 | Toby Knapp, APD, WIHT/Washington, D.C
&
Joe Daddio, National Director Top 40 East Coast, Jive Label Group |  |
Joe: First things first, how is the Kudu?
Toby: YOU are a Kudu. So I assume you are fine. But, the Kudu (Kyla) is doing amazing. For those of you who are not familiar with this, Kyla, my daughter, has spent significant time with the Daddio family. One day, playing with those drop-in-water-and-watch-it-grow animal capsules, you guys came across a Kudu, which is an East African Antelope. Inquisitive, she asked “What’s a Kudu” and no one knew. Then, she said to either Mel or you that “You’re a KUDU,” and as a result of her impeccable comedic timing and delivery, the “kudu” lives in infamy. I think that’s how it goes, right? She’s doing amazing, I’m blessed by her being in my world every day and life is so much fun because she’s around. She just has this magic she brings to everything and it’s amazing to see the things that just come naturally to her, which brings so much joy to so many.
Joe: You are getting ready to throw a baby shower this weekend, what can be expected at a Toby Knapp thrown baby shower?
Toby: Well, since it’s co-ed, we’ve got performers from the Ballet de Mons Venus who are coming in from Tampa for poolside performances for the guys, and inside, we’ve hired male dancers and such to entertain the women. Additionally, we’ve got free manicure and pedicure stations, full wax and facial treatment stations, massage stations for the men and women guests. I’ve asked Kidd Leow to come provide the musical entertainment outside, and we’ll be announcing a special pool side performance from Katy Perry, B.o.B. and Usher courtesy of Zomba Recording Group. It’s all sponsored by Babies R US, Target, Mons Venus and Ciroc Vodka, who are of course providing drinks. Sunblock courtesy of Hawaiian Tropic and sunwear courtesy of Oakley and Prada. With thanks to Capitol Records and Atlantic Records. No airplay was provided in exchange for this promotion.
Joe: Hot 99.5's PPM ratings right now are simply en fuego. Who is Hotter in the Nation's Capitol right now? Hot 99.5 or Steven Strasburg?
Toby: It’s 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity right now so I’d say somos todo muy caliente en la capital del mundo libre (we are all very hot in the capital city of the free world). Caliente is the operative word in D.C. in summer!
Joe: When we first met 12 years ago, you were doing afternoons at WLAN/Lancaster. You had big aspirations of making it to a major market. Now you’re on in multiple major markets every single day. How does that make you feel?
Toby: I like to think it’s a tribute to the PDs who have taught me and molded me to become who I am today. It’s a legacy thing for them, I hope. I’m blessed and at the same time humbled that people like Patrick Davis, Doubledown, Brad Hardin, Chad Chumley and Tony Coles trust me to entertain and provide content with their respective brands. I take that trust very seriously and don’t take it for granted. I’m also thankful Thea (Mitchem) allows me – and expects me – to super serve our colleagues because it’s a testament to the level and ability of our talent in the DC/Baltimore cluster. Some of the very best in the industry work here and I’m just honored to be in the room.
Joe: www.blogtobia.com is a place where you like to really dive into your political views. Being a big and open Obama supporter, how would you rate how he's doing?
Toby: He’s making history. Despite what some want to do to distract the American people, in the last 18 months this President has turned the economy around, is creating jobs, has provided real and affordable health care to the American people, and just this week reigned in Wall Street so they can never screw us over like they did ever again. He’s also ending both wars, and he’s restored our global presence. The presidency, like anything, is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. He’s racking up win after win after win. I do believe he needs to walk with more of a swagger and make sure he lets the American people know just exactly what he’s been able to accomplish for us and when he does that, you’ll see some of this bipartisan stuff fade away. People counted Clinton out early on, didn’t they? We saw how that worked out. Don’t count Obama out. Period!
Joe: There have been some famous dynamic duos over the years. Where do Toby and Thea fit in that history?
Toby: I’ll quote Brian Check, who said recently that the idea of Thea and I together is “scary.” He knows us both pretty well, I’d say! We’re both passionate, loud, excited about life, music and radio and we love what we do, and I think we have fun working together to create excitement with HOT. If that someday makes us a ‘dynamic duo’ then so be it, but it’s really a ‘dynamic team’ here in DC that makes the magic that is HOT happen every day.
Joe: Can you describe the quintessential PPM break?
