Radio Promotion | Wendy Day Interviews Lester Pace

Hey guys, Wendy Day here. Welcome back. I'm so excited that I've learned how to interview people and edit. This is like the coolest shit ever. I'm sitting here with Lester Pace, one of my friends. I love Lester Pace. I met Lester, I think, around 2003, and I've kept him close ever since. He's great at what he does, and he's just an awesome human being. Lester, how are you today?

I'm doing great, Wendy Day. Thanks, baby. And I love you as well. And I, uh, the day I met you, hey, like, we've been real close since then. And, uh, always able to, you know, as you said, 2003. Wow, I didn't realize it'd been that long.

Yeah, yeah, that's when I moved to Memphis. I was in Memphis, right?

And I met you when I first moved there, right?

Right.

How you doing today?

Are you in Atlanta? Where are you?

It's funny, I'm in Memphis. I am, I believe now I'm sitting in the car. I just left court, so I was in Atlanta, but, uh, I drove here yesterday to come to court, so I'll be coming back to Atlanta next week.

Gotcha. You look great.

Thank you, dear. So do you. How is everything going? I wish I was in the comforts of my home like you though.

It's all good. Yeah, I'm, I'm like comfortable, you know. You're sitting in the car. I'm sorry about that.

That's okay. But I told y'all I was gonna be here at what's the name, so I pulled over to the side of the road. I said, let me sit right here, make sure I take care and take this call with you.

I love you for that. So how did you get started in the music industry?

Well, I'm originally from Houston, Texas, so I started off in Houston back— let me go— you know, I started off in radio first. I was at high school and I used to do the morning announcements at my high school, and I used to play around with that DJ voice from the old school. And one of the teachers had asked me about becoming a disc jockey on the radio at that time. I ain't know, like, what's a disc? I thought she was talking about somebody ride horses, a jockey. What's a disc jockey? I didn't know what a disc jockey was when I was in high school. I didn't know what they called it. The DJ got the guy to play the music, you know. So anyway, so, uh, one of our, um, teachers asked me about this show they had in Houston where they let, uh, teenagers come and run radio stations on Saturdays. Wow. Oh yeah, it was called, uh, at KTSU, which is Texas Southern University radio station, and they had this show on on Saturdays from 10 to 2 called Kids Jam. So what is— the kids come in and run the radio stations from 10 to 2. So I started going there on Saturday mornings and they had a crew already and I started learning about radio. And at that time I was into hip-hop. I used to rap and, you know, call myself a rapper in hip-hop. So my program director by the name of Pam Collins at the time, she, you know, back in the day they was playing straight R&B, you know, no radio station wanted to play hip-hop. So whenever what happened, I was training how to, you know, run the board and do all the DJ terminology and everything. So one morning I get to the studio Nobody's there but me. So I got through on the spot. So I get through on the spot. Of course I'm screwing up and doing everything, but all the Ray Parker Jr., Stacy Lattisaw, and all that other type music, I'm like, man, let me play some hip-hop. So I started playing hip-hop back to back to back. Of course she told me to take that rap music off. Don't quit playing all that rap music. So every week I come, she would have to tell me, Lester, quit playing that rap music. So in that 4-hour show, we had this segment for teenagers. It was like a talk show for teenagers to discuss, you know, teenage problems and just stuff that teenagers talk about called Be Yourself.

Nice.

So one Saturday we decided to take Be Yourself and decide how, or how were we going to, uh, did they— did the listeners want to hear more rap or more R&B? So we took a poll, and at that time, uh, rap music killed the R&B stuff. So at that time, Pam Collins came and said, Lester's yours, take over. And I blew that up. Yep. And I just— and that's— that, that show, uh, went on to become a big thing in Houston. If you ask anybody about Kids Jam, they used to know me as Lester Sir Pace. It used to be called Lester Sir Pace when I was on the radio. Wow. So I was the first one at that time to play Scarface, uh, at that time, uh, because Scarface wasn't signed with Rap-A-Lot at the time. Scarface was signed to this guy named Lil Troy. You remember Lil Troy?

Little Troy?

Yeah, they beat Lil Troy.

He was easy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lil Troy, he was signed to Lil Troy. So Lil Troy brought, uh, Crazy C and all those guys, and we played their record on that Saturday. Scarface blew up for that time.

