Engage, Entertain, Evolve and Succeed! Guest: Scotty Kay-US99, Chicago

Scotty: 00:00:00

We wanted to be a big show and we knew we had to act like a big show.

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And the big shows that we were up against, which in Atlanta was the Burt Show, a

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legendary show in Dallas was the Kid Kraddick Show an even more legendary show.

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These are the shows that the two of us guys were trying to go up against.

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And we knew that we didn't wanna sound like the underdog.

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We wanted to sound like the big show.

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And to do that, we had to do everything.

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We had to find a way to.

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Use technology to our advantage to use the cameras in the studio to to get

Scotty: 00:00:30

out on the streets, to be able to do social media on a level that people

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weren't doing without a team of people.

VO: 00:00:38

Welcome to BRANDwidth on Demand, your Guide to Rebooting Radio.

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What are the things that can make your life easier if it's ai?

Scotty: 00:00:45

You know, I'm already jumping in.

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I'm using AI for a bunch of things now, still experimenting, but I

Scotty: 00:00:50

can ask it to help me write some imaging, which I spent last night.

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I did give me some ideas for imaging or even writing a game for a certain artist,

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and there's a lot of complaining about it.

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If you don't want to do it, get out.

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Don't devalue yourself.

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Don't hate it.

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Just if you can't change it either figure out how to make it work for you.

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Or get out

VO: 00:01:12

BRANDwidth on Demand.

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Rebooting radio with a different take on all radio can be.

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Now your guides through the Mediamorphosis, David Martin and

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author of the book, BRANDwidth, Media Branding Coach Kipper McGee,

Dave: 00:01:28

Chicago Native Scotty Kay is a true multimedia talent who is making his

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mark in various fields of entertainment.

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He first gained national attention as a contestant on foxes, so you

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think you can dance later Competed on American Ninja Warrior showcasing

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some really impressive fiscal chops.

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And he's been recognized as one of the top live entertainers in the country

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four times from DJ Times Magazine.

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He hosted events all over the world, including the prestigious ambassador's,

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ball for NATO and Brussels Belgium.

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Scotty's Career and Radio began a KISS FM in Chicago where his syndicated show

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quickly established himself as a beloved and trusted voice to listeners nationwide.

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Next on to Power 96 1 Atlanta, where he transformed the show

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from 18th place to first.

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In just 20 months.

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Most recently, Scotty hosted the Mega Morning Show on DF W's Hot 93 3 K L I

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F F M, but ultimately decided to return to his hometown of Chicago to be closer

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to his family and continue pursuing new opportunities, which led him to

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the Legendary Country Station US 99, where he holds fourth afternoon drive.

Dave: 00:02:39

BRANDwidth on Demand Is proud to welcome the one and only Scotty Kay.

Dave: 00:02:43

Hey, Scotty.

Dave: 00:02:43

Hey,

Kipper: 00:02:44

hey, hey.

Kipper: 00:02:45

You're welcome.

Scotty: 00:02:45

Thanks for having me.

Scotty: 00:02:46

. Yeah, do, is there a, a applause sound effect.

Scotty: 00:02:48

That's the only applause.

Scotty: 00:02:48

The, i,

Kipper: 00:02:50

I was done the old fashioned way, but all right.

Kipper: 00:02:53

We're glad to have you.

Kipper: 00:02:54

So, Scott, with all the stuff that you've been doing, how and when did you first

Kipper: 00:03:01

know the entertainment and particularly radio was gonna be your thing?

Scotty: 00:03:08

Uh, I'm not sure if I still know for radio's my thing

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or not, but we're working out.

Scotty: 00:03:11

No fair.

Scotty: 00:03:12

I I did grow up in kind of the live entertainment industry and,

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and even before that, my brother is an entertainer at heart.

Scotty: 00:03:19

I mean, we, we have a, a musical family.

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Uh, my mom directed and performed in plays, so there's

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entertainment kind of in the blood.

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But I think my brother had the biggest impact on me as an entertainer

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because he was my older brother.

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I wanted to be like him.

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He was a dancer and a, a musician and, uh, the life of the party all the time

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and me watching a guy five years older than me, like got a lot of attention.

