Hey there. Molly Jameson, host of Acoustic Café, Bluegrass, Blues, Eclectic, Folk, Shuffle and Women In Rock (*whew!*) here to tell you a bit about me and how I got to RadioIO.

First off, I’ve spent a good chunk of my life in and around the music industry in NYC; running promotions for record labels, being an on-air host and music director for radio, and prior to my current home here at radioIO, shilling away in the corporate media world, programming music channels for audio & video, managing staff and project managing digital operations and software development.

I live in Brooklyn, NY with my hubby, Dan (also in radio, a computer geek and an amazing cook). A typical night in our domesticated life is no longer about hitting the town, seeing umpteen bands a night and crashing at the crack of dawn. We're too mature (read: old) for that stuff (not to mention been there-done that). Instead, we do lots of cooking (I'm the sous chef to his chef), watch movies (I love political espionage/mob/documentaries; Dan's a sci-fi fanatic), we're just now getting into The Wire, and listen to a lot of music. Much of our collection has been put into books, since NYC real estate does not afford us much luxury of space. By NYC standards, our 590 square foot apartment is palatial. But for most "normal" people (not equating NYC with "normal"), we live in tight quarters. And when you're as much into books and movies as we are into CDs, space IS an issue. Thank goodness for Netflix and LaLa!

Getting back to point. About 2 years ago, in January 2006, I was busy sitting on the beach (that's industry speak for being laid-off), figuring out where my next career move would take me while planning out my next European vacation and happily collecting unemployment and severance checks. So one day, I get a call from my buddy, Rob Bleetstein, who says, "You know, I don't know if you even want to stay in programming, but we may have something going on here you'd like. Here – talk to Mike Roe, he's the guy who runs this whole show that is RadioIO. He's a bit crazy – manic, you know, but I think you'll get along with him jus' fine." I gave Mike a buzz, and about an hour of manic back and forth conversation – Mike spewing his vision for the future of RadioIO, music formats, what records he loves, how mainstream radio sucks and how internet radio is the only real future of radio – and what my take was on the whole enchilada, I was on board.

Never at that moment did I think this would turn into what is now my "day job." I started at RadioIO programming ioEclectic, which was no small thing. Not only was Eclectic the heart-and-soul of RadioIO, it was the channel from which all other channels were born. ioEclectic was the very first channel Mike Roe built out of his home over 10 years ago, as a way to listen to his vast music collection. Needless to say, there was much banter back and forth about how Eclectic would sound. Sometimes Mike would call freaking out about a song he just heard on the channel and loved (and surprisingly, didn't know). Other times, he'd call screaming, "what crack pipe are you smoking to be playing that??"

A couple months later, Mike asked if I would take over the Acoustic channel (now ioAcoustic Café). Since I was well versed in this sort of stuff (after all, I did spend nearly 6 years as on-air host and music director for one of the biggest stations here in the Northeast for acoustic and eclectic music), I was thrilled to rise to this new challenge.

Fast forward a year and a half later, and RadioIO is expanding faster than a male and female rabbit getting' cozy in a cage. I'm now programming so many channels my head's in a tizzy, but it's all cool, since it's all music I'm well acquainted with and have a personal one-on-one relationship with. In addition to Eclectic and Acoustic Café, tack on Bluegrass, Blues, Folk and throw in Women In Rock and Shuffle for good measure.

Personally, I've been a music geek my whole life. My earliest "musical memory" dates back to 1967 when my mother was trying to spoon-feed me some sort of mush as I was strapped into my highchair. I'm the kind of gal who always eats anything put in front of her (still do, much to the pleasure of my hobbyist gourmet cook hubby), but my attention was drawn away from the pea puree or whatever it was to the cute men in oh-so-colorful satin suits singing on the new color TV. My mother was not amused ("who are these long-haired hippie freaks and what are they wearing?? Shame!!), but I was all a-tickle about seeing these cute men with their funny accents and great clothes.

By the time I was 6 years old, I already knew the hits of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Lynn Anderson, Jeannie C. Riley and Loretta Lynn since my mom loved her country radio. But I discovered Top 40 countdowns, Abba, the Carpenters, and all kinds of awesome pop gems via my little hula-hoop wrist radio (Panasonic, blue). I still have that thing. This of course, eventually led to a love for the Beatles, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, and the Stones. And by the time I reached my teenage years, a new sound penetrated my budding soul….the Clash, the Ramones, Elvis Costello, Blondie, Talking Heads. My gal pal and I would hop the A train from the Rockaways to get into the city (shhh…don't tell my parents!); hang around Bleecker Street hoping to catch a glimpse of Bob Dylan, head on down to the Bowery to check out who was playing at CBGB's, or sneak in on a Friday night to hang at the Peppermint Lounge.

