Crush It Now: Unlock Kelly Ford’s 5 Power Tips to Media Mastery

Kelly: 00:00:00

I don't think there's winging it anymore in radio.

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I feel like part of what I pride myself

on as a human is reading the room.

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Very smart.

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I know when to shut the F up.

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VO: Brandwidth On Demand.

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Rebooting radio with a different

take on all radio can be.

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Kelly: This is why I love radio still.

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And local radio.

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Like the world is looking for connection.

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Now more than ever.

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And I think that's why I'm

excited to take the job in Long

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Island to build community again.

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To build those things I

said I valued personally,

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community stability and growth.

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Those are my three big

core values right now.

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And to be able to build that

community is everything.

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VO: Now your guides

through the mediamorphosis.

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David Martin and author of the book Brand

With, media branding coach Kipper McGee.

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Dave: With a dynamic career that

has spanned some of country's top

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radio markets, this radio personality

has carved out a remarkable place

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in country music broadcasting.

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She began by making a name for

herself at Denver's KYGO FM, legendary

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station, where she became one of the

most recognized voices in the format.

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That long standing success set

the stage for New York City.

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where she helped launch

the original Nash FM.

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As a co host of the nationally

syndicated America's Morning Show

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with Ty, Kelly, and Chuck, she quickly

connected with a network audience and

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further solidified her reputation,

bringing warmth, authenticity, and

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her engaging style coast to coast.

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Her talent and dedication has been

recognized with multiple awards, including

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three Gracies, three CMAs, wait, an

ACM, and the prestigious Marconi Award.

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And she's just getting started.

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Today she continues to share her passion

for country music as the host of the

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syndicated show Backstage Country

and now Back to the New York Market.

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This afternoon host of The Wolf 103.

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1 in Long Island, Bramwood On Demand

proudly welcomes back theee Kelly Ford.

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Kelly: I want Dave to follow me around

in the grocery and be my hype guy.

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Like, do you know who she is?

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Kipper: Happy to do it.

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So for starters, Cal, any

adventures since Oh my

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Kelly: gosh, any adventures?

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Didn't I talk to you before I left

Nashville, New York to do mornings?

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VO: Yeah, that

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Kelly: was the best adventure of my

most growth experience in my whole life

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because I never hosted a show before.

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So to host a morning show and the

biggest media market in the world

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was a blast and I learned a ton and.

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Both professionally and personally.

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And then the station went away.

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Flipped in almost three years to the date.

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And guys, it's been quite

the ride since then.

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Yeah.

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I haven't been on a daily

broadcast shows until now.

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A real time of reflection and Looking

at the business and I don't think I

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was gonna take another, uh, tough to

get a job in Nashville, to be honest.

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Did a lot of different things and

had time to think about, like, people

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would always say to me in the past

year or so what's your dream job?

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And I go, you know what?

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I don't work that way anymore.

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And I'm not working on dream jobs.

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Cause I think with three kids and

trying to do all that all those

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years, I was like now I just want

to look at what I value, right?

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What do I value?

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What do I want out of life?

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Now that the kids are mostly grown.

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Massive therapy with me being their

mother, but they're mostly grown.

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But yeah, so I was like to slow

down and be able to do that.

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, I just feel really calm, calmer than

I've ever felt and more informed

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to go in into this experience.

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Like, yeah, I know what I love about

this and I know what I don't love.

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And for people right now in broadcasting

who have jobs in all of media, right?

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I'm in Nashville, tough to even

get a label jobs for people, right?

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Labels, all of media, radio,

television, all of media is changing

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so exponentially that to have a job.

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I remember saying this right

before I left New York and I

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didn't even know what was coming.

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. It's a business that most people are

still doing because they love it.

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And we were talking, I was

saying, you know what, we don't

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have just one in a million jobs.

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We have like one in 10 million

jobs at this point to be on the

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air and to find the gratitude

about that, but also, take care of

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yourself, take care of your family.

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So I definitely come back to

this with a more informed.

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opinion about what I want out

of not just radio, but life.

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So I know and love and understand the New

York country listener and appreciate them

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because they are listeners who number

one, I grew up in Kentucky, worked in

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Nashville, Colorado, very, very country.

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As you mentioned, KYGO was always.

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Top five, just a behemoth and when you

grow up in areas where a country's part

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of the soundtrack up here, it's not.

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So they don't take it for granted and

they most likely choose it and they

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then defend it like a New Yorker.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I like luke Bryan.

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So it's been fun.

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Like a bunch of artists called in last

week to just acknowledge the station,

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acknowledge me, which was really cool.

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And what people say over and over again

is that maybe Country listeners or radio

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people in the other parts of the country

don't understand is that it is next

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level listener here of country that is

Very passionate because again, they're

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choosing it and they're defending it.

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Kipper: Yeah,

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Kelly: that's my life

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Dave: Well between your local and

national assignments, you've dealt

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with a lot of high profile guests.

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I mean just talking about them

How do you prepare for that?

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What's your secret to

preparing for celebrities?

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and The care and feeding of those

folks, and does it differ from your

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local and network shows at all?