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I think I just wanted to be like my older brother and that kind of led

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me into the entertainment industry.

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Into the live entertainment specifically with DJing bar mitzvah's, weddings,

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private parties, things like that, where that is kind of where I got the bug for.

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Being able to make someone's day and being an entertainer and see people, how, how

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they can react to how you're worth and how you can change somebody's moments,

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even if it's for a moment at a time, you can change their emotions and, and

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make a day very, very special for them.

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So I think the entertainment bug got to me and that led to the dancing and the DJing.

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And, uh, hosting live events and, you know, I try to go back all the

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time and think about the specific moment where I decided radio was

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the key or was the place to go, but I don't really know when that is.

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That kind of transferred me.

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As I think about it, just right to Columbia College, I

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don't know how I got there.

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I feel like I skipped a season or two of my life in, in my memory.

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But I remember wanting to put everything together, the music,

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the DJing, the entertaining, and then putting it on a large scale.

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And radio seemed to be something that was able to put the, all

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those things together for me.

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And the more I learned and fell in love with the power of radio, it just

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got stronger and stronger from there.

Dave: 00:04:52

Well, Scotty, being a hometown kid, turn media star.

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When you finally returned to your hometown after your road work, did

Dave: 00:05:00

you find the market had changed?

Dave: 00:05:02

And what did you do to get yourself ready for the transition back to Chicago?

Scotty: 00:05:07

Yeah, well interesting about the time that it happened,

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the world changed at that time.

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Um, one of the things with Chicago, The city changes it feels like by the

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minute too, and not just the people that live there, but I mean, you name it.

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The bars, the clubs, the restaurants, the way the city operates in general.

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It changes by the minute.

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So I think every time that I came back and, and the interesting part about

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when I was away, I was always back.

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So my son still lived in Chicago.

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So while I was away for six years, I was actually back every other weekend still

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experiencing, you know, what, what, what was kind of happening and, and claiming

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it as my hometown at the same time.

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And so when I came back, that was, you know, the main reason that I, that I

Scotty: 00:05:46

came back was to be closer to family.

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But you know, when I came back in 2019, it was only a couple months before the

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world shut down, so everything changed.

Scotty: 00:05:54

Yeah.

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And so when you ask what's different, I mean, everything and that, and

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that was kind of actually refreshing.

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You know, obviously Covid a terrible thing, but the restart was.

Scotty: 00:06:05

Refreshing for me because it gave me a way to look at this and go, okay, this

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is a new beginning on so many fronts.

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Not just me, but for everybody.

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And now we can start and figure out where do we go from here?

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How do we rebuild it for the way that the world is now and what it

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might look like years in the future?

Scotty: 00:06:22

So everything was different to me to answer that question on

Scotty: 00:06:26

a simple, on the simplest form.

Kipper: 00:06:27

Mm-hmm.

Kipper: 00:06:27

Well, that kinda leads into my next question because you've

Kipper: 00:06:30

been doing this for a minute.

Kipper: 00:06:32

And you've been in certainly different markets and you've lived pre, during,

Kipper: 00:06:37

and post covid and survived, thank God.

Kipper: 00:06:41

But what are some of the biggest changes that you've encountered

Kipper: 00:06:44

in the, uh, industry so far?

Scotty: 00:06:47

Um, I think there was a big shift in.

Scotty: 00:06:50

Content delivery and also what I think the listeners want from

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radio, or at least the perception of what listeners want from radio.

Scotty: 00:06:57

I think that as PPM was introduced, there was a lot of fear that was installed

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within radio and people cut back on talk and play the music, play the hits.

Scotty: 00:07:05

Uh, what are people getting from radio right now?

Scotty: 00:07:08

They get their favorite song.

Scotty: 00:07:09

Don't interrupt that.

Scotty: 00:07:11

And then podcasting grew and came along, and Spotify came along and Amazon Music

Scotty: 00:07:18

and Apple, you know, the, all these digital screening platforms came along

Scotty: 00:07:21

and the music became something that was still important, but also something that.

Scotty: 00:07:27

Had more options.