Oh my God.

Yes, Crazy C and, uh, 32, who passed, uh, uh, condolences go out to him. Lord 32, he, uh, he was, uh, he was— they were all part of this, uh, Southside clique from Hiram Clarke area. So I did that. And then also Pimp C, we broke their records, uh, uh, UGK. We first person to play UGK on the radio. And then on another thing that people don't realize, we were the first person to screw music at that time. I was the first one to screw a record on the radio, and it was by mistake though. Nothing from DJ Screw, one of the greatest guys whatsoever, but it was an accident. Back in the day they had this record called— I don't know if you remember it— Fresh Is the Word.

Fresh Is the Word, yep.

Yeah, okay, well, Fresh Is the Word, when you put on the radio, it's supposed to be— it was a 33 LP, but it's supposed to have been played at 33.

Oh, I mean, it was supposed to be played at 45, but it's the size of it.

And I played it. Yeah, it was a big— what you used to play So what happened, I forgot to turn it on 45 on the radio, so the record come on, man, try this is too crude, did you? So that whole thing goes on, and so I had to let it play. I didn't want to let it stop it and just keep playing it. So all of a sudden we started getting calls on Saturdays. Everybody tells— they used to call it play it slowed down. Can you play, uh, Fresh's or Word slowed down? So that kind of became what you would call screw music, but not saying I invented screw. They took it to a whole new level, but that was the first time it was heard on, uh, on the radio in Houston. So from there, I, I went, I did Kids Jam, then I left. Uh, Steve Hagwood came in and hired me at Y98.5 in Houston, and I left 98.5 and went to The Box, uh, 97.9. And then Rap-A-Lot, Lil Jay hired me at Rap-A-Lot, asked me, told me, thought I'd be good at doing marketing promotions. So if it wouldn't be for Lil Jay at Rap-A-Lot, I, I wouldn't be in the record side of this business, guys. I went there and, uh, Bruce was running the company. Nobody trained me. I just got a credit card and went on the road, started talking radio by playing a lot of the Rap-A-Lot music, uh, at the artists at the time. At that time, the artists that we had were the Black Monks, uh, we had 3-2, uh, uh, uh, Big Mike, of course the Ghetto Boys. So, so we— I was in that, in that circuit doing all those guys' stuff. And then there was a couple when they signed a couple of West Coast artists, uh. And, um, that's why I got my marketing promotion side of radio, uh, of the music industry that I came in from there. And then from there, uh, Rapp-A-Lot signed a deal with, uh, Virgin Records. So at that time, yeah, Virgin Records already had a staff. And so I interviewed for a job with Virgin, and, uh, that time there I didn't get the job, uh, and then Interscope came along. And, um, I heard about a situation there, and, uh, the guys hired me and moved me to Memphis and The rest is history.

Yes. Yeah. You were at, you were at Interscope for a long time.

Interscope for about 15, 16 years.

Yeah. That's long.

That's a long time. Yeah.

In the music business, that's super long because very few people last that long at any one company. It's a huge testament to what you do.

Right, right, right. And so at that time too, uh, you know, I, I created a company. I can say it now because I'm not working for a label. But, uh, which was setting the pace, which, uh, what happened, it was like I found out, you know, I used to be at radio, see these independent artists coming to the radio stations and they would be there trying to see a program director and then they would probably get a time of day, you know. So I thought about, I said, well, it's almost similar. You wouldn't go to court without a lawyer, you know what I'm saying? So why would you try to go to radio without a radio represent— uh, person representing you that knows how to talk to the lingo, know how to sell your record better than probably what you could to the program director? And he has a great relationship. And has a great relationship. Exactly. That's the other key component. That's— matter of fact, Wendy Day Day is the major key component and has a relationship. Exactly. So, so that's when I created that company. And, um, and you know a lot what we did with those artists that we've been able to break and continue to break. And so after I left Interscope, the last year, me and a friend of mine, Lionel Reitner, along with my, uh, partner Antonio Tubbs, and we, uh, and, uh, we got some other guys, and, uh, like say my friend Arnold Taylor now, since he's not working for a label too. So I got my, on my whole little— we got our own little, uh, crew that we, uh, do. So like, uh, last year, like, people don't realize, uh, um, Rich Homie Quan's record that went number one a few years ago, he wasn't signed to a major, right? Okay, so he went number one. Hey, I think signed to Think It's a Game. And Think It's a Game hired Lionel, and Lionel's there. Lionel comes in, he's still— he's the quarter— we call him a quarterback. Whoever has the project, we call him the quarterback. So they come in and they run the show and, and we all go out here and put all our strengths together just like we would do if we were working for a major label.

