Jaime Roberts – An Xperience Interview

Jaime Roberts – An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

RRX: I’m talking to Jaime Roberts, and I don’t know if you know this, but to radio people like myself, you’re a legend around here.

JR: I don’t know about that, but thank you for your kindness.

RRX: You’re a name that’s been floating around for such a long time. I mean … I feel like I’ve been in radio a long time, but you’ve been in it longer than I have. How long has it been?

JR: It’s 37 years this year.

RRX: To work in radio is a blessing, to be able to do something that you love.

JR: Amen. Yeah, I absolutely agree 1000%. I consider myself blessed every day.

RRX: We were really feeling for everyone when the axe came down at the old company there, but I was very happy to see that you recovered pretty quickly.

JR: Yeah, I listen to people say “I feel blessed” kind of flippantly, but I don’t mean it flippantly. I was over at the other place for 24 years doing mornings, and you know? Corporate is what it is, and anybody that knows anything about radio knows that axe can come at any time for no reason at all. So to be straight with you, because I’ve worked in radio so long … I was crazy sad when it happened, but I wasn’t surprised … because you just know that that’s part of the gig. It could happen at any time. But … talk about being blessed: people who had listened let people here in the Capital Region know that they missed having me on the air. I have a lot of good friends at Albany Broadcasting who also were excited to sit down and talk with me, and thankfully, everybody was able to come together. And within less than two months, I was back on the air, which made me very, very happy!

RRX: Tell us about your new gig.

JR: I love it. Doing mornings on Magic 100.5 and for our old schoolers, AM 590. It’s great, we’re kind of moving the station forward and playing more music now from the ‘70s, late ‘70s, even the early ‘80s, which really excites me. It’s more along the lines of what I did at the old place, if you will. I’m really digging it. Ben Patten, who’s been doing mornings there for a long time, is my partner in crime. Ben has a ton of jobs; let me just say that. He’s doing traffic and weather, but he also gets to pop in and do bits with me on the air, which is fantastic because for a long time I didn’t have a partner; listeners were my partner. So it’s nice to have Ben there because we can bounce things off each other. It’s great, and it’s fresh, and (you know because you’ve been in the business a long time) you can be a little stale from doing that same thing. It’s kind of nice to have a freshness to it, a new challenge to it. Not that I wasn’t happy to get up and do it in the past, but now there’s an extra added excitement to getting up and doing it.

RRX: I love that. Magic’s a great station. The music is great. I’ve listened to Magic for quite some time. I listened to your old station for quite some time, too, but I’ve moved on.

JR: Well, I appreciate that. Thank you.

RRX: I don’t know if you remember this … but I was on a competing station many moons ago, probably like 24 years ago. You were on right before we went on; I believe it was the Jaime and Joe Show. And the big jerk that I was working with had this thing where …

JR: Gosh, yeah. You guys used to prank call a lot, and I couldn’t get the dump button fast enough.

RRX: Yeah, I felt terrible about it after the fact, but I mean … in retrospect, that was great radio.

JR: It was brutal. You would have thought that our producer would have figured out not to answer the call. And no, I will not throw anyone out of the bus but … boy, there were a couple of days there when you guys got us good because we hit the dump button, and got you on the phone again, and you said some words that are not supposed to be on the radio, certainly not in the middle of the afternoon.

RRX: That was the only show prep we did. Because we went on the air right after that.

JR: Oh my God, that’s hysterical. Listen, it worked for you, and certainly no hard feelings on my part. How do you not laugh at that? C’mon.

RRX: So it’s funny … I remember it wasn’t too much longer that you ended up joining the company I was working for. I see you on the other side of the studio glass, and I’m thinking, she must hate me.

JR: No, I really hold no grudges in radio because … listen, everybody’s trying to do their thing, right? As long as nobody’s trying to be intentionally hurtful and harmful, how do you hold a grudge about any of that stuff? Especially in those days; radio is different now than it was back then. It was kind of like cowboy radio, and everybody could try and do their thing, but certainly no grudge at all.

RRX: Well, I just think it’s a fond memory now.

JR: No, I agree, and not to be corny, but in a way, all of those interactions and all of those experiences only make you better on the air. So, I say, bring it on!

RRX: Exactly. So, that just goes to show there’s a lot of history there with everything that you’ve done in radio, and I’m sure LinkedIn doesn’t show your entire resume.

JR: I worked in a bunch of different formats. The very first format I worked in was heavy metal. When I was going to school, I was like … I’m never gonna work in heavy metal. I don’t know anything about it. And, of course, that was the first job that was offered to me. So what do you do? You gotta work in heavy metal. But you know what? I found out that I didn’t hate it. The great thing about working in so many different formats is, things that you think you don’t like, you find out you really end up liking. I worked in heavy metal, AC, country, and talk. As a kid who grew up so heavy on pop culture and so into the radio, I was the kid that would call the DJ and ask, “Can you please play a song?” Not to age myself, but I was always a huge Cher fan. There I am working at Fly 92, and Cher comes to town during her “If I Could Turn Back Time” tour, and I get to go backstage and hang out with her for like 10 minutes. That’s the thing about radio, you always have that little kid inside of you, and when you get those moments … oh my God, I can’t believe I had the chance to do this.

RRX: So remind them when you are on!

JR: Join us every weekday morning on Magic 100.5FM and 590AM from 5 -10 a.m. We’ll play great music, we’ll have fun, and there’s always prizes.

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