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You know, there was an abundance of places that could get the music, and

Scotty: 00:07:31

I think the shift is now starting and a little bit farther along, and the

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fact that content has become important again, and the way it's delivered and

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how it's delivered and everything in between, the music is starting to come

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to the forefront that it's a lot more important than it was over even the past.

Scotty: 00:07:49

10 years, I guess, you know.

Scotty: 00:07:50

Mm-hmm.

Scotty: 00:07:51

When PPM really started to hit and people started making those shifts.

Scotty: 00:07:54

So I think the pendulum is starting to swing, and I think it swung,

Scotty: 00:07:56

especially with the pandemic and people were out of their cars, and I

Scotty: 00:08:00

think it showed what people wanted.

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They wanted that connection.

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They, they, they were in their houses with nobody to.

Scotty: 00:08:06

Connect to physically.

Scotty: 00:08:07

Mm-hmm.

Scotty: 00:08:08

So how do they get that connection?

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How do they feel?

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Still involved.

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Feel like they can interact with human beings, like they know what's going on

Scotty: 00:08:14

in the world, but also be entertained in a way that the news isn't gonna

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give you because the news was heavy.

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Everything was hard and sad.

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And, uh, fights doom.

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Yeah.

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And negative.

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And so I, I think the importance of talent just, uh, completely

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exaggerated from that point.

Scotty: 00:08:32

The need for it.

Kipper: 00:08:34

Absolutely.

Kipper: 00:08:35

So with Covid, one question, did you guys end up working from home or did, were

Kipper: 00:08:41

you coming in and how'd you handle that

Kipper: 00:08:43

physically?

Scotty: 00:08:44

Yeah, so that was a shift for me too, because when I first

Scotty: 00:08:47

came back to Chicago, I was helping out with a morning show and through

Scotty: 00:08:49

Covid that whole show was dissolved.

Scotty: 00:08:52

So I was the only one that was still working at the station.

Scotty: 00:08:55

And so at that point there were only three of us covering the whole station,

Scotty: 00:09:00

and that included somebody not on the air, that was our program director.

Scotty: 00:09:03

Marcy is a beast in her own right, but it was me and Drew

Scotty: 00:09:06

holding for the whole station.

Scotty: 00:09:08

And that came with some interesting challenges because for the first.

Scotty: 00:09:13

Six months, I guess it was, I guess until August.

Scotty: 00:09:16

So from March till about August we were working from home.

Scotty: 00:09:18

And so now at that point I had moved to afternoons and I had never done a

Scotty: 00:09:22

show in the studio afternoons period.

Scotty: 00:09:25

Wow.

Scotty: 00:09:25

I was starting, yeah, a new journey.

Scotty: 00:09:28

In afternoon drive in in my home city.

Scotty: 00:09:30

Kind of a place of dream that I've had since I started in radio and I was

Scotty: 00:09:33

doing it from my two bedroom apartment.

Scotty: 00:09:37

So there were some challenges with that.

Scotty: 00:09:38

I think I had some experience, cause I've done a lot of voice

Scotty: 00:09:40

tracking for a lot of stations.

Scotty: 00:09:42

So the ability to have fun and be live and do it without some of

Scotty: 00:09:47

that color interaction that I love.

Scotty: 00:09:49

Was, it was a challenge, but it was also a welcome challenge to go ahead and innovate

Scotty: 00:09:54

and try to figure out how to connect with the world in a place where we are

Scotty: 00:09:57

all disconnected in every single way.

Scotty: 00:09:59

So we were home.

Scotty: 00:10:01

I was able to go in, like I said, till about August, start going into

Scotty: 00:10:04

the studio and even then it was still a reimagined way cuz there weren't

Scotty: 00:10:07

as many people in their cars and calling in and things like that.

Scotty: 00:10:11

So, while.

Scotty: 00:10:12

I pride myself on being a very, very interactive, probably the most

Scotty: 00:10:16

interactive show you'll find in especially an afternoon drive in Chicago.

Scotty: 00:10:19

There was a a chance to go ahead and grow some other skills at that point

Scotty: 00:10:22

too, which I think benefited me down the long run and kinda walk away

Scotty: 00:10:26

with a bag full of skills, you know?

Kipper: 00:10:27

Yeah.

Kipper: 00:10:27

So having survived that, what are some of the things you're

Kipper: 00:10:32

preparing for in terms of.

