In celebration of WPCD FM\u27s 40th anniversary, Parkland College student DJ Clayton Burnwick interviews former program director Tom McDonnell about his time at Parkland College. This interview is also a project for COM 142 at Parkland College

Burnwick, Clayton

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Parkland Spotlight: 40 Years of WPCD featuring Tom McDonnell  Original Air Date:   Transcript of Interview between student DJ, Clayton Burnwick, and Tom McDonnell, currently Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska, and formerly director of WPCD until 2008.   Clayton Burnwick: 00:00 Thank you for tuning in the WPCD here on the Parkland Spotlight I have an interview with Mr. Tom McDonnell. He is joining us today via the telephone from Omaha, Nebraska. He is currently vice-president for academic affairs at Metropolitan Community College, but he did a lot for WPCD and Parkland for the 40th anniversary of WPCD. So good afternoon to you Tom.  Tom McDonnell: 00:24 Good afternoon, Clayton.  Clayton: 00:25 My first question I have for you is, in your email, you said you were at Parkland for a total of 18 years. When did you first come here to Parkland, and why did you specifically choose Parkland?  Tom: 00:37 Well, kind of a long story, but I'll bore you with it anyway. I was working in a small market radio in Ames, Iowa, at the time, so my undergraduate degree is in broadcast journalism and I was doing news and a little bit of sports play-by-play one of the seasons I decided in order to help get people to listen a little bit more I thought, maybe I'll recruit a high school kid to work with me. So I did that and I thought I was just being pretty you know market savvy and doing you know doing something smart to get a few more listeners. And one night his father walked up to me and said, “You have no idea the impact you've made on my son's life.” And it was kind of at that point where I thought this whole education things kind of powerful, plus I was making about $14,000 a year doing what I was doing. There was an ad in radio and records looking for somebody to be a news director at this at this community college in Illinois and I answered the ad and there I was. That's kind of how I got into it. I was interested in… over time sort of developed this interest in kind of continuing in a broadcasting career in some capacity but also the opportunity to participate in it like teaching and learning or education environment like Parkland was really appealing to me and so when Parkland came along for the news director assignments editor at WPCD at the best of both worlds and both broadcast team and it's teaching education and training. And so I wanted to be a part of that. Clayton: 02:07 Wow. OK fantastic. Very, very nice. And you also said that you taught Com 142, which is the class that I'm currently taking with Adam Porter. That being say what kind of projects or assignments did you have your students do back then?  Tom: 02:21 One of the things we did in Com 142 was we really surveyed the entire radio industry so we looked at other opportunities beyond announcing. So we got into sales and we got into programming and marketing and promotions and those kinds of things. And we tried to craft some assignments that would address those things so we would do live remotes and we would have, you know, sales people coming in we would… I think my final project, if I remember correctly, was, you know, to essentially record a sample hour of what you would think would be the ideal radio format for the Champaign-Urbana market. They had to put the, the hour of music together but they also had to produce, you know, their little liners and stingers. You know jingles and that sort of stuff. And maybe also come up with some examples of different kinds of promotional things that you would want to include in your day, whether it was a contest or some other, maybe more involved complicated thing and so they would just put together the sample hour and get a chance to play program director for at least for one assignment. The other thing we did in that class that I thought was really important was, very early on I engaged with Mike Hale, who I know is still in the market and still working in Champaign. He and his staff would come in and they would listen to air check tapes of our students, offer some advice and at the end of the quarter we did a mock interview day so the student had to put together a resume cover letter and audition reel and they would go through the job interview process and actually some of them got hired. So. Clayton: 04:02 Wow. OK very, very nice. Yes. That's, that's amazing for all of that to happen because we aren't really doing anything like that at the moment in COM 142. But I foresee us doing more stuff like that in the future. Looking at what radio has evolved into today. What do you think is the most significant difference since when you started compared to now?  Tom: 04:27 Oh boy! I think it was happening when I first got to the Champaign-Urbana area. You had, I don't know, let's say 10 different radio stations in the market. Each one of them was owned by a different ownership group. But then that started consolidating down. There's still 10 radio stations but there like three different owners and that's it. So it's not like you could you know as a... as an announcer you know if you're working at station number one and it's, like, well I think it's time to look for a new job or I, you know, I don't like this. I don't like the owner or blah-blah-blah, maybe I'll go for this other radio station. Well turns out the owner of the one you're working for is also on the other one you think you might want to go to.  Clayton: 05:07 Oh OK.  Tom: 5:08 It makes a little more difficult to move around.  Clayton: 05:10 Yes, absolutely.  And they’re all individually owned now versus being owned by all pretty much the same person. Tom: 05:18 And I think we've seen even more automation than we used to which, you know, is a challenge for people going you know trying to break into the business because a computer is running your air shift, but there may be some other avenues out there that are much more interesting. Nobody was podcasting, you know, 25 years ago. And so they're starting to measure audience in podcast, and the ones who can get a following are able to generate some revenue via a podcast which is not something we use to see. So that kind of democratizes things a little bit.  