Jack O‘Malley‘s Milestones

Jack O’Malley’s Milestones
25 & 50 are DJs lucky numbers this year

By Rick Coates 6/8/09

You can’t see the smile on his face in the morning, but you certainly here it in his voice. After 25 years WTCM morning man Jack O’Malley is still “smiling,” and for his legions of listeners that is a good thing.
When O’Malley took to the airwaves in May of 1984 in Northern Michigan, he just assumed the stop was just another lily pad as he leaped his way to a larger radio market.
“When I got into the business I was bouncing around, living the life of a gypsy, and when I came to WTCM I figured I would stay a little while because we were expecting our first child,” said O’Malley. “But when you work for a great company and live in a great place like Northern Michigan and you have great listeners, I realized there was no reason to leave. Sure, at one time I thought about a larger market such as Detroit, my hometown, but the job expectancy in major markets is about six months.”
Another reason O’Malley has remained at WTCM for 25 years is his co-workers.
“During the show celebrating my 25 years I went through a list of 18 employees that have worked here more than 10 years,” said O’Malley. “Certainly no one around here is ever going to catch up to Merlin Dumbrille, who has 58 years and is still going. We have a few others over 30 years and several over 20 years. So that gives you an idea of the type of people I am working with here, it is like a family.”

IN CHARGE
While it may be a family feeling at WTCM, in addition to his on air responsibilities, O’Malley is also one of the bosses.
“I have been operations manager since the late ‘80s, I oversee promotions, the announcing staff for both WTCM-FM and AM 580, I oversee the news department and I am the liaison with the on-air team and the engineering department. Essentially, I am responsible for all things related to the on-air end of the operation.”
He takes to the airwaves at 5:30 a.m., arriving at the station at 4:30 a.m. for pre-show prep.
“My alarm is set for 3:15 a.m. I have been on mornings since arriving here. Originally I started at 6 a.m.,” said O’Malley. “But I started realizing that several people in Northern Michigan get up at 5, so I moved the start time to 5:30. We call that time the 5:30 club and membership is free; you just have to be up and listening at that time to be a member.”
Certainly celebrating 25 years is big deal. but O’Malley will also be celebrating another major lifetime milestone and he won’t be alone.
“I am 49 and will turn 50 on 09/09/09,” said O’Malley. “Tom Szfranski, Steve Cook, Colleen Wares and Ron Jolly all from the station turn 50 at some point this year. In fact. Ron Jolly and I share the same exact birthdates, same town but different hospitals. So the five of us are planning some sort of celebration.”

ROOTS
So how did O’Malley make his way into radio broadcasting?
“I took an interest in radio as a kid. But it wasn’t the music that appealed to me I was interested in the broadcasting part of it;” said O’Malley. “After high school I tried out a lot of colleges, never at any long enough for them to claim me as an alum before I ended up at Specs Howard School of Broadcasting.”
O’Malley has seen several changes since he started, and from his perspective, all for the better.
“Certainly the technology has improved so much. Sure, there are purists out there that wish we were still using vinyl, but those days required a lot of time and energy. Now, with everything on computer, it changes the dynamic. Instead of spending time cueing up records and searching for carts (the cartridges that commercials were on), you are able to focus on show content. I have never been at a place where I have had a producer — a person who handles the board for you — but with the technology today it is about as close to having a producer as you can get.”
As for the world of media seeing big changes, O’Malley likes the future of radio.
“I still believe radio is the most personal medium out there. Certainly television has a lot of pluses to it, but it is so visual that you do not get to imagine,” said O’Malley. “So I like radio’s future and I see it getting stronger in the media marketplace as we continue to see changes on how information is delivered.”

CRYSTAL BALL
O’Malley drives his case for radio’s future even further.
“I know radio has seen several changes in recent years and satellite was going to be the end all for broadcast radio, but I knew differently.
“See, before satellite radio came into play there was this consolidation going on in the industry with the Clear Channels, essentially a nationalization of radio. But all of those guys missed the point. Radio is a local thing, it is a personal thing, and you have to connect to the listeners. When the bean counters came in and started running radio, they took the soul out of radio. So that hurt radio on a national level. But stations like ours that focused on staying local and staying connected with their communities continue to thrive.”
WTCM has enjoyed much success in the marketplace since its inception in 1940. While radio ratings (market share based on the number of listeners) are difficult to interpret, the prevailing wisdom is WTCM is either number one in the market or at least among the top stations in Northern Michigan. O’Malley attributes that success to several factors.
“Longevity is certainly one of those. One of the things people like in radio is familiarity, and they do not like change. At WTCM you do not get much change. So listeners are able to create relationships,” said O’Malley.
“Another key to our success is we give the people what they want; we have fun on the air. We do a good job of keeping a smile in our voice and being what radio is suppose to be, and that is companionship and information for people. Sometimes I think people on the air can fall into a trap of what is it they want and not what the listeners want.
“Also a lot of stations voice track (pre-record the show so the show is not live) and only broadcast live part of the day. We go from 5:30 a.m. to midnight with someone in the studio and Norm Jones voice tracks the overnights for us. So this keeps us connected to our listeners.”