Exactly.

And we go out and get radio airplay and we took the record number one and it ended up being the big, the number one record for the whole year.

Yes. Okay, not only, not only did you take it number one, Lester, you did this in July of 2015, but it was the first time an independent went number one since 2002 and that was Koch. And I don't consider Koch really an independent Independent.

Wow.

So it was like a mini major time that somebody took an independent number one. Wow.

And you know, I did not know that. Now thank you. They got something else I need. I need you put a resume together for me.

I will. And then you took— then you took YFN Lucci number one a year later at Thanksgiving. Yes, past year.

Yeah, we took YFN Lucci. We also worked Lil Dicky record. We took Lil Dicky top 10. We also, uh, we also did Made in Tokyo, Uber Everywhere, uh, um, and so got a platinum plaque, just got a platinum plaque on there for platinum sales and everything. So what I'm really enjoying to see is now letting the artists know you can be major but indie. That's my key combination. You can be major but indie. And they ask me what— they ask me whether should they get it. And I might be jumping, moving fast. I need to let you ask a question. Go ahead, go ahead.

Because you're gonna say everything I'm gonna ask you anyway.

Well, so I tell artists, you know, well, if you don't have financial needs to be independent, then you need the major label, right? But if you have somebody back, huh, or an investor, or an investor, yes, exactly, investor or someone putting money behind, then you probably need a major because you got to have money to do the things that you need to do in order to make certain things work in this business now. But if you have your own money, you can do like you say, think it's a game, and, uh, some of the other people got, got investors and stuff stuff and come out and, and they have their own label and their whole own thing. And that's one thing I really like the years working with Yo Gotti. I've been dealing with Yo Gotti since probably since I met— knew you in 2003.

Yeah, you have.

Gotti invests in his own money himself. And I say he's the— I like Gotti because not just artist but as the businessman, he invested his money into himself. So Gotti wouldn't go out there and do a show and make $10,000 or $15,000 and not invest it back in himself. And most of these artists, they don't want to invest their money into themselves. So Gotti would come in and Gotti only started off doing 5 or 10 markets, you know, whatever his budget allowed at that time. And which is really very smart. Yeah, exactly. We only did those markets and so he was able to go around and do shows. Exactly, right. So you look at— you say what, 2003, 2004? And here it is, we talking about 2017. So he has been able to prolong his career. Yes, for over 15 years, you know what I'm saying? Which is unheard of, right? And most artists want the quick home run. They want to become rich and famous real fast. But I think I would have taken that the way he's done it and, and has been consistent any day. So a lot of artists— so the artists only listening, quit worrying about I want to be number one. Start off now. I tell you, if you only got 10 markets you can work or whatever you can do, work that like it's the United States, you know what I'm saying? Work that area like it's the United States and grow as your company grows and build your brand and, you know, and go from there.

Absolutely, absolutely. So, um, radio is not step number one. What do artists need to do before they call you with their record? Like, what should they do?

This is what I've been telling artists lately. They'll call me and tell me they got so much money for a promotional budget, and I ask them how they did their social media campaign, how they had hired a social media person. Because to me, social media is what we used to call street teams. Right. Okay, you still can put street team in certain markets. Like, I most time I use a street team like a Dallas— what's up, Lady C— or, or different major markets where I know even if we deal with Atlanta and other major— Atlanta's, uh, Memphis, and, and probably like, uh, uh, uh, Houston and Dallas, you know, would be the other ones. But I would— I told them, tell them to look at, uh, basically find a social media person. Because prime example is a record I'm working right now, got Ugly God out of Houston. Okay, this guy got 40-some thousand, uh, or 20 million views on his YouTube. Okay, but, but this only through the social media platform before he even came to radio. So right now the artists have the opportunity to make money where they couldn't back in the day because they had to worry about somebody buying a single. But now with the, the, uh, monetary sales that you see coming from YouTube, uh, Spotify, and all the other streaming services, they have the opportunity to— so to really know if you got a record Like prime example, I got an artist right now put out a mixtape, but even with Yo Gotti and his mixtape would come out, we probably work a record when he first dropped his mixtape, but it would be another record that comes off that mixtape that lets us know that that's the record that should be working, right? So I tell the artists, if they don't have— there's some companies and some people out here who work social media to hire somebody to do social media to get theirself going first because they might not be ready for radio at that time.