Clayton: 05:50 Yes, absolutely. I agree, and that's a great lead in to my next question. For my weekly show that I do on WPCD, I enjoy playing vinyl records on the air which seems like something unique now, considering our entire library is digital but it wasn't always that way. So how did your students play music on WPCD?  Tom: 06:11 Little bit of everything. We had we still had two turntables in the in the studio but when I got there the station was transitioning to compact disc. We kept the turntables because we had a, we had a few students who had some interests beyond what our regular format was. It might have been a plain old, uh, old R&B, or something like that. And so they'd have to bring in their own collection to do some of that stuff or they were into independent label stuff or, you know. So we kind of reserve those for the weekends. We had kind of a regular block format during the day but then the weekend was sort of reserved for specialty shows and so some of those kids used the turntables, primarily CD, and by the time I left Parkland, which would have been around 2008, we had transitioned to that Scott automation system, which you may still have where everything's loaded into the computer.  Clayton: 07:02 Yes. Thank you so much for tuning in everybody. Parkland spotlight WPCD. I'm joined here with Tom McDonnell via telephone from Omaha, Nebraska. And you are currently vice- president of academic affairs at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha. That being said, how did radio influence you to end up where you are now?  Tom: 07:23 Well, it's a testament to you never, you just never know where you're where you're going to end up. Radio was my first job straight out of college. And then that love for education sort of developed and evolved. When I got to Parkland, as I move from a staff position and I got my master's degree and moved into a faculty position and then was entrusted with administrative responsibilities, you know, it just kind of evolved. And I do think to some extent, I had some great bosses over the years both in radio and at Parkland. David Jones was our department chair for most of my time at Parkland wonderful man, great mentor, great leader. And so I learned a lot from him just watching him do his job. And when it became time for me to start thinking about going full-time administration there was an opportunity here in Omaha. I started out here as a dean for humanities and visual arts. So many of the programs that we had in humanities and visual arts here, and MCC those included some content areas I was familiar with like video and audio communication arts -- is what we call it here. So that background kind of helped because I had some expertise in the content area of the dean area that I was interested in applying for. So that worked out well. Clayton: 08:40 And that’s fantastic, and I know that like having those great bosses and instructors like that can really impact that difference where it can make you want to do so much more or just you know nothing at all. And since… have you been back to Parkland since you left Illinois?  Tom: 08:53 It’s been a while but, yeah, I’ve been back. We, we made the trip, my wife and I, a few more times right after we had moved but haven't probably haven't been back for about three or four years. Last time I was there the studio looked great. The radio station had gone on a little bit different direction, but I think you're still doing great things so, you know, just real proud to be a part of it, and I'm proud of what I see you guys accomplishing now. Clayton: 09:23 Yes, that's what it's all about is they keep moving forward and on to bigger and better things. But when you're not working at the college, what is your personal life like? What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? Tom: 09:37 I don't have as much spare time as I used to travel a little bit. I still like going to auctions, you know, and look for like old, old antique toys and…  Clayton: 9:49 Oh, I see… you collect antique toys. OK. Tom: 09:51 Yes I do. Well in trains mostly Lionel trains that's kind of my thing.  Clayton: 9:53 OK. Very cool.  Tom: 09:57 Yeah I'm just a kid at heart. We don't have kids. So I supply the juvenile hobby interest at home.  Clayton: 10:04 Absolutely. And then my final question for you, Tom, is if there's anything that you could tell all the people currently at WPCD and Parkland College right now what would it be?  Tom: 10:13 I think for the students it's really, you know just, make as many connections as you can. Deane’s fantastic and can tell you a lot about the radio business and what's going on. But the more you connect with people who are in the business, especially in the business of hiring, so, you know, station managers, that sort of thing you know just take advantage of those opportunities, take some time and bend their air a little bit. Here here's my tape. You know, get them to listen to what you're doing on the air right now. And you never know. Things, you know, opportunities open up. We have a lot of students when I was at Parkland who, you know, after one or two classes, they were working in in the industry, they were working locally. And so it's just about making those connections making yourself known and showing desire to work in the business. Mic Hail used to tell my students years ago that the number one thing he looks for is, you know, that want to, that desire. The rest of it he figured he could teach on the job if need be, if you weren't quite right there. But if you showed some real interest and desire to work in the business then that was the kind of it kind of person he was looking for. Clayton: 11:17 Yes, I agree completely, because your passion is really what drives you on the air, because you don't have any visual so it's all done through your voice and your energy. So I feel like that is the key aspect and you can tell when that desire is there. Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us today, Tom,  for the Parkland Spotlight the 40th anniversary of WPCD.  Tom: 11:39 It was my pleasure, Clayton, thank you so much.  Clayton: 11:40 Thank you.   

Parkland Spotlight: 40 Years of WPCD FM: Interview with Tom McDonnell

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