Maxx Myrick: DC Radio General Manager on Building Successful Stations and the Future of Broadcasting

Rob Lee: Welcome to The Truth in This Art. I am your host, Rob Lee. Thank you for tuning in to these conversations at the intersection of arts, culture and community. Do continue to share, subscribe, review this great podcast. It helps us get out there to the masses. It helps in the algorithm. It helps people discover these podcasts. We need you to help us get the word out there to the masses. You can find us on DC Radio. You can find us on Apple Podcasts and my personal favorite, Spotify. Leave a review. Thanks. So my next guest, we've got a great one. I can't even hide it. We've got a great one. With over 40 years of expertise, nearly 50 if I'm being honest, my guest today is a Marconi and Billboard Award winning on-air personality and radio programmer. Their impressive career spans New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and of course, Washington, D.C., with notable contributions at Sirius XM Satellite Radio. My guest is a music historian, curator, podcast producer and concert promoter. They excel in startup ventures, brand building and marketing, particularly to the African-American market. Please welcome this industry giant, the great Maxx Myrick. Welcome to the podcast.
Maxx Myrick: Thank you. The honor is all mine. I'm a big fan of the podcast. Well, thank you.

Rob Lee: I mean, there is there is pictures, photographic evidence. Right. You know, at the sixth anniversary, I was there, you know, I was just in the background. And and then the funny the funny part about it. Right. Just as far as the D.C. radio, like sixth anniversary sort of get together, which was just really, really cool. And again, thank you for that. That invite. The picture that was taken, it happened to have my logo in the background on the ticket. Like the timing was great. So, you know, it was it's great to have you here. And, you know, to to kind of start off things, I'd like to I like to open it up in this this way. I like to have the the guests, you know, introduce themselves. And the reason I do that, you know, there is something that's always lost in the sort of online bio and the artist statement. I like to hear like who the person is, how they introduce themselves, you know, to the community. So if you will, Could you introduce yourself for the fine folks out there? And then we'll go into sort of the earlier bullet points.

Maxx Myrick: Sure. Well, my name is Maxx Myrick. I am a broadcaster, radio professional. I have been in this business professionally since 1976. so that's quite a few years. I guess I'm on my 47th year now, and I have built radios and operated radio stations all over the country. Some of the most notable ones are XM Satellite Radio, created the Real Jazz Channel, the Latin Jazz Channel, and the Neo Soul Channel for that platform. First started in 2000, I built, I was assigned on WVAZ in Chicago V103, which is still the number one station in Chicago, assigned on WALR in Atlanta, which is still a top tier station on number one, two or three, somewhere like that. You know, so I've been building Enduring Brands, you know, for most of my career, I've been lucky to work with some wonderful people and had some good mentors. And I've tried to pass that along as much as I can. And I like to describe myself as, you know, I hold people accountable, but I let them do their job and I try to be fair. And most people think I'm a nice guy until they, you know, until I'm not.

Rob Lee: Thank you. That's that's great. And I get that vibe. And again, just, you know, like I said earlier, you know, you guys welcome me and as the the outside from up the street. So I definitely sort of appreciate that. And, you know, looking over, you know, the your bio and looking over your background, I was trying to pull out like there's so much in here. I don't want this to be a two to three hour podcast and try to get this in like 40 minutes. But With it, I always like to after the the introduction is get a sense of some of those like early points. Like, you know, I've mentioned and I had it actually, you know, brought up during this podcast, you know, where this interest in in being in front of people and sharing stories kind of presented itself at a very early age, like at five. You know, I was an emcee. I had a theater person actually point out like, no, you were in front of people. This this is kind of like what you're doing. You're just doing the next phase of that. And, you know, sort of doing a podcast and presenting to people and talking with people. So for you, what were some of those those early things that maybe laid some of the foundation for how you approach your work or your early interest in radio or things of that nature? What led you on your path, maybe from your youth?