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Kelly: I think, and not to be Pollyanna,

but my approach to all of radio has

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always been the same and even more strong

now that I've always done this job.

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I probably mentioned this to you guys

last time we talked, because it's

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about relationships, like the fact

that you guys called me back and that

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we're part of this broadcasting family,

like that's what fuels me in this job.

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So.

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That's part of the

answer to your question.

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The other part is the backstage country.

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We tape in one sitting per artist.

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And it's really a cool show because

it's like you get an A list artist.

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Here's me plugging, like I'm selling

it or something, but I'm just the

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talent JTT, but it's kind of cool

cause the artist is the host.

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So I feel like for me, I've

always been more of a personality

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than a jock and a host.

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So it's always been my job to

make other people shine, right?

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And with that though, like, I'm going

back to, I'll be going back from

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Forth to Nashville, I'm going back

Wednesday and Thursday to interview

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Lainey Wilson and Keith Urban.

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And they will be, hey, it's Lainey Wilson,

your host this week on Backstage Country.

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We 45 minutes to an hour to get 20,

20, basically 20 hours of content.

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That's So, obviously it's not full

20 hours, but in that case, I write a

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script and I try to get inside the head

of the person for all of our intros,

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all of our show opens, all of our show,

because we have to be really efficient.

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And then we also have to get

really great content, though.

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I don't think there's

winging it anymore in radio.

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I think you do have to be wildly

prepared and then you have to read

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just like you guys prepared for this.

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You have to read the personality.

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You kind of get to know.

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And the beauty of still doing

local radio, too, is you meet

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them as they're coming up.

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And when you meet them as they're

coming up, they never forget you, right?

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So, artists are really different.

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I'm not going to do some goofy game.

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Like, I'm not going to

put them in that position.

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I feel like part of my, what I pride

myself on as a human is reading the room.

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Very smart.

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I know when to shut the F up , and

I know, you know what I mean?

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And I know when to be like, and

it's partially because I wanna be

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respectful and I hope people are of me.

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Like I don't wanna come in hot

if somebody's got social anxiety.

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And a great example is I

just interviewed Jelly Roll.

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Like we had a blast.

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I only met him one other time, but

he's one of those megastar because

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I think he does the same thing.

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We laughed, he gave me endless

grief, which I love but, you

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know, he just kept saying, Are

you gonna let me host this show?

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I go, please.

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Are you, do you think they're first

man who's ever said that to me?

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Um, but yeah.

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So I think it's reading

people and listening, right?

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Because it's through listening that you

get to get a better secondary question,

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or you get to play off something

that does create magic, but a lot of

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broadcasters listening to this, you

can't rely on winging it to find magic.

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What you want is great content no

matter what, and then if you're

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prepared it leaves you much more

room for the success of magic.

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But if you don't get it, well that's

okay because you got decent, good

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content that you know you have.

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But if you're listening and you

find a way to go, Oh my gosh, did he

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just say he still plays Pokemon Go?

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Oh, we're going to talk about that.

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Are you going to try to

still catch them all?

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I think they've all been caught, dude.

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Kipper: Well, speaking of that, I

guess that leads to the question,

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how do you stay relevant and fresh

in an industry that's changing

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constantly with formats, stations,

technology, and particularly for you.

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Balancing the demands of a

syndicated show, local show, and

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your podcasts and everything else.

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How do you do it?

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I

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Kelly: don't think no matter

what your age, you have room

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to say you won't do something.

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And for anybody listening who's

not on board with socials . I don't

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know why I've always loved socials.

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Cause I do think it's a way to let

audience and people see you in a

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different way, in a more real way,

just like the artists are using it.

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Right.

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We're all our own brands and we

have to get people to root for us.

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We have to just be ourselves.

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And so I don't know about that.

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I will edit.

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I love reels.

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I love that, but it just there's

no room for saying you're

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not going to do something.

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There's a room for saying

I'm not that great at that.

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That might not be the best use

of my bandwidth, but I'll do it.

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Dave: What strategies do you use to

create a connection with listeners?

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Kelly: Um, dude, I don't know.

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I just be me.

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And because what I have found is be kind,

like this is why I love radio still and

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local radio, like the world's looking

for connection now more than ever.

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And I think that's what I am excited

to take the job in long Island to build

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community again, to build like those

things I said, I valued personally,

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community, stability and growth.

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Those are my three.

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Big core values right now.

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And to be able to build that

community is everything.

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So you just try to be you without making

it all about you and just make people

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feel like they're part of something.

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Cause if you think about us, even

individually, like we all want

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to be part of something, right?

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We like being part of the

broadcasting community.

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So I hope that answers the

question, I don't know...

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Dave: No, it does.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, it does.

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Kipper: Absolutely.

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So flipping the script just a little bit,

being back on top, you're in Long Island,

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New York DMA, and you got a network show,

but thinking back to when you were first

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dreaming about getting into the business

and your first couple of jobs, now, today,

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what do you think young broadcasters

really should be focusing on skill-wise to

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be a viable candidate in a business like

you said, that's got a one in 10 million

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chance of getting a current job, now?

