Jazz Monthly.com Interview with Maxine Todd

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Maxine Todd

Smitty: I must say it is my wonderful pleasure to finally welcome to JazzMonthly.com one of the great voices of this format. Behind the scenes, in the forefront, you name it; she has been a force for many years. As Program Director, representing KHJZ 95.7 The WAVE in Houston, please welcome the incomparable Ms. Maxine Todd. Maxine, how ya doin’?

Maxine Todd (MT): Outstanding. What an incredible introduction. I hope I can live up to that.

Smitty: Oh, you already have, my friend. (Laughs.) You have had a remarkable career to this point. Talk about how you got into radio.

MT: When I was growing up, all my family and friends had the radio on all the time. All my friends dreamed of being a dj one day. I grew up listening to great stations like WLS in Chicago. One very important influence was the first female on-air talent I heard and that was Yvonne Daniels. She was the first female jock who wasn’t doing a side-kick or news role. I emulated Yvonne’s on air delivery. She passed away a few years ago and I never got the chance to say I was her biggest fan. I needed a summer job when I was in high school and was able to get the sign off shift at the new AM daytimer in my home town. My sister was music major in college and had gone to college with some of the music majors that were working there at the station. So I’ll always be indebted to my big sister. Don’t tell her that. Then it was college, working my way thru school on commercial FM rock and country stations in the late 70’s and got a tremendous opportunity to work for RKO’s TOP 40 WHBQ in Memphis in 1980. Moved to Memphis, worked in radio and did voice work with Mitch Craig Productions for about 20 years. I love Memphis it was and still is one of the most incredible American cities. Home of the Blues, the very best barbecue, civil rights history and of course Elvis. Beale Street always had music playing from Rockabilly to Country to Blues 24 hours a day. Incredible music heritage. I held on-air and programming positions at heritage WDIA, WHRK, & AC WRVR and Country WGKX. Then on to Operations Manager for the Clear Channel Group of stations WOWI, WJCD WSVY & WSVV in Norfolk in the mid 90’s. Dallas at KOAI The Oasis in 2000 and launched KHJZ in 2003 here in Houston.

Smitty: Impressive, no doubt. So, now, you’ve covered several different genres and now for the past few years you’ve worked with Smooth Jazz. Do you find that to be your favorite or is there other music that you still like to go back to and listen and reminisce about?

MT: The interesting thing about Smooth Jazz….and, yes, I would say that it is my favorite…. Smooth Jazz weaves many great melodies from various formats over a number of years. The audience consists of adult men and women, embracing everyone and crossing all ethnic lines. There is great synergy among the radio sales side, programming and promotion with smooth jazz that is fun. It’s the un-cola of formats, nothing like it on the air and we thrive on that position in the market.The music encompasses everything from pop vocals and R&B to contemporary jazz and instrumental music and some soft rock. When you think of “out of the box” formats, what could be more out of the box than playing contemporary jazz and instrumental music on commercial radio? Most of our success has been through viral marketing, we have a close relationship with our audience and work hard to keep them raving fans.

Smitty: Yes, I love your description “the un-cola of formats”. I think we first met when you were at The Oasis in Dallas and unfortunately that station is no longer there, but I can remember back then when you were a force there in Dallas and what a great time that was, but now you’re in Houston and musically speaking I could liken you to a quiet assassin because you have been such a force and you have been so welcomed in Houston. I can remember the first night you came out on stage at the first show after the station’s signal came on, and I remember you saying “We’re not here for just three or four months. We’re here for the long haul and we’ve got some exciting things coming,” and you have lived up to that. I mean, you are such a force with this format and people literally love you and the station for what you guys have done.

MT: Good memory Smitty. You have to do your research before you launch a brand new format, and we did yet it helped that Houston had a strong jazz and smooth jazz heritage. There were a couple of Smooth Jazz stations prior to WAVE Houston, but this one, by far, has a much better reach and signal than any of the others. Plus Houston has grown in market size and people have really embraced what we’re doing. Smooth Jazz has never been in a better place. It’s unfortunate that we’ve lost a few markets, but we’ve also gained a few….

Smitty: Yes.

MT: .…You can’t position Smooth Jazz as a niche or boutique-y format anymore. The format celebrates its 20^th anniversary of being on the air in some markets next year. It’s been around probably longer than any of the heritage formats on the air today.

Smitty: Yes, I totally agree. So what would you say are the key ingredients to good radio? Because evidently you have this formula because it’s totally working.

MT: Passion, people and patience. Great brands take time to build, people with passion to make it work and carry out the vision, and a little luck. We work very hard in creating a relationship with our audience. We do that with quite a bit of relationship marketing, mostly viral marketing has been the success story for Wave. A lot of planning is done on the tactical end to touch the audience at work, at home, and anywhere there are potential fans of the format. Because we are still just a few years old, community events are key to winning hearts and minds. Our staff takes pride in the amount of good will we do in the community in the course of the year. We are actively involved with Aids Foundation Houston with our annual Red Ribbon Toy Drive, launched the Houston Y-Me Walk To Empower benefiting Y-Me Breast Cancer that happens on Mother’s Day each year and our annual charity cd helps local charities too, just to name a few of the events we do each year to raise awareness.

Working in radio is still a privilege. Our team comes in everyday looking for ways to raise the bar just a little more. I’ve learned to hire and surround myself with smart people. Our Market Manager Laura Morris went out on a limb to change a 43 year old country station KIKK-FM to smooth jazz KHJZ in 2004. She was armed with the data and research to make that decision, but it still took guts, and she encourages our team to take risks with our products. If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. The Wave team imagines success and work hard to achieve it.

