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Adapt or Fade: Corey Dylan's 7 Takes on Radio Resilience
Episode 193 • 13th December 2023 • Brandwidth On Demand • David Martin & Kipper McGee
00:00:00 00:16:09

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Corey Dylan, the morning host of 100.7 Big FM in San Diego, Corey discusses her passion for radio, her career journey, and the importance of embracing new technologies like AI in the industry.

She emphasizes the need to adapt to changes, learn about AI, and use it to enhance rather than replace human creativity. Corey also shares advice she received from George Clooney and Bryan Cranston about approaching auditions with confidence and viewing them as an opportunity to solve the employer's problems.

Overall, the conversation highlights Corey's commitment to community engagement, personal branding, and staying relevant in the evolving media landscape.

Her insights offer valuable lessons for aspiring radio professionals, emphasizing authenticity, community engagement, and adaptability as key pillars in radio success.

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Corey:

Radio has a lot of problems right now, but if you can be the

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answer to any one of them, you have

to realize you're not there to get

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a job, you're there to do a job.

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And so when you are in that interview,

you have to be entertaining whoever

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is in front of you and showing them

you're, again, the answer to their

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problem, you're entertaining, you are

the person that they need to hire.

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VO: Welcome to BRANDwidth On Demand,

your guide to rebooting radio.

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Corey: Radio is not going to be

replaced by AI necessarily, but

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the people who use AI are going

to replace the people who don't.

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VO: BRANDwidth On Demand,.

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Rebooting radio with a different

take on all radio can be.

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Now your guides through the

mediamorphosis, David Martin, and

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author of the book, BRANDwidth,

Media Branding Coach, Kipper McGee.

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Dave: Our guest was born in the Motor

City, raised in the Emerald City,

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and flown her way around the world

in search of interesting people, good

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times, and great things to share.

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She spent the last two decades

at stations like Tampa Bay's 101.

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5 The Point, News Talk

970 WFLA, and Mix 100.

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7, where she doubled the

ratings in just over a year.

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She's amazing.

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Along with hosting radio.

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And voiceover work, she also squeezed in

time for occasional appearances, including

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selling cool tech gadgets on HSN.

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Ha!

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In Atlanta, she co hosted mornings

for legendary Kix:

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them through the station's

transition to New Country:

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Now, a long time after her early

days at KZOK Seattle, she's

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back home on the left coast.

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Her personal motto is never turn down

an adventure and she's always working

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hard on the next big thing She just

got through hosting the first ever

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annual women's brunch at the morning

show boot camp in Dallas It was a

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smash BRANDwidth On Demand, is proud

to welcome the morning host of 100.

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7 big FM in San Diego the

one and only Corey Dylan.

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Corey: Thank you guys.

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Thank you

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Kipper: We are so glad to have you So

thinking about your life in media, if

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you were to pick the one thing that

really gets you going, what would it be?

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Corey: Gets me going like, I don't know.

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I just really love this business and it,

it just fires me up to see people losing

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jobs or losing love for our business too.

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Um, just in this ever changing time.

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Right.

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I really want to try to, I don't

know, encourage people and get

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them excited about radio again.

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And I mean, everybody, because I think

what a rising tide lifts all boats, right?

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So if, if I succeed, I mean,

there's hope for somebody else.

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And if they succeed, hopefully

there's, you know, a future for me too.

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Well, Corey, you've

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Dave: done so much and accomplished

a whole bunch, both on the

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air and in your communities.

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And you know, one thing that really

sets you apart is how you embrace local

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charities and causes while creating

exposure for your personal brand.

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Can you tell us about how you

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Corey: do that?

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Well, I, you know, I just offer up myself

for free to help people because I think

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that's honestly the way I was raised.

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I was raised in Catholic

parochial schools.

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My parents are both devout

Catholics and it was always about

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giving back to your community.

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And so I think that's one part

about radio that has been a little

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bit lost in all the, you know,

consolidation and buying and selling

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and bankruptcies and things like that.

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It's like, what was the

goal really to inform?

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Embrace and, you know, give

back to your community.

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That's

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Kipper: right.

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A little reference about serving in the

public interest is not always as full

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as it should be for many, but beyond

the community events and on location

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stuff, what's your philosophy on creating

the brand Corey Dillon, both on air

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and online, and how do you keep that

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Corey: fresh?

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You know, I think, I think it was

Dolly Parton who said, figure out who

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you are and then do it on purpose.

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Right?

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I mean, you really have to know

who you are and You know, I

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struggled with that idea of a,

what is my brand for a long time?

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And I think it was, uh, Gary Vee.

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I don't even know, Gary Vee is

kind of a brand guru, I think,

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for millennials and beyond.

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He said, your brand is

your reputation, right?

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And so that kind of

crystallized it for me.

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I thought, well, okay, I'm just

going to kind of be me on purpose.

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And I think when you're in the right job.

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And the right situation,

they embrace you back, right?

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And just let you go and let you

be who you are because I've been

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this way for a really long time

and not much is going to change.

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I think that's the same for all of us.

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So I just, I just do things

that I naturally want to do.

