Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Carroll.
Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Radio was always something I was fascinated by. When I was a kid, I pictured the DJs playing CDs in a little building up at the top of the mountain near that tall stick with the flashing red lights. I won my first radio contest in the 4th grade and could not have been more excited to go pick up my Billie Myers “Kiss The Rain” CD. The thrill I got from talking to the DJ and hearing my little voice played back on air as the winner set it all in motion for me. Radio became my obsession. At 17, I was working at a local hotel that hosted the Rotary Club that my dad is a member of and I used to be apart of the banquet serving team. My dad shared with me that the General Manager of the local radio cluster was also in the Rotary Club and I very boldly approached him and said I want to be on the radio! He kind of chuckled and said to apply as soon as I turned 18! That’s just what I did, I started in promotions handing out stickers and tshirts, and then my big break came when a coworker went on maternity leave. I got to temporarily fill in on her spot. When she returned, I was convinced I had enough experience for me to have my own show and I think by that point my program director just wanted to appease me and let me have an evening show from 7-10pm! I was a senior in high school working at the heritage hip hop/ rhythmic station in town! II stuck with it for a few years and then my dream of working in a top 20 market took me to San Diego in 2010 where I worked for Local Media San Diego and IHeart at the same time! I did promotions and production for LMSD and I was an on air traffic reporter for iHeart. Because they two jobs were so different, they let me work at competing companies! I worked for iHeart from 4am to 9am and then went to LMSD from 10am-6pm. It was long days and not much sleep but these were my early twenties and I felt on top of the world. After 5 years, a morning show gig opened up back home with American General Media and I knew this was the right time for me to slow back down and move back closer to my dad again. I did the crazy competitive radio world and I was ready to come home. I do mornings at the clusters country station and as of July of 2019, am now the Program Director of that same Hip Hop/ Rhythmic station I started at in high school.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
They say you haven’t truly worked in radio until you’ve been fired and clawed your way back in. I have been so fortunate in that I have yet to be fired, but the biggest challenge has been finding away to keep the station relevant. Radio has changed so drastically in the last 20 years and with the evolution of podcasts and streaming stations, its not easy trying to keep listeners interested,
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Making a living in radio hasn’t proven to be the most lucrative profession, so I started a wedding planning side business. Initially, I thought I would do maybe 10 weddings a year to help get some money into savings and travel. Well here we are 9 hears into the wedding planning gig while still working full time in radio and I am now a new mom! I have such a great deal of passion for all three of these adventures that I am so focused on making all of them work for as long as I can! Programming the station is the best kind of puzzle for me. I love mixing the tempos and taking the listener on an emotional journey with my programming style. My playlists are intentionally crafted and I have great respect for programmers who are about more than just artist separation! The wedding planning is the best kind of pressure for me. Its similar to radio in the sense that its very repetitive but with different variables. Radio is a different song every 3.5 minutes and different topics on the morning show but the same overall tasks, wedding planning is a different bride and groom and different venue but essentially the same overall tasks.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
The talker. I think that’s what most radio DJs would say. We were all the ones who got in trouble for talking too much. The joker, the class clown. I was most proud of my CD collection. I had several binders with all my CDs alphabetized and I was always the girl people went to and said “hey whats the name of the song that goes.. ” while they hummed the tune. I always knew, I always knew the songs and knew the music. I would memorize all the songs on the albums and learn everything about the artists.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://EventsbyJessie.com
- Instagram: @EventsbyJessie805