Kipper: 00:10:34

Tech content, all of the above.

Kipper: 00:10:39

What are some of the things you're preparing for in changes moving forward?

Scotty: 00:10:44

Uh, that's a hard one because I think there's so many different

Scotty: 00:10:47

things people are talking about.

Scotty: 00:10:48

People are talking about ai, people are talking about still syndication,

Scotty: 00:10:52

they're talking about downsizing, they're talking about social media.

Scotty: 00:10:56

So it's kind of like I believed I had to set myself up to be a jack of all

Scotty: 00:11:00

trades, and I knew that going into that, and that's kinda something that.

Scotty: 00:11:04

You know, isn't new for me, especially going into morning drive.

Scotty: 00:11:09

When I had my first morning show, there was only two or three of us

Scotty: 00:11:11

work in doing everything right.

Scotty: 00:11:13

We didn't have a social team, and then we worked in Dallas.

Scotty: 00:11:16

Luckily my best friend, you know, and Brett Mega, and we did everything.

Scotty: 00:11:20

I mean, there was two of us that.

Scotty: 00:11:22

We wanted to be a big show and we knew we had to act like a big show.

Scotty: 00:11:26

And the big shows that we were up against, which in Atlanta was

Scotty: 00:11:29

the Bert Show, a legendary show.

Scotty: 00:11:31

Mm-hmm.

Scotty: 00:11:31

And Dallas was the Kid.

Scotty: 00:11:32

Crad Show an even more legendary show.

Scotty: 00:11:35

These are the shows that the two of us guys were trying to go up against.

Scotty: 00:11:39

And we knew that we didn't wanna sound like the underdog.

Scotty: 00:11:41

We wanted to sound like the big show.

Scotty: 00:11:43

And to do that, we had to do everything.

Scotty: 00:11:45

We had to find a way to.

Scotty: 00:11:47

Use technology to our advantage, to use the cameras in the studio, to, to

Scotty: 00:11:52

get out on the streets, to be able to do social media on a level that people

Scotty: 00:11:57

weren't doing without a team of people.

Scotty: 00:12:00

You know, we had to figure out how to do that and, and we did.

Scotty: 00:12:02

And I think that prepared us for everything going forward.

Scotty: 00:12:05

So when you talk about going forward from here on, I think

Scotty: 00:12:07

it's continuing to pay attention.

Scotty: 00:12:09

What are the things that can make your life easier?

Scotty: 00:12:10

If it's ai, you know, I'm already jumping in, I'm using AI for a bunch

Scotty: 00:12:14

of things now, still experimenting, but I can ask it to help me write some

Scotty: 00:12:17

imaging, which I spent last night.

Scotty: 00:12:19

I did give me some ideas for imaging or even writing a game for a certain artist.

Scotty: 00:12:24

AI actually helped me do that.

Scotty: 00:12:26

So when you're talking about moving forward, we are all expected to wear

Scotty: 00:12:29

a lot of hats and there's a lot of complaining about it, and I just

Scotty: 00:12:33

don't, don't believe in that, right?

Scotty: 00:12:34

Everybody wants to complain.

Scotty: 00:12:36

Everybody, if you don't want to do it, Get out, don't devalue yourself.

Scotty: 00:12:41

Don't hate it.

Scotty: 00:12:42

Just if you can't change it either figure out how to make it work

Scotty: 00:12:46

for you or get out, because the negativity is not what, uh, I think

Scotty: 00:12:51

is gonna be the true power of radio.

Scotty: 00:12:52

So moving forward, I think it's just embracing all of those different

Scotty: 00:12:55

things and figuring out how to use.

Scotty: 00:12:57

Use it for yourself and one thing at a time.

Scotty: 00:12:59

Honestly, that's the biggest thing, is take take on one thing at a time.

Scotty: 00:13:02

If you're trying to learn TikTok, don't try to learn TikTok AI and

Scotty: 00:13:06

do podcasting at the same time.

Scotty: 00:13:08

Just take one thing at a time, you know?

Scotty: 00:13:10

Right.

Dave: 00:13:11

Yeah.

