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Business Voices is the Juneau Chamber of Commerce podcast focused on the people, ideas, and decisions shaping Juneau’s economy.
Each episode features thoughtful conversations with local business owners, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who are working to build a stronger, more diverse, and more resilient business community.
This show reflects the Chamber’s larger mission: to support entrepreneurship, encourage responsible and sustainable development, improve the business climate, and help make Juneau a better place to work, live, shop, and invest.
Business Voices is a forum for insight, leadership, and shared perspective, connecting the people who care about Juneau’s economic future and the quality of life that makes this community worth building.
Welcome to Business Voices Juno, the podcast of the Juno Chamber of Commerce hosted by executive director Becca Parks. From entrepreneurship and leadership to growth, resilience, and innovation, this podcast podcast shines a light on the businesses and voices helping define Juno's economic future.
Speaker 2:Hey. And we are back for another week on Business Voices, and I am so excited to have on our host himself, Cliff Dumas from Alaska Media First. Thanks so much for joining.
Speaker 3:My pleasure. Thanks for inviting me.
Speaker 2:And similar, we had your wife on. Yes. And I said, you know, it's so I'll just take a back seat and let you guys run lead because you're a podcast expert.
Speaker 3:Well, okay.
Speaker 2:How long you've been in this business for a long time.
Speaker 3:In radio, forty years. Long time.
Speaker 2:Can you tell us about the start?
Speaker 3:Sure. I I was taking, graphic design in college, and, I was working at a downtown disco club in, Toronto, Canada. And this gentleman came in and said he worked for a local radio station. And I said, really? I I'd I'd be really interested in knowing what that's like.
Speaker 3:So I got a summer job working for the CBC, which is a Canadian network in Canada. And for whatever reasons, the the the experienced people, in the radio station took a liking to me and just, took me under the wing and taught me everything they knew and spent a couple summers doing that. And then I ended up getting a job in radio before I ever got a job in graphics, and I've been here ever since.
Speaker 2:Do you have a favorite position that you've ever held, or can you talk about the range of positions you've held?
Speaker 3:Wow. You know, I've been a bit I've been a host most of my life. So I've done morning shows in Toronto for decades and then San Diego for a very long time. I wrote television. I wrote 18 television series and and a bunch of music specials over the course of that time, produced them as well.
Speaker 3:I think my favorite thing to do, obviously, is host a radio show because it's such a personal connection to to the audience. And you get to be vulnerable and and share your stories and experience and entertain and, be a reflection of what's going on in the community. Everything else was an an extension of that because most of my background's in country music, so I spent a lot of most of my career there. So I wrote country television, wrote country music specials. I hosted country radio shows.
Speaker 3:So they all kind of fed off each other. So to me, it wasn't one job. It was it was many versions of the same job, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And you hosted a country music awards show. Did I am I remembering that right?
Speaker 3:I I I I wrote them. I hosted I've I've I've hosted various television shows in country music. I was on if anybody's old enough to remember Hee Haw, I was on I stood up in the cornfield of Hee Haw when I was in my twenties and told a couple of jokes with Gordie Tapp and wore the wore the overalls. I I'm I'm really kind of touch toning a few memories that only a very few select people
Speaker 2:Well, now more people know.
Speaker 3:Will probably remember, but I wrote television specials for Shania Twain and worked with Garth Brooks. I wrote a script for a lot of different people. That was a joy. That was so much fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah. How was that you know, you've obviously got a strong Canadian connection. Mhmm. I don't hear a strong Canadian accent.
Speaker 3:That took some work. So I was born and raised in Toronto and had, again, been in country music for so long. When the country station in Toronto was sold, it decided to change format. And, well, that was my expertise. That's where I had been.
Speaker 3:And some wonderful people in The United States said, would you consider coming to The States? So I went through all the process to become legal to work in the in The States. And and Lisa, my my bride of almost thirty years, the same thing. And I was offered a couple of jobs, which was exciting. One was in Chicago, which didn't quite work Mexico.
Speaker 3:So you can imagine this phone call because I remember coming back from Chicago. I landed in Toronto, and and I was on the phone with Lisa saying, well, it went pretty well, but I they seem to be in a bit of a mess, and I'm not sure I want to take that on. And on the way home, I got a phone call from a very famous consultant who I knew and who was wonderful and said, heard you're looking. Would you consider going to Albuquerque, New Mexico? And I thought, the only thing I know about Albuquerque is that's where Bugs Bunny turned right in in the cartoons.