Maxx Myrick: Well, I grew up, grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and at the time I grew up, we didn't have black radio. in Toledo. We didn't have black radio until in Toledo until 1968. So I listened to being so close to Detroit and being so close to Canada. I listened to a station called CKLW, which was a monster signal. It covered Detroit, Ohio. I mean, they gave the they gave the weather in Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland. And then they came back and gave it in Celsius for Canada. It was a monster. It's called the Big Eight. And everything about that station was just bigger than life. And being so close to Detroit, they had to be a little more soulful. They played the requisite amount of Canadian music that was available, but the rest of it was all about Detroit, which was great for us because, you know, they play a lot of Black music. The DJs had a little, they were kind of hip. They were all white though, but it sounded like that. I didn't know they weren't Black until I met Ted Richards one time, and he looked like Clint Eastwood. I was like, wow, this is… But then later on, you know, in my family, my mother, you know, she loved music. Music was all around all the time. And I used to go to the music store on the weekends and get the latest records because at that time, they had the tip sheets. You know, the radio station would put out tip sheets. And the tip sheets were like a list of the hot songs. And so you look down and see if you had all the latest hits, you wanted to have all the latest hits. And then, you know, I have four sisters, so, you know, they like to dance. And then in the summertime, we used to go to Sandusky, Ohio, where I was actually born. and stay with my grandmother. And she, you saw that film, Lackawanna Blues? Yes. She had a rooming and boarding house just like that, all cast of characters. And so in the evenings when she would finish all her day, her business, she would play her numbers, you know, because the policy, it was a policy time, there were no lotteries. And part of her ritual was to get her some Kessler's Whiskey, a little Miller High Life. That was the potion. And then she'd get her dream books and prayer candles out. And then my job was to play the latest music to set the mood for all of this whole ritual that happened every night. But my cousin had a record store. So during the day, I would just spend all my time in the record store, you know, listening to music and watching what people were buying, and I was great. And so then I would bring all the hits home, you know, and my sisters would dance, my grandmother would do her rituals, all of that combined. And then later on, in around 68, there was a record store in Toledo called Clark's Record Store, Clark's One Stop, or something like that. And at that time, FM was not important. Nobody cared about FM. So there was an FM signal that didn't have anything on it that was making money. So they gave him Saturdays for a couple of hours. He rented, he bartered the time and he broadcast live from his record store playing all the records and everybody would go down there and buy the records and see him broadcasting live. You know, people were scrambling to get FM because there was no FM radios around. So that'd be, you know, that's where we were introduced to local radio. And then, because it was so popular and they started making so much money, they made it full-time. And so all the jocks in Detroit that couldn't get on WJLB or CHB or whatever stations that were on there, you know, everybody can't get on the radio. A lot of talented people out here. So they heard about this station that was looking for people, so they came down. And so it was like the cream of the crop in terms of personalities. And that was big personality time. So those personalities were big, like, uh the ones on cklw but they were all black and so they're speaking a different language that i could i could understand it you know i could start now i could start to tell the difference right away because and then you could see them you know because they'd be out you know and they're getting oh that's that's uh that's that's paul brown let's see you know that's they had named charlie chuck and you know they were just and so i said man i want to do that and so Later on, I did. I went to the Marine Corps, and while I was in the Marines, we were out in the Mediterranean for a long time, like seven months. You'd be out there 30 days at a time. And so they had a ship entertainment system. So I'd just hang out in there when we weren't doing Marine Corps stuff. And they let me, you know, run the system. And when I got back, I enrolled in University of Toledo. I got a first I got, I got a job at a club at a restaurant that was a nightclub, because disco was hot that summer. I was 7076. And so I enrolled in the University of Toledo, they had a campus radio station, and I met my lifelong friend Michael Stratford, and he introduced me to a guy named Michael St. John, who was one of the jocks over there. He knew, that's an old school radio name, Michael St. John. He introduced me to Gary Outlaw, who was the music director, and They, you know, they let me come over there as a part-time employee. And I, I, you know, I, when I wasn't in school, I was living over there and, you know, in between that and work. And so one time I forgot to go to the club and they fired me. So they just gave me more time to hang out at the radio station. Eventually I got a full-time job and the rest is history. Wow. Thank you. And that was the station I grew up listening to as a child. So it was even more thrilling.

Rob Lee: No, that's that's really that's really cool. Like when you have the opportunity and my dad's my dad's around, you know, same age veteran as well, you know, so Marines and it's like, oh, OK, yeah, now I'm getting it now. I knew I was getting the vibe off of you now. I'm like, oh, right, right. Lights can do Marine. Got it. But yeah, it's it's great to. to hear that that sort of trajectory and, you know, kind of being around music in different ways, being around sort of the curation in different ways. And, you know, one thing I'll throw out there, I do in addition to this podcast, this interview podcast, I do one that I need to spend more time doing, but I do a movie review podcast. And the job I used to have at my home was pretty much you're reading the TV guide when those existed. Right. And it's just like, oh, so, Jamie, what's good on what's what's what's good tonight? Tell us. And it's just like almost like, all right, I'm responsible for the TV entertainment tonight and I need to make sure it's good. So I'm reading the TV guy feverishly. I was like, all right, Channel 13, something good on that. Right. So yeah, that was one of my jobs. When we have those jobs at home, especially when it comes to the entertainment and the rituals associated with it, better make sure you've got it.

Maxx Myrick: You know, you just keep doing it and doing it. I remember I worked out a job working at a record store later on in my career, and I loved when people would come in the store and I could size them up. you know, and I first I would just play something. And if they didn't react, you know, they'd come over and ask for us to look at what they were looking at, they'd come over and ask for something. And then I based my next selections off of what they asked for it pretty soon they'd be walking out of their arms full of albums and 45s it was you know that's what you know that's that's always a great training it's almost like a musical sommelier or have you it's like yeah so this will pair well with this other thing wearing a cardigan that's what a music director does for a radio station basic you play you find out what people like, and you find stuff that fits that description. And you just keep doing it. And if you keep delivering, giving people what they want, they'll listen longer.

Rob Lee: Sure, sure. So I want to I want to move into this piece a little bit. You mentioned earlier, you know, being instrumental and and starting and laying a foundation for very successful and like prominent, iconic stations, you know, V-103, XM Satellite Radio. Can you, you know, share some of those those in those insights on what it takes to successfully launch and, you know, manage something that's ultimately super influential? And I think you were touching on it a bit as far as kind of like essentially giving people what they're looking for and what they like, but speak a bit on that.