Dave: 00:13:11

Well, Scotty, with all your experience and all the learning

Dave: 00:13:13

that's happened, which between TV and video and onstage entertaining

Dave: 00:13:18

and all kinds of stuff, you've gotta.

Dave: 00:13:20

One hell of a skillset.

Dave: 00:13:22

Hmm.

Dave: 00:13:22

But what does it all have in common?

Dave: 00:13:24

What?

Dave: 00:13:24

What can you boil it down to in terms of the trait or characteristics

Dave: 00:13:28

you really need to be a star?

Scotty: 00:13:30

Oh, great question.

Scotty: 00:13:32

I think the biggest thing for me is how can I do.

Scotty: 00:13:37

What I love to do at the highest level I can and still enjoy it.

Scotty: 00:13:42

And so I think I have an advantage in the fact that I, I actually

Scotty: 00:13:46

enjoy learning all those new skills.

Scotty: 00:13:47

So those are, those are things for me personally, and I think in an industry

Scotty: 00:13:52

where it breeds so much insecurity within creative people on a constant level,

Scotty: 00:13:57

whether that's from leadership, whether that's from financial stability, whe

Scotty: 00:14:01

whether it's from the world changing around you, you kind of have to find.

Scotty: 00:14:06

What do you wanna do?

Scotty: 00:14:07

What impact do you wanna make?

Scotty: 00:14:09

And what kind of radio do you love doing?

Scotty: 00:14:12

Because then when you start doing it for the validation of yourself as

Scotty: 00:14:15

opposed to the validation from the outside, the collective, the bosses,

Scotty: 00:14:20

you're gonna one, do it better, and two, you're gonna enjoy it more.

Scotty: 00:14:24

And I think that's been the biggest shift in mindset for me, is to go,

Scotty: 00:14:27

okay, what impact do I wanna make?

Scotty: 00:14:29

And I do believe radio has such a powerful stream.

Scotty: 00:14:33

To make an impact on a community, on an individual, even if

Scotty: 00:14:36

it's for moments at a time.

Scotty: 00:14:37

And that's kind of where my basis goes back to every single

Scotty: 00:14:40

time of the why I do this.

Scotty: 00:14:42

So all those skill sets, like I said, one, are a culmination of all

Scotty: 00:14:47

those are very fun for me to learn.

Scotty: 00:14:48

I like to learn new skills, but also it allows me to do my best work for.

Scotty: 00:14:54

The bottom line, which is to entertain people and make people happy for a

Scotty: 00:14:57

couple minutes at a time or connect, you know, in any way possible.

Kipper: 00:15:00

Great stuff.

Kipper: 00:15:01

So Scott, over the years we've seen other radio people break out into

Kipper: 00:15:07

other media, kinda like you're doing.

Kipper: 00:15:09

Ryan Seacrest, Carson Daley, recent examples.

Kipper: 00:15:12

Howard Stern America's Got Talent plus his movies.

Kipper: 00:15:16

Sean Hannity, I mean, he's just to name a few.

Kipper: 00:15:19

And of course Dick Clark is a guy who parlayed a Philadelphia radio

Kipper: 00:15:23

show into TV and a production empire that ended up doing game shows and

Kipper: 00:15:29

music specials, and heck, a New Year's Rock and Eve that's still on.

Kipper: 00:15:35

What do you see happening with you?

Scotty: 00:15:38

It seems to be a question that keeps coming up.

Scotty: 00:15:40

Uh, where do you see yourself in five years?

Scotty: 00:15:41

What do you want to come for this?

Scotty: 00:15:43

You know, it's always been a really, really hard question for me to do

Scotty: 00:15:45

that because I think things change by the minute for me and in the world.

Scotty: 00:15:50

They change.

Scotty: 00:15:51

Honestly, you know, I think my priorities change a lot too.

Scotty: 00:15:53

I think when you're young and in your early twenties, you're okay,

Scotty: 00:15:57

do I want the big syndicated show?

Scotty: 00:15:58

Do I want to turn this into a TV show?

Scotty: 00:16:00

Do I want to create a digital product that goes viral and, and have

Scotty: 00:16:04

millions and millions of dollars?

Scotty: 00:16:05

And I think as you get older, and I know for me it has, it's okay, what?