Exactly.

On his first mixtape. It may be the second song. They might not have a record that's really a radio record. And I tell them, would you rather go spend 4, uh, 3 or 4 or $5,000 working a record on social media or spend $20,000 or $30,000 and it's gone in 6 to 8 weeks and you didn't really have the record that, that you really needed to have at radio?

Right, right, right. And, and radio can get very expensive very fast because you got to keep feeding the bear. You know, right?

Yeah, we got to keep going, marking. We got to do all these marketing promotions. We got to do things to keep— we got to come up with contests. Because I tell artists, you go to radio, no, you can't just say— I can't go and say, oh, this Joe Blow, he's a nice kid. Your record is competing with every record that's out there. You compete against the Jay-Z's. You can't create all the number ones, uh, people for that slot. So we have to come up with creative contests, giveaways, and all kind of things to try to tell the reason why that radio station should be playing your record instead of taking a chance on a Jay-Z or another major artist that they want to put in that spot.

Right, right. And it's easy to put somebody in a spot that's, that's known, you know, you know that that's no— your listeners aren't going to change the dial if you're on the radio.

Well, yes. And now since radio has changed, now instead of, uh, when they just used to get ratings, now you got this PPM, which they listen at these— they can tell when a person turns on and turn you off. A lot of program directors are scared to take those chances now on trying to give unestablished artists an opportunity to be on the radio. So you— so that's why we usually start with the smaller markets who will give the opportunity. People come in and say, I want Houston, I want Dallas, I want New York. I say, yeah, you know what? So does a lot of the major artists and Beyoncé. None of those people sometimes don't get to that record till we build it up on the chart. Exactly. Till we get it to certain criteria that fit it where I can go. And we know when we can go to this station and say, hey, I got the story you need now, dude, I think you should give this guy a try, a shot.

Exactly, exactly. You know, I, I think that we sometimes forget that radio doesn't exist to break new artists. Like, that's not their job. Radio's job is to make ad dollars, to make ad revenue. So they want to play whatever music is going to bring in the most amount of people so that they can get as much money as they can for their ad revenue. Revenue. And that has nothing to do with an artist that I'm working, you know. I've got to build that artist. It's my job to build that artist to a level where radio accepts the music and wants to start playing it. That's just my opinion.

No, no, that is totally truth. I just have a radio station that I got a co-ownership in Waco, Texas, and I kind of handled a program. And I was talking to one of the jocks the other day because we do this one show on Sundays, and we were doing it for years, and we just play for 2 hours, nothing but the local music there.

Right.

Okay. But when we get our ratings back, we got our ratings and that rating is a zero in that time slot.

Right.

Okay. So that means— so we got a zero. So I sat down with him the other day and had a conversation and I said, we don't want to pull the show completely, but we have to do is revamp the show. So I said, what we would do, we're going to, uh, instead of playing 2 hours of local music, we're going to play 4 songs, 4 local records, I mean, each hour for those 2 hours. So we give total 8. And then what we surround that record with other hits that we're already playing. So the listeners won't get turned off.

Exactly.

So that's just a way to try to listen and everybody wins. Everybody wins. And we still giving the opportunity for the local community to have a voice in hearing some of their local people on radio. Absolutely.

That's beautiful. That's beautiful.

Right.

And then your listener base will be huge. So when those local artists get played, more people are hearing them.

It's just right. And I like, exactly. And I explained to him, come on, you got, you, you doing 2 hours of local music and you talking about at least 10 songs. That's not 20. Great artists in Waco, Texas. Okay, so let's, let's be real again. So it— and then exactly, then it gives the other person those on those 4 slots or 8 slots you got for people to really get out there and really make great music, right? And not just put everything in, and so it won't be so watered down, right?