Maxx Myrick: Yeah, my first radio station was WVOI in Toledo. It was actually in Michigan, right over the line. And it was in a house in a cornfield across the street from a redneck bar. It was such an interesting, interesting place. And the reason that came about was, KLR, the station that I worked for, around in the late 70s, two more stations came on, black stations came on in Detroit, FM. FM was starting to become important. At that point, JLBAM, where Donnie Simpson came from, was still like the big gun in Detroit. But now all of a sudden, DRQ signed on, a company called Amaturo signed on DRQ, InnerCity signed on WLBS, and the guy who owned the station, the Booth family, they weren't going to let people, you know, take their franchise. So they took a station they had and made it JLB FM. And so those three stations went at it. And eventually JLB ran them out of town. And in the meantime, they changed the format of KLR and Toledo to country because they had an AM station that was country. And they were planning on taking the KLR format and putting it on the AM station. But I got a call from a friend of mine named Don Spencer, who heard that there was a new station, a gospel station, in Temperance, Michigan, an AM station, that wanted to take the black format and put it on. And so I went out and I was planning on moving to Houston, Texas. A friend of mine named Steve Harris and some of the jocks from KLR had moved down there to a station called Love 94. And I said, well, if they can get a job down there, I can get a job down there. I probably couldn't, I was terrible, but I didn't know. So I had my mind, you know, so I was working all summer, I saved up, I was working at a record store and you know, saving up my money. And I was out. And so I went out there, I talked to this guy named Paul Ploner. And he convinced me to stay said if you stay 90 days, and help me with this, I will pay your way to Houston if it doesn't work out. And I will give you $180 a week, which was more than I was making. Sure, yeah. And so I said, well, I'll just add that $180 to what I'm, you know, and I'll have more when I get to Houston. Absolutely. So I called KLR and asked them what they were doing with all those records they had. And they said, you can come and get them. So I did. I went and got my car, and I went out there and got all those records. I drove back over to Michigan, and I started assembling that radio station. At first, we only played black music at night. And we played all these religious shows. I mean, they were crazy. They were like, You know, they were just, you know, one guy had to have a bodyguard. It was just craziness, but they paid on time. And so, and eventually, you know, as we went along, we phased them out. It was owned by a company called J Corp Communications. That's why they were gospel. Terry Jacobs was Terry Jacobs. Terry Jacobs Company eventually became Clear Channel, and Clear Channel eventually became High Heart. But that was the beginning. he only had three little radio stations at the time. And they were trying to take that company public, which they eventually did. And so I started building the radio station with a guy named Donnie Walker. And We put it together, and then we started hiring people. And we started playing music. And I didn't know what I was doing. I was just playing my favorites. And I was a DJ, too. So I was in the streets. I had a sense of what people wanted to hear, but I was all over the place. And the record companies, we became reporters. And once you become reporters, you affect the charts. And once you affect the charts, then record companies become interested in you. And then they send their reps down to get try to convince you to play their records. And so then I will, you know, I was trying to be buddies with everybody. And so I played everybody's records. And so finally, I got a call from another lifelong friend, the late Steve Harris. And he said, Stop letting those people actually, it was a guy named Walt baby love, who called who called me and said, Stop letting those people take advantage of you. And, and then he said, I'm gonna have this guy named Steve Harris call you. And then Steve took me through the fundamentals of programming and how to set up clocks and rotations and how to have some discipline. And then, you know, I wasn't so generous. Station started sounding more consistent. And I learned these things, you know, I learned, I made mistakes, I learned and made mistakes. And after, you know, after about four years, I knew what I was doing for the most part. And so, That led to another station, another station, and then I moved down to… I went to Cincinnati to do mornings, and then I moved down to… I put a station on in South Carolina, Z-104, and that went nut to number one. And then, you know, I was feeling pretty good now. I think I know what I'm doing. But they were bankrupt, so it was missed. So I went to Richmond, Virginia, and put on the first satellite radio station in the United States. Really? In 1988, yeah. And so that kind of set the stage for my thinking about satellite radio in 1988, because we didn't put We didn't put, uh, I didn't go to XM satellite radio to 2000. So it was a long time, but we were already on the technology. So I was really, you know, thinking about the future. And I went from, uh, uh, from there to Cleveland for a little while. I was about to quit. I couldn't take it. I was living in like the, the transient hotel by the racetrack, you know, at night it was like a lot of moaning and groaning. And I was, I was like, I can't this is I'm gonna get me a job doing regular stuff, you know, but but what was what was that like?

Rob Lee: In that moment? Where cuz?

Maxx Myrick: Well, I had children. I had a wife. You know, till they moved with me to Cincinnati. Ah, They moved with me to South Carolina. One of my kids was born in South Carolina. The rest of them were born in Ohio. But my wife was like, no, we need some stability. So she moved back to Cincinnati. And she's still there now. We're not together. So I had responsibilities. had this career and trying to stay married and be there for my kids as much as I could. It was hard to get home. It was real sad. It was tough on me. I cried a lot when they didn't see me. Then I got a chance to go to Atlanta in 1990 and put a new station on, another one called WALR. great station. It was called love songs and a touch jazz. It was like, it was a smoothest station ever. And it was in the CNN center. We had resources. For the first time. I mean, we were just, I was like, Oh, I saw a whole nother world. Another light that I hadn't seen before. And prior to going to Atlanta and Cleveland, though, I made a stop And no, yeah, I mean, I made a stop in Shreveport, Louisiana.

null: Oh, my God.

