Industry 101 Ryan Cameron Words by Maurice G. Garland
For the last 17 years, Atlantans have partied, woke up, worked and drove home to the tune of Ryan Cameron’s voice. The flagship personality on Atlanta’s V-103 probably has a bigger presence than the mayor and police chief combined. People have grew up listening to him for years, defining everyday of their life from their first day of school to their first child. OZONE caught up with the “Ryan King” to have him talk about his beginnings and trials in radio as well as his extensive community outreach. Where are you from and how did you wind up in broadcasting? I’m from Atlanta. I’m from Bankhead. Back when I was a kid, I had a speech impediment and I had to go to Clark Atlanta University, where they had a class which basically was Hooked on Phonics is now. They played the results on the radio on Clark radio station and when we heard that on the radio I was sitting in my grandaddy’s living room with the headphones on. From that day forward I knew I wanted to be on the radio You got started as an intern, right? Yeah, I did college radio at West Georgia College and then got an internship at V-103 in 1990. I was at the station every day and people kept getting fired. I was always ready to step in, part time or whatever and then finally in ‘91 I got my shot doing nights. I left and went to WKYS in D.C. for about a year, and then I came back [to Atlanta] in ‘96 working at what was Hot 97.5 which turned in to 107.9. I worked there for 9 years doing the morning show, left and came back to V-103 in ’05. How was your first stint at V-103? Back then you could only play rap music after 6 PM, and since we were on from 10 to midnight every Friday, we had the industry on lock. I had a 40 share at night, which was like beyond belief, we had all the white kids and black kids listening to V because that was the only time they could hear rap music. When I left Greg Street came in and became such a world wide phenomenon known for breaking music they had to open up the playlist.. Why did you leave V103 for D.C.? It seemed abrupt. 74 // OZONE MAG
It was an opportunity to do more than drive time for me. Back then all the real, real big money was [doing morning shows] like the Donny Simpsons and the Tom Joyners. DC at the time was market number 4 or 5. So if you’re going to go somewhere then you might as well try out DC. When Radio One decided they wanted to try to bring me back to Atlanta, who wouldn’t want to come home? On your show you do more than just play music. You talk about community issues as well. Why? We call it “edutainment.” I compare myself to what I watch on the local news, then I watch the Entertainment Tonights and the TMZs. I try to have one of those elements in my show every day. If there’s something going on in the city, like when the older woman got killed by the police, we can talk about that. Then on a national level we can talk about things like Sean Bell or the Jena 6. You try to do something that’s entertaining but at the same time you want people to thinking about what you’re saying, or getting mad and calling in [to the station] with their own opinion. How do you feel about free speech on the radio? You have one extreme like Howard Stern, and then you have another like Don Imus. I listen to XM Radio but the only thing they can do is curse. It ain’t like it’s anymore free’er [than traditional radio]. If you can walk the line and not cross it, you can still say whatever. I’ve got a brush, I’m painting the pictures, and it’s up to you what color you see. I just say what I think. It’s all about the people’s opinions, I’m just trying to make people think, and understand that we’re here for the long run. What affect do you think satellite radio has had on terrestrial radio? A lot of people thought it would die out. Everybody’s always afraid. That’s what they thought about web streaming, That’s what they thought about CDs. But people don’t want to pay for something that they can get for free. Satellite is great but who wants to pay for something that you can get for free? If you listen to XM Radio and a tornado is coming down Peachtree, you ain’t going to know about it.
Tell us about the community outreach you’ve been doing through your Ryan Cameron Foundation. I was doing charitable fundraisers before I was on the air full time. We started off doing the Celebrity Bowling event, guaranteeing people $5,000 a year [would be given to charity] no matter how much money we made. In 2001 there was a big scandal with a major charitable organization and people kept saying, “How do we know that the money is going where we want it to go?” The easiest way to do it is to have a foundation. Now, everybody’s got a foundation. Our foundation is publicly funded so I can’t use your donation to help somebody that needs a wheelchair. I can help other foundations. We have kids on scholarships that are majoring in broadcasting or entertainment. We give out 5 to 10 grants a year to other 501C3 organizations. In the summer my leadership academy brings in kids from partnership high schools and when they graduate they get a laptop and $4,000. To get that check every fall, they have to come back and work in the summertime. It ain’t just like you get the money and run. We try to make people continue to give back. We’re doing a partnership with AETNA, a diabetes initiative were we’re going out with overweight kids, talking about how great it is to have a healthy lifestyle. We’re seeing a lot of juvenile diabetes cases so we got a whole health initiative were going to kick off in the fall. People are starting to recognize me more for my community stuff then my radio thing. How does it make you feel? That’s perfect, because after the radio is gone I want to still be able to do my community stuff based on my brand. When you got Nike calling you from Miami saying, “We heard you’re doing big things. Let’s get together,” that’s big. Back in the day we couldn’t do that kind of stuff because people wanted to go anti-rap. Now, corporate sponsorships are major in putting these events on. Even when I do the Father-Daughter dance I didn’t want to start off in the Embassy Suites. We started off at the Ritz Carlton. I want black people, white people, whoever to feel like it’s a prom for the fathers and their daughters. They build a relationship so the daughters can see how a man is supposed to treat them. //