Re-invent or Die. Radio DJ Transformed by The Internet

mel toxic taylor
94 WYSP Philadelphia

I spent 15 years as a Rock DJ in Philadelphia. Loved it. But then that damn inter-web thingy happened.

In the late 90’s, I had my dream job; mid-days after Howard Stern. 94 WYSP, the biggest Rock station in Philly. That gig was so cool, that I didn’t mind filtering out the static coming from my program director; Tim Sabean….and the zookeeper DJ that followed at 2pm; John DeBella.

Working in Radio was totally bad ass, but it provided little comfort about my future. The Internet was still considered a geek hobby by the Radio execs around me. A few years later, Sabean bolted for Sirius with Stern. Today, ’94 WYSP The Rock Station’…. no longer exists. (my Spidey senses served me well)

Did some TV while at WYSP / CBS.

With the growth of smart phones, Pandora, podcasting, voice tracking and satellite radio, being an on-air music DJ wasn’t going to cut it.

I had to change if I wanted to eat. So, I begged/forced my way into a sales position at the station. I eventually crossed the street and sold for a competing Radio company.

CLICK & LISTEN > Mel Taylor Early Days on Radio

Gasp. One day I’m cranking a Metallica mini-concert, the next day I’m in a cubicle making cold calls for a ‘Smooth Jazz’ radio station playing Kenny G.

It wasn’t easy cutting off my sweet mullet. Had to remove my earring too. Ditched the leather jacket. Bought a cheap suit. Painful as it was, it was worth it. That experience lead me to my first taste of career re-invention and hyper-local sales success. All thanks to those series of tubes, the Inter-webs.

Mel and Sebastian Bach of Skid Row.

Imagine, Mel Toxic in a polyester suit with a really bad, really short hair cut. I’m surrounded by sales reps pulling down 6 figures from transactional, agency business. Ugh. I was jealous and frustrated. I had no agency business. Only a freekin’ phone book and $25k a year….and no training to boot!

What to do? Adopt a secret weapon to make my mark. Close some new business and leave those other Radio sales reps in my digital dust.

Mel Taylor CBS-3 TV Philadelphia
Mel Taylor CBS-3 TV Philadelphia

The weapon I chose was the Internet and a PC. Remember, this is 1999; laptops were expensive, heavy and not so easy to use. Even so, I quickly dropped $3,000 for one of those bad boys. Scary? Yup. A mighty big investment. But it made so much sense that I would close many more deals by using these new digital tools…while the others scoffed.

Whoa. I could do client research BEFORE calling and visiting them. I could avoid being just another Radio sales weasel yapping about ratings, cost per point  and other nonsense. Business owners could give two bleeps about that stuff. All they care about is…HOW YA GONNA MAKE ME MONEY?

Watch.

Understanding the Web and laptop computers gave me the edge. I created multi-media presentations on the fly. My client presentations were much more engaging and simple to understand. Audio spec spots were a breeze. I looked and sounded like a pro. I never used that official yet quite horrifying Radio station “media kit” ever again.

When the Internet took off in 1999, I was Regional Sales Manager for Clear Channel Radio Interactive.

WATCH

Not easy to convince anyone an ex-DJ could show Radio reps how to sell web. But I never gave up. I couldn’t. I knew my future was connected to the web in some way.

I read everything I could about digital sales and hyper-local business models. Something told me that the skills I honed while being a DJ; public speaking, copy-writing, art of persuasion, etc….might come in handy one day on the Internet.

Well, how about that. They did.

LISTEN > Mel Taylor & ACprimetime Podcast. JUNE 2016

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