Maxx Myrick: I don't know what year they were in. That was 1988. And then I went to Chicago from there. And then they fired me in Chicago the first time at V-103. I helped sign the station on, 1988. And then they fired me because I was terrible on the air. I wasn't terrible, but I was terrible for them. Big personality mark. Everybody can't do that. And that's not my stick. But anyway, I ended up in Atlanta. I put that station on. It did well. still doing well. Then I got fired again because they got new owners. And the guy they brought in to oversee that and I, no, we didn't see eye to eye. And I wasn't going to Tim Scott myself, you know. So I went and put another station on in Pensacola, Florida. And this station was a huge station. It was like 100,000 watts. You could hear it in Pensacola. You could hear it all the way to Louisiana. Oh, wow. It was a beast. They didn't even have a local phone number. Everything was 800. It was a monster. We went to number one in Mobile and Pensacola in like one 30-day period. It was a monster. Wow. Then I got a call to come back to Chicago. And I came back as music director, which is what I wanted to do the first time I was there. Being on the air was the only way I could get up there. And my dream had always been to work in Chicago and program a number one station in Chicago. That was my dream from KLR days. I always wanted to do that. So this was my opportunity since I didn't quit. And I went on to Atlanta and Pensacola. And I felt vindicated. So I went to Chicago, and the program director quit like a year in. And then we were launching a hip hop station too. So I had to do both of them for a little while. And the station went to number one. In Chicago, I cried tears in front of the staff. They didn't know what was wrong with me. But it was my dream. So it stayed number one, number two for the whole eight years I was up there. And it's still the number one station in Chicago right now. And so I left there and went to, they asked me if, you know, things were changing, some consolidation, I didn't like the direction. You know, this guy wanted me to change to the number one station. And I asked him, if I change the station, Am I going to be like number one plus? Because my contract says, uh, get paid on rank. What a bump was. He was like, well, no, he just wants you to, you know, play ball. I'm like, well, I'm not playing ball. Yeah. So he said, well, then he got mad, told me I should kiss, be kissing his butt because he was in that position. And I said, white boy, that is a sensation you will never experience. So at that point, I started looking at other options. XM Satellite Radio was hiring. And my friend Steve Harris was trying to get that job as the vice president of programs. So I waited until he got the job. And then I went and talked to them. And they didn't have anything. in my, I had just won a Marconi award that year too, so that didn't hurt. And so I had, they asked me if there's anything else I liked, and I said, I love jazz. And they said, well, you think you could build a jazz radio station? I said, sure, I can build a jazz radio station. So that's what I did. I just, I remember as a kid, Growing up listening to a station in Detroit called WJZZ, it was the greatest jazz station that ever was. And so I just built real jazz around that station, that idea. It was just a regular radio station. with the same imaging that a regular radio station has. But it was cool. It was jazz stuff. And it just happened to play jazz. And people liked it. And pretty soon they had a million listeners. And I stayed there for eight years. And then they there was consolidation, and I moved to Nashville, and they didn't want me in Nashville, and so they found somebody to take my place who's still there. And I then Came back to DC and ran WHUR for about four years. You know, top tier station there. Club Heritage Station, the inventor of the, I was honored to work there, inventor of the quiet storm format, you know, legendary station. Then the city asked me to build them a station, and here we go again. I built them a station called DC Radio, and I've been doing that for the last six years, in between doing other things on the side.

Rob Lee: I love it. I love how seeing what I do as I'm going through this is like I like to let the person cook. You know, like you've knocked out like four of my other questions. So shout out to you. You make my job easier. But yeah, let's talk a bit about DC Radio. I mean, that's, you know, one of the ways that I became aware of you. And then, you know, and sort of getting us to this point, like, you know, what, I guess, in looking at DC Radio and sort of this market specifically, this DC, the DMV, you know, this whole area, what are some of the I guess some of the thinking that goes into who fits within it, who fits within the format, because there's there's there's music, there's podcasting, there's different personalities. And, you know, I'm being one of them on there, I guess I have to definitely ask, but what what makes someone fit with it? And what were your what was your aim with DC Radio?

