BRANDED MEDIA CONTENT PRO WHO LOVES R-A-D-I-O

BRUCE
COLE

I love making classic hits & oldies radio stations sound great!

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my super powers

I’m passionate about Oldies and Classic Hits radio. I love the music. I love the magic that went into presenting it when it was new, and the magic and stationality that can be crafted around the music today.
I love TEAM. My motto: None of us is as smart as all of us. Creativity needs personal interaction. Collaborating with a tight-knit team to build and develop great media products is the best feeling in the world. There is no “Lone Ranger.” Just ask the Lone Ranger. He had Tonto. Ted Lasso was right: team work makes the dream work.
I play well with others. All the stationality and magic in the world doesn’t happen if we’re not making money. Selling impressions that include radio doesn’t get easier with each passing year. The idea is that everything we do increases brand value for our station and for our clients AND creates benefit for our listeners and for our clients’ customers.
I’m an insatiably curious lifelong learner. It’s no secret that traditional media is in structural decline. That doesn’t mean that traditional linear media is not profitable. A radio programmer/brand pro’s mission is to make money for the company by (a) winning the Nielsen game, defined by some effective mix of increasing cume, carving out exclusive cume, and maintaining and building TSL; (b) partnering with company leaders to understand the operating environment (a.k.a. reality): if station revenue is declining by X percent a year, expenses need to be cut by X + 2 percent a year, and the programmer’s passion is to continue to make the product fascinating regardless; and (c) to render the (b) discussion as irrelevant as possible by devising new, effective strategies to leverage current cume to build more cume through platform-agnostic engagement, in other words, by all available means, including ones we haven’t thought of before.

Bruce Cole · Star 105.5 Sign Off

experience highlights

ALPHA MEDIA CHICAGO | STAR 105.5

2016 - 2019

When I was asked to jump into the Program Director/Brand Manager role at this Alpha Hot AC in Chicago’s Northwest Suburbs, the station was a straight ahead tight current/tight recurrent Hot AC. Our listeners – and our many local clients – complained that we played the same songs over and over. They were right. We watched as Nielsen data showed radio usage was aging upwards. Plus, we were doing a lot of local revenue, and unlike 23-year-old agency buyers, the local decision makers – also listeners – were at the top end of or beyond the demo. I used MediaBase to track some gold-leaning Hot AC stations (there were a few of them around the country), and I also tracked more traditional AC stations and even some Classic Hits stations to determine what Gold was testing well. We added 3 gold categories, an all-day-long Throwback Thursday, and a 5-hour Throwback Saturday Night Party. It all combined to surmount the “same song over and over again” complaint - both really and even more in general perception. Our numbers went up. Our local clients celebrated and bought more spots.

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ALL THE REST…

…You’re going to notice gaps going forward. I’ve lived what I consider to be a fantastic life. Growing up near New York City, I had two dreams beginning in childhood: to be on the radio and to be a clergyperson. Listening to MusicRadio 77 WABC, later 99X WXLO, WNEW-FM, and WPLJ-FM utterly captured my imagination. So did listening to the sermons from our priest in the Episcopal Church in which I grew up. Not everyone can say they lived their dreams, never mind two dreams. I can say that. As you notice gaps in my radio career, that’s a sign that I was focused for a period of time on my church vocation.

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CBS RADIO | US-99 CHICAGO

Bruce Cole · Jay Stone US99.5 Chicago Aircheck

2010 - 2014

I was Buddy Scott’s go-to fill-in jock. Even though my church work kept me unavailable for a regular weekend shift, Buddy called me first when he needed someone for weekday fill-in, including mornings. He said, “The best one gets the call.” I still consider it a great honor to have heard that from Buddy Scott. I’ve learned a ton from Buddyover the years.

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iHEART RADIO MILWAUKEE | 97.3 The Brew…FM106.1 WMIL…The Mighty 92 WOKY…BIG 95.7 WRIT

Bruce Cole · WOKY The Mighty 92 - Remember when radio sounded like this?

2006 - 2012

I was the midday jock on Classic Rock-formatted 97.3 The Brew and did fill-in, weekend, and voice track work on all the others. Because I love oldies and classic hits, the opportunity to work on the reincarnated Mighty 92 WOKY was pure joy. We camped it up: turned on the reverb, walked up the songs, talked around the jingles, and presented it like it was 1975 all over again. I include audio from The Mighty 92 on this page simply because it was a blast.

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multimedia, INC. | WFBC AM & FM Greenville-spartanburg-anderson-asheville

1992 - 1994

Program Director for Oldies 93.7 WFBC-FM and NewsTalk WFBC-AM. I oversaw a move from the station’s initial E. Alvin Davis-consulted early-to-mid-60s-centric Oldies presentation to a late-60s/early-70s, brighter product with great help from format consultant Terry Patrick and Coleman Research. We were acquired by Entercom in 1994 and I opted to return to Chicago to attend graduate school in preparation for pursuing my other career goal.

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CAROLINA BROADCASTING, INC. | MY-102.5 WMYI Greenville-spartanburg-anderson-asheville

1991 - 1992

MY-102.5 was the first “MY” station in the country and our owner/general manager – George Francis – owned the “MY” brand until iHeart purchased it from him. I served as the Director of New Business Development and also worked on-air. This was the era when major media ad dollars were shifting to direct mail, in-store sampling, and other newly emerging media platforms. My job was to infiltrate those platforms and re-direct those dollars back to the radio station. We launched and I produced and edited a monthly magazine distributed in local client locations and via mail through our growing relational database. I formed an in-house sampling/promotions department, made friends with lots of food brokers, and was able to win broker, grocer, and food manufacturer dollars. We provided in-store sampling, targeted consumer offers using our direct mail relational database, ad space in our magazine, and spots on the air.

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cook inlet media | us-99 chicago

1989 - 1991

10 p.m - 2 a.m. Disc Jockey

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beasley broadcast group | waur-fm/wmro-am/wysy-fm aurora (chicago)

1984 - 1989

Program Director/Operations Manager for all stations. I initially hired on when the stations were still owned by Stevens Broadcasting and stayed on following the acquisition by Beasley and the flip of WAUR-FM to 70s oldies WYSY-FM. Prior to the flip, WAUR-FM was Gold Rock 108. Notably, WAUR was also a launching pad for many radio pros who moved downtown, including Dean Richards, Johnnie Putman, and Rick O’Dell.