Scotty: 00:16:09

What do I want to do that every day I can be happy, provide for my family,

Scotty: 00:16:13

and build the things that I want?

Scotty: 00:16:15

And some of that has to do.

Scotty: 00:16:17

For me is having a foundation here in Chicago, which I, that was the

Scotty: 00:16:22

first goal to go out and build.

Scotty: 00:16:23

And then the next step I think for me is to be able to give

Scotty: 00:16:27

a platform for other creators.

Scotty: 00:16:29

And that's really what I, what I wanna build in the future.

Scotty: 00:16:33

You know, I have this dream to do a show that allows, it's

Scotty: 00:16:38

a very shark tank style show.

Scotty: 00:16:40

But for digital creators, how are you going to invest it in people that have

Scotty: 00:16:44

the next big idea on YouTube, on TikTok, on a podcast, and allow them to do that?

Scotty: 00:16:49

Because I, I think it's so saturated and the market is very saturated

Scotty: 00:16:53

in a good way because it's so easy to do whatever it is you want.

Scotty: 00:16:56

If you wanna do a podcast, you can literally just do it anytime you want.

Scotty: 00:17:00

I think there's a lot of people that will have these big ideas and are

Scotty: 00:17:03

afraid to figure out how to do it.

Scotty: 00:17:04

And.

Scotty: 00:17:05

Forget that you can just do it.

Scotty: 00:17:07

You can learn anything on YouTube, right?

Scotty: 00:17:09

You can do any, you can really learn all these skills and,

Scotty: 00:17:11

and go ahead and jump in.

Scotty: 00:17:13

But I think for me, when I look at the future, it's about the next big ideas.

Scotty: 00:17:19

And I don't think the next big idea comes from me.

Scotty: 00:17:21

I think the next big ideas comes from giving somebody else an

Scotty: 00:17:24

opportunity and a voice, and whether that's on radio, whether that's,

Scotty: 00:17:28

uh, on a podcast, whether that's.

Scotty: 00:17:31

On a YouTube channel, whatever that looks like.

Scotty: 00:17:33

And I don't know, I don't know yet where that comes from, but I want

Scotty: 00:17:37

to be able, somebody that keeps my mind open to go, okay, how can I

Scotty: 00:17:41

help this person achieve a goal?

Scotty: 00:17:43

You know, how can I help this person reach the next level in

Scotty: 00:17:46

whatever they're trying to do?

Scotty: 00:17:47

So I look for those opportunities.

Scotty: 00:17:50

And, and that's a big thing for me, I think it is to really help culminate

Scotty: 00:17:53

the next generation of entertainers.

Dave: 00:17:56

Terrific guy Kipper.

Dave: 00:17:58

Scotty Kay from US99 Chicago.

Dave: 00:18:01

Hey, somebody you'd like to hear from.

Dave: 00:18:03

We'd love to hear your suggestions.

Dave: 00:18:05

Just email him.

Dave: 00:18:07

To show at BRANDwidthonDemand.com

Kipper: 00:18:10

And another way to get in touch and stay in touch, just

Kipper: 00:18:14

follow BRANDwidthPlus we're on Facebook, Twitter, Insta, or LinkedIn

Dave: 00:18:21

Coming up, US 99.

Dave: 00:18:23

Scotty Kay shares some of the best advice.

Dave: 00:18:26

He's ever gotten.

CM: 00:18:27

Hi, this is Dave Tyler from Musicmmaster with the world's leading

CM: 00:18:30

authority on music scheduling.

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Keith Hill.

CM: 00:18:33

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First, I set up my rules so that every song scheduled obeys those

CM: 00:18:41

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They are so correctly and intelligently crafted that I know I get higher

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ratings With longer time spent listening and longer time spent exposed

CM: 00:18:56

on the stations that I work with.

CM: 00:18:58

Musicmaster is a big part of my rating successes.

CM: 00:19:01

Discover how to perfect your music.

CM: 00:19:04

Visit Musicmaster.com today.

Kipper: 00:19:07

Hey there, Kipper here.

Kipper: 00:19:09

Well, it's summer and that means swag or does it?

Kipper: 00:19:14

No swag, no budget.