Maxx Myrick: Well, I mean, like all stations, you want to have some kind of cohesiveness. The idea of DC radio in originally was to be it was a partnership between the city and HUR. HUR has four frequencies on their signal. And so we leased the HD4 signal, and it was just going to be all talk. And then the director at the time, Angie Gates, had some other ideas. So she hired me, and we tried to make it, you know, give it some depth. So we started just, you know, trying to find people who were talented and give them a shot. Find people who were serious, too. Because a lot of people came, and they wanted to do it, and then they did it a couple of days, a couple times, and they were like, this is work. I don't want to do this. It's like, yeah, it's work. But you're learning, you got a platform, you're getting your content out there. you know, you're building consistency, we put your content on every streaming platform, you know, it's associated with other great content. And so we just started doing that. We created a pitch session every six months. And we started getting, people coming in, giving us pitches for their shows, and if they seemed serious enough and they had great ideas, we'd give them a shot. And they all turned out to be, some of the people, some of the stations, some of the, because we don't pay, we don't pay for content. So some of the people have been with us the whole six years. They just continue to, you know, embrace the platform, and we continue to love you know, having them on. And it's just, you know, we just have really, we have really good, there's some really talented people in this area, who just need an opportunity. You know, radio is not going to give them one. The internet is another space. And some of them have internet things going on, too. There's nothing wrong with that. Because in fact, that's where the future is coming from. The internet, the companies aren't developing people. They're just finding out who's got the most likes and views and trying to sign them up. And they think that's going to create the next thing. And it may or may not. It worked for the Breakfast Club, because I've never heard their radio show. But they took that online Breakfast Club right into the Radio Hall of Fame.

Rob Lee: You know, and that's that's one of the things that definitely, you know, want to hear hear more about a sort of sort of. So I'm coming from there today. Actually, I'm teaching a group of high school seniors podcasting. I've been doing it for about 15 years. So just passing it along and trying to, like, you know, help them realize, you know, their interest and, you know, learn from my mistakes, as I put it. And because I've made all of them and and I think in it in preparing lessons and going through this sort of process of building out a class, you see like sort of this this focus of. we need to have these personalities that may not have sort of the wherewithal. But to your point, they have all of these likes and they have this. But it's like that doesn't mean that they're a podcast or they might be a personality in this sort of context. Not everyone has the stamina or even in doing this. Like, I don't have a problem with doing a bunch of podcasts.

Maxx Myrick: I've never like I can just, you know, stamina is a good word. Consistency, stamina. I mean, radio is just a distribution platform. And what makes it work is consistency, just repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. And you build a relationship with the audience based on that content. And now it's expanded, so now you have to engage with that audience on other platforms, because the audience has so many options. But the online thing is just such an opportunity, because you don't have any barriers. You can ask all you want. You can say whatever you want to say. There's no FCC to stop you. You can build your base. It takes work. You just have to find something that you think people might be interested in, or that you're interested in. Find an audience for it, and engage with that audience, and build that audience. If it's good, they'll share it with other people. You just keep going, going, going. One day, It will be where you dreamed it would be. You just have to, you can't stop. If that's what you want to do, that's the place to do it before they shut it down. You know, with the politics being the way they are, you don't want people to have that kind of voice and power. So, you know, now while that window's open, I would, if I were somebody jumping in this business, that's where I would go. It's going to be hard to get in. You can't get into commercial radios hard. They own everything. Where are you going to go? They're very little local. I mean, there's very few stations like HUR, which is Black owned and operated. It's its own thing. Everything else is owned by corporations. And, you know, there's all kinds of things going on there. And then they have syndication, and they want to put this syndication on all this. And so there's very little opportunities. You know, there are very little independent, very few independent stations. And there's so, the internet gives you a chance. I mean, I love during COVID that so many people took advantage of that. Country One is my favorite person. He turned those little skits into like $20 million. Yeah, you know what I mean? Just he just consistently came up with great content that people started sharing. And it just grew and grew and grew into a Netflix special movies and all kinds of stuff. Well, you know, you do the same thing. Anybody can do that. If you got good talk to you got crappy content, you know, Crap in, crap out.

Rob Lee: And that's the thing I try to impress upon my students or anyone that's just interested in it. Folks who pick my brain, ask me to chat with them. And, you know, I definitely throw the stamina thing out there, but also I am like, look, you know, are you doing test recordings? Let's get these reps in, like really figure out what it is. What's your thing? And know that it's not the finalized thing, you know, but really what's your idea and can you grow from it? So, you know, when I talk to folks, I'm like, Is it 10 episodes? Is it 12? Is it weekly? Is it a limited series? Things of that nature and really thinking strategically about it. Because, you know, being in doing all of the different parts of this and kind of not knowing what I'm doing and learning over this decade and a half, it's just like, oh, Yeah, this will be a production nightmare if you do it like this. Or why would someone want to listen to you talk about a movie for 70 minutes or what have you? Your actual podcast is longer than the movie and things of that nature.

Maxx Myrick: People's attention spans are short too. So you have to have content that can be reduced to sound like two, you know, minute and a half to draw people to the longer content. I'll give you a good example. Cat Williams was on Club Shae Shae recently, speaking his truth. And I have not seen the whole three hours. But you've definitely seen pieces of it. Pieces of it, right? Yeah. Same thing. You got to, if you can get in, if you can get compelling pieces, you can draw people to the longer content, and you can make money. That's another opportunity with the internet. You can make money if you have viewers, clicks enough. You have the metrics. Advertisers will pay to get in front of those people.

Rob Lee: Absolutely. This episode is brought to you by some soda. I don't know.

Maxx Myrick: The commercials just play. You'll be in the middle of a great moment in that clip, and you just have to wait that 15 seconds.