I also added a classical music repertoire to my self-inflicted music education, practicing Bach arpeggios and Mozart's concertos on the clarinet (news flash = band geek). Through college, I continued with the classical music pursuits while studying biochemistry. But by late sophomore year, a friend told me to check out the campus radio station. The prospects of being able to get my paws on what to me was an unlimited amount of vinyl far surpassed my awkwardness and shyness, masked to the world as goth aloofness and ennui.

This experience changed my life. Being on-air, smelling the records, looking for new albums which had the most wear-and-tear (in 1985 that was Suzanne Vega's eponymous debut) and testing out metal, rap, new wave, hardcore live on the air. I really felt like I could do this forever, but knew that, eventually, I'd have to get a "real" job. Meaning that people like me wouldn't ever get into the music industry. Those few spots were reserved only for the cool kids.

Post-college, I worked in the advertising industry, and then held down a job at a small video production company (pre-computers, for the most part). At the ripe old age of 24, I asked myself, "How did I get here…My god…what have I done?" (see?? Analyzing Talking Heads lyrics really did come in handy as a post-existentialist neophyte). So it was back for more school, this time working towards a graduate degree in communications. I eventually went up to the radio station here on campus (a large public station in the throes of change – not that I knew that at the time), and within a couple months, I was assisting the program director with launching a new type of music format in New York City – one that would include folk, bluegrass, blues, country, world, Celtic and acoustic music. It was a great time of learning and growth for me, as I absorbed even more music and developed a large on-air following. Soon the labels began sniffing around, sending me music from brand-new baby artists like Sheryl Crow and Dave Matthews Band. I attended music shows several times a week, often several shows in the same night. Oh – and yes, I did graduate after a year, with my Master's in Communications.

I spent about 6 years at the station, and then made my way onto the label side of things, running promotions for two indie labels in NYC. That provided me with a whole new perspective: the marketing, promotion and management of making music. Touring the country with musicians, visiting radio stations, meeting so many other programming people all over the country who were geeks like me – loving radio, loving music, and still believing that it was their mission in life to turn others onto all this music we were so passionate about. This lasted about 5 years, and by late 1999-2000, the writing was on the wall. Labels were no longer the place to be at. Long story, but too much nonsense, too much posturing for little to no gain – this was no longer happening for me.

By 2000, I got what would be my first "corporate" job in media/music, working as a Senior Manager for a cable TV content provider – where I would program a bunch of music channels, assist with the day-to-day functions of the programming department, etc. It was a great experience at first – but to quote Michelle Shocked, "the secret to a long life is knowing when it's time to go." We would be in meetings where the marketing staff would ask us how we programmed our channels. And when we'd tell them all that was involved (listening to the music that comes in, talking to label reps and promoters, checking out shows at night, looking at Billboard Radio & Records and the various trade publications, keeping up on blogs and social networking sites to see what consumers were into, looking at music research/radio research, etc., inputting the data and programming the music software to generate logs of music that would entice listeners to stay tuned, etc.) they'd just get annoyed and ask again, "yeah, we get all that. But what happens when you get hit by a bus?"

Clearly, they didn't "get it." There is no magic bullet or formula to programming for listeners. Not that you'd know it by listening to most of what radio offers – most of what passes for "radio" is magic bullet programming, with 300-song deep playlists handed down from some SVP in Denver and voice talent (yes, that's what announcers are called these days) who have zero connection to the music. Oh – before I forget - getting back to my last gig for a moment, we'd have meetings about how we needed to think more "out of the box." And when I asked them what they meant by this, they honestly thought I didn't know what the cliché meant. Not too long thereafter, I was granted my day of emancipation.

We've already seen many changes come to RadioIO in the time that I've been here. When I first came on board, we were just launching our commercial-free streams. Now we're in the process of rapidly expanding our channel line-up. Mike has arguments with us about the merits of Steely Dan (whom I hate, but yes, I do play them because I am a programmer, in touch with what the people want to hear) and why we need to have "oh wow" songs sprinkled in throughout the day. Never has he ever told us to "think out of the box." One – because the expression is so trite as to be meaningless, and two - because we really do this every day. Unlike so many stations who program to the youth market (read: under 25) since, in their infinite wisdom the only way to compete with music product is to emulate MTV or BET, we believe that programming to those over 25 – with jobs, lives, interests, challenges – is where the future is at.

So here it is, nearly 4pm. You know now more than you need to know about me and I gotta go make the donuts. Or to be more direct, I gotta get working on what tunes you'll be hearing out of your speakers or earphones. You'll thank me in the morning. ;)

Molly Jameson