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SMRN
People: Jay
Mitchell
 Jay Mitchell is the
Publisher & Editor of Small Market Radio Newsletter. The son of Midwest radio
station group owner Jim Mitchell (no relation to Frosty), Jay began his career at age
11, writing and producing commercials for a Cedar Rapids, IA station, KPIG (now KMRY).
When Jay's family moved to Boise, ID, he did the evening shift at KFXD, Nampa, and pioneered
Top 40 radio in that part of the country.
After a series of board-op jobs while attending
Columbia University in New York, Jay was fortunate to work for the legendary Rick Sklar at
the legendary WABC in that city; it was from Rick that Jay developed his knowledge of and
passion for radio programming. "Basically I learned three things from Rick," Jay
recalls. "First, 'You don't get hurt by what you don't play.' Second, keep it
simple. And third, Rick had a game plan for every contingency; he was always several
moves ahead of his competitors."
Wanting to get back on the air, Jay went to work
for Marty Beck at the Beck-Ross AM station on Long Island, WGLI (now gone). He worked
himself up from nighttime announcer to assistant program director. At the age of 23, he
was tapped to manage Beck-Ross's new Long Island FM, WBLI. Within six months the Top 40
station was #1, where it remained for several years. "Making me the manager was an
accident of title, since it was basically an operations job at the time," Jay says.
"But Marty Beck allowed me to grow into the job."
After four years at the helm of WBLI, Beck-Ross
transferred Jay to their new acquisition in Hartford, CT, WHCN, as general manager. There
history repeated itself and the "hippy-dippy" progressive rocker turned into a
polished album rock outlet that enjoyed a #1-#2 status for many years.
Then Jay decided to start his own consulting
company. When he did, two of his first clients were small market operations. "Until
that point I'd had very little experience with small, unrated markets," Jay says.
"I quickly learned there is a vast difference between small market and large market
stations -- in large markets they play a numbers game, selling statistics to ad agencies;
in small markets we talk to real listeners and real advertisers every day."
Jay's consulting business, Jay Mitchell
Associates, continues to this day, with an eclectic mix of clients and formats, from the
smallest unrated markets to industry giants like KIIS, Los Angeles, CA and KHKS, Dallas,
TX. "I enjoy both sides of the business," Jay says, "but nowadays I must
confess I like working with small market stations better. Everything is more real."
In the early Nineties, Jay was approached by
Bob
Doll, who had become a "convention buddy" over the years. Bob was thinking about
retiring and wanted to leave his newsletter in good hands. So, in May of 1993, publication
of Small Market Radio Newsletter moved from Seguin, TX to Fairfield, IA. "For
about the first year, I was scared to death of screwing it up," Jay remembers.
"Bob has a unique outlook on the industry - real wisdom - and I knew I couldn't
duplicate that. I just had to try to do a good job every week, and over time the voice of
the newsletter would change - it would be different, but hopefully not worse."
A year after starting the newsletter, opportunity
knocked once again: a broker friend called to tell Jay that the local Fairfield radio
stations were for sale. Jay rounded up five other local businessmen and together they
formed Fairfield Media Group, Inc. to purchase
KMCD & KIIK, Fairfield, and later KBIZ & KTWA in nearby Ottumwa. (The
company sold the Ottumwa stations in 1995 and the Fairfield stations in
2007.)
Jay lives in Southern California with
his wife, Sharon.
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