Rob Lee: And that's the thing, like, I think you hit it, you keyed in on something very, very important earlier and you were talking about sort of, you know, HUR and sort of like the basis there. black owned, black operated. And, you know, as I'm doing this, I've had some of those offers to be a part of the the hive mind and so on. And I'd rather do what I do. I like to have this sort of independence. And I'll give you an example of what I mean. You know, as I'm doing this podcast, a group specifically out of Baltimore. Right. Yeah. You know, I was just like, okay, I want to do this. No one's really doing it or doing it in this way. And then naturally I'm like, what about DC? What about Philly? What about these other cities that I'm interested in? And I see similarities in how they're discussed. And when I specifically with Washington, Washington, DC, and with Philadelphia, I connect with you know, sort of an outlet there, like a local radio outlet. Hey, I got a bunch of content that's related to your city. Would you want to put this out there? And generally the answer is like, hell yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Whereas in some markets, it's like, oh, well, we don't know if you're big enough. Maybe my local market. We don't. You're the person. And I'm like, tell me more about what you mean by that. So it's like these other cities that I'm not in, they definitely have my stuff out there because they see sort of the value attached to it and what it might represent. And for me, if I weren't independent, if I weren't able just to kind of do it my own way, I I've been told, why are you leaving Baltimore? Why are you going into other cities? I was like, I don't want to. Because where my interests lie, like I'm going to Detroit and I'm going to Richmond this year to do this same sort of series, because that's where my mind and where my heart is at in extending out this conversation and hit those cities that are, quote unquote, Black cities and talking to the artists that… That's the beauty of being independent.

Maxx Myrick: You know, you don't have to worry about gatekeepers. 100%.

Rob Lee: And, you know, when I get told point blank, well, I don't know if we can fund that because I was like, I'll find a funder. And literally, I get very, you know, because I sit down and I talk to certain people because apparently I'm a scary black man. But I'm like, look, you know, I'm still going to do it. So you can either be a part of it or not. It's very, very simple.

Maxx Myrick: And those same people will come back to you. Hey, hey, buddy.

Rob Lee: One hundred percent. They say, hey, you want to come over to Chicago Station? You want to come back? Um, so I got I got one last real question before I go to these rapid fire questions for you. And in the last real question, because in doing sort of the trajectory right there is, you know, I see curation. I see sort of the building out of stations and building out of formats and being in various communities, covering various genres, too. What would you say is the sort of like largest change or shift that you've seen over the last few years in terms of, you know, building out playlists, building out sort of like what what's the sort of programming that we have here or even, you know, artists exposure? You know, you hear about like radio used to be breaking. We're breaking musicians on the radio now, Spotify, or now it's some TikTok clip. What is the biggest change? What advice would you give for the artists seeking to get featured on the station?

Maxx Myrick: Well, I would once again look at social media and the internet if I was an artist, and not worry about radio airplay. They're following social media now. What happened was in the late 90s, early 2000s, consolidation came along. Bill Clinton, under his administration, allowed these big corporations to buy as many radio stations as they wanted to. And so then those radio stations, those companies had to figure out what to do with all of these stations. And so they began consolidating them. And then they started creating syndication to put on all of these stations, because they want all these stations to sound the same. You used to be able to go to a market, and that market would sound like that market. Chicago would sound like Chicago. D.C. would sound like D.C. Memphis would sound like Memphis. You know, every city you would go into would sound like that city, Atlanta. You know, same thing. Now, everything sounds the same. You don't know what city you're in. Right. No. Every show is on the same. Steve Harvey's on every, you know, every, every, uh, uh, I heart station, the urban station that they own for the most part. Uh, you know, Ricky Smiley is on every, uh, um, urban one station that they own that makes sense. They're programming the same music, the record companies and Live Nation have gotten together, and so that pool of music and artists has been reduced because they make money off of it in so many ways, but specifically concert touring and these crazy ticket prices. But if you're not in that loop, it's hard to get in. But there are artists out there that are breaking on social media. October London is a great example. The guy sounds like Marvin Gaye. It's great music. But he broke on he broke on social media, there's a new song out called, Can I call you Rose? I don't know who it's by. It's a group, I think. And that run is breaking big. That song, girls are players too. I don't know what the name of that tune is.

Rob Lee: Can I call you Rose? That's These Sacred Souls. I heard that recently.

Maxx Myrick: They're kind of like, what was that young lady, Sharon Dap? They're like the Dap Kings or something like that. Yeah, that song is killing. And so now, you know, they're about to blow up. But that was because they, you know, put their stuff out there. You know, Tiny Desk Concert, I don't know what it's evolved to. I'm not really happy with the direction it's going in right now with all of this juvenile in them on there, but confident stuff. I'm just not with all that cussing on the radio. If I want to hear that, you know, I can just listen to it. else. When I'm ready for that cussing, I just go listen to the cussing. That's not what I tune in for. But I'm 66 years old, so they ain't talking to me. I cuss. I'm trying not to cuss now. But I just don't want to hear it. So that is the challenge. But once again, what the internet gives you is the whole world. Artists are like, oh, I want to be on the charts. I want to be number one in the US. I want to be on my local station. I know friends that have songs in Poland. They're like Michael Jackson over there. They're huge.