Kipper: 00:19:16

Check out radio swag shop.com/kipper radio swag shop.com/kipper.

Kipper: 00:19:25

Your bottom line and your ratings will thank you.

VO: 00:19:29

Listen today, lead tomorrow BRANDwidth on Demand.

Dave: 00:19:35

We are with Scotty Kay, the star of afternoons on US, 99 Chicago.

Dave: 00:19:40

Hey Scotty, after having done a whole lot of stuff and been very

Dave: 00:19:43

successful, what's the one best piece of advice that you've ever been given?

Scotty: 00:19:48

Can I break that down to four pieces of advice that Sure.

Scotty: 00:19:55

I think it's really, yeah.

Scotty: 00:19:56

It's really hard for me to find one piece of advice because there's so

Scotty: 00:19:58

much to learn and so much to grow from.

Scotty: 00:20:00

But the one I'll start with is, uh, there's two from outside of radio

Scotty: 00:20:03

and then there's two from people that are inside of radio, which I

Scotty: 00:20:06

think are important to pull from.

Scotty: 00:20:08

So I, the first one from outside of radio is I had a conversation with,

Scotty: 00:20:12

Somebody that told me If it's never been done before, how would you do it?

Scotty: 00:20:16

And that's the way I wanna to kind of look at everything I start to do as a bit, or

Scotty: 00:20:21

as in radio or just in life in general, is to forget about your expectations of what

Scotty: 00:20:27

it should be, which is actually the second piece of advice from outside of radio.

Scotty: 00:20:31

So the person that told me, The first piece of advice was a guy from marketing,

Scotty: 00:20:36

um, a marketing guy from Google, and he said, you know, the best thing you can

Scotty: 00:20:39

do when you look at something, and if you want to create something that's your

Scotty: 00:20:42

own, you can look in and say, if it's never been done before, how would I do it?

Scotty: 00:20:47

And then you take pieces from.

Scotty: 00:20:49

Ways, maybe it has been done before and you put different things together,

Scotty: 00:20:52

but then your own spin on it, you know, to make it innovate it.

Scotty: 00:20:55

The second piece that I started to allude to was actually from my brother,

Scotty: 00:20:58

who, this is something that I think helped me grow exponentially and I

Scotty: 00:21:02

think will for a lot of people too.

Scotty: 00:21:04

But he said, don't let your expectations of what you think something should be,

Scotty: 00:21:09

get in the way of what it could be.

Scotty: 00:21:12

Meaning that if you think something should be a certain way, you go a

Scotty: 00:21:16

hundred percent into that and you're blocking out all of the other ideas

Scotty: 00:21:20

that can make that idea great.

Scotty: 00:21:21

The brainstorming and the culmination of other people's input to be, mm-hmm.

Scotty: 00:21:26

To get to the bigger idea because you are so stuck on what you think something

Scotty: 00:21:30

should be, you are missing all of the other things of what it could be.

Scotty: 00:21:33

The other two are from people that are.

Scotty: 00:21:36

Two very important people in my life that also happen to be in radio,

Scotty: 00:21:38

which I, I've talked about before, is my, uh, best friend and co-host for

Scotty: 00:21:42

a long time, Brett Mega, who always said, you might be more talented

Scotty: 00:21:46

than me, but you'll never outwork me.

Scotty: 00:21:48

And that is something that has always stuck with me, is

Scotty: 00:21:50

the hardest worker I know.

Scotty: 00:21:51

And.

Scotty: 00:21:52

And always reinforce the idea that radio has a power to tell a story,

Scotty: 00:21:56

and it's, whether it's our story or a listener's story or a community story,

Scotty: 00:22:01

the power of radio is, is just so strong.

Scotty: 00:22:04

And that will never change no matter what other streaming or technology

Scotty: 00:22:09

or other platforms come along.

Scotty: 00:22:10

The power of radio to tell a story is going to always be special.

Scotty: 00:22:14

And then the last thing is from another person who, you know, oddly

Scotty: 00:22:17

enough, the people inside radio.

Scotty: 00:22:18

That give me the best advice and taught me the most are also some of my best

Scotty: 00:22:21

friends, which is Ty Bentley, who is now the uh, host on Apple music country.