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And I probably, as far as

reinforcing the brand, I really just.

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I do them publicly, you know, whether

it's during the pandemic, I started a

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cocktail and then a cooking show too,

in part because I was trapped in my

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apartment alone, you know, you couldn't

go anywhere, you couldn't see anyone, you

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couldn't do anything and I still wanted

that connection with people and so I just

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started doing things on Facebook live and

it's something that I'm still doing now.

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Dave: Well, Corey, being back on the

West Coast in America's finest city,

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what opportunities are you finding

to connect with your audience and

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perhaps help them see the market

through the eyes of a visitor?

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Corey: You know, I mean, that's,

that's all about just getting out

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there and exploring again, right.

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You know, vacationing in your own

hometown, which is, it's so easy to

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do in Southern California because the

weather is 99 percent of the time.

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And, um, and the way that I think that you

can grow your brand when you're trying to

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do it in a new city or a city new to you

is to show them how you can sort of, um,

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I don't know, show the world what you're

doing and where you're doing it, you

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know, whether that's on social media, when

we have things like a tropical storm or

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hurricane coming to Southern California,

which was the first in forever.

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I actually played it safe, but I did

make a video because I've got lots of

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experience living in Florida for 17

years of how to throw a hurricane party.

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So I made a video for Tik TOK and

Instagram and Facebook and just

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showed people, here's the do's and

don'ts about having a hurricane party.

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It's just kind of taking what you know.

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And then if I was to be out there,

I had a neighbor who did go out to

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the water and he's like, Oh, I saw

a couple of people out here, but

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they were chased off the beach by.

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The, uh, lifeguards and coast guard and

things like that, because we weren't

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supposed to be out on the beach.

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But if I'd gotten any video, if

I'd gone with him, I probably

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would have tried to sell it.

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People are doing that, you know, because

it's Gosh, I heard about some guy

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that this is like his full time job.

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He, and it might be actually a

group of people, they get video

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of things in different communities

before the news reporters get

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there, before the police get there.

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They just listen to scanners.

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And they take video and they sell it back

to the TV stations who may or may not, you

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know, I need to remember what that website

is because I want to check that out.

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And

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Kipper: speaking of all things

digital and beyond just radio with

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change happening faster and faster.

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I mean, Meta's got threads, Twitter

becomes X and all sorts of ways now

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to get audio and visual content.

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Yeah.

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How does already a

person like you keep up?

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What kind of things do you want

to learn now to be ready to

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be a leading personality in?

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The media world of the

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Corey: future.

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Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong.

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There are days I hope

that it all implodes.

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You know, whether it's TikTok,

the Chinese owning it, operating

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it, despite what they say.

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You know, it's just like,

Oh God, another platform.

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And frankly, who knows how long.

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Any of them is going to be around, because

like you said, things change so quickly.

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At first, Threads was the fastest

growing social platform, and

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now the engagement is terrible.

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I go on infrequently,

like anybody, if at all.

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But one thing I tell people, and there is

a lot of fight and pushback, is you have

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to learn to make AI your friend, right?

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And it's, the threshold is so, I

think the bar is so low right now,

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because it's new to everybody.

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Even though, predictive AI has

been around for at least 10 years

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or more with Google working on it.

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Now, everybody's in on the game, right?

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And, generative AI is the catchphrase,

even though, again, people are

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fighting it like it's brand new.

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It's, it's not brand new.

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It's just that it's learning to

think for itself, you know, with all

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the information that you feed it.

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So, I just think, unless you are, Going

to embrace this as the new technology.

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I mean, you would sound like an old

fart, like, Oh, I'm not playing CDs.

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I'm not going to play music videos.

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You know, everything is just so negative.

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And I, I just think.

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The best thing that you could do

is take any of these free courses.

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I mean, LinkedIn, Coursera, edX.

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There are so many free courses

that will just sort of introduce

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you to the basic concepts.

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And from there, you can actually

get certified, a certification.

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Like I actually bought one for 45.

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I didn't buy one.

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I bought the class that I could

get certified in for 40 on edX.

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I have not yet taken the class.

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I've just been listening to a

LinkedIn free course kind of in

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my free time or on long drives.

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Um, I'm just trying to learn how I

could use it rather than have it use me.

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And as other people have said before

me on different radio groups, like

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radio peeps and whatnot, radio is not

going to be replaced by AI necessarily.

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But the people who use AI are going

to replace the people who don't.

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So I intend to be one of those

people that sticks around because.

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I'm not gonna just pooh pooh it and turn

my back on something that, frankly, none

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of us really has a huge grasp on, so.

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Kipper: That's a great line about

using it rather than letting it use

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Corey: you.

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Yeah.

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I mean, that's what's gonna happen.

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We don't know with Ashley AI because there

hasn't been total transparency about that.

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Like, has she compensated extra?

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She said that she could tell them

to stop using it when she wanted to,

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but I, we don't know the actual facts

contractually or otherwise, but I know

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that in the voiceover world, there

is already an uproar to, I mean, and

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this is why the actor's strike and the

writer's strike, particularly for us

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right now, the actor's strike is so

important because That's one thing that

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they are standing their ground on is the

use of AI with their likeness and their

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voice and performance and deep fakes.