Right. So as we're, as we're putting together a radio campaign, let's say that I did the legwork, my social media is popping, I have a record that did well in the club, so I got it really popping in the clubs and on the streets of the Southeast.

Uh-huh.

And then I want to come to you and I want to go to radio. Is it— what is the best way for me to come and hire you? Like, what do I do once I've got a record that's growing a little bit of reaction, that's got some legs?

What I normally do is, uh, tell people to first MP3 me the record, and then I get the record, I send it to, uh, a couple of my guys on my team, and we'll sit down and we'll talk about it and see if there's something that we think we can take to radio. Because we don't just take any record because somebody feel like it's a record, right? Because at the end of the day, we want to be successful too in helping the client, right? Okay. And I always tell people, if, um, you know, a lot of these guys that do, uh, radio for— they just take people's money And then they don't provide a great service. So I tell people my job is to keep them in business, not out of business. Exactly. Okay, so, so, so if they do, if they win, then that means they're going to hire me again. And a lot of times, a lot of times it works. And then of course there's going to be times it don't work. I mean, I'm sure you know your business. Nobody's never happy. They think they're a star and it doesn't work. And of course they got to find somebody to blame.

Exactly.

But I try to tell the artists, look, I try to get them to spend less. Uh, I, I don't even want to call the artist out. I know last year I worked a record on artists It was his first record. He had a major artist on the record. So I worked the record for him, and then he got to the point— we had been working it almost 8 to 10 weeks, and then he was like, man, I want to be on the chart and stuff. I said, well, I said, this is probably your best setup record. You need to have more records, especially this time, because the new generation of people, time span is changing. So once they get something, you can't last 10 or 12 or 15 weeks and go back to the same radio stations that would already play the record. So So the artist, uh, he went higher, someone else, and they didn't get as far as they even did when I took the record. Because the artist, you know what, the point I'm trying to make is that it's just like you being a consultant. And they need to listen to what you're telling them. They're not following the lead that you, you know, that you try to give them what they should and shouldn't do.

That's a novel idea to actually listen to somebody that you hire for their, for their advice, for the expertise, right?

Exactly, right. So, so, so, so that's what— so what the artist would do is hire me, then we'll get together, we'll put a plan We'll know what kind of budget we work. That's just one of the other important things we got to know is how much the budget they're working with to see what we can possibly do and if we can work with them.

And what's a good budget? Like, can you give me an example of like a small budget, a decent budget, and a great, I can really bring this home type budget?

Well, what we do, like people say, well, you know, how much it costs to take a record, uh, number one, how much it talks to do this. Well, I mean, radio budgets, it depends. It depends on where you want to go. I mean, we can look into Budgets that we spend, we spend budgets up to $20,000, up to $100,000. This is at major labels because as you go on and keep doing promotions, you got to keep expanding and moving the artists around and doing those different things. Like I might need an artist to go in to a record that's working to go into a market and do a show for this label. So that's money that it costs and everything. Like I said, also doing promotional giveaways. If, uh, uh, uh, and sometimes, I mean, they might need to fly somebody to go see a concert that's not even related to you. Right. But because I, I, I take care of the promotion with that, with that, uh, radio station, now that gives me leeway to try to make it, you know, scratching backs and, and doing other things to make these, to make, to get the record on the air. And that's what I tell everybody, if it's easy, if it was that easy to get a record on the radio, everybody would do it. It's not that simple because there are very few slots. But that's the first thing they come, and then once that we know about their budget, we can sit and, uh decide how many markets we can work with the budget that they give us, right?

And does time of the year affect that? And what else is it, radio?

Well, the time of the year, I always tell artists the best time of year to come out is January, okay? Especially new artists, because most of the time radio stations are clearing off their list from last year, so it gives, uh, uh, it opened up a few more slots for, uh, allocations. And the worst time is after October I should say September, right? October, going to the Christmas break, it's the worst time to work a record on a new artist because most of the labels are dropping all— you know, they're getting ready for Christmas, they drop all the albums and everything like that, that they're trying to get that last big sale before the end of the year.

Exactly. They're also trying to bank on those Christmas sales, all those kids getting—

exactly—

phones and, you know, uh, devices to listen to music on. You got to load them with something.

Exactly.