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Kelly: Well, I think you need

to make peace with you're more

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than a broadcaster, right?

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You are building your brand.

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And so to be.

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It's so easy.

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I remember when I was younger,

people say, Oh, just be yourself.

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And that seems like the easiest

thing in the world but it's not.

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So like figuring out what you value and

who you are early on is pretty great.

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And I meet so many young people that

have that down, which is amazing.

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And remember at the end of the day, no

matter what we're doing, creatives in

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radio, television, your online presence,

It's all about the art of storytelling.

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And so if I had one big piece of

advice besides hanging in there

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and being tenacious and finding

allies and finding supporters.

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That was all the same

thing in that one thing.

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It's the importance of storytelling and

learning how to be a good storyteller.

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And I think finding the people you

admire to watch as far as storytelling.

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And back when I very first started out,

this was back in the good old days when

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they had news people on morning shows.

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And I was a news person and I always

wanted to tell stories with audio.

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I'm sitting here editing

as we speak, Dan and Shay.

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Our first Jones Beach concert was last

weekend or Saturday and it's Monday.

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And I'm editing sound from listeners.

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And I'm just saying why they love

Dan and Shay, getting them to

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sing along to a Dan and Shay song.

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People want to hear themselves on the air.

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So that's, to me, there's no

better storytelling than people,

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letting people tell their story.

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And that, coincidentally, also

builds community, also builds all

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the things we've been talking about.

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So, I think storytelling and tenacity.

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And finding allies, those would be the

top three for me as far as like, no

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matter what you're doing, because again,

no one's just doing radio anymore.

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No one's just doing television.

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No one's just doing online.

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It's all part of being a tour

de force as far as your presence

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and knowing who you are.

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That was a lot of extra things.

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Sorry.

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That wasn't very good storytelling.

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Kipper: You did great.

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Dave: We are with the award winning

afternoon star and network co hosts.

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Let me some backstage country.

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The Kelly Ford knows someone who'd

be perfect for this show or have

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a topic you'd like to suggest.

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Well, let us know, email

your suggestions to show.

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At Brandwidth On Demand.

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Com or hit us up on socials brand with

plus on Instagram, Facebook, and X that's

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brand with P L U S brand with plus.

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Kipper: And if you're new to the

podcast, we are so glad you're here.

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Welcome and be sure to hit the follow

button wherever you get those podcasts.

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And if you've been with us a while,

please be sure to tell a friend.

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: 00:14:53

So we hope you keep following, keep

sharing, and let's keep pushing the

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boundaries of what really is possible

in the next iteration of audio

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Dave: coming up, theee Kelly Ford

shares her thoughts on mentors and.

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Taking advice.

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VO: The stuff we know now,

we wish we'd known then.

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Brandwidth on Demand.

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Dave: We're with thee Kelly Ford,

afternoon host at The Wolf 101.

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3 Long Island.

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And the nationally

syndicated backstage country.

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: 00:17:09

Kelly, what role did mentorship

play in your career and what's the

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: 00:17:13

best advice that you've ever gotten?

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: 00:17:15

Kelly: Oh, wow.

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: 00:17:16

You know what?

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: 00:17:17

I've asked that question and I hate it.

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: 00:17:19

Why are you talking about that?

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: 00:17:22

What?

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: 00:17:23

What's the best advice?

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: 00:17:24

Never take advice.

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: 00:17:25

No.

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: 00:17:26

I would say, uh, but I do know so many

people along the way have given me advice.

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: 00:17:32

And probably the kind of amalgamation

of that is some of the advice I've given

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: 00:17:39

out today, like, learn how to pivot,

be adaptable be tenacious, don't take

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: 00:17:45

anything personally I think those are

all things that play into who I am and

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: 00:17:49

probably and I want to thank anyone who

has given me advice along the way because

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: 00:17:53

I know they have and they're probably

like, why doesn't she remember that?

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: 00:17:57

That would be the advice

one of you needs to give me.

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: 00:17:59

Write this stuff down

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: 00:18:03

Kipper: For your book Kelly for your book,

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: 00:18:05

Dave: yeah

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: 00:18:08

Our thanks to an original Kipper.

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: 00:18:11

She is amazing.

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: 00:18:12

Thee

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: 00:18:13

Kelly Ford.

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: 00:18:14

We have links to her shows, podcasts,

socials, and more all in the show notes.

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: 00:18:18

Just scroll down on your phone.

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: 00:18:19

Kipper: With a country star only

fitting, our cowboy hats are off

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: 00:18:23

to exec producer Cindy Huber.

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: 00:18:25

For putting everything together and

our associate producer Hannah B for

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: 00:18:30

booking, the voices we all learn from.

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: 00:18:32

Dave: That's a wrap, kipper all

the hard work really don't mean

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: 00:18:35

a lot unless you're consistent.

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: 00:18:37

Consistency is the subject of

the new one minute mark nuts.

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: 00:18:42

Find it in the show notes

at Bran with on demand.com.

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: 00:18:45

I'm Dave Martin.

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: 00:18:47

Kipper: And I'm Kipper McGee.

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: 00:18:48

May all your BRANDwidth be wide.