Speaker 3:You have to watch the old shows. So I flew. They were lovely. They were willing to do all the immigration for us, which, you know, when we're doing this, was a lot easier than it was now. And we got our visas, and then eventually we became citizens, and our daughter was born in The United States.
Speaker 3:And and so I've been a US citizen for fifteen years now, and, been here ever since.
Speaker 2:But back up to the cooler weather.
Speaker 3:Back up to the you know what? I think Toronto, because we were across the lake from Buffalo, we had some winters. We had, you know, as much snow, if not more on a regular basis than we had here in Juneau this winter. And so I was used to it. And I gotta be honest with you.
Speaker 3:I love this weather. You know? I spent some time in Vancouver where my wife is from, and this is Vancouver weather. That's what I tell everybody. Yeah.
Speaker 3:We had a lot of snow, and we get some rain, but the weather doesn't bother me. You know? It's we put our we put our our raincoats on, and we don't wear out we we don't use umbrellas here. Those are all tourists when you see people with umbrellas. And you just get out and you, you know, walk the trails and have fun.
Speaker 2:And how long have you been in Juneau now?
Speaker 3:Well, that's an interesting question because if people have listened to this group of radio stations, I've probably been here ten years. So I started doing a morning show with the previous owners on Talku one zero five, and I did that for on and off for about eight years because they had listened to me at the radio station I was at in in California and liked the show and said, would you consider doing a remote show for us? Which I did. So in that, you know, close to a decade, I had never been to Juneau. Saw the pictures, talked to the people, interviewed, but I'd never actually been here.
Speaker 3:And then when the opportunity came up to participate in the sale of the radio stations, that's when we traveled to Juneau. And it was funny because I thought, I really gotta move up here because I wanna be part of this community. And I wasn't sure whether Lisa would be as excited as me to move this far after enjoying the sunshine like you mentioned. Yeah. And the first time she was here, we were walking around downtown, and she said, you know, I think we've gotta move here.
Speaker 3:I went, really? And so we've we've been here a little over three years going on four years now.
Speaker 2:Well, we're glad to have you. Thank you. And there's been a lot of change since you've moved here. Yeah. Especially with the radio station.
Speaker 2:Can you tell us a little bit about everything that's happened?
Speaker 3:Well, honestly, that's a Netflix special. Yeah. So it started out with with me as a very minor playing a very minor role in the purchase of the radio stations a number of years ago by a Canadian company. And, unfortunately, the individual and the company just there was a lot of fiscal mismanagement. They were weren't building a culture in the building that, I was happy with and and I wanted to be part of, honestly.
Speaker 3:It wasn't the legacy that I I thought I'd earned in the industry, and I I didn't like the way people were treated. And so the lucky part of that business arrangement, which takes a few beers and a lot much longer conversation that we have to get into, was the fact that legally, as a US citizen, I held the FCC licenses. That allowed me to then step in and take control of of the company when it became obvious that they were driving it off a cliff. And, by that point, that Canadian company was in receivership, and that was no reflection on the business. The radio stations have done very well and continue to do very well.
Speaker 3:So I sat down with Lisa, and we said, hey. Listen. You know, there's an opportunity here to, create some financing, put some financing together, and buy the Alaska radio stations and continue the journey that we've set forth for our family, which was move here and and be part of this community. And that's what we did. So we spent the last year, working with some wonderful local people, local banks, and saying this is the vision for the radio stations.
Speaker 3:Here's where we wanna go. We're embedded in this community. Lisa's on the Symphony Board. I'm part of Rotary. We it's just it it became I think we became a bigger part of this community than we ever have in any city that we've, lived in, including, my hometown.
Speaker 3:So at that point, it was, a little touch and go, wondering whether it was gonna work out. And, luckily, I had some great guidance and some wonderful people, and and we put it all together. That was approved in December of last year. And then we went through the FCC approval process that, you know, in government, nothing moves quickly. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And literally received, you know, kind of a verbal from them months ago. We were ready to close on this three months ago, but had to wait for the final, FCC approval, which literally happened, you know, about a month ago. And, during the this entire process, we've been building this new, media center. And the transaction just closed, so we are officially Alaska First Media. The staff is thrilled.