Toby: It respects the listener, is focused on them, delivers them a verifiable benefit or information they care about without hype or cheese while maintaining the environment and momentum while making them feel something truly magical and revolutionary about their experience with personality, while not stopping the music and without talking down a fade or over an extended intro. Did you get all that? If not, read it again slowly and absorb.
Joe: Your morning guy, Kane, used to go on beach patrol trips with me at KC101/New Haven in the mid ‘90s and we used to hand out Sharps Non-Alcoholic beer. What's the worst product you ever had to endorse?
Toby: Did he get BOMBED off the Sharps?! Gran Marnier should sponsor the Kane show…that would be AWESOME! For me, I will never endorse the magic diet pill sorta thing. I did once and as someone who has had it and lost it, gained it back and is now losing it again, I have to tell you it’s just B.S. to think a pill can make you skinny and we all know it. I like my credibility with my audience. But that’s just me.
Joe: Is it true you once tried to giveaway a million dollars on WBHT?
Toby: Ask Kid Kelly! As I remember it, it wasn’t a million bucks. I ripped off a break he did on Z100 once when I was a baby deejay and applied their ‘phrase that pays’ symantics to our 97 dollars every 97 minutes contest in 1997. He didn’t like it and he came in and unplugged the mic when I was covering for Mark McCarthy at the time. That being said, and for the basis of legend, and since Kid is never wrong, I’ll respectfully defer to his version of the story!
Joe: Would you ever pay $800,000 for a townhouse that backs up to the Post Office?
Toby: Would you ever go commando, get bombed and drop your pants in front of 35,000 people at a music festival and then, fall down spread eagle with your full Monte hanging out? Didn’t think so!
Joe: Have you ever "made it rain?"
Toby: Have you? Or, do you just make it shower? Making it rain would be giving a certain station an exclusive *NSYNC reunion show, with Britney Spears hosting and performing while hosting an entire week of morning shows with Justin Timberlake AND you need to have Usher open. And by the way, this will be for a free show. Pull that off and you’ve made it rain. Anything else is just making it shower. Making it shower, well, that would be having Jive Jones and Michael Africk perform.
Joe: I've watched you over these last few years balance your busy career and being a dad. You make it look easy but I know it's harder than it looks. How do you do it, and is there any advice you can pass along to me?
Toby: First off, know there’s no such thing as a perfect parent. Anyone who says otherwise is lying and who are they to judge anyway? Just follow your heart, and your instincts that you’ll discover after you look into your baby’s eyes for the first time. I can’t explain it but it just switches on and you figure it out. It all just comes to you. Be patient, trust your partner to do her part as well, but most of all just listen to your heart, and get ready to learn unconditional love. It’s amazing!
OH!…wipe toward the back and not toward the front. And always pack two to three back up outfits and have at least ten diapers and baby wipes around at all times. And realize it’s just poop or pee. It’s natural. We all do it. And, be ready for these poopisodes to happen at the worst times. It’s parenthood. We’re way past Murphy’s Law now.
Joe: August 10, 8am...I expect to see you at the hospital. I'm gonna need ya.
Toby: Well, If anything ever happens to me, and I’ve talked to Kyla’s mom about this, and we both agree, Kyla’s gonna need some Godparents…so talk about it with Melissa and know that I’ve got your back because I know you’ve got mine. I’ll pick up some Patron Silver on the way to calm you down, too, DAD-dio!
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Toby: Which scares you most, bro? Having to see Joe Riccitelli naked, your wife going through labor, or the thought that YOU after 35 years are about to be a daddy of a little girl?
Joe: Seriously? You come right out with the first question and somehow mention Joe Riccitelli naked and you’re “gonna be a daddy of a little girl” in the same sentence? Why did I agree to this again?
Toby: Will you be calling in adds on Tuesday, August 10 when your child is due? Will you in fact be on the infamous Jive conference call while your wife is in labor? What if the new Usher suddenly starts to tank? What will you do?
Joe: As a promotion guy you are always calling in and accepting adds no matter what day it is. I probably will skip the conference call that night and for the record, the Usher record will not be tanking in three weeks but sitting in or around the Top 10.
Toby: Do you think some of these programmers you work records on realize you were trained as a CHR talent in the crucible of radio programming which gave us Glenn Beck, Kane, and The WORLD FAMOUS Kelly Nash, or that you interned for Kid Kelly, and that if need be, you could grab headphones and walk your ass into any studio and entertain the masses with compelling content because you hail from KC MOTHEREFFING ONE OH ONE? Do you think PDs, MDs and APDs realize WHO exactly JOE DADDIO is?