WELL-CONNECTED
O’Malley’s ability to stay connected to the community has resonated well with listeners. He has been involved in numerous charitable events and played a major role in spearheading the July 4th fireworks in Traverse City. While WTCM management appreciates what O’Malley does for them in the studio, they see his work outside of it just as important.
“To encapsulate what Jack has meant to WTCM Radio and his listeners over the last 25 years in a sentence just wouldn’t do it justice,” said Chris Warren, WTCM business manager. “Personally, however, one of the traits that I admire most about Jack is his devotion to our community. He is wholeheartedly unwilling to let any opportunity to better his neighbors pass him by.”
O’Malley is quick to point out that his longevity in the studio is a credit to the team that works with him. News Director Joel Frank has been on the show for the past 13 years and Colleen Wares (who started at WTCM in 1979 but took a hiatus to pursue other interests) also joins him in the studio. The three complement each other well and the show is successful in blending humor, country music, topical items and stories of local interest.
While O’Malley is serious about his work as a broadcaster, he also likes to pull a few shenanigans from time to time. He and Steve Cook (production director) cooked up an April Fool’s Day joke back in 1987 about a “Dogman” living in the woods. He also created tongue-n-cheek commercials for Hiney Wine, a fictitious Michigan winery located in downtown Luther, Michigan. But his most successful April Fool’s Day prank was when he convinced listeners that the Detroit Tigers had sold to the Toyota Motor Company in Japan.
“I had a friend call me who pretended to be an insider with the team saying that the Detroit media was being gathered at 10 a,m, by the Tiger organization for a big announcement,” said O’Malley. “The announcement was the Tigers had been sold to Toyota and that Tiger Stadium was going to be renamed Toro Stadium as toro is tiger is Japanese. It created a flood of angry calls, and even another news media source believed it.”

GOTCHA’ BACK
But even the listeners have been able to pull a few things past O’Malley. One particular show he asked people to call in who had famous names. One guy called in and said his name was Stu and O’Malley asked for his last name and the guy responded Pedasso. Well O’Malley blurted out “I don’t know anyone known as Stu Pedasso (stupid asshole)” and the caller responded there are lots of people called that. O’Malley said it a few more times before he realized that he had been tricked.
So does O’Malley see himself around for another 25 years, or does he need to look at something else for a challenge?
“I don’t see why not,” said O’Malley. “As far as being challenged at work, that still exists. Sure, some things are the same, but each day is different from the content perspective. So I feel challenged every morning that I come in.”
As for life outside of radio (Colleen Wares jumps in and jokingly adds “he doesn’t have one”)
“If I am to single out anyone that is truly responsible for longevity in this business it is my family. My wife and two daughters have been very supportive and without that support I would not have made it. I have tried to make as many of daughters activities as possible,” said O’Malley. “My big passion outside of community activities is high school girl’s softball and I am one of the assistant coaches over at Traverse City West. Softball is a six month sport so I keep busy with that.”
Another passion for O’Malley is tattoos and cigars. He has four tattoos, including a radio tower with WTCM on his right forearm that he just had done for to celebrate his 25 years.
“I didn’t get my first tattoo until I was 42 and yes, I love smoking a good cigar,” said O’Malley. “Don’t even get me started on this anti-smoking stuff. Look, I get the no-smoking in a restaurant thing but in bars or outside on patios? I am glad Nolan’s Tobacco down the block is putting in a cigar lounge so I will have a place to go.”

Jack O’Malley may be heard Monday – Friday on WTCM FM (103.5 and 93.5) from 5:30 am to 10 am. He is winding down his 25 Anniversary Tour with a stop next Monday June 15, broadcasting live from the Ace Hardware in Manistee from 6 to 9 a.m. Afterwards, he will head to the Papa J’s Pizzeria & Diner in the Honor Plaza for a meet and greet with listeners.



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