Scotty: 00:22:26

And he was somebody that I watched meticulously do his

Scotty: 00:22:30

job in a way that taught me.

Scotty: 00:22:33

So many other ways to do it.

Scotty: 00:22:34

Everything was fun and relatable and his brain instantly, I don't

Scotty: 00:22:38

know, directed something, directed something to what seemed to be this,

Scotty: 00:22:42

or he dissected it, I should say.

Scotty: 00:22:43

His brain instantly dissected something into what would break it down to maybe

Scotty: 00:22:48

the molecular level to rebuild it.

Scotty: 00:22:51

Instantly to something that was entertaining and relatable and fun.

Scotty: 00:22:54

And, and with Ty, the way he moved every single day, he talked to people and

Scotty: 00:22:58

created these meaningful relationships with people on the air, off the air.

Scotty: 00:23:02

Looked at things a million times and said, and there was always, what else?

Scotty: 00:23:05

What else can we do with it?

Scotty: 00:23:06

Can we take this bit and go on the street?

Scotty: 00:23:08

Was it a twist and a topic?

Scotty: 00:23:10

Was it something that was, uh, more importantly, uh, How do you

Scotty: 00:23:15

create emotion from this one thing?

Scotty: 00:23:17

So it wasn't necessarily one piece of advice, but it was watching

Scotty: 00:23:20

somebody every day that did something on a level that was unmatched at

Scotty: 00:23:26

that time and really still is.

Scotty: 00:23:27

And I think that that's actually maybe the biggest piece of advice from him

Scotty: 00:23:31

is that somebody's always watching it.

Scotty: 00:23:32

While that started out as a radio thing and a business thing, it also became.

Scotty: 00:23:37

It's much more as we evolved and we grew up and now we're dads and we noticed

Scotty: 00:23:40

that our kids are always watching.

Scotty: 00:23:42

And so you think of what example are you setting for them?

Scotty: 00:23:44

Who are you trying to be so that they are watching you every day and learning that.

Scotty: 00:23:48

Cause they're not gonna learn from what you tell them, but they

Scotty: 00:23:50

are going to watch you and learn from everything they see from you.

Scotty: 00:23:53

So those are kind of the four people.

Scotty: 00:23:55

And I know that was a, a lot of advice in one question.

Scotty: 00:23:59

But I do think that you have to take so many pieces from different places

Scotty: 00:24:02

and put 'em all together and they're not, one sentence is gonna change

Scotty: 00:24:06

your life or change it, change the way you do it, but has to be consistency

Scotty: 00:24:09

within your actions every single day.

Scotty: 00:24:11

So, Well, that wasn't PPM friendly.

Scotty: 00:24:14

It's, it's kind of the, it's kind of the truth, you know, it's things

Scotty: 00:24:16

that go through my head every day.

Dave: 00:24:18

Our thanks to Scotty Kay, the star of afternoons on US99 in Chicago.

Dave: 00:24:23

You'll find more in the show notes.

Dave: 00:24:25

Just scroll down on your phone.

Kipper: 00:24:27

As always, thanks to exec producer Cindy Huber and to Hannah B, our associate

Kipper: 00:24:33

producer who handled the booking.

Kipper: 00:24:35

And coming up next...

SR: 00:24:37

Hey, it's Steve Reynolds, talent coach.

SR: 00:24:39

Excited to be on the next.

SR: 00:24:40

BRANDwidth on Demand.

SR: 00:24:42

With this new normal, what is the one thing you can do as a talent

SR: 00:24:46

that will make you more successful?

SR: 00:24:48

The one thing that is radio's superpower, I'll tell you on

SR: 00:24:52

the next BRANDwidth on Demand

Dave: 00:24:54

that's a wrap, Kipper.

Dave: 00:24:55

Consistency.

Dave: 00:24:57

It's really important.

Dave: 00:24:58

Along with discipline.

Dave: 00:24:59

We'll talk about that in the one minute Martinizing.

Dave: 00:25:02

Find it in show notes at BRANDwidthonDemand.com.

Dave: 00:25:05

I'm Dave Martin...

Kipper: 00:25:07

and I'm Kipper McGee at all Your BRANDwidth Be Wide!