Rob Lee: They're like huge. And I think I think that's a part of the sort of challenge where, you know, and I'm looking at it purely from like a podcast and maybe a personality perspective of, Yeah, you have the whole world, but it's like, are you speaking to the whole world? Are you speaking to a very niche thing? And then having that is that loyal one hundred, one thousand, whatever that might look like, because that turns into what your strategy is, right? Of I'm going for everyone. Then you have limited resources as to how you're going to do it. And it could be.

Maxx Myrick: this thing of the sort of curse of having so much availability and the internet being so open that… Our strategy, once I started getting research and hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on research and find all the resources, I found out that you target narrow, but you market wide. And because you always have to replenish your audience because they have so many audience, you know, they have so many options. So you target narrow, whoever it is that you're going after, but you market wide because you never know who's going to be, who's going to like your stuff. I'm finding out, uh, how much white people like Southern soul through Tik TOK, King James, that dude, he is killing it. He is like the King. I mean, when these white promoters figure out the Southern soul is as big as it is, they're going to be huge. Those black promoters are going to be in trouble. Unfortunately. But right now we have it to ourselves. So, you know, we had hip-hop to ourselves too.

Rob Lee: Well, that's that's almost a whole nother podcast right there with those thoughts on that, because I don't know, like I'm one of those because I'm becoming an old man, I guess. And I'm creeping, creeping up there where, you know, I'm like, man, 2010s had the best rap music. And people look at me. I was like, bro, what are you talking about? But I'm like, listen to this and listen to how similar it is or even applying this same thing like about podcasters. I look at, you know, those video clips whenever they're breaking sort of, yeah, we had this cool clip. I'm like, why do y'all have the same like gear? I was like, that's sponsored by, you know, road or what have you. I was like, I have really good gear and I don't see any of them with the gear that I have. My gear is boom. It's very popular gear, but I don't see it in these videos. So it's like kind of the I guess the the the the the organizations, the companies, the sort of syndication thing. It's like all this is the same. And I'll comment on one last thing before we wrap up on this portion and go into the rapid fire. It You know, my love for radio came with loving sort of my local station, like 92Q generally. And, you know, because I'm a Morgan State alum, you know, definitely WEAA. And you'll like this. Initially, I didn't like jazz music. I was like, man, turn this off. Where's the rap music? And my dad was like, you'll eventually get it. And now all of the records I have in my house are jazz records. A lot of Charles.

Maxx Myrick: Go for your dad. I mean, it's the foundation of all this music. Jazz and blues are the foundation of all American music. If it doesn't have that in it, it's not really good music.

Rob Lee: And this is sort of that challenge where It's like it's lacking something. And I think you're right. It's lacking whatever, because when I think of jazz, when I think of blues music, I think of a feeling. It's something that hits. And some of these things, whether it be the sort of auto correction, whether it be all of these different things that just feel more robotic and it feels, what's the word? Very processed. Yes. Like, I rather, when I hear that, when I hear that needle drop, and that sort of initial feedback, or screw, like, this is, this is gonna hit.

Maxx Myrick: That, uh, it's gotta have that feeling in it, you know, that a lot of the 80s music didn't transfer. Yeah. Because it was all electronic. Yeah. It didn't make it. They were just using drum machines, and it sounds like the 80s. But a lot of the music made in the 70s, you can listen to that forever. It was organic, it was made in the studios, live musicians. Now, hip hop has has helped bridge generations by sampling that music, which is great. A lot of young people think that those are the original versions. So, you know, there's a bit of education that needs to happen.

Rob Lee: But, you know, it's like you were saying earlier, it's great to hear the the like, ladies, it's like you can hear the sample of the thing that was sampled. I was like, this is just watered down.

Maxx Myrick: Yeah, when I hear a lot of hip-hop, the first thing I hear is the sample. Right. First thing, I go, oh, that's the Isley Brothers, or that's, you know… That's Boyz II Atlantis right there. What? Yeah. But now they're sampling the samples.

Rob Lee: And it's a thing of you're looking for it, where I forget what it was. It was some song I was listening to, and he had this sample roulette. And I was like, which one is it? Are you going to get the actual one that you like, or it's not as good? Oh, that's a good show.

Maxx Myrick: I like that. Yeah, somebody should do that for radio. You should do that. I might have to do that. You should. I've been thinking. I've been trying to get somebody. I don't have time. I want to do it, but I just don't have time to do it. You know, there's a website called Who Sampled? Yeah. And it shows you who sampled everything. But if you could do the sample roulette, People would love that, because they don't know. They would be like, what? And it would help establish bridges between that content. I heard Missy Elliott do a production on Tweet, where she took a Louis Armstrong a version of Starlight and mixed it into the song. When I heard the record, I was like, is that Louis Armstrong? I didn't even hear a tweet. I was like, is that Louis Armstrong? I was obsessed. Starlight. It was it was not Starlight, Stardust. Stardust. Yes. Hoagy Carmichael. Yes. I was like, what? That was genius.

Rob Lee: I took the note down so you might be getting a file from me sooner than later.

Maxx Myrick: Yeah, you can do that. We would love to have that. We would love for it to originate on DC radio too.

