogenized content reliant upon focus groups from afar. At our stations, we've also worked hard to build a significant online presence, including live streaming and on-demand programming. Today's listeners are not engaged by voice-tracking and homogenized playlists, and we have very little hope of advancing our business unless executives realize this."