Absolutely. You know, radio promotion is— and this is really a statement, it's not necessarily a question— radio promotion is one of the areas where somebody can really get burned in this industry. There's so many folks out here that aren't legitimate that say that they're radio promoters, but you know, you can give them $30,000 and not get a rate, you not get one single spin, you know. Um, and I just wanna— I just wanna caution the people that are watching this video to be very careful when selecting somebody to do radio, because it is an area where you can lose a huge, huge amount of money really, really fast. In fact, let me turn that into a question. Lester, how, how should I research who is a good radio person? Like, how do I find somebody like you? That I can trust?

Well, a lot of times, you know, at first I, I used to put a lot of stuff on the internet, but as I started to grow, it's just like a great lawyer. They need to do their research and call people because the best advice is coming somebody call a Wendy Day, call around and ask people. And a majority of my work now— and if a guy has to sit up there and promote himself on the internet, you don't know what records he's worked to do anything like that. You need to be skeptical. Yeah, his website, everything might have all the bells and whistles that he's the greatest. But if you can't find anyone to go around and say anything good about that person, then that's, that's the first red flag, right? You know what I'm saying, right? So, uh, in this business you will have great promoters who, uh, some clients may not be happy with. Doesn't mean that that person wasn't a good promoter. But if you start hearing 4, 4 or 5 or 6 or 7, uh, bad stories about this person, negative stories and stuff, then you need to take a second look at them, you know. And another thing I caution people, anybody come and tell you they gonna take your record number one Run away, right? Okay, cause no record promoter— I don't ever tell people, well, what you can do, my goal is to try to get you top 40. Once we get this point, I give them points, and then we try to say we're going to the next level. But you can't, you can't go around and tell people you're going to take it. If anybody said they're going to give you number one record, you need to— I'll tell you right now, turn away from that promoter, right? Run from that guy. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

I remember when I first met you and I asked you— I don't remember what, what record it was, but I remember asking you, you know, how many spins can we get? And you're like, Wendy, I, I don't know. Like, there's so many determining factors. And the— and I love that answer because the other radio guys that I was meeting with were saying, oh, I'll get you 50 spins a week, I'll get you 70 spins a week. It's like— and, and you made so much sense. You're like, Wendy, how can I tell you sitting here I don't know what your competition is. I don't know how the record's going to respond. I don't know who else is at radio in that market right now. Like, like, it's— I can't just give you an answer.

And see, another thing, a lot of guys who work radio, uh, record promoters never work radio. I came from both sides, so I know the side of working in radio and aside from working on the record side. So prime example, if I get a record, a guy, a program director, he gonna give me a spin a day. That's 7 spins a week. Well, that record may spin 7, it may spin 5. True enough, he made one spin 7. It determines how many commercials might have played in that hour or where it was rotated. So there's no straight factor. Most of the time we're in the terminology, terminology that we use at radio is, uh, one a day, two a day, three a day. But I know in, in my thing, okay, if I say I'm gonna put 10 stations on and a guy's gonna give me between one a day or two a day, I should between set, be between, uh, 7, between say 10 stations, 70 spins a week, and 100 spins a week. So it can be any way in that parameter, right? So that's why I, I never tell people— I don't give it— I say, I'm gonna try to get you on so many stations, and then we'll see how the record works from there. So yeah, so I use station terminology more than spins. Why is there most— but a lot of guys like to tell people what they want to hear.

Yes, they do, they do, right? Lester, what is rotation? What does rotation mean?

At a radio station. Okay, rotation means like this, like they have a couple of things they got. They got what they call mix show and they got rotation. Rotation is normally when a station on Mondays and Tuesdays, we call it, uh, we're gonna bless a record. We try to get as many ads as we possibly can, which we say ads, that means the program director say, record, uh, Joe Blow's record, I'm gonna put this record into rotation. That means that record is gonna have a steady slot. If that's— if that programmer has 30 slots That record is going to be put in one of those 30 slots to rotate constantly throughout the week.

That's kind of a big deal.