Joe: KC101 is one of those legendary Top 40 stations and I’m just thrilled I was a part of the station in some way, shape or form from ‘92-‘99. The summer of ’94 was wild. Glenn Beck as OM/Mornings, Kid Kelly doing afternoons/PD. Tik Tac, now doing afternoons on WXRK/NY was the night jock and your morning guy, Kane, was a 16- year-old intern. As far as “entertaining the masses,” I ran a tight board.
Toby: You are a radio geek and as such, your traveling takes you to many exotic radio locales like Denver and New Bern, NC. Which stations do you find you have to listen to while on the road and what makes them compelling in your opinion?
Joe: Well being a radio geek, thanks to apps like "iheartradio" and "AOL radio" you no longer have to travel to listen to stations and shows you like. I have a stereo with an iPod dock in my office so every day I like to pick a different station and listen to it. As a sports fan, I love the Dan Patrick Show.
Toby: Do you ever wonder “what if…” regarding radio? Or are you doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing?
Joe: I’m absolutely doing what I am supposed to be doing and have loved every minute of the last 11+ years here at Jive and my 14 years working at labels. However, before I ever learned about record promotion as a job, I was an intern at KC101 so my first exposure to inside the business was on-air and programming. With that being said, sure I sometimes wonder if I stayed in radio and went the programming route, where would I have ended up and would I have been successful? I think almost everyone wonders “what if…” sometimes but that doesn’t mean I would change a thing.
Toby: I understand certain Facebook status updates of mine have caused many an uproar with people and situations in your life. Can you, explain how and why, giving careful attention to names, places and situations?
Joe: Well, we all know you like to stir the pot but sometimes a small joke can turn into immediate damage control. Back in January you decided to have some fun with Facebook on a Saturday morning by saying "Congrats to Joe and Melissa, we are all very excited for you both." Now even though you never said my wife was pregnant, it was pretty much understood by what you wrote. The best part of it was that Melissa was pregnant and nobody knew that, including yourself. So immediately we had to tell people we were not expecting a baby when in reality we were but had to wait another month to make the announcement.
Toby: Now that you’re on a national level, you get to deal with so many more programmers and you know their time is now more than ever at a premium with additional duties. Which programmers impress you with their ability to “do business” with you, and what specifically do they do that we could all take a “page” from?
Joe: It really comes down to how programmers manage their time. We all wear more hats now than ever before. Programmers have more responsibilities, promo reps have larger territories and more stations than they used to. I won't name names but what I will say is that I do find it interesting that the more responsibilities a PD or MD has, those people are actually the ones that usually are the most accessible and I think it really boils down to the fact that they are better time managers than others.
Toby: Babies poop. All the time. You can’t plan for it, it just happens. You like to plan. Will this end well, or will it be messy? We already know it will be smelly… discuss.
Joe: I do like to plan...baby poop scares me. I gotta get over the fear and fast!
Toby: Isn’t it true that Kelly Nash is the most blessed person in our industry?
Joe: I think we are all very blessed to be in this industry. Kelly Nash is one of the all time greats. Not sure if he is the "most" blessed but he's high on the list.
Toby: How many times has your boss called me pissed off about something I said regarding him, a Jive artist, chart numbers or the relevance of certain artists on your label to Pop culture and life?
Joe: Is infinity a number? You have calmed down. Thea has reeled you in from this department. We all thank her for that!
Toby: A year from now, we’ll have daughters who know each other. What if they decide to do a Morning Show together one day? Does this scare you? They are, after all, only six years apart.
Joe: An all female morning show? You could be onto something. I think it will be interesting to see where radio will be 20 years from now when they would be ready to take the mic. I just want her to find something she loves and if it's radio then I will be fine with that. However, she's not even born yet so I'm not ready to start talking about her career choices.
Toby: Which do you give up? The Jets or the Yankees? Explain…
Joe: That's an easy one. I would give up the Yankees. I have seen them win, I believe, seven championships in my lifetime. The Jets are the heartbreakers. I would love to one day wake up on Super Bowl Sunday and know my team was playing that day. This season should be fun. They are either going to be amazing or will self implode.
Toby: Why did you decide to name your daughter after Joe Riccitelli? Was this a tough or easy choice?
Joe: We have not revealed the name of our daughter. Great, now you just ruined the surprise!
[FMQB ORIGINAL CONTENT, published July 2010, please do not republish or reprint without the express consent of FMQB. Make sure you visit us on the Web at www.fmqb.com]
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