Rob Lee: Let's make it happen. Okay, so in these final moments, I want to throw some rapid fire questions your way. Um, the, the way that I like these to go is, you know, whatever the, the first answer that comes to your mind, it's like, don't overthink it. You know, some people are like, Hmm, what color do I like? You know? Well, if it was, and I'm like, just, if you like blue, just say you like blue, bro. You know what I'm saying? All right. So here's the first one. Yeah. What is, um, like a memorable concert that you've attended? Like just one concert that comes to mind, you think of like attending a concert.

Maxx Myrick: Michael Jackson and Wembley and London.

Rob Lee: Nice. Nice. It's good. It's cool. I'm a little jealous. As a music historian, because, you know, obviously that's there. I'm seeing it back. I'm looking at records and things of that nature. What era of music do you find to be the most fascinating? 70s. All right. Top three jazz musicians.

Maxx Myrick: Louis Armstrong. My good friend, Wynton Marcellus, he's just a genius. I just love him as a personality and a great trumpeter. But Louis Armstrong, Marcellus, I love Monk, I love Duke Ellington. There's so many more. I mean, Miles, everybody's going to say Miles. I mean, there's so many. You know, working at Real Jazz and building that, I had to learn this music. So for eight years, that's all I listened to. I didn't know what was going on on other stations. I was in New York, I was at Jazz at Lincoln Center, so I was immersed in it. And I created a program called in the swing seat where we identified artists just by their sound. So a lot of times I'm listening to music and I hear a couple of notes and I know who it is. Just like a voice. Instruments just like a voice. It's their voice. They communicate the language of music. So yeah, that's it. I mean, there's so many. I mean, Coltrane.

Rob Lee: The jazz police come for you if you don't sing Coltrane. The jazz police come for you.

Maxx Myrick: Oh, yeah. Well, they've come for me many times. I told him to go to hell.

Rob Lee: That's great. All right. This is this is the last one I got for you. So, you know, as I was saying, like early on, you know, we always try to throw in a bit more. So what what's a like a non music interest that you have? Like some people like, man, I like to garden. I'm really into cooking. What have you? What is like a non music interest that you really are? You know, it's a big thing for you. Travel.

Maxx Myrick: I love traveling. I've been traveling since I was 17. I was in the Marine Corps. So when I was 17, I went in the Marine Corps. So I began traveling and then I was overseas. I traveled all over Europe. Before I was 19, I had traveled to like all of Europe. And so I didn't know where I was when I was over there, because I was so young. But I learned a lot and got some experiences. And I went back as I got older to those same places to see it with different eyes. And I love to travel. My favorite place now is Spain and Portugal. I love Lisbon. I love Lisbon. I love all the Moorish places in Spain, Barcelona. I went last year, or two years ago, I went to all the Moorish places, Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada. I can't think of all of them right now. But I went to all the places where the Moors were, because, you know, they ruled Spain from 711 to 1492. And so I went to all of those places, because I wanted to be in that space. I wanted to feel those vibrations. And I was just so blown away at the scale of which they created. And I was like, I have to go back. It was just so much. It was so powerful. So I did this. the National Geographic Genome, the Ancestry.com, the 23andMe, and AfricanAncestry.com. And all the other ones put us, you know, my family in Ghana and Wales, the European side. But the African Ancestry put us in, of course, Ghana, but they also put us in Moorish Spain and Portugal. Uh-huh. So I had to go get those vibrations back. So I'm thinking about moving there. I'm really thinking about moving.

Rob Lee: I did one of them. I did. I think it was maybe 23andMe. I'm not quite sure. But some of the things that were popping up, I was like, look, it was just like Egypt. I was like, where? It's like, really? That's like, for real?

Maxx Myrick: Yeah, they just came straight across through the straits.

Rob Lee: Yep. Keep on rolling. I mean, I just got to get this beard a little bit longer and I can actually try to claim it. I'll just start like really playing the character. It's like, is that why are you wearing this hat? What are you doing, bro? I don't have a whole aesthetic.

Maxx Myrick: Our history has been, you know, sheltered from us, but it's coming to light. So we're finding out a lot of things.

Rob Lee: Yeah, I and thank you. I think you're right. And thank you for this, this this conversation. This has been this has been good. Like I'm sitting here and I have been things that I've written down that I'm going to dive into deeper after this. So this has been truly a treat, truly a pleasure to talk to you for this time. And I want to close out if you have any like plugs or shameless plugs to put in real quick in these final moments. I want to again, thank you. And the floor is yours. If you have anything you want to plug in these final moments.

Maxx Myrick: Well, I appreciate you taking the time to interview me. It's been an honor. I really love your show, and I encourage people to tune in to DC Radio every day at 4 p.m. Eastern and check it out. You can hear it at DC Radio 96.3 HD 4. You can hear it online, DCRadio.gov. You can check it out at TuneIn Radio. You can ask Alexa to tune in and pick it up. Or you can check out the app for iPhone and Android to check it out. But it's a wonderful show.

Rob Lee: Thank you so much. That was great. Someone advocating for me. That's wonderful. And there you have it, folks. I want to again thank Maxx Myrick for coming on to the podcast and really, really giving us that history, sharing with us. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture and community in and around your neck of the woods. You've just got to look for it.