Yeah, that is a big deal because that way you're not a mix show. You say you go for mix show, the mixer say if he, if he mixes 4 times a week, he may play your record and he may not play your record, right? But when you're in rotation, you know that you're in a slot that's going to be consistent, whether it's a power, uh, power new, uh, recurrent— well, not a recurring, but a new or light with all these different categories they have. So it's usually 3 or 4 categories that most radio stations use. So they have a power, a medium, and a light or something like that. But if people call them different things, so that's where they go, our new category. So you might go into that new category, and then what a person has to do, and once in that new category, the record starts working well and starts to react and get some type of, uh, uh, you know, uh, call-out research or something like of that nature, then the record can move up to the next category. So that's what we do then. Once we got the record on, now we got to try to see how we can get the record moved up And that's how we build the airplay up and the spins to try to get the record charted.

Got it. Okay. And then, um, is there a way for me to track what you're doing on my end? Like, once you start getting play, is there some sort of tracking system that allows me to see that?

Yes, it is. You got Mediabase, which— and BDS. Most of the major labels now just use Mediabase because they said BDS was charging too much money. But, uh, so you got Mediabase and BDS, which you can, uh What normally we do, one person hire us, we would take the record and get it encoded at both, in both places. And then if they don't have access to pull up the Mediabase or BDS report, we will send them a report each week so they can see exactly what their record is doing.

Gotcha, gotcha. And, and once you've built a relationship with an artist or an, or, you know, an indie label, um, that's worked with you a couple times, do you act as a resource for them? Like, can they send you music for feedback so that you can tell them, hey, this will never work at radio, or this might have a shot? Like, do you ever—

it happens all the time. Uh, matter of fact, uh, I just— I'm, uh, working with a guy out of Dallas right now, and they sent a couple of records, you know, because of course they have— might not— may not have been cleaned up good. And we have to know, you know, because radio is more about the hook and everything too of a record, because they could just call a research— they pull out color research, they don't send the whole record, they just send the hook of the song. Right. And if that's not coming back, I try to listen to see if the record got the perfect hook that people— you know, everybody like to sing along with records. I mean, I tell people, how many records you say that you hate and then all of a sudden you start to like the record because it got to rotating? And it's called radio programming. Yeah, they start— they're programming you. They're programming. Yes, you, you being programmed. Okay, you know, that's, that's now you're singing the song. Exactly. So, uh, that's, that, that's how that works out right there.

Beautiful, beautiful.

Okay.

Um, are there any questions that I didn't ask you that I should have about radio? Did I leave anything out that, that's crucial?

Um, you know, I can't think of anything, but guess what? I don't want it just to be my only time to come on. So thank you. So, so that'd be great. We could come back and ask to do this interview again and again and again. And because I'm really looking for the artists now And you think about it, artists just, just don't think you got to have radio to be successful. I mean, prime example, we just worked, uh, Chance the Rapper project last year. Chance is not signed with any major, right? But he hired, uh, um, rest in peace of my guy Mark Brown, who passed away, um, and, uh, my guy Lionel quarterbacked it. And we took that record and, uh, the record went number one without a major. So that's why people wonder why Chance won't go sign with a label right now. Why, why should he? I wouldn't. Yeah, he doesn't need it, you know. I mean, what's the percentage that you get from a major, Wendy Day?

That you can stay being after you recoup?

12% after you recoup. Wow. Yeah. Okay. When you can go out there and do 80, uh, you know, you get with a, uh, uh, somewhere like, I don't know if I should be selling a, uh, certain, uh, people out here, but get a distribution deal and get an 80/20 or something like that. And you keeping 80% of your profits. Exactly. So, so I think, you know, I'm glad there's people out there like yourself, dear. And then, uh, and me to be able to put this information out here for these, for the artists so they can learn the game.

Absolutely. You and I need to go on the road and do this. You know that, right?

Oh yeah, no, we talked about it. And I get, uh, when I get back to Atlanta, me, you, my guy, uh, Daniel, gonna sit down and plan this out.

Okay, let's talk about— I think, I think there's a need for it.

I'm with you.

Okay, thank you for your time. All right, safely. Thank you for pulling over to do this. I appreciate you so much, as you already know.

Hey, anything for you, babe.

Lester has saved my ass at radio so many times, it's not funny.

Thank you, love. I appreciate you. Hey, hey, hey, so, and you will save me, so don't worry about it. I know you return the favor. Absolutely. Okay, dear.

Thank you, love.

Bye-bye. Have a great day. All right, good weekend.

You too.

Bye-bye.

Bye, sweetie.