Speaker 3:We have the same staff in place now for a year, and, that's that's been a lovely experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I,
Speaker 3:yeah,
Speaker 2:I love how much you talk about community, and I do think the radio has such an important role in that, and especially in Alaska, I think radio has a different role than it has in a lot of other communities. But just in terms of your staff talking about that shift in work culture, how do you do that? What are your sort of values and priorities for being the manager here?
Speaker 3:It's a great question. I think that, I choose to lead the way I've been lucky enough to be led, and that is through, mentorship and inspiration and kindness. And I think that that only happens with, especially, this group of people or I think any any organization with time when they can learn that they can trust you. And I think we've I hope, anyway, that I've done a good job in establishing that. I I want the place that people come to work to feel safe and to feel nurturing and to be a fun place to work.
Speaker 3:Radio is fun. This is a great job. We get to serve the community. And I keep telling people whenever they say, what's the experience like, being in Juno? For me, this is like stepping back twenty years in the importance and power of radio, because to your point, absolutely is.
Speaker 3:You know, when we do an event or a live broadcast or or news of the North talks about something that's going on, this community reacts. And I get questions all the time. Well, isn't radio, isn't the attrition of the audience, going away? Are aren't people tuning into Spotify and Pandora? And the opposite is true.
Speaker 3:And I think that that's probably maybe the biggest issue radio has right now is perception. The perception is that people aren't listening as much, but the opposite is completely the the opposite is true. So if you look at just the statistics and me talking about a passionate radio peep person, I believe it. Because it's it's not just me cherry picking the best results from a research firm. It's every research firm out there that does this.
Speaker 3:And 86%, of the available audience listening to audio listens to radio. 92% of the American public listen to radio every single week, and that number has not moved in a decade. Maybe one or 2%, sure, because like anything, there's there's other opportunities. I have a Spotify account. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know? I watch YouTube. There are other options up there. And I think the the greatest service that we can be to the community is to be more community focused, because you can get music that you wanna hear if that's all you wanna hear from anywhere. You know, you can't get what's happening in Auk Bay or Glacier Outburst Flood or what's happening at the assembly anywhere else but here.
Speaker 2:Well, and for me, I mean, that's really been the shift, especially as TV and other media has become more about streaming, has become more about these sort of personalized streams of information, radio still feels like that community stream of information where we're all sharing those same inputs, which I do, I think, is really important for us to be on the same page about things that are happening with everything that's happening with the assembly now, with the glacial outburst flooding, and with our business community. And when there's an opening, when there's a celebration of some sort, it's it's hard to get word out because people are so segmented in what they can view.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think that you know, when you look at this community and there's six radio stations here. So KINY that's been around for ninety years and the, the legacy shows have been part of, this radio station, Problem Corner, Capital Chat, the various sports broadcasts that we do. And then you have Mix one zero six, which is a younger demographic and popular music, and Angel Montgomery, who's been such a big part of this radio community for a decade. She literally grew up here.
Speaker 3:Talk to 105, which is country, KXJ, which is rock, the Hawk, which is, sports, and KJNO, which is conservative talk. So there's literally something for everybody on the radio here, which is pretty exciting. I mean, as I look past you out the window, I'm looking at all the radio stations, which is I can't tell you how how much of a thrill that is.
Speaker 2:And I have to say the new the new space is amazing for folks that haven't come out here. I encourage you to just I'm I'm inviting you into CLiff's space.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yes.
Speaker 2:But in terms of building that, internal workforce community, there's an area for the kids to play, there's sometimes dogs around. There's really great central shared space in addition to those stations. So it is you can feel what you're trying to create around here,
Speaker 3:I think. Good. Good.
Speaker 2:I'm curious with that too, what what do you think's next? You've you've moved into a new space. Mhmm. The purchase is final.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Where do you see Juno Radio in five years, ten years?
Speaker 3:Thriving and evolving. And I'll tell you why. Because, part of the move here and what will continue to be and and what has been important to me over the last year during this transition is updating every piece of equipment in this building. If you can imagine, some of this stuff probably hasn't been updated for twenty or thirty years prior to this move. So in this building, it's all state of the art, and we continue to, you know, change and evolve the various radio component components at the at the three transmitter sites that we have here.