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I mean, it can be done

very easily these days.

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So what protection do we have?

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And I mean, the best way to

learn how to protect yourself is

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to learn a little bit about it.

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Otherwise you don't know

what questions to ask.

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Great

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Dave: point.

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Our guest is Corey Dillon from Big 100.

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7 San Diego.

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Hey, somebody you'd love to hear from,

we'd love to hear your suggestions.

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Email us show at brandwithondemand.

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com or reach out to us on social.

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Brandwith Plus on Insta,

Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.

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Wherever you look, it's brandwithplus.

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com.

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Plus P L U S brand with plus,

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Kipper: and if you haven't,

feel free to check out our back

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catalog of previous guests.

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We got top media thought leaders,

PDs, managers, and big air talent.

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Like twin city, like twin cities, legend

KVWB is Dave Ryan, Andy Summers from

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92, five XTU in Philly, Seattle legends.

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BJ and Megs from KISW and so

many, many more all in the feed.

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Dave: Coming up, Corey Dillon shares

some advice you don't want to miss.

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VO: Musicmaster, less stress, more yes.

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Hey, this is Dave Tyler.

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And maybe it's just me, but I love

uptempo songs coming out of the

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legal ID at the top of the hour,

as well as out of my stop sets.

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S[pt: It's kind of like saying, all

right, we're done with business.

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Let's get back to the party.

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To do this, I use clock filters in these.

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Positions that only choose

medium up or uptempo songs.

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Sounds great every time.

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And it's easy to set up.

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If you have any questions, just shoot

me an email at Dave at musicmaster.

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com.

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Musicmaster.

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Music scheduling the way it should be.

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Kipper: Hey there Kipper here and

ready or not, holidays are here.

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So one way you can help out your

listeners and your bottom line is with.

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Radio Swag Shop.

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You just give them some cool

holiday artwork, pick your

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items, they do the rest.

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They'll do the sales website, they

handle the fulfillment, the transaction.

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All your station has to do is

sit back and reap the reward.

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Radio Swag Shop.

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Easy!

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Just follow the link in the show

notes or go to radioswagshop.com

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and be sure to use the coupon

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code KIPPER.

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That's RadioSwagShop, coupon KIPPER.

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Your listeners and your

station's holiday budget.

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Will, thank you.

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VO: Exploring media

evolution in real time.

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BRANDwidth On Demand,

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Dave: we're with Corey

Dylan, the star of Big 100.

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7 in San Diego.

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Corey, what's the best

advice you were ever given?

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Corey: Save your money.

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You work in radio.

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Dave: And conversely, if you could give

one piece of advice to others in the

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industry, what would that advice be?

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Corey: You know, there's a couple

of different quotes, actually.

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One was from George Clooney and one was

from the other actor, Brian Cranston.

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And when I was unemployed for two years

and seven months, these quotes both

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helped me just kind of overcome adversity

and just reframe my perspective, right?

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The one from George Clooney was.

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You're as far as auditions went,

which for us would be an interview.

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Right.

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And he said, I had to stop

going to auditions thinking,

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gee, I hope they like me.

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And I had to go in thinking I

was the answer to their problem.

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I mean, radio has a lot of problems

right now, but if you can be the

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answer to any one of them and help them

figure out how to get ratings, how to.

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Draw an audience, whether that's

using your social media or whatever,

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that's what they're desperate for.

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And the other one was from Brian

Cranston from Breaking Bad.

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And he said, it's a subtle difference, but

he said 35 years ago or so, this really

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helped the trajectory of his career.

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He said, when going to an

audition, you have to realize

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you're not there to get a job.

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You're there to do a job.

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And so when you are in that interview.

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You have to be entertaining whoever

is in front of you and showing them

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you're, again, the answer to their

problem, you're entertaining, you

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are the person that they need to hire

because you've got The knowledge and

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the skills and you're entertaining,

you know, to be on the radio.

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Dave: It's great advice.

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Kipper: Yeah.

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Corey: Thank you.

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Great advice.

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Wish I'd heard it myself 20 years ago.

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Dave: The star of San Diego

radio, Corey Dylan from B 100.

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7.

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We have links to her complete

bio, her social links and

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more all in the show notes.

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Just scroll down on your phone

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Kipper: As always.

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We want to thank our exec producer,

Cindy Huber, and associate

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producer, Hannah B, for booking.

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And boy, has she been busy.

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Coming up, a top rated multi award

winning morning host, a look at the year

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in music trends past and what's ahead

for 24, and an expert on linear sound.

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How to grow your TSL, whether

on -air, online or on-demand.

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That's all coming up.

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Dave: That's a wrap.

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Kipper.

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Holidays.

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Yeah, they're important.

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We think about a lot and that's

what we'll be thinking about in

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the next One Minute Martinizing.

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Find it in the show notes

at BRANDwidthOnDemand,.com.

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I'm Dave Martin.

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Kipper: And I'm Kipper McGee.

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May all your BRANDwidth be wide.

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