What Does A Bismarck DJ Do At Work All Day?

I know what you are thinking, I'm way ahead of you...

..."Face made for radio". Well maybe, even that is a stretch. I am from San Diego, California, you could probably tell by seeing the baseball hat on my pointy head. I have been out in North Dakota coming up on 9 years, and a frequent question I get when they find out where I moved from "Are you running from the law?" I am not - I came out here in 2014 to work full-time IN radio, a privilege I will never take for granted again. I worked in Casselton, ND for just over a year, then I did mornings in Minot for almost 5 years, and I have been here in Bismarck for 3 years.

So, what does a DJ do all day at work?

Let's just take a second and separate our DJs here at Townsquare Media - like any business, we have 40+ hours a week of employees and part-timers. If you are not aware of where our radio stations sit, we are on the strip in Mandan - 12th floor ( elevator STILL busted )...

As you can see, we have 5 stations all in one building - Hot 97.5, The All-New 96.5 The Walleye - US 103.3, Cool 98.7, and Supertalk 1270 AM. Our local morning shows like Tigger and Bec from US 103.3....

...and Scott McGowan from Cool 98.7...

These shows are pivotal, when Bismarck/Mandan starts their day by having their first cup of coffee and listening to PEOPLE share their lives on the radio every morning, it becomes very comfortable to hear friendly LOCAL voices. My time on the air is from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm - I work on a classic rock format station, and I grew up with the music that I play. Most people are under the assumption when we say "Goodbye" at the end of our shift, that we are out of the building 3 minutes later. Not true.

Social Media has become a huge part of radio for US...

...and by that I mean, not every company that runs radio stations around the country places a focus on our skills at delivering content, but with Townsquare Media, it's a HUGE part of our job. This is Andi Ahne, she is on 10:00 am - 3:00 pm at Hot 97.5. Here is how talented she is, you can hear her of course in Bismarck, and her syndicated show is heard on 25 radio stations across the country. An important part of our job is writing content. Stories that involve Bismarck/Mandan, North Dakota, and  Minnesota as well. The cool thing is we are given a ton of freedom to express our opinions and feel free to write about things we find will hopefully interest our audience.

Our boss ( and he HATES it when I call him that ) does afternoons for US 103.3 - This is Rockin' Rick - He foresees ALL 5 radio stations - I can barely handle mine. He also writes stories - our requirement is 2 per day during the week. Thick skin sometimes is a must, unlike TALKING on the radio ( where unless someone TAPES our shows ) the words we speak disappear - but our written stories do not - and this is where we are wide open for anyone to take pot-shots, insults, and displeasure with our opinions - I get it, people are allowed to send us their comments, but the ones that are mean-spirited really sting sometimes.

 I promise I'm not trying to bore you ( I'll leave that for when I'm on the radio ) ...

...but there are so many other things we do as well, like remotes - broadcasting live somewhere. Taking the company vehicle and setting up at a new business bringing out all of our vehicles to a parade.

The most important part of our job is to best represent our stations with pride and give our community a chance to have fun with US. Each one of our 5 radio stations appeal to a different age audience, BUT we will always strive to stay active with ALL ages, like for instance BIKE NIGHT AT SICKIES GARAGE BURGERS AND BREWS!

We are just one-half of Townsquare Media in Bismarck, our other building at 2401 46th Ave SE Suite 203 in Mandan has all of our sales staff, managers, Market President etc. Their jobs are of course vital to our success. To sum it all up, my favorite part of this job is meeting people, real people, heroes that have saved lives in a fire, and talking to someone who is trying to raise money for a loved one that is sick. I'm lucky to come to work 5 days a week and work with such talented creative people. Yes, I miss San Diego very much, but when someone takes the time to tell me they enjoyed one of my articles OR that I made them laugh for a couple of seconds from something I said ON the radio, the loneliness subsides - I always end my show with this "Thank you always for being in my world and letting me be in yours" ....corny I know, but I 100% mean it.