Smitty: Yes, and you have certainly accomplished that and then some. You were just talking about surrounding yourself with smart people, and I think you are spot-on in that regard. Your listeners hear and see for the most part your on-air personalities. If you would, just talk a little bit about those incredible people; just introduce them to the listeners.

MT: Well, we made a change not very long ago in our morning personality, Donna Franklin is the host. Donna has done a great job and is one of the most passionate people on the Wave staff about the music and the station. We will also be making a major announcement soon on a very big morning show personality joining our team. Our midday host Donna McKenize is the best in the business and Houston veteran. Greg Morgan is my Assistant Program Director who also has a velvet voice, does afternoons and is a smart programmer. Wave After Hours is hosted by Quinn Dalton who launched the evening show at Detroit’s smooth jazz WVMV. Chuck Tiller, Kelli McClain and Keith Myles round out the rest of our seasoned on-air team that we are fortunate to have.

Our Wave personalities know that it takes a commitment to create awareness of the station in the community. Weekly, our staff is out in the community whether it is via office visits to van hits to community events. All of these guys have tasted success in their career and know how much effort it takes to achieve that success and maintain it.

Smitty: Yes indeed, and it’s great to have all of them in Houston, you have great taste, my friend. You were mentioning the community, how important that connection is, and it’s great to see them out there feeling the community and getting their input on what they want, and you guys have done that and delivered, so it’s a beautiful thing. Talk a little bit about some of the other activities, because you have some great activities such as the Trip-A-Day program. I know that a lot of stations are doing that, but you have really made that work in Houston. Along with the Loyal Listener program, you have some great things that you’re doing to keep the listeners involved and helping them to see that they are a very integral part of Smooth Jazz in Houston.

MT: The Trip-A-Day Giveaway is not a new contest. It’s been around a number of years and on various smooth jazz stations across the country. A contest that reflects the lifestyle of our audience. Bourne from an idea (VP of Smooth Jazz Programming for CBS Radio) Paul Goldstein had when he was at WNUA in Chicago years ago. Our audience works hard and loves to travel to exotic destinations to relax. We’ve given away over 800 free trips in a very short time and the contest still seems to be very appealing to our audience. We have a terrific partnership with Continental Airlines here in Houston.

We’re extremely aggressive marketing the Wave in Houston. Each week, we’ve done as many as four restaurant or club appearances. Houston is the fourth largest city in the nation, so we’ve got a lot of territory to cover and we try to touch as many listeners as possible. We know what it’s going to take to keep top of mind and we have to stay very aggressive about that, so we’re on the streets quite a bit. Fortunately the jazz music scene has also grown in this city. You can catch a lot of talented jazz musicians locally, regionally. We also are blessed with some national recording artists that still live in the city like Bobby Lyle, Joe Sample, and Dean James.

Smitty: Yes indeed, great artists, and because of that I think what you’re doing with all the great activities and the community involvement and the programming, I think the station really transcends age, language, race, all of that, and that it encompasses and embraces the entire city.

MT: Out of all the formats, smooth jazz is the only one that is perfectly gender balanced and embraces everyone. If you come to a Wave event, you will see the universal tapestry of the audience that truly represents a metropolitan city like Houston.

Smitty: Yes, that is so true and one of the reasons why I always look forward to your Wave events! You also have a wonderful Web site. It’s so warm, friendly, informative, and its user friendly, and it has so much great information for all of your listeners and for those that really enjoy this music.

MT: Thank you. We are working hard keeping the content fresh. It is an extension of the radio station, so it takes a lot of time to keep everything up-to-date, but we’ve learned that Web sites are sort of like the front page of a newspaper. You need to make sure that it stays fresh every single day.

Smitty: Yes, like the front page of a newspaper. I like that Maxine, great analogy!

MT: We’ve gotten great feedback from the audience about KHJZ.com and are learning everyday how to get the most out of the web from an interactive perspective with those heavy Wave web users.

Smitty: Absolutely. Now, just briefly, what would you like to say to all of your great fans and listeners out there about the coming year 2007? This has been a great year for WAVE Houston. You just celebrated your fourth year with a great show at an incredible location; Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, by the way, a lot of fun.

MT: Thank you. We did have a lot of fun. Great turnout, Chaka Khan, Kenny G, Norman Brown and Rick Braun…the crowd was digging it.

Smitty: Yes, they were.

MT: I think that Smooth Jazz has never been healthier. New artists such as Euge Groove, Michael Lington, Mindi Abair, Nick Colionne are fresh faces and phenomenal entertainers. There are so many….Smooth Jazz programmers are figuring out fresh new ways to expose these new artists on and off the air via web and artist performances. We do a live acoustic event with artists coming through called the Wave Lounge where listeners get a chance to meet the artist and see an exclusive performance. The onus is on us to grow the format and to champion this compelling story.

Smitty: I love your perspective. Yes, your acoustic event is very cool. And how about Eric Darius.

MT: Eric is now playing on KHJZ, another new and gifted talent.

Smitty: Absolutely. Well, I must congratulate you on four great years of wonderful programming, incredible music, great fans, and a number of magnificent events that we would not have otherwise had here in Houston, and I think that I can speak for all of your listeners out there throughout metropolitan Houston in thanking you and all of your staff for the wonderful things you’ve done, and we look forward to what you have in store for 2007 with great anticipation. We’ve been talking with Program Director at KHJZ 95.7 The WAVE in Houston, Ms Maxine Todd….enjoying her 4th successful year of programming in Houston, Texas. Maxine, it’s always great to talk with you and all the very best to you and everyone at WAVE Houston.

MT: Smitty, thanks for allowing me to have this great opportunity. I love Jazz Monthly. It has provided our air staff with solid content on the air as well, so keep that coming. I appreciate it. It’s wonderful talking with you.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

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