Speaker 3:So one is on Heiselman's Ridge, which is challenging because if it's snowing, you can't get there, because that's that's a helicopter ride up there. The old place that we used to exist at Channel Drive, we continue to use that tower in the building behind, and we have another tower on Douglas. So those three entities are what allow us to broadcast. And you can imagine the complexity of the equipment that has to go and work successfully between those three locations all the time, complicated by if there's a power outage, if cable goes out, all of those things that we're trying to mitigate. But the the best, insurance, I think, against that is to make sure that we're we're upgrading to the latest, technology.
Speaker 3:And and to your point, yeah, it's a lovely space. And you look around, all of the stuff is brand new. And continuing to reinvest in this media center and the equipment that allow us to thrive and evolve over the next five or six years is gonna be really important. Plus, we're integrating a whole unique digital strategy that we implemented just this year that has been probably in the a year in the works, which we call true geo. And when you get into digital advertising, I think, for me, anyway, my eyes roll back in my head.
Speaker 3:And if I see another banner ad, I'm gonna kill somebody. But what we wanna do is how do we put an ad campaign or technology together that's gonna help downtown business at a price point that's makes makes sense? Because not everybody can afford broadcast, but we wanna make it affordable. And if you're choosing to advertise with us, we wanna do everything possible to make sure that advertising campaign works. The digital component is is something that we want to do that augments broadcast because broadcast is the trust factor.
Speaker 3:Digital can create awareness when it's done correctly. So what we've done is use technology to map all of the cruise destinations all the way up to, Juno that allows us to deliver a digital ad to a a to a traveler for a client in each of these markets on their journey. So we actually capture their device at the point of departure, and we can deliver an ad during their entire adventure all the way up here if they're on Instagram or Facebook or Googling something, which is powerful. And we can do it at a price point that really makes sense. And I'll tell you the since we launched this, I think, at the chamber when I had this conversation, recently, we've probably had a dozen people sign up for it.
Speaker 3:And now it's expanded into because people are hearing about it. Well, can you do that for the local businesses? Yes. Of course, we can. But I I didn't wanna hit people with a fire hose.
Speaker 3:I wanted to do something simple, easy to understand, and effective at a price point that makes sense. So I'm excited because I come from content, first of all. I'm not a sales guy. I I believe in the product. And if we can do interesting and compelling content and package that in a way that works for local businesses that helps them thrive, then we've done our job.
Speaker 2:And how do you stay knowledgeable? I mean, you said you're a content guy. How do you come up with this idea to do Trujillo and that that kind of next step for the business?
Speaker 3:I read a lot. I see what's happening in the industry, and I've been part of the industry long enough to see it try to adapt the digital footprint, unsuccessfully in most cases because they feel that, broadcast for the most part, well, we have to be in digital. What does that mean? And instead of really doing something thoughtful and picking the right product, I think that what they've done is they've cannibalized their core asset, which is advertising on on the radio. And then you complicate your sales staff by kind of taking their focus on that that core product away because now they have to sell a digital project product that they don't understand.
Speaker 3:And we've tried that a couple of times, and I've seen it happen over and over again with all the big companies. And there's a few of them doing it really well, and I'm looking to I have no problem copying something that's successful. So emulating companies that have done this right has certainly been something that we've tried to integrate here and then do it so it's very specific and is customized for for Juneau in Southeast Alaska because we'll we'll do this instead can catch again as well.
Speaker 2:It's just so interesting to me. And the variety of positions then that you're looking to fill on people that can really understand this kind of outreach for your strategy going forward, sales, online personalities? What's your recruitment like?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I I think immediately we're looking to grow our our news footprint, because News of the North has such a great reputation. And being the news source for Southeast Alaska, I take very seriously. And I think our our small team does a great job. There's always been kind of a small team here, and there's been some some legends that have worked in this radio building. And we wanna continue that legacy.
Speaker 3:So looking to augment that not only here, but in Ketchikanu. We're talking to people right now, which is exciting. Increasing our sales staff here is something we wanna do. I can tell you one project that's really near and dear to my heart, and I've talked to some of the native corporations about that opportunity, is creating an indigenous radio station, which has been done successfully in other markets, which I would love to be able to do here. And so we're having those conversations.
Speaker 3:And in fact, when you visit us and you're on your way out, there's a empty studio that is not built yet with the intention of, hopefully, one day, it will be a a station that represents our communities here in Southeast.
Speaker 2:Oh, that is great. That's a really exciting addition. And with that, what does it take, like, for people that might be interested? They hear that. They think, I wanna be a news reporter.
Speaker 3:Contact me. I'm easy to get ahold of. My email is cDumas@AlaskaFirstMedia.com. You can go to any of the radio station's websites, and there's a contact form there. The I'd give you our phone number, but I don't think it's working yet.
Speaker 2:Nobody uses phones anymore anyway.
Speaker 3:It's that's been the fun part. We we obviously are using a different phone company. It's taken eight weeks, and we're we're still without phones for for a couple of our shows, which are like, really? Okay. So we can do a text line then.
Speaker 3:That's that's that seems to be operating. But, hopefully, by the time this show airs, we have phones. My fingers are crossed. But, yeah, get ahold of me, and and I'd love to talk to you about it and and the journey and what a great environment this is to work and a great career too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well and thinking about those experiences, I had the chance to ask your wife this because you both have had such an exciting past in the radio business. Do you have a favorite interview that you think back to or just one that you were?
Speaker 3:Well, yes. I would immediately say Garth Brooks, only because he was such a gifted interviewee. Like you, I mean, it's so easy to talk to you. You have a conversation, everything flows. I I probably remember more challenging interviews than I do the good ones because those are sometimes it's just like pulling teeth.
Speaker 3:But I think over the course of both of our careers, and and Lisa's a a a much better interviewer than I am, it's it's a wonderful place to be able to celebrate arts, which is another thing I think we wanna do here, which is celebrate local, local musicians. We launched a campaign called Southeast Sounds, where we are playing local musicians and and inspiring them to contact and send us their music. I think one of the biggest challenges for musicians today, and it has been for decades, is how do I get my local record played on my local radio station? And because those music formats were either run by a consultant somewhere or that they were in competitive market and wouldn't play an artist unless they had a signed deal, all a bunch of BS. It's like, I wanna be playing Taylor Viddich.
Speaker 3:I wanna be playing the local artists that are playing in this community, and that's what we've started. And that that's probably more important to me than than anything from a musical standpoint is ensuring that these radio stations supply a platform and a stage for our local talent.
Speaker 2:And we have so much talent here.
Speaker 3:I know. It's amazing. Juno Symphony. I mean, look at the look at the musicianship and artists that we have here. Kesheken has a rich musical culture there as well.
Speaker 3:And, yeah, we we have some great talent here.
Speaker 2:So now we'll flip it to local then.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:If you can pick anybody who you're gonna bring on and get to do an interview with, is there anybody out there in Juneau that maybe you haven't talked to yet that you want to?
Speaker 3:What a great question. Who I hadn't talked to yet? I I
Speaker 2:Or that you wanna talk to again.
Speaker 3:Taylor was a great interview. I wanna have her back again. We debuted her album and kind of walked through all of the songs on that album. I'd love to have her come in and perform live, which she did at Christmas time last year. That was fantastic.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I I want to have more of the local businesses on to talk about some of the stories, kind of like you're what you're doing here. I think that this is a great platform to be able to celebrate, Eric at the Red Dog and all the folks who have been embedded in this community. Carl at the docks. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, it's it's those are the people that make this this city tick, and those are the the voices that I'd like to have more on on KINY.
Speaker 2:Alright. Well, we'll reach out to folks, and hopefully, I get to talk to you again soon.
Speaker 3:Love to.
Speaker 2:But, again, this is Business Voices and Cliff Demoss from Alaska Alaska First Media, Alaska Media First. I'm gonna mix it Alaska
Speaker 3:First media, but you can say the Juno Media Center. You should be k KINY, all of the radio stations. Everybody knows the radio stations. That's that's all I can do.
Speaker 2:Well, and everyone will know Cliff and Lisa.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 2:Thank you. And thanks again.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Business Voices Juno. Subscribe everywhere you listen to your favorite broadcast. Share the episode and learn more about the Juno Chamber